For the NYC Green Fund Grassroots Grant Program with Partnerships for Parks + City Parks Foundation, ASNEAA hosted the final CLP x Emancipation Day event @ Triumph of the Human Spirit monument in Thomas Paine Park. CLP x Emancipation Day was originally planned for August- in conjunction with the UNESCO International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. But like the CLP x Back to School programming learning curve, things don’t always go as planned.
The goal was for CLP x Emancipation Day to be unique with the target audience of working professionals in the Lower Manhattan area. In continuum to the “community advocacy is civic engagment” energy from the Back to School event, CLP x Emancipation Day was pushed to the last week of October. During the tense socio-political climate right before election day, ASNEAA revamped our CLP programming to include grab + go lunch bites (s/o to Sophies- Tribeca for the empanadas) and lunch discounts to local restaurants because food is a global love language!
Deep gratitude to all the Tribeca area restaurants for welcoming ASNEAA to the community and spreading love for the CLP x Emancipation Day event:
- Jury Duty NYC
- 1803 NYC
- Benares Indian Restaurant
- Burger Village
- Della’s
- Sophie’s Cuban Cuisine
- Saffron Fresh Indian
CLP x Emancipation Day participants were invited to share their Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) background and explore the ASNEAA website for BIPOC heritage connections- including the Triumph of the Human Spirit monument and African Burial Ground National Monument nearby. Social justice advocates won book prizes (courtesy of Brooklyn Book Bodega)- promoting cultural literacy!
And in the spirit of sustainability- ASNEAA introduced fundraising to our CLP programming initiatives! When CLP x Emancipation Day participants donated to ASNEAA, they were equipped with swag to take their social justice advocacy on the road: candy + candles for fun + self-care, notebooks for narrative collection, and tote bags for unpacking history:
Lastly, s/o to Wenda, Katherine, and Ajawah for working CLP x Emancipation Day because liberty is less expensive than oppression, but it ain’t free!
Thank you to CLP x Emancipation Day @ Triumph of the Human Spirit sponsors, lunch discount restaurant participants, attendess, and staff:
