No one was available to meet with Jackson tonight, so there was no meeting. We’ll try again next week!

In attendance: Grant, Jackson (secretary), Ty (moderator)
Start time: 7:00 PM

1. Hawley Hamlet – Grant from the Hawley Hamlet met with us. We had a broad discussion on the history of our respective projects, and we brainstormed the possibilities of doing a workshop at their space. We are tentatively looking at late April or early May, as Grant thinks there will be greater opportunities for hands-on activities at that time.

2. Event Review – We had our reading discussion on Saturday. The turnout was a little low, but it was a really good discussion for what was a late addition to our calendar.

3. Black Musicians and Liberation Video – Monte has sent us an edited version of our panel discussion for YouTube, and it looks incredible. Jackson noticed one typo on one of the cards, so he will review the video once more for possible minor errors and see if Monte can fix those and send an updated version. Ty will get a YouTube channel started, and look into getting accurate closed-captions added to the video. Ty will also look into how to edit YouTube videos to add links, so that we can link to the music videos that we deleted from the panel. We are very eager and excited to finally get this video on YouTube.

Meeting adjourned: 8:35 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Marc
Start time: 7:15 PM

1. Hawley Hamlet – Ty has reached out to the folks about a meeting, but we haven’t heard anything back yet. We’ll keep our channels open, but we may need an alternate event for March now.

2. Reading Discussion? – Marc thinks a reading discussion may work better on Jitsi than an open discussion. Marc suggested a gender-themed issue to tie into Women’s History Month, but he doesn’t have a specific article yet.

Jackson also had the suggestion of doing the developing direction of the Republican Party and/or current American Right. He has two recent articles that may facilitate a good start on that issue:

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/01/30/what-ulysses-grant-can-teach-joe-biden-about-putting-down-violent-insurrections-463976?utm_source=pocket-newtab&fbclid=IwAR3w92DDuVoyQNCBwa-5Dl5MUn77Nu1QdcWo2EHGvC6YgvPfKYcP0ya34rM

Or

https://bostonreview.net/politics/jacob-whiton-where-trumpism-lives?fbclid=IwAR3odYPGj93qf3Tgu_Bi2f_N_Re-xdq6CX1Doh7xOseZk_KwhI4JKKQZYMA

Jackson emphasized at the end of this discussion that we really need to make a decision on this next week, if we’re going to pull this off this month.

3. Black Musicians and Liberation Video – Marc hasn’t made much progress yet, because he hasn’t found good software yet to edit the video.

Meeting adjourned: 8:00 PM

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

1. Event Review – We had our Black Musicians and Liberation panel last Thursday. It went really well! We got rave reviews from many of our audience, and the panelists were all really excited to be part of it. There are many tentative plans moving forward to repeat this format, both as in-person workshops and as further digital panels. We are very interested in hosting another one of these next February.

Follow-up items for this year’s edition:

1) Marc recommends sending each of the panelists a hand-written card to thank them for their efforts. Dance also suggests sending each of them the really slick intro cards that Marc made for the event.

2) We have a recording and we need to get it online! There’s a little bit of editing we want to do to the raw video that we are currently working with. We will probably need to remove the full YouTube clips of the copyrighted songs. We probably want to replace the intro that cut off, and have the cards for the event flier and the panelists better inserted into the final video. Oh, and we’ll need to start a YouTube account.

2. March Event – Ty needs to make another contact with the Hawley folks. He will suggest that we either meet with them during next week’s Black Cat meeting, or ask them to offer an alternative if Monday nights are bad for them.

3. Yard Sale – We started a discussion on whether we feel it will be safe or appropriate to attempt our annual-ish yard sale fundraiser in May. Jackson reports that several of our regular sources are offering donations, so that will not be a problem. We’re not ready to make a decision tonight, but we realize that we need to figure this out soon.

Meeting adjourned: 8:10 PM

Tabled items: Black Musicians and Liberation video, Hawley Hamlet collaboration, Other Spring Events?, Yard Sale?

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Ty (moderator)
Start time: 7:02 PM

1. Upcoming Event – Black Musicians and Liberation is this Thursday! We will be recording, as we have the consent of the whole panel. Ty is confident that he can handle the technical stuff on the backend. We need to check with Marc to see if he got the graphics made for introducing the panelists.

2. Hawley Hamlet – Ty has made promising contact with Grant of Hawley Hamlet. We should try to get a meeting with Grant and/or other Hawley representatives very soon and see what kind of event they’re interested in doing and when.

Meeting adjourned: 7:55 PM

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

1. February Event – Jackson reports that we now have three panelists lined up, with Dance to serve as the moderator. We are really needing to get the flier done and the Facebook event up, and are mostly just waiting on some headshots and bios from our panel. Marc has a really nice draft of an event flier, that is only waiting on confirmation of said details to be tweaked and published. Marc will lose access to his editing software on Thursday, but we want to be done by then anyway.

2. Spring event ideas – We talked a bit about the proposed ideas for street medic training and a gardening event with the Hawley Hamlet folks. We’ve not been in touch with Wyatt in the last week, and would still prefer to see what his preferences are in formatting that before committing that to the schedule. Ty has not had time to reach out to Hawley Hamlet, but will make a stronger effort to do so soon. Jackson thinks the garden event may be a better candidate for March.

3. TV Spot – Jackson is planning to email the reporter and ask him to come back in spring. The house will look a lot better once the snow melts, because we’ll be able to do some tidying outside and get the garden started.

Meeting adjourned: 8:10 PM

No one was available to meet with Jackson tonight, so there was no meeting. We will try again next week.

In attendance: Alexis, Jackson (secretary), Marc, Naomi, Ty (moderator), Wyatt
Start time: 7:00 PM

1. Event Review – Our panel discussion on Activists and Police Repression was on Saturday afternoon. We had a good turnout on Saturday, and the folks were engaged. Our panelists were knowledgeable and the discussion went really well. It might’ve been better if there had been a bit more interaction between the panelists, but there was no obvious way we could’ve gotten them more familiar with each other before Saturday.

2. Library Donation – Ty’s mom got us a children’s book about peaceful protesting. It will make a good addition to our Kitten Corner.

3. Library Catalog – We would like to integrate our library catolog with wordpress. There are some plugins that may work on this. Marc and Naomi are on this. There are a couple of other software widgets that we are experimented with; one of them is even called LibraryThing!

4. Walk For Life – Alexis is very interested in helping us with the counter-protest of the Walk For Life, and may have connections to other allies in NLC-Lincoln and on UNL’s campus. We will keep our channels open for further collaboration on this event.

5. Winter Calendar – It sounds like the group wants to focus on only the counter-protest for January and a Black History Month event for February. Jackson and Dance have been brainstorming on the latter event concept, and we are now considering a panel discussion on Black music and/or poetry. Ty would be especially enthusiastic for this concept if we can focus on Black music, as he’s been lobbying for a music-centric event for some time now.

6. Next week? – With the holidays around the corner, we considered whether our meetings will continue the rest of the year. We decided that we will be meeting normally for next Monday, December 21st.

Meeting adjourned: 8:32 PM

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

1. Library Donation – Jackson has another batch of books for the library from a PM Press sale.

2. December Panel? – Jackson reports that one of our three prime panelist candidates have been in touch in the last week and has confirmed availability on December 12th. We’re still waiting to hear back from the other two candidates. Ty wants to wait to contact his options until we get a second confirmation from our prime candidates. Ty and Marc are still planning to investigate recording options if our panelists consent to that.

3. Winter Calendar – Ideas:

Panel Discussion on Police Repression and Activist Resilience (December 12th?)

Counter-protesting the Walk for Life (January 16, 10 AM). We still need to get the web event up ASAP.

January community discussion on the Supreme Court and/or Inauguration Day?

Street medic training

Black History Month-themed event for February

Spring Suggestion: Community Gardening Discussion with representatives of Hawley Hamlet?

Meeting adjourned: 7:55 PM