Movement Karaoke Night
Practice your favorite karaoke tunes and get ready to sing the night away at Karaoke Night at the Movement Infrastructure Project!
Friday, June 14th at 7pm
33 Grant Circle NW!
RSVP at https://givebutter.com/tunez
Dictatorship or Democracy
During the last election cycle our democratic system faced an unprecedented onslaught of attacks from the authoritarian right and as the 2024 election cycle approaches we are already seeing warning signs of what is ahead. We don’t know how things are going to play out during the coming weeks and months, but we do know that our movements need to be ready to organize, mobilize, and take bold direct action to confront attacks on our democracy and our communities.
To help imagine some of the challenges we might face and prepare for what’s ahead, join us for Dictatorship or Democracy: A 2024 Simulation Game!
We’ll divide into teams, each representing different players in our social movement landscape. Then we’ll be introduced to a set of hypothetical (but entirely likely) scenarios that we may face during this election cycle. Each team will work to develop action plans to respond to the scenario, anticipate how other movement actors will respond, and build capacity for collective action to build the world we want to live in.
June 20 at 7pm at the Movement Infrastructure Project
All are welcome but RSVP’s are required!
About the Game
At the beginning of the game, participants are sorted randomly into teams. Each team is assigned to play the role of a fictional organization that loosely models an organization in our social movement landscape. The fictional teams cover a wide range of organization types from large national non-profits, to labor unions, to small collectives. This diverse landscape helps participants imagine how different organizations could take action in a range of different ways based on their scale, capacity, political orientation, and location.
The game is played in rounds. Each round starts with the game facilitators (“the Supreme Court”) reading out a brief scenario. Teams will meet for a planning period and devise a plan of action to respond to that scenario over the following days. At the end of the planning period groups will reconvene and report out on their plans.
After all teams have reported out the Supreme Court issues its ruling, giving thoughtful strategic organizing feedback to each organization and awarding points based on a scoring rubric. At the end of each round, facilitators introduce a learning tool that participants can use to help inform their work (in real life and in the game!) going forward.
Save the Date! Barn Raising Weekend!
We are so excited to get the Movement Infrastructure Project off the ground and there’s SO MUCH work that we still need to do to improve our working space and get ready to support our movement organizations at scale. Are you ready to dig in and help make it happen?
Save the date May 17, 18 and 19 for a “Barn Raising Weekend” at our space at Petworth United Methodist Church. We’re hoping to take on some bigger projects on the space like:
Replacing the ceiling in the art and production room
Painting some more walls
Cleaning the hell out of everything
Moving in some furniture
Turning the balcony/auditorium space in to a more functional space for events
AND we’ll take on some work to support our core projects like:
A calendar update blitz
Sorting, cataloguing and organizing our gear library
Inventorying and re-organizing art supplies
And much more!
There’s really no limit to the number of projects we could take on if we had the hands to help make it all happen. So please fill out the form below to let us know you’re planning on coming so we can come up with a work plan that is somewhat realistic!
Introducing the Movement Infrastructure Project
We’re excited to announce the launch of the Movement Infrastructure Project, a grassroots initiative that’s aimed at getting organizers and activists the tools they need to take bold action, build strong organizations, and create transformative change. We know that when our movements have access to the tools and resources we need, we can accomplish incredible things and build collective power.
Friends,
We’re excited to announce the launch of the Movement Infrastructure Project, a grassroots initiative that’s aimed at getting organizers and activists the tools they need to take bold action, build strong organizations, and create transformative change. We know that when our movements have access to the tools and resources we need, we can accomplish incredible things and build collective power.
That’s why the Movement Infrastructure Project is working hard to develop a robust set of organizing tools that our community can share because we want to help eliminate barriers to taking action and give our movements the flexibility we need to rapidly scale and respond to new threats and opportunities.
We’ve got big plans for the months and years ahead, but today we’re excited to kickoff this project with:
An Equipment Library where movement organizations can borrow or rent sound equipment, staging, projectors, tools, tables, chairs, tents, and all sorts of other gear. Our inventory will be growing but click here to check out what we’ve got in our catalog already!
A Movement Calendar, tracking grassroots actions and events, and major political timelines like the Congressional Calendar, Supreme Court argument and decision days, and national and global events. Check it out to see what’s going on or if you see something we missed fill out this form to add it to the calendar.
A library of resources on organizing actions and events in DC including information on permitting across the myriad of Federal and Local jurisdictions in our community, a database of meeting and event spaces in DC, and a “know your rights” document.
A space for meetings and events! We’re partnering with the Petworth United Methodist Church on Grant Circle to create a physical presence for the Movement Infrastructure Project. We’ve got office space, art-build and production space, and we can use the sanctuary and church hall for bigger events like forums, meetings, lectures, and training.
As we go forward we’re hoping to stand up a training program, convene intentional meetings and forums for information sharing and collaboration and create more robust digital tools and shared equipment.
We’re a group of organizers and activists who have been doing grassroots movement work for a long time, so we have our laundry lists of things we wish our movements had access to, but we also need to hear from you about what you’re excited about, where you think the gaps are in our social movement infrastructure and how you want to jump in to create shared tools for our movement.
Excited about what we’re up to? Fill out this survey to let us know what you need and how you want to be involved!
Join us on April 10th!
What would the launch of an exciting new project be without a party!? Join us from 6pm to 9pm on Wednesday, April 10th at our new home, the Petworth United Methodist Church for our kickoff event! We’ll have some food and drinks, music, tours of the space, and ways to sign up to get involved.
Everybody is welcome but please RSVP so we can know how many people to expect!
Can’t make it but think this is a cool project?
We’re doing a whole lot with not a lot of resources. And we don’t have foundation funding or large donors (Not yet, at least! If that’s you we’d LOVE to connect!). But we know that investing in shared movement infrastructure is one of the most efficient ways to support social movement work.
So if you can’t join us in person on the 10th, please think about making a donation to support this really exciting work!
If we build this project up to its full potential, emerging groups won’t need to scrape to get megaphones, or a space for art builds, or event planning resources, they can tap into the shared resources. And all of this sharing has the added benefit of creating opportunities for collaboration and coordination! Imagine what types of actions and ideas folks are going to dream up around the proverbial water cooler at Petworth United Methodist Church, or while coordinating the hand off of PA speakers.
Looking forward to making some good trouble with you all.
In solidarity,
The Movement Infrastructure Project