A letter for care and justice
Over recent weeks, we have seen blatant acts of terror, unimaginable violence, the loss of innocent Palestinian and Israeli lives, countless human rights violations, displacement of innocent civilians, and acts of genocide. Alongside all of us, our families, friends, and community members are in profound pain, grappling with untenable grief.
Like the rest of the world, the JAYU team continues to bear witness to a heartbreaking chapter in our history. And it is, *our* history. We strongly believe that our communities are interwoven, that our freedoms are collective and connected.
We join so many others with a call for an immediate ceasefire and safe passage for all essential aid to be delivered to civilians suffering in Gaza and the safe return of all hostages. We also condemn the marked rise in antisemitism, anti-Arab racism, and Islamophobia across our country and globally.
Here at JAYU we work to amplify the stories that are often hardest to tell. Through the arts, we challenge ourselves and each other to face our ugliest truths, our toughest histories and our present day horrors. We do this because we know that the arts can be used to build empathy, to heal, to forge community and to inspire conversation.
As a team of equity-deserving artists in our own right, we have come together and had many discussions around how we can take care of our community and ourselves through these varying layers of grief. Our top priority is ensuring folks who engage with our programming, but especially our youth community, feel empowered to continue telling stories and advocating for change through their art, while also prioritizing their care and education around atrocities like this one. We recognize the power and courage it takes to do this, and how it contributes to radical change in many ways.
In the weeks ahead, you will witness a host of initiatives from JAYU. These will encompass a wide range of resources and trauma-informed programs, all aimed at nurturing the well-being of our community. We will be designating unrestricted funds to support our community’s access to clinical advice including talk therapy with a registered psychotherapist, recognizing the profound need for healing in our community.
We acknowledge that this statement precedes our annual Human Rights Film Festival, a cornerstone of our mission to share human rights stories. As our festival programming showcases films that we've been carefully curating since the summer, we're also actively exploring potential programming and partnerships to address current events in the coming year. In addition to this, we aim to provide resources for collective care. JAYU, as an organization, is committed to enhancing our understanding of the current conflict, allowing us to develop programming that fosters thoughtful dialogue and meaningful action in this moment.
Amanda Blair Roberson (Executive Director) and the JAYU Team