5 Things Friday — Represent Collaborative

Legal Weed and a Big, Black and Queer-Ass American musical—here are your antiracism action steps for April 22.

The first city-sanctioned 4/20 celebration went down this week over on Hippy Hill, complete with more 30 corporate sponsors. And while we see nothing wrong with a festival where you can buy (and enjoy) legal weed alongside some bomb al pastor tacos, we hate the fact that there is still an estimated 40,000 people imprisoned for cannabis in the U.S. We've got some links below that will guide you on how to take action to change that. Also, if you are looking to stock up yourself, make sure to support these local companies that are committed to equity in the industry.

Here are your 5 Things.

DONATE TO THIS. Or even better, drop some cash then keep clicking forother ways you can support the Last Prisoner Project, a nonprofit that works to redress the harms of cannabis criminalization through legal intervention, education & criminal justice reform advocacy. You can write letters to currently incarcerated cannabis prisoners, or contact officials toadvocate for the release of people like Kevin Allen, who is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole in Louisiana after he was convicted of selling $20 worth of marijuana.

CELEBRATE THIS. But first, an asterisk on the word "celebrate" — Joaquin Ciria spent 32 years of his life in prison for a crime he did not commit. There is no undoing that fact. But, this past Wednesday was undoubtedly celebratory as he finally walked free. Ciria, 61, is the first person exonerated after a review from San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s Innocence Commission. The panel of legal experts reviewed the case after a referral from the Northern California Innocence Project, which represented Ciria.Read his story here.

KNOW THIS. On a late summer night two years ago, Tiburon police asked Yema Khalif to prove he owned YEMA, the local clothing store that bears his name. Khalif and his wife, Hawi Awash, were the town’s only Black business owners. The fallout from that August 2020 encounter shoved the quiet coastal enclave to the center of a racial justice moment that began just months earlier with George Floyd’s murder. But after initially threatening a $2 million lawsuit in federal court, the couple says they were able to achieve meaningful reforms by staying out of the courtroom and directly engaging with town officials. On Tuesday, the couple stood in front of their store in Tiburon’s casual but tony downtown to announce those reforms. Changes include police policy and training updates as well as the formation of a Citizen’s Advisory Panel to provide a forum between residents and police; one of the store owners is expected to serve as a member. Read the full story here.

LISTEN TO THIS. Let's not forget that 4/20 was also Earth Day. We here at Rep Co are huge fans of the new podcast People Over Plastic, a BIPOC storytelling collective working towards and anti-racist and plastic-free future. Season 2 just launched with a fascinating episode about NYC canners. If you haven’t heard the term, canners are individuals who trade in empty cans, plastic bottles, and glass for cash. If you're new to the podcast, be sure to dig into their archives for a better understanding of how the exclusion of BIPOC voices in mainstream narratives on both the climate and plastic pollution crisis has majorly hindered efforts to build a more just and equitable world. "For many of us, when it comes to multi-layered issues linked to environmental racism, it’s difficult to grasp what this actually means in the day-to-day," says founder and host Shilpi Chhotray.

READ THIS. Full disclosure: an NYC trip is in my future and I have been researching Broadway shows to take my mother and daughter to. I'm especially excited about A Strange Loop, which debuts next week. 23-year-old Jaquel Spivey, fresh out of college, stars in the Pulitzer Prize-winning, "Big, Black and Queer-Ass American musical." I savored this recent interview with him, and think it would be a dream to go cheer him on in person.. "I don’t want to take on the pressures of the LGBTQIA+ community, plus-size community, the queer religious community. I just think it would be unfair of me to put that on myself. So I’m just trying to tell a story and make some change in this world. And then go home and eat a snack."