Roadwork statement on Systemic Racism in the United States and the Imperative of Radical Transformation Ahead

2020-07-19T19:50:15-04:00June 5th, 2020|News|

Originally published on Facebook (June 5, 2020)

Say their names… George Floyd. Ahmaud Arbery. Breonna Taylor. They are the recent names and faces in a long line of people who loved, were loved, and who were victims of racism’s systemic violence. Add to that the jarring story of Chris Cooper being threatened with violence, and we are at another tipping point in our country.

Roadwork stands with the Movement for Black Lives. We are people of all genders, sexual orientations and abilities. We are multigenerational, from seasoned voices in our seventies to new voices in our twenties. We are Black, Brown, Jewish, Muslim, Indigenous, and White.

We know the perennial pandemic is the racist, sexist, and class-based foundations of our country. This is why we call for a systemic overhaul of our country – a country rooted in looted lands stolen from Indigenous peoples and built on the minds and bodies of Africans enslaved by white supremacists. With a nationwide coalition of like-minded people understanding that this moment is about every one of us doing our part we can and will make progress that saves lives.

Our voices raised in relentless congregational chorus can defeat the white supremacist regime. This is our time — if we choose to act in concert!

-Roadwork Center Team

Roadwork is moving Forward. Are you coming?

2020-07-19T20:50:11-04:00March 16th, 2019|News|

Dear Friend,

Thanks to your financial, volunteer and spiritual support, Roadwork’s 40th anniversary-year has been pivotal.  What started out as a celebration of Roadwork’s legacy transformed into a commitment to rekindle Roadwork’s mission: building multiracial coalitions through cultural work that centers women’s experiences. (more…)

Martha Redbone: “Drums”

2020-07-19T20:54:37-04:00August 2nd, 2018|News|

In the finale Sisterfire concert of the 2018 Folklife Festival, Martha Redbone joined Toshi Reagon, BIGLovely, and the Bernice Johnson Reagon Songbook singers in a performance of “Drums.”

Written by folk musician Peter La Farge in 1964, the song describes the U.S. government’s mandate to remove Native American children from reservations for the purpose of education and assimilation into Western culture. It tells the story from the perspective of the thousands of families whose children were forcibly removed from their homelands. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Bureau of Indian Affairs founded additional boarding schools based on the assimilation model of the off-reservation Carlisle Indian Industrial School.

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Roadwork, Poetry, and Change

2020-07-19T20:57:39-04:00July 27th, 2018|News|

Poetry, whose definition and form has evolved throughout time, has continuously proved to be an expression of strength and revolution from within. Roadwork, a D.C.-based multiracial coalition that puts women artists on the road globally, advocates for the expressive power of poetry. Roadwork attended the 2018 Folklife Festival in the form of the Sisterfire concert as well as poetry, spoken word, and activist reflections on women’s cultures past and future.

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