August 2023 Update

*ID: "August Monthly Update.* *www.freedomoklahoma.org/news" on a background image of a child wearing a rainbow dress with a light blue overlay on it. There are blue and orange lines and dots on the left and right of the image and the FOK logo in the center.*

Freedom, as in a future bound with each other.

So often I think we think of winter as the time we slow down, but the long days and high heat of summer demand a different pace from us as well. For our Freedom Oklahoma team, that includes an attempt to take an intentional break during the month of July. For me, that break included traveling with family, spending time in nature, and making my way through 14 books on my reading list, including revisiting Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass (on a free audiobook through Libby thanks to Oklahoma Metropolitan Library Systems). It's a book that I try to return to often, as there are new nuggets of wisdom that resonate with each reading.

This time, in the context of our current fights to keep our trans community safe from ongoing, escalating attacks, I kept thinking about this particular passage:

After all these generations since Columbus, some of the wisest of Native elders still puzzle over the people who came to our shores. They look at the toll on the land and say, “The problem with these new people is that they don’t have both feet on the shore. One is still on the boat. They don’t seem to know whether they’re staying or not.” This same observation is heard from some contemporary scholars who see in the social pathologies and relentlessly materialist culture the fruit of homelessness, a rootless past. America has been called the home of second chances. For the sake of the peoples and the land, the urgent work of the Second Man may be to set aside the ways of the colonist and become indigenous to place. But can Americans, as a nation of immigrants, learn to live here as if we were staying? With both feet on the shore?

Attacks on our 2SLGBTQ+ community attempt to uproot us. To live with at least one foot still on the boat. Ready to escape, ready to survive. How can we work as a movement to build community with both feet firmly planted in Oklahoma? How can we work so that future generations don’t feel they must leave to be safe, can’t imagine leaving this place they call home? It’s a question I am carrying into this fall, and next session, and the work beyond that.

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On the subject of fall programming, last year during our annual Leadership Summit, we asked you to reimagine with us. This year we have reimagined our fall programming, under the leadership of Mataia Blackwell and Taylor Raye, and our Leadership Summit has evolved into what we’re calling The Freedom Sessions conference.

Maybe the word Freedom gives you pause. It does me. It feels so often to be a word successfully co-opted to represent individualism and the kind of single-minded American exceptionalism that is unaccountable and exclusionary. But that's not the Freedom we strive for at Freedom Oklahoma. We mean Freedom, not as in synonymous with patriotism, but Freedom as in Liberation. Freedom, as in the words of Assata Shakur, we have nothing to lose but our chains. Freedom, as in a future bound with each other. Freedom, as in collective. Freedom, as in hope and joy and community and a future where we all have the safety to thrive. Freedom, not as in escape, but as being liberated and in harmony with place, with both feet planted firmly on this ground we call home. We're so excited to share space with community partners and all of you at the end of this month for some freedom dreaming together.

I hope you’ll join us for our first-ever conference under The Freedom Sessions name, and I hope that you’ll keep reimaging, redefining, reclaiming, and renewing along with us, for a future where each and all of us have the freedom and safety to thrive. You can register for the conference here.

In solidarity,

Nicole McAfee (they/she)

Important Links and updates:

Community Groups are back!

It's Back-To-School season! Come join us to discuss ways to best support schools and students going into the new school year. We would love to hear updates on plans for the school year and ways we can best support you in the new year. Join us when/as you are able, and we look forward to seeing you there!
**Educators, Teachers, & School Staff:** Aug 8th, 4-530pm
**Caregivers, Parents, & Guardians:** Aug 9th, 430-6pm
**Students & Youth:** Aug 10th, 5-6pm

sign up!

Light blue background with an image of people holding a banner and mini Pride flags at a Pride parade to the left with a ripped edge. “Virtual 2SLGBTQ+ Community Groups. Educators: Aug 8th, 4 - 5:30pm Caregivers: Aug 9th, 4:30 - 6pm Students: Aug 10th, 5 - 6pm and the FOK logo

Save the date for our Community Skate

**Mark your calendars and lace up your skates!** Join us for an electrifying Skate Dance Party Community Celebration! Get ready to groove and glide together on October 21st, 2023 at Scissortail's SkyRink from 4 pm - 6 pm as we celebrate the joy of unity and fun. Get ready to skate, dance, and make unforgettable memories with our vibrant 2SLGBTQ+ community!

A dark grey background with cartoon people skating in colorful outfits in the center surrounded by stars. The text reads: Freedom Oklahoma presents Community Skate: a Freedom Oklahoma fundraiser. Tickets, 21 OCT 2023, 4 PM - 6PM at Scissortail Park Skyrink” with the FOK logo.