[News] Support the Freedom Archives

Thu Nov 17 20:16:52 EST 2005

Hi friends. we wanted to pass along an email copy 
of our solicitation letter in the hopes that you 
may be one of our friends that receives email 
news and may not be on our regular mailing list 
or may not be familiar with our organizational 
work. We would be thrilled to add you to our 
(snail) mail list and send you a remittance 
envelope to make a donation. Just email us your 
street address. Otherwise, you can send a 
donation to the address at the bottom of this 
email and we would be very thrilled.

November 2005

Dear Friends:

           It is your support that has built The 
Freedom Archives and we can’t continue to grow 
without you. We need to increase our staffing 
capacity and our technical resources as our work 
becomes more widely known  our materials are in 
much greater demand and more and more students 
are requesting internships and access to this amazing progressive history.

           Recently, a Chicago journalist who 
learned about The Freedom Archives through radio 
broadcasts of our programs interviewed us about 
our work. Patricia, one of our youth interns, 
spoke enthusiastically with him about her 
experience. “I knew about some of these amazing 
historical figures before I came here, but to be 
able to hear their actual voices like this is so much more powerful.”

           In 2005, the Freedom Archives was 
proud to release two new documentary projects 
that bring voices of resistance to life and 
inspire thoughts of a more just world:

           *   A full-length CD and educational 
book: Robert F. Williams: Self Respect, Self 
Defense, and Self Determination, featuring Mabel 
William’s narrative and highlighting her and 
Robert’s Radio Free Dixie broadcasts from Havana. 
Williams was one of the most important and 
controversial leaders of the Black Liberation 
movement. Yet his work, words, and profound 
influence are absent in most historical accounts. 
We celebrated the release with Mabel and John 
Williams (Robert’s wife and son) at a community 
event in Oakland attended by over 500 community 
members, along with Amiri and Amina Baraka, the 
Welfare Poets, and other musicians.

           *   Charisse Shumate: Fighting For Our 
Lives, a 37-minute video collaboration with the 
California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP), 
commemorating the life of Charisse Shumate, 
prisoner-activist, focusing on conditions for 
women in California state prisons.  The video 
premiered at CCWP’s 10-year anniversary, which 
included Charisse’s  family and over 200 
community members. It has already aired on Free Speech TV.

Your support strengthens our communities and 
preserves important pieces of our history, and 
also brings people together to draw inspiration 
for our continued struggle. We deeply appreciate 
each of you who share our vision and have 
contributed in some way to our ongoing survival and vitality!

      As we start our sixth year with new 
projects, we are counting on your continued 
support. Last year, we were able to provide 
training to 20 youth interns from around the Bay 
Area, made possible by the $35,000 we received 
from individual donors.  This year, your donation 
will allow us to provide more truly unique 
opportunities for young people to learn about the 
history of their communities, to use 
professional-grade technology to tell these often 
subjugated stories, and to make sure these 
productions get out in the worldto teachers, 
musicians, artists, and activistswhen messages 
of hope and struggle for justice are needed most.

      With your support this year, Patricia will 
join seasoned Freedom Archives producers and the 
Bay Area Robeson Centennial Committee in 
releasing a new CD highlighting Paul Robeson’s 
spoken words. Your donation will also allow Bay 
Area poet Nina Serrano to bring together a crew 
of the new generation of scholars, poets and 
organizers to create a book and CD of radical 
Latin@ poetry recorded in the Bay Area in the 1970s.

      We need your continued generosity and 
commitment to carry out this crucial work.  In 
order to match last year’s donations, we need to 
raise $15,000 by the end of the year.  Please 
consider donating $100 or more so we can increase 
the number of interns we can train, keep our 
technology up to date, and increase the ways that 
people can access this archive.

      Make sure to tell a friend about The 
Freedom Archives so that our community of support 
can grow. Thank you so much for your contribution in these tough times.

[]

[]

Claude Marks                                                  Sele Nadel-Hayes

P.S. You may have noticed a change in our 
letterhead! We are pleased to announce that after 
four years of fiscal sponsorship and support from 
the Agape Foundation, our own 501(c) (3) 
designation is pending approval. We incorporated 
as an independent project in June and expect our 
retroactive determination letters shortly. You 
may now make checks out to The Freedom Archives 
and all of your donation will go directly to our work.

The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
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