Mayor Kirk Watson, City Of Austin | City Of Austin website
Mayor Kirk Watson, City Of Austin | City Of Austin website
AUSTIN, TX – The City of Austin Housing Department will host Black Land Matters, The Symposium on Friday, June 14, 2024, from 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Austin Energy Headquarters at 4815 Mueller Boulevard. For the second consecutive year, event speakers and panelists will highlight the value of and ways to promote, secure, and preserve landownership among Black Americans. The symposium will also explore how landownership encourages cultural sustainability and community while highlighting available resources to help families protect their properties. Registration is free for attendees, with light refreshments served immediately following the event. Reservations can be made at www.SpeakUpAustin.org/BlackLandMatters.
“We are thrilled to host this symposium for a second year in Austin. These conversations are important to have as we seek to reduce displacement of families by highlighting the challenges of Black land loss and sharing information on the tools and resources available to keep their homes,” explains Mandy DeMayo, Interim Director of the Housing Department. “These discussions can also help us identify where to focus potential resources for future programs and services.”
The event will include conversations with local practitioners and national leaders sharing resources, highlighting successes and challenges in an effort to prevent displacement specifically related to heirs’ property issues.
Nefertitti Jackmon, Community Displacement Prevention Officer for City of Austin Housing Department, emphasizes an intersectional approach is needed to address these multifaceted pressures. This approach aims to help families connect various aspects affecting them, thereby aiding more households in protecting their assets and closing the racial wealth gap.
“This is not about rural properties only; heir’s property is a challenge that occurs in rural and urban settings,” Jackmon says. “This is a huge displacement pressure that households continue to face that we are only now beginning to discuss. For African American families it is irrespective of income.”
Local experts will highlight current work taking place in Austin while writer Natalie Baszile (Queen Sugar) will discuss storytelling's power in elevating the challenge of land loss. Shirley Sherrod, co-founder and Vice President of New Communities Inc., will discuss her team's vision when they founded the first community land trust in the nation in 1969.
“We call this event Black Land Matters because there are so many matters between land, property, housing, safety, cultural sustainability and displacement,” shared Nefertitti Jackmon. “We can’t address every issue all at once, but it is important to elevate discussions around land loss because it does not happen one way.”
Discussion topics for Black Land Matters include:
Displacement Prevention – Taxes, Titles & Wills to Protect Your Family Home
This discussion will explore challenges families face in maintaining and protecting their land through tax assistance, estate planning, and other services. Moderated by David Gray (Austin’s Homeless Strategy Officer), panelists include Sherwynn Patton (Executive Director of Life Anew Restorative Justice) and Marilyn Poole Webb (Partner at Webb & Webb Attorneys at Law PLLC).
The Power of Narrative
Jennifer Sanders (KXAN News) will lead a conversation with Natalie Baszile on how stories about continued Black land loss have helped elevate this issue into national discourse.
Understanding Community Land Trusts
Nefertitti Jackmon will lead a conversation with Shirley Sherrod on what prompted organizers like Sherrod to start New Communities Inc., addressing welfare rights, school integration, voter education rights among other issues.
Register online for Black Land Matters at www.SpeakUpAustin.org/BlackLandMatters or visit www.austintexas.gov/housing for more information on displacement prevention resources.
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