Year End FOLWCC Movement/Community Base Building Report 2024

·      18 youth attended a Prose & Protest session led by BWFJ youth activist Kee. Several youth wanted to help plan and participate in our upcoming Dec. 29th annual Community Kwanzaa celebration

·      Ajamu Amiri -professor and 5 NC State Univ students, N.C. Traveling Archives Program professionals and 4 college students from other area universities began organizing document boxes in our FOLWCC Freedom-Liberation Archives.  Six activists came in to use our FOLWCC freedom-liberation archives over the year.

·      4 meetings at FOLWCC with Sean & William Ingalls family. They requested help planning for the fight against Environmental Racism, Richmond County organizing for political empowerment training, and organizing around concerns in the Dobbins Height Community.

·      FOLWCC hosted 3-4 Amazon C.A.U.S.E. Union WORKERS meetings led by themselves and 2 RALEIGH CITY WORKERS -UE LOCAL 150 meetings.

·      First week in November meet with NC State Winston-Salem Univ. Professor and history class/ visited the FOLWCC archives & 6 students wanted to be involved in the archiving/digitization project. 

·      August 9th – FOL World Cultural Cinema screening of the film “The Smell of Money” led by BWFJ Candace, Kee, Mary. Discussion of environmental justice, concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOS), and building political power with community organizing through community organizations

·      August 17th – hosted Zeta Amicae of Morrisville retreat at FOLWCC – presentation on the election climate, community organizing & education, and elected official accountability

·      August 27th – Screening of city council candidate Jonathan Melton and many others at FOLWCC via Zoom and in-person.

·      August 28th – participated in & mobilized people to the Raleigh People’s Budget Assembly’s community candidate forum in Raleigh, NC

·      September 14th – sponsored a Strong Coffee, Spicey Cake & Powerful Conversation community brunch at the FOLWCC featuring discussions about the electoral battlefront, next steps after the elections, mobilizing for the elections, and Project 2025

·      September 14th – first meeting with Ingalls Family Farm representatives who contacted the FOLWCC & Black Workers for Justice about environmental justice concerns and corporate polluting of the Dobbins Heights and surrounding communities’ water supply. They wanted training and help to organize the community around these concerns help to build political power to stop the pollution, clean up the water supply, and monitor the illnesses of community residents which they believe are a result of the water contamination.

·      Participated in weekly meetings with NC PEOPLES POWER COALITION and "RALEIGH -WAKE WORKERS ASSEMBLY.

·      MONTHLY SOUTHERN WORKERS ASSEMBLY LEADERSHIP MEETINGS also SWA NOV 22-23, 2024 retreat

·      FOL WCC producer/ FOLSE music director LEA OF BWMG along with DJ Rick conducted several series of MONTHLY LIVE MUSIC AS WELL AS OUR TRADITIONAL ANNUAL JUNETEENTH & KWANZAA CELEBRATIONS. All with political, community, and workplace speak-outs and discussions.

·      October 8th - FOLWCC is presented with the City of Raleigh Medal of Arts Award

·      October 13th – Hosted a Simbre NC Workers Rights Workshop at FOLWCC

·      November 1 – 15 - FOLWCC volunteers participate in Voter Power, Protection & Encouragement at the Green Rd. early voting site in Raleigh, NC. We organized a party at the polls with food, drinks, music, dancing, and trivia games for those early voters who came to the polling site. We made over 60 new contacts of community members who want to become engaged in community issues.

·      November 5th – Hosted an Election Night Watch Party at the FOLWCC with food and lively discussion about our communities needing to be organized regardless of what election results are.

·      November 7th – Hosted a National Conference of Black Lawyers reception at FOLWCC. Community & legal activists, labor leaders, workers, and students had an opportunity to meet activist attorneys and learn the history of NCBL – the legal arm of the Black Liberation Movement.

·      November 9th – FOLWCC manager & NCBL member, elder Angaza Laughinghouse facilitated a labor & community workshop at the NCBL Annual Conference at NCCU.

·      November 30th - Mobilized FOLWCC volunteers/BWFJ members and workers to attend the Freedom Books (Raleigh’s first Black Bookstore) Celebration hosted by Amiri Holloway at the Richard B. Harrison Library in Raleigh, NC.

·      December 20th – FOLWCC presented a Kwanzaa workshop at the Green Elem. Magnet School Pre-K teaching about what is Kwanzaa, storytelling, music, singing, and dancing!

·      December 29th – FOLWCC hosted our Annual Community Kwanzaa celebration with community good news, discussion, trivia contest, food & cultural presentations from the Kwanzaa Ensemble, and spoken word artist, Zayid Steel.