BLIS Collective

We are thrilled to announce that Antonia Belindo has joined the BLIS team as our new Operations and Project Manager! Antonia brings a wealth of experience in strategic management and a deep commitment to our work. As an artist, her work embodies the spirit of solidarity and love that we hold central to our organization's mission. In her own words, "Solidarity is taking the defiant steps towards a reality where love and justice reside for your fellow person." Please join us in welcoming Antonia as she steps into this role to help braid narratives and grow movements for our collective liberation!

Let’s riff on this metaphor for a second—if solidarity is the secret sauce, then it’s what brings all the flavors of justice, equity, and transformative change together into something more potent than the sum of its parts. Just like any great recipe, it takes time, care, and love to get the balance just right. It’s not just about a single ingredient but how they work together to elevate the dish. In our movements, solidarity amplifies our collective power, making every voice stronger and every action more impactful. We’re excited to tap into this conversation hosted by the Marguerite Casey Foundation, featuring amazing organizers and thought leaders like Dr. Carmen Rojas, Derecka Purnell, Astra Taylor, and Richard Wallace, who are paving the way for solidarity narratives to be woven throughout society. Tap in: https://lnkd.in/efPpDmmA

We are proud members of the New York State Cash Alliance, a coalition dedicated to advancing guaranteed income as a vital policy and narrative for our collective economic liberation. Guaranteed income challenges the status quo by advocating for a society where everyone has access to the financial resources needed to live with stability. As members of this alliance, we are looking forward to bridging narratives between the ongoing state and local reparations work and pushing for guaranteed income. https://lnkd.in/eFm5KccG

Imagine someone knocking on your front door, stealing your home, then charging you rent to stay there. Now, take a moment to let that sink in. This isn’t just a hypothetical—it’s a reality for many Indigenous communities in the United States today. In at least four states, according to Grist, five tribal nations find themselves in this exact situation. They are being forced to pay the state for access to over 57,000 acres of land within their own reservation borders. It's time to question: how is this just, and how can we continue to allow such a blatant disregard for Indigenous rights? The fight for land back isn't just about reclaiming physical spaces; it's about restoring justice, autonomy, and respect for the original stewards of this land. #LandBack #IndigenousRights #RestorationJustice https://lnkd.in/gvUntdxz

"Solidarity isn’t unity or sameness. Just as a body has a heart, arms, toes, and a spleen, each of which is wildly different from the next, so society is made up of radically diverse components that form a community. And while we are all different, our fates are linked. As Eugene Debs put it: “While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.” https://lnkd.in/efKZ6hpM

What does it mean to tell truly intersectional stories? How do we deepen the understanding of the Black reparations movement and the Indigenous Land Back movement across communities? These are some questions we explored in our partnership with Garrison Hayes to produce this video. The video, which has already amassed over 140k views and 30k likes on Garrison's TikTok, highlights how the intersections between slavery, colonization, and land theft - along with the opportunity in front of us to build power across movements. We're now partnering with Swayable to test how this video resonates with different audiences. Our goal? To leverage this research to help movements build power and explore creative ways to tell intersectional stories. Stay tuned for insights from our testing that we hope will contribute to the growth and alignment of transformative movements.

We are proud to be featured in The Washington Post this week, alongside our mentor and advisory board member Robin Rue Simmons of FirstRepair. Robin, who led the groundbreaking reparations initiative in Evanston, IL, emphasized, "We have a Black woman with a lived experience and a heart for the Black community." “I believe that Vice President Kamala Harris is the leader who will advance this conversation at the federal level.” As our co-founder, Trevor Smith, shared in the piece, "We can’t keep kicking it down the road. In 2020, we were all talking about racial justice and anti-Blackness because we all watched a Black man get murdered on video, it shouldn’t take that level of an atrocity for us to be able to have these conversations.” Regardless of who's in office, reparations for Black Americans must remain a priority. https://lnkd.in/ermrN6D7

"While our histories are distinct, there are many parallels between how Black and Indigenous communities have experienced land theft and dispossession, redlining, and food apartheid (a term coined by Black Farmer Fund cofounder Washington). With this recognition, our communities have been coming together in solidarity around deeply aligned visions, values, and strategies." Agnetha Jaime Gloshay Melanie Allen https://lnkd.in/ey7DF4ma

🎉 Hiring update! 🎉 We are thrilled to welcome Camilla Griffiths, PhD as our first-ever Director of Applied Narrative Research! At BLIS, we believe in the power of research to drive change, so we intentionally chose the word "Applied" when considering this role. Camilla will work alongside organizers, artists, storytellers, and movements, ensuring that research is not just theoretical but actively utilized to support solidarity-building for transformative action. With her expertise, Camilla will help us weave narratives that strengthen our collective efforts to repair, decolonize, and reshape culture. We can't wait to see the impact she will make! Join us in welcoming Camilla to the BLIS team!

We are so proud of our work alongside Get Free, New York Civil Liberties Union, NAACP LDF, VOCAL-NY, ERASE Racism, and so many others through the New Yorkers for Reparations Coalition. Last year, we joined Get Free to drop a banner at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade calling for Gov. Hochul to sign the NY Reparations Commission bill into law, and just a few weeks later, she did. Now, we're building power through our coalition to ensure that the Commission's recommendations become reparations legislation for Black New Yorkers. We spoke with WNYC Radio about all we've done so far and all that is on the way!