Penn Haven Housing Cooperative - PHHC

04/07/2020

By Jeremiah Kim. It was the summer of 1961 in New York City, and James Baldwin was speaking at a forum hosted by the Liberation Committee for Africa titled, “Nationalism, Colonialism, and the Unite…

12/18/2019

Lotus Collective Where Do We Go From Here? Event Speeches December 10, 2019, Penn LGBT Center Event Introduction: Michelle Lyu What is the purpose of our education and what is our responsibility to the world as young people and Penn students? Grace Lee Boggs: Sophie Hirt Grace Lee Boggs: Yary...

08/07/2019

“I never asked Tolstoy to write for me, a little colored girl in Lorain, Ohio. I never asked [James] Joyce not to mention Catholicism or the world of Dublin. Never. And I don't know why I should be asked to explain your life to you. We have splendid writers to do that, but I am not one of them. It is that business of being universal, a word hopelessly stripped of meaning for me. Faulkner wrote what I suppose could be called regional literature and had it published all over the world. That's what I wish to do. If I tried to write a universal novel, it would be water. Behind this question is the suggestion that to write for black people is somehow to diminish the writing. From my perspective there are only black people. When I say 'people,' that's what I mean.”
― Toni Morrison 🖤⭐️🙏🏿

07/18/2019

hosted in our living room! =) we're grateful we have a space to support rad work happening in the community with.

05/02/2019

Solidarity is sweet... Happy May Day everyone.

Today is an emotional and important day known by many names: International Workers' Day, May Day, and Labor Day.

This day commemorates the 1886 Haymarket Affair in Chicago where 35,000 workers went on strike for an eight-hour workday. The strikers were attacked and shot at by the police in the streets, resulting in twelve civilian deaths and seven police deaths. Four labor organizers were hanged afterwards for the crime of organizing to ask for better working conditions. However, in the United States we celebrate Labor Day on the first Monday of September instead of May 1 after President Grover Cleveland changed the holiday in 1894 to divorce it from its revolutionary roots.

In the tradition of labor movement organizers and radicals around the world, the Penn Student Labor Action Project organized a photo campaign to honor May Day, the real Labor Day. We asked people walking on Locust to demonstrate solidarity with the underpaid workers on campus by completing the sentence “I stand with campus workers because…” The responses we received were moving, empowering, confrontational, and so much more.

Although the university is constantly working to continue President Cleveland’s project of erasing worker struggles, SLAP is working even harder! Many students were unaware of the extent of worker exploitation on campus and asked to be more involved in the movement we are building; other students were familiar with Penn’s abuses and felt freshly motivated to stand in solidarity with the workers. We were able to make exciting new connections and friends as well as catch up with old ones.

These are the faces of anger and empathy, and they represent only a fraction of the base that we are building. We hope that the words of support you read will inspire you as they have inspired us. As Ché Guevara said, “The true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.”

Happy May Day from SLAP!

Join our mailing list: https://forms.gle/w5ZRemgZJaR8Hm6w8

05/01/2019

International Workers' Day began as a commemoration of the 1886 Haymarket massacre in Chicago.

04/28/2019

Drivers will protest low pay

04/26/2019

Citizen preservationist Faye Anderson takes to social media to protest how development is creating a demolition crisis.

04/24/2019

The daily exploitation of our workers is unrelenting. These quotes come word-for-word from dining workers across campus. Many of them experience this oppression and repression full-time -- eight hours a day, forty hours a week. For years. Even decades.

Of this. Let the full weight of that sink in...

Looking to get more involved? This Friday, we are gathering (in a relaxed setting) to catch up those interested in learning more about the work we've been doing as SLAP. Bring your questions and curiosities! Send us a message if you're interested.

Join our mailing list here: https://forms.gle/bg8QDUZY1KvvcLAC9

04/16/2019

These enraging injustices are only the tip of the iceberg. Word for word from dining workers across campus -- how does it feel for us to learn that they liken their work conditions to prison? Keep the workers in mind next time you eat on campus. Support them, thank them and show solidarity. They are struggling under the oppression and exploitation of our institution every day.

Join the student-worker fight for labor justice at Penn: https://forms.gle/bg8QDUZY1KvvcLAC9

04/14/2019

building community is just tha best

Yesterday, we gathered at Clark Park for a potluck picnic with students, workers, activists, organizers, friends and strangers -- in celebration of life and in resistance to the toxic patriarchal, classist, ableist, heteronormative, white supremacist manifestations of Spring Fling that dictate mainstream fling culture at Penn. It is for those who reject this oppressive mainstream that we seek to create alternative spaces.

Coming together over food with friends and strangers alike is something we value deeply. We see its importance and power.

Three hours of abundant jubilation, laughter, smiles, critical discussion, connection, relaxation, music, shenanigans, frolics and full bellies in the warmth and sun -- it was a beautiful reminder that the work we do will always be rooted in creating resilient communities and strong, sincere human bonds.

Thank you to all the wonderful individuals and organizational cohosts who put in labor to make this celebration happen! Together, we created something quite magical. And this is just the start; many more communal food gatherings lie ahead. Come out next time, we'd love to meet you.

Thank you to the campus workers who traveled for hours just to join us in breaking bread. And finally, thank you Ol' Boy's for the great soul food (the people unanimously agreed: best cornbread ever).