The first weekend in December, 2014, the White Noise Collective core gathered for our second annual retreat.  The weekend was full of growth, reflection, community-building, struggle, and evolution.  We want to extend our gratitude to those you to those of you who offered us direct feedback through our 2014 year end survey, and let you all know what is on the horizon for the White Noise Collective in 2015.

In 2015, the White Noise Collective will honor the legacy of two powerful core members who will be moving on from direct leadership roles and into advisory and support positions with the core.  Levana and Kelley are critical parts of the growth and blossoming of the White Noise Collective, and we truly stand on their shoulders as we continue this work.  We’ve also welcomed our newest core member, Julia, into the fold.

In direct response to movement mobilizing and calls for direct action and engagement by movement leaders of color in the Black Lives Matter movement, 2015 will see a shift toward mobilizing, organizing, and direct action for the White Noise Collective.   As members in the White Noise Collective deepen our movement work and as the collective seeks to generate more of our own movement mobilizing, we will continue to hold space for deep, critical, and engaged reflection on the roles of white privilege and gender(ed) oppression in our movement work.

This shift will take many forms: WNC is now on twitter (!) and is connecting to virtual broader-based movement organizing.  Additionally, the WNC has formed an Action Listserve for WNC affiliated folks in the Bay Area to get connected to opportunities to take action around racial and social justice in the Bay.  Whereas our regular listserve is very low traffic (one quarterly newsletter and one email per month for dialogue RSVPs), this Action Listserve will be higher traffic and will present multiple opportunities for direct action and campaign building for racial justice.

We are excited to continue our community dialogues, which include monthly themes and more active facilitation and which serve as an open, educational and exploratory space for folks with a wide range of experience facing issues of racism, sexism and movement work. While 2014 saw a repeat of many of our most beloved and juicy dialogue topics, in 2015 we will be infusing our community dialogues with new and present themes.  Spring 2015 will focus on violence, safety, (dis)comfort, and the virtuous victim narrative.

This year, the WNC has created a new dialogue space specifically for movement activists and organizers.   With this space we seek to develop a new container that nourishes and challenges collective members not just as individuals but as racial justice movement activists/organizers. This space will not be for action planning or organizing. It will be specifically geared to support us in deeply examining the ways our socialization as both white and as female (whether or not we currently identify this way) is currently impacting our movement work and relationships.

Intentions have been set in 2015 to develop and offer new workshops, contribute new blogs and develop curriculum, and set aside time for our own individual and collective creative pursuits within this work.

We are excited to see where the growth of 2014 can take us in this new year.  Onward in struggle and solidarity!