In attendance: Ty, Marc (sec), Salem, Matt, Chien-Chi

Event Reviews:

• Israelism – Issue with the disc – sound was slightly off. Marc will see if he can figure out what went wrong. Not a huge turnout
• Earth Day – Jackson and Matt held down the booth for the event. About 20 folks signed up for our newsletter. Folks loved the buttons and stickers; as usual, the “compost the rich” sticker was a hit. 🙂 We’ll add folks to the Riseup newsletter soon. We probably handed out about half the materials, and it seemed like the event itself was well-attended.

Upcoming Events

• Yard Sale – We can pretty much start taking donations for the yard sale now. We’ll begin advertising for folks to donate items.
• For donations, we accept:

Home goods
Kitchenware
Dishes, plates
Collectables
Wall art
Books, DVDs, CDs, other media
Small appliances
Decor
Tools
Small furniture
Toys, puzzles, games (please make sure any puzzles and games have all their pieces)

• We do not accept clothing; we encourage you to donate clothing to Winslow’s Wardrobe or other similar community organizations instead.
• Jackson will be at the yard sale for both days. Ty will also be at the yard sale. Chien-Chi can also help out on both days.
• Chien-Chi also mentioned getting involved with the Near South Neighborhood Association’s annual yard sale; the deadline for letting them know is June 1.
• Collaboration with Winslow’s Wardrobe will be in May; weather permitting, the giveaway will be outdoors.
• May 31: Cesar Chavez movie showing. This will be the 2014 biopic.

Other

• We met with Chien-Chi, who is very knowledgeable about local places and contacts. She had lots of suggestions, advice, and experience with outreach and similar work!
• May 30th: Give to Lincoln Day. We can look into this and see if we’d be able to table at it.

Summer Calendar:

• We decided on some dates and events for summer.
• Salem screened To Wong Fu and determined it’d be a good option for a movie, and we’ll make sure to include a link to doesthedogdie.com for any particular triggers.
• Regarding the LGBTQ Damage Report, Matt suggested reaching out to OutNebraska.
• Salem mentioned some potential problems with the To Wong Fu DVD, which Ty and Marc will test to see if it’s an issue with the DVD itself or the DVD player.
• Chien-Chi brought up showing Howl’s Moving Castle as a potential anti-war movie. We discussed other Ghibli films as well – Porco Rosso (as another anti-war thing).
• June 29: Damage Report
• July 12: To Wong Fu: Thanks for Everything movie
• July 14: Strange Victory movie
• July 27: Anti-Amazon discussion. We’ll need a snappier title.
• August 9: Godzilla 1954 movie
• August TBD: Discussion, hosting another event with Winslow’s Wardrobe, etc? We didn’t finalize a second August event this meeting.

Meeting Start: 7:05 PM

Meeting Adjourned: 8:45 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Matt, Ty
Start time: 7:10 PM

1. Events Review – We had Garden Day on Saturday and hosted a community discussion on Ancestral Culture and Modern Identity on Sunday. Garden Day had a modest turnout, which was ok since Jackson and Wyatt were double-booked with obligations with our guest speaker Dr. Fredrik. We did meet a new friend who expressed interest in doing some painting for us; we’ll be following up with her. Our discussion with Dr. Fredrik on Sunday drew our biggest crowd of the year to date. Everyone seemed to have a pretty good time. Jackson paid out the $150 to Fredrik that we committed to previously.
2. Upcoming Events – We’re showing Israelism on Friday night. Matt thinks it would be preferable to get our new blackout curtains installed for then. Jackson doesn’t know if that’s realistic; he’ll have to check with Wyatt, but Wyatt is behind on work after spending most of last week with Dr. Fredrik. We’re also tabling at Lincoln Earth Day on Saturday. Matt will be here at 9:15 AM to get folks over to Innovation Campus. Salem is ill, but will hopefully bounce back by Saturday.
3. Yard Sale – Ty has prepared a draft for our online advertising. We will be posting it in the next few days to Facebook and our website. Jackson would also like a post for our Instagram; Ty will check to see if we have any old photos of previous yard sales to build that around.
4. Summer Calendar

Friday, June 14th, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: Strange Victory OR Queer Movie (To Wong Foo?)
Saturday, June 29th, 1-3 PM: [Discussion?]

Friday, July 12th, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: Strange Victory OR Queer Movie (To Wong Foo?)
Saturday, July 27th, 1-3 PM: [Discussion?]

Friday, August 9th, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: Godzilla (1954)
TBD: [Discussion/Winslow’s Wardrobe?]
We really want to avoid double-booking with Lincoln Indian Center’s Powwow

Blackout Dates: Star City Pride June 7th and 8th; Heartland Pride July 13th; also check Discord for Matt’s collection of powwow dates
July 25-28, 2024 – Winnebago, NE – Winnebago 158th Annual Homecoming Celebration
Jul 19 – Jul 21, 2024 – North Platte NE – North Platte Pow Wow Honoring Our Veterans
August 8-11, 2024 – Niobrara(?) – 30th Annual Ponca Tribe of NE Powwow
Santee Powwow (cannot find, typically 3rd weekend in June)
Lincoln Indian Center Powwow (cannot find, typically August)
June 15th/22nd (possible Juneteenth celebration)
Matt is gone first week of July

Movie Nights: Strange Victory [June/July?]
To Wong Foo? [June/July?; still waiting on Salem’s opinion]

Discussions: LGBTQ Damage Report?
Anti-Amazon

Does Winslow’s Wardrobe want to do a distro here? Maybe in August (Back to School)

Save for further consideration on Fall Calendar:
The Breadwinner movie for September? (Salem)
Come and See anti-war movie (Marc)
Discussion about upcoming election for October? (Matt)

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Matt, Salem, Ty
Start time: 7:10 PM

Upcoming Events – We have two events this weekend! We’re hosting a Garden Day on Saturday, and our “Ancestral Culture and Modern Identity” discussion with Dr. Fredrik Gregorius. Jackson got fliers printed for the latter event, and put them up in the greater downtown/Near South area.

Next Week’s Events – We also have two events next weekend! We have our Israelism movie night on Friday night, and are tabling at Lincoln Earth Day on Saturday. Marc has the sticker order ready to be placed. Marc and Ty have been pressing buttons. Salem is making progress on preparing our display. Matt will be providing transportation to Innovation Campus.

Library Donation – Jackson has two books to offer the lending library. We’re adding them!

Reimbursements – Marc will be paid $227.64 to order our next batch of stickers. Ty will be reimbursed $50.92 for getting blackout curtains for our event space. Jackson will be reimbursed $11.26 for getting the fliers printed for our event this week with Dr. Fredrik.

Yard Sale – We need to get to advertising for it! Ty will try to get something drafted and posted this week. We’ll start accepting donations on April 22nd. Ty will be staffing the sale, but doesn’t know how much help he’ll be for pricing beforehand.

Summer Calendar –

We will not return to Star City Pride this year. We’ll be on the lookout for Free Pride events instead.

Blackout Dates: Star City Pride June 7th and 8th; Heartland Pride July 13th; also check Discord for Matt’s collection of powwow dates

Movie Nights: Strange Victory [June/July?]
To Wong Foo? [June/July?; still wating on Salem’s opinion]
Something Godzilla [1954 vs. Minus One; August]

Discussions: LGBTQ Damage Report?
Anti-Amazon

Does Winslow’s Wardrobe want to do a distro here? Maybe in August (Back to School)

Save for further consideration on Fall Calendar:
The Breadwinner movie for September? (Salem)
Come and See anti-war movie (Marc)
Discussion about upcoming election for October? (Matt)

Meeting adjourned: 8:10 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Marc, Ty
Start time: 7:05 PM

1. Reimbursement – Jackson got us more face masks. He will be reimbursed $27.35.
2. Stickers – Marc will be finalizing that order and getting it done in the next couple of days. We should get our stuff well before Earth Day.
3. Blackout Curtains – We will need them soon for our movie nights, with the days getting longer. Marc is on it! He will be reimbursed.
4. April Newsletter – Jackson is still working on this. He’ll try to get it out this year.
5. April Events – We have a draft for our discussion on April 14th, but we want to get our speaker’s blessing on it before we publish it. We also still need to get events drafted for the Israelism movie and Garden Day.
6. Summer Calendar

Marc suggests that the Soviet WWII/anti-war film Come and See might be a good movie night, but also acknowledged that it might be too intense. Previewing is advised. We probably don’t have space for it on the summer calendar, but we should keep it in mind for fall.

Marc and Ty are cautiously optimistic about our chances for running To Wong Foo for a Pride Month movie. Salem wasn’t available tonight, and we don’t have a report from them about the movie yet.

Marc and Ty were open to doing a good Godzilla movie for August. Minus One might be relevant, but one of us may have to preview it to be sure. Doing the 1954 original is also still an option, since it’s been many years since we last ran it.

Marc and Ty were both pretty enthusiastic about Matt’s suggestion of Strange Victory. Marc suggested that it may make a good June movie, to tie into the anniversary of D-Day.

Meeting adjourned: 9:00 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Matt, Salem
Start time: 7:05 PM

1. Event Review – We had our Stepford Wives movie night on Friday night. We enjoyed the movie, even if it was a bit dated in places. Our turnout was low, but we had a long and spirited discussion.
2. Library Donations – We have new books for our library. Most of them came from a library sale that Jackson, Marc, and Ty attended over the weekend. We also received an envelope full of political zines from a distro on the West Coast that we’re very excited about.
3. Reimbursements – Jackson will be reimbursed $132.97 for buying us more button parts. We are excited to press some more in time for Earth Day. Jackson will also be reimbursed $6.86 for buing a DVD of our May movie.
4. April Newsletter – Jackson will try to draft an email newsletter for our April events in the next week. Please pass along all content or suggestions for content to him.
5. Summer Calendar –

• We still need to check for blackout dates for Native powwows
• Marc and Ty reported to Jackson that Star City Pride will be more expensive for us to table it, so it may not be worth it to us. No decision has been made yet, but we may stick to free pride events this summer.
• “LGBTQ Damage Report?” concept for a discussion event
• We still want to do a Pride month movie. Salem will be screening To Wong Foo to see if it’s appropriate for us.
• Do we find space for the anti-Amazon discussion?
• Jackson would still like to commemorate the atomic bombings in August. Is Godzilla Minus One worth showing? Salem was into the concept of going back to Godzilla (1954).
• Matt has an interesting suggestion for a summer documentary: Strange Victory (1948); It’s available on his streaming service.
• Salem had a movie suggestion, which Jackson thinks might be better for the the Fall Calendar: The Breadwinner for our September movie?

Meeting adjourned: 8:15 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Matt, Salem, Wyatt
Start time: 7:18 PM

1. Upcoming Event – We’re showing Stepford Wives on Friday night. Marc and Ty are bringing the DVD. Jackson will get the space cleaned. We will be ready!
2. Calendar Distro – It’s a work in progress. We made a list of what still needs to be done and added it to our Discord.
3. April Discussion Added! – Jackson and Wyatt are working with Dr. Dance to bring her colleague Fredrik Gregorius to Lincoln in mid-April. He is an expert particularly on non-Christian religions, which should be of great interest to many in our community. We still need to pick a title and refine the concept for his event here at the Black Cat House, but we’re planning to have a community discussion featuring Fredrik as a special guest. Because of other commitments during his time in Lincoln, we will have to hold our event on Sunday, April 14th, from 1-3 PM. We have agreed to commit $150 of our treasury money towards Fredrik for his visit. We will continue to workshop this event on our Discord, and may want to create a special flier for this event (especially as it didn’t get finalized in time for our spring calendar).
4. Summer Calendar – TABLED to next week

Meeting adjourned: 8:07 PM

Tabled: Summer Calendar

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Matt
Start time: 7:05 PM

1. Event Review – We had our abortion rights discussion yesterday. We had a decent turnout, in spite of some less than ideal circumstances (during UNL spring break, on an odd day, our calendars distro still being incomplete). We had a nice mix of old and new friends, and the newsletter definitely worked in spite of Jackson getting it out late last week. Our friend from NEAR was very knowledgable and had a lot to share with us.
2. Spring Calendar Distro – Jackson got UNL’s City Campus sites on Thursday. Salem stopped by and got materials for the downtown area, but we don’t know what has and hasn’t been done in the greater downtown area. And it’s safe to assume nothing has been done beyond the downtown area. Open Harvest has officially moved from South Street to the Telegraph District, so that will need to be updated on our master list.
3. Summer Calendar Brainstorming –

• Make sure to double-check for blackout dates on Native powwow dates!
• Are we going to table at Star City Pride again?
• “LGBTQ Damage Report?”
• Pride month movie?
• anti-Amazon discussion?
• commemorate the atomic bombings in August? Is Godzilla Minus One worth showing?

Meeting adjourned: 7:45 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Matt, Wyatt
Start time: 7:05 PM

1. Upcoming Event – The abortion rights discussion is this Sunday afternoon! Matt has been in contact with our representative from NEAR, and she will be bringing swag!
   
2. Spring Calendars – They are printed! Jackson needs to be reimbursed $23.60 for getting those printed. Jackson also reports that the city union copy center is apparently closing later this year! We will need to start going to the main UNL print center on Y Street. We need to get on distribution ASAP, as events start this week.
   
3. Visiting Speaker – Dr. Fredrik Gregorius, a colleague of our good friend Dr. Dance, is visiting Lincoln in mid-April. The Black Cat House will be co-hosting his visit along with several academic units at UNL. We are planning on adding an event with him, most likely on Saturday, April 13th after our garden workshop or on Sunday, April 14th in the afternoon. We are tentatively hoping for a more informal event format than the talk he’s preparing for campus; we may build it around a discussion between Dr. Gregorius and Wyatt, as they have mutual expertise and interests.
   
4. March Events Online – Our abortion rights discussion and Stepford Wives movie night need to be posted ASAP. We took time to draft the discussion event with remaining meeting time. Jackson will continue work on the movie description and post it to the Discord channel.

Meeting adjourned: 8:08 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Matt, Salem
Start time: 7:05 PM

1. Instagram – Ty has recovered our ancient Instagram account, and we’re going to post some stuff on it and see how it goes! Matt says we will definitely want to put our calendars up there. Salem recommends taking advantage of their “reels” with short videos. We now have a meme stash section of our Discord to collect and vet memes to be shared to social media.
2. Newsletter – Ty has asked for some assistance with the next month’s Black Cat email newsletter. Jackson will draft something very basic. He welcomes assistance to make it less basic.
3. Masks – Jackson will be ordering another box of face masks for the house, but he will need to be reimbursed for it. We are cool with that.
4. Button parts/stickers – Ty also reminds us with tabling at Earth Day around the corner that we’re going to need swag to give away. Jackson will get the button parts figured out soon. We’ll probably do another order of the stickers that Marc designed for last year, since they were so popular then. Jackson thinks an order similar to what we got for last year’s Earth Day is appropriate, and that the treasury can afford it.
5. Earth Day Tabling – Ty got our application in, and had to pay $35 for it. He will be reimbursed. Jackson, Matt, and Salem have committed to working the booth.
6. Spring Calendar Notes and Updates:

-> Matt has provided several potential calendar templates. We picked one we preferred via the Discord.

-> Winslow’s Wardrobe got back to us to say that they were busy with another engagement on April 13th. They offered three alternate dates, but the only one that might work for us is May 18th. We were planning an anti-Amazon discussion on that date, but Matt is willing to postpone that event to a later calendar. We’ll reach out to them and try to get an answer ASAP.

-> We reached out to a community group about co-sponsoring our abortion rights event. We got one email back, where they wanted to change the date and title of the event. Attempts to follow up with alternate dates have not been answered, and we don’t have time to wait on that. We will be changing the name of the discussion to “Desperation and Hope”, but we are planning to go forward with the event on our own with our original date.

-> We will be showing the dramatization Cesar Chavez (2014) for our May movie.

-> We still need a few microblurbs for our calendar. We need to fill them in ASAP on the Discord.

-> We’re shooting to get the calendars printed this week.

Meeting adjourned: 8:12 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Marc, Salem, Ty
Start time: 7:05 PM

1. Event Review – We had our “Why is Everything Racist?” discussion on Saturday. Our turnout was modest, but we had a good quality discussion.
2. Spring Calendar

MARCH

Saturday, March 9th, 1-3 PM: Death & Desperation: Abortion Rights in 2024 (a community discussion)

Friday, March 22nd, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: Stepford Wives (1975)

APRIL

Saturday, April 13th, 12-2 PM: Garden Day Workshop
(NOTE: The folks of Winslow’s Wardrobe want to do something here in April. We think this would be the best day for them to do so.)

Friday, April 19th, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: Israelism

Saturday, April 20th, 10 AM – 2 PM: Come see our table at Lincoln Earth Day!

MAY

Friday, May 10th, 8 AM – 6 PM and Saturday, May 11th, 8 AM – 2 PM: Yard Sale Fundraiser

Saturday, May 18th, 1-3 PM: Why Does Amazon Suck? (a community discussion)

Friday, May 31st, 7-10 PM: Cesar Chavez film/documentary?

3. Donations – Marc donated a DVD/Bluray player and a book for our library.

Meeting adjourned: 8:45 PM