The 8th Reparation Salon — Abolition, Reparations, Health
Monday, August 24th | 7:00–9:00pm
Kol Tzedek, 5300 Whitby Ave

Grounded by Dr. Marie-Fatima Hyacinthe, Global Health Justice fellow and contributor to the Philadelphia reparations report, with contributions from Philly's own RiZ, artist and educator. Expect music, performance, dialogue, and connection. Food and drink will be provided.

Come out on June 13th for our reparation revival, part of the RiseUpforReparations campaign to get 100 white majority congregations engaged in sincere and substantive #reparations  (we currently have 20). Aleigha Johnson and Karen Smith Drums will offer stirring music, Rev. Greg Holston, Ant Smith, ,O, and Lucy Duncan will offer messages about #250ItsTimeforReparations

On Saturday, April 18th, we have an opportunity to hear some truth. Join us for our next reparation salon, co-hosted with Maurice Rippel and Luke McGowan (Rough Drafts), as we welcome Dr. Ashley Farmer, author of Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audley Moore — a new biography of one of the most prominent reparationists in US history. Dr. Farmer will be joined by artist-activist YahNé Ndgo, sharing freedom songs. We'll also have food from Doro Bet.

7–9 p.m. | Kol Tzedek Synagogue, 5300 Whitby Ave.

We expect a full house — please register to ensure we have enough food for everyone.

We are gathering on Monday, February 16th from 7 to 9 p.m. at 5300 Whitby Ave. to engage in these ideas around reparations, reparative justice and the movements to transform the world in which we live. We continue our partnership with Rough Drafts (Maurice Ripple and Luke McGowan) and are featuring Philly natives Dr. Asali Solomon and The Bul Bey as conversation provocateurs.  Join us as we move forward!

Join us for our 5th reparation salon focused on the links between Restorative and Reparative Justice featuring singer/songwriter Aleigha Johnson and Queen of Dynamic Justice!

This literary salon is featuring award-winning author Airea D. Matthews. Join us on September 6 at 7 PM for an intimate evening exploring Bread and Circus, a powerful, poetic interrogation of identity, capitalism, and survival.

Come out for our 3rd reparation salon at Kol Tzedek synagogue focused on Black August. We’ll be featuring graphic novelist Ben Passmore and musical artist BlakRappMadusa.

On June 14th at 6:30 p.m. join us for the screening of Acts of Reparation at the Friends Center at 1501 Cherry St. Acts of Reparation follows two friends as they explore what reparations means to them. Selina, who is Black, and Macky, who is white, have been friends and filmmaking partners for 25 years. Genealogy nerds, they travel south to reclaim and reckon with their roots. In the process they move from awkward outsiders toward belonging to broad kin networks who come along for the ride. From kitchen tables to porches, lost cemeteries to discovered diaries, their journeys lead to unexpected opportunities that transform their friendship, families and communities. In Monroe, Louisiana, Selina gathers stories from a sisterhood of her great aunties who together sleuth to uncover the buried tales of their ancestors. In Penfield, Georgia, Macky challenges generations of his kin to dismantle privilege they inherited from enslavers and support Black leaders nearby. In Acts of Reparation, we see everyday Americans become the change they want to see in the world. 

The screening of Acts of Reparation will be followed by a conversation with Breanna Moore, whose scholarly expertise is the abolition of the slave trade in the nineteenth century with an emphasis on the histories of the British Empire and the connections between the United States, the Caribbean, and the Sierra Leone colony. Her research interests include reparations, emancipation, and abolition in the African diaspora. Register here for Acts of Reparation.

On June 13th at 6:30 p.m. join us for the screening of the Cost of Inheritance at Mother Bethel AME Church at 419 6th Street. Building on key issues of diversity and democracy; slavery and its aftermath; and socio-economic indicators, the Cost of Inheritance puts real people and their family histories into the reparations debate. The screening of the film will be followed by a conversation with Sistah Patt Gunn, an acclaimed Gullah Geechee storyteller, activist, and small business owner who is a descendant of Africans enslaved in Georgia who is featured in the film, and Representative Chris Rabb, who has traced his own lineage linked to enslavement. The conversation will be moderated by Rev. Carolyn Cavaness, pastor of Mother Bethel AME Church. Register here for the Cost of Inheritance.

This May, Rough Drafts and repWorks present to you the second reparation salon. Building off the energy of the first salon, we further consider the ideas, emotions and energies of our community which inform conversations about repairing the harms of racial capitalism, colonialism, and chattel slavery. Music, poetry, performance and dialogue will assist our traversal through these challenging and multiplexed ideas.