Lead to Life: Reclaim Radical King Weekend
Event Information
Description
SUNDAY JANUARY 20, 2019 | OAKLAND PERMACULTURE ACTION DAY W/ LEAD TO LIFE AT SOGOREA TE' LAND TRUST AND PLANTING JUSTICE NURSERY | 10 am - 5:30 pm
Lead to Life & Permaculture Action Network invite you to the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and Planting Justice Nursery in East Oakland for a Permaculture Action Day on Sunday, January 20th. This is a free, family-friendly event filled with ecologically regenerative hands-on projects, workshops & skill-shares, music, and a community meal. This is the sister event to this past April’s Lead to Life series in Atlanta, Georgia, where 50 guns were melted down into 50 shovels to plant 50 trees in honor of the 50 years since MLK’s assassination. We will use these shovels again this January 20th, 2019, to plant trees, install regenerative systems, and build ceremonial space.
The following day, Monday, January 21st, we ground this same process in Oakland where we will melt guns into shovels after the People’s March to Reclaim the Radical Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
Sogorea Te’ is an urban, indigenous women-led organization that facilitates the return of Chochenyo and Karkin Ohlone land in the San Francisco Bay Area to indigenous stewardship. The Sogorea Te’ Land Trust site at Planting Justice’s East Oakland Nursery is the first piece of land put into the community land trust, and will be the site of the first ceremonial arbor built on Ohlone Land in 250 years.
Planting Justice facilitates permaculture designs and installations for homes around the Bay Area and regenerative educational programs, hires formerly incarcerated folks at a family-supporting wage, and now runs the largest organic fruit, nut, and berry nursery in California right out of a two-acre site in East Oakland.
Lead to Life is transforming weapons into shovels for tree planting ceremonies at sites that have been impacted by violence or carry spiritual significance. These guns, donated from the public and collected from police departments, are transformed by metalsmiths into shovels and tools that plant trees to memorialize loved ones, and lands, lost to violence.
This is Permaculture Action Network’s 92nd action day in which communities brought together through a cultural event are invited to direct their energy into hands-on projects that improve regenerative common spaces and bring forward a just and regenerative world.
For this occasion, our partners RAWtools & James Brenner have forged a reimagined arsenal of garden tools made from weapons. Folks from across the East Bay are coming together to use these ceremonial tools towards two revolutionary land regeneration projects on 105th Ave in East Oakland.
This day will be an act of beloved community and grassroots liberation as part of Oakland’s annual weekend to reclaim the radical legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.. To honor the vision of Dr. King, the work of people across Oakland, the significance of the Jewish tradition of Tu Bishvat, and the indigenous stewardship of these lands, we will work with our hands in the soil to decompose colonialism. We will live into a practice of land reparations, through supporting the return of Ohlone ancestral homelands.
This event is free and open to all! While folks can come for any part of the day, we encourage you to be present in the morning for an opening circle with Corrina Gould, Ohlone elder from Sogorea' Te Land Trust.
Bring your friends and come prepared to learn new skills, build food-producing systems, and have a dirty, good time!!
MONDAY JANUARY 21, 2019 (MLK DAY) | REIMAGINE VIOLENCE: A GUNS TO SHOVELS CEREMONY TO RECLAIM KING 's RADICAL LEGACY | 5 pm - 8 pm
In partnership with the Robby Poblete Foundation and United Playaz, we will be hosting a live metal alchemy ceremony to transform guns into shovels, and to call in the prophetic future we know is possible. Our ceremony will serve as a conclusion to the Reclaim Radical King march, organized by APTP.
This will be held at:
Oscar Grant Plaza (also known as Frank Ogawa Plaza)
Oakland City Hall, 1 Frank H Ogawa Plaza
Oakland, CA 94612
This weekend will be an act of beloved community and grassroots liberation as part of Oakland’s annual weekend to reclaim the radical legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.. To honor the vision of Dr. King, the work of people across Oakland, the significance of the Jewish tradition of Tu Bishvat, and the indigenous stewardship of these lands, we will work with our hands in the soil to decompose colonialism. We will live into a practice of land reparations, through supporting the return of Ohlone ancestral homelands.
CALLING ALL ACCOMPLICES: We are seeking volunteers to support us for our Guns to Shovels Ceremony on January 21st. We're looking for folks with audio-visual expertise, folks who can help with ceremonial support, community safety, set up and clean up, metal artist support, and more. If you're committed to our vision for a people's regeneration, we invite you to join our beloved community. Sign up by following this link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11-Zs9638z2Ai-eot1BEw0X_8CWAIFJ7KJGLbAXJZmaQ/edit?ts=5c269c09#gid=0.