Hi friends! We know you haven’t heard from us in a while, and we miss you! We apologize for the lack of communication lately.
After careful consideration, we have decided to forego a festival in 2020.
The Black Lives Matter movement’s recent resurgence has highlighted that the lack of adequate representation within Femme Wave’s leadership is an issue that we must urgently reprioritize.
We have failed to meet our responsibility, as an intersectional feminist organization, to support and uplift BIPOC and LGBTQIA2S+ people.
We are shifting our priorities from planning a festival to restructuring our organization so that Femme Wave will be better situated to support and foster growth for BIPOC and LGBTQIA2S+ leadership within our organization and in the broader arts community.
This process will take time, and we are dedicated to the hard work required. As a first step, Femme Wave has participated in Anti-Racist Organizational Change (AROC) training and will continue to work alongside BIPOC and LGBTQIA2S+ led organizations and consultants.
We will be including community members in this process, to understand and respond to community needs.
Femme Wave will:
- Restructure the organizational model, with a focus on flattening the hierarchy and nurturing an effective, progressive, and collective structure across the entire organization. This will include implementing anti-racist and intersectional governance policies for the Board of Directors, as well as policies regarding crisis and conflict response, and accountabliity procedures.
- Facilitate strategic planning sessions, with community engagement, to re-evaluate Femme Wave’s mission, vision, values, and five-year plan.
- Provide ongoing training for the Board and Organizing Committee on anti-racism/anti-oppression, effective board leadership, and non-profit best practices.
- Develop a comprehensive HR policy that includes a code of conduct, hiring and onboarding procedures, and a performance management framework.
- Develop policies and practices for both internal and external communications
We appreciate your feedback and want to hear from you. Please share your thoughts anonymously here: Femme Wave feedback form.
Thank you for holding us accountable and expressing your thoughts and concerns. We are fully committed to the actions outlined in this statement and are grateful for the opportunity to learn and change. With ongoing reflection and improvement, we look forward to better living up to our intersectional feminist commitment within the community.
– Femme Wave
