When We Stand Together: Black History and the Power of Solidarity

Vallejo Building Black Power’s Second Annual Black History Month Celebration is a community gathering rooted in history, truth, and connection.

Black history has never moved forward in isolation. From the Black Panther Party to the Chicano Movement, from labor struggles to immigrant rights organizing, progress has come when people recognized that their struggles were connected and chose to stand together.

We’re living in another one of those moments.

Across the country, we’re seeing an expansion of enforcement, surveillance, and state violence, including the actions of ICE, that relies on fear, division, and isolation. While California may feel removed at times, what’s happening elsewhere shapes what becomes possible everywhere. Vallejo, one of the most diverse cities in the country, also knows what it feels like to be divided. This gathering creates space to name that reality honestly and ask what it would take to strengthen solidarity here and beyond.

This event will explore:

• What solidarity has looked like across Black, Brown, immigrant, and working-class movements
• How people have organized across difference to challenge repression and harm
• What solidarity looks like in this moment, nationally and locally
• How we move forward together with intention and care

At the same time, this is a celebration.

Attendees can expect good food, music, cultural performances, youth voices, and opportunities to connect with local organizations whose work reflects solidarity in action. The program includes a keynote conversation, a facilitated panel, and moments of reflection throughout.

This is not a lecture or a protest. It’s a community gathering meant to leave people feeling informed, grounded, and energized.

All are welcome. Come to learn, connect, and be in community.

Info: Enjoy food, music, and visual displays highlighting Black history, culture, and solidarity across movements.

Info: Indigenous Land Acknowledgment and Labor Acknowledgment honoring enslaved, migrant, and working-class labor

Info: Cat Brooks is a theater artist, writer and community organizer. She hosts KPFA’s Law & Disorder and is a resident artist with Tha Lower Bottom Playaz. Her one-woman show ‘Tasha, about the in-custody M**der of Natasha McKenna won Best of The SF Fringe (2017). Her film Bottled Spirits about the violence of gentrification has been nominated for/won multiple awards including Best Narrative Short. She’s the co-founder/executive director of the Anti Police-Terror Project and has spent two decades working with impacted communities to radically transform public safety systems in the U.S. This Keynote Address will explore Black history, collective struggle, and solidarity as a living practice.

Info: By adapting traditional folkloric dance to modern times and passing on this rich heritage to new generations, the group strives to promote Mexican cultural diversity in Solano County. This will be a cultural performance embodying solidarity through movement and tradition.

Info: A youth speaker or reflection carrying Black history forward into the future.

Info: Stay, connect, and build with one another.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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Host or Publisher Vallejo Building Black Power and Leadership