In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Simon

Start time: 7:05 PM

1. Upcoming Event – READ Network is coming in on Friday night for a discussion. Jackson encouraged Simon to spread the word among campus groups.
2. Calendar Distro – Payne got the fall calendars printed, and Salem has started distro. Unfortunately, neither of them made the meeting tonight so Jackson and Simon still need to get some calendars. Simon is open to distro on campus, but Jackson needs to get calendars to him.

The rest of our discussion was not directly Black Cat related.

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

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

1. Event Review – Winslow’s Wardrobe was here on Saturday, and a few folks left with new clothes. Jackson and the Winslow’s folks tentatively agreed to come back and do it again in December.
2. Fall Calendar – We took some time to workshop and finalize our micro-blurbs. Now we’re sending it off to Matt. Jackson and Payne will communicate online about the best way to get them printed this week, which may depend on how quickly Matt gets them made up.

(We spent the rest of the evening discussing non-Black Cat stuff…)

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Payne, Parker (late), Salem
Start time: 7:10 PM

1. Upcoming Event – Winslow’s Wardrobe is coming on Saturday. We’re ready for them!
2. Fall Calendar – We finalized our events and dates! We agree to finish our micro-blurbs over Discord so we can hopefully get these laid out and printed this week.

Friday, September 5th, 7-9 PM: Self-Defense Within Oppressive Systems (co-hosted by READ Network)

Friday, September 19th, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: John Q

Saturday, October 11th, 1-3 PM: t-shirt screenprinting workshop

Monday, October 13th, 4:30-6 PM: Columbus Day Protest (@ Federal Building – insert address)

Saturday, October 18th, 1-3 PM: MLK’s Civil Disobedience (a reading discussion)

Friday, October 24th, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: Punk Rock Vegan Movie (2023)

Saturday, November 15th, 1-3 PM: Re-imagining Trans Remembrance (poetry and open mic)

Friday, November 21st, 7-10 PM: Movie Night: Mankiller (2017)

End time: 8:51 PM

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

1. Event Review – We showed White Light/Black Rain on Friday night. Our turnout was pretty low; it was probably a problem that we were double-booked with Nebraskans for Peace’s event at Holmes Lake.
2. Web Reimbursement – Jackson renewed one of our website URLs. He paid $36.17, and we agree that he will be reimbursed for it.
3. Fall calendar – We really weren’t on the same page tonight, and got very little done on the calendar. Jackson suggested a discussion event about Palestine. We agreed that the November movie will be the documentary Mankiller. Jackson and Payne particularly had some strong disagreements on several event ideas.

Meeting adjourned: 8:28 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Simon

(We talked for a couple of hours, but with just two of us here most of it wasn’t business…)

1. Upcoming Event – Our _White Light/Black Rain_ movie night is coming up on Friday. We talked a little bit about some possible discussion questions for after the movie.
2. Fall Calendar – Regarding the proposed Trans Day of Remembrance event, Simon has been doing a bit of research on historic trans people we might want to look more at.

In attendance: Brieanna, Jackson (secretary), Jessie, Payne, Parker, Salem, Simon
Start time: 7:00 PM

1. Event Review – Payne, Parker, and Salem tabled at Disability Pride on Saturday. As usual, they collected a few more email addresses for our listserv, gave away some swag, and talked to some interesting people. Salem reports that we are running out of some of our stickers. Payne emphasized that we really need an information brochure, as it seems many people don’t really understand what we are.

2. Radio – Payne spoke with someone from Nebraska Radio Talking Book Service at Disability Pride. They would like to interview us in a 30 minute Zoom call in October. We are excited to get some free publicity. We will likely discuss this again when the calendar is finished…

3. Fall Calendar

(Mostly) finalized:
Friday, September 5th, 7-9 PM: Self-Defense Within Oppressive Systems (co-hosted by READ Network)

Saturday, October 11th, 1-3 PM: t-shirt screenprinting workshop

A few new event ideas were offered tonight:

Salem suggested a workshop building empathy for people with disabilities. Jackson thinks we’d need a veteran facilitator to run such an event for us.

Jackson had some movie suggestions: Rebels with a Cause (documentary about Students for a Democratic Society), The Revolutionist: Eugene V. Debs (documentary), John Q. (Denzel Washington drama about Americans having horrible healthcare), and Johnny Got His Gun (a classic anti-war story set in WW1 which could tie in with Veteran’s Day coming up in November)

Payne’s earlier suggestion of a reading discussion on MLK and non-violence was revisited and debated. There was some suggestion of expanding it into some kind of non-violence vs self-defense discussion with two short readings?

The Trans Day of Remembrance reading discussion was also discussed again, built around remembering trans folks for accomplishments rather than mourning their deaths. We’re still really excited about this, but also still searching for the actual article that we would be reading.

Other event ideas from previous meetings:

Civil Rights discussion (Payne, et al)

Columbus Day protest (Jackson)

Arya also pitched a Star Trek night: “Bar Association” (DS9) [and Jackson loves himself an excuse to run Star Trek…]

Jackson reports that we’ve been offered a couple of workshops from our professor friends. One is on the benefits of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and the other is about solidarity between Black Americans and Asian Americans.

Habla Now documentary (Payne)

Song For Cesar documentary (Payne)

Lost in America movie (Payne)

Lead Me Home short documentary about homelessness (Payne)

Mankiller documentary for November (Payne)

Punk Rock Vegan Movie (Salem) [apparently free on YouTube…]

Meeting adjourned: 8:28 PM

In attendance: Jackson (secretary), Parker, Payne, Salem, Simon
Start time: 7:05 PM

1. Event Review – Our Pride movie night was on Friday night. Everyone loved the movie, but we struggled to keep the discussion afterwards on topic. Should we consider preparing discussion questions for future movies?
2. Upcoming Event – Payne and Salem will be tabling for us at Disability Pride on Saturday at Antelope Park. We will need to bring our own chairs as well as the canopy, but they’re supposed to provide They’ll come here on Saturday morning to pick up materials on their way out to the park. Parker will likely be joining them.
3. Social Media Question – We get a lot of visitors at the House who only visit once or twice. Payne and Salem had the idea of asking for feedback about why that is on our social media accounts. They initially suggested a poll, but Jackson countered that it would be better to just give folks a chance to leave us a public comment or send us a private message. We took a few minute to workshop the language of the message we would send out:

We have noticed that many people who attend our events only show up once or twice. If this sounds like you, we would like to hear from you. We would like to know if there’s something that we should be working on improving. Please leave a comment, send us a DM, or send us an email at contact [at] theblackcathouse.org. Thank you!

4. READ Yard Sale – Our friends with the READ Network are planning a yard sale fundraiser of their own in August. Jackson suggested that we could share some of our good leftovers with them, and everyone else is ok with it, too.
5. Fall Calendar

(Mostly) finalized:
Friday, September 5th, 7 PM – 9 PM: Self-Defense Within Oppressive Systems (co-hosted by READ Network)

Saturday, October 11th, ??-??: t-shirt screenprinting workshop

Other event ideas:
Civil Rights discussion (Payne, et al)
Columbus Day protest (Jackson)
t-shirt screenprinting workshop (Jackson)

Arya also pitched a Star Trek night: “Bar Association” (DS9) [and Jackson loves himself an excuse to run Star Trek…]

MLK Reading Discussion on non-violence (Payne)

Trans Day of Remembrance is coming up in November; there was some talk of a traditional vigil, though it may be redundant with OutNebraska and UNL often organizing them. Arya suggested a reading discussion about achievements from trans activists; it was a somewhat intriguing concept to re-imagine the day, but we don’t immediately have an appropriate reading for the event. We like this idea, but Jackson doesn’t want to commit to it until we find the reading.

Jackson reports that we’ve been offered a couple of workshops from our professor friends. One is on the benefits of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and the other is about solidarity between Black Americans and Asian Americans.

Habla Now documentary (Payne)

Song For Cesar documentary (Payne)

Lost in America movie (Payne)

Lead Me Home short documentary about homelessness (Payne)

Mankiller documentary for November (Payne)

Punk Rock Vegan Movie (Salem) [apparently free on YouTube…]

Meeting adjourned: 8:30 PM

In attendance: Arya, Jackson (secretary), Jess, Payne, Salem, Simon
Start time: 7:10 PM

1. Event Review – We had our Malcolm X reading discussion on Saturday afternoon. We had a nice turnout and a very spirited discussion that ran almost three hours. We saw a lot of contemporary tangents in that 60-year old reading.
2. Upcoming Event – Our Pride movie night is this Friday. We’re ready for it and excited to see it again.
3. Disability Pride – Payne wondered if we were set up to table at Disability Pride yet. Jackson sent them a message on Facebook, and he sent them an email. We’ll hopefully get that sorted out.
4. Fall Calendar

Left over from last week but not discussed tonight:
Civil Rights discussion (Payne, et al)
Columbus Day protest (Jackson)
t-shirt screenprinting workshop (Jackson)

One event (mostly) finalized:
Friday, September 5th, 7 PM (until?): Self-Defense Within Oppressive Systems (co-hosted by READ Network)

Arya also pitched a Star Trek night: “Bar Association” (DS9) [and Jackson loves himself an excuse to run Star Trek…]

MLK Reading Discussion on non-violence (Payne)

Trans Day of Remembrance is coming up in November; there was some talk of a traditional vigil, though it may be redundant with OutNebraska and UNL often organizing them. Arya suggested a reading discussion about achievements from trans activists; it was a somewhat intriguing concept to re-imagine the day, but we don’t immediately have an appropriate reading for the event.

Jackson reports that we’ve been offered a couple of workshops from our professor friends. One is on the benefits of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and the other is about solidarity between Black Americans and Asian Americans.

Habla Now documentary (Payne)

Song For Cesar documentary (Payne)

Lost in America movie (Payne)

Lead Me Home short documentary about homelessness (Payne)

Mankiller documentary for November (Payne)

Meeting adjourned: 8:25 PM

Jackson and Salem met with someone who was new to our space. With so few Black Cats around, and little pressing business, we were cool with informal chat. We will get back to normal next week.

In attendance: Arya, Jackson (secretary), Jason, Jenny, Jess, Jessie, Payne, Salem, Simon
Start time: 7:05 PM

1. Event Reviews – We had two events this weekend. On Friday night, we showed Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat here for our June movie night. Our turnout was modest, but everyone was engaged with the film. Discussion was a bit short, but that probably had to do with the movie itself running a bit later than 9:30.

On Saturday, Payne and Salem represented us with a table at Free Pride. Our brand-new canopy tent made its tabling debut, and Payne was very happy with how easy it was to set up and take down. Arya and Jess were also there representing the READ Network, and Jess got some pretty badass pictures of the READ folks doing some martial arts sparring on the mat they brought to the park. The Black Cats and READ folks present tonight thought that Free Pride was a pretty good time, despite also being very disorganized. (It sounds like their organizers had a lot of turnover from last year’s version, so we’re hoping those were just some rookie mistakes.) It definitely sounds like we’ll be going back next year if invited.

2. Improving Tabling – Payne took a few minutes to talk about some things he wants that he thinks would improve future Black Cat tabling. He reiterated Nate’s idea from previous meetings about some kind of printed information/brochure that would do a better job of explaining what we do to people who want more information about us. He also mentioned that some other folks tabling had tarps (?) attached like side walls to their canopy tents to better keep excess sunlight and wind out of the tent, and thinks we should be doing something like that. Finally, Payne thinks we need more swag; he’d especially like to see us offering t-shirts.
3. Know Your Rights Flyer – Jenny works with Progressive Victory. They’re talking about wanting to do some kind of anti-ICE/Know Your Rights handout for immigrant rights. Jackson shared with her the “red cards” that DSA has been handing out as a sample of what’s already out there. Payne also suggested looking into what the ACLU might already be distributing, as they’re often a good source of this material as well. There was also some discussion of where the best sites to distribute this material around town might be, as well as what languages besides Spanish might be most valuable to Lincoln’s immigrant/refugee communities.
4. Fall Calendar – We started brainstorming ideas!

Payne wants to have some kind of discussion on the current state of civil rights; Salem suggested focusing on rights for the disabled; there was also some discussion of whether such an event should focus on LGBTQ or recent immigrants as well… This concept needs quite a bit of workshopping.

Jackson reported that a UNL art professor has offered to run a t-shirt screenprinting workshop in the fall. That suggestion was received with great enthusiasm from the folks on the porch, so we’re definitely going to move forward on that.

Arya is interested in having some kind of joint READ Network event hosted at the Black Cat House. READ has apparently done a number of discussions that would probably translate well for our space. The event format would possibly be a guided discussion or a workshop. Jackson has been wanting to offer some kind of assistance to READ for a while, and Arya has been wanting to introduce some of her friends to the Black Cat House. A joint event here would have the benefit of being completely public and easier to advertise, since READ trainings are by invitation only for security reasons. We hope this would help expose more people to the READ Network’s work. This event may have to happen on a Friday evening because READ’s schedule is often pretty packed on Saturday afternoons…

We will probably be bringing back our Columbus Day protest at the Federal Building in October.

Meeting adjourned: 8:26 PM