SURJ-Twin Cities at a Glance
What’s coming up and how to get involved!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. GET CONNECTED
Website | |
Sign up for our SURJ-TC newsletter
The newsletter comes out once per month and is the best way to stay up to date on upcoming events through our chapter as well as our BIPOC led partners and other local groups doing aligned work.
Join the Action Alert Signal Thread
If you are interested in receiving in-the-moment alerts and updates regarding racial justice demonstrations, or opportunities to meet up with other SURJ-TC members at protests, please join our Action Alert Text Group. If you are interested in joining please complete this google form. After you sign up, you will need to download the Signal app (if you don’t already have it), and will receive an email with the Signal group link and some further guidance information. The goal is to mobilize our members to show up in solidarity to racial justice protests, especially in rapidly evolving circumstances.
Come to a Welcome Gathering!
Being in community is a powerful support and antidote to disruptions and changes all around us. This Welcome Gathering is an opportunity for you to learn more about SURJ Twin Cities and see if we could be ~ a political home ~ for you. We are currently on a hiatus, but check the newsletter for future dates. On the calls, we share stories about anti-racism in our lives and then talk about how you can get more involved with SURJ-TC and how we can support you in deepening your commitment to racial justice work.
II. COMING UP
Target Campaign Meeting
Wednesday, April 1, 7-8 pm
Corporations are a wealthy and powerful pillar aiding and allowing the Trump administration to erode the rights of Americans. We have been putting pressure on Target to stand instead with the people, and be an example for other corporations to do the same.
Our next Target Campaign meeting will be a "co-working meeting." We will take the next steps in pressuring Target to do more to protect our democracy and speak out against the unlawful and unjust actions taken by ICE during their surge in Minnesota. There will be opportunities to plug into our work building relationships with local vendors who sell their products at Target, or to spend time writing and brainstorming communications about the campaign.
The first 30 minutes will be a 101 session for anyone who is new to the campaign or wanting a refresher on what the campaign is all about. This meeting will be held on Zoom. Register here.
Saturday, April 11, 1:00 - 3:00 pm
Friends Meeting House: 1725 Grand Ave, Saint Paul, MN 55105 US
The first three months of 2026 have felt like years! Join us to gather in community, process the ICE invasion together, and find our way forward in these critical times! There are so many ways to plug in right now, and we need all of us to support one another and move ahead TOGETHER.
REGISTER HERE: https://actionnetwork.org/events/surj-tc-spring-community-meeting
Nonviolent Direct Action (NVDA) Training & Campaign Organizing Retreat
Saturday, April 25, 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
3715 Chicago Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55407
Racial justice, civil rights and our democracy are on the line! In order to meet this critical moment, we will need to hone our strategy and skills in creative and powerful ways to beat back authoritarianism so that we can move forward our goals that will help create the world we deserve.
Join us for this day-long training and campaign organizing retreat on Sat, 4/25 in south Minneapolis!
This training day is specifically for our SURJ-TC and Unidos community members, many of whom are working together on the Target Campaign (but you don’t have to be working on the Target campaign to attend!).
This NVDA Training and Campaign Organizing retreat will help us:
- build our skills in:
- nonviolent direct action (NVDA) principles, planning and roles
- campaign organizing and strategy
- build our relationships with each other
- build our capacity to fight the authoritarian takeover, defend democracy and advance immigrant rights and racial justice!
Join us so together we can build our capacity to meet the moment in 2026!
REGISTER HERE: https://actionnetwork.org/events/nvda-training-campaign-organizing-retreat
Makoce Ikikcupi Midsummer Arts Festival
Saturday, July 11, 2026, 10am - 4pm
Zani Otunwe, Granite Falls, MN
For more information, email Robin Robertson at makoce.ikicupi@gmail.com.
Makoce Ikikcupi Repair Community
One of SURJ-TC’s partner organizations, Makoce Ikikcupi, meaning Land Recovery, is a project of Reparative Justice on Dakota land in Minisota Makoce (Minnesota). The Makoce Ikikcupi project buys back land for the Dakota people to bring their displaced relatives home, re-establish their spiritual and physical relationship with their homeland, and ensure the ongoing existence of their People. We show up to support Makoce Ikikcupi in their efforts by raising money from white Minnesotans (return of unjust benefit) for buying land back, and through other opportunities as they arise, such as working with Rise & Repair to pass Minnesota legislation to protect wild rice and clean water, and helping with physical labor needed to restore their land.
Abolition Accountability Support Group/Action Mobilization
Stay tuned, upcoming information will be shared in the newsletter and Action Alert Tree.
Opportunities with Institute of Aspiring Abolitionists
An emerging partner of SURJ-TC, Jason Marque Sole created The Institute of Aspiring Abolitionists to provide political education for community members and practitioners to learn effective ways to improve relationships and reduce harm. Opportunities to engage include support fundraising for a brick-and-mortar Institute, workshops, trainings, and field trips to Underground Railroad sites.