Events

Find more events and opportunities to show up to support justice work across Maine on our coalition calendar.

Upcoming Events

October 1st, 2022 – Workshop: Reparations Now!

A 1-day workshop for organizations and businesses seeking to return & redistribute resources. Register Here.

Aug 11-Aug 31, 2022 Jams for Justice at the Belfast Community Co-Op

Now through the end of August, you’ll see paper cut out jam jars in the window and at the register. Each jar represents a donation to Rise and Shine Youth Retreat, a Portland-based organization that gets children and adults of color into Maine’s great outdoors. Jars start at $1.

Rise and Shine hosts sailing camps, science retreats, nature walks and more. People of color are less likely and less able to spend time in nature(1). Rise and Shine is working to bring more Black, Indigenous and People of Color into the woods and onto the seas. The founder of this organization, Nicole Mokeme, was an inspirational leader in Maine and this initiative will help keep the organization and legacy alive.

The fundraiser is hosted by The Belfast Community Co-Op and Midcoast Maine Reparations Collective.

Past Events

Feb 1- Feb 26, 2022 — Lights, Camera, Educate: A Winter Film Series & Fundraiser for Black Land Ownership

Films & Dates

all films start at 6:30pm and are followed by a discussion in breakout groups

After each film, we invite you to stay for a brief sharing/discussion circle to share the emotions and observations you experienced in each film.

This event is a fundraiser for black land ownership in Maine. Specifically, for Rise and Shine Youth Retreat to fund Onederland Park, Maine’s only black owned, led and focused earth-based learning and healing center that directly caters to and meets the cultural needs of the BIPOC community in Maine and beyond.

Fundraiser for black land ownership

Since 2014 Rise and Shine Youth Retreat has been fostering meaningful relationships between black people and nature through cooperative living, wellness retreats, residences, and outdoor exploration/celebration. Rise and Shine is fundraising $1.2 million for land acquisition.

Read more about Rise and Shine on its website and about the Onederland Park project here.

Why support black land ownership?

An excerpt from this June 18, 2020 article in The Conversation summarizes it well:

At their peak in 1910, African American farmers made up around 14% of all U.S. farmers, owning 16 to 19 million acres of land. By 2012, black Americans represented just 1.6% of the farming community, owning 3.6 million acres of land. Another study shows a 98% decline in black farmers between 1920, and 1997. This contrasts sharply with an increase in acres owned by white farmers over the same period.

In a 1998 report, the U.S. Department of Agriculture ascribed this decline to a long and “well-documented” history of discrimination against black farmers, ranging from New Deal and USDA discriminatory practices dating from the 1930s to 1950s-era exclusion from legal, title and loan resources.

Discriminatory practices have also affected who owns property as well as land. In 2017, the racial homeownership gap was at its highest level for 50 years, with 79.1% of white Americans owning a home compared to 41.8% of black Americans. This gap is even larger than it was when racist housing practices such as redlining, which denied black residents mortgages to buy, or loans to renovate, property were legal.

The lack of ownership is crucial to understanding the crippling economic disparity that has hollowed out the black middle class and continues to plague black America – making it harder to accrue wealth and pass it on to future generations.

COVID Safety

To keep everyone as safe as possible, masks are required while watching the films and seating is limited within each space.

  • Capacity at The First Church is 49 people.
  • Capacity at the UU Church is 29 people.

June 24, 2021: Jams for Justice Concert in Belfast

The Midcoast Maine Reparations Collective is excited to announce Jams for Justice, an upcoming benefit concert and jam auction, to be held from 5pm-8pm on Thursday, June 24 at Steamboat Landing in Belfast. All proceeds from the concert will go to benefit the Racial Equity and Justice organization (racialequityandjustice.org). 

Jams for Justice will feature performances by the Gawler sisters with Bennett Konesni and Ethan Tischler, Lysander Jaffe of Palaver Strings, The Clemeston Brothers, Sarah Wilcox-Hughes, and an appearance from Mali Obamsawin of Lula Wiles and Racial Equity and Justice.

To help us reach our fundraising goal of $2,000, we are asking for a suggested donation of $20 and up, $5 for children. 

Feel free to join the Facebook event!