We’re fast approaching our 2024 Awards dinner, and we’re just over halfway to our $40,000 fundraising goal! If you’re planning to join us then please reserve your tickets online here or via mail here now! We need your help through ticket purchases and/or donations to keep our work of supporting orgs and folks like our honorees in their fights for justice. Speaking of honorees, we have more honoree spotlights!
Honoree Spotlight – Gladys & Julie Flores
Mother and daughter team Julie and Gladys Flores are some seriously inspiring individuals. If you’ve followed us for a while you’ve seen their faces at many actions and events, and Julie’s artwork documenting the struggles of excluded workers in NY.
Gladys is an immigrant from Guatemala, a beautiful country in Central America. As any other immigrant she came to build a small fortune and to later go back to live the good life. Things did not workout according to her plan. Doing an array of different jobs, she learned quickly that workers need to speak out if they want to be respected. Landing a job with a unionized employer opened the door to learn about employees’ rights, and how to reinforce those rights at the workplace. Becoming a union organizer with 1199SEIU has given her the opportunity to organize many retail stores and represent their workers. She enjoys long walks, dancing, reading and willing to discuss and help social justice issues over a great cup of coffee.
Julie was born and raised on LI and graduated from Columbia College Hollywood in 2010 with a B.A. in Filmmaking, focusing on editing. She’s been interested in photography since high school, and started with 35mm black and white film. She learned how to develop and print photos in a darkroom and loves the beauty of film photography. At the beginning of 2023, Julie was invited to share her story as an exclusive worker. She was nervous to share her story because she felt her ‘story wasn’t important to tell.’ Yet, that day changed her in many different ways. Julie’s confidence has grown, helping her to get over the working trauma she’s experienced. She’s learned her worth and the power of her voice. She wants to help others learn their worth, know their rights, and the power we all have.
In August 2023, Julie’s first photo book, “La Muralla,” was released featuring photos taken at the southern border in 2022. Julie has also just released a zine about the Fund Excluded Workers Campaign fighting to get unemployment benefits for the 750,000 New Yorkers ineligible for traditional UI because of how they’re classified.
People like Gladys and Julie are the foundation of our movement, and through their work have empowered thousands of Long Islanders to fight for justice. Join us in celebrating them at our Awards Dinner on July 30!
Honoree Spotlight – Gender Equality New York
Our Awards Dinner features five incredible and inspiring honorees this year. The one we’re spotlighting today is Gender Equality New York.
“Gender Equality New York, Inc. (GENY) is a statewide, incorporated non-profit whose mission is to support transgender, gender non-binary, and intersex (TGNBI) New Yorkers and their families. Our leadership group, made up of active community advocates, believes that justice and equality for this vulnerable community can only be won by an organization built by and of community members who bring their lived experiences and passions to spearhead this needed and important work. GENY is committed to gaining equal rights and ending discrimination as we work to achieve economic, educational, racial, and social equality for our communities. Our mission is to educate, advocate, connect, and empower in order to bring equality and justice across New York.”
GENY is another organization LIJWJ works with closely as a part of the We Are Long Island collaborative. Trans rights are constantly under siege, and locally Transphobia has been on the rise with the passage of a Trans athlete ban in Nassau County. But GENY’s tireless work educating, advocating, connecting and empowering continues to fortify the Trans community and pushes towards a day when justice is won.
Adlib Steel Orchestra
When LIJWJ throws a party, we always look to artists from our local communities for entertainment first. This year we’re super excited to have Adlib Steel Orchestra perform at our Awards Dinner!
Based in Freeport, “the Adlib Steel Orchestra was founded in 1989 by a group of Trinidadians who wanted to preserve their culture in the United States. It was incorporated in New York in 1995 as the Adlib Youth and Cultural Organization, with the emphasis shifted to providing young people the opportunity to learn and perform on the steelpan, as well as exposing them to other aspects of Caribbean culture…Adlib has an active program teaching people of all ages how to play the steelpan (referred to by some as the steel drum). The unique note placement sequence on a tenor pan makes it an ideal tool to learn the fundamentals of music theory. Many of Adlib’s students go on to play for the band, and some play the steelpan and other musical instruments in their schools.”
Steelpan music has its roots in centuries of cultural resistance and perseverance by enslaved African peoples. Originating from African talking drums, one of many traditions European colonizers violently tried to erase, modern steelpan emerged in Trinidad and Tobago in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. If you haven’t experienced a steel orchestra performance, now’s your chance!
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Be sure to join us to connect with others, celebrate the work of GENY, Gladys & Julie, our other honorees, and experience some amazing steel pan music! It’ll be an energizing, movement-strengthening, and worker-centered evening. Help us reach our $40,000 fundraising goal by getting your tickets now using this link or by sending us this form!
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