CDYR Newsletter: 2019 Retreat Recap
2019 Summer Retreat Recap
Over the weekend of August 9-11, Chicago Desi Youth Rising hosted our SIXTH annual summer leadership retreat. We brought together 18 young South Asian participants where we co-created a deeply healing, radical, brave, and transformative space, grounded ourselves in our histories and personal narratives, learned about how systems of oppression shape our world and individual experiences, fostered a sense of solidarity across intersectional identities and movements, and committed to take action for social change and fight against racism and bigotry.
It was a powerful and grounding weekend full of lots of radical joy and critical conversations. Participants participated in workshops around topics including:
South Asian history and the moments of resistance, oppression, and solidarity that contextualize our and our family’s experience throughout the rich timeline of our community’s history.
Privilege & oppression dynamics within the Desi community along lines of class, gender, race/ethnicity, religion, and ability
Personal story sharing, community building, and active listening
Poetry writing
The art of storytelling and expression through movement and dance with Aavegh
Community organizing and action planning
We also want to highlight amazing workshops facilitated in a half-day by community activist, artist, and educator, Benji Hart, on:
Police and Prison Abolition, identifying the root causes of crime, and imagining the kinds of resources–mental health care, schools, housing, etc.–that can replace policing, creating broader safety in our communities, and a more just world.
Linking anti-blackness and anti-immigrant sentiments, linking the global backlash against immigrants to slavery and colonization and understanding how histories of Black repression are at the heart of all anti-immigrant policy, and the need for our communities to fight for Black liberation and immigrant justice as linked battles.
Neoliberalism, delving into this economic theory’s origins, and applying its tenets to three major current events—the militarized Mexico/U.S. border, the multiple Muslim Bans, and the 2018 construction of a $95 million police academy Chicago—participants learned to recognize neoliberalism as a ubiquitous and uniting source of exploitation, and brainstormed ways it can be resisted.
Additionally, we enjoyed a beautiful community dinner that Saturday night where our surrounding community joined our youth cohort for an evening. We had a short program that evening, where a few of the participants shared their experience at CDYR and the impact of the retreat, and one participant read the poems he’d written during the poetry workshop earlier that day. We also used the gathering of our community as an opportunity to act in solidarity with the struggles for self-determination in Kashmir. A volunteer with the organization Stand with Kashmir gave an overview of the current situation and its significance and provided concrete action items community members could take to support Kashmir. We ended the night by taking a powerful group photo for the #RedForKashmir #StandWithKashmir solidarity campaign, which can be found on our Facebook page. Visit standwithkashmir.org & follow their social media accounts to stay updated on campaign actions and how best to show solidarity. Lastly, a huge thank you from CDYR and our extended community to Mansi, Kristina, and Dylan for opening up their home to us and hosting our community dinner this year!
We are excited to reconvene with the youth cohort and enter our second year of year-round mobilization! Support Chicago Desi Youth Rising's growing work by making a donation through the 'donate' link on the home page of our website. Your financial contribution helps keep CDYR a grassroots, volunteer-based organization.
