Dear beloved AMP Community, 

After a slow spring in Detroit, summer has arrived in her full glory and with it is a flurry of emotions. The summer frenzy of abundance and greenery met with the abrupt push to ‘return to normal.’ We are holding memories of last June, streets full of people declaring that Black Lives Matter.

June is a time of remembrance; June is the birth month of our great mentors in imagination, Octavia Butler and Grace Lee Boggs; June is a time of reckoning as we honor Juneteenth. And June is historically a time our community gathers at the Allied Media Conference. As we lay the groundwork for June 2022, with the return of a hybrid Allied Media Conference, we await to see what has shifted within ourselves and one another. We ask: what worlds can we co-create together when our energies align both virtually and in person? 

May we all find time to prioritize restful moments under a tree, or in the garden, watching the breeze dance with the leaves and remember our place in deep time as we navigate long summer days. 

As we celebrate Juneteenth and the widespread understanding of the significance of this day, we longingly recommit to a liberated world where everyone has the right to bloom. True justice is not declaring Juneteenth a National holiday, but building a world in which, at minimum, reparations are paid, prisons are abolished, and police are defunded. Across the nation, white and non-Black POC support of the Movement for Black Lives has decreased significantly.

We encourage those who are committed to the enduring work of co-liberation to check out the work of the Grassroots Reparations campaign and consider signing the Reparationist Pledge of Accountability as a way to remain faithful to the sacred work of reparations. The Reparationist Pledge is a personal and communal tool of accountability and steadfast solidarity. 

• Soul Fire Farm’s Juneteenth and Pride version of Ask A Sista Farmer about “The Plants of Black Freedom and Queer Liberation.” Leah and Naima share how our ancestors have used plants to resist the institutions of racism and how we are reflected in a multi-gendered universe. 
• Celebrate the eco-sexual poet, Mary Oliver 
• Detroit Launches At Home Vaccination Program
• Climate Reparations “Reparations and climate reparations are political frameworks that can respond to the ethical, financial, and civic necessity to wrestle with what the past has brought us.”
• Farmers are not just farmers, they are land stewards, community builders, health advocates and blight busters! Thirty farmers formed the Detroit Black Farmer Land Fund on Juneteenth 2020, and this year they are working to meet a $20K match in honor of Black autonomy and self-determination. Donate before July 5th, and your donation will be DOUBLED! 
• 20 Black Detroit Creatives to Follow and $upport to Honor Juneteenth 

• The Sponsorship & Fundraising Coordinator will collaborate with AMP Staff July 1, 2021 – July 3, 2022 to help shape and implement a strategy to raise $60K for the Allied Media Projects and AMP Seeds Events in 2022. Deadline to apply is rolling with preference given to early applicants. 
• AMC2022 is seeking a team of dedicated logistics professionals who will work closely with AMP to provide a seamless conference experience in Detroit while working closely with the online production team. Deadline to apply is July 30, 2021. 

• Black Agrarian History in Detroit and Beyond with Dr. Shakara Tyler with Keep Growing Detroit. This video recorded session offers and in depth history into the inequities of land ownership in the US, particularly focusing on Detroit. 
• Land Back University is a free, comprehensive, online learning platform to engage in political education and discussions on topics critical to the Indigenous movement to reclaim land and relationship to land.
• Feed The Reel is a new online platform created by Current Movements to bring radical filmmakers together—inexperienced and expert—to learn and teach each other about social documentary film making and create films that push the movement forward.
• Check out the recording of ‘Palestine Will Be Free,’ a cross movement teach-in, offering historical analysis and calls to action for those interested in connecting their own ongoing activism and community work with the Palestinian struggle.

We're so excited to invite our AMC community to propose a Track or Network Gathering (T/NG) for our first ever hybrid conference, happening in Detroit and online from June 30th - July 3rd, 2022!

👉 A Track is a series of sessions connected by a shared theme

 👉A Network Gathering is a one or two-day mini-conference convened by a Detroit or national network

All T/NGs at the AMC fall under the larger umbrellas of media for liberation and visionary organizing. Check out our website to learn more about how to propose a T/NG, what we’re looking for, how to register for info calls, and FAQ’s!

Proposals are due July 12th, 2021 at 11:59 EST. Learn more on AMC’s new website or e-mail the crew at [email protected] with questions!

“Sometimes I wish I could photosynthesize so that just by being, just by shimmering at the meadow's edge or floating lazily on a pond, I could be doing the work of the world while standing silent in the sun.”

― Robin Wall Kimmerer