AFAAD (Adopted and Fostered Adults of the African Diaspora) would like to invite the larger Bay Area to our Annual Public education event and Benefit – “Art House: Adoptees and Foster Care Alumni Speak”, featuring poets, novelists, short films and performance by adult adoptees and foster care alumni.

When:
Friday November 6, 2009
7:30pm – 9:30pm

Where:
Rhythmix Cultural Works,
2513 Blanding Avenue,
Alameda, CA 94501,
directly off the Fruitvale exit, off 880 South
http://www.rhythmix.org/

Donation:
$5 to $50
All donations go directly to benefit AFAAD’s work supporting adopted and foster care people and are tax deductible. This event is teen and family appropriate. Pact, An adoption Alliance will be on site selling books about adoption, race and identity.

Some Writers & Performers Featured

Screening of “Running Dragon”, a film by Kim Noonan. (Vietnamese adoptee)

Screening of “”Jagadamba, Mother of the Universe” by Amber Field (Korean adoptee, singer, filmmaker),

Korean Drums by Korean Adoptees: Amie Kim, Adria Otte and Codie Otte, are part of a Korean drum troupe called Jamaesori (SisterSound). Jamaesori uses traditional Korean drumming to support social justice movements.

James Cagney: (black, same race adoptee, poet)
Oakland native and Cave Canem fellow James Cagney is a writer, poet and performer. He has appeared as a featured artist at venues the San Francisco Public Library, The Starry Plough, La Pena Cultural Center, Above Paradise Lounge, Spasso’s Cafe, The Jahva House, Mahogany Restaurant, and OK Hotel among others. He has appeared on stage in the Afro-Solo Performance series, Four Brothers Featuring Will Power, Ritual Theater 2000, and Celebration of the Word with Maya Angelou and Quincy Troupe. He is the author of four volumes of poetry including Transmitting The Disease and Hot Death. He can be contacted at incagnegro@yahoo.com
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Liberty Hultberg: (mulitracial TRA, novelist, blogger)
Liberty Hultberg teaches composition and creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh, where she is also pursuing an MFA in creative nonfiction. She is working on a memoir about the symbolic nature of hair within a particular experience of transracial adoption.
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Susan Ito: (hapa adoptee, novelist, blogger)
Susan Ito is a hapa transracial adoptee and writer. She edited the literary anthology A Ghost At Heart’s Edge: Stories & Poems of Adoption and has published stories and essays in Growing Up Asian American, CHOICE, Making More Waves, the Bellevue Literary Review and elsewhere. She is a columnist and creative nonfiction editor at Literary Mama, and teaches writing at UC Berkeley Extension and privately. She has coordinated the family camp for Pact, An Adoption Alliance for the past five years.
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Amber Field: is a queer transnational/transracial adoptee writer, musician, and filmmaker.
She studied classical Indian music at Viswa Bharati University in India and plays many obscure instruments from around the world. Her first short doc “Jagadamba, Mother of the Universe” about adoption and her healing journey through music has screened at numerous film festivals around the world. She is currently working on a documentary on the queer scene in Peru. Check her out at amberfieldmusic.com
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Music Contributed by:
dj fflood
dj fflood (aka Richard Wright, a 1st generation Jamaican born in New York City and loving living in OAKLAND) is a dj, producer, activist and writer. As a dj he has been musically transporting crowds with his intuitive, driving, and eclectic style for over 23 years now. He is the founder of the Oakland Love Uprising known as New Life. He can be heard every Saturday at Kingman’s Lucky Lounge in Oakland, California. fflood also writes in his fem.men.ist blog, where he expresses some of his feminist/activist/gender politic stances. fflood sees himself as community oriented, a strong feminist, an advocate of polyamory, and an unapologetic straight ally.He is a music lover who aims to build spaces where communities can find healing, rejuvenation, connection, and inspiration, and has a really good time doing it.

Bookstore Contributed by
Pact, an adoption alliance.

We are one month away from our 2nd Annual Gathering!

Lots of great folks scheduled to come through. We hope you can make it!

Call for Volunteers – Please pass on to students or other folks you know would be interested in our work!

AFAAD — Adopted and Fostered Adults of the African Diaspora is looking for qualified volunteers to work with our organization. We are looking for two interns who will work collaboratively with the existing board and founding members, as well as the larger community to assist with our annual projects.

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Volunteer Position Commitment
5 -10 hours a week
July – Nov 2009
Location: Oakland, CA (but MN and ATL positions soon!!)

what we need:
- marketing and communication support (website, twitter, email lists, blog)
- newsletter development and editing
- website development support
- Nov 2009 conference planning
- fund raising campaign support
- someone with their own laptop / portable
- administrative support (mailing, database entry, editing)

what you will get:
- experience with a project from beginning to end
- experience with web marketing and communication
- development of professional relationships with a diverse group of adoptees and foster care alumni
- strong skills in a environment that respects your contributions
- volunteer appreciation lunch or happy hour

please contact Lisa Marie with a resume and brief letter of interest, stating your interest in the project at afaadinfo@gmail.com by July 20th, 2009. QLGBT and people of color encouraged to apply.

Please come to the first meeting of the new Adopted and Fostered Adults of the African Diaspora Minnesota Chapter (or AFAAD-MN)!

Meet other local foster alums and adoptees (and please invite them…Our network is still small, and we will need all the help we can get to make it as inclusive as possible, so please forward this invite on to anyone you think might be interested.) Also, enjoy a delicious meal of healthy soul food at Brasa Rotisserie (check out the menu at brasa.us).

This gathering is open to adoptees and foster care alumni only.

AFAAD connects, supports, and advocates for the needs of the African diasporic adoption and foster care community on a global level through community outreach, legislative advocacy, research, and social gatherings.

You know we had to do it! Adoptees and Foster Care Alumni in MN and surrounding, you are invited to meet up for a casual dinner this Friday, May 22nd!

Where:
Somewhere near Augsburg College in MN.

When:
Friday May 22 at 7:00pm.

Contact Info:
Please email with your RSVP to Michelle Johnson.
meeshahjaye at gmail dot com

Details given upon RSVP.

Announcing the 2nd Annual Gathering of Adoptees and Foster Care Alumni of African descent:

November 6-8th, 2009

Oakland, CA

mark your calendars, spread the word! buy your air tickets!

details up soon!

See what AFAAD is up to on Twitter!

WE DID IT!!

What an amazing weekend! Its incredibly difficult to write down what happened last weekend, and its really taken me about a week to come back to ‘normalcy’. In the next few weeks, we’ll be posting some of our group and individual experiences here for our friends who couldnt make it this year!

"Outside Looking In" Screening

It was truly an amazing weekend last weekend. We had over 30 participants come through over the weekend and each day we had sessions that were partially educational, but mostly focused on our theme for this year: “Healing ourselves, Making Connections”. We had much discussion, getting to know one another, and just providing space to feel safe to speak and express joy, anger pain etc.

AFAAD Group Photo

Friday night we had one event open to the public at the Oakland Art Museum, where we screening Phil Bertelson’s film “Outsiders Looking In”. This was a fun time, but also for me, reminded me why we were so stanch about not letting any AP’s or professionals into our space. There really is nothing like a space where we all are equals, and we are coming to the space with our own experiences, and once a year isn’t too much to ask. In fact, we need more. AFAAD got lots of ideas about workshops we plan to create specifically for adoptees and foster care alumni in the future.

Saturday morning we built an altar and had a gentle healing session where we placed things we wanted to heal on the altar, it was really one of the most powerful pieces of the weekend, that I think really solidified for me the philosophy behind the gathering that it always stay away from an academic bent (except when in educative/ activist mode), and stay true to the purpose of connecting adoptees and foster care alumni with one another in our common connections. 

We had some great evaluations and even more interest in making sure we connect the dots between foster care and adoption so that as a group we can address the political pieces of the social welfare system as well and stay true to our goals as a social justic organization. whew!

Some Photos Here and Some More Here

Enjoy the love people and see you next year! Woo Hoo!

Its been a jam packed summer and the fall has been no different! AFAAD board members have been busy busy, preparing for our First Annual Gathering and making connections far and wide with adoptees and foster care alum who are excited about the Gathering.

We are excited to announce that we have many well- known TRA faces that will be joining us this year. Dr. John Raible and Michele Johnson of the film Struggle for Identity: Issues in Transracial Adoption, Dr. Julia Sudbury and writer Shannon Gibney of the TRA anthology Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption, Filmmaker Phil Bertelson of Outside Looking In. We hope to screen David Akinsanya’s film about foster care, Raised by the State that focuses on the UK foster care system. The diaspora is strong ya’ll!

We are still looking for sponsors and donations. Please support if you can.

We are also excited about the teen discussion session we will now be facilitating during the Gathering on Saturday Nov 8th. Youth adoptees and foster youth – come through!