News from With Wings and Roots (Newsletter)

Dear Friends and Supporters,

What does it mean to be American or German, and more than that? Who has the right to citizenship, and who is perceived to belong? How can we re-imagine belonging to reflect our global realities? These are questions we have been asking for many years, but they have revealed themselves to be more urgent than ever as nationalist politics have ravaged both the US and Europe.

More than a decade ago, Christina began creating a film, With Wings and Roots, which grew into an community engagement initiative. Over the years, well over 150 volunteers and contributors have collaborated to produce educational tools, workshops, and events to catalyze and support deepened conversations about migration, national identity, racism, and belonging. It is clear that this work, so many years in the making, could not be more necessary than it is today.  

We want to share some highlights from our very busy last year and tell you about our upcoming plans, as we adapt to this new political climate and prepare for the work ahead.  

#MyWingsAre full with magic #MyRootsAre my mother’s history

With Wings and Roots Community Celebration in  New York, March 2016.

What’s ahead in the year to come:

• Release the film and launch a Community Screening & Discussion Tour: for those of you who have been supporting the film for many years, you may be wondering: will it ever be done? The answer is, of course, yes! While we have been busy with community engagement work, we have continued to edit and collect feedback through test screenings. We believe that With Wings and Roots could not be coming out at a more appropriate time to spark critical conversations. We can’t wait to release the film soon, and we are starting to plan national community screening tours in both the US and Germany.  
• Continue to offer workshops and develop more partnerships with educational institutions to distribute reimaginebelonging.org, our curricula, and short films – including recent screenings at the Allied Media Conference in Detroit, and at the Malta Art Festival in Poland.
• Implement our strategic plan developed over the last 12 months to grow the impact and sustainability of our work. 

Panel discussion at Reimagine Belonging: Cologne in April 2016 with Emine Aslan (#ausnahmslos), Mely Kiyak (journalist), Gladis Douabalet Maika (Youth Without Borders) and Massimo Perinelli (University of Cologne), and Nesrine Shibib (Urban Culture Bridges). 

What we’ve been up to in the last year:

• Hosted a series of public events, Reimagine Belonging: Live in New York, Cologne, Leipzig, and Seattle, each with panel discussions, installations, screenings, and live performances.
• Released two curricula, each over 100 pages, to accompany our media and bring the topics of migration, racism, and belonging to the classroom.
• In addition to ongoing workshops and screenings at institutions, such as the San Francisco Art Institute and Europeans for Peace Conference, we offered day-long training for 50 teachers and extended media workshops for 40 young people around the US and Germany.
• Developed new partnerships with over 20 organizations in five different cities.
• Worked with professors and students to test our curricula in six universities.  

Reimagine Belonging: NW Stories in December 2016 in Seattle, Q&A with participants of our workshop from Young Women Empowered and activists from Colectiva Legal del Pueblo.

November’s U.S. election results presented clear lines of struggle. Not only in the U.S., but across Europe, nationalist parties have been steadily gaining power. Both on the political and cultural level, racism and xenophobia have been legitimized and right-wing actors have been emboldened. The lives of immigrants, refugees, Muslims, and people of color have been particularly threatened in very material ways. Gratefully, the resistance has also been powerful. 

We are determined to support movements for equity and community, and leverage our years of work. As the project continues to grow and our volunteer-driven team continues to develop, we could use your help. We welcome your support around press, web development, social media, fundraising, translation, community engagement, and other areas – please get in touch. Also, your tax-deductible contributions are enormously meaningful, and go a long way!

We expect to be in touch more regularly in the year to come. Thank you for being part of our community as we work together to imagine, build, and protect a world for all of us. 

 -The With Wings and Roots Team