Yes! Magazine has released what’s probably the first book about OWS, called This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement. It includes a version of Brown Power at Occupy Wall Street! 9/29/11 as a chapter, alongside contributions from other activists as well as public figures. All of the proceeds go towards the Occupy movement!

More information is available here:

http://www.yesmagazine.org/products/this-changes-everything/this-changes-everything

My friends and I have launched a new blog called In Front and Center:

“We are a group that has been participating in the Occupy Wall Street movement. We are part of the 99% and are united in solidarity with all those who are fighting to change the direction in this country.  As participants of this occupation, we also believe that solidarity and criticism go together. We are people of color and allies who want to ensure that the voices, experiences and issues of the most oppressed and marginalized communities are in the front and center of this movement.”

You can read my latest writing there, “Lessons from OWS“.

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

thank you all so much for the astounding response and encouragement we have received since “Brown Power at Occupy Wall Street! 9/29/11″ was posted. I think we are still baffled by all of the attention that our actions got, but we’re very grateful for all of the support. I aim to respond soon to the messages I received. It is really wonderful that people gearing up to occupy their cities around the country have read about what we did, and aim to make their own camps and protests anti-oppressive spaces as a result.

As a follow-up to the “Brown Power” piece and all of the massive attention in the aftermath, about a dozen of us had a sit-down meeting at Occupy Wall Street last night and discussed how we can begin to change the space for the better; to make it more inclusive and to also have accountability when it comes to power and privilege. We came up with several ideas and we’re looking forward to implementing them soon.

Here are some updates:

“Brown Power” was published on Racialicious and on Hyphen Magazine

Manissa also wrote a reflection about our intervention, and its also up on Racialicious

Sepia Mutiny has done a post on us and it includes a video from Thanu

Also in very troubling news, JP Morgan Chase is making a very large and significant donation to the NYPD Foundation – the largest in the history of the foundation. In my opinion, this is a direct and horrible response to Occupy Wall Street, and it shows the vast and menacing influence of corporations.

Thanks again, everyone.

peace,

Hena Ashraf

Once again, it is Thursday night, and once again, I am writing this because I think it needs to be documented and shared. And once again, this is about mass actions taking place in NYC. Once again, please feel free to share this.

The following is from my perspective: Continue reading →

I wrote this piece on Thursday night, September 22nd, before I would forget the details, and sent it to my friends. It was shared over email, facebook, and was picked up by the Indypendent, Blackstream, and Alliance of Conscious Documentarians. I wrote this because the day’s events were astounding, and I felt that what had happened would get barely, if any, media coverage (and unfortunately, I was right). I had no camera on me that day so I decided to share that day’s events by writing my account of what occurred.

Here’s the full text: Continue reading →