January 2025 Update

ID: “January Monthly Update 2025” with our logo and a multi-colored collage with various textures, shapes, and gem-like stickers framing the text on a white background

We're doing 2025 intentionally.

Since 2017, I have engaged in the annual practice, with support from Lauren Zuniga, of naming my year. For me, it helps me set intentions for the year ahead in a clearer way than resolutions, grounded in deep reflection from the year past and hope for what's to come.

Some examples include 2018: Not Perfect, but Good: A Year of Ruthless, Intentional Change; 2021: choose hope: an ambitious reimagining of radical, collective joy; and 2024: uprooting expectations: pursuing the weird and whimsical as a practice of connection. So, as I have thought about 2025, I have engaged in my usual practice of note taking around words and sentiments that resonate with me, that I keep coming back to. And I found myself particularly stuck on Woody Guthrie's 33rd (and final) resolution from his 1942 diary, Wake Up and Fight. As a 29 year-old looking to fight a rising tide of fascism that feels maybe too familiar today, there's something about that plain spoken commitment that resonated with me as a 35 year old in his home state staring down fascism’s newest and growing wave. So, for me, 2025 is Wake Up and Fight: We've got Futures to Dream and Liberation to Win.

It feels fitting, not only on a personal note, but also as we look to 2025 as an organization. It's a year that marks our 10th official anniversary as Freedom Oklahoma, and more than 30 years of organizing from the organizations and organizers who came together to create this org. We're grounding ourselves in our history as we work intentionally to plan how we best create the future where we all have the safety to thrive. 2025 marks another term of what we expect to be an especially hostile presidency, and a new session of what we can unfortunately anticipate to be an even more hostile state legislature. It's a time that is going to try to wear us down through the overwhelming amount of harm targeted at our communities. And a time that demands we strengthen our commitment to one another, our collective liberation, and the work of dreaming and crafting our future together.

We're doing 2025 intentionally. That includes intentional celebration as we mark 10 years with the return and evolution of an annual gala, now The Freedom Futures Gala, with a February extravaganza at Oklahoma Contemporary with a theme of Queer Futurism. We're continuing to expand the work of The Freedom Sessions beyond our annual virtual conference, to include lunch and learn sessions, community based webinars, and a growing number of People's Hearings throughout the state. We're growing our team, to add more capacity at the intersection of organizing, digital engagement, and narrative work, to tell our stories on our terms. We're continuing to build our HIV repeal and repair effort, to tackle stigma and education, while taking steps to end HIV criminalization and get folks free.

We know this year will have challenges and heartache. And joy and opportunity to gather together. So what do you say? Are you ready to wake up and fight? We've got futures to dream and liberation to win. And we can't do it alone.

With hope, vision, and solidarity,

Nicole McAfee (they/she) - Executive Director