Neighborhood Folks

06/08/2026

REVISED:
June 8, 1865.

Major General Gordon Granger was already moving. Orders in hand. Destination: Texas. Mission: dismantle the Confederacy and enforce the Emancipation Proclamation.
Eleven days later, he’d stand in Galveston and read General Order No. 3.
That’s the road to Juneteenth. That’s the moment freedom was finally spoken out loud to our people who’d been kept in the dark for two and a half years.

But June 8 holds more than the prelude to liberation.
On this day in 1823, Robert Morris Sr. was born. One of the first Black attorneys in this country. A fierce abolitionist who used the law as a weapon.
On this day in 1849, Frederick Douglass stood in Faneuil Hall and delivered a scorching oration on the Mexican-American War.

On this day in 1953, the Supreme Court ruled DC restaurant segregation unlawful. A major victory for 86 year old Mary Church Terrell.
On this day in 1968, James Earl Ray was captured at Heathrow after assassinating Dr. King.
This is our history. This is the continuum. This is the spiral that never stops turning. This is Afrofuturism in practice.
Swipe to see the updated Ancestral Liberation Zine with sacred symbols that root us deeper than this nation.
The Trigonolito represents the cassava root and sovereignty over land. The Spiral symbolizes infinite energy and the journey that never ends. Gye Nyame means “Except for God.” No human system has ultimate authority over our lives.

When you blend Taíno cosmic animism with Akan communal humanism and the radical Gospel of Jesus, you get an unstoppable Afrofuturist blueprint for liberation.
Our freedom was never theirs to give. It was always ours. Rooted in the earth. Crowned by the Divine. Reimagined for 2026 and beyond.

As we move toward Juneteenth 2026, we’re reclaiming a continuum. We’re honoring ancestors who survived. We’re building the future they dreamed of.

Join us at Seat at the Table on June 15 & 20.
From Neighborhood Folks

06/05/2026

PTSD Awareness Month: We See You, Washington DC and All of BIPOC America
June is PTSD Awareness Month. In Washington DC and across America, PTSD in Black and Latino communities is driven by structural violence, generational stressors, and institutional neglect. Four systemic pressures fuel this crisis:
1. Chronic Hypervigilance from Community Violence
Decades of redlining and underinvestment have concentrated poverty and gun violence in specific areas. In DC, this disproportionately impacts neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River (Wards 7 and 8), which are predominantly Black. Residents navigate daily survival stress, exposed to recurring traumas like witnessing assaults or losing loved ones, which trigger severe PTSD far more than non-interpersonal accidents.
2. Race-Based Traumatic Stress (RBTS)
Direct encounters with systemic racism, aggressive over-policing, hate crimes, and microaggressions act as cumulative psychological stressors. According to the Harvard/Brown Anxiety Research Project, experiencing racial discrimination directly predicts PTSD severity for Black and Latino adults, inducing chronic insomnia, anger, and physical pain.
3. Immigration and Migration Trauma
For many Latino individuals, trauma spans three phases: pre-migration terror (fleeing violence), peri-migration dangers (assault during transit), and post-migration instability. Fear of deportation, family separation, and language barriers create an ongoing traumatic baseline. Up to two-thirds of immigrant Latino youth report witnessing violent events, leading to elevated PTSD rates.
4. Historical and Intergenerational Transmission
Trauma alters biology across generations. For Black Americans, this stems from slavery, Jim Crow, and ongoing segregation. For Latino populations, it includes colonization and displacement. Epigenetic changes mean current generations inherit heightened vulnerability to stress, making modern traumas more severe.
At Neighborhood Folks, we organize for healing justice because trauma is structural and collective. We see you. Keep going. We’re making a difference, together.

06/02/2026

They chose our Cacique. We’re just getting started.

Neighborhood Folks is proud to celebrate Gregory Anthony Dear, Jr., Executive co-Director, for his acceptance into the Storytellers Institute, a highly competitive national community of creators, artists, and organizers who refuse to let harmful narratives go unchallenged.

This program isn’t about polishing prose. It’s about wielding story as infrastructure for belonging, as disruption against systems that erase us, as fuel for the future we’re already building together. They chose Gregory because we know: storytelling isn’t decoration. It’s organizing. It’s policy. It’s power.

At Neighborhood Folks, we develop all our leaders. We invest in the tools, training, and networks that sharpen our collective practice because liberation is a team effort. When one of us grows, we all grow. Gregory’s acceptance into the Storytellers Institute strengthens our entire ecosystem, from Culture NSIA to Seeds of Change, from our 51st State of Mind campaign to every circle we facilitate.

To every applicant who poured truth into their submission, you’re already doing the work. To Gregory’s new cohort, let’s sharpen each other. And to the communities holding us accountable, we see you. We’re listening. We’re moving.
If you’re ready to organize for belonging and justice, if you see story as strategy and community as classroom, if you want to be part of a liberatory community of practice that invests in your growth and centers your leadership, reach out. Let’s build together.

Orientation starts June 10. It’s about to be a hot summer. JusticeNarratives OrganizersWhoWrite StoryPower

06/01/2026

This month, Neighborhood Folks calls our people back to memory, culture, and one another.

We honor Caribbean-American Heritage Month by lifting the survival and sacred resistance of the Arawak and Taíno peoples across Ayiti, Borikén, Cuba, Jamaica, and the wider Caribbean. We honor Immigrant Heritage Month by remembering that colonial borders never had the final word over Indigenous lands or migrant families. We honor Pride Month by centering the Black and Brown trans ancestors who resisted state violence and made liberation visible. On Juneteenth, we remember that delayed freedom was never the end of the story.

For over 500 years, Black and Taíno histories have moved together through maroon resistance, shared foodways, spiritual survival, cultural memory, and anti-colonial rebellion. Our ancestors built refuge when systems built cages. They made community when empire made borders.
This June, Neighborhood Folks carries that legacy forward through culture building, storytelling, advocacy, social connection, and collective care.

📅 June 4: NSIA Circle, Culture Building
📅 June 9: Seeds of Change Art Collective
📅 June 15: The People’s Map, Storytelling
📅 June 17: Global Loneliness Awareness Week Reception
📅 June 18: F4SC Advocacy Hill Day
📅 June 20: Seat at the Table

This is not just a calendar. It is a call to remember, repair, and organize from ancestral wisdom. Liberation is relational. It lives in how we gather, listen, tell the truth, and refuse the lie that we are alone.

🌿 Neighborhood Folks
Belonging. Neuroinclusion. Cultural memory. Collective care.

05/17/2026

“Full circle. Full heart. 🌟

Coming back to Rising Organizers for graduation as an alum hit different. Watching the next generation step up, and seeing that stunning Dr. Nee Nee Tay mural unveiled as part of the Anacostia Mural Festival, reminded me exactly why we do this work.

A Circle of Mentorship
Sitting in that audience watching the newest cohort get their certificates, I was flooded with memories. The atmosphere was electric. You could feel the accomplishment, the grit, the way we hold each other down when we’re out here organizing in DC.
Watching these graduates claim their space? Man, that was everything. I saw the exact same fire in their eyes that my cohort (Class of 2022) had, but with fresh energy ready to tackle what the city’s dealing with right now.

Unveiling Dr. Nee Nee Tay
The absolute highlight was the Dr. Nee Nee Tay mural unveiling part of the Anacostia Mural Festival. The scale. The vibrancy. Breathtaking.

Standing there in Northeast, I couldn’t help but smile thinking about how both Dr. Tay and I share a serious love for Jolly Ranchers. If you haven’t tried the tropical flavors yet, you’re missing out!

This mural is a visual beacon of grassroots advocacy, a catalyst for inspiration, and a symbol of resilience telling the stories of people fighting for a better future.
Continuing the Work
To keep this momentum going and support the folks making public art and organizing possible in DC, please consider backing:
🔥 Harriet’s Wildest Dreams – Defending and uplifting Black lives through community-led safety and organizing
🎨 Freedom Futures Art Collective – Elevating culture, creativity, and liberation through powerful community art
I left feeling energized as hell. Our community never stops fighting, learning, or growing.
Let’s keep building. ✊🏾
CommunityPower ClassOf2022” -

05/11/2026

🌿 Honoring Bob Marley & Jamaica’s Legacy of Resistance 🌿

From Xaymaca (“Land of Wood and Water”) to the global stage, Jamaica’s story is one of resilience. The Taíno people, Maroon warriors, and Rastafari movement all share a sacred thread, resistance, connection to the land, and the fight for freedom. Bob Marley carried this legacy forward, transforming reggae into a global anthem for peace, unity, and justice.

On this day, May 11th, we remember the 45th anniversary of Bob Marley’s passing and honor not just a legend, but the indigenous roots and revolutionary spirit that shaped him. One Love. ✊🏾🎶

RastafariCulture Maroons MemorialDay CulturalLegacy Resistance Livity

05/11/2026

51st State of Mind 🧠

Today is World Ego Awareness Day. A moment to ask: whose ego decides who deserves full representation?
Over 700,000 DC residents pay federal taxes, serve in the military, and contribute to our nation’s fabric. Yet we remain without voting representation in Congress.

Is it humility or ego that keeps taxation without representation alive in 2026?

The 51st state isn’t just about adding a star to the flag. It’s about checking our collective ego at the door and recognizing that democracy isn’t complete until every American has an equal voice.

Reflection question: What would it look like if we approached DC statehood not as a political calculation, but as a moral checkup on our democracy’s health?
VotingRights

05/10/2026

May 10th is Mother’s Day AND World Lupus Day AND the last day of Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week. That’s not a coincidence. That’s the universe screaming: stop pretending motherhood doesn’t break us sometimes.
Here’s what they don’t put on the greeting cards: 1 in 5 new mothers are battling postpartum depression or anxiety right now. Lupus warriors are mothering through invisible chronic pain their own bodies create. And somewhere, a mom is crying in her car before she goes inside to make dinner because she can’t let anyone see her falling apart.

This Mother’s Day, we’re done with the performance.

The 51st State of Mind knows that neuroinclusion isn’t a nice idea, it’s the foundation of democracy itself. Every mind counts. Every body counts. Every messy, complicated, barely surviving way of mothering counts. No filters. No fake smiles. Just truth. So today we’re wearing purple for the lupus fighters who push through pain to show up. We’re holding space for the mamas whose mental health is one bad day away from crisis. We’re honoring the mothers we lost, the mothers we chose, the mothers who never got to be, and the mothers white knuckling it behind closed doors.

You can be struggling AND sacred at the same time.

💜 Wear purple today. Be visible.

🗣️ Your voice matters. A decade of voices, and yours is one of them.

📞 Need support? 1-833-TLC-MAMA (free, 24/7, confidential)

🛑 In crisis? Text HOME to 741741 or call 988
From Neighborhood Folks and Seeds of Change Collective: We see the mothers nobody talks about. The ones medicating just to function. The ones whose bodies betrayed them. The ones who love their children fiercely AND admit this is harder than they ever imagined.
Every mind matters. Every mother matters. Every shade of purple matters.

This is what “More Good Days, Together” actually looks like. Not perfect. Just honest. Just human. Just held.
MaternalMentalHealth RealMotherhood MoreGoodDaysTogether Neuroinclusion YouAreNotAlone HealingJustice SeedsOfChange

05/09/2026