SOCIAL JUSTICE
At Wide Rainbow, we create free access to the arts and arts education for marginalized communities – communities who are largely Black who face challenges on the daily. We stand in solidarity with those voicing these challenges and systemic injustices, and calling for change. We believe art has the power to bring up empathy within ourselves and one another such that it transforms relationships between us: to make art is to speak a language of oneself, to experience art is to listen to the one who desires to speak, to share art is to support and empower one another. Artists are teachers, mentors, and progressive thinkers. We will continue to provide the tools to empathize through art so that the future generation of our youth, families, and communities may have a just world, equal opportunities, and more love.
LEARN
Talking About Race
Talking about race, although hard, is necessary. Tools and guidance to empower your journey and inspire conversation.
The Free Black Women’s Library
An interactive Black Feminist mobile trading library and interactive biblio installation that features a collection of 2000 books written by Black women. The library is committed to centering and celebrating the voices of Black Women in literature.
African American History: From Emancipation to the Present
A free course offered by Yale taught by Jonathan Holloway, former Professor of History, African American Studies, and American Studies at Yale University and Dean of Yale College.
The Schomburg Center
Founded in 1925 and named a National Historic Landmark in 2017, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is one of the world’s leading cultural institutions devoted to the research, preservation, and exhibition of materials focused on African American, African Diaspora, and African experiences, featuring diverse programming and collections spanning over 10 million items that illuminate the richness of global black history, arts, and culture.
FOR YOUTH
Wide Rainbow Library curated by Sparkle Nation Book Club Reading & Book List
A list of children and young adult books to create and empower others in the pursuit of personal and collective freedom.
NYPL: Trans, Nonbinary and GNC Voices
An annotated reading list of Trans and Gender Non Conforming related books for all ages in the NYPL collections.
EmbraceRace [Sonja’s note: consider to moving elsewhere - possibly including an area “for educators” / “pedagogy” ]
An online resource that identifies, organizes, and creates the tools, resources, discussion spaces, and networks we need to nurture resilience in children of color, nurture inclusive, empathetic children of all stripes, raise kids who think critically about racial inequity, and support a movement of kid and adult racial justice advocates for all children.
People’s Color Crayon Pack [Sonja’s note: consider to moving elsewhere - possibly including an area “for educators” / “pedagogy” ]
Crayons for drawing skin tones of all shades.
SUPPORT COMMUNITY
Shop local businesses. [Sonja’s note: should only include black-owned art supplies stores or other creative outlets to keep with theme]
SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONS
Follow & support community organizations, social justice organizations, bail funds, and police reform organizations.
WIDE RAINBOW COMMUNITY : NYC/DTLA
Avenues for Justice
Established in 1979 with the mission to keep youth out of prison in a supervised program that provides court advocacy, tutoring and mentorship, and gets participants the drug, alcohol and mental health treatment and job training they need to succeed. More than 90% of their graduates never commit another crime.
Castelar Street Elementary School
Founded with the vision to provide all students equal access to the curriculum and instruction in the development of life-long learners who will be career and college ready. Castelar Elementary educates the largest number of Indochinese refugees of any school in the district.
Diego Rivera Learning Complex
Provides specialized public education for youth in the Los Angeles Unified School District through four network high schools, including the Public Service Community School (PSCS), Communication and Technology School (CATS), Green Design STEAM Academy (GDSA), and Performing Arts Community School (PACS).
Downtown Women’s Center
Founded in 1978, The Downtown Women’s Center (DWC) is the only organization in Los Angeles focused exclusively on serving and empowering women experiencing homelessness and formerly homeless women. DWC provides permanent supportive housing and programs in health and wellness, workforce development, and advocacy for change.
Girls Prep Middle School
An all-girls school of Public Prep, the nation’s first non-profit network that exclusively develops exceptional, tuition free public schools. With a 100% graduation rate, Girl’s Prep places equal emphasis on character development, college knowledge, and academic excellence through an integrated curriculum.
Jacob Riis Neighborhood Settlement
Founded in 1889, Jacob Riis Neighborhood Settlement is a community-based non-profit providing social, cultural, educational and health programs to youth, families, immigrants and seniors in the western Queens community.
The Lower Eastside Girls Club
A community center and safe haven for girls. Provides programs in the arts, sciences, leadership, entrepreneurship, and wellness to help members overcome adversity, perceive opportunity, develop self-confidence, make ethical decisions and healthy life choices, thrive academically, embrace leadership, and enter college or the workforce as fully prepared and connected adults.
Red Hook Recreation Center
Originally built for the families of dockworkers, the Red Hook Houses opened in 1938 as the first high-rise public housing complex constructed in the city. During the same era, the Redhook Recreation Area officially opened. The Redhook Recreation Center serves the community through afterschool programs and summer camps.
Sixth Street Community Center
Founded in 1978 by a group of single mothers, the Sixth Street Community Center is committed to empowering the community and celebrating diversity, offering a variety of after school youth programs focused on sustainable agriculture, health and nutrition, life skills and career development.
Southeast Asian Community Center (SEACA LA)
Established in 2002, SEACA LA began as a youth leadership program and now includes youth organizing, creative arts and self-expression, health and community building through food and gardening. SEACA supports community members in creating new and culturally relevant solutions to deep-rooted social, economic, and racial justice issues impacting the Southeast Asian community.
Streetwork
A drop-in shelter and safe haven for homeless youth to help them seek stability by providing daily necessities, medical care, legal assistance, mental and sexual health services, linkages to emergency shelters and housing advocacy.
Women’s Prison Association
WPA works with women at all stages of criminal justice involvement. They promote alternatives to incarceration for women living in the community to avoid arrest or incarceration. Inside prison and jail, they are a source of support to women as they plan for release. After incarceration, women come to WPA for help to build the lives they want for themselves and their families in the community.
Urban Upbound
Urban Upbound serves public housing residents and other low-income New Yorkers to break cycles of poverty. They provide clients with employment services, financial counseling, income support services, financial inclusion, and community revitalization.
The Young Women’s Leadership School of Brooklyn
Established in 2008, TYWLS nurtures the intellectual curiosity and creativity of young women by supporting the “whole girl” in order to maximize academic achievement, social-emotional well-being, and postsecondary success.
LOCAL TO NYC:
DreamYard [sonja’s note: do we want to divert attention? i kept it bc it deals with the arts, but something to consider]
DreamYard collaborates with Bronx youth, families and schools to build pathways to equity and opportunity through the arts.
NATIONAL [sonja’s note - if it’s not having to do with the arts/ arts education, it’s not our project]
Global Village Project
At Global Village Project, their mission is to develop a strong educational foundation for each student within a caring community using a strengths-based approach and intensive instruction in English language and literacy, academic subjects, and the arts. Their vision is to ensure that all refugee girls with interrupted schooling have access to the education necessary to pursue their dreams.
Rethinking Schools
Rethinking Schools is a nonprofit publisher and advocacy organization dedicated to sustaining and strengthening public education through social justice teaching and education activism. Their magazine, books, resources, and projects promote equity and racial justice in the classroom.
The Slow Factory
Equity-Centered Education for Black, Brown, Indigenous and minority ethnic communities taught by Black, Brown, Indigenous and minority ethnic scholars, thinkers and educators. They are a 501c3 public service organization working at the intersection of Climate & Culture, building community and growing global movements through education.