Greetings! It is finally not January! Between snowstorms and Omicron, January felt like it had 62 days instead of 31. It’s February 2 and I’m wishing for spring and not the Bill Murray version of Groundhogs Day. One of the things that get us in the spring feeling even when there is still snow on the ground is kicking our spring event planning into high gear. While Sexual Assault Awareness Month isn’t until April, we have so many important and fun events that we are working on right now! We will have our Simcoe for SARA local craft beers being brewed at various breweries around town. Not only that, we are bringing some non-alcoholic bevvies to the table this time around. Stay tuned for that! We are also planning a new and unique fundraising event for late April. I don’t want to spill the beans, but my hint is we won’t make you “search” for the details for too long!
But I am getting way ahead of myself. February might be the shortest month, but it is packed full of opportunities to celebrate, learn, and grow. February is Black History Month which gives us a chance to highlight the work that Black Feminists have been doing to dismantle systems that perpetuate gender and sexual violence for centuries. After the Civil War, it was Ida B. Wells and Fannie Barrier Williams who founded campaigns to end sexual violence against Black women even though much of the credit for the antirape movement went to white feminists more than a hundred years later in the 1970s. Fast forward another 50 years, it is Black feminists like Tarana Burke, historians like Crystal Feimster, and documentarians like Aishah Shahidah Simmons, who are doing the work to dismantle the intersections of oppressions that result in sexual violence. I encourage you to join me learning from, following, and supporting these and other Black feminists this and every month.
I hope this month brings you health and happiness.
Warmly,
Renee