May Birthdays, IN PERSON and remote!

Dear Community,

Join us in person or remotely in sending Birthday cards to all of our incarcerated LGBTQ+ and HIV+ community members in California who have birthdays in May (as well as sending love to some folks whose birthdates we don't know yet). We do this to remind our inside family that they are loved and that we are together in this fight for our collective liberation.
If you can sign up to send a card or two (or 10) from home, please fill out this form. We will send you the address(es) - and some tips if it’s your first time.
You will need to provide your own stamps and supplies, though we have *plenty* of both and can absolutely coordinate to get you some, if needed - just let us know! Please send pics of your cute cards to flyingoverwalls[at]gmail[dot]com to be featured in future event invites!

In addition to our online birthday card sign-ups, we are re-launching in-person events again!! Join us this Saturday, May 14  at Sour Cherry Comics in the Mission District of SF to send birthday cards to our LGBTQ family in CA prisons (and invite your friends)!


More info: We will have a list of our incarcerated members who have birthdays this month to send letters to, along with all the supplies and ways to get more involved in the movement to abolish prisons. Sour Cherry will have birthday card writing set up all day, but we'll be there from 2-4pm, so stop by!!!
Saturday, May 14 from 2-4pm
Sour Cherries Comic - 3187 16th St, SF
While this space is open to the public and not scent-free, please avoid wearing scented products in order to support folks with chemical sensitivies. More info: https://eastbaymeditation.org/res.../fragrance-free-at-ebmc/


***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***

One of our inside leaders is paroling to Alameda County in mid-May. Please reach out if you know of any housing or employment opportunities!
Sunday June 5th, we'll be tabling at the Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair!

Save the Date: Friday June 24th is SF Trans March! 
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