Dear MORE Community,
This year 2021 has been a year that has passed very quickly, without realizing it we are already closing the year again. We continue to adapt and learn from the pandemic and from each situation that COVID-19 brings us, with the different strains of the virus and the impact it has on our communities. However, the ability to adapt and resilience that we have always offers us the strength and wisdom necessary to go through these difficult times and understand how to root ourselves to what is essential to continue celebrating life, our ancestors, making room for creation and art. , strengthen cultural ties, maintain connections and invent new ways to get together.
This is how we want to close the year celebrating and sharing the achievements that MORE has had this year and remembering that our ancestors always light the way for us.
The MÁS team wishes you Happy Holidays and a prosperous New Year.
Here we want to share a summary of what has been this year
MORE achievements 2021
Connecting MORE
This program connects young Afro-Latinxs / Afro-Indigenous and/or Latinxs from 15 to 20 years of age. Over the course of 10 fortnightly meetings, youth participate in seminars on Afro-Latinidad, interview local Afro-Latinx / Afro-Indigenous artists, and have the opportunity to compose exhibition pieces that are published on the MÁS website as well as create a piece of art that explores their own cultural heritage. The program culminates with a celebration and exhibition of the work of the young people, who also receive a small financial reward for their participation.
This year, thanks to the support of the Seattle Foundation through its N2N program, we were able to implement the pilot of this youth program. From March 2021 to August 2021, six (6) young people were participating in the program and were connected with six (6) Afro-Latino Artists residing in the Seattle area who do work promoting Afro-Latino arts.
We are now working to give continuity to this program and start a new cycle beginning in March 2022.
We invite you to enter the link so you can appreciate the work that the young people of the program did this year.
MORE Conversations for MORE Pride
This virtual space was born within the framework of the COVID-19 pandemic, in response to national racial tensions in May 2020, with the aim of raising awareness about anti-black sentiments and providing a space of support and healing for members. of our community. Our firm intention is to center the voices of Afro-descendant and Afro-Indigenous people, and highlight community dialogue and art as a way to reinvent and create space to connect and strengthen the identities that oppressive systems try to erase.
This year we held two series of three conversations each:
- Afro Aesthetic Series: Braiding Identity, Wisdom and Resistance (March 13); Aesthetics, Body and Housework (April 24); The Arts as a Path to Restoration and Liberation (May 29);
- Territories of Freedom Series: Testimonies of the Afro Diaspora: Conversation #1 (October 16), Conversation #2 (November 13), Conversation #3 (December 11). We made this second series with the financing and technical support of PeoplesHub.
This space has been a space of much learning, communion and healing both for those of us who organized it and for all the participants. For this reason we want to give it continuity and continue working to establish it as a permanent program of the organization. So we continue to organize ourselves to bring two new series of conversations for 2022.
A deep thank you to the comadres who braid their voices every week to build this much-needed space: Haydee Lavariega, Teresita Bazan, Delia Pinto Santini , Sandra Huber, Minox Minoty, Meyby Ugueto Ponce, Rayza De La Hoz, and Milvia Pacheco Salvatierra.
MORE Workshops
Afro hair care and Traditional Turbans
From the experience of ‘MORE conversations for MORE Pride’, we realized that we had to generate a specific space for restoration and self-care linked to the topics that we discussed in those conversations. These workshops are the response of MÁS to give continuity to this restoration process. A space to come together to heal collectively and share ancestral knowledge that helps us repair the wounds caused by colonial processes.
In these two workshops, our comadre Rayza De La Hoz shared with us several recipes for natural massages for Afro hair care, as well as a theoretical and analytical framework of the impact that anti-blackness and colonial processes have on the way we relate to each other. with afro hair. The importance of Afro hair care and the use of the turban as a political tool of resistance, empowerment, connection and manifestation of the ancestral legacy were also discussed.
These workshops were held in August, with the support and financial subsidy of the Verdant Health Commission .
At the beginning of this year the production of our first musical theme “El Eslabón” was completed.
We appreciate the effort and work of the following artists who participated in the musical piece:
Music: Eduardo Montero and Otoqui Reyes Lyrics: Eduardo Montero, Otoqui Reyes, Roberto Bonaccorso, Alfredo Chávez, and Mónica Rojas-Stewart. Musical Arrangements and Production : Eduardo Montero, Participating Musicians : Roberto Bonaccorso, Lian Caspi, Alfredo Chavez, Diego Coy, Adonis Mabin, Eduardo Montero and Mónica Rojas-Stewart Executive Production: Mónica Rojas-Stewart. Recorded in Seattle Washington at the home of each of the musicians during the quarantine of 2020 Mixed, edited and mastered by Omar Rojas in Lima Peru.
Expect the release of the music video for this song soon in the first quarter of 2022.
MORE Versadas, Oral traditions that heal
For this virtual event that took place on Saturday, November 20, we joined to the COVID-19 Vaccine Outreach Program in partnership with the Washington Department of Health . The event was also attended by the Mental Health Matters program.
The objective of this campaign was to increase the awareness of the Afro-Latino community, about the importance of getting vaccinated to protect yourself from Covid-19, as a tool that helps us achieve the goal of meeting in person and without fear to celebrate our traditions. We believe that parties, singing and dancing connect us socially and spiritually, provide us with physical and emotional well-being that strengthens our mental health. (Enter the link to learn more about this beautiful and beneficial program that included the participation of artists from Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and Panama)
Our deep gratitude to all our sponsors and collaborators this year, thanks to their support and collaboration we have been able to grow as an organization and get closer to our vision. Thanks to the MÁS board of directors and all the volunteers who contribute to making the MÁS experience possible; equal to all the members of the community who follow us, support us and continue to believe that we are stronger together.
- Seattle Foundation / N2N Thanks to the scholarship we received from the N2N program, we were able to carry out the pilot program for Connecting MORE.
- Creative Equity Fund 2021/2022 This is a program that supports community organizations in King County that use the arts and culture to advance their work toward racial justice. MÁS was one of 14 organizations selected to receive unrestricted funding for two consecutive years to continue the development and implementation of our mission. Thanks to this scholarship we have been able to have funds to support our first part-time position and hire our Executive Director (ED) Milvia Pacheco, who has been doing this job on a volunteer basis since 2019. MAS has been sustained by the love and power of community volunteer work, we believe that our first part-time ED position will be a step towards building a long-term sustainable organization.
- RVC Fellowship program We are also recipients of the RVC (Rooted in Vibrant Communities) Community Impact Scholarship Program, who will hire a talented BIPOC leader for two years (2022 – 2024) for our organization, full time. RVC will provide training, salary, and benefit payments to the selected scholarship leader. If you are BIPOC, have some experience working in the area of development and fundraising and are interested in working with us through this program, click on the program link for more information, or you can write to movimientoafrolatinoseattle@gmail.com sharing your interest.
- The Share Fund : We were chosen by the Share Fund committee to receive a small unconditional and unrestricted financial support for general operations of the organization, in support of the work we do advancing equity and social justice through art.
- America Online Giving Foundation/ Benevity Through this platform we have received donations since 2020. This year we want to thank all the donors who used this platform in support of our mission. Your support is essential.
- State Department of Health’s Community Media Outreach COVID-19 communications program Through these funds we were able to carry out the MÁS Versadas event on November 20, as part of the campaign to disseminate the importance of the vaccine for COVID-19.
- PeoplesHub : We want to thank PeoplesHub for their financial and technical support in making the latest series of “More Conversations for MORE Pride”, and especially Hafidha Acuay for believing in this program and for the connection.
- Verdant Health Commission : Our thanks to Verdant for the financial support for the online workshops for Afro hair care and traditional turbans, and especially to Sandra Huber for her enthusiasm and unconditional support for the work she does MORE.
- Mental Health Matter s. This year, MÁS began a collaboration with the Mental Health Matters program to create community events that emphasize the importance of art and cultural events in the task of strengthening the mental health of our community. As part of this collaboration, Mental Health Matters participated in the coordination and organization of the event ‘MORE Versadas: Oral Traditions that Heal’, on November 20. We will continue to work with them to hold more community events in 2022.
- Union Cultural Center Unión Cultural Center has been the home of MÁS since this project began. We are infinitely grateful to Leika Suzumura and Silvio Dos Reis for being family and hosting us at the community center they run.
We count on you to help us continue the work we do, you know firsthand the importance and impact of the work we do.
We invite you to support the work of MÁS by making a year-end donation today.
