Sarath Suong – RI Future

June 6, 2016

Artemis Moonhawk, Sarath Suong receive Red Bandana Awards

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2016-06-05 Red Bandana Awards Bill Harley — Bill Harley

Two local organizers, Artemis Moonhawk and Sarath Suong were honored at the Red Bandana Awards held at Nick-A-Nees in Providence Sunday. Music was provided by local virtuoso Chris Monti and the boisterous partying of the Extraordinary Rendition Band. Bill Harley, who heads up the Red Bandana selection committee presented the awards.

Artemis has been a long time advocate for the homeless, spending a large amount of her time and money helping to prepare meals and advocating for homeless rights. She came to the stage surrounded by the people she advocates for. She had invited them to the event to share the award with her and gave everyone who accompanied her a chance to speak if they chose.

The second award went to Sarath Suong, co-founder and organizer of the Providence Youth Student Movement, (PrYSM). Growing up in a Southeast Asian community in Boston, Suong told the audience that he learned two important lessons from mentors, “One, What’s happened to you and your people and your community is not because it’s your fault. And the second thing they told me is that what’s happening right now and what’s happening in your community, you have the power to change it.”

“I understand my place in this country as a child of war,” said Suong, “When we came here we were sort of a reminder of the Vietnam War, a reminder of a war that the US had lost.”

Suong used his time on stage to advocate for two important projects PrYSM is currently working on. The first one is the Community Safety Act. “We are trying to get passed a city ordinance that will hold the Providence Police Department accountable to the ways that they profile young people, poor people, people of color, queer and trans people… We need more police accountability. We need the police department to get their boots off our necks while we are trying to live.

“We need help,” continued Suong, “For those folks who live on the East Side of Providence or have friends and family or any influence in Providence, please contact Councilpeople [Samuel] Zurier and [Seth] Yurdin. And please urge them to really support the Community Safety Act.”

The second project Suong mentioned was getting the All Students Count Act 2016 (H7235) passed in the State House. “What’s really important for Southeast Asians is that we are lumped into a larger Asian racial category. What that does is erases the real struggles of Southeast Asian young people who will only graduate at 60 percent of the regular rate.”

Here’s a sample of some music from Chris Monti, who opened the show, followed by a song from the Extraordinary Rendition Band, who closed it out. Because of the rain, ERB was forced to perform inside, which is a shame because they are a wild outdoors dance band.

And here’s the entire awards ceremony, which starts with Bill Harley giving a short biography of journalist and community organizer Richard Walton, and explains why these awards are given in his name.

June 4, 2016June 4, 2016

Red Bandana Fund to honor local activists Sunday

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The Red Bandana Fund is proud to name Artemis Moonhawk and Sarath Suong and the Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM) as the 2016 recipients of the Red Bandana Award. The Award honors individuals and groups whose work embodies the spirit and work of Richard Walton, a longtime activist in the Rhode Island area who died in 2012.

This is the fourth year the awards have been given. Past recipients include:

Eric Hirsch, 2015
The workers at the Renaissance Hotel, 2015
Henry Shelton, 2014
Providence Student Union, 2014
and Amos House, 2013

The Red Bandana Fund was created to help sustain Rhode Island’s community of individuals and organizations that embody the lifelong peace and justice ideals of activist Richard J. Walton. Through the Red Bandana Fund, an annual financial award is made to an organization or individual whose work best represents the ideals of peace and social justice that exemplify Richard’s life work.

Richard Walton had an outdoor party every year, on the banks of the Pawtuxet Cove in Warwick, in which people from all over the country would gather from all walks of life and political activism to raise money for Amos House. He did this every year, on his birthday, up until his death December 27, 2012. The Red Bandana Fund has continued this tradition every year since then.

This Sunday, June 5, between 4 and 7pm, at Nick-A-Nees 74 South Street in Providence, the 4th Annual Red Bandana celebration will be held. There will be food, drink, music and laughter. They were many deserving nominees this year, all of which one could make an excellent argument for winning the award. The awardees for 2016 are:

Artemis Moonhawk, also known as Mama Dreads, founded and runs Mama Dreads Mission of Love, grassroots operation to help the homeless. Amanda Smith, a friend and fellow advocate says, “Artemis
sees the invisible people, feeds them nourishing meals and gives hope and hugs to those who have little or
none.” Colleen Polak, a teacher and friend, says that Artemis “does what we’re all supposed to do; but she
does it reflexively so that while the rest of us are still thinking about it, she has already done it.”

You can find out more about here: Artemis Manie Butti Moonhawk https://www.facebook.com/Mama-Dreads-Mission-of-Love…/

Sarath Suong is Co‐Founder and Executive Director of the Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM).
Both he and PrYSM are being honored for their work to mobilize the Southeast Asian communities and
the youth of Providence to stand up for their right to live free from injustices. Most recently, the
organization launched the Community Defense Project to provide free and low‐cost legal help and
counseling for victims of police brutality.

You can find out more about here: Sarath Suong https://www.facebook.com/PrYSMProvidence/

Bill Harley, president of the Red Bandana Fund that oversees the award noted, “Choosing this year’s
awardees was tough. There were many nominations of amazing individuals and groups, each one
deserving of recognition. Artemis and Sarath represent all of the people working to make a better life for
us here in the Rhode Island area. Those of us who remember and were close with Richard Walton know
he would approve.”

The celebration, at Nick‐a‐Nees is open to all, with donations to the Fund accepted. In addition to the
awards ceremony, there will be performances by the Christ Monti Band and the Extraordinary Rendition
Band.

“Last year’s party burst out onto the street with dancing! Harley commented. “It was a true celebration of
Richard, his words and spirit, and the people of Rhode Island who work to make the world a better,
happier place.”

So come this Sunday and join with us as we gather together to honor the past, and the future, in memory of Richard Walton. Buy yourself a an official, Richard Walton, Red Bandana and a beer, as we toast those who have worked for, and continue to work for, social justice in Rhode Island.

See you there.

——

To find out more about The Red Bandana Fund or to make a contribution, click here http://www.soup.org/page1/RedBandana.html.

(Core participants in organizing the event this year include: Rick Wahlberg, Barbara Wahlberg, Karen Malcolm, Jane Murphy, Stephen Graham, Ellen Fingeret, Maggi Rogers, Ed Benson, Zack Mezera, Mary Ann Rossoni, Bill Harley, Jodi Glass, Cathy Barnard & Richard Walton, Jr.)

October 28, 2015October 28, 2015

RI Center for Justice discusses lawyering for social change

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It was a packed house at the RI Center for Justice as Executive Director Robert McCreanor lead a discussion about the collaborative work of community organizers and public interest lawyers in the area of social justice. On the panel were organizers and lawyers who work with DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality) and PrYSM (Providence Youth Student Movement) in Providence, and MFY’s Housing Project, the Three-Quarter House Tenant Organizing Project (TOP) in New York City.

What became clear over the next ninety minutes is that lawyering works in support of community organizing, not the other way around. What this means is that lawyers interested in social justice work need to “find the legal work that can support the organizers,” according to Shannah Kurland, a community lawyer and Soros Justice Fellow at PrYSM.

Kurland started as a community organizer at DARE, and struggled with her decision to become a lawyer. She was “not sure if becoming a lawyer was a right fit” and asked herself, “was it selling out?”

Michael Grinthal, supervising attorney for MFY’s Housing Project and Three-Quarter House Project, also started as a community organizer. For him, lawyering is a better fit, especially now as a father of a two year old. In New York, “all battles come back to housing because its so hard to live in NYC,” said Grinthal.

MFY “was the legal office for the welfare rights movement,” says Grinthal, making a local connection by adding, “George Wiley is one of the founding organizers in that movement.”

The funding for much legal service work comes through “legal services corporation” but under a law pushed through by Newt Gingrich (in a deft example of racist legislating, I should add) “organizations that get such money cannot do community organizing,” said Grinthal

Michael Zabelin, Staff Attorney at Rhode Island Legal Services and a lawyer who often works closely with DARE was never a community organizer. His work with the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau made transition to working with DARE “the obvious thing to do.” Zabelin twice mentioned the influence of community lawyer Steve Fischbach on his ideas around being a lawyer. Fischbach’s work around housing issues was instrumental in getting Just Cause passed a few years ago.

Paulette Soltani works with MFY Legal Services as a community organizer for the Three-Quarter House Tenant Organizing Project (TOP). TOP started five years ago to help organize tenants living in three quarter houses, described as an unregulated housing industry that pretends to offer transitional services for people recently released from prison or substance abuse centers. “They open buildings and pack 6-8 people in,” says Soltani, they sometimes “force the use of certain medicaid providers, as a form of Medicaid fraud.”

People living in these conditions can find themselves evicted without due cause. Often they are locked out and separated from their possessions. This can have the effect of sending these tenants back onto the streets, into homeless shelters, or into conditions that can ultimately send them back to jail or substance abuse.

As a community organizer Soltani must often deal with the immediate and personal issues of those she meets, “but the point of an organizer is to target systems” in addition to base building, outreach and leadership development. Her goal is to allow “people to develop their voices” as leaders and to work within coalitions.

Christopher Samih-Rotondo, Community Organizer at DARE and the Tenant and Homeowner Association (THA) agrees. He organizes low income communities of color in the south side of Providence. He works to develop team leaders for direct action and to effect legislative and policy change.

Samih-Rotondo spoke about Just Cause, passed because during the foreclosure crisis “banks became de facto landlords and would evict tenants without cause.” With lawyers his group “developed legislation to hold banks responsible for landlord tenant act.” The services DARE provides for individuals are done to “bring people in to form a movement, radicalize people, and change the system.”

Shannah Kurland doesn’t want this to sound too mercenary. Not all people who come to a group like DARE will stick around. Still, it’s important to help them. “Here’s a human being, part of our community, facing an issue,” said Kurland, later adding that, “a movement isn’t about one issue.” People who come one year to work on an issue like childcare may come back years later to do foreclosure work.

Samih-Rotondo thinks it is important to build individual capacities in people who come to his group for help. There are many things people can do without a lawyer, if they have the rules explained to them and can be empowered to act on their own behalf.

Soltani said that it is important for community organizers to meet “people where they are and understanding why they’re there in the first place. If they don’t come, ask why?”

For Sarath Suong, co-founder and executive director of PrYSM, lawyers have always been required. We needed “immigration lawyers early on to end Cambodian deportations.” More recently, PrYSM’s work on the Community Safety Act (CSA) required careful legal writing. The CSA has “twelve provisions that will curb profiling” and seeks to free people from “state, street and interpersonal violence.”

However, says Suong, “we know that policy will not save our communities. We know that communities need to save themselves, build a sense of resistance.”

Kurland agrees. “There are a ton of laws to protect you,” she says, “but they not enforced.” People in low-income communities of color learn that “here are your rights on paper,” now, “how do I stay safe on the street?” In other words, is asserting one’s rights in the moment worth the risk of being arrested or beaten?

When PrYSM started back in 2001, “only the police were engaging with SouthEast Asian youth” in Providence,” said Suong. PrYSM is based on Love, Power and Peace, and seeks to “hold Police accountable for the way they profile young people.”

The RI Center for Justice has a mission of “Protecting legal rights to ensure justice for vulnerable individuals, families, and communities in Rhode Island.” The Center currently works with Fuerza Laboral on the Wage Justice Project, with the Community Action Partnership of Providence (CAPP) on the Tenant Advocacy Project and with the George Wiley Center on it’s Lifeline Project.