Hi All,

We are gearing up for the February 7th #BlackLivesMatter Wikipedia Edit-a-thon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/NYC/Black_Life_Matters_Editathon this 12noon-5pm this Saturday February 7th at the NYPL Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, NY (organized by NYPL http://www.nypl.org/locations/schomburg, METRO https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/METRO, Wikimedia NYC https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_New_York_City), as well as the AfroCROWD Editathon https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/AFROcroWd_and_Interglider.ORG/Outreach_to_Afrodescendant_community_in_US (Afro Free Culture Crowdsourcing Wikimedia) at the Brooklyn Public Library Central on Feb 7th and 8th (organized by Alice Backer, Milos Rancic, Wikimedia NYC).

In addition to having a big community response at the Schomburg we have had enough enthusiasm so that there are Black History Month Edit-a-thons being planned by other organizers in Nashville https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Nashville/Our_Story_Matters_Editathon, Westchester County https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Westchester_County/Black_Life_Matters_Editathon (SUNY Purchase), and in Washington D.C. (note: we will be running a Google Hangouts on Air/Youtube livestream with simultaneous events on February 7th). Richard Knipel has generously created a general launching page for all Black History Month events at Wikipedia:Black WikiHistory Month https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Black_WikiHistory_Month, and there has already been some exciting and overwhelming press coverage by major media outlets, Black History Month special reports, and Twitter (!), which I will be documenting on Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Black_WikiHistory_Month#Press.

If you are a Wikipedian and plan to attend any of these events, please sign up on the Event page(s) so we can have an estimate of facilitators we will have on hand (though you are welcome to sign up as a participant but just plan to do your own editing thing rather than help do training, as you wish!)

*I can’t emphasize enough how thankful we are to have volunteer Wikipedians attend these events, participate remotely, and take interest in the multicultural gaps in Wikipedia. You all inspire me and the spirit of your labor has attracted global attention to Black History and to the socio/political import of Wikipedia! *

*One final note: we are collectively looking for experienced Wikipedians in the SUNY Purchase/ Westchester area that might be able to help out at the SUNY Purchase event scheduled for Saturday February 7th. Please email me if you are in that area, and would like to help out! *

Let me know if there are any further questions.

All the best,

Kindest regards,

Dorothy Howard