Category: Sourced From The Soil: Updates & Upcoming Events

Greetings Everyone,

This message serves as a formal invitation  to the World Premiere of Portraits & Portals on August 27^th from  2:00pm-4:00pm EST! SeededGround & The Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies welcome you to join us for this stunning virtual showcase of disabled talent and truth-telling about the impact of disasters on people of color with disabilities.

Registration

You can click here to register.

Description

Portraits & Portals is an artistic initiative designed to illustrate the impact of disasters and crises on people of color with disabilities. The project paired 9 disabled artists/creatives of color with 9 disabled disaster survivors of color to amplify issues at the intersection of Disaster Justice, Disability Justice and Racial Justice issues. Together, their creative collaborations transform lived experiences into works of art, including visual art, poetry, and music.

Now the time has arrived for us to virtually gather as we reveal final artworks, engage with the storytellers/artists behind each piece and to share creative space with Crip community.

Help Us Spread The Word

You can help us promote the premiere by posting about the event via social media or by passing on this email to others who might also wish to attend. You can click here to access our Media Toolkit with several pre-designed social media posts along with relevant alt text. 

Accommodations

This event will have the following language access provided:

– American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation

– Spanish interpretation

– French interpretation

– Communication Access Real-time Translation (CART) captioning in English

For additional accommodations, email Priya@disasterstrategies.org by 8/13.

SeededGround began working with the Movement for Black Lives in the fall of 2024. For nearly a year our teams collaborated to lovingly weave Liberatory Access throughout all of M4BL’s 10^th Anniversary Commemorative Events. Check out Justice’s remarks about the power of Black people with disabilities on July 26^th during the commemorative ceremony in Cleaveland Ohio.  

SeededGround has join forces with the Disability & Philanthropy Forum (DPF) to soon facilitate a learning institute on Climate Change & Disability Justice. Slated for November, this institute will bring together leaders in the climate and disability justice space.  

The 2-day convening will focus on three key areas:

1. The impact of climate change and the work of disabled activists to mitigate it.
2. The future of disability-inclusive climate justice work and how to build resilience.
3. What philanthropy can do to support the disability community in fighting climate change.

~As defined by the DPF coordinating team.

Click here to learn more about the institute and how to get involved.

SeededGround is so proud to release EMprints, a new series with over 20 free Disaster Justice themed coloring pages, activity pages & journal pages!

Justice curated EMprints because preparedness doesn’t need to be petrifying. Fear is real, but so is our fortitude. Come color, journal and get activated!

We are all living through concurrent crises right now. Crises that are incredibly stressful, so we created something beautiful to help our people engage emergencies from positions of collective power and possibility. The series is intentionally composed of illustrations and contributions from disabled artists and advocates.

In EMprints, people of color with disabilities are the central motivation behind every coloring page, activity page  and journal page. We refuse to be relegated to the margins of emergency management.

Despite how often it is said post-disaster, our communities have never been “blank pages” or “blank slates”. Our neighborhoods and our people have always been valuable, vibrant, visionary and bursting with color.

Pass On the Pages!
Please help us promote this new resource to our people. Adapt any of the messaging above to share via social media posts. Don’t forget to tag @JusticeShorter1 on X, Justine Justice Shorter on LinkedIn  and be sure to use the hashtag EMprints! Or, print and pass along the pages. Each downloadable page includes a QR code that leads back to the entire online series.

Keep This Work Going
You can also sign up directly on the EMprints page to financially sponsor future editions. This project is a love offering and was fully produced with no external funding. To keep it going, we will need your support.

 Justice is so excited to present at Get Free: A Black Feminist Reunion in New Orleans! Justice will lead a workshop session titled Unpacking the Black feminist disability justice framework on Friday June 6, 2025.

The workshop will be a part of the Consciousness Building track at the Intro Level. The Consciousness building track focuses on content that helps to develop and deepen the Black feminist analysis, critical thinking of selves, society, and community. This nerd out track helps participants to get into the canon of Black feminist terms, definitions, and more. The Intro Level is designed for new learners, early activists, and curious individuals who want to understand the fundamentals.

What is Get Free?  

“In 1973, the historic National Black Women’s Organization conference was a turning point toward unapologetic Black feminist organizing and movement building. Over 50 years later, in the tradition of Black feminist organizers before us, Black Feminist Future calls Black feminists from across the country to Get Free: A Black Feminist Reunion in New Orleans, LA. Get Free is the largest Black feminist convening in the US and is a space for our people to joyfully connect, build skills, and raise consciousness.”

~As excerpted from the event website.

Click here to learn more about this incredible gathering! While you’re there, explore and support Black Feminist Future, the powerful organizational force  behind Get Free!

After months of meticulous preparation, this February SeededGround successfully facilitated two  national Think Tank sessions on making transit evacuations real for people with disabilities. Coordinated in collaboration with the Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies and June Isaacson Kailes, sessions were comprised of over 20 seasoned  experts in disability policy, emergency management, transportation and urban planning. And we didn’t stop there! A remarkable new 21-page Roadmap has resulted from these rich and robust discussions.

Personally authored by Justice Shorter, the Roadmap is a stunning summary of reflections, report outs and recommendations. Over 200 pages of transcribed material/ nine hours of cumulative recorded discussions with nearly two dozen participants, were rigorously analyzed, synthesized and summarized to create this new resource. Navigational notes, which are context clues provided by session attendees, are also embedded throughout for greater clarity and comprehension.

If you haven’t done so already, subscribe to our Stay Posted page to receive an alert as soon as the roadmap is released!

Ain’t no stopping us now, we’re still on the move! Justice recently presented on Promoting Student Leadership in Green Infrastructure Projects at the 2025 Green Schools Conference in Orlando Florida. She was joined  by fellow climate advocates Samrat Pathania, Ojas Sanghi and Eleanor Jackson. Together they shared their work in partnership with the World Resources Institute.  A tireless supporter of inclusive youth engagement, Justice  stressed the importance of disabled student leadership throughout climate justice initiatives.   

Click here to learn more about this annual conference!  

SeededGround was proud to attend the 10th Anniversary HBCU Climate Change Conference in New Orleans this March. As one of the only disability-led organizations present, SG worked to amplify the inextricable connections between Disability Justice and Environmental Justice. We sincerely hope to collaborate more closely in the future with EJ organizations who are ready and enthused about cultivating a movement inclusive of disabled leadership.

Click here to learn more about the conference and it’s coordinating partners.  

In a recent congressional report, the Environmental Protection Agency cites Next Stop, Access!: An Exploratory Working Paper on Disability Rights & Justice Throughout the Transition to Electric Buses. The agency’s Clean School Bus Program  acknowledged and amplified our primary recommendation that every electric bus be equipped to serve every student, including those with disabilities.

Download the EPA Congressional Report here and click here to check out the full accessible HTML version of our paper.

SeededGround is so extremely proud to announce our new partnership with Movement for Black Lives (M4BL)! Our team was recently selected to create and implement accessibility plans over the next year to accompany all of M4BL’s 10^th anniversary commemorative events/activities.

We will strive to thread access through all celebratory gatherings, venues, and materials to identify potential barriers and recommend comprehensive solutions. Our work will encompass pre-event planning, on-site assessment, and post-event evaluation to ensure all aspects of the event meet or exceed accessibility standards. Most importantly, our approach is grounded in Liberatory Access as coined by Disability Justice co-creator Mia Mingus. Liberatory Access most intrinsically reflects SeededGround’s praxis. It is with this profound framework that we are so emboldened as to decline the pre-drawn legal limitations of traditional accessibility measures. In contrast, we trace our capacity across lineages of creativity, abundance, intimacy, and liberation.

“M4BL (Movement for Black Lives) will celebrate its 10th anniversary from late 2024 to 2025. As part of this milestone, we seek to ensure our forthcoming commemoration is fully accessible and inclusive for all attendees. Our goal is to create a hybrid environment that is welcoming and accommodates the needs of individuals with various disabilities, including but not limited to mobility, auditory, visual, and cognitive impairments. We are committed to excellence in accessibility and inclusivity.” Excerpted from the M4BL Accessibility Contractor RFP.