New North Carolina Project Weekly Bulletin

Introducing our executive director, Women's History Month, vote by mail, and more from the desk of our digital director, Kristen Havlik.

Meet the Executive Director of the New North Carolina Project Foundation, YaKima Rhinehart

YaKima Rhinehart is the Executive Director of the New North Carolina Project Foundation.

YaKima came to NNCP after working at PL+US: Paid Leave for the United States, as a Senior Political Advisor and State Political Director. She was also a Community Organizer for Elizabeth Warren for President. YaKima's background before politics was in education- she previously was the Senior Director of Alumni Affairs at Fayetteville State University, her alma mater, and was the Executive Director of an education non-profit in South Carolina. 

YaKima currently lives in Raleigh with her twin boys. 

YaKima is excited about engaging, empowering, educating and activating communities of color to show up for #EveryElectionEveryTime through the New North Carolina Project Foundation. 

Donate to support our organizers>>[link removed]

Follow the New North Carolina Project Foundation on Social Media!
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Vote by Mail Portal is Now Open!

If you plan to vote by mail or wish to receive a ballot in the mail that you can drop off at your county Board of Elections office, the portal to request a ballot is now open! The NC State Board of Elections office takes you through a few steps to make sure you're still registered to vote and to verify your identity before you can request. 

I asked the NC State Board of Elections if they would be requiring masks to vote in-person and they said no, unless a certain county has a mask mandate. 

Important Primary Voting Dates:
March 28: Absentee Ballots must be made available
April 22: Voter Registration Deadline to vote in-person on the primary date
April 28 - May 14: In-Person Early Voting
May 10: Deadline to request an absentee ballot
May 17: Primary Date and Absentee Ballots must be postmarked by this date

We are looking for Voting Rights Advocates!

Do you have your own voting story where it has been inaccessible or hard for you to vote in NC? Do you want to champion voting rights? 

We want to hear your story and share it with the world. We are looking for advocates to help us speak to the press and our supporters about why our fight for voting rights in NC is so important. If this is you, or someone in your community is an advocate in NC, please reply back through this email! 

Upcoming Events

Our last Town Hall (for now) is about Healthcare and it's coming up on Wednesday, March 16. We're excited to have Mia Ives-Rublee, the Director of the Disability Justice Initiative at the Center for American Progress, Dr. Richard Watkins, epidemiologist and candidate for NC-4 and Dr. April Miller, OB/GYN & Planned Parenthood provider.

Sign Up to Join Us >> [link removed]

MERCH STORE IS OPEN!

We opened our merch store- grab your tees, hoodies and more to show your support for NNCP!

SHOP NOW>> [link removed]

TAKE ACTION NOW

Tomorrow we're phone banking and text banking and Zach is hosting canvassing in New Bern on Saturday and Sunday! And Suge is canvassing on Tuesday in Durham and in Alamance County on Thursday!

If you're tired of NC not having an equal democracy for everyone, we hope that you'll get up and join us in this important work. We have many shifts available throughout the month. And if you've never volunteered through phone banking, text banking or canvassing, we will train you and show you the ropes. Help us reach eligible voters where they are!

Find a volunteer shift>> [link removed]

Women's History Month

Ella Baker

Ella Baker was born in Norfolk, VA on December 13, 1903 but grew up in NC. When Ella became old enough to organize, she co-founded the organization In Friendship to raise money to fight Jim Crow laws in the South. Upon more civil rights protests, Ella used her power to organize the South in NC, Mississippi and worked with civil rights leaders like W.E.B. Du Bois, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, A. Phillip Randolph and Thurgood Marshall. Ella was also active in the NAACP from 1938-1953 and and the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) from 1960 to 1966. In the last few years of her life she worked for the Southern Conference Education Fund to help Black and white people work together for social justice from 1962 to 1967. Ella Baker passed away on her 83rd birthday on December 13, 1986. 

Read More About Ella Baker>>

Anti-Racism Work Continued - Tone Policing

Black History Month might be over, but our advocacy for Black lives never ends. Anti-racism work also extends to how we listen and communicate with people. I ask you to ask yourself- how do we respond to people of color when they reach out for help? Are we actively listening to them? Are we taking into consideration their concerns and what they have to say? Are we talking back to them in a way that belittles them and makes them feel unseen? 

Even if it is unintentional, when we treat people of color as if they are always angry and full of rage (which their feelings are completely valid in a world and in a country where their voices have been ignored and erased for hundreds of years and continues to be now), we are dismissing their experiences and overlooking their needs.

In my own anti-racism work, I came across an article from athlete Taylor Rae Almonte about the "Angry Black Woman" stereotype that white people frequently give Black women when they are expressing their genuine feelings. Here are some excerpts from Taylor's article:

Examples of Tone Policing: 
"Your language is divisive"
"You cannot speak to me in that tone"
"You'd have a lot more people on your side if you weren't so rude"

How to Stop Tone Policing:
The right reaction is to listen, check where and how you went wrong and do better in future.
Don’t be quick to condemn the anger, instead examine the root of the problem.
Focus should be on the issue and not the tone in which the issue is expressed.
Anger, frustration and pain are valid emotions. People (including you) are allowed to be angry and emotional when you are being mistreated. They do not owe anyone any sort of explanation and it doesn’t make them unreasonable or rude.

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We can all do better to stop and listen and think about what we're going to say, before we say it. We can do better to be more mindful and respectful of people that have different life experiences than we do. We do have the capability to learn from previous mistakes and to move forward with kindness and understanding.

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Check Your Voter Registration
We’re no stranger to voter suppression in our state. So we encourage you to check your voter registration often as board of elections offices purge voters from time to time.
NC Voter Registration Look Up [[link removed]]Help us reach our goals in 2022
With your generosity, we are able to build a permanent infrastructure that will increase voter registration and turnout as well as take care of our communities of color, in and outside of election cycles.
Becoming a Recurring Donor [[link removed]][link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]] [link removed] [[link removed]]
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