At the dawn of the Year of the Rabbit and Black Futures month, we are reflecting on the life affirming teachings of those who ask us to nurture a deep, multidimensional love as the foundation of liberation work. In these turbulent times of ongoing violence and confusion, we hold steadfast the work of Charity Hicks, a beloved Detroiter, water warrior, activist, healer, and ancestor, who urged us to "wage love" and build lives "rich in relationships.” We will cultivate multidimensional love that transcends space and time, that heals us seven generations forward and back. 

Wage Love acknowledges that rage is what ignites us but love is what sustains us. We will wage multidimensional love, for ourselves and one another, that carries us through the seemingly insurmountable chasms. We will remember that abolition is a love practice, one that asks us to center love in our imaginations as we create more humane systems for ourselves, our kin, and the planet. We will forge our way forward towards a just future, with unrelenting multidimensional love as our guide.

Follow along this month for our multidimensional love series as we highlight the musings of our AMP community and treasured elders of liberation to embody the world we know is possible. 

We’re excited to welcome our new Director of People and Culture, Shatona Holcomb! Check out this interview to get to know her more and how AMP is dedicated to deepening a work culture centered on care. 

Let’s wage love in action through ensuring No Concrete Crusher in Core City! 

In 2023, Allied Media Projects will jointly occupy The LOVE Building with Detroit Community Technology Project, Detroit Disability Power, Detroit Justice Center, Detroit Narrative Agency and Paradise Natural Foods in Core City, Detroit. We've said no to this "very high-impact" concrete crushing facility going in RIGHT beside our Black and low-income community before. It'll bring 10-60 dump trucks a day and spew dust into the air. Now, we need to pull together again to let everyone know that Core City is not a sacrifice zone for industrial polluters.

What we need constituents across Detroit to do right now: 

• Send a “I DO NOT SUPPORT” comment to the Detroit Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) for BZA Case Number: 1-23 for 4445 Lawton St.
• RSVP to attend the February 20th hearing either online over Zoom or in-person at 9am. A free bus will be provided and leave from Core City. RSVP to be updated on the details.

• Lead to Life x For The Wild | Can I Get a Witness. Following black feminist scholar Tiffany King’s text, The Black Shoals: Offshore Formations of Black and Native Studies, CAN I GET A WITNESS is a transmedia project that traces two queer black latinx femmes (brontë velez & Stephanie Hewett) dancing before, and being danced by, the ecology, memory and stories of the Tongass National Forest and Glacier Bay in Southeast Alaska (unceded Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian territories). 
• FLOWER BOI. Our Co-ED,MARS, just released their first ever chapbook ‘FLOWER BOI’
• End of the World Podcast wrapped up a their season on love with “all about love” by beloved ancestor bell hooks as a guide
• Room Object: An Anthology of Room Project Writers. Made possible with a Knight Arts Foundation Grant, Room Object is an anthology that showcases a selection of writing from the first three years of the project. Edited by Christin Lee and MARS Marshall, this book was created to share the incredible talent of writers we have known and loved with as many people as possible. 
• Updates from Awasqa. After many months of an exhaustive search, Awasqa has decided to partner with Common Knowledge, a not-for-profit workers cooperative in London that builds digital tools for grassroots organizers, to help us build a new collaborative website. Check out the website for more information and additional updates!

• JAMES BALDWIN ABROAD starts Friday, Feb. 10 at Cinema Detroit! Tickets are available at bit.ly/jbabroad or at the door on show days.
  • The program includes three (3) newly restored documentary films:
    • JAMES BALDWIN: FROM ANOTHER PLACE (1973); MEETING THE MAN: JAMES BALDWIN IN PARIS (1971); BALDWIN’S N****R (1968).

• Design Justice Network is seeking (2) Care Pod Collaborators! (paid contract positions)- deadline to apply, February 10th, 2023
• Allied Media Projects continues our search for our Director of Finance!