*IMPORTANT UPDATE: PLEASE READ*

As you may know, Monkeypox was declared a public health emergency in NYC on July 30th. With this news, Claim Our Space NOW has decided to postpone our 3rd Annual Rally for Freedom Pride for All Black lives event.

As we do every year, the mission of our event was to create a safe space to center and provide life saving resources to our Black Queer family. As a community we are already systemically exposed to attacks on our health so we are airing on the side caution and vigilance to keep each other safe. The powers that be may want us to continue business as usual for their financial gain over our lives, but that’s not how our organization committed to community care and revolutionary action rolls.

There have been many harmful myths surrounding the way monkeypox spreads. Contrary to media portrayals, this disease does not solely affect the LGBTQ+ community. An organization we’ve been following along to keep informed with Equality California’s resources. Please refer to their instagram for the most accurate information surrounding the spread and how to keep yourself and community safe.

We will still be bringing our Marsha’s closet activation on the 3rd monday of this month 8/15! One last action in community to provide our neighbors with clothing for job interviews and more before we come down for our radical rest summer to recalibrate after an amazing first half of the year in our commitment to ritualized action and care on the block. Please send any unhoused neighbors in need to receive free clothes, resources, and love on 135th and Saint Nicholas Ave this month. NOTE: All of our staff will be masked, we’ll be outdoors and making sure we are safe given the most up to date guidelines of the state.

We look forward to bringing our Rally for Freedom to the community when it is safe to convene again and want to thank all of our volunteers, partners, donors and the community at large for supporting our work.. Until our new date, our call to action is to keep organizing your life around the movement to dismantle white supremacy and save all Black lives. Need help starting that journey? Head over to www.claimourspacenow.org to get started on our one stop shop for activations and Black life saving spaces across the nation to find your ritual of community care and action.

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT! WE WILL SEE YOU SOON!

Join us on August 13th, 2022 for our third annual RALLY FOR FREEDOM: PRIDE FOR ALL BLACK LIVES

This year, we invite you to join us for COSpace Pride AFTER "Pride Month" has ended as a reminder that the fight for liberation and the celebration of Pride for all is year long.

Our mission is to amplify and celebrate Black LGBTQIA+ lives, particularly illuminating the power of Black femme, Trans and Non-Binary leadership. This event will bring our ritual of community love and bold anti-racist action as we rally for all Black lives with a powerful, joyful, and SICKENING celebration of PRIDE!

This year, we go back to the roots of our inaugural rally and will be marching together from Times Square (supported by the Times Square Alliance) to Pier 45 in Hudson River Park to honor the voices of the movement that came before us. We will be featuring a small business marketplace featuring Black and LGBTQIA+ vendors, performers, speakers, and exciting raffle prizes! 

We take time to honor the Black Trans leaders, past and present who have led the fight for LGBTQ+ equality and Pride For All Black Lives is a reminder that we are all in this fight together.

SEE YOU THERE!

You can also give to our REGISTRY to assist us in purchasing our day-of essentials and PPE

Can't join us? You can still donate to support our efforts! 

Our goal of achieving equity for all is only possible with support from generous contributors like yourself! Your donation will help us fund the Black trans leaders, educators, and talent that will be joining us, assist in covering PPE, and also go towards the production and location fees that it takes for us to make Rally For Freedom as safe, welcoming, and accessible as possible.

OUR 2022 RALLY FOR FREEDOM PARTNERS INCLUDE: The NorthStar Fund, BAJI, The Brooklyn Public Library, HeadCount, AVP, S.T.A.R.R, Tony’s Chocoloney and more!

WHO WE ARE:

Claim Our Space Now is a NYC Based and Black-Queer and Immigrant led 501c3 non-profit organization (EIN 86-1214774) focused on building and mobilizing community power by making activism accessible and dismantling systems of white supremacy through our three tenets: Inform, Inspire, Speak Truth to Power. As an intersectional coalition, we act as a multimedia resource online and on-the-ground to provide aid and empower the Black community.

OUR MISSION

To ritualize community action and care to dismantle all systems of white supremacy and save all Black lives. We build and mobilize power by making multimedia education and grassroots organizing accessible across all intersections.

OUR POWER AND IMPACT

• Redistributed $100,000 in federal funding with Census initiative
• Registered 68 community members to vote with Claim the Vote Initiative
• Donated over 1000 clothing items, 4500 PPE Kits, and provided Mutual Aid Resources to NYC community in need at our Resource Pop ups
• Re-energized and educated over 350,000 people with our digital Claim the Vote programming with HeadCount.org
• Awarded 3 microgrants to Black revolutionary artists making the revolution irresistible
• Created national directory with over 1800+ Black life saving resources across the country
• Provided LGBTQ+ siblings consistent access to HIV testing, community safety training with AntiViolence Project, free physical and spiritual therapy, free business headshots at our annual Rally for Freedom…and so much more!