In this episode of the Porch, Co-Directors Jade Brooks and Carlin Rushing tell the story of how they found Southerners on New Ground (SONG) and their early impressions. Both open the conversation answering a familiar question in SONG circles: “Who are your people and who are you accountable to?” Sharing their outlook on the current moment in the United States and the importance of Southern organizing, Carlin and Jade talk about SONG’s work to convene our folks, engage with our neighbors for disaster planning, and embody the best of this 32-year-old legacy organization. Get the low down on the Won’t You Be My Gaybor campaign, The CookOut, and this year’s Queer South Revival. __________________________________________________________ Bios Jade Brooks Co-Director Jade Brooks joined SONG in 2009, when she first moved to the South. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Jade is a white gay person and comes from a lineage of Jews, Quakers, single moms, hippie types, and deep dykes. Over the past 15 years, she has helped to build out SONG’s campaign organizing muscle. She also led the creation of SONG Power (our sister electoral organizing shop). She is passionate about community organizing that builds people’s power. Jade also has experience drawn from organizing in the Palestinian Liberation Movement as an anti-Zionist, diasporic Jew & within movements to build progressive electoral infrastructure. She lives in Durham, North Carolina, with her son & her pup. Carlin Rushing Co-Director Carlin Rushing joined SONG as a member in 2013 and first joined the staff as Regional Membership Lead in 2018. At her core, Carlin values family and faith and believes that liberation in our lifetime is possible. Unapologetically Black and Southern, Carlin is a lover of the Black women’s literary tradition, all things percussion and rural North Carolina sunsets. Study/Reflection Questions 1. What new practical skill do you want to learn?  2. Are you in your dignity?  3. How is your full-throated love practice going?  4. How is your listening going, and to whom…to folk you don’t know or others? Recources The Sound of the Genuine (Baccalaureate ceremony) (Spelman College),  1980 May 4 · The Howard Thurman Digital Archive https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/838 Southerners on New Ground, Strategic Almanac https://southernersonnewground.org/our-work/strategic-almanac/ The Street by Ann Petry https://archive.org/details/street00annp The Color Purple  by Alice Walker https://archive.org/stream/the-color-purple-alice-walker/the-color-purple-alice-walker_djvu.txt Beloved by Toni Morrison https://archive.org/details/beloved0000morr/page/8/mode/2up The Full Imago Dialogue Process https://higherthoughtinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Full-Dialogue-Process-3-2-2038-1.pdf

The Porch sat down with two beloved founders of Southerners on New Ground (SONG), Mandy Carter and Pat Hussain. With collectively over 100 years of organizing experience, Mandy and Mama Pat chat about how they first got started as teenagers in the War Resistance and Civil Rights movements, the 1987 March on Washington for Gay, Lesbian and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation, and how they began to connect the dots between LGBTQ rights and other forms of oppression.  The two long-time friends share how they founded SONG with four other friends: the late Joan Garner, Pam McMichael, Suzanne Pharr and Mab Segrest. This conversation also digs into their philosophy for organizing “Don’t Mourn! Organize!” and how they responded to need at every moment with their labor and love to build an inclusive movement for liberation in our lifetime.

Continuing our Creating Change series, the Porch sat down with narrative activists     Sam Master and Diamond Stylz to discuss queer and trans liberation in our lifetime. The two talk about their southern roots and the legacy of organizing passed down by women in their families, being a femme as a politic, as well as surviving American racial and gender apartheid. Sam and Diamond also call on marginalized people’s history of resilience as an antidote to this moment of learned helplessness and explore “igniting the kindred” as a recipe for our collective survival.

Join your guest hosts, Kendra R. Johnson and Rolynné Anderson, on the Porch with Southerners on New Ground. This is the inaugural edition of the Porch, a new podcast hosted by Southerners on New Ground. At Creating Change 2025, we sat down with trans elder and lifelong activist Miss Major Griffin-Gracy and Shelby Chestnut, Executive Director of the Transgender Law Center. The two discuss the unfolding hellscape in the United States since 48 took office and offer insights into the legal landscape, the fight ahead and how we win. The discussion highlights what we all know: while this moment of rising authoritarianism is different, we’ve been here before as a community and we got us.