THE TRANSFORMER- Black Girl Magic Moments meets Black Woman Brilliance: African American Women and the Law Conference Review

Hi Everyone! September 20, 2016

Thanks for supporting the work of the Transformative Justice Coalition (TJC)!

The Transformative Justice Coalition is a nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization , formed in 2015

by Renowned Civil Rights Leader Barbara R. Arnwine.

IGNITING CHANGE ON "Millennial Votes Matters Convening! African American Women and the Law Conference Outcomes & Next Steps!"

On Tuesday, September 20th from 12:00-1:00 p.m. EDT, please join radio show host Barbara Arnwine, Founder and President of Transformative Justice Coalition, and her guests: Lee Smith III of Tennessee State University and Maureen Edobor of Washington & Lee School of Law, who will discuss the upcoming Millennials Votes Matter Convening to be held on September 23-24th at Morgan State University. The Millennials Votes Matter Convening is designed to strengthen the knowledge and organizing skills of young voting advocates of color from several states throughout the nation. They will discuss organizing strategies for engaging youth voters at HBCUs, colleges, and in neighborhoods. What are the challenges and what are the opportunities in motivating this cohort to vote this year? You can follow the proceedings at #MVM2016.

The second half of the show welcome as guests leaders of the National Planning Committee of the African American Women and the Law Conference, including: Brenda Ford Harding, Chair of the Transformative Justice Coalition; Vicki Washington, Management, Equity and Inclusion consultant; Rev. Glencie Rhedick, Social Justice Advocate and Preacher; and Caitlyn Cobb, Social Media Specialist for the Transformative Justice Coalition. Last week the African American Women and the Law Conference was held for the first time in 16 years and its reemergence was a great success with women representing half of the states in the nation attending. The 15 workshops were enthusiastically received with participants formulating over 60 powerful policy, legal and mobilization strategies to advance the status of Black women and girls. The guests will discuss the outcomes of the conference and next steps.

Tune In, Listen Live, and view the show description and guest bio's at BarbaraArnwine.com.

The African American Women and the Law Conference was a SUCCESS!

It was moments of Black Girl Magic meeting Black Woman Brilliance

Reporting by: Caitlyn Cobb

#AAWLC2016

Last week, over 100 Black Women, girls, and their advocates met at the National Education Association for a historic two-day event. Whatever expectations people went in with; they left with new ones. The expectations they left with was that something would be done to help them; that Black women would no longer be left on the back burners and told to "go over there" when it came to their issues; and, that they had a voice through a new Black Woman's Agenda. Not only were expectations changed for the better, but all the women there left with hope and a new mindset, their eyes having been opened to just how much this conference and their attendance was needed. If they came in feeling like they were alone in their problems; that they were less than because of life circumstances; that they couldn't change the status quo - no matter what mood they came in with, in two days their mindsets were transformed into one of belonging, being listened to, being among family, and their mindsets maybe even matured a little. Suddenly, status updates on their timelines of women downing other women and saying women were to just "compliment men" looked a different way then they had before. These women who attended learned the depth of patriarchy in our society and they learned issues that maybe they were blind to before. They were in a place where their emotions could be set free, their voices could be loud, their ears were free from judgements, their bodies could relax, and their hair could be curly. The best way to describe the 2016 African American Women and the Law Conference (AAWLC) is to compare it to a huge family reunion. There was an atmosphere there that was unlike any other- a real sense of community and people that truly cared about their needs. But don't take our word for it- the comment you see was left by one of the attendees- and we have gotten many more comments and emails just like Lisa's.

The NPC and the attendees all dancing together, making the AAWLC 2016 opening ceremony like an African village

Ofosuwa explaining the meaning of the llamba dance and inviting the audience to dance with the NPC during the AAWLC 2016 Opening Ceremonial dance Source: Dara Baldwin's tweet

The pictures above depict the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony included members of the AAWLC National Planning Committee (NPC) singing a short song, and then dancing in with the African lamba dance. "Lamba is a healing dance done by the Mandinka, and it's done by the grio ethnic group. Today, we are coming together to heal the community. And, so, this dance was appropriate because we're coming to the healing place as the song depicted- in the beginning (let's go to the healing place)-to enact this healing...", choreographer Ofosuwa Abiola explained in the opening ceremony, before she invited the attendees to also dance. After Ofosuwa ended the dance, and the drums kept playing, all the attendees and NPC danced together around the drums, literally transforming the reception into an African village.

We cannot begin to list all the activities, panels, discussions, posts, comments, tweets, livestreams, and everything else that went on in the entirety of the conference. Let's just say, since Tuesday of last week, Facebook has said that #AAWLC2016 is a popular search and has over 1,000 people talking about us. While we would love to take you on a complete journey of the policy proposals, the tweets, the topics, the speakers, and everything else- this newsletter just can't encompass and contain all the Black Girl Magic that was sprinkled throughout the conference. Below are links to storifies and live streams from the conference, and below that are some pictures and highlights taken from various social media accounts. For a more in-depth breakdown of the two-day event, look down our timelines of our twitter and Facebook accounts. We'll post updates for the Black Woman's Agenda that will be created from this conference as well. Also, keep a look out for information for the 2017 African American Women and the Law Conference. Hopefully, we'll see you there.