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

Meeting Start: 7:15 PM

Attendees: Ty (moderator?), Jackson, Dance, Marc (secretary)

February Event – Black Musicians and Liberation

– Jackson posted the event description to Facebook, with time/flier/etc info. Since Facebook updated its event creation option, we had to add the UNL Institute for Ethnic Studies Facebook page as a co-host after creating the event. We also added some settings to make it easier for people to engage with the page, ask us questions, etc.

– Tonight we had some tech difficulties with Jitsi, where a couple people’s videos were frozen or unavailable during the meeting. This could potentially be a result of the extreme weather issues we’re having right this moment (Lincoln is the coldest it’s ever been in 30 years!). Hopefully we won’t have similar issues during the event itself, but there are a lot of variables at play.

– For the event itself, Jackson and Dance will each have a short introduction to the BCH and the event; we’ll try to jump fairly quick into the panel discussions.

– We would like to have a short bio for each panelist available for the audience to read as we start up the event.

– Additionally, we’re discouraging panelists from having a powerpoint presentation, but if they do want to have something like that, someone from BCH (likely Marc) will manage the powerpoint for the panelist while they speak. Any panelist who wants to show a powerpoint can send it to the BCH ahead of time.

– We will plan to devote time during next week’s meeting to play with Jitsi’s tech capabilities and have a test run. For the panelist from Sweden, we will also make certain to practice using Jitsi, especially considering the time difference between Nebraska and Sweden. We will use the same link we’ve parked for the event.

– Jackson is also finishing up sending out emails to various panelists with updated details, including asking panelists if they would be comfortable recording the event for later posting on YouTube.

– Marc will work on creating a profile page of sorts to show at the beginning of the event, as well as info about the BCH and UNL’s Institute for Ethnic Studies/African and African-American Studies.

March Event

– No new updates as of now. Ty will be able to work on reaching out to the Hawley Hamlet tomorrow.

Meeting Adjourned: 7:52 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

In attendance: Jackson (moderator), Marc (secretary), Dance

Meeting Start: 7:45

Library Update – Marc researched potential plugins for adding the BCH library collection to the site; right now he thinks that Weblibrarian might be exactly what we need, as it has more benefits to its system than Library Management System.

March Event & Spring Events – Wyatt has expressed support for doing a street medic training; we’d like more input from him before making more final decisions. Since he’ll be the one doing the training, we’ll need details on what the event would specifically look like, whether it’d be recurring, etc.
– We also need to figure out venue for the training; it just needs to be large enough to accommodate for social distancing and space. Otherwise, we’re still very much interested in doing it.
– A shared gardening event would probably be held at the Hawley Hamlet; we still need to reach out to them about whether they’d also be interested.
– Marc and Jackson also briefly discussed using Jitsi to share videos uploaded to YouTube.

Black History Month February Event – Title: Black Musicians and Liberation: A Panel Discussion
– Tentative Date and Time: Thursday, February 25, 7:00-8:30 PM CST.
– We’re shooting for about an hour of programming, and 30 minutes for questioning, with 3-4 panelists.
– We have three committed participants!
– We’re waiting to hear back from a few other folks. We’re also considering asking someone in Sweden, too.
– The Institute for Ethnic Studies and African American Studies have both agreed to help sponsor the event! We’re also planning on having this be a yearly event through BCH.
– Right now, we’re focusing on Black scholars, who have a song dear to them linked to liberation, the struggle for justice, etc.–and it should be a personal connection, rather than an academic one. We’ll ask them about why it resonated when they first listened, and if it still resonates. Songs should be about 20 years old or older (or 20th century or earlier).
– The format of the event would be a panel discussion, and we’d show a portion of the song via Jitsi’s YouTube sharing function. BCH organizers will take care of the technical portions of the event so the speaker(s) and moderator won’t be distracted.
– We need to get a flier ready for the event as well, so OASIS can share it.
– Marc will design a flier; Jackson and Dance will get him the content for the flier itself. It will need to contain UNL logo requirements (the N, non-discrimination statement, etc.), OASIS/Ethnic Studies/BCH logos, and so on. The flier will need to be completed by Friday at the latest.
– Ultimately, we want this event to be a yearly occurrence, and hopefully spread it to an international audience as well.

Meeting Adjourned: 8:50 PM

In attendance: Jackson, Naomi, Ty (secretary)

Meeting Start: 7:05 PM

1. February Event: Jackson and Dance are working on sending out a message to Dance’s contacts tomorrow regarding being panelists for our event on the history of Black music. They are going to pitch the concept of each academic to choose a favorite song of the Black-led musical genre of their choice, to explain the significance of the song and why the song is still discussed today in inspiring Black resistance. Date is still undecided, but we’re entertaining the idea of an evening event if that’s what works better for the panelists. We might have to consider Zoom as a medium,
2. Library Update: Naomi got the cat-shaped barcode scanner! It’s got some proprietary stuff linked with it but she’s got instructions on how to use it. She’s also been playing with LibraryThing using her own library, and it works well for personal libraries (which our library is about the same size of). It has free functionality but for about $3/month it has further functions that might be worth it. Ty doesn’t know what work Marc has done regarding WordPress plugins for the library but he’ll ask Marc about it. Ty asks to table it to a later meeting, but wants Naomi to do a screenshare of her computer with her personal library on LibraryThing in a future meeting, to walk other folks through how it works. Naomi will also try to stop by the house soon in order to scan in some books.
3. Spring Calendar: For March, we revisited the idea of collaborating with organizers with the Hawley Hamlet to talk about community gardening. While video chat is always an option depending on circumstances, it would be much preferred to have an outdoor event. And while Black Cat House’s garden is also always available, it would be even better if we have a “field trip” event to Hawley Hamlet so that the hands-on workshop and talk can be showcasing their own project instead. Ty will reach out to see if he can contact any of their representatives.

Tabled: February Event, Library Updates, March Event

Meeting Adjourned: 7:58 PM

In attendance: Jackson, Ty

Meeting Start: 7:15 PM

1. Event Review – The counter-protest for the Walk for Life was on Saturday. Our crowd was much smaller, but this was expected – our side is more considerate of others’ safety than the anti-choicers, plus the knowledge ahead of time that the anti-choicers would be unlikely to wear masks reliably (which was true) and wanting to minimize potential COVID-19 exposure. We do need to be more on top of tracking the other side. They made announcements about changing their route and destination for their keynote in time for our meeting last week, but we did not see it until the day before the event.
2. Web Domain – We needed to renew our domain name, which Jackson did. $29.87 for a year, which Jackson will be reimbursed for.
3. Library Donation – Jackson is donating 10 books to the library, which Ty, as the only other member present at this meeting, agreed to include in the collection.
4. February Event – We have not been able to reach out to the colleagues that we wanted to get together for our discussion on Black music for February. Jackson will follow-up after Wednesday to see whether those contacts have been made.
5. TV Spot – Jackson mentioned that a reporter wanted to do a TV spot on local news on The Black Cat House. We need to clean up the place a bit, plus figure out which Black Cats want to be around for the filming, before we set up a time to do so. We need to talk to a few more folks about interest in appearing.

Tabled: February Event, TV Spot

Meeting Adjourned: 8:08 PM

In attendance: Alexis, Jackson, Marc (secretary), Simone, Ty (moderator)

Meeting Start: 7:05 PM

Upcoming Event – The Walk for Life counter protest is January 16. So far, we have guessed that a couple dozen people interested in being part of the counter protest will show up, based on our Facebook responses and conversations.
– We can anticipate that WfL will have a large crowd as usual. Allegedly, WfL is going to take some COVID precautions, but we’re not sure if they actually will, or if the crowd will actually follow them.
– There are also some safety concerns with the planned armed protest at the capitol, though that is planned for the 17th. We may have a street medic available just in case, but hopefully we won’t have to worry about violence breaking out.
– We plan on having 3 or 4 people to work as escorts/guides to prevent anyone at the counter protest from getting left behind by the rest of the group. One person at front, one at the very back, and others spread through the middle for communication. Jackson and folks from the NLC have offered to volunteer as marshals for this purpose.
– We also would like someone to serve as our media representative, particularly someone directly affected by anti-choice laws. Ideally, she would speak beyond “vote for democrats/support Planned Parenthood” talking points. Most often reporters want a soundbite of 10 seconds or so—something that can be easily summed up.
– As far as signs go, we have plenty leftover from previous years in case folks want to make use of those.
– We’d like to have a public planning meeting for folks who want to attend the counter protest, to discuss what roles/etc they can take on. We already have folks from NLC who have offered to help; another group may be the DSA.

February Event – We’re going to connect with some comrades about a music-focused event centering Black musicians for February. Right now, we want to wait for the holidays to settle down before reaching out. This could potentially involve panelists from around the world, so we should have an exciting group of people from a variety of backgrounds and musical talents working with the BCH soon!

BCH’s Role in the Community
– We briefly discussed how folks from similar organizations can always reach out to the BCH for help and collaborative projects! We can share meeting/venue space, knowledge, resources, and so on as we’re able.

Meeting adjourned: 8:12 PM

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