There are three site visits/tours part of FMFP 2019. More info about each is below.
Please note that site visits require registration. Please use this link to register for site visits. Conference participants who register will receive more information about how to access the specific site visit. Please only sign up if you are planning to attend. There is a cap on some of the visits and it will be first come first serve.
East Side Freedom Library (Friday 1:00 pm – 2:45 pm)
Come learn about the East Side Freedom Library and some of the activities that happen here. ESFL is based in St. Paul’s most diverse neighborhood and we seek to concretize intersectionality in our work: linkages between race, class, gender, and sexuality; linkages between the labor movement and other social movements; linkages between, among, and within immigrant communities; linkages between education and entertainment. All with the goals of inspiring solidarity, advocating for justice, and working towards equity. At our workshop we will discuss the history of this neighborhood through the lenses of its challenges and its resources and the intervention ESFL represents. Several people who have worked on various projects here will be present to describe their particular work.
There will be a bus to ESFL leaving at 1pm on Friday. Pick up spot will be by Rarig.
Disorientation Tour: University of Minnesota’s History of Student Activism (Saturday 11am – 12:30pm)
Members of the local organizing committee will lead a disorientation tour of the University of Minnesota. The purpose of the tour is to disorient attendees from the sanitized narratives of “diversity,” “campus climate,” “inclusion,” “multiculturalism,” “excellence” and other euphemisms used to mask the violence of the university. Instead, detour guides will orient attendees to past and present sites of resistance and activism. Detour guides will lead participants through histories of activism from the early 20th century to the present.
Attendees will be oriented to the immense contributions of the Afro-American Action Committee, the Latin Liberation Front, the General College Truth Movement, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Beaver 55, queer liberation movements, animal rights activists, Students for Justice in Palestine, the U Community of Feminists, Danger Collective!, APIs or Equity and Diversity, Whose University?, Whose Diversity? and Differences organized (Do!). We will center the experiences of student activists who recognized the consequences of living, learning and laboring in a system designed without them in mind. “Being in and not of” means that though we are producers within the university, we need not be products of it. We can work against and potentially do without what we are within. In disorienting attendees from the cosmetic diversity and bonafide bs of the University of Minnesota, we hope to show why we see the University of Minnesota less of a land-grant institution and more of a land-grab institution; an educational system that is more private, than public; a corporation that presents students with more educational opportunists than educational opportunities; and a tower that is as anti ebony as it is ivory.
The tour will begin at Rarig. We will be primarily walking across the U campus for the duration of the tour. Please bring water and anything else your body will need. Following the tour, anyone who would like to join a debrief discussion indoors is welcome to stay.
Southside Bike Tour (Saturday 1pm – 4pm)
Need to move around for a while? The Twin Cities has a wonderful biking infrastructure. Join us in a bike tour of just a bit of what’s happening in South Minneapolis. The tour will explore important sites connected to social justice in Minneapolis, including Cycles for Change, Tamales Y Bicycletas, and Cafe Racer Kitchen. At the the last stop Luis will prepare an affordable menu for conference attendees ($5 and please bring your conference badge)—so come prepared with a little bit of funds, lots of water, and energy!
We will meet at Rarig Center at the South Entrance at 1pm (facing Riverside Ave). If you need a bike please make use of the Nice Ride stations (locations can be found here). Ride will be approximately 7 miles; 20 person max capacity.