BRATTLEBORO — On Saturday, Sept. 12, at 5:30 p.m., The Root Social Justice Center will be hosting a second anniversary party to celebrate its second year of operation and raise funds to keep its doors open for years to come.
The event is open to the public and free, though donations are encouraged.
The Root Social Justice Center, located at 28 Williams Street in the Whetstone Arts Building, provides a physically and financially accessible space to support and bring together communities working for social justice.
During weekdays, The Root Social Justice Center is a collectively run office space for four justice-oriented businesses and organizations: Vermont Workers Center, Just Schools Project, ACT for Social Justice and Open Bookkeeping.
Evenings and weekends, the space is available for the public to host social justice organizing events, such as workshops, potlucks, film screenings, and meetings.
The Root also hosts seasonal “Social Justice Forums” to explore issues affecting our communities, such as police brutality, immigrant rights, domestic violence, racism, and the criminal justice system.
Earlier this year, The Root launched The Root Radical Lending Library, whose growing collection of social justice-oriented books are available to check out directly from The Root.
By providing the essential resource of a space to gather and hold events, The Root Social Justice Center has supported organizing efforts of over a dozen community groups in the larger Brattleboro region. Since opening their doors in September of 2013, more than 200 events have been hosted at The Root, the majority of which have been open to the public.
“I have been attending community events at The Root for about a year and I can't imagine being where I am now without that place,” said Tyler Boone of Greenfield, Mass. “The Root is a safe space where I am affirmed in all of the identities that I carry with me.”
The Root Social Justice Center's second-year anniversary fundraising party will include food, music, and karaoke. The event is all-ages and wheelchair accessible. People are encouraged to come fragrance-free.