MOVEMENT BUILDING AND FUN

Betty Yu: I have to say that there is noothergroup that really throws a party like you all did, and maybe continue to do. But youallthrewdown. It was incredible. The amount of detail, also that you paid attention to, A. And then B, just having the fun, the spirit is definitely like no other, like for real.

When I would go to a PTH party, I knew it was going to be so much fun. I always knew that I was gonna stay till the end. I always knew I was going to sweat and probably lose a pound or two pounds from dancing and sweating. And I knew there would be food and fun and good people, good company. I remember the music being amazing. That's one thing I remember that the music was amazing and the company obviously, and the space itself being amazing.

Anika Paris: I do remember the parties. I think that is definitely something I want to talk about as like a final thought but also what I learned from PTH. So, the parties were like really good, I mean, definitely just the importance of havingfun with the people that you’re like organizing with, having fun. Yeah, the importance of fun.

There would be these regular house party fundraisers. A lot of times they would be at the office and there would always be food, there would always be beer, there would always be really good music. I remember those parties being really fun.

I don’t know, remembering all this stuff fondly. But we did get on each other’s nerves, you know? There would be people butting heads, in the office, in the organization. And I think in addition to being fundraisers—fun fundraisers, yes… The parties were also just really serious community building and incentive to stay involved, to like keep coming back.

Lynn Lewis: The parties were fun, and I think it was also a big political move to create a space where folks were having fun with homeless folks.

Lewis: They would not be the people you would think of, “Oh, let me go hang out with this guy at the end of the train, stretched out on the seat. But here you are, dancing with them or they’re deejaying, or whatever and you’re having a great time. And it was important for members being somewhere where they could be themselves and not be controlled. Like, of course there would have to be some social norms, as there always are but that are collectively agreed upon. And that you could just cut loose and talk shit.

Lewis: The segue from sleeping on the street in a protest or to having a party

Paris: was sometimes kind of seamless.

Lynn Roberts: Joy is part of movement building that people kind of forget about. Because if we don't have that, I don't think we'd be bonding quite the same way… If we're only coming together to say, “Well, that's not going well. What's not right. What's wrong?” And I always felt elevated by that.

Joo-Hyun Kang: I feel like one of the things I appreciate most about Picture the Homeless members is that they have understood the importance of celebration and taking stock, and appreciating—each other, themselves. And that’s part of the kind of culture of joy we need to cultivate, because this is all hard work. It’s traumatic work, and it goes back to what you said earlier. If we don’t build out these relationships, I mean, building out deep relationships is part of what most of us work for, with trust.

And that’s probably one of the lessons from the Coalition Against Police Brutality days. It’s like, many of the reps from Coalition Against Police Brutality or their organizations who were amongst the founding members of what became CPR, I feel like to this day folks there’s a level of trust because people didworktogether .

It’s not a level of trust because they were in meetings together. It’s because people did work together. They cried together. They celebrated together, and learned together, and that those relationships in a lot of ways, they’re some of the invisible glue that helps CPR actually keep moving.