“By the Powers vested in The Patron Saint Pauli Murray: We, the Black Trans people of Durham, declare this city a Black Trans Sanctuary. Black Trans people will THRIVE here!”
Joie Lou Shakur | House of Pentacles Founder
Campaign THRIVE
Trans Holistic Resurgence: Intervene, Vision, Empower
THRIVE is an iterative movement campaign to build power and increase safety within and across the Black Trans community in 2020, anchored by the Durham, NC based House of Pentacles.
By the Powers vested in The Patron Saint Pauli Murray: We the Black Trans people of Durham, are declaring this city a Black Trans Sanctuary. Campaign THRIVE is a campaign to interrupt the violence against Black Trans women and femmes in the U.S South and East coast and increase safety and protections for all Black Trans people. By doing this we ensure our communities become homes for not just the cis and powerful but for everyone.
Black Trans philosopher, researcher, and theorist, Naomi Simmons-Thorne shares that within the 86 years that constituted the American lynching era, 3,440 Black people were accounted for being lynched. This means that on average, about 40 Black people were being murdered annually. For the past 4 years in the United States, between 26-30 Black Trans people (majority Black Trans women and femmes) have been accounted for being murdered. We know that this number is the lowest reflection of reality because Black Trans murders don’t always get classified as a hate crime or even reported. We (Black Trans people) are being murdered at a rate of 65-75% of that of the lynching era and we are an almost statistically negligible subgroup of the Black and U.S populations. A genocide is upon us and everything in our collective powers must be done to interrupt this violence. We have a plan to intervene. Join us at the Ella Baker Convergence Sunday, March 29th.
