It's been a while [of pause, of work, of witnessing, of joys, of griefs] of living in a world that can feel relentless, particularly for those of us moving through it in minoritised bodies.We are back with two offerings - the return of our Silent Sundays, and a collaboration in the form of a Community Picnic with United Families and Friends Campaign (UFFC). Silent Sunday - Sunday 19th JulyNext Sunday we…
Free printable zine We put a mini zine together for our day at Shut Down DSEI on 5th September. It features a selection of resources and people to follow for more information on Democratic Republic of Congo, Palestine and Sudan, and suggestions for actions to take. This zine is free to download, print and share, with creative commons license cc BY-NC-SA. Do also feel free to copy the alt text and…
A selection of resources related to the Solidarity for Sudan event of 14 September 2024, and more widely to the war in Sudan. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and is still being updated; we invite people to comment with further suggestions, and please come back later for udpates. Groups who collaborated today: Captain Support “As a group of activists based mostly in Europe, we stand in solidarity…
We are immensely excited to invite you to Solidarity for Sudan, a free event happening this Saturday 14 September, from 2pm at Dalston Solidarity Cafe (Halkevi). See below for more details.Come down to meet and eat with us on this day of talks, poetry, arts and craft and so much more. GEM Collective is proud to be collaborating with the brilliant folk from Captain Support, Dalston Solidarity Cafe, East African…
ASRA Club, founded by GEM member Sahra-Isha, is "a community space centring Muslim women in sports, wellness and sisterhood". Given the group's foundational aims of creating an inclusive environment of care and community, it is angering and upsetting that they are still faced with the forms of violence and harm described in their statement below. We note also that whilst the incidents described below involved various forms of Islamophobic, racist and…
Migrant and Anti-Racist Community Groups in Britain:Stop the ethnic cleansing in Palestine, and end Britain's colonial complicity in crimes against the Palestinian peopleWe are writing, as Black, brown, migrant and racialised groups in Britain, united in our shared struggle for justice and freedom, to demand an immediate end to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, unrestricted humanitarian access and an end to the British complicity making Israel’s war crimes possible. We…
GEM Collective stands in full and unequivocal solidarity with the people of Palestine - we call for an immediate ceasefire, an end to Israeli State occupation, and a liberated Palestine.Read our full statement, with a list of readings and resources, in our newsletter section here.
SLRA Women's Group + Quilt [image courtesy of SLRA] A large-scale patchwork quilt by the South London Refugee Association’s Women Group is on display at Museum of the Home as part of GEM's How We Build Home project. The quilt is accompanied by a zine featuring interviews, photographs and poetry. Between April 2020 and July 2021, the group met weekly online to support and care for each other, be creative…
Listen to this post here I was introduced to this film scene from X-Men: Days of Future Past by Azeezat, and have been stuck on the song lyrics ever since. Time, the passage of it, the lack of it, the desire for more, is a constant stream of thought underlying my days; 'managing' my time, and accepting the lack of it, both on a personal and wider scale, feels like…
Listen to the essay here (also available through Apple, Google or Spotify) Starry nights in Edinburgh, by Wasi Daniju We were tired of waiting for justice or care, tired of having to face interconnected brutalities alone. For me - and I think for all of us - GEM was about creating a home where we could speak from our bodies, and tend to the wounds that we are told to…