PSA: Public Witness with Black Lives of UU, General Assembly 2018

Audio note: moving your audio balance control to the left will remove the echo on speakers; moving back to the right will let you hear more of the room, which is nice during singing.

UUA General Assembly Off-site Participation: Kansas City, Missouri | 2018

Part of General Assembly 2018 Event 203: General Session II


The following final draft script was completed before this event took place; actual words spoken may vary. Unedited live captions of General Session II (TXT) were created during the event, and contain some errors. Captioning is not available for some copyrighted material.

Elandria Williams: Let’s please welcome Leslie MacFayden and Paige Ingram of Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU) for an introduction for our Public Witness this year. Thanks so much for all you do for Black UUs and UU adjacent folks.

Leslie Mac: Good morning! I’m Leslie Mac, Lead Organizer with Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism or BLUU Paige Ingram: And I’m Paige Ingram, Community Organizer with BLUU. We are so excited to be here in Kansas City coordinating this year’s Public Witness efforts.

This past year BLUU took time to connect with local organizers here in Kansas City with the goal of understanding their needs and the ways that General Assembly attendees could help them do their work. Out of those connections, it became clear that this community did not need a rally or press conference. It was in need of support for 2 major issues that bubbled to the top Paige Ingram: The first is Kansas City’s entry into the national #EndMoneyBail efforts—which led to the “Anatomy of A Bail Out” Panel happening in about today at 1:00 p.m. in Room 2105 where you will learn how the first KC Bailout was created and more about why the #EndMoneyBail movement is one that our faith should get involved with.

We will also take action to support those addressing maternal & infant health issues in local Black & Brown communities—this Sat afternoon POCI attendees are invited to join us Uzazi Village to help build an outdoor garden & children’s closet at this spectacular community space whose mission: “For every family, a healthy baby’ For every baby, a healthy village” resonates so strongly with our UU principles.

Paige Ingram: Finally—we saw an incredible opportunity to support Domestic Violence Survivors materially—in case you haven’t heard, we are building 1,000 Domestic Violence Survivor Care Packages in Exhibit Hall D—these care packages will be distributed by the Reale Justice Network to people fleeing dangerous situations. This incredible gift to the KC organizing community will keep them stocked through the winter and allow organizers time & resources to invest in other projects. Stop by anytime to help build these packages and to drop off your purse if you brought one to donate to the project Leslie Mac: For BLUU this year's efforts are a return the roots of Public Witness in Phoenix—where we as UUs stood with and followed the lead of local organizers fighting for justice. This year we extend that example to materially support those in THIS community who will be able to benefit directly from the work we do here this week.

Thank you and we look forward to seeing you throughout the week, making these projects come to life!