August Birthdays and more!

Dear Community,

We have some exciting events this month and we hope you can join for some or all! As usual we'll be hosting virtual as well as in-person letter-writing this month to send birthday cards to our inside members with birthdays in August. Sour Cherry Comics will be hosting a comic release party this Friday and on Sunday we'll be at the return of Queer Soup Night, and ticket sales for both events will go toward fundraising for FOW. See below for more details, and hope to see you there!

Monthly mail nights:

• Critical Resistance Oakland hosts volunteer nights on Tuesday evenings from 6-9pm.  They offer an orientation to their work each Tuesday at 7pm. If you’re interested in coming to volunteer night and learning more about the chapter or offering a hand, please contact: croakland@criticalresistance.org.
• PLP - has been doing books to prisoners nights - check out https://www.prisonlit.org/volunteer/ for info on volunteering.

Have you ever checked out Between the Bars? It's a platform that supports incarcerated folks to write blogs and share their thoughts. If you read and respond to anything on the site, volunteers print it and send it inside to the authors. In addition to cards and letter writing, this is another easy way to engage and connect with folks - whether you agree with them or want to explore the differences in your ideas! As a starting point, here's the blog of one of our CA B&P members, Dymitri: https://betweenthebars.org/blogs/1660/dymitri-haraszewski


Our partner collective, A.B.O. Comix, publishes the work of incarcerated queer and trans people with profits going back to them and their families. They have comic anthologies written and drawn by LGBTQ+ prisoners, including Confined Before COVID-19, as well as zines, artwork and merch. You can support the artists and buy copies for yourself or your penpals here.



***BECOME A PENPAL****

It is always a great time to become a penpal. If you want to start a penpal relationship, you can learn more and sign-up here anytime: https://blackandpinkpenpals.org/

Or if you want us to match you with a penpal, just reach out to us! Or check out our instagram page where we highlight potential penpals (@FlyingOverWalls).

Once you become a penpal, you can join this fb group to stay connected to other outside penpals for support and resources: https://www.facebook.com/groups/blackandpinkpenpalsupport/

***COMMUNITY NEWS & EVENTS***


Thursday July 14 6-7:30pm PST Join Critical Resistance and CURB for an online information session about their campaign to close prisons in CA. From their FB page: "Why are Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) and Critical Resistance (CR) fighting to close 10 prisons by 2025? What are we doing to ensure that we win and that resources are being invested in the life-affirming infrastructure all of our communities need for true safety and sustainability? Want to know how to get involved? Our July Info Session, “Building Power Across Walls to #CloseCAPrisons,” is a virtual space for Californians across the state to learn more and prepare for the next phase of the fight. We will share an overview of the campaign, share more recent updates, and discuss in-depth how to get involved in the struggle to close prisons in California, and build vibrant communities. This event is open to all residents and workers in California, from San Diego to Crescent City. Join us! Register for the event here and read more about the campaign here: bit.ly/7-14-22
More info here: https://criticalresistance.org/event/july-info-session/


Monthly mail nights:

• Critical Resistance Oakland hosts volunteer nights on Tuesday evenings from 6-9pm.  They offer an orientation to their work each Tuesday at 7pm. If you’re interested in coming to volunteer night and learning more about the chapter or offering a hand, please contact: croakland@criticalresistance.org.

• PLP - has been doing books to prisoners nights - check out https://www.prisonlit.org/volunteer/ for info on volunteering.

Our partner collective, A.B.O. Comix, publishes the work of incarcerated queer and trans people with profits going back to them and their families. They have comic anthologies written and drawn by LGBTQ+ prisoners, including Confined Before COVID-19, as well as zines, artwork and merch. You can support the artists and buy copies for yourself or your penpals here.

***SUPPORT OUR CHAPTER***

We'd love to have you join our local leadership team and be a part of the behind-the-scenes of making Flying Over Walls happen! We meet monthly to plan events and projects and build our inside and outside leadership teams. To get involved, email us.

You can donate here to support our local chapter, and we will continue to prioritize using these funds to support our incarcerated members as well as any support we can offer to our formerly incarcerated community.

We have shirts (sliding scale $15-30) and tote bags (sliding scale $5-20) available by donation!
 
In solidarity,
FoW