ASTRAEA Lesbian Foundation For Justice’s J. BOB ALOTTA Joins Back2Tabac Pride 2016 Host Committee!

We are so proud and thrilled to announce that Café Tabac alumna J. Bob Alotta (pictured below on the right, at the White House) has joined the host-committee for our upcoming “House of Edwige,” NYC Pride 2016 Film Fundraiser Event. She is a role model who is doing important work in the world and is another example of the great women who define our Café Tabac community.

Bob is the Executive Director at the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, one of this project’s favorite organizations which is a global foundation based in NYC that provides critical resources to LGBTQI organizations and individuals around the world. It is the only organization of its kind, fueling the frontlines of queer activism both in the US and globally, fostering lesbian and trans leadership, and leadership of people of color. To date it has funded funded LGBTI activism in 83 countries and 47 states. It was born from the desire to create a women’s movement which prioritizes the needs of lebsians and women of color. Astraea is aleader in the women’s movement, leader in the movements for racial justice, and a bell weather for the human rights community that links all these movements together. See this video for a deeper look into Astraea’s amazing work and history…

Please read Bob’s poignant June 14th, 2016 letter below in the wake of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando. It lies at the heart of Astraea’s work and vision, at the intersection of so many connected movements, bridging those efforts through an acknowledgment of the rich legacy of activism. We are grateful for her voice and tireless work in our community, and for this interconnected world view that is practiced through Astraea’s work.

Bob is a lifelong activist and an accomplished filmmaker. Before Astraea, Bob served for four years as Board Chair of FIERCE, another organization we love, which helps to build the leadership and power of LGBTQ youth of color. Bob was awarded the Stonewall Foundation’s 2009 Alan Morrow Prize for Excellence in Board Leadership on behalf of the FIERCE Board of Directors. Prior to joining Astraea, Bob served as Director of Digital Media and Content for Zeitbyte Digital Media and as Director of Digital Technology for Film at the Columbia University School of the Arts. Bob’s documentary and narrative films have aired on Democracy Now, GRITtv, and PBS, and have screened at festivals in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and the Middle East.

Come join us this Pride in celebrating the amazing women in our community and the great work that is being done by our community. Bob and we invite you to go Back 2 Tabac!

The Event is on Wednesday, June 22nd, 2016 at the Jane Hotel
INFO/TIX: cafetabacfilm.com/pride2016

We also urge you to support and donate to Astraea and other organizations like Fierce NYC, Africa’s OUT & the Lesbian Herstory Archives which serve women and/or the LGBTI community. We need to support the crucial work they are doing.

#HouseofEdwige #Back2Tabac #NYCPride2016
#WomenMakeMovies #WomenInFilm #SupportIndependentFilm #IndependentVoices #NYCHistory #LesbianHistory #LGBTQIHistory #WomensHistory

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Letter published courtesy of Astraea & J. Bob Alotta…

June 14th, 2016

Dearest Friend,

It is with immense sorrow, fatigue, and anger that Astraea mourns the 50 individuals lost in Sunday’s devastating attack on Latino night at PULSE, an LGBT nightclub based in Orlando, Florida. As its name suggests, PULSE served as the heartbeat of a close-knit queer community for over 15 years.

This mind-boggling loss of life is a heart-wrenching reminder of the escalating levels of violence queer and trans* people of color face. In the first five months of 2016 alone, 13 trans* people––11 of color––were murdered across the country. In 32 states, you can be fired simply for being trans*. More recently, we’ve witnessed the increasing politicization and criminalization of trans* people’s basic abilities to occupy public space.

The overwhelming and insidious interweaving of transphobia, homophobia, racism and xenophobia has resulted in a horror for which there is no name, only consequence:

The worst massacre of LGBT people in American history.

We cannot forget the history of violence this act lives within: In 1890, over 150 Lakotas were massacred at Wounded Knee. Three decades later, hundreds were massacred in the Tulsa race riots. Fast-forward to last summer’s massacre of nine congregation members at Emanuel African Methodist Church in Charleston. If we truly want to end this epidemic once and for all, we must rewrite the systemic script of how and against whom hatred and violence are aimed.

We can no longer deny that we are in the midst of a backlash against the advances made by queer and trans* people. This blatant disregard for human life is being exacerbated by the 200+ pieces of anti-LGBT legislation put forth in the past year alone. In light of the bloodshed in Orlando, those perpetrators of bigotry have offered little outside of platitude, silence, and anti-Muslim sentiment. LGBT Muslims are a resilient part of of our community, and are especially vulnerable to violence in the wake of this tragedy. Islamophobia will never have a seat at our table.

It is particularly sinister that such an act should occur in an LGBT space during Pride Month. Yet, since the earliest days of our movements, queer and trans* people have understood the vital importance of taking up space, and creating safe space! Our community comes together––pulsing––to celebrate, to build family (of both blood and of choice), to experience love, to escape the world’s most cruel realities, to dance, to build community, and to mourn. The organizations Astraea supports are testament to this legacy: across the country, from Detroit Represent! in Michigan to Familia in California, activists are continuing the fight for rights, dignity, and liberation.

At the Compton Cafeteria Riots in 1966 and again at Stonewall in 1969, our movements’ predecessors defended our right to do just that. And we, their children, must continue to fight for the right to live freely within our bodies and our own four walls––be they community centers in Phoenix or nightclubs in Orlando, churches in South Carolina or mosques in New York City. Together, we seek a justice that enfranchises all of us.

May the bereaved find strength in our togetherness.

With deep solidarity,

J. Bob Alotta