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Contact The Establishment
Send a message to WeSing: Song and Social Justice Circles:
WeSing aims to bring people together through the intersection of social justice and song. We gather weekly on Zoom to sing music with a social conscience, to engage in discussion and actions around the injustices in our world, and to foster healing, connection and resilience for our strength and wholeness in the Movement. WeSing strives to be an actively inclusive, anti-racist, anti-oppression community and we invite you to read our statement below to learn more about our practices and commitment.
In the words of June Jordan, "we are the ones we've been waiting for." Join founder/director Lisa Forkish in this life-affirming community of humans as we sing into the growing and necessary movement for our collective liberation. Singing is your birthright. Your voice matters. You are loved and appreciated. All are welcome / no prior singing experience required.
WESING ANTI-RACISM STATEMENT:
As a white-led community, we are deeply committed to a fierce, compassionate and consistent practice of examining, excavating and dismantling the tenets of white supremacy that live inside our bodies and our institutions. Our anti-racist, anti-oppression practices are living, breathing and always changing as we learn (unlearn) and grow. For now, they include but are not limited to:
Tithing all monthly fees:
10% of proceeds paid as Shuumi Land Tax to Sogorea Te Land Trust, "an urban Indigenous women-led community organization that facilitates the return of Chochenyo and Karkin Ohlone lands in the San Francisco Bay Area to Indigenous stewardship"
10% of proceeds paid as humble but steady reparations to the Movement for Black Lives, offered to a different Black-led organization each month. July's funds will go to Black Futures Lab, an Oakland-based 501(c)3), run by Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza whose mission is to "transform Black communities into constituencies that change the way power operates—locally, statewide and nationally."
Engaging in a land acknowledgement each week, acknowledging the unceded / stolen territory where we reside, the ways in which we benefit from it, and the actions we can take toward healing, justice and accountability. For research, singers can use this link to Native lands and enter their zip code.
Educating ourselves on the impact of whiteness and white supremacy, as it pertains to music and community singing, and within our broader world (anti-racism resource page is here and will be updated regularly)
Naming and owning our complicity in systems of oppression and working to dismantle those systems (weekly action items will be shared)
Understanding cultural appropriation --especially as it shows up in music-- with a commitment to learn from any missteps and repair harm caused with swiftness, thoughtfulness and humility
Inviting a BIPOC guest song leader each month on the last Wednesday of the month to share their gifts with our community
Honoring and lifting up the stories and music of BIPOC, q***r, womxn, and other marginalized groups with care and deep listening to the voices themselves (this is a life-long commitment and learning process)
Offering an ongoing open forum via Google forms for singers to submit feedback, anonymously if they so choose, with an explicit invitation (but not expectation) for BIPOC folx within the community to share any insight, requests, questions or grievances, so that we may be accountable to our ant-racist intentions​
WeSing welcomes people from all backgrounds, and we strive to make our community as inclusive as possible. And, as our current make-up is predominately white, we also acknowledge that it may not feel like a safe and welcoming space for all BIPOC folx; we empathize as best we can with the feelings and experiences of our beloved siblings, we mourn the loss of their valued presence, and we vow to continue to do the work for racial justice and equity.
