Agenda-Detroit City of Hope
July 11, 2007
Goal:  Relationships, Conversation, Hope and continued work after July 21-

Welcome - 12 days to our event, relationships, campaign and hope
                  Meet for an hour and distribute for an hour- Do we still want
to do that?

July 21 Promotion:
1.      Flyer Distribution  (Rev. Wilson, Community Center, Saba ,)
             Libraries, events, next week-
             Asian Day Event on Friday-   NAACP- tomorrow?
2.      Email Distribution
3.      Media:   WDET- GLB,  Op Ed Article,
4.      Review media release and make changes and distribute-
             Add Website-
             More on Hope and future?
             Attach Grace’s Citizen Article-

July 21:  Logistics
1.      Panel Discussion-
                Has everyone been notified?     (Letter received from James
Boyce)
                Do we want to ask Will, Illana or Angela ?
2.   Set up-   Microphone, chairs, tables,
3.    Endorser Tables- (Panel and/or Festival)
                Detroit Agricultural Network-yes
                Detroit Greens
                Mosaic Theater- Tentative
                Bioneers
                Michigan Coalition for Human Rights -MCHR
                Boggs Center
Other possibilities:
                Tried Stone Baptist Church –share programs
                 Avalon Breads
                  Coops
                  Hope District

Questions to answer:
                       Will there be a tent?
                       Who is arranging tables for endorsers?
                       Refreshments, for the panel discussion?
Costs & Budget:  $75 for room rental,  125.00 printing, refreshments ?, other
                            Income:  Donations, Table reservations ($50.))

Set up time:
    9:00 a.m. on Sat. July 21-

Call your friends, the media, distribute flyers, email folks-



City of Hope-
    Summary Minutes from meeting of May 2, 2007
    Attendance: Kerry, Grace, Shea, Saba, Mike, Matt, Stephanie, Rich


The meetings will continue to be scheduled for 6:00 p.m. and we hope
folks can be there at 6:00.

We had a very reflective and critical discussion about the need to
function collectively and emphasized the importance of respect and the
need to create relationships with organizations and community members
in a manner that promotes dignity and respect.

We are not *the movement* nor do we have *the answers* but we
live in a time when there are many individuals and many organizations
working on their particular agenda, issue or concern and our goal is to
contribute to the creation of a movement.

We want to be part of creating an inclusive movement where listening is
an essential element of our contribution. We want to create the ways
that a large network or individuals, organizations with many different
agenda priorities who all work for dignity and respect and the
rebuilding of our city can support the work, the agenda, the issue at
various particular moments.  There are many directions and no director
of the movement.

Listen to the Community-
Listen to the different organizations-

We will use the Detroit-City-of-Hope website, a soon to be published
statement and banner to promote and let others know that the each part
is greater than the sum of its parts.
*	How will we share the work to commemorate and remember Yale
Miller?
*	How can we support the community work and activities?
*	How could we have supported the March for Immigrant Rights and
the call to end the deportations and respect the dignity of Latino
Workers?
*	How can we support Mike*s work in the Friends of Detroit
activities?
*	How can we support the work of Mossaic and Matrix Theater?
*	Mike*s emphasis on work needs to be explored.

As we look towards July 21 & 22, we know that the community will be
hosting a *merchant*s day*-

We have general ideas that we want to discuss on Sat. May 5, at our
meeting.
1.	Organize a panel discussion to *learn the Lessons of the 1967
Rebellion*
2.	Festival of Life, Festival of Hope where we bring organizations
and people together to share their work, spirit, energy, respect and
activities.

Should we have our Festival of Hope on the same day as the Merchant*s
Day?  Would the community of merchants welcome this idea?

During our discussion, we recognized that by separating the previously
scheduled community event for Yale Miller (victims on crime forum) from
our April 21 event we did not work well with the community.  It is a
lesson learned.   During our discussion we also emphasized that we
cannot be arrogant about what *we bring* but we need to learn to
listen.

Detroit City of Hope: Steering Committee Meeting
Wed. March 28, 2007


Attending:
    Saba, Mark, Gregory, Shea, Grace, Mike, Kerry, Rick

Additional Contact information:
Mark 313-377-2877
mccocroft@aol.com

Gregory Anderson
313-931-9722
mojahaed_1@hotmail.com

We are meeting every Wed. at 5:30 at the Boggs Center.

We discussed the importance of conversation regarding the terms riot or rebellion.
 There will be a discussion at the Sat. meeting which is to be held at the Rehab Center
at noon.  Rm 815   Folks will also read Natasha's article.

We distributed R. Riley's article, Grace's articles and buttons.

Mark and Gregory took 400-500 flyers for local distribution.

Stephanie will be sending out email flyer to everyone so they can mail out and make
copies.  It will be done as an attachment and as a pasted on email.

Larry has placed flyer on the website as well for folks to copy.

Shea will be writing letter to encourage contributions, and sending out,
distributing flyers.

Saba emphasized that July 21 is a community day of events and we should consider
doing our event on July 22.

Mark will be responsible for media release which will be specific to the event
and include Saba's writing which is on the website.
Mike Wimberley will be the second person for media contact-  313-922-5640.

Rich will contact Nkenge Zola about chairing the event.
Rich will contact Detroit Summer, Matrix Theater and Will Copeland (confirmed) as well.

Saba will be contacting a number of individual poets and folks for drumming.

Shea will contact folks for food and Mark will also contact folks for food.
At the next meeting we will make decision.

Mike is in touch with Vaughn regarding foam board to place names.
Mike and Mark will facilitate a site visit.
Mark and Saba will be liaisons to Community Center.

After site visit we can determine tables, etc-

Kerry will coordinate planting of tree-

We will paint benches on April 14th-

There is a teen event going on at the center during the early part of the day of April 21.

May 12th is clean up day and we should consider working with folks on that day as well.


Program for the day:
3:45 to 5:30 Inside
Nkenge Zola-
Part 1:  Cultural Expressions
Orhteia Barnes
Will Copeland (confirmed)
Cardinal Mbiyu Libations-
Matrix Theater-  Jesus in the Hood
Yale Njoma Miller Poem-
Detroit Summer Lamp Project-
Grace Lee Boggs-
Poets
Part II-  Community members and organizations-  tell their story of grief and/or hope-

5:40  Go to the park-
processional , naming those who have died-
drumming-
Plant a tree-
Clean up???


Provide opportunity for people to join the continuations
 committee for the work between April 21 &  July 22.

Mark will be the media person for the day-

We need:  Program needs to be written-

Budget:  $800-$1,000
$150.00 cost of place
$100.00 cost of foam display board
$150.00 cost of Grace's EMU speech pamphlet
$300.00 Refreshments, paper goods
$100.00 paint and supplies

Income:  $1100
Contributions from sponsors-   $400
Donations on the day of the event- $200
Grant from Cranbrook-    500

Detroit: City of Hope
March 17 meeting notes

In attendance: Kerry, Steph, Shari, Larry, Gloria

1.	State of the city: Discussion of Mayor Kilpatrick's speech
a.	Encouraged by the fact that he is focusing on realities within the city,
 importance of dealing with violence
b.	Theme: we each need to take personal responsibility; communities reclaiming themselves
c.	Some ask if he is abdicating some of his own responsibility?
d.	We wonder about the focus on men-call to men to take leadership
e.	Adults must step up for the children
f.	There is interest in the Next Detroit Neighborhoods Initiative. We want
 to know more about it. Some recalled the Archer focus group meetings during which the mayor heard citizen concerns but never
 talked about how they would respond to these. We wonder what will happen here with Kilpatrick.
g.	Should we respond somehow?
i.	Shea op-ed to respond to the speech and announce City of Hope kick-off?
ii.	Forum/blog on website to discuss our reactions? We will look into this (Larry, Steph?)
iii.	Set up a meeting with the mayor? To talk about what we are doing with City of Hope. 
And asking: Where will you be, when we are empowering our communities? What support will you give?

2.	Flyer for April event: Distribution & further outreach
a.	Kerry gave an update. The flyer is pretty much complete. We will add more 
endorsing organizations that submit names by the deadline. Kerry will ask Matt to send the flyer to the group (finalized)
b.	NOTE: Date change of event - back to Saturday April 21, 3:30-6:00pm.
c.	We talked about the letter-to reach out to more organizations to have 
them endorse/participate.

3.	April kick-off program details/responsibilities
a.	Expressions - grief to hope
b.	Speak out/testimonies: how grieving; how creating hope
**We nominated RICK and SABA  to work on (a) and (b)-with RICK focusing on 
(a) and SABA focusing on (b) but working together to intertwine. Also, Rich should follow up with NICOLE about the theatre/movement activity.
c.	Coming together - ways to work together to build a city of hope-lead up to July
d.	Ceremony & service - walk to corner, honoring of those that have been killed;
 service (clean-up, mural, garden)
**We nominated SHEA  and MATT to work on (d), with Shea focusing on the honoring/naming 
and Matt on the service aspect

We talked about the Pioneers for Peace panel as a part of this program; discussion 
about this continues.

4.	Other responsibilities
a.	Promotion-media & publicity.
**We nominated GRACE to do the writing of press releases and materials; GLORIA stepped up 
to say she can help do follow-up calls to media contacts, on behalf of Grace, on days she is not working
**Larry-to keep doing website updates; Matt-to keep assisting with flyer/etc.
b.	Program-see above.
c.	Communicating with endorsing organizations: KERRY will handle this.
d.	Logistics - displays around room, food, etc.
**We nominated RICK to help with logistics spreadsheet/materials. STEPH is willing to help 
get some of the materials and put things together but can't be there for the event. GLORIA will lead clean-up; SHARI on set-up 
team. We nominated MIKE WIMBERLY to help with food and logistics team as well.

Food: Avalon, Goodwells donations? Restaurants in local area?

5.	Next meetings:
March 31
April 14
**Event!**


The goal of the event is to develop planning team for July event and continue to expand network, 
acts of hope, resistance and sharing of city wide activities taking place. This is a campaign kick off activity and commitment, 
not an event- This is about a road not taken when the questions and hopes were raised in 1968 by King, the Rebellion, the Black 
Power Movement-40 years later we are taking up the questions and struggles to transform our values and our institutions-

WORK TO BE DONE

*       Agree to endorse *
1.      Place Org. name placed on flyer
2.      Help promote for event and Detroit City of Hope Campaign
3.      Distribute Flyers
4.      Display organization's work at event
5.      participate in the event planning (speak or ?)


Partial List:
Michigan Citizen *
Kabaz *
Redemption Mile *
Bioneers *
MCHR *
Day Project *
Cranbrook Peace Foundation *
Matrix *
Word and World *
Pioneers for Peace*
Avalon Bakery (Shea to check)
Mike Wimberly (Rick to check) Friends of Detroit and Tri-County
Elena- Latino Worker's Center (Rick checking)
Spiro Collective (Shea to check)
 Shrine- (Saba to check)
Nation of Islam (Saba to check)
Ron Scott (need to contact)
ACCESS-
Environmental Groups
Greening of Detroit Groups-
Urban Gardening Groups and Organization
Detroit Agricultural Network

PROGRAM

Cultural expressions:
    Need to contact-  Matrix Theater-   (puppets for event)
    Improvisational theater possibilities-  From Grief to Hope
    Murals from Taylor Teen Health Clinic-
    Orthea Barnes
    Will Copland-
    Invincible
    Detroit Summer Lamp Project-

Comments about the failure of the city, the police departments, EMS etc-

Concrete contribution to the community-walk through the community and*.
     Clean up (need garbage bags)
     Plant flyers (need flowers)
     Speak out people's names- Holding signs with the names of individuals killed (need poster board)
    Need pictures of individuals who have died-
Create beginning of Naming path-

Logistics for the day:
   Need microphone
   Need to check space and place for chairs and determine number of tables
   Need refreshments-
   Need media relations people (2 folks)
   Need media package to distribute (include cover letter, Grace's pamphlet)
    Set up team-   12:00 p.m. set up /  Clean up team-
   Table for sign in and sign up-
   Other materials: buttons, stickers, foam board or banner material for names/pictures of those killed

Detroit City of Hope

March 3, 2007 Planning Minutes [Rick and Steph]

Attendance:

Grace, Stephanie, Matt, Saba, Shari, Kerry, Larry, Rick, Gloria, Mike, & Nicole

Rich's note: Our goal is support the activities of hope and community engagement
taking place, link to the many other activities in the city and area and create a theoretical basis and vision for a new movement
of hope that is emerging. It would be great to give a copy of Grace's speech to everyone who attends the event in April.

We have been dominated by the vision of the panthers as militants and not their
other aspect which was to serve the community. We are working to redefine the secondary aspects of King and Malcolm and
the Panthers which were left behind when the movement for power and the strategy of militancy took over. Even the woman's movement
became electoral politics rather than transformation of society and all relations.

Discussion

We emphasized the importance of immersing ourselves (if we are not already) the
context of what is happening in the city, especially the recent murders in our area: Anthos (72 year old gay man killed, Darren
& Orlando (11 & 12 yr olds executed), Christian Sanchez and Yale Miller (who was a community leader, poet and youth organizer
in the city). Rich attended the funeral at the Shrine; Saba helped organize a Vigil where some 200 people attended.

Saba reported on the passing of Yale Miller and the indignity of police inaction-the
policy that police cannot give medical attention. Saba stressed that we need more ways for people to share what they are doing
and connect everyone's efforts with a theme of dignity and respect that is already there. A poem written by Yale was read.

Grace talked about women in the community who wants to plant flowers along Rosa Parks.

Discussion- Garce's EMU speech

-Theme of everyone taking personal responsibility for our actions and role in system -Radicals tend to have struggled for political power in the past rather than developing
our own cultural values. -Rich was reminded of the "Crime among our people" pamphlet which focused on personal
responsibility. Groups of people talked to neighbors about taking personal responsibility to not buy hot goods. -White middle class and others who have gotten upset at those who stress personal
responsibility-they see politics as power -We need to get beyond struggle against the system, and focus on change/transformation
of ourselves first. We need to transform the way we think [shift in values/paradigm shift] as we do our "work." We
are at an incredible point in Detroit in which we can grow our "soul power." -We cannot impose values on communities -We are currently disconnected with the earth. We must link transformation and new
relations between people and the earth - both are key. We must also involve & learn from indigenous communities. -People need a practical way to understand all this.

April event planning

1. Date/time/location

Decision on the date: Sunday April 22, 3:00pm

• *Saba will confirm the use of the Joseph Walker Williams Rec Center for this, by Tuesday.

During the same weekend there will be a recycling event in southwest Detroit
(Saturday Apr 21) and a gathering of former radicals and intellectuals to discuss the Detroit Rebellion (Fri Apr 20 & Sat Apr 21).
This is why we are doing our event on Sunday.

2.Title/themes

"Transforming Grief into Hope: Let Our Voices Speak" Other possibilities to include somehow: "...For the Sake of Our Children" "…as we take responsibility for our Communities and our City"

[Include website, Yale's poem, and contact information]

We will work on this flyer or invitation letter on Wednesday at the steering committee meeting.

3. Groups to contact:

• " Houses of worship: Shrine of the Black Madnona, Nation of Islam, Unity Temple,
  Detroit Catholic Pastoral Alliance, New Bethel,

• Catholic archdiocese
• MCHR
• Bioneers
• Detroit Peace & Justice Network, peace organizations across the area and the stat
• Theater groups- Matrix, Mosaic
• Centro Obrero, LCLAA, Latinos Unidos
• Block clubs near the site of the rebellion
• ?Detroit Summer
• ?Former SOSAD people

Other communities to involve:

• Peace & justice community
• Activist Community
• Arab American Community

The city council and mayor's office will become aware of event through general flyers not special outreach.

4. Program ideas/themes:

-Grief to hope

*Most people believed that grief includes anger.

-Must stress importance of supporting ongoing work in the community.
We should stress the importance of process - talking with people in the community to help shape things. Listen!

-Tangible service project (eg. Garden, clean up, mural)

-Native community involvement

-Community speakout- tell stories

-Create posters of hope to put up around neighborhood

-Naming of people who have been killed

-Using bricks, or rings connecting people who have been killed in our
city in the 40 years since the rebellion. Path through garden.

-SOSAD: do they have names in archives? Saba will check.

-Nicole- theatre/movement activity in which people use their bodies to
represent a transition from grief to hope

-David Conklin- clowning

-Water- cleansing/tears/continuing

See below for Rick's more detailed proposed format for the event.

Website, buttons, and more

-Website is up and running thanks to Larry

-Larry made 4 versions of a City of Hope button and they are great!!

-Larry made copies of Grace's EMU speech in pamphlet form to hand out to people.

Finances

-Matt & Shea are working on Cranbrook Peace Foundation grant

-In a recent email, Shawn suggested AJ Muste grant

-Rick will write to Buck dinner but we need a letter from organization

* Soon we will need to develop a budget for the event-

Steering committee meeting

-Meeting on Wednesday March 7th 5:30pm at Boggs Center.

-We will develop flyer, and a letter that can be used to accompany flyer so
that individual organizations can be asked to contribute or we can use to send to friendly media folks (Cooper, etc)

Rick's proposal for the program on April 22:

Part 1-

Theater, youth program - turning grief into hope- (Nicole)

Contact Matrix Theater for this theme and ideas-

David Conklin-

Taylor Teen Mural which is a 3 section mural (8 feet high by 6 feet) -

Bas Relief- Denial, Despair and Hope

Music

Poems- Will Copeland and others

Music- Spencer Barfield (Local Jazz person)

Combine above cultural ideas, reading Yale's poem, everyone needs to read the
memorial information from the Yale's funeral.

The other part of the proposal for the program is:

Part 2

Let Voices of Hope be heard- Let people testify about the work they are doing-

Part 3

Also a walk in the neighborhood to create a path, naming the individuals
who have been killed from violence and going to a garden, a park, a ????

Part 4:

Invite people to the next Sat. meeting to plan for July events

Part 5:

Introduce people to the web and let folks share their activities their work, etc-

Creating a true city wide network through the web.

Dear City of Hope Citizen Activist,

This is a reminder that our Sat. March 3,
meeting will take place at:

12-2pm Detroit Rehab Inst.

261 Mack Ave. Rm. 815

For more information

(313) 923-0797

(We hope our next meeting will be at a community church)

The Tentative Agenda will be:

Political Discussion:

State of Our City- (recent murders of two young children and
Yale Miller, community activist and leader)

What can we learn from Martin Luther King’s speech,

“Breaking the Silence” (Vietnam)

April Event-

Date, Place, Form of meeting- Flyer needs to be completed this week-

Web Site-

Networks, Schedule of Events, Activities, Contact list,

Other issues: Buttons, Relationship with Media

Meeting with Word and World on Sunday-

Finances-

Next meeting-

Please read Grace’s speech at EMU’s speech:

Recapture MLK’s Radical Revolutionary Spirit
Create Cities and Communities Of Hope

Feb 17, 2007 Meeting Notes: #5

City of Hope February 17, 2007 Notes by SH

Attending: Rick, Kerry, Larry, Grace, Saba, Mike, Matt, Shari, Shea

Purpose of these meetings: shouldn't expect stable attendance. See these meetings as opportunity for political discussion, updates on activites and general planning.

Encourage everyone to send in ideas, announcements and events. We also think that there will be new people coming who want to get involved in planning.

Steering committee met last week: Rick, Stephanie, Sterling, Mike, Matt, Grace, and Shea. Saba was unable to make it because of weather.

Decided to begin each of these meetings with a political discussion rather than business as a way to orient our thinking and create new ways of looking at what we are trying to organize.

Discussion:

Based on the article sent around by Shari on transformational leadership.

In 60's, dynamics of power were prominent even though there were underlying dynamics of transformation. In some ways MLK provided a theoretical foundation for thinking about transformation and Malcolm embodied it.

Today transformation has emerged as an essential idea. If we are moving beyond protesting power and into a new kind of activism, we have to ask what do we mean by transformation? What does it mean to transform a city?

It's helpful to look at the article to get a framework for what we should be thinking about, and also what can go wrong. Right now it is hard to imagine other ways of doing things.

It's also important to think about how transformation is a process…it's never over.

If we were only concerned about organizing a few events, it would not be hard. We all know how to do that. What is difficult is trying to think about what makes an event transformative.

We can get ourselves into a kind of black hole…so it feels like we don't have focus or know where we are going.

In looking at our own experience, we decentralized too early, thinking we all had some idea of what we meant by a city of hope, of transformation. But we didn't.

As think about transformative event, need to look at creating a sense of sacred space. We should see the place where the rebellions began as a critical place to be reclaimed, transformed by our energies, by ritual.

Need to think about what creates a safe place for young people.

We should think about creating a ritual, a space of healing and of safety on that block. We can create a place where change could happen. We should think about having something like a shared meal, a memorial garden. We need a way to talk about, acknowledge that people are missing now…people lost to violence.

To do this we need deeper connection with the community there. We are talking about a place where people live every day. We need ways to recognize despair, violence and destruction.

We might want to find a way to name all the people killed since the rebellion.

See hope as a way to involve people.

Critical to do something this year as there will be a lot of media attention on the city.

See how through creating a sacred spa ce we can begin to use events to crate a different image of the city, of hope.

Need to look at neighborhood along Rosa Parks.

We want people to be able to come and interact with one another, to get a sense of excitement and welcome. Create ways to share our humanity.

Can see series of events creating larger event in July that gives people information, useful ideas, exchange skills, transforms, heals place, provides safety.

Upcoming:

Matrix play soon

Detroit Social Forum

Allied Media Conference

Actions based on discussion:

Saba and Kerry will visit Rosa Parks area, especially JWW Center and some churches to see if they are interested in working with us.

Matt: talk with North American Indian contacts about opening in April

Tentative date for initial event: April 21

Don't want to conflict with earth day activities or other activities in neighborhood.

See this as time for planning group and those closer to us to come together. Perhaps walk the neighborhood, get a sense of place.

Have a ceremony around place.

Next meeting if possible in community center. March 3rd. 12-2pm.

Set date for April event via email depending on what we find out from center.

Web site:

Beginning to come together. People can visit at Detroit-City-of-Hope.org.

Need more pictures. Descriptions came from existing web sites.

Larry needs to check to see if DAN has new name, site.

Ideas, updates should be sent to Larry.

March 15 is target date to have fully functioning.

Might want to consider some kind of membership via website

Finances:

Shea and Matt to work on small grant.

Next meeting discussion on MLK and Revolutionary spirit.

Will also show the video of World and Word as they will be here and want to work more closely on this.

Steering Committee Meeting: Wed @5:30 at BC

Shea, Grace, Stephanie, Mike, Matt, Saba,

Encourage people to send in dates of events/activities.

Subject:Detroit City of Hope Meeting:

Saturday February 17 @ Noon

Dear City of Hope Citizen Activist,

On behalf of the steering committee, I want to invite you to our next meeting.

Saturday, February 17, 2007 Noon to 2:00 p.m.

Rehab Institute: Mack & John R

(parking next to building on the week-ends is ok)

The tentative agenda is:

Welcome

Mission Statement

State of the City Discussion

April Event-

Commemoration of MLK's 40th Anniversary of his Speech:

Breaking the Silence (Vietnam)

How will this event deepen our conversatoin and help us kick off

the Detroit City of Hope Campaign?

Web Site Update-

Expanding our network and our campaign-

Individuals and organizatiosn we need to contact-

Sharing of upcoming dates, events

Finances-

Other concerns or agenda points-

Rich Feldman

City of Hope Meeting: 2/3/07 #4

This was the fourth meeting of the group. About 10 of us gathered for the meeting.

Attendance: We began with a discussion of the contradictions of attendance. At each of the meetings we have worked with different groups of people, with a list now of about 40 people who have attended at least one meeting. About 6 of us have attended all.

Questions to consider: How do we move forward to plan events and make decisions? How do we get the input, ideas and insights from everyone?

How do we keep everyone informed?

We are going to have to be both creative and flexible. Everyone thought getting notes was a good idea and that we should make these available. We also think that we should have people on the steering committee who are willing to take responsibility for programs/direct action.

Also the notes from all the meetings are on the BCNCL web site.

We also think we need to begin every meeting with a summary of the previous meetings an evolving story of where we came from.

We think a lot of the decision making and action will have to come from that committee. The steering committee will meet this wed at 5:30 at BCNCL. Rick, Stephanie, Matt, Saba, Mike & Shea agreed to that meeting. Elena is also on the steering committee. Shea will follow up to see if she is available.

Mission: We talked about a process to develop a mission statement and agreed to use the basic notes from Saba as reflected on the web site draft. It reads:

Our Mission: to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King's anti-war speech and the 1967 Detroit rebellion by bringing together activists, artists architects, community gardeners, poets, environmentalists and all those seeking and crating positive solutions to the ills that have kept our communities in cycles of broken down everything.

In the discussion we agreed to add the concept at the beginning stating: Because we believe Detroit is becoming a city of hope we come together to commemorate….

We noted that we did not see this as a mission statement to build an organization or to seek grants…so that it may well evolve and change over time.

Logo: We all like the seeds image on the website. Weusi had been working on some ideas for a logo using the image of a phoenix rising out of the ashes. He will continue to develop this and try to bring an image to the next meeting.

Web site: A basic design was presented and discussed. The heart of the web site would be images and a brief statement about various programs, events going on…a click on the image or description would lead to fuller tex.

The committee will keep working on this and needs to contact groups to get images and brief descriptions.

Discussion: What makes our events different? We talked about the importance of creating a lively, exciting, visionary feel to our activities. The article sent around by Shari is important for folks to read. If any one needs another copy, please contact Stephanie.

We began to make a distinction between the April event and the later one in July. In april we may have a series of smaller events. We should see these earlier events as creating a conceptual framework for how we approach the larger festival/celebration.

In the April event we want to draw on the legacy of both Martin and Malcolm…and to find ways to bring their ideas to life, especially for young people. We talked about the importance of love in Kings thinking, of transformation and change in Malcolms. We briefly discussed the idea of introducing the idea of Amnesty for Black Panthers as a way to raise questions with todays young people especially.

Practical Questions:

We had set the event for April 8th..this is Easter and would mean that a lot of people will be spending time with their families and home churches. We think the public event should be moved to the 22nd. Shea will check with Bill as he may have scheduled something in his church we may do more than one event.

Matt suggested we look into getting some money from the Cranbrook Peace Foundation…about $500. To help support the programs

Important things to read:

Grace emphasized the transformational leadership document and the WorldWatch State of the World document. It raises looking at people in cities as the creative source for solutions to problems.

Next meeting: February 17 @ 12:00.

We need to find ways to connect the dots among people.

Hello! This note is a friendly reminder about the Detroit: City of Hope meeting on:

Saturday Feb. 3, 2007

12:00-2:00pm

@ Rehabilitation Institute, Room 815

261 Mack Ave, Detroit

Below is the agenda for the meeting. Our goals for the meeting are to finalize the mission statement, gain a collective sense of

what City of Hope activities should look & feel like, and report on committee progress.

Agenda

1. Introductions

2. Mission statement

a. Small groups of 4-5 people- review and discuss modifications

b. Whole group

3. Events

a. What would set apart City of Hope events from the rest? What would make them different?

b. What should City of Hope events look and feel like?

4. Committee reports

a. April 8th event

b. Website

c. Strategy

5. Anything else?

City of Hope PLAN MEET NOTES #3

January 20, 2007

About 13 of us gathered for the meeting. There was confusion over starting time.

We agreed that all meetings will be from 12:00 to 2 pm. The next meeting will be February 3.

We began talking about how we spent MLK day. Comments included: Scott: Seeing activist friends at the Central Methodist march. Marianne Williamson talked about how being an advocate of peace means we have to ourselves be people who are peaceful, that we love even those with whom we differ, who oppose us. People also talked about the struggles of immigrants and corporate domination.

Rick: OU celebration was cancelled because Ruby Dee was unable to get out of NY with the ice storm.

Stephani: There were youth dialogues in Bloomfield HS. Mosaic Youth Theatre did a piece on race relations.

Grace: Spoke at EMU campus. Handed out copies of speech. Saw young people interested in school crisis and thinking about the legacy of Martin and Malcolm.

Shea: Worked with Utica teachers asking what do we want our children to know about Martin?

Vito: did a show of conscious music

Other folks worked, moved, spent time with family.

Structure:

We think we divided up into committees too quickly. Need to spend more time being clear who we are and why we are here. Need to think about this as a process of development.

Conversation about what we mean by City of Hope. What do we see as our collective identity? What is our collective goal? Ideas raised included:

Cannot talk about hope without talking about the despair of our city.

Need events to spark introspection.

Need to think more about processes like Truth and Reconciliation.

Importance of telling our stories, looking at our lives and life styles.

Importance of poetry.

See ourselves creating a campaign, not just a few events.

Weaving ties, connections among emerging positive things in city.

Strengthening existing organizations, events, actions.

Anniversary of rebellion means world will be watching Detroit.

Focus attention on the many committed individuals, organizations that are furthering the questions raised by rebellions, by challenge of global citizenship.

Anniversary of breaking the silence speech means more than looking at war, looking at breaking the silence of despair. How do we go beyond anger?

How do we create, project alternative visions?

How do we help give voice to emerging movement?

How do we raise questions for people that invite conversation, probing ideas?

1st Event: Anniversary of King's Breaking the Silence Committee met and developed flyer thru email for distribution. Flyer was given out at MLK day announcing gathering on April 8th. . Need to think about how to make flyers stand out more, more reflective of new ideas. Break silence around despair, poverty.

Web site

Committee met to talk about design and capabilities. Some talk about using dandelion as symbol/logo.

Folks should look at National Lawyers Guild website to get some ideas.

Strategy Committee

Needs to think about long term responsibilities of campaign. How do we impact the thinking in the city about the rebellions, about an alternative vision?

Steering Committee. Need to set up group to move us between meetings. Follow up on committee work. Rick, Saba, Stephanie, Shea, Elena, Matt will meet wed Jan 24th @ 5:30 @ Boggs Center.

Next meeting

Mission statement:

Concentrate on mission statement/who we are/goals

Rick will pass draft of mission statement around so we have a place to begin the conversation at the meeting.

Stephanie will send announcement, minutes around.

Shea will send minutes to steering committee.

City of Hope Planning Meeting notes # 2

January 6, 2007

Welcome from Rich with a brief round of introductions. Spirit and Poetry from Will

Grace provided an overview of the context:

She had just left a meeting of many of the good people of the city forming a coalition for justice to deal with some of the incredible, blatant acts of racism. It was a meeting ripe with contradictions. People are organizing to defend the gains of civil rights, but Grace doesn't think that will do the trick. We need something more.

We are at a moment when even the planet is in danger of collapsing. We need to create a climate of hope as we approach the 40th anniversary of the rebellions and of King's speech, Breaking the Silence.

Some of what we need to do is to identify and bring together many of the grassroots initiatives in the city; to create a buzz around the ideas of hope; to establish a logo and website; find a way to bring out the voices of the disregarded.

We are not going to convince folks by argument, but need to call on deeper levels, to develop a sense of the sacred.

A good example of the kind of thing we can do is to look at the Milwaukee Renaissance website.

Discussion

There is already a huge effort to transform the city happening at a number of levels. Efforts from Synergy, LISC, Skillman and hundreds of neighborhood people coming together. Greening Detroit and Next Detroit are all moving in a positive direction.

We need to weave these positive strands together.

Defensiveness is a sure way to lose. We need positive motion.

We should encourage the development of list/web/calendar of community events. Perhaps the Community Foundation would be willing to support an effort like that. We could think about a website as a connecting space.

We also want to create some activities/events that will effect how the city is thinking. We need a strategy group that creates a campaign that moves beyond a single event or activity, so that we can have an impact on the thinking in and about the city.

We also need to look at issues around generational divide.

We need to ask what is working in Detroit.

Things like story circles are an important way to address a lot of different questions. We need to encourage conversation and the exchange of stories.

We can see this as an opportunity to create a campaign, a way to bring a lot of different stakeholders together and a way to send a call or charge out to younger folks.

We can see this as a kind of spiritual flame of hope, moving beyond despair.

We know that the despair is real. People in Detroit have endured, suffered a lot.

We need a kind of Truth and Reconciliation to really ask how did we get here? How did we loss so much? How do we address the very real problems of evictions, shut offs, job loss, and empty neighborhoods?

We need a strategy that acknowledges both hope and despair.

One suggestion is to look at our history more. Perhaps as a way to do that publicly we should be demanding amnesty for all Black Panthers still in jail.

We need to find ways to pose questions so that we can continue to raise more questions. Not look for quick answers.

Divided up into three groups:

Web Site

April 4th

Strategy/organizing meeting

Strategy group

rtanner@umich.edu

jjustina@umich.edu

matt.hoeruf@peoplepc.com

jowaz@umich.edu

howell@oakland.edu

Strategy group will organize next agenda. Circulate notes for comments.

Next meeting in two weeks. January 20.

# 1 DETROIT: CITY OF HOPE meet notes one

December 2nd, 2006

Meeting Notes

send additions to Larry @ sparkslarry@prodigy.net

Goals / Why Summer of Hope in 2007? " 40th anniversary of Detroit's Rebellion & MLK's anti-war speech o 1967 turning point: Rebellion to revolution o 1967: Top down structures ' 2007: Changing things from the bottom up! " Alternative frame of thinking about Detroit, counter to mainstream analysis of rebellion: race only, Detroit as fear/decline/etc. Instead: City of hope. " Need truth-telling of stories from 1967. Intergenerational. " Groups must stay in communication after summer 2007. Network.

Themes: " Pride of work " Connecting labor organizing and community service organizing " Violence here and abroad " Citizenship/democracy " Connectedness/diversity " Water struggles/shut-offs " Education " Immigration " Urban farming/food security " Prisoner re-entry

Resources / Who to involve: " Detroit Summer " DAY Project " IHM " Ecumenical Theological Society (ETS): Marcia Foster Boyd " Detroit Dreamers " Detroit Dreams " MCHR " Workers Center " Marygrove Social Justice Program " Catholic Worker House " PCAP " Community Development Centers " University folks ' What does education really mean? o Charles Simmons o Scott Kurashige o Frank Wu (dean) o Etc. " Police Brutality Coalition " SOSAD " Pioneers for Peace " James ______ from the Shrine " ACCESS " CDCs (Northwest Community Center-Jaime knows) " Skillman? (Lan) " Council of Elders (Ibn Pory- sp?)

2007 Dates to remember: " January 15: MLK Day " April 4: MLK anti-war speech " May 1: Immigrant Rights Day " June 23: Allied Media Conference

How? " Looping other events together: o Seal of hope on organization events (see above-"what are other people doing?") o Website o Calendar (Note: DAN has one too) " Street fair like People's Fair. Outside in significant place that represents right for public assembly " Walk the city for a week in teams! Followed by townhall meetings, neighborhood by neighborhood " Bookmobile " Intergenerational Games " Retreat " Mock elections: Block by block. For self-government. o Teams of youth + adult: Asking 1) about who they would elect and 2) about hopes & dreams for neighborhood to compile in document " 3-day mini Freedom School (Word & World) " Oral histories o Truth-telling in community centers or churches. Intergenerational. Learn about what happened in 1967 o Suitcase stories: How we came here

Questions: " What are other people doing? o Those we support " Allied Media Conference " DAN August garden tour " Matrix Theatre productions " Marsh Madness " May: May 1: Immigrant rights day " Bioneers: Will be doing something on water. " Fridays: Peace community-way of the cross (or resurrection!) o Other commemoration activities to be aware of " Thinking about getting away from Black/White, how do we yet recognize that Detroit is 80% + Black? " How make programs accessible in terms of language? " How do we involve people from the suburbs? Eg. youth dialogues between folks in and outside of Detroit