Welcome you to the first edition of “Coyote Howls”
April 1st 2017 April Fools Day. The weather report was predicting up to 8 inches of snow with winter storm warnings. Luckily Mother nature was just joking. There was hardly any snow, but it poured down rain all day as I drove to the Boston Labor Conference to present with Dr. Elena Shih from Brown University.
April 3rd 2017 I started Solidarity School , which is a class through Jobs for Justice.
Tuesday I had conference call with Katrina who is studying journalism at Brown University. Katrina was interested in sex worker unions in the US and how they were organizing for their labor rights.
I explained the huge barriers in trying to organize sex workers, who happen to be criminalized by their status as a person and who often endure state sponsored violence and who are under government surveillance.
I told her I attended the Regina V. Polk Women’s Labor Leadership Conference and I had also attended 2 summers attending the Northeast UALE School For Women in Unions and Worker Organizations. I told her that we have been crowdfunding to send different sex workers to labor training every summer.
I gave the run down of the Erotic Service Providers Union and explained that ESPLER v GASCON was currently in the 9th district court of appeals.
April 5th 2017 I met with the local core organizations who make up AMOR (Alliance Mobilization to Organize Resistance) for our weekly 2 hour working meeting. Then I was off to a lovely Boston airbnb to stay overnight with Elena Shin and her students as we were scheduled to present at the American Association of Geographers Conference the next day.
Then on Friday April 7th 2017 Brown University hosted the “Screening for the film Scarlet Road” by Rachel Wotton (Trailer here ). I also had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Elizabeth Bernstein and Dr. Wendy Hesford present. Elena Shih took us all out to a fabulous dinner.
And I got to hang out with Rachel Wotton and take a picture with her.
April 9th 2017
I drove to Amherst MA to join up with Katherine Margaret who is with SWOP USA and Alex Andrews who is the co founder of Swop Behind Bars (SBB) Katherine treated us to a fabulous dinner and the next day we to facilitated a workshop at the CLPP reproductive rights conference .
Alex and I drove back to Rhode Island. We got some organizing done. Then then we went out for dinner and margarita’s at Agaves Mexican Grill
April 10th 2017, Alex and I went to meet Sherrie Anne who is with the FANG Collective . We had a working meeting to discuss some Coyote RI business and then we all headed over to the The Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University to meet Dr Elena Shih and her students. Over lunch Alex educated everyone about the work she does at SBB.
Talking at Brown University with Elena Shih, Sherrie Ann and Alex Andrews, blabbing about community based services that actually serve the community.
Red umbrella takes over Rhode Island State House!
Then I took Alex by the Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM) so she could meet some of the people I have been organizing with. Then we headed over to Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE) to meet with Sophia who works with “Behind the Walls” It was great to be able to collaborate, and share ideas and experiences.
Then Alex and I headed off to Solidarity School where we voted to show solidarity by going down to the Providence City Hall to show our support for the Community Safety Act. We found that there was an “Extraordinary turnout in support of the Community Safety Act at Providence City Hall”
Written by Bella Robinson, executive director of the Rhode Island Chapter of Coyote.