In this episode of the Porch, Co-Directors Jade Brooks and Carlin Rushing tell the story of how they found Southerners on New Ground (SONG) and their early impressions. Both open the conversation answering a familiar question in SONG circles: “Who are your people and who are you accountable to?” Sharing their outlook on the current moment in the United States and the importance of Southern organizing, Carlin and Jade talk about SONG’s work to convene our folks, engage with our neighbors for disaster planning, and embody the best of this 32-year-old legacy organization. Get the low down on the Won’t You Be My Gaybor campaign, The CookOut, and this year’s Queer South Revival.
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Bios

Jade Brooks
Co-Director
Jade Brooks joined SONG in 2009, when she first moved to the South. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Jade is a white gay person and comes from a lineage of Jews, Quakers, single moms, hippie types, and deep dykes. Over the past 15 years, she has helped to build out SONG’s campaign organizing muscle. She also led the creation of SONG Power (our sister electoral organizing shop). She is passionate about community organizing that builds people’s power. Jade also has experience drawn from organizing in the Palestinian Liberation Movement as an anti-Zionist, diasporic Jew & within movements to build progressive electoral infrastructure. She lives in Durham, North Carolina, with her son & her pup.

Carlin Rushing
Co-Director
Carlin Rushing joined SONG as a member in 2013 and first joined the staff as Regional Membership Lead in 2018. At her core, Carlin values family and faith and believes that liberation in our lifetime is possible. Unapologetically Black and Southern, Carlin is a lover of the Black women’s literary tradition, all things percussion and rural North Carolina sunsets.

Study/Reflection Questions
1. What new practical skill do you want to learn? 
2. Are you in your dignity? 
3. How is your full-throated love practice going? 
4. How is your listening going, and to whom…to folk you don’t know or others?

Recources

The Sound of the Genuine (Baccalaureate ceremony) (Spelman College), 
1980 May 4 · The Howard Thurman Digital Archive
https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/838

Southerners on New Ground, Strategic Almanac
https://southernersonnewground.org/our-work/strategic-almanac/

The Street
by Ann Petry
https://archive.org/details/street00annp

The Color Purple 
by Alice Walker
https://archive.org/stream/the-color-purple-alice-walker/the-color-purple-alice-walker_djvu.txt

Beloved
by Toni Morrison
https://archive.org/details/beloved0000morr/page/8/mode/2up

The Full Imago Dialogue Process
https://higherthoughtinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Full-Dialogue-Process-3-2-2038-1.pdf