Hey Greenhousers, I was thumbing around on the internet and found this article, I think its really positive, and of course my eyebrows flew up when transgender advocacy and religion came up in the same title....give this a read its iteresting, I'm curious about these references....
Courtney (Fayer)
Human Rights Campaign Releases New Faith Resources on Transgender Education and Advocacy
New resources include “Gender Identity and Our Faith Communities” and “Out in Season.”
12/11/2008
WASHINGTON – The Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, today released two new resources for transgender education and advocacy for people of faith by the HRC Religion and Faith Program. The first, a new curriculum titled Gender Identity and Our Faith Communities: A Congregational Guide for Transgender Advocacy, edited by Rev. Chris Glaser, is based on the contributions of twelve transgender people, their families and clergy. The second resource titled Out In Season: A Transgender Encounter with the Church Year, offers biblical commentary for preachers and devotional readers from eleven transgender theologians and clergy. To read both resources visit: www.hrc.org/religion.
“The transgender community needs passionate, informed allies to help us advance our work toward fully inclusive hate crimes and employment non-discrimination legislation,” said Allyson Robinson, HRC's Associate Director of Diversity and a contributing writer for both resources. “These resources are just what we need to mobilize the culture-changing power of communities of faith around transgender advocacy at this crucial moment in our community's history.”
Drawing on a wide array of personal experiences, religious and cultural analysis, and diverse faith journeys, Gender Identity and Our Faith Communities curriculum will empower people of faith with the knowledge and skills necessary to transform their communities and congregations into welcoming environments and will turn participants into advocates for transgender rights.
“We are living at a time when a 15-year-old boy was shot to death for wearing eye shadow and high heels to school. It is high time for congregations to study gender issues, to wake up to the importance of noticing and embracing their transgender members and to reach out in ministry with the transgender community as a whole,” said Dr. Virginia Ramey Mollenkott, renown theologian, author of Omnigender, and contributor to Gender Identity and Our Faith Community.
Out In Season: A Transgender Encounter with the Church Year, explores the journey with our transgender sisters and brothers. Year after year, Christians journey from the longings of Advent, the joy of Christmas and the depths of Lent to the good news of Easter hope. A video with Rev. Dr. Sidney D. Fowler, editor for Out In Season and Rev. Dr. Erin Swenson, a writer for Out in Season, is available online: http://www.hrc.org/scripture/seasonhome.asp.
“These two resources' use of rich firsthand accounts of the lives of transgender people of faith will lead you to want to be an ally and advocate on behalf of transgender people not just out of a sense of righting a injustice but because your own life and your own sense of gender identity will be deepened by the experience,” said Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, Bishop for the Diocese of New Hampshire in the Episcopal Church.
To learn more about HRC's transgender resources visit: www.hrc.org/transgender.
The Human Rights Campaign Foundation is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. By inspiring and engaging all Americans, HRC strives to end discrimination against LGBT citizens and realize a nation that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Help save "In Other Words" feminist bookstore
Dear friends,
In Other Words, like so many of our fellow bookstores, has fallen upon incredibly hard financial times. With the decline in our current economy, we have experienced severely decreased revenue. *If we are unable to raise $11,000 by the end of December, In Other Words will have to close its doors.
We desperately need your help. *We are confident that if everyone who cares about In Other Words makes a contribution, large or small, we will meet our goal. Please give as generously as you can to save the last remaining non-profit, feminist bookstore in the country: the place where so many Portland artists, activists, organizers, readers, writers, political thinkers, musicians and poets find their voice, their power, their community, and their political home.
Our community cannot afford to lose In Other Words, please help us save her!
You can make your tax-deductible donations on the In Other Words secure
website, or by stopping into the store (8 NE Killingsworth).
*Please forward this widely to your community, we need all the help we can get!*
Sincerely,
The Board, Staff and Volunteers of In Other Words
--
Program Director, In Other Words
katie@inotherwords.org
503.232.6003
In Other Words, like so many of our fellow bookstores, has fallen upon incredibly hard financial times. With the decline in our current economy, we have experienced severely decreased revenue. *If we are unable to raise $11,000 by the end of December, In Other Words will have to close its doors.
We desperately need your help. *We are confident that if everyone who cares about In Other Words makes a contribution, large or small, we will meet our goal. Please give as generously as you can to save the last remaining non-profit, feminist bookstore in the country: the place where so many Portland artists, activists, organizers, readers, writers, political thinkers, musicians and poets find their voice, their power, their community, and their political home.
Our community cannot afford to lose In Other Words, please help us save her!
You can make your tax-deductible donations on the In Other Words secure
website
*Please forward this widely to your community, we need all the help we can get!*
Sincerely,
The Board, Staff and Volunteers of In Other Words
--
Program Director, In Other Words
katie@inotherwords.org
503.232.6003
Friday, December 5, 2008
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change opened today in Poznan, Poland, a group of grassroots climate activists came to the Washington DC
From the Daughter of EDF Founder, Robert E. Smolker
Author Dr. Rachel Smolker is with Global Justice Ecology Project and Global Forest Coalition
My name is Rachel Smolker. When I was a child, growing up on Long Island,
my father, Robert E Smolker, along with Charlie Wurster, Dennis Puleston
and Art Cooley, used to sit around in the living room sipping their beers
and discuss environmental issues. My father, an ornithologist, was
observing the thinning of predatory bird eggshells caused by DDT, Rachel
Carson‚s seminal work on the impacts of pesticides was still relatively
warm off the presses, and their were already many, many indications that
virtually all ecosystems were in decline: the beautiful wetlands
surrounding our island were contaminated and littered with garbage,
fisheries were declining, and from afar, the drumbeat of deforestation,
pollution, and climate change. Yes, way back then. Climate change was an
issue very few knew anything about, but I would say it came as no surprise
to those who spent time in the natural world and understood the delicate
intricacies of ecological systems on a tiny blue speck of a planet, more
or less accidentally blanketed in a thin and accommodating atmosphere.
I watched these men as they talked, sometimes seriously, sometimes with
tremendous humor, and almost always with a deep sense of commitment and
comeraderie. I was 10-12 years old, on the brink of puberty and frankly
not all that much interested, but I respected them and as I grew up
recognized the importance of this phenomenon, called EDF, which germinated
out of the couches of my home.
My father and his friends celebrated their capacity to act together when
EDF achieved bans on DDT in the early 70‚s. They brought lawyers and
scientists and fundraisers and administrators and many others onboard and
expanded the organization, experienced and overcame some growing pains and
enjoyed a number of victories.
My father passed away in 1985. By that time, EDF had at least a few
offices dotted around the country, and sizeable resources. The
organization was, already, under the leadership of Fredd Krupp. Before
his death, he complained to me that he "did not approve of the direction
in which the organization was headed".
Why? What was he foreseeing? I think I understand now:
EDF has swelled and mushroomed into the darling of the corporate world:
advocating for "market incentives" to "encourage" corporations to stop
their destructive practices, provided they do not cause "economic
hardship". Like the corporations you have befriended, you too have become
entirely beholden to the gods of endless economic growth. The goal of
protecting the environment has been relegated to the back seat.
EDF‚s corporate partnership approach sounded friendly and sort of "new"
back in the 80's. Sure, perhaps there was some potential in trying to
reform polluting practices "from the inside". EDF proudly designed the
market trading system for sulphur emissions causing acid rain, among
numerous other accomplishments. That emissions trading model, hailed as a
breakthrough in "harnessing market forces in service of environmental
goals", has now been carried over to the international arena and become
the central approach to addressing global warming emissions.
Carbon emissions trading is now formally enshrined within the Kyoto
Protocol, and within almost every state, federal and international
initiative for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It has in fact become
pretty much the only game in town.
You argue that it is the "least expensive" means of lowering emissions,
allowing companies to avoid costly abatement by purchasing credits from
others who could more easily reduce their emissions. A sort of „kinder
gentler‰ approach to lowering carbon emissions.
But let me ask you. Is it working? Has it worked? Will it work fast
enough? Is it in our best interests at this point to make things kind and
gentle and inexpensive for these polluters? Is that our priority?
I would ask that you take a trip outside of Washington, put on your boots
and jeans and anoraks: travel to the Arctic community of Kivalina and talk
with the folks there who are filing suit against your bedfellows in the
fossil fuel industry over the extermination of their community and their
entire lifestyle. I say, you are guilty by association. EDF has become the
mistress of murderers. While James Hansen and others suggest they should
be put on trial for their crimes against humanity, you would have us
reward them!
You would have us reward them by turning the atmosphere into private
property, dividing it into pieces and generously bequeathing the pieces as
gifts to these corporate criminals. And in doing so, you provide them with
a license to carry on with their dirty business and pretend to be doing
something other than advancing their own profits. While they drill and
mine and pump and plunder with one hand, the other is busy shaking hands
with Fred Krupp. EDF has been the primary architects and advocates of
"market approaches" which do nothing but pad the coffers of climate
criminals while doing nothing to avert global warming.
EDF has turned itself into a corporate makeover facility. The most
polluting companies on earth walk in here seeking advice on how to better
paint themselves green. EDF does the paint job and then hands out free
samples and an eternity's worth of coupons for future cash-in. What comes
out the other end is business as usual, and a few added digits on the
organization‚s salary balance sheets.
I have two young children. I am not going to launch into a teary-eyed
appeal to you about their future, don‚'t worry.
No: I am going to tell you something about being a parent that I think is
relevant: When my children do something naughty, do I yell at them and
take away some privileges? Or do I offer them a candy in exchange for
halting their naughtiness? Welllll- some would advocate the candy
approach, but what happens when they realize that the outcome of their
naughtiness is to receive candy? Of course they can't wait to be naughty
again! That is your approach to dealing with polluting corporations;
reward them with permits to pollute and a new paintjob.
That is why they are knocking down your doors. Your Climate Action
Partnership? Well, no shit Sherlock - the dirtiest most polluting industries
made windfall profits off the European Emissions Trading Scheme, which
has been deemed completely ineffective if not counterproductive as a means
of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.
No wonder these corporations are eager to sign on to the CAP and have you
championing such an approach! They know the climate change grim reaper is
on his way. They see the writing on the walls. Would they prefer to be
regulated and fined and forced to behave like proper citizens of the
global community? Or would they prefer to hide behind some smoke and
mirrors, receive permits to pollute, pass along the cost of purchasing
those permits to their ratepayers if possible, and then rake in rewards
for sort of maybe doing what they should absolutely for the sake of us all
should be doing in any case? You provide them the means to enhance profits
and paint themselves green at the same time! WoW!
We cannot pretend that handing out permits to pollute and then trading
them around like baseball cards is even remotely related to seriously
reducing emissions. It is a great get-rich-quick scheme for the brokers,
marketers and financiers who enjoy playing games with my childrens‚
future, and it is a huge gift to the polluting criminals.
Offsetting emissions is a similar deceit, nothing but another fine
arrangement of smoke and mirrors that allow some people to "feel good"
while continuing to carry on business as usual. They provide a convenient
way to sidestep and avoid real and necessary change. It is, without
question, a lovely idea to provide funding to really good "quality"
projects that hold promise of reducing emissions, but there are more
straightforward ways to get there that do not require unfounded and
unreliable measures of carbon flow, additionality, verifiability or
permanence, and do not confuse fossil and biological carbon. We clearly
need to halt, not offset emissions, even where it is a hard thing, a very
hard thing to do.
We are here today because we have simply had enough. In fact we reached
that point quite a while ago, and since then have been gathering our
courage and building the solidarity that is required to stand up for the
very future of life on earth in the most effective, meaningful manner
possible. It is a mightily sad state of affairs, when a group of dedicated
activists, who are keenly aware of the dire crisis we are facing, must
come to the offices of one of the world‚s biggest and most influential
"environmental organizations" to protest. People you see before you have
chained themselves to the gates of coal fired power plants and to the
doors of the World Bank. They have stood up to corporate thugs and
threats, they have put themselves in harms way to stand up for what is
right and what MUST be done to protect the future of life.
We cannot afford to wait, or to fail, or to only half succeed at this point.
EDF: It is time to admit to the failure of the market based policies you
are advocating: The Kyoto Protocol, the European Trading Scheme - these
have failed us, and in the process have blinded and bedazzled so many that
the real solutions to the crisis have fallen into the shadows where they
are languishing. Now it is time to face the facts and turn every ounce of
your substantial weight towards DEMANDING that your corporate bedfellows
strip off their phony green veneer, halt the pillaging of our futures, and
give REAL solutions to climate change their due opportunity. Yes it will
be hard, yes it will force change upon the polluters. But the cost of
inaction, or ineffective action, will be much, much greater.
The incoming administration has made it clear that they intend to adopt a
cap and trade legislation, along with a suite of other questionable steps
intended to address the crisis of climate change, including „clean coal‰,
nuclear energy and agrofuels. EDF as a massively influential organization
will undoubtedly play a role in shaping this legislation. It is time to
stop pandering to the corporate criminals. We can no longer make corporate
profits a priority over swift and severe measures to avoid catastrophe. We
can no longer concern ourselves with making it easy or less costly or any
other such warm and fuzzy goodwill towards the corporations that are
responsible for the destruction. We can no longer count on the magic of
markets to achieve the deep, real, meaningful and essential changes that
are needed.
EDF: I wish I could say I am proud of my own father‚s legacy! But it is,
sadly, the case that I have to apologize, offer disclaimers, make
explanations when pronouncing my relationship to this organization. I can
hear my father rolling over in his grave! EDF has strayed so far from his
vision, from the mission of protecting and advocating for the environment,
that it would now be completely unrecognizeable to him. Were he to rise up
from the dead, I can only hope that these plush digs and six figure
salaries would convince him there is no relationship between the current
manifestation of this organization and himself.
For me, it is deeply ironic that I find myself here today, taking action
against this organization which so shaped my early world view, and which I
have now come to see as a primary obstacle to averting planetary crisis:
the architects and powerful advocates of extraordinarily dangerous and
distracting policy advice.
I HOPE that the people working here will take a very deep look in the
mirror and ask yourselves: are we REALLY doing the right thing? Are we
true to our mission? To ourselves? To our children and to the future of
life on this little blue speck?
Author Dr. Rachel Smolker is with Global Justice Ecology Project and Global Forest Coalition
My name is Rachel Smolker. When I was a child, growing up on Long Island,
my father, Robert E Smolker, along with Charlie Wurster, Dennis Puleston
and Art Cooley, used to sit around in the living room sipping their beers
and discuss environmental issues. My father, an ornithologist, was
observing the thinning of predatory bird eggshells caused by DDT, Rachel
Carson‚s seminal work on the impacts of pesticides was still relatively
warm off the presses, and their were already many, many indications that
virtually all ecosystems were in decline: the beautiful wetlands
surrounding our island were contaminated and littered with garbage,
fisheries were declining, and from afar, the drumbeat of deforestation,
pollution, and climate change. Yes, way back then. Climate change was an
issue very few knew anything about, but I would say it came as no surprise
to those who spent time in the natural world and understood the delicate
intricacies of ecological systems on a tiny blue speck of a planet, more
or less accidentally blanketed in a thin and accommodating atmosphere.
I watched these men as they talked, sometimes seriously, sometimes with
tremendous humor, and almost always with a deep sense of commitment and
comeraderie. I was 10-12 years old, on the brink of puberty and frankly
not all that much interested, but I respected them and as I grew up
recognized the importance of this phenomenon, called EDF, which germinated
out of the couches of my home.
My father and his friends celebrated their capacity to act together when
EDF achieved bans on DDT in the early 70‚s. They brought lawyers and
scientists and fundraisers and administrators and many others onboard and
expanded the organization, experienced and overcame some growing pains and
enjoyed a number of victories.
My father passed away in 1985. By that time, EDF had at least a few
offices dotted around the country, and sizeable resources. The
organization was, already, under the leadership of Fredd Krupp. Before
his death, he complained to me that he "did not approve of the direction
in which the organization was headed".
Why? What was he foreseeing? I think I understand now:
EDF has swelled and mushroomed into the darling of the corporate world:
advocating for "market incentives" to "encourage" corporations to stop
their destructive practices, provided they do not cause "economic
hardship". Like the corporations you have befriended, you too have become
entirely beholden to the gods of endless economic growth. The goal of
protecting the environment has been relegated to the back seat.
EDF‚s corporate partnership approach sounded friendly and sort of "new"
back in the 80's. Sure, perhaps there was some potential in trying to
reform polluting practices "from the inside". EDF proudly designed the
market trading system for sulphur emissions causing acid rain, among
numerous other accomplishments. That emissions trading model, hailed as a
breakthrough in "harnessing market forces in service of environmental
goals", has now been carried over to the international arena and become
the central approach to addressing global warming emissions.
Carbon emissions trading is now formally enshrined within the Kyoto
Protocol, and within almost every state, federal and international
initiative for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It has in fact become
pretty much the only game in town.
You argue that it is the "least expensive" means of lowering emissions,
allowing companies to avoid costly abatement by purchasing credits from
others who could more easily reduce their emissions. A sort of „kinder
gentler‰ approach to lowering carbon emissions.
But let me ask you. Is it working? Has it worked? Will it work fast
enough? Is it in our best interests at this point to make things kind and
gentle and inexpensive for these polluters? Is that our priority?
I would ask that you take a trip outside of Washington, put on your boots
and jeans and anoraks: travel to the Arctic community of Kivalina and talk
with the folks there who are filing suit against your bedfellows in the
fossil fuel industry over the extermination of their community and their
entire lifestyle. I say, you are guilty by association. EDF has become the
mistress of murderers. While James Hansen and others suggest they should
be put on trial for their crimes against humanity, you would have us
reward them!
You would have us reward them by turning the atmosphere into private
property, dividing it into pieces and generously bequeathing the pieces as
gifts to these corporate criminals. And in doing so, you provide them with
a license to carry on with their dirty business and pretend to be doing
something other than advancing their own profits. While they drill and
mine and pump and plunder with one hand, the other is busy shaking hands
with Fred Krupp. EDF has been the primary architects and advocates of
"market approaches" which do nothing but pad the coffers of climate
criminals while doing nothing to avert global warming.
EDF has turned itself into a corporate makeover facility. The most
polluting companies on earth walk in here seeking advice on how to better
paint themselves green. EDF does the paint job and then hands out free
samples and an eternity's worth of coupons for future cash-in. What comes
out the other end is business as usual, and a few added digits on the
organization‚s salary balance sheets.
I have two young children. I am not going to launch into a teary-eyed
appeal to you about their future, don‚'t worry.
No: I am going to tell you something about being a parent that I think is
relevant: When my children do something naughty, do I yell at them and
take away some privileges? Or do I offer them a candy in exchange for
halting their naughtiness? Welllll- some would advocate the candy
approach, but what happens when they realize that the outcome of their
naughtiness is to receive candy? Of course they can't wait to be naughty
again! That is your approach to dealing with polluting corporations;
reward them with permits to pollute and a new paintjob.
That is why they are knocking down your doors. Your Climate Action
Partnership? Well, no shit Sherlock - the dirtiest most polluting industries
made windfall profits off the European Emissions Trading Scheme, which
has been deemed completely ineffective if not counterproductive as a means
of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.
No wonder these corporations are eager to sign on to the CAP and have you
championing such an approach! They know the climate change grim reaper is
on his way. They see the writing on the walls. Would they prefer to be
regulated and fined and forced to behave like proper citizens of the
global community? Or would they prefer to hide behind some smoke and
mirrors, receive permits to pollute, pass along the cost of purchasing
those permits to their ratepayers if possible, and then rake in rewards
for sort of maybe doing what they should absolutely for the sake of us all
should be doing in any case? You provide them the means to enhance profits
and paint themselves green at the same time! WoW!
We cannot pretend that handing out permits to pollute and then trading
them around like baseball cards is even remotely related to seriously
reducing emissions. It is a great get-rich-quick scheme for the brokers,
marketers and financiers who enjoy playing games with my childrens‚
future, and it is a huge gift to the polluting criminals.
Offsetting emissions is a similar deceit, nothing but another fine
arrangement of smoke and mirrors that allow some people to "feel good"
while continuing to carry on business as usual. They provide a convenient
way to sidestep and avoid real and necessary change. It is, without
question, a lovely idea to provide funding to really good "quality"
projects that hold promise of reducing emissions, but there are more
straightforward ways to get there that do not require unfounded and
unreliable measures of carbon flow, additionality, verifiability or
permanence, and do not confuse fossil and biological carbon. We clearly
need to halt, not offset emissions, even where it is a hard thing, a very
hard thing to do.
We are here today because we have simply had enough. In fact we reached
that point quite a while ago, and since then have been gathering our
courage and building the solidarity that is required to stand up for the
very future of life on earth in the most effective, meaningful manner
possible. It is a mightily sad state of affairs, when a group of dedicated
activists, who are keenly aware of the dire crisis we are facing, must
come to the offices of one of the world‚s biggest and most influential
"environmental organizations" to protest. People you see before you have
chained themselves to the gates of coal fired power plants and to the
doors of the World Bank. They have stood up to corporate thugs and
threats, they have put themselves in harms way to stand up for what is
right and what MUST be done to protect the future of life.
We cannot afford to wait, or to fail, or to only half succeed at this point.
EDF: It is time to admit to the failure of the market based policies you
are advocating: The Kyoto Protocol, the European Trading Scheme - these
have failed us, and in the process have blinded and bedazzled so many that
the real solutions to the crisis have fallen into the shadows where they
are languishing. Now it is time to face the facts and turn every ounce of
your substantial weight towards DEMANDING that your corporate bedfellows
strip off their phony green veneer, halt the pillaging of our futures, and
give REAL solutions to climate change their due opportunity. Yes it will
be hard, yes it will force change upon the polluters. But the cost of
inaction, or ineffective action, will be much, much greater.
The incoming administration has made it clear that they intend to adopt a
cap and trade legislation, along with a suite of other questionable steps
intended to address the crisis of climate change, including „clean coal‰,
nuclear energy and agrofuels. EDF as a massively influential organization
will undoubtedly play a role in shaping this legislation. It is time to
stop pandering to the corporate criminals. We can no longer make corporate
profits a priority over swift and severe measures to avoid catastrophe. We
can no longer concern ourselves with making it easy or less costly or any
other such warm and fuzzy goodwill towards the corporations that are
responsible for the destruction. We can no longer count on the magic of
markets to achieve the deep, real, meaningful and essential changes that
are needed.
EDF: I wish I could say I am proud of my own father‚s legacy! But it is,
sadly, the case that I have to apologize, offer disclaimers, make
explanations when pronouncing my relationship to this organization. I can
hear my father rolling over in his grave! EDF has strayed so far from his
vision, from the mission of protecting and advocating for the environment,
that it would now be completely unrecognizeable to him. Were he to rise up
from the dead, I can only hope that these plush digs and six figure
salaries would convince him there is no relationship between the current
manifestation of this organization and himself.
For me, it is deeply ironic that I find myself here today, taking action
against this organization which so shaped my early world view, and which I
have now come to see as a primary obstacle to averting planetary crisis:
the architects and powerful advocates of extraordinarily dangerous and
distracting policy advice.
I HOPE that the people working here will take a very deep look in the
mirror and ask yourselves: are we REALLY doing the right thing? Are we
true to our mission? To ourselves? To our children and to the future of
life on this little blue speck?
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Building Tools for Community Organizing — Critical Thought and consciousness raising (Part 1 of 2)
PORTLAND COALITION AGAINST POVERTY
Building Tools for Community Organizing — Critical Thought and consciousness raising (Part 1 of 2)
Discussion and or Roleplays on:
- Libratory language
- Who we are
- Identities, communities and movements
- Power (the ability to enact change)
- Practice (creating space to refine tactics and reflect on power)
- Praxis (action + reflection)
The Portland Coalition Against Poverty is dedicated to creating space to ask questions, and participate in community dialogue. As students in a movement of liberation, we learn and teach from are experience and reflection. As teachers, we root ourselves in listening and asking. Through community conversations we aim to empower ourselves and all individuals participating to become both students and teachers — to listen, ask, experience, and reflect collectively.
SATURDAY NOV. 22ND 6PM - 8PM
FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH -
BUCHAN BUILDING (Door on Salmon St.)
1011 SW 12TH AVE
SIGNS WILL BE POSTED
Building Tools for Community Organizing — Critical Thought and consciousness raising (Part 1 of 2)
Discussion and or Roleplays on:
- Libratory language
- Who we are
- Identities, communities and movements
- Power (the ability to enact change)
- Practice (creating space to refine tactics and reflect on power)
- Praxis (action + reflection)
The Portland Coalition Against Poverty is dedicated to creating space to ask questions, and participate in community dialogue. As students in a movement of liberation, we learn and teach from are experience and reflection. As teachers, we root ourselves in listening and asking. Through community conversations we aim to empower ourselves and all individuals participating to become both students and teachers — to listen, ask, experience, and reflect collectively.
SATURDAY NOV. 22ND 6PM - 8PM
FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH -
BUCHAN BUILDING (Door on Salmon St.)
1011 SW 12TH AVE
SIGNS WILL BE POSTED
LEO CERDA West Coast Speaking Tour: Oil, Indigenous Rights and Creating Just Sustainable Societies
LEO CERDA West Coast Speaking Tour: Oil, Indigenous Rights and Creating Just Sustainable Societies
When: Friday, November 21st @ 4:00 pm
Where: Portland State University
Smith Bldg. Rm 338
1825 SW Broadway
For information on the other dates and places of the tour please visit Rising Tide North America's website @ www.risingtidenorthamerica.com
Leonardo Cerda is an Ecuadorian youth climate, energy and sustainability activist studying International Relations and Political Sciences at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador.
Leo's been involved in resistance movements against the oil industry in Ecuador since he was fourteen years old. He and others in his community starting doing workshops around the Amazon at that time, in different indigenous villages, discussing the causes and the future consequences of the oil industry, it's relationship to climate change and the many other devastating consequences to people and the environment.
Leo's been working on issues related to environmental protection, people's sovereignty over land, coal mining, indigenous resistance, organic products cooperative and others ever since. Currently Leo is part of an organization called FAOICIN that is running a campaign to promote sustainable projects as an alternative for communities, associations, and other indigenous social actors to promote the recovery of ancestral customs. He's also in charge of the human rights club at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito!
He'll be discussing his communities work in Ecuador, the damage done by the oil industry, and efforts to build a more just, sustainable society in Ecuador.
Hope to see you there. Peace!
When: Friday, November 21st @ 4:00 pm
Where: Portland State University
Smith Bldg. Rm 338
1825 SW Broadway
For information on the other dates and places of the tour please visit Rising Tide North America's website @ www.risingtidenorthamerica.com
Leonardo Cerda is an Ecuadorian youth climate, energy and sustainability activist studying International Relations and Political Sciences at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador.
Leo's been involved in resistance movements against the oil industry in Ecuador since he was fourteen years old. He and others in his community starting doing workshops around the Amazon at that time, in different indigenous villages, discussing the causes and the future consequences of the oil industry, it's relationship to climate change and the many other devastating consequences to people and the environment.
Leo's been working on issues related to environmental protection, people's sovereignty over land, coal mining, indigenous resistance, organic products cooperative and others ever since. Currently Leo is part of an organization called FAOICIN that is running a campaign to promote sustainable projects as an alternative for communities, associations, and other indigenous social actors to promote the recovery of ancestral customs. He's also in charge of the human rights club at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito!
He'll be discussing his communities work in Ecuador, the damage done by the oil industry, and efforts to build a more just, sustainable society in Ecuador.
Hope to see you there. Peace!
Monday, November 10, 2008
School of the Americas documentary screening Thurs Nov. 13th
Hi lovelys,
Thank you to all who made it out last week for the documentary and discussion on "Voices of a Mountain," and thank you to Caitlin for taking the time to educate us on the community of Santa Anita.
This week at the Green House Collective we will be showing a short documentary on The School of the Americas (SOA). The intent of this weeks showing, like all weeks, is for educational and informational purposes. The majority of this weeks event will be discussion, Q & A, and what you can do to help close the SOA. Below is a brief introduction into the SOA:
The School of the Americas (SOA), in 2001 renamed the “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation,” is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers, located at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Initially established in Panama in 1946, it was kicked out of that country in 1984 under the terms of the Panama Canal Treaty. Former Panamanian President, Jorge Illueca, stated that the School of the Americas was the “biggest base for destabilization in Latin America.” The SOA, frequently dubbed the “School of Assassins,” has left a trail of blood and suffering in every country where its graduates have returned.
Over its 59 years, the SOA has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. These graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own people. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and forced into refugee by those trained at the School of Assassins.
Green House resident Ryan has been volunteering with the local non-violent activist group SOA Watch OR for the last year, and will be traveling to the annual vigil next week for his first time, where he will be one of over 20,000 people that travel to Ft. Benning annually to close the SOA. We look forward to seeing you all this week
What: Vegan Potluck @ 5:30, movie starts @ 7
Where: The GHC, 4407 SE Tibbetts St, located of the Clinton St bike superhighway, and bus lines 4, 9, 75, and 14
When: Thursday November 13th
Also, the GHC is having it's first book club on Sunday Dec. 7th. We will be reading and discussing "The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love" by Bell Hooks. This book is currently available for sale at Powells Books, available for check out at most library locations, and one copy is available for check out at the GHC. If you are interested in participating in this months book discussion or future book club discussions, please email us at thegreenhouse@riseup.net.
In peace and solidarity,
The GHC
Thank you to all who made it out last week for the documentary and discussion on "Voices of a Mountain," and thank you to Caitlin for taking the time to educate us on the community of Santa Anita.
This week at the Green House Collective we will be showing a short documentary on The School of the Americas (SOA). The intent of this weeks showing, like all weeks, is for educational and informational purposes. The majority of this weeks event will be discussion, Q & A, and what you can do to help close the SOA. Below is a brief introduction into the SOA:
The School of the Americas (SOA), in 2001 renamed the “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation,” is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers, located at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Initially established in Panama in 1946, it was kicked out of that country in 1984 under the terms of the Panama Canal Treaty. Former Panamanian President, Jorge Illueca, stated that the School of the Americas was the “biggest base for destabilization in Latin America.” The SOA, frequently dubbed the “School of Assassins,” has left a trail of blood and suffering in every country where its graduates have returned.
Over its 59 years, the SOA has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. These graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own people. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and forced into refugee by those trained at the School of Assassins.
Green House resident Ryan has been volunteering with the local non-violent activist group SOA Watch OR for the last year, and will be traveling to the annual vigil next week for his first time, where he will be one of over 20,000 people that travel to Ft. Benning annually to close the SOA. We look forward to seeing you all this week
What: Vegan Potluck @ 5:30, movie starts @ 7
Where: The GHC, 4407 SE Tibbetts St, located of the Clinton St bike superhighway, and bus lines 4, 9, 75, and 14
When: Thursday November 13th
Also, the GHC is having it's first book club on Sunday Dec. 7th. We will be reading and discussing "The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love" by Bell Hooks. This book is currently available for sale at Powells Books, available for check out at most library locations, and one copy is available for check out at the GHC. If you are interested in participating in this months book discussion or future book club discussions, please email us at thegreenhouse@riseup.net.
In peace and solidarity,
The GHC
Friday, November 7, 2008
Officers Fired Over Executions Received U.S. Training and Funds
Hi everyone,
The School of the Americas (SOA/WHINSEC) continues to train Latin American Death Squads here in the United States; as documented by the article below. SOA/WHINSEC located in Ft. Benning, GA has had a continued path of terrorism throughout Latin American countries. Columbia currently has been sending the highest amount of troops to train at the Army School of the Americas since Bill Clinton signed and funded over $6 billion for Plan Columbia. Plan Columbia has seen some of the greatest human rights violations occurring throughout the Americas. Columbia is also the largest receipient of financial aid from the United States. The US has a new plan, known as Plan Mexico or Plan Merrida, that will undoubtedly follow a similar path as Plan Columbia. With their being a new President elect and a Democrat majority in Congress, the time is NOW to stop being silent and petition our newly elected representatives to stop funding the SOA and close the base, to stop funding the failed Plan Columbia, and to stop the expansion and funding for Plan Mexico. These plans are not benifiting our citizens and have certainly not benifited the people of Columbia, the only benifiters are the MNC's and those in power positions. You all have a voice to stop these atrocities from continuing, and unless we petition our elected representatives, our voices will be ignored. Call write, email your representative and demand the SOA close, demand our tax dollars stop funding the murder of innocent people through Plan Columbia and Plan Mexico, and demand those responsible are held accountable under international law.
In peace and solidarity,
The GHC
"Officers Fired Over Executions Received U.S. Training and Funds"
Nov 5 2008
John Lyndsay-Poland
Colombian Army commander Mario Montoya resigned on November 3, in the wake of a scandal over army killings of civilians that a United Nations official on Saturday called "systematic and widespread." A protégé of the United States, Montoya received training at the notorious U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA) and has also taught other soldiers as an instructor at the SOA.
Montoya was an architect of the "body count" counterinsurgency strategy that many analysts believe led to the systematic civilian killings. Colombian President Álvaro Uribe announced the dismissal of 27 military officers on October 29, including three generals and 11 colonels and lieutenant colonels, for human rights abuses. The abuses include involvement in the killings of dozens of youths who were recruited in Bogotá slums and shortly after were reported as killed in combat by the army, hundreds of miles away.
The dismissal is a positive action, which we at the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) applaud. Officers responsible for killing civilians must face consequences, or the killing will continue.
Human rights organizations have documented more than 500 reported extrajudicial killings by the army since the beginning of last year. This week, Amnesty International issued a scathing report on worsening conditions in Colombia, including massive displacement of internal refugees, increased extrajudicial killings, and attacks on human rights defenders. A New York Times front-page story on October 30 also highlighted the problem, and cited FOR's research on extrajudicial executions, as did a Los Angeles Times story.
Detonating the issue was a report that poor Bogotá youths, whose families said they had disappeared, had been recruited by the army or others, and then reported as dead in combat. Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos admitted that the army still harbors "holdouts who are demanding bodies for results."
The dismissal of officers also demonstrates extensive U.S. complicity with the abuses. The United States gave military training directly or assisted the units of nearly all of the officers implicated in the killings. At least 11 of the officers, including Brigadier Generals Paulino Coronado Gamez and José Cortes Franco, were trained at the U.S. Army School of the Americas, and Cortes even served as an instructor at the school in 1994. Most of the officers commanded units that had been "vetted" by U.S. officials for human rights abuses and approved to receive assistance in 2008, or received training for some officers, despite extensive reports that their units had carried out murders of civilians.
Yet the dismissal, which focuses on officers operating in a northeastern region of Colombia where the disappeared youths were found, addresses only a small number of the army units responsible for civilian killings.
In the oil-rich Casanare and Arauca departments, the U.S.-trained 16th and 18th Brigades have reportedly committed dozens of killings, as has the U.S.-supported 9th Brigade in the coffee-growing department of Huila. In southwestern Valle and Cauca, the Third Brigade's Codazzi Batallion receives U.S. support and reportedly committed at least nine killings of civilians last year, and it might be implicated in firing on peaceful indigenous protesters this month. In southern Meta and Guaviare departments, the United States supports multiple mobile brigades in areas where the army has committed a large number of civilian killings.
The government named General Oscar Enrique González Peña to replace Army chief Montoya. Unsurprisingly, Gen. González Peña is also a graduate of the School of the Americas with a history of extrajudicial executions under his command. General Peña was commander of the Fourth Brigade, based in Medellín, from December 2003 to July 2005, when units under his command reportedly committed 45 extrajudicial executions in eastern Antioquia, according to a report published last year by a coalition of human rights organizations known as the Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Observatory.
Most of the Colombian army's current leadership—including 17 of 24 brigade commanders—was trained by the United States at the School of the Americas. This is in addition to the U.S. training provided to Colombian officers at dozens of other military schools and in Colombia. Washington is involved in the army's human rights problem through and through, and journalists, activists, and Congressional staff ought to ask when the United States will stop financing such murderous criminal operations. We believe the time is now.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Organizing 101 training Cramer Hall at PSU in Room 150 Saturday, Nov. 8th
Two training times offered – 12:00-2:00 and 3:00-5:00
Portland Coalition Against Poverty is offering an organizing 101 training. The focus will be on consciousness raising and grassroots movement building in the post-election era. If you’re wondering what comes next, or looking to organize in a more focused fashion, this is a great training to attend. What problems do you see in your community? In your home? In your family? At your place of work? Will they be solved by the new administration? How can you solve them at the local level? If you’re troubled by what you see, or are eager to make empowering change happen, this training will meet help keep your fire burning. We’ll be discussing consciousness raising, communication styles, and power dynamics, but the folks who attend will be setting most of the agenda. Sliding scale, no one turned away. RSVP if possible. We have room for 60 folks at each training.
PDXCAP@gmail.com
503.839.3670
Power is the ability to enact change
Portland Coalition Against Poverty is offering an organizing 101 training. The focus will be on consciousness raising and grassroots movement building in the post-election era. If you’re wondering what comes next, or looking to organize in a more focused fashion, this is a great training to attend. What problems do you see in your community? In your home? In your family? At your place of work? Will they be solved by the new administration? How can you solve them at the local level? If you’re troubled by what you see, or are eager to make empowering change happen, this training will meet help keep your fire burning. We’ll be discussing consciousness raising, communication styles, and power dynamics, but the folks who attend will be setting most of the agenda. Sliding scale, no one turned away. RSVP if possible. We have room for 60 folks at each training.
PDXCAP@gmail.com
503.839.3670
Power is the ability to enact change
Monday, November 3, 2008
"Voice of a Mountain" documentary this week at the GHC
Hi beautifuls! Many many thanks to everyone who was able to make it out this week to the GHC; it certainly was a busy one. Our first of many Open Mic Nights was a great success, lots of music played, some poetry read, and lovely people to boot. We'd also like to thank Defend Oregon for taking time out of their busy election schedule to make it out and breakdown many of this years confusing ballot measures. In addition, thank you thank you thank you to Dr. Atomics Medicine Show for coming out and putting on a great and funny show Saturday evening; if you haven't seen these people before it's well worth your time. Finally, thanks to those who were able to make it out for an off and on rainy day garden work party; lots of progress made!!!
This week at the GHC we will be showing a powerful documentary titled "Voice of a Mountain," which talks about the development of the community Santa Anita. We'll also be having a person who lived in the community come speak about the community and their cause. Here is what their website has to say about the film:
"Voice of a Mountain is a video documentary of the lives of rural Guatemalan coffee farmers who took up arms against their government in a civil war that lasted 36 years. This documentary explores Guatemala's dark history from the perspective of those who saw armed revolution as their only hope for change in a poverty-ridden nation under years of military dictatorship. Ex-combatants talk about the bleak reality of the country that led to their involvement in the war, and the response of genocide from the Guatemalan government against its people. The documentary gives insight into their motives for joining an armed conflict as interviews reveal personal accounts of struggle, hope, tragedy, and the fruits of their resistance. Voice of a Mountain documents the reality of rural Guatemala in the wake of the civil war. It looks at the ideals and goals of patriots who fought against their government with the goal of changing their country and asks if they achieved what they were fighting for. The societal conditions that led to civil war are compared with the reality of three rural communities in present day Guatemala in an attempt to discover if conditions for the majority of those living in the country today have changed since the signing of the Peace Accords. The day-to-day realities of these three different communities who find their livelihood intricately connected to agricultural labor are documented, as they cope with the struggles of poverty, increasing debt, decreasing job opportunities, and the temptation to migrate north in search of a better life for their children."
There are also many other beautiful things happening in Portland this week as well. One of which is Siren Nation "Women's Music and Arts Festival" which runs today through November 9th; for more info go to www.sirennation.com. In addition, Green House resident Sarah and the band she's playing with has a show at Wonder Ballroom on November 8th; cost is $15 but will most certainly be worth it. For other events happening at the GHC and in Portland check out our blog at www.thegreenhousecollective.blogspot.com
What: Documentary and Vegan Potluck
When: Thursday Nov. 6th beginning at 5:30
Where: 4407 SE Tibbetts St, off the Clinton St bike superhighway, and bus lines # 4, 9, 75, and 14
In peace and solidarity,
The Green House Collective
This week at the GHC we will be showing a powerful documentary titled "Voice of a Mountain," which talks about the development of the community Santa Anita. We'll also be having a person who lived in the community come speak about the community and their cause. Here is what their website has to say about the film:
"Voice of a Mountain is a video documentary of the lives of rural Guatemalan coffee farmers who took up arms against their government in a civil war that lasted 36 years. This documentary explores Guatemala's dark history from the perspective of those who saw armed revolution as their only hope for change in a poverty-ridden nation under years of military dictatorship. Ex-combatants talk about the bleak reality of the country that led to their involvement in the war, and the response of genocide from the Guatemalan government against its people. The documentary gives insight into their motives for joining an armed conflict as interviews reveal personal accounts of struggle, hope, tragedy, and the fruits of their resistance. Voice of a Mountain documents the reality of rural Guatemala in the wake of the civil war. It looks at the ideals and goals of patriots who fought against their government with the goal of changing their country and asks if they achieved what they were fighting for. The societal conditions that led to civil war are compared with the reality of three rural communities in present day Guatemala in an attempt to discover if conditions for the majority of those living in the country today have changed since the signing of the Peace Accords. The day-to-day realities of these three different communities who find their livelihood intricately connected to agricultural labor are documented, as they cope with the struggles of poverty, increasing debt, decreasing job opportunities, and the temptation to migrate north in search of a better life for their children."
There are also many other beautiful things happening in Portland this week as well. One of which is Siren Nation "Women's Music and Arts Festival" which runs today through November 9th; for more info go to www.sirennation.com. In addition, Green House resident Sarah and the band she's playing with has a show at Wonder Ballroom on November 8th; cost is $15 but will most certainly be worth it. For other events happening at the GHC and in Portland check out our blog at www.thegreenhousecollective.blogspot.com
What: Documentary and Vegan Potluck
When: Thursday Nov. 6th beginning at 5:30
Where: 4407 SE Tibbetts St, off the Clinton St bike superhighway, and bus lines # 4, 9, 75, and 14
In peace and solidarity,
The Green House Collective
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Nonviolence Is the Right Choice-- It Works
Nonviolence Is The Right Choice—It Works
By Amitabh Pal, October 30, 2008
Nonviolent resistance is not only the morally superior choice. It is also twice as effective as the violent variety.
That's the startling and reassuring discovery by Maria Stephan and Erica Chenoweth, who analyzed an astonishing 323 resistance campaigns from 1900 to 2006.
"Our findings show that major nonviolent campaigns have achieved success 53 percent of the time, compared with 26 percent for violent resistance campaigns," the authors note in the journal International Security. (The study is available as a PDF file at http://www.nonviolent-conflict.org)
The result is not that surprising, once you listen to the researchers' reasoning. "First, a campaign's commitment to nonviolent methods enhances its domestic and international legitimacy and encourages more broad-based participation in
the resistance, which translates into increased pressure being brought to bear on the target," they state. "Second, whereas governments easily justify violent counterattacks against armed insurgents, regime violence against nonviolent movements is more likely to backfire against the regime."
In an interesting aside that has relevance for our times, the authors also write that, "Our study does not explicitly compare terrorism to nonviolent resistance, but our argument sheds light on why terrorism has been so unsuccessful."
To their credit, the authors don't gloss over nonviolent campaigns that haven't been successes. They give a clear-eyed assessment of the failure so far of the nonviolent movement in Burma, one of the three detailed case studies in the piece, along with East Timor and the Philippines.
In some sense, the authors have subjected to statistical analysis the notions of Gene Sharp, an influential Boston-based proponent of nonviolent change, someone they cite frequently in the footnotes. In his work, Sharp stresses the practical utility of nonviolence, de-emphasizing the moral aspects of it. He even asserts that for Gandhi, nonviolence was more of a pragmatic tool than a matter of principle, painting a picture that's at variance with much of Gandhian scholarship. In an interview with me in 2006, Sharp declared that he derives his precepts from Gandhi himself.
Gandhi's use of nonviolence "was pure pragmatism," Sharp told me. "At the end of his life, he defends himself. He was accused of holding on to nonviolent means because of his religious belief. He says no. He says, I presented this as a political means of action, and that's what I'm saying today. And it's a misrepresentation to say that I presented this as a purely
religious approach. He was very upset about that."
One of the authors of the study, Maria Stephan, is at the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. The group's founders wrote a related book a few years ago, "A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict." Erica Chenoweth
is at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
This study is manna for those of us who believe in nonviolent resistance as a method of social change. We don't have to justify it on moral grounds any more. The reason is even simpler now: Nonviolence is much more successful.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Call out for LNG help
Hello PDX LNG Working Group :
We are very excited about the LNG bill that is being drafted for the 2009 legislative session and now we need your support!
I will provide below a brief description of the bill and am attaching the current bill summary for you all to look over if you like.
In order to gain support from legislators and representatives we are hoping to supply them with a long list of Oregon residents who support the passage of this bill. Please consider endorsing this bill -- it's simple, just add your name to a growing list of supporters and we will take care of the rest! I am hoping to have this list together by November 10th so please respond promptly.
If you would like to add your name to a list of folks throughout Oregon who are supporting government representatives in passing this bill, please reply to oliviariver@gmail.com and include the following information:
Your Name
Your home address (not mailing)
Your occupation
I am hoping to gather upwards of 200 names for this effort and would greatly appreciate y'all taking the time to respond.
In the near future I will be following up this effort by organizing folks to contact their current (and elected) representatives and legislators -- keep your eye out for that request in mid November. At that time I will provide contact information and talking points for conversations with legislators who can make a difference by supporting the passage of this bill.
Current title and description of LNG bill:
Ensuring Public Benefits in Liquid Natural Gas Permitting
This bill is not an outright ban of LNG in Oregon, but it requires certain considerations and protections be assured in the siting of LNG infrastructure. The bill clarifies and strengthens the authority of state agencies in the LNG siting process.
Three key requirements laid out in the current draft include:
1) State of Oregon must prove a need for the specific LNG terminal prior to granting the right to any natural resources that exist in the public trust (ie water rights, land leases or dredge/fill in wetlands)
2)Protects natural resource values from degradation due to operation of terminals
(ie water quality and health of fisheries)
3)Protects communities by prohibiting siting of LNG terminals where high-sensitivity structures exist within the federally recognized fire-zone (ie schools, hospitals, elder care facilities)
I greatly appreciate all of your support in this effort and all that you do to fight LNG and related pipelines in Oregon and Southern Washington!
Please reply soon with your endorsement of this very important legislation -- let's keep the Pacific NW free of LNG!
Feel free to contact me with questions.
-Olivia Schmidt
Columbia River Clean Energy Coalition
oliviariver@gmail.com
(971)533-2390
Monday, October 27, 2008
This week at the GHC
Hi lovelys,
Thanks to all who made it out last week for the film screening and discussion on the documentary "A Force More Powerful." If you were unable to make it out and still would like to see the film, we have it and many others available for check out through our film library; we have books available too!!!
This week at the GHC is going to be a busy one. This Thursday Oct. 30th begins the first week of Open Mic Nights at the GHC on the last Thursday of each month. All are welcome to play, speak, listen. . . Potluck begins at 5:30 and the Mic turns on at 7.
Then on Saturday Nov. 1st we are having an all day event. Beginning at Noon (12-3) we're having a breakfast gathering; so if you partied a little too much on Halloween or are just hungry, and you need some good healthy food to get motivated for day come on by with a vege dish or just your empty stomachs. After breakfast there is a chance the Beehive Collective may be here to do a presentation (still workin of this one so nothing set in stone yet). Then at 3-6pm we have a couple different organizations coming to dissect all the Oregon ballot measures. If you have yet to send in your ballots we encourage holding off til then so you'll have a better understanding of what these measures are actually proposing. From 6-7pm is the vegan potluck. Then at 7pm we have the political satire theatrical group Dr. Atomics Medicine Show (www.myspace.com/doctoratomics) with some awesome entertainment regarding this years elections. After they are done we'll have some jam time ahead of us, so please feel free to bring some instruments. It's going to be an action packed day of fun, so come to one of them, come to all of them, either way we would love to see all your beautiful faces.
On Sunday Nov. 2nd @10am we wrap up the week and the harvest season with a garden workparty. Our dear friend and community member Matt B from Tryon Farm will be here to help and assist in the redesign overhaul of our garden out back. We are going for a permaculture design to increase productivity and a more sustainable future. So if your interested in learning some basics of permaculture, want to play in some dirt, maybe roll around in some leaves, come to the GHC this Sunday at 10am (if you can't make it out that early, no worries come whenever, we'll be at it all day). Also, if you have gardening tools please feel free to bring what you can as we have a limited supply.
Certainly a busy week at the GHC but there are also many other beautiful things happening outside of our house; for more information check out the community events calendar on our blog at www.thegreenhousecollective.blogspot.com
In peace and solidarity,
The Green House Collective
Thanks to all who made it out last week for the film screening and discussion on the documentary "A Force More Powerful." If you were unable to make it out and still would like to see the film, we have it and many others available for check out through our film library; we have books available too!!!
This week at the GHC is going to be a busy one. This Thursday Oct. 30th begins the first week of Open Mic Nights at the GHC on the last Thursday of each month. All are welcome to play, speak, listen. . . Potluck begins at 5:30 and the Mic turns on at 7.
Then on Saturday Nov. 1st we are having an all day event. Beginning at Noon (12-3) we're having a breakfast gathering; so if you partied a little too much on Halloween or are just hungry, and you need some good healthy food to get motivated for day come on by with a vege dish or just your empty stomachs. After breakfast there is a chance the Beehive Collective may be here to do a presentation (still workin of this one so nothing set in stone yet). Then at 3-6pm we have a couple different organizations coming to dissect all the Oregon ballot measures. If you have yet to send in your ballots we encourage holding off til then so you'll have a better understanding of what these measures are actually proposing. From 6-7pm is the vegan potluck. Then at 7pm we have the political satire theatrical group Dr. Atomics Medicine Show (www.myspace.com/doctoratomics) with some awesome entertainment regarding this years elections. After they are done we'll have some jam time ahead of us, so please feel free to bring some instruments. It's going to be an action packed day of fun, so come to one of them, come to all of them, either way we would love to see all your beautiful faces.
On Sunday Nov. 2nd @10am we wrap up the week and the harvest season with a garden workparty. Our dear friend and community member Matt B from Tryon Farm will be here to help and assist in the redesign overhaul of our garden out back. We are going for a permaculture design to increase productivity and a more sustainable future. So if your interested in learning some basics of permaculture, want to play in some dirt, maybe roll around in some leaves, come to the GHC this Sunday at 10am (if you can't make it out that early, no worries come whenever, we'll be at it all day). Also, if you have gardening tools please feel free to bring what you can as we have a limited supply.
Certainly a busy week at the GHC but there are also many other beautiful things happening outside of our house; for more information check out the community events calendar on our blog at www.thegreenhousecollective.blogspot.com
In peace and solidarity,
The Green House Collective
Monday, October 20, 2008
Movie night at the Green House Collective
Hi lovelys,
Thanks to all who came to share in our vision last week. We wanted to let you in the past we had not been meeting on the last Thursday of each month, but beginning next week this is not the case. Next Thursday begins our first Open Mic Night at the GHC. Like all events this is substance free as well.
This week at the GHC we will be showing "A Force More Powerful." Here is what the website has to say about the film:
A Force More Powerful explores how popular movements battled entrenched regimes and military forces with weapons very different from guns and bullets. Strikes, boycotts, and other actions were used as aggressive measures to battle opponents and win concessions. Petitions, parades, walkouts and demonstrations roused public support for the resisters. Forms of non-cooperation including civil disobedience helped subvert the operations of government, and direct intervention in the form of sit-ins, nonviolent sabotage, and blockades have frustrated many rulers' efforts to suppress people.
The historical results were massive: tyrants toppled, governments overthrown, occupying armies impeded, and political systems that withheld human rights shattered. Entire societies were transformed, suddenly or gradually, by nonviolent resistance that destroyed opponents' ability to control events. These events and the ideas underlying nonviolent action are the focus of this three-hour documentary production.
The series begins in 1907 with a young Mohandas Gandhi, the most influential leader in the history of nonviolent resistance, as he rouses his fellow Indians living in South Africa to a nonviolent struggle against racial oppression. The series recounts Gandhi's civil disobedience campaign against the British in India; the sit-ins and boycotts that desegregated downtown Nashville, Tennessee; the nonviolent campaign against apartheid in South Africa; Danish resistance to the Nazis in World War II; the rise of Solidarity in Poland; and the momentous victory for democracy in Chile. A Force More Powerful also introduces several extraordinary, but largely unknown individuals who drove these great events forward.
YEAH FOR NON-VIOLENCE!!!
What: Vegan Potluck at 5:30, film begins at 7pm
Where: THE GHC 4407 SE Tibbetts St, conveniently located of Clinton St Bike superhighway, bus lines 4, 9, 75, and 14 (please go by pedal power or public transportation or commute with other Green House folks)
When: Thursday Oct 23rd
In Peace and solidarity,
The GHC
Thanks to all who came to share in our vision last week. We wanted to let you in the past we had not been meeting on the last Thursday of each month, but beginning next week this is not the case. Next Thursday begins our first Open Mic Night at the GHC. Like all events this is substance free as well.
This week at the GHC we will be showing "A Force More Powerful." Here is what the website has to say about the film:
A Force More Powerful explores how popular movements battled entrenched regimes and military forces with weapons very different from guns and bullets. Strikes, boycotts, and other actions were used as aggressive measures to battle opponents and win concessions. Petitions, parades, walkouts and demonstrations roused public support for the resisters. Forms of non-cooperation including civil disobedience helped subvert the operations of government, and direct intervention in the form of sit-ins, nonviolent sabotage, and blockades have frustrated many rulers' efforts to suppress people.
The historical results were massive: tyrants toppled, governments overthrown, occupying armies impeded, and political systems that withheld human rights shattered. Entire societies were transformed, suddenly or gradually, by nonviolent resistance that destroyed opponents' ability to control events. These events and the ideas underlying nonviolent action are the focus of this three-hour documentary production.
The series begins in 1907 with a young Mohandas Gandhi, the most influential leader in the history of nonviolent resistance, as he rouses his fellow Indians living in South Africa to a nonviolent struggle against racial oppression. The series recounts Gandhi's civil disobedience campaign against the British in India; the sit-ins and boycotts that desegregated downtown Nashville, Tennessee; the nonviolent campaign against apartheid in South Africa; Danish resistance to the Nazis in World War II; the rise of Solidarity in Poland; and the momentous victory for democracy in Chile. A Force More Powerful also introduces several extraordinary, but largely unknown individuals who drove these great events forward.
YEAH FOR NON-VIOLENCE!!!
What: Vegan Potluck at 5:30, film begins at 7pm
Where: THE GHC 4407 SE Tibbetts St, conveniently located of Clinton St Bike superhighway, bus lines 4, 9, 75, and 14 (please go by pedal power or public transportation or commute with other Green House folks)
When: Thursday Oct 23rd
In Peace and solidarity,
The GHC
Friday, October 17, 2008
City of Portland goes Sweatshop Free
*Portland passes the First Sweatshop Free Ordinance in the Pacific Northwest*
*Proactive policy will help ensure taxpayer dollars are not spent on
sweatshop labor*
At yesterday's Portland City Council meeting, Wednesday, October 15, at 9:30 a.m., the Portland Sweatshop Free Purchasing Policy passed unanimously. The policy requires city agencies to procure public employee uniforms and other apparel only from those companies that disclose the locations of their manufacturing facilities and abide by ethical sourcing practices. Portland is the first city in the Pacific Northwest to adopt an ordinance for sweatshop free purchasing.
The policy has been promoted by the Portland Sweatfree Campaign, endorsed by 45 organizations, including labor, faith, and community organizations. On August 29, 2007, the Portland Sweatfree Campaign presented a resolution that City Council passed unanimously. The resolution established the Portland Sweatshop Free Policy Committee, which met regularly to craft the policy presented to City Council today. Community testimonies were shared by Arthur Stamoulis from the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign, Ed Hall-Vice President of the Portland Fighter Fighters Association Local 43, Rev. Kate Lore of First Unitarian Church-Portland, J. Ashlee Albies from the National Lawyers Guild, Jeff Baer the Chief Procurement Official for the Portland Bureau of Purchases, and Bjorn Cleason - Executive Director of SweatFree Communities,
read by Elizabeth Swager- Coordinator of Sweatfree NW.
The Portland Sweatfree Policy established a strong code of conduct for garment workers that make uniforms for city police, firefighters and other uniform wearing public employees. As former sweatshop worker Chie Abad testified at last year's hearing to pass the resolution, "Inside the factory, we had not ventilation at all. We drank rain water. And we had a quota system that we had to finish every hour. I also used to live in a squalid, unsanitary, overcrowded barrack. And most of all, women are fired if they got pregnant." The code of conduct addresses human rights violations such as these by requiring the adherence of local labor laws, ILO and UN
Conventions and codes of conduct including, but not limited to, freedom of association, health and safety on the job and just cause termination.
Commissioner Sam Adams said, "This is a start." While today's policy covers only apparel, Adams expressed his intention to eventually expand the policy to cover the many other items the City purchases. Commissioner Randy Leonard expressed particular appreciation for the policy's recognition of workers' rights to free association and collective union bargaining.
Ed Hall, a member of the Portland Sweatfree Policy Drafting Committee said, "As a firefighter I took an oath to protect the people who live and work in Portland from fires and disasters of all origins. Whether it is responding to emergencies or working to prevent them, we are committed to public safety. So it is important to me that the uniform I wear is made by a company that shares these values and is committed to safe, decent working conditions and fair wages. By establishing a policy that rules out companies that use child labor, abuse their workers and fail to pay a fair wages, I believe a real difference will be made in the lives of those who produce the uniforms we wear. I know we can do better than buying our goods and services from sweatshops, and I expect our City Commissioners agree."
Gavin White, a Democratic Party activist said, "In adopting this policy, Portland renews its commitment as a founding member of the State and Local Government Sweatfree Consortium. Consortium participants pool their purchasing power to create economies of scale and make a viable market for sweatfree manufacturing. In this emerging global market, we will build long-term relationships with responsible suppliers by working with local experts around the world to correct labor-rights violations."
Thursday, October 16, 2008
In Other Words Bookstore: October Events
SUPPORT GROUP: The National Vulvar Vestibulitis Organization
Facilitated Group 7:00 pm
This Month: October 1st The National Vulvar Vestibulitis Organization
is a 501(c)3 committed to providing support and awareness for VVS. We
provide information about Vulvar Vestibulitis Syndrome and its
symptoms, treatments, and the stories of us women who survive and
thrive through this disorder. VVS is a pain condition that is
localized in the opening of the vagina. The National Institute of
Health estimates that 6 million women have this condition. Is sex
painful? Do you experience vaginal pain during everyday activities? If
you have intense itching, burning, and/or pain upon touch you may have
VVS.
Our main service is providing face-to-face support groups to help
women cope with VVS. It is a life-changing event that affects every
aspect of your life, and you shouldn't have to go through it alone.
The NVVO has created a caring, nurturing community of women who can
help guide you through the challenges of living with VVS. The
meetings are open to women only. If you'd like more information you
can visit our website and blog! http://www.nvvo.net or
http://nvvo.wordpress.com
EVERY TUESDAY & THURSDAY MORNINGS: Community Yoga Classes 9:00-10:00 am
Now adding Thursday morning classes!!! Come and enjoy Yoga as a
Transformative Art & Way of Being—an evolutionary and integral
practice of Hatha, Kriya and Intuitive Movement with Elaina Beam.
* Explore the foundations and simple graces of asana (postures).
* Experience the profound effects of pranayama (breath work).
* Merge with your inner world through dhyana (meditation).
All level classes offer tools for developing flexibility of both body
and mind, while building strength, self-acceptance and peace. Simply
bring willingness and your beautiful self! Shanti! Suggested donation:
$5-$10—no one turned away!
FIRST THURSDAYS: Queer Polyamory Discussion Group 6:30 pm
This Month: October 2nd If you have ever wondered "How do I do this
polyamory/open-relationship/non-monogamy thing?"...you are not alone.
Join us with your experiences, questions and ideas- they are an
important resource for this group. Those who attend will help
determine what topics we focus on—which could include: agreements,
consent and communication; jealousy; support; safer sex; struggles and
joys and survivor issues. Whether you have been practicing ethical
sluttery for years, or are just starting to think about it, you are
welcome. Open to all trans, pansexual, lesbian, gay and queer folks.
All ages encouraged. Hosted by: franciszka fierce- a local slut,
artist/writer and facilitator extraordinaire.
EVERY SUNDAYS: Homorobics 11:00 am
Don't miss "Homorobics" led by Sarah Shapiro and Nicole J.
Georges--Physically strengthening our community in a feminist, queer,
& body friendly environment with an emphasis on enjoyment... not
weight loss! Homorobics caters to our peers and delivers
beginner-level fitness through jazzercise, aerobics, and Freedom
Sweatpants Dance. Please bring a towel and hand weights (or bricks) if
you've got 'em. Sliding—scale donation $2-4.
DISCUSSION GROUP: The Portland Feminism Discussion Group 6:30-8:00 pm
This Month: October 5th Feminism Discussion Group facilitated by Jen
Moore to be held on the first
Sunday of every month at 6:30pm-8:00 pm (Oct 5th). This discussion
group is a free flowing, exchange of ideas on a topic which we pick
each month. Next month's topic is: the media's portrayal of women. We
are a friendly group with new members joining all the time. This
meeting is open to only women. If you consider yourself female
identified, you are welcome.
The Portland Feminist Discussion group can be contact at
www.facebook.com. It's easy: 1. Log on (or create a free account if
you don't have on already). 2. In the search field, type "groups" 3.
Within "groups" narrow your search field by selecting the "Portland,
OR" network. 4. Search for " Portland Feminist Meet-up" group and
join. 5. On that page you'll see links to our meetings, RSVP for the
"August Feminism Discussion Group" 6. Pass on this info to your
friends.
MONTHLY MEETING: Code Pink Meeting 6:30 pm
This Month: October 7th
CONCERT: Magic Mama 7:00-8:30pm
This Month: October 9th An hour and a half of original music with a
few "twisted" covers thrown in (i.e. a remake of John Denver: Thank
Goddess I'm a Country Girl!) Throughout the performance, Magic Mama
will invite the audience to play along using instruments she provides
such as empty cheese puff bags and used water filters. Magic Mama
performs Organic Hip Hop and World Beats for the Whole Family.
Through her music, MAGIC MAMA delivers an empowering and hope-filled
message of love and respect for all and inspires creative thinking and
Earth-Friendly actions. Traveling across the country with her
children in a car that runs on waste vegetable oil, Magic Mama is
promoting her new CD "Rodeo deGaia" and performing eco-feminist
acoustic music from her upcoming "Kjersten" album. Visit
www.magicmamamusic.com for a "Rodeo deGaia" music sampler! More
information also available at www.myspace.com/magicmamamusic
SECOND FRIDAYS: Dirty Queer 6:30 pm
This Month: October 10th Dirty Queer is an X rated open mic: a place
to celebrate sexuality and strut your creative stuff! Hosted by
renegade writer and poet Sossity Chiricuzio, Dirty Queer is proven
itself to be a thought provoking evening of excitement, laughter and
full body shivers. We're looking for queer erotic entertainers of all
sorts: dancers, jugglers, singers, musicians, comics, poets,
storytellers, magicians, gender performers ... if you can do it in
5-10 minutes or less (w/ minimal props/equip), this open mic's for
you!
Need a dose of Dirty Queer sooner than that? Come check out our
photos, samples, bios, YouTube videos, and our new Podcast! All this
and more on our website: www.dirtyqueer.com. It's highly recommended
to bring your own folding chairs if you can, as we average 85
people/month. Everyone who attends has a chance to win door prizes
from local businesses! IOW asks for a donation of $1-$5/person for
this event, and more donations are always welcome. Caveats: 18+,
consent is key, no hate speech.
SECOND MONDAYS: OLIN Study Group 6:00 pm
This Month: October 13th Join us as we will discuss such issues as the
current uprising in Oaxaca, the Zapatistas and la otra campana,
neoliberalism, social movements in Mexico, and border issues. This
study group is brought to you by Olin, a collective focusing on
Oaxaca. Olin is a working group of Portland Sin Fronteras Portland
whose focus as a group lies in building and understanding the border
and in fighting white supremacy. Their aim is to combat capitalism as
a system of domination and to link the anti-capitalist struggles of
Latin America to our own struggles here at home.
AUTHOR READING & WORKSHOP: Using Power to Enhance Your Sexual
Relationship 7:00pm
This Month: October 14th I.G. Frederick, author of Broken and
Shattered, has given presentations at Leatherwoods, the Center for Sex
Positive Culture, Paradise Unbound, and Folsom Fringe. Using Power
Exchange to Enhance Your Sexual Relationships: Consensually giving and
accepting sexual control to/from one's partner can be an amazing
aphrodisiac whatever the genders involved. This presentation will
discuss the eroticism of power exchange and how to make it part of
your sexual experience. As a lifestyle Dominant, she uses power
exchange in relationships with both males and females. Workshop
suggested donation is sliding scale $1-5 for workshop.
ONE TIME A MONTH on WEDNESDAYS: Women Writing for (a) Change 7:00 pm
This Month: October 15th Women Writing for (a) Change inspires women
and girls to craft more conscious lives through the art of writing and
the practices of community. This mission is rooted in the knowledge
that the well-being of women and girls has a positive effect on
families, institutions, and the planet.
WWf(a)C circles provide communities within which writers develop their
skills, strengthen their voices, enhance their health, and learn to
appreciate their capacity to create positive change in all spheres.
The emphasis of the class is on authentic voice, community- building,
and the exploration of writing as a creative, therapeutic or spiritual
practice and a tool of social change. Please come and experience the
safe and supportive environment that will inspire writing, careful
listening and respect for each woman's words. For more information
about Wwf (a)C in Portland, go to http://www.womenwritingwest.com.
Pre-registration is requested but drop-ins are also welcome. To
register go to info@womenwritingwest.com . WWf(a)C is a writing school
and community of writers that began in Cincinnati, OH in 1991. Karen
Waters, experienced in and licensed to use the WWf (a)C processes, is
bringing this community to Portland.
THIRD FRIDAYS: The Feminist Film Society 6:30 pm
This Month: October 17th The Feminist Film Society is a group of folks
who watch a variety of movies and discuss them with feminism in mind.
Arrive at 6:30 for a sweet trivia type game to get you thinking about
the night's movie. The screening starts at 7:00 with discussion to
follow. This month we will be watching MONSOON WEDDING (2001, Mira
Nair). In this vibrant and honest story extended family return to
Delhi for Lalit Verma's (Naseeruddin Shah) traditional Punjabi
wedding. It's frustration, flirtation, and family secrets as a
brilliant director with a feminist agenda depicts everyday compromises
between tradition and modernity. English and Hindi with English
subtitles. All are welcome. Suggested donation is $1-$5 sliding scale
to support the bookstore—with no one turned away. For more information
check out:
www.feministfilmsociety.blogspot.com.
LECTURE SERIES: Pract*US, daily practices for creating the beloved
community 6:30 pm
This Month: October 23rd All About Community presents a fall lecture
series called: Pract*US, daily practices for creating the beloved
community. Dr. King said "our goal is to create beloved community and
this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a
quantitative change in our lives". This series of lectures is
designed to give people the information and tools to bring the change
to our souls. This change will transform our lives and our
communities. Roslyn Farrington, Founder of All About Community and
Faculty member of the PSU Women's Studies Department will present this
series of lectures. Roslyn's personal mission is to build the beloved
community. Roslyn's students find her to be inspiring and
motivational.
WORKSHOP: Healing the Ancestral Lines facilitated by Christina Pratt 1:00-4:00pm
This Month: October 25th All of our unresolved history of violence,
injustice, and suffering is held in our ancestral lines and impacts on
our lives today. You can unconsciously repeat the patterns of your
ancestors or you can heal them. By healing the ancestral line with
intention, you free your own health and well-being, allowing a
reconnection with your soul's unique purpose. Shaman, author, and
teacher Christina Pratt explores ancestral energies, and how shamanic
skill can be used to resolve their need for healing, bringing freedom
to the past, present and future of your family lines. Author of An
Encyclopedia of Shamanism, Christina Pratt is the director of
Portland-based Last Mask Center for Shamanic Healing. Pratt is a
skilled healer and teacher of exceptional clarity, humor, and
inspiration. Her teaching focus is shamanism as a path of mastery.
Workshop Fee is $30.00.
AUTHOR READING: Knowing Pains: Women on Love, Sex and Work in Our 40's
This Month: October 30th Stories by three local writers, Ana Ammann,
Kym Croft Miller and Natalie Serber, have made their way into a new
book, "Knowing Pains: Women on Love, Sex and Work in Our 40s". The
works of these Portlanders were chosen from nearly 100 submissions as
contributions to the humorous, thoughtful and diverse collection of
essays by real women from across the country who, as the book's
subtitle suggests, are "old enough to know better, but young enough to
do something about it." From tattoos to affairs; motherhood to mayhem;
alcoholism to eating disorders – and everything in between – the
book's real women in their 40s aren't afraid to tell it like it is.
Ana Ammann is a business consultant, published music journalist and
advocate of women in the arts – coordinating Portland's "Support Women
Artists Now" (SWAN) Day celebration, and contributing to the
leadership of the Siren Nation Festival and Portland Women's Film
Festival (POW Fest). Ammann writes about rediscovering her passion for
music after helping to organize the first Rock & Roll Camp for Girls
in Portland in Strung Together.
Kym Croft Miller has produced articles for Portland Monthly Magazine
and The Northwest Earth Institute, in addition to teaching
poetry/writing workshops in Portland schools and the Oregon Writing
Festival. In her thoughtful essay, Miller shares how she and her
husband survived their "Who Had the Worst Day" contest.
Natalie Serber has received several awards for her writing, including
the Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction and the John Steinbeck Award for
Fiction. In My Hair Experiment, Serber shares her experience of
saying "no" to vanity and "yes" to grey hair - learning more about
herself than she anticipated along the way. She is currently working
on her first novel.
Of the 32 essayists featured in the book, almost all have been touched
by this debilitating disease in some way:
89% have been personally impacted by the breast cancer epidemic.
37% have had breast cancer, or a breast cancer scare.
56% have had a family member with the disease; and more than 70% have
had a friend or colleague afflicted.
100% of all Knowing Pains profits will be donated to Breast Cancer
Action (www.bcaction.org) to support breast cancer education and
advocacy.
LAST FRIDAYS: Luna Music Series—Showcase of local female musicians 7:00 pm
This Month: October 31st For this month's featured artists check out:
www.myspace.com/lunamusicseries
***As you know In Other Words Women's Books and Resources is a
non-profit. In fact, we are the only surviving non-profit women's
bookstore in this country. And we are among a dwindling number of
for-profit women's bookstores. In an effort to become more
sustainable we have decided to charge a minimal fee for events held at
the store. IOW ask a suggested donation of $1-$5 sliding scale for
store events, unless otherwise noted. No one is ever turned away.
All are welcome***
Facilitated Group 7:00 pm
This Month: October 1st The National Vulvar Vestibulitis Organization
is a 501(c)3 committed to providing support and awareness for VVS. We
provide information about Vulvar Vestibulitis Syndrome and its
symptoms, treatments, and the stories of us women who survive and
thrive through this disorder. VVS is a pain condition that is
localized in the opening of the vagina. The National Institute of
Health estimates that 6 million women have this condition. Is sex
painful? Do you experience vaginal pain during everyday activities? If
you have intense itching, burning, and/or pain upon touch you may have
VVS.
Our main service is providing face-to-face support groups to help
women cope with VVS. It is a life-changing event that affects every
aspect of your life, and you shouldn't have to go through it alone.
The NVVO has created a caring, nurturing community of women who can
help guide you through the challenges of living with VVS. The
meetings are open to women only. If you'd like more information you
can visit our website and blog! http://www.nvvo.net or
http://nvvo.wordpress.com
EVERY TUESDAY & THURSDAY MORNINGS: Community Yoga Classes 9:00-10:00 am
Now adding Thursday morning classes!!! Come and enjoy Yoga as a
Transformative Art & Way of Being—an evolutionary and integral
practice of Hatha, Kriya and Intuitive Movement with Elaina Beam.
* Explore the foundations and simple graces of asana (postures).
* Experience the profound effects of pranayama (breath work).
* Merge with your inner world through dhyana (meditation).
All level classes offer tools for developing flexibility of both body
and mind, while building strength, self-acceptance and peace. Simply
bring willingness and your beautiful self! Shanti! Suggested donation:
$5-$10—no one turned away!
FIRST THURSDAYS: Queer Polyamory Discussion Group 6:30 pm
This Month: October 2nd If you have ever wondered "How do I do this
polyamory/open-relationship/non-monogamy thing?"...you are not alone.
Join us with your experiences, questions and ideas- they are an
important resource for this group. Those who attend will help
determine what topics we focus on—which could include: agreements,
consent and communication; jealousy; support; safer sex; struggles and
joys and survivor issues. Whether you have been practicing ethical
sluttery for years, or are just starting to think about it, you are
welcome. Open to all trans, pansexual, lesbian, gay and queer folks.
All ages encouraged. Hosted by: franciszka fierce- a local slut,
artist/writer and facilitator extraordinaire.
EVERY SUNDAYS: Homorobics 11:00 am
Don't miss "Homorobics" led by Sarah Shapiro and Nicole J.
Georges--Physically strengthening our community in a feminist, queer,
& body friendly environment with an emphasis on enjoyment... not
weight loss! Homorobics caters to our peers and delivers
beginner-level fitness through jazzercise, aerobics, and Freedom
Sweatpants Dance. Please bring a towel and hand weights (or bricks) if
you've got 'em. Sliding—scale donation $2-4.
DISCUSSION GROUP: The Portland Feminism Discussion Group 6:30-8:00 pm
This Month: October 5th Feminism Discussion Group facilitated by Jen
Moore to be held on the first
Sunday of every month at 6:30pm-8:00 pm (Oct 5th). This discussion
group is a free flowing, exchange of ideas on a topic which we pick
each month. Next month's topic is: the media's portrayal of women. We
are a friendly group with new members joining all the time. This
meeting is open to only women. If you consider yourself female
identified, you are welcome.
The Portland Feminist Discussion group can be contact at
www.facebook.com. It's easy: 1. Log on (or create a free account if
you don't have on already). 2. In the search field, type "groups" 3.
Within "groups" narrow your search field by selecting the "Portland,
OR" network. 4. Search for " Portland Feminist Meet-up" group and
join. 5. On that page you'll see links to our meetings, RSVP for the
"August Feminism Discussion Group" 6. Pass on this info to your
friends.
MONTHLY MEETING: Code Pink Meeting 6:30 pm
This Month: October 7th
CONCERT: Magic Mama 7:00-8:30pm
This Month: October 9th An hour and a half of original music with a
few "twisted" covers thrown in (i.e. a remake of John Denver: Thank
Goddess I'm a Country Girl!) Throughout the performance, Magic Mama
will invite the audience to play along using instruments she provides
such as empty cheese puff bags and used water filters. Magic Mama
performs Organic Hip Hop and World Beats for the Whole Family.
Through her music, MAGIC MAMA delivers an empowering and hope-filled
message of love and respect for all and inspires creative thinking and
Earth-Friendly actions. Traveling across the country with her
children in a car that runs on waste vegetable oil, Magic Mama is
promoting her new CD "Rodeo deGaia" and performing eco-feminist
acoustic music from her upcoming "Kjersten" album. Visit
www.magicmamamusic.com for a "Rodeo deGaia" music sampler! More
information also available at www.myspace.com/magicmamamusic
SECOND FRIDAYS: Dirty Queer 6:30 pm
This Month: October 10th Dirty Queer is an X rated open mic: a place
to celebrate sexuality and strut your creative stuff! Hosted by
renegade writer and poet Sossity Chiricuzio, Dirty Queer is proven
itself to be a thought provoking evening of excitement, laughter and
full body shivers. We're looking for queer erotic entertainers of all
sorts: dancers, jugglers, singers, musicians, comics, poets,
storytellers, magicians, gender performers ... if you can do it in
5-10 minutes or less (w/ minimal props/equip), this open mic's for
you!
Need a dose of Dirty Queer sooner than that? Come check out our
photos, samples, bios, YouTube videos, and our new Podcast! All this
and more on our website: www.dirtyqueer.com. It's highly recommended
to bring your own folding chairs if you can, as we average 85
people/month. Everyone who attends has a chance to win door prizes
from local businesses! IOW asks for a donation of $1-$5/person for
this event, and more donations are always welcome. Caveats: 18+,
consent is key, no hate speech.
SECOND MONDAYS: OLIN Study Group 6:00 pm
This Month: October 13th Join us as we will discuss such issues as the
current uprising in Oaxaca, the Zapatistas and la otra campana,
neoliberalism, social movements in Mexico, and border issues. This
study group is brought to you by Olin, a collective focusing on
Oaxaca. Olin is a working group of Portland Sin Fronteras Portland
whose focus as a group lies in building and understanding the border
and in fighting white supremacy. Their aim is to combat capitalism as
a system of domination and to link the anti-capitalist struggles of
Latin America to our own struggles here at home.
AUTHOR READING & WORKSHOP: Using Power to Enhance Your Sexual
Relationship 7:00pm
This Month: October 14th I.G. Frederick, author of Broken and
Shattered, has given presentations at Leatherwoods, the Center for Sex
Positive Culture, Paradise Unbound, and Folsom Fringe. Using Power
Exchange to Enhance Your Sexual Relationships: Consensually giving and
accepting sexual control to/from one's partner can be an amazing
aphrodisiac whatever the genders involved. This presentation will
discuss the eroticism of power exchange and how to make it part of
your sexual experience. As a lifestyle Dominant, she uses power
exchange in relationships with both males and females. Workshop
suggested donation is sliding scale $1-5 for workshop.
ONE TIME A MONTH on WEDNESDAYS: Women Writing for (a) Change 7:00 pm
This Month: October 15th Women Writing for (a) Change inspires women
and girls to craft more conscious lives through the art of writing and
the practices of community. This mission is rooted in the knowledge
that the well-being of women and girls has a positive effect on
families, institutions, and the planet.
WWf(a)C circles provide communities within which writers develop their
skills, strengthen their voices, enhance their health, and learn to
appreciate their capacity to create positive change in all spheres.
The emphasis of the class is on authentic voice, community- building,
and the exploration of writing as a creative, therapeutic or spiritual
practice and a tool of social change. Please come and experience the
safe and supportive environment that will inspire writing, careful
listening and respect for each woman's words. For more information
about Wwf (a)C in Portland, go to http://www.womenwritingwest.com.
Pre-registration is requested but drop-ins are also welcome. To
register go to info@womenwritingwest.com . WWf(a)C is a writing school
and community of writers that began in Cincinnati, OH in 1991. Karen
Waters, experienced in and licensed to use the WWf (a)C processes, is
bringing this community to Portland.
THIRD FRIDAYS: The Feminist Film Society 6:30 pm
This Month: October 17th The Feminist Film Society is a group of folks
who watch a variety of movies and discuss them with feminism in mind.
Arrive at 6:30 for a sweet trivia type game to get you thinking about
the night's movie. The screening starts at 7:00 with discussion to
follow. This month we will be watching MONSOON WEDDING (2001, Mira
Nair). In this vibrant and honest story extended family return to
Delhi for Lalit Verma's (Naseeruddin Shah) traditional Punjabi
wedding. It's frustration, flirtation, and family secrets as a
brilliant director with a feminist agenda depicts everyday compromises
between tradition and modernity. English and Hindi with English
subtitles. All are welcome. Suggested donation is $1-$5 sliding scale
to support the bookstore—with no one turned away. For more information
check out:
www.feministfilmsociety.blogspot.com.
LECTURE SERIES: Pract*US, daily practices for creating the beloved
community 6:30 pm
This Month: October 23rd All About Community presents a fall lecture
series called: Pract*US, daily practices for creating the beloved
community. Dr. King said "our goal is to create beloved community and
this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a
quantitative change in our lives". This series of lectures is
designed to give people the information and tools to bring the change
to our souls. This change will transform our lives and our
communities. Roslyn Farrington, Founder of All About Community and
Faculty member of the PSU Women's Studies Department will present this
series of lectures. Roslyn's personal mission is to build the beloved
community. Roslyn's students find her to be inspiring and
motivational.
WORKSHOP: Healing the Ancestral Lines facilitated by Christina Pratt 1:00-4:00pm
This Month: October 25th All of our unresolved history of violence,
injustice, and suffering is held in our ancestral lines and impacts on
our lives today. You can unconsciously repeat the patterns of your
ancestors or you can heal them. By healing the ancestral line with
intention, you free your own health and well-being, allowing a
reconnection with your soul's unique purpose. Shaman, author, and
teacher Christina Pratt explores ancestral energies, and how shamanic
skill can be used to resolve their need for healing, bringing freedom
to the past, present and future of your family lines. Author of An
Encyclopedia of Shamanism, Christina Pratt is the director of
Portland-based Last Mask Center for Shamanic Healing. Pratt is a
skilled healer and teacher of exceptional clarity, humor, and
inspiration. Her teaching focus is shamanism as a path of mastery.
Workshop Fee is $30.00.
AUTHOR READING: Knowing Pains: Women on Love, Sex and Work in Our 40's
This Month: October 30th Stories by three local writers, Ana Ammann,
Kym Croft Miller and Natalie Serber, have made their way into a new
book, "Knowing Pains: Women on Love, Sex and Work in Our 40s". The
works of these Portlanders were chosen from nearly 100 submissions as
contributions to the humorous, thoughtful and diverse collection of
essays by real women from across the country who, as the book's
subtitle suggests, are "old enough to know better, but young enough to
do something about it." From tattoos to affairs; motherhood to mayhem;
alcoholism to eating disorders – and everything in between – the
book's real women in their 40s aren't afraid to tell it like it is.
Ana Ammann is a business consultant, published music journalist and
advocate of women in the arts – coordinating Portland's "Support Women
Artists Now" (SWAN) Day celebration, and contributing to the
leadership of the Siren Nation Festival and Portland Women's Film
Festival (POW Fest). Ammann writes about rediscovering her passion for
music after helping to organize the first Rock & Roll Camp for Girls
in Portland in Strung Together.
Kym Croft Miller has produced articles for Portland Monthly Magazine
and The Northwest Earth Institute, in addition to teaching
poetry/writing workshops in Portland schools and the Oregon Writing
Festival. In her thoughtful essay, Miller shares how she and her
husband survived their "Who Had the Worst Day" contest.
Natalie Serber has received several awards for her writing, including
the Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction and the John Steinbeck Award for
Fiction. In My Hair Experiment, Serber shares her experience of
saying "no" to vanity and "yes" to grey hair - learning more about
herself than she anticipated along the way. She is currently working
on her first novel.
Of the 32 essayists featured in the book, almost all have been touched
by this debilitating disease in some way:
89% have been personally impacted by the breast cancer epidemic.
37% have had breast cancer, or a breast cancer scare.
56% have had a family member with the disease; and more than 70% have
had a friend or colleague afflicted.
100% of all Knowing Pains profits will be donated to Breast Cancer
Action (www.bcaction.org) to support breast cancer education and
advocacy.
LAST FRIDAYS: Luna Music Series—Showcase of local female musicians 7:00 pm
This Month: October 31st For this month's featured artists check out:
www.myspace.com/lunamusicseries
***As you know In Other Words Women's Books and Resources is a
non-profit. In fact, we are the only surviving non-profit women's
bookstore in this country. And we are among a dwindling number of
for-profit women's bookstores. In an effort to become more
sustainable we have decided to charge a minimal fee for events held at
the store. IOW ask a suggested donation of $1-$5 sliding scale for
store events, unless otherwise noted. No one is ever turned away.
All are welcome***
LNG Update
Hello OCAPers and anti-LNGers:
This is an urgent call to action!
As many of you know, for the past several months the Water Resources
Department (WRD) has been considering an application from
NorthernStar/Bradwood Landing to take 15 Billion Gallons of water from the
Columbia River in it's first year. The WRD will also be responsible for
issuing permits for the continual use of 12 Billion gallons of water during
every year of Bradwood LNG operation. As a part of that application the
Oregon Department of Fish &Wildlife must make a determination on the impact
of that water right to fish in the affected area of the river.
*We believe that the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (ODFW) is poised
and ready to claim that NorthernStar's removal of billions of gallons of
water will not have a detrimental impact to fish. They are making this
evaluation based on inadequate information about the method by which that
water will be screened in an area that is crucial habitat for salmon.* The
information provided to that agency is that same information currently being
challenged by the State of Oregon, State of Washington, Columbia Riverkeeper
and Columbia Inter-Tribal Fish Commission as being incomplete in the EIS for
Bradwood Landing. The possibility of this move by the ODFW is completely out
of synch with Governor Kulongoski and the State of Oregon that are
petitioning for a rehearing by FERC based on the fact that the analsyis done
for this project is incomplete.
Please read the action alert and sample email below and contact the Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife today! They could make this decision at any
time within the next couple of weeks and they need to hear from you!
*Contact information for key decision makers are included in the alert
below.*
Thanks to all of you for responding to this call to action and for your
tireless efforts to protect our waterways and fish habitat from this
devastating project!
-Olivia Schmidt
Columbia Riverkeeper
(971)533-2390
oliviariver@gmail.com
This is an urgent call to action!
As many of you know, for the past several months the Water Resources
Department (WRD) has been considering an application from
NorthernStar/Bradwood Landing to take 15 Billion Gallons of water from the
Columbia River in it's first year. The WRD will also be responsible for
issuing permits for the continual use of 12 Billion gallons of water during
every year of Bradwood LNG operation. As a part of that application the
Oregon Department of Fish &Wildlife must make a determination on the impact
of that water right to fish in the affected area of the river.
*We believe that the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (ODFW) is poised
and ready to claim that NorthernStar's removal of billions of gallons of
water will not have a detrimental impact to fish. They are making this
evaluation based on inadequate information about the method by which that
water will be screened in an area that is crucial habitat for salmon.* The
information provided to that agency is that same information currently being
challenged by the State of Oregon, State of Washington, Columbia Riverkeeper
and Columbia Inter-Tribal Fish Commission as being incomplete in the EIS for
Bradwood Landing. The possibility of this move by the ODFW is completely out
of synch with Governor Kulongoski and the State of Oregon that are
petitioning for a rehearing by FERC based on the fact that the analsyis done
for this project is incomplete.
Please read the action alert and sample email below and contact the Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife today! They could make this decision at any
time within the next couple of weeks and they need to hear from you!
*Contact information for key decision makers are included in the alert
below.*
Thanks to all of you for responding to this call to action and for your
tireless efforts to protect our waterways and fish habitat from this
devastating project!
-Olivia Schmidt
Columbia Riverkeeper
(971)533-2390
oliviariver@gmail.com
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Visioning night! Giving feedback and offering ideas
There are many beautiful things up and coming at the Green House Collective (GHC); beginning with this coming Thursday.
We are calling out to all of you beautiful people to come and join us in discussion of the Greenhouse Collective. We want your ideas!!! For the last 2 years now we have been holding an open space to discuss issues of social awareness ranging from topics across the board. Now we want your feedback, thoughts, ideas, memorable moments, as well as any suggestions you have for the Greenhouse and the Greenhouse Collective to improve and expand.
This is an incredible community that has formed over the last 2 years, and we have all played our parts in this creation. We want to thank you for your time, your energy, your committment, your interest, and your beautiful selves. This email goes out not only to those who come every week, but to those who have come only once or those that come from time to time.
What would you like to see???
We've got a couple new ideas on the rise, a couple more events that are forming and coming into creation that we are eager to share with you all. We are looking to manifest these dreams, and would LOVE for you to come and share your dreams and visions as well.
So please come this Thursday and support this community that we have all taken part in to form! Come hear some of our new plans, and come to share any ideas that you may have from the past present and future - and then lets work together to make them happen!!!
With all of our LOVE, thank you
We look forward to seeing you this Thursday!
What: Visioning night! Giving feedback and offering ideas
When: this Thursday, Oct 16th, vegan potluck at 5:30, Discussion at 7:00
Where: The Greenhouse Collective 4407 SE Tibbetts St. (between Division and
Powell) off of the Clinton bikeway, and buses #9,4,14,75
Why: To Grow Together!!!
We are calling out to all of you beautiful people to come and join us in discussion of the Greenhouse Collective. We want your ideas!!! For the last 2 years now we have been holding an open space to discuss issues of social awareness ranging from topics across the board. Now we want your feedback, thoughts, ideas, memorable moments, as well as any suggestions you have for the Greenhouse and the Greenhouse Collective to improve and expand.
This is an incredible community that has formed over the last 2 years, and we have all played our parts in this creation. We want to thank you for your time, your energy, your committment, your interest, and your beautiful selves. This email goes out not only to those who come every week, but to those who have come only once or those that come from time to time.
What would you like to see???
We've got a couple new ideas on the rise, a couple more events that are forming and coming into creation that we are eager to share with you all. We are looking to manifest these dreams, and would LOVE for you to come and share your dreams and visions as well.
So please come this Thursday and support this community that we have all taken part in to form! Come hear some of our new plans, and come to share any ideas that you may have from the past present and future - and then lets work together to make them happen!!!
With all of our LOVE, thank you
We look forward to seeing you this Thursday!
What: Visioning night! Giving feedback and offering ideas
When: this Thursday, Oct 16th, vegan potluck at 5:30, Discussion at 7:00
Where: The Greenhouse Collective 4407 SE Tibbetts St. (between Division and
Powell) off of the Clinton bikeway, and buses #9,4,14,75
Why: To Grow Together!!!
Friday, September 26, 2008
LNG Rally in Olympia FREE BUS
Hello All:
This is an official notice that we are holding a RALLY AGAINST LNG!
NO LNG on the Columbia River!
October 6th 11am-2pm
at the capitol building
Olympia, Washington
This is a very important event and we hope any and all of you can attend!
This is the first event we've planned for the Washington capitol and it is absolutely necessary to have an impressive turn-out. Washington has the power to stop LNG development on the Columbia River and has the responsibility of protecting landowners that would be impacted by LNG facilities and related pipelines. Come to the event and tell Governor Gregoire: "We want renewables -- NOT LNG," "Washington has the power to protect the Lower Columbia" and help hold her accountable for promises to require Washington State permits for Columbia River LNG projects.
Washington residents made the trip down to Salem for our rally in February and now it is time to offer them support in their efforts to have their state exercise it's authority over LNG in the Pacific Northwest!
Please plan to carpool or catch a free ride on the "cool bus"
The Bus Named Cool will be picking folks up from two locations -- contact Olivia at oliviariver@gmail.com to reserve a seat!
Pick-up times/locations:
Portland, Oregon at the Daily Grind Parking lot (SE 41st & Hawthorne) leaving at 8:10 sharp.
Kelso, Washington at the Safeway on Three Rivers Drive (411 Three Rivers Dr.) leaving at 9:30 sharp.
Please plan to arrive ten minutes prior to departure time and be sure to reserve a seat in advance!
This is an important event to make a statement to the State of Washington and to empower residents and agencies in the fight against fossil fuel development on the Columbia River. Now is the time to act and have our voices heard!
Please invite a friend and feel free to print and post the attached flyer in your area -- every body will make a difference at this event!
-Olivia Schmidt
Columbia Riverkeeper
(971)533-2390
oliviariver@gmail.com
This is an official notice that we are holding a RALLY AGAINST LNG!
NO LNG on the Columbia River!
October 6th 11am-2pm
at the capitol building
Olympia, Washington
This is a very important event and we hope any and all of you can attend!
This is the first event we've planned for the Washington capitol and it is absolutely necessary to have an impressive turn-out. Washington has the power to stop LNG development on the Columbia River and has the responsibility of protecting landowners that would be impacted by LNG facilities and related pipelines. Come to the event and tell Governor Gregoire: "We want renewables -- NOT LNG," "Washington has the power to protect the Lower Columbia" and help hold her accountable for promises to require Washington State permits for Columbia River LNG projects.
Washington residents made the trip down to Salem for our rally in February and now it is time to offer them support in their efforts to have their state exercise it's authority over LNG in the Pacific Northwest!
Please plan to carpool or catch a free ride on the "cool bus"
The Bus Named Cool will be picking folks up from two locations -- contact Olivia at oliviariver@gmail.com to reserve a seat!
Pick-up times/locations:
Portland, Oregon at the Daily Grind Parking lot (SE 41st & Hawthorne) leaving at 8:10 sharp.
Kelso, Washington at the Safeway on Three Rivers Drive (411 Three Rivers Dr.) leaving at 9:30 sharp.
Please plan to arrive ten minutes prior to departure time and be sure to reserve a seat in advance!
This is an important event to make a statement to the State of Washington and to empower residents and agencies in the fight against fossil fuel development on the Columbia River. Now is the time to act and have our voices heard!
Please invite a friend and feel free to print and post the attached flyer in your area -- every body will make a difference at this event!
-Olivia Schmidt
Columbia Riverkeeper
(971)533-2390
oliviariver@gmail.com
Bilingual Education Measure
Measure 58 Bilingual Education
State's first Citizens' Initiative Review a success!
Sept. 25, 2008
Salem, OR. The state of Oregon's first Citizens' Initiative Review was successfully concluded today. The panel of 23 voters from across Oregon presented their findings, called a "Citizens' Statement", at a press conference held at the steps of the State Capitol.
The panel was tasked with evaluating Measure 58, which proposes placing limits on bilingual education in public schools. After hearing from representatives of the campaigns for and against the measure, and upon close review of testimony provided by campaigns and background experts on the issue, the panel concluded 14 to 9 to oppose the measure. Upon deciding their position on the ballot measure, both sides drafted a position statement to provide voters with a clear assessment of the pros and cons of Measure 58.
Check out www.healthydemocracyoregon.org to see the panel's full Citizens' Statment. We'll send out additional details, including video of the press conference very soon.
Best,
Tyrone Reitman
Co-Director, Healthy Democracy Oregon
Healthy Democracy Oregon
PO Box 42347
Portland, 97242
State's first Citizens' Initiative Review a success!
Sept. 25, 2008
Salem, OR. The state of Oregon's first Citizens' Initiative Review was successfully concluded today. The panel of 23 voters from across Oregon presented their findings, called a "Citizens' Statement", at a press conference held at the steps of the State Capitol.
The panel was tasked with evaluating Measure 58, which proposes placing limits on bilingual education in public schools. After hearing from representatives of the campaigns for and against the measure, and upon close review of testimony provided by campaigns and background experts on the issue, the panel concluded 14 to 9 to oppose the measure. Upon deciding their position on the ballot measure, both sides drafted a position statement to provide voters with a clear assessment of the pros and cons of Measure 58.
Check out www.healthydemocracyoregon.org to see the panel's full Citizens' Statment. We'll send out additional details, including video of the press conference very soon.
Best,
Tyrone Reitman
Co-Director, Healthy Democracy Oregon
Healthy Democracy Oregon
PO Box 42347
Portland, 97242
Monday, September 15, 2008
Liquefied Natural Gas Workshop this Thursday!!
We hope you had a wonderful weekend and are looking forward to seeing you this Thursday for a vegan potluck and an awesome workshop that we have been in the process of organizing for quite some time! Olivia Schmidt of Columbia RiverKeeper will give a presentation on the current proposals for Liquefied Natural Gas import terminals and related pipelines in the Pacific Northwest. Her presentation focuses on the environmental and economic impacts of these proposals, project specifics, community response to these projects and empowering folks to get involved in the movement away from fossil fuel
dependence and toward a decentralized, renewable energy future. Folks attending the presentation will have access to informational literature and can discuss ways of getting more involved in this vital movement. LNG development is an
environmental and social justice issue that is impacting folks on a local, regional and global level -- come learn more about these proposals and how to be a part of stopping fossil fuel development.
What: LNG Workshop and Vegan Potluck
When: Thursday, September 18
Vegan Potluck at 5:30, Workshop at 7:00 (for real!) We encourage those unable to make it on time to still attend, but
for those that can arrive on time, we will begin the workshop promptly at 7:00.
Where: The Green House Collective
4407 SE Tibbetts St
*off buslines 14, 9, 4, 75 and the Clinton St. super bike way!!
Have a great week and see you Thursday!
In Peace, Love, and Solidarity,
The Green House Collective
"Is it too late to prevent us from self-destructing? No, for we have the capacity to design our own future, to take a lesson from living things around us and bring our values and actions in line with ecological necessity. But we must first realize that ecological and social and economic issues are all deeply intertwined. There can be no solution to one without a solution to the
others."
~ Jean-Michel Cousteau
Monday, September 8, 2008
Peace Conference this Thursday
Hi lovelys,
Thanks to all who made it out to the GHC last Thursday for the film screening of "Bringing Down a Dictator." For those who were unable to attend and would still like to see the movie, or most of the movies we have shown, please send us an email and we'll make a copy available for check out. Speaking of which, we now have a book/dvd library available for check out, so come by and see if there is something of interest to you.
Anyway, this Thursday the Green House Collective will be going on a field trip to PSU campus for the Peace Conference this week. Thursday, Sept. 11th is free to all, and we strongly encourage those able to attend to join us at PSU. The whole day, themed "Take Back Sept. 11th" starts at 3pm. Below is a schedule of events happening throughout the day:
Public RALLY in South Park Blocks (just outside Smith Student Union):
Take Back 9/11 for Nonviolence
5:30-7:00pm
7:00-9:00pm Smith room # 355
Keynote speakers include:
Hibakusha, Felice and Jack Cohen-Joppa, John LaForge, Kathy Kelly
9:00-11:00pm Smith room # 355
Entertainment:
Anne Feeney, Mic Crenshaw, Dave Rovics
For more information on the Peace Conference visit http://www.peacejusticestudies.org/conference/. We hope to see you all there this Thursday at the 3pm rally, if not then for some wonderful, insightful, and beautiful speakers at 7pm. We, from the GHC, will be converging at the rally in the South Park Blocks (on PSU Campus) at about 2:30; look forward to seeing you soon.
In peace and solidarity,
The Green House Collective
Monday, September 1, 2008
This week at the GHC and beyond
Hi beautifuls,
We missed seeing your lovely faces last week, but we were busy in the planning stages for some upcoming events at the Green House Collective (GHC) and beyond. As part of a new email format, we will be including a calendar of events happening in the community and at the GHC. SO, if you know of some upcoming events, please send us an email so we can add it to the calendar and post it to our blog (www.thegreenhousecollective.blogspot.com) But don't worry, Thursday movie nights/workshops/vegan potlucks. . . are here to stay. Anyway, below is a list of events added to the calendar thus far:
Week of September 1st-7th (This week)
Wednesday Sept. 3rd:
School of the Americas Watch Oregon (SOAW OR) montly meeting at the Green House
Collective, 7pm. This meeting is open to the public and everyone is more than welcome to join us. If you are unable to attend the meeting, please feel free to talk to SOAW OR volunteer, Ryan, from the GHC for more information.
Thursday Sept. 4th (MOVIE NIGHT!)
What: "Bringing Down a Dictator" movie screening and vegan potluck starts at 5:30 now, with food being served at 6, movie starting promptly at 7
Where: GHC @ 4407 SE Tibbetts St, conveniently off Clinton bike superhighway, bus lines #4, 9, 75, and 14. Also, we now have a bike rack out back, so why not bike?
We will be showing the movie "Bringing Down a Dictator." Yes, it is true, we have shown this before, but the Peace Conference is next week, and this AMAZING film about an inspirational peace movement. Next Thursday, September 11th, the GHC will be going on a field trip to the Peace Conference at PSU and we strongly encourage all who are able to attend. For more info on the Peace Conference visit http://www.peacejusticestudies.org/conference/. Anyway, below is information about the film:
"Bringing Down A Dictator documents the spectacular defeat of Slobodan Milosevic in October, 2000, not by force of arms, as many had predicted, but by an ingenious nonviolent strategy of honest elections and massive civil disobedience.
Milosevic was strengthened by patriotic fervor when NATO bombed Yugoslavia in early 1999, but a few months later, a student movement named Otpor! (“Resistance” in Serbian) launched a surprising offensive. Audaciously demanding the removal of Milosevic, they recruited where discontent was strongest, in the Serbian heartland.
Their weapons were rock concerts and ridicule, the internet and email, spray-painted slogans and a willingness to be arrested. Otpor students became the shock troops in an army of human rights, pro-democracy, anti-war, women’s groups, and opposition political parties. Their slogan: "He’s Finished!"
Trained in nonviolent action and partially financed by the US and western Europe, they forged a unified political opposition, fought to stop vote fraud, and systematically undermined police and army loyalty. When Milosevic refused to accept defeat at the polls, the opposition called a general strike. As normal life ground to a halt, Serbs by the hundreds of thousands poured into the capital on October 5 to seize the Federal Parliament in a dramatic triumph for democracy."
Friday-Sunday Sept. 5th-7th:
Muddy Boot Organic Festival is happening this weekend off SE Division and 18th. There will be lots of local music, local organic food/wine/beer, and fabulous workshops on sustainability and community development. Admission is $5 but we guarantee a great time. For more info visit http://www.muddyboot.org/index.php
WOW! Lots of info and beautiful things going on this week. We hope to see you all at one of the lovely things happening around town this week and beyond.
Much love,. light, and blessings,
The Green House Collective
"while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free." Eugene V Debs
We missed seeing your lovely faces last week, but we were busy in the planning stages for some upcoming events at the Green House Collective (GHC) and beyond. As part of a new email format, we will be including a calendar of events happening in the community and at the GHC. SO, if you know of some upcoming events, please send us an email so we can add it to the calendar and post it to our blog (www.thegreenhousecollective.blogspot.com) But don't worry, Thursday movie nights/workshops/vegan potlucks. . . are here to stay. Anyway, below is a list of events added to the calendar thus far:
Week of September 1st-7th (This week)
Wednesday Sept. 3rd:
School of the Americas Watch Oregon (SOAW OR) montly meeting at the Green House
Collective, 7pm. This meeting is open to the public and everyone is more than welcome to join us. If you are unable to attend the meeting, please feel free to talk to SOAW OR volunteer, Ryan, from the GHC for more information.
Thursday Sept. 4th (MOVIE NIGHT!)
What: "Bringing Down a Dictator" movie screening and vegan potluck starts at 5:30 now, with food being served at 6, movie starting promptly at 7
Where: GHC @ 4407 SE Tibbetts St, conveniently off Clinton bike superhighway, bus lines #4, 9, 75, and 14. Also, we now have a bike rack out back, so why not bike?
We will be showing the movie "Bringing Down a Dictator." Yes, it is true, we have shown this before, but the Peace Conference is next week, and this AMAZING film about an inspirational peace movement. Next Thursday, September 11th, the GHC will be going on a field trip to the Peace Conference at PSU and we strongly encourage all who are able to attend. For more info on the Peace Conference visit http://www.peacejusticestudies.org/conference/. Anyway, below is information about the film:
"Bringing Down A Dictator documents the spectacular defeat of Slobodan Milosevic in October, 2000, not by force of arms, as many had predicted, but by an ingenious nonviolent strategy of honest elections and massive civil disobedience.
Milosevic was strengthened by patriotic fervor when NATO bombed Yugoslavia in early 1999, but a few months later, a student movement named Otpor! (“Resistance” in Serbian) launched a surprising offensive. Audaciously demanding the removal of Milosevic, they recruited where discontent was strongest, in the Serbian heartland.
Their weapons were rock concerts and ridicule, the internet and email, spray-painted slogans and a willingness to be arrested. Otpor students became the shock troops in an army of human rights, pro-democracy, anti-war, women’s groups, and opposition political parties. Their slogan: "He’s Finished!"
Trained in nonviolent action and partially financed by the US and western Europe, they forged a unified political opposition, fought to stop vote fraud, and systematically undermined police and army loyalty. When Milosevic refused to accept defeat at the polls, the opposition called a general strike. As normal life ground to a halt, Serbs by the hundreds of thousands poured into the capital on October 5 to seize the Federal Parliament in a dramatic triumph for democracy."
Friday-Sunday Sept. 5th-7th:
Muddy Boot Organic Festival is happening this weekend off SE Division and 18th. There will be lots of local music, local organic food/wine/beer, and fabulous workshops on sustainability and community development. Admission is $5 but we guarantee a great time. For more info visit http://www.muddyboot.org/index.php
WOW! Lots of info and beautiful things going on this week. We hope to see you all at one of the lovely things happening around town this week and beyond.
Much love,. light, and blessings,
The Green House Collective
"while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free." Eugene V Debs
Monday, August 25, 2008
Take Back September 11 for Nonviolence
Please join us on the South Park Blocks outside Smith Memorial Union at Portland State University on Sept 11, at 3 p.m., for a rally that promotes a reversal of our war culture and revenge response. We will hear music by Anne Feeney, poetry by Mic Crenshaw, and short talks by Sami Rasouli (founder of Muslim Peacemaker Teams in Iraq), Kathy Kelly (founder of Voices for Creative Nonviolence), Bernard LaFayette (major Civil Rights leader), Stephen Zunes and others. We will welcome the
Veterans for Peace and others who walk to join us from Peace Park (on the east bank of the Steel Bridge--please join them there at 1 p.m. for a peace ceremony), and we will finish with a Coronation of the Collective Heart peace ritual led by Lenore Norrgard. Contact pcwtom@gmail.com for details. Free and open from 3 p.m.-5 p.m. Also register for the following conference, Building Cultures of Peace (Sept 11-13), at http://www.peacejusticestudies.org/.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Action Alert: Your help is needed
Hi lovelys,
There is an extremely important piece of legislation being circulated and we need your help to make this a reality. Please read below and follow links for further information.
In Peace and solidarity,
The Green House Collective
Contact Your Senator About the Jubilee Act Today!
August 11, 2008 | Thanks to your hard work, your meetings, phone calls and emails, on June 24, 2008 the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation (HR 2634/ S 2166) passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee! It must now be considered and passed by the full Senate before it can go to the President and be signed into law. Time is running short as Congress may adjourn for the year as early as September 26th.
This legislation would expand debt cancellation to impoverished countries that need it to fight poverty, promote responsible lending and require an audit of odious, illegal and onerous loans. The bill passed the House of Representatives by a 285-132 vote on April 16. TAKE ACTION! Contact your Senators and urge them to co-sponsor the Jubilee Act.
* PRESS RELEASE Jubilee Act Passes Senate Committee; House Committee Reauthorizes World Bank Funding, Calls for Reform
* Resources & Background Materials on the Jubilee Act
* Take Action on the Jubilee Act!
* Op-ED, "Debt is Modern-Day Apartheid" by Desmond Tutu (appeared in The Baltimore Sun, May 7, 2008)
There is an extremely important piece of legislation being circulated and we need your help to make this a reality. Please read below and follow links for further information.
In Peace and solidarity,
The Green House Collective
Contact Your Senator About the Jubilee Act Today!
August 11, 2008 | Thanks to your hard work, your meetings, phone calls and emails, on June 24, 2008 the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation (HR 2634/ S 2166) passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee! It must now be considered and passed by the full Senate before it can go to the President and be signed into law. Time is running short as Congress may adjourn for the year as early as September 26th.
This legislation would expand debt cancellation to impoverished countries that need it to fight poverty, promote responsible lending and require an audit of odious, illegal and onerous loans. The bill passed the House of Representatives by a 285-132 vote on April 16. TAKE ACTION! Contact your Senators and urge them to co-sponsor the Jubilee Act.
* PRESS RELEASE Jubilee Act Passes Senate Committee; House Committee Reauthorizes World Bank Funding, Calls for Reform
* Resources & Background Materials on the Jubilee Act
* Take Action on the Jubilee Act!
* Op-ED, "Debt is Modern-Day Apartheid" by Desmond Tutu (appeared in The Baltimore Sun, May 7, 2008)
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Witness for Peace Columbia Report Back Workshop
Hi all you wonderful people,
Thank you to all who came and participated in last weeks discussion from the film screening of Plan Puebla Panama. Last Thursday was Part 1 of a 2 part series, but if you couldn't make it out for part 1, then you should definitely come for part 2. The film screening of Plan Puebla Panama was a lead in to this weeks event, where we will be hosting 3 amazing peace activist women from Witness for Peace who have recently come back from Columbia as part of a delegation documenting the affects Free Trade Agreements have on farmers, labor unions and organizers, the indigenous, etc. . . This workshop has been in the planning stages for some time now, and we at the Green House are very excited share this space with these amazing women. Here is a brief synopsis of what you can expect this week:
"Three Portland women will share their experiences from a recent Witness for Peace delegation to Colombia that explored the effects of U.S. military aid and the potential impacts of the pending U.S.-Colombia Free Trade agreement. The Colombia delegates will share testimonies from union workers, human rights defenders, campesinos and indigenous leaders that they met in Bogota and in the southern department of Cauca. Witness for Peace is a politically independent organization dedicated to nonviolence that stands with those seeking justice in the Americas. For more information, go to www.witnessforpeace.org."
We hope to see you all very soon.
In peace in solidarity,
The Green House Collective
What: Workshop @ 7pm, Vegan Potluck (please feel free to bring something) @ 6
Where: The Green House Collective: 4407 SE Tibbetts St. Conveniently located off bus lines # 4, 9, 75, and 14, not to mention the Clinton St bike superhighway
When: Thursday August 21st
"We have to avoid doing things that just give us pleasure as individuals but do not benefit our collective self" Carlos Fonseca
www.thegreenhousecollective.blogspot.com
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Movie night at the Green House Collective
Hello beautifuls,
Thank you to all who came and participated in last weeks amazing workshop put on by Matt Bibeau, and many thanks to Matt for dedicating his time and expertise.
This last workshop was just one of many exciting things happening at the Green House Collective this month. This coming Thursday, August 14th, we will be showing a wonderful and informative documentary called Plan Puebla Panama. This documentary is part of an introduction to a workshop we are having on Thursday August 21st, put on by three amazing peace activist women from Witness for Peace (WFP) who just came back from Colombia. The women from WFP were there to document human rights violations, and talk with farmers, labor union organizers, etc. . . about how they are and have been affected by Free Trade Agreements. Plan Puebla Panama is just that, another expansion of Free Trade Agreements.
There is no official information about the documentary as it is an underground documentary. But there is no lack of information to be found over the internet. Global Exchange has this to say about Plan Puebla Panama, which is a great description what you can expect to see in this documentary:
"Plan Puebla Panama (PPP) is a mega project which seeks to open up the southern half of Mexico and Central America to private foreign investment and establishing the foundation for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The plan depends upon multi-lateral development bank support and private investment to create infrastructure that will attract industry and expand natural resource extraction. With the Inter-American Development Bank as the head of the PPP's financial structure and major credit and technical assistance coming from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, among others, controversial projects have already begun."
"This is the first step in the latest push to globalize the Americas with the end goal of incorporating all of the Western Hemisphere (except Cuba) under the FTAA. Essentially the PPP will create development corridors from the 9 southern Mexican states of Puebla, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatan, and Quintana Roo, through the most southern Central American country of Panama. The PPP will create an elaborate infrastructure of ports, highways, airports, and railways aimed to connect the development of the petroleum, energy, maquiladora, and agricultural industries. While the PPP's proponents assert that its main objective is to improve the quality of life for area inhabitants, critics of the Plan see it as an attempt to exploit the abundant, cheap labor force and precious natural resources in order to attract foreign investment eager to reap the benefits of an area stricken with poverty and rich in biodiversity."
"Environmental activists fear that the exploitation of primary materials (minerals, timber, petroleum, biodiversity, and water) will lead to environmental degradation for exportation without profit being dispersed to local communities. Mexico currently ranks 2nd in the world in rate of deforestiation (National Forest Inventory 2000) and 73rd in environmental sustainability among 122 nations (La Jornada, 7/23/01). The PPP, many organizations have warned, will lead to further environmental degradation due to the planned deforestation, overexploitation of natural resources, inefficient laws, and extreme poverty. "
"In the end, critics conclude that the PPP will lead to massive displacement of campesino and indigenous communities, further environmental degradation, and development with the end goal of exportation for profit rather than eliminating poverty. As a result, in less than a year since the announcement of the PPP, hundreds of organizations and communities have formed campaigns of resistance in order to pressure global powers to support alternative economic development models. "
We look forward to see all your beautiful faces this Thursday at the GHC.
Where: 4407 SE Tibbetts St
What: Vegan Potluck (please feel free to bring a vegan dish) @ 6pm followed by
Plan Puebla Panama documentary at 7pm.
When: Thursday August 14th
In peace and solidarity,
The Green House Collective
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Local Food Systems, Farm to School & School Gardens: The Importance of Food Security and Garden-Based Education
Hi Loves,
We hope you are all doing wonderful! This Thursday August, 7, we will be hosting a workshop led by Matt Bibeau, recent graduate of PSU's Leadership in Ecology, Culture & Learning program and current resident at Tryon Life Community Farm. We will begin the evening at 6:00 with a vegan potluck, and the workshop will begin at 7:00.
We look forward to seeing you! Please read on for a taste of what is to come this Thursday!
Local Food Systems, Farm to School & School Gardens:
The Importance of Food Security and Garden-Based Education
The Willamette Valley is an incredibly fertile region for growing food, and Portland's local food economy thrives as a result. What's unique about this city is that the farming isn't just happening near its borders--it's happening within them, and it's not just happening on large corporate farms--it's happening through many smaller family-owned farms and Community Supported Agriculture organizations. In addition, what distinguishes Portland from many cities around the country is how farms, gardens and food are tied into school and community eduction. There are many organizations that have found a role in supporting access to and education about healthy, local food, one of these being Portland State University's Learning Gardens Project.
In 2005 I joined the Learning Gardens Project--a project of PSU's Leadership in Ecology, Culture & Learning program--and have spent the last three years partnering with schools and communities to improve our understanding of the relationships between what we eat and where it comes from as well as between what we learn and how this influences the health of our bodies, our communities and environment.
We will take an exciting look at how much agriculture has changed in the last century to give us a unique perspective on how much we've gotten away from knowing our food and knowing our bodies. We'll take a look at how the United States differs from other countries around the world and then zoom back into our beloved home in Portland where so much is happening right now to bring our understanding of food back to an awareness of our bodies, our communities and and the environment.
Peace.
Matt Bibeau,
Graduate of PSU's Leadership in Ecology, Culture & Learning program
and current resident at Tryon Life Community Farm
WHat: Workshop on Local Food Systems and the Importance of Food Security and
Garden Based Education.
When: Thursday, August 7th: Vegan Potluck @ 6, Workshop @ 7.
Where: The Green House Collective
4407 SE Tibbetts St
*off buslines 14, 75, 9, and 4, and the Clinton St. Bikeway.
Have a great week and we look onward to seeing you this Thursday!
In Peace, Love, and Solidarity,
The Greenhouse Collective
"Now is the time. Needs are great, but your possibilities are greater."
- Bill Blackman
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Reminder: No Film or Workshop at The GHC This Week
Hello all you beautiful and wonderful people!
Thank you to all who came on an off night to movie night at the Green House Collective. As a reminder, we will not be having any events at the GHC this week, but we are excited, and hope you are as well, for a month full of workshops in August.
A beautiful member of the GHC, Matt from Tryon Farm, will be doing our 1st workshop of the month on August 7th about School of the Gardens Program in Portland, and may possibly be accompanied by some other folks from Tryon Farm and Sauvie Island Farms as well. This workshop has been in the planning stages for some time and we are very excited to have Matt and his guest come to the GHC.
Then we have two more workshops the following weeks. Another beautiful memberas you all are, of the GHC, Lish, will be hosting a workshop with an expert guest on the current state of LNG (Liguified Natural Gas) proposed projects in and around Oregon and sensitive habitat areas.
Finally, an amazing activist from Witness for Peace (WFP), SOA Watch, and other organizations, Beth Poteet, will be hosting a panel discussion workshop with three other ladies from WFP about their delegation trip to Columbia and Nicaragua. The WFP delegation was there to document problems with so called free trade agreements, talk to farmers, workers, and others who have been affected by free trade agreements and human rights violations.
We at the GHC, are extremely excited to have a full month of workshops and amazing people to share our space with. In the next few days and coming weeks we will be sending out detailed emails about these upcoming workshops.
We look forward to seeing you all very soon!
Much love, light, and blessings,
The Green House Collective
Thank you to all who came on an off night to movie night at the Green House Collective. As a reminder, we will not be having any events at the GHC this week, but we are excited, and hope you are as well, for a month full of workshops in August.
A beautiful member of the GHC, Matt from Tryon Farm, will be doing our 1st workshop of the month on August 7th about School of the Gardens Program in Portland, and may possibly be accompanied by some other folks from Tryon Farm and Sauvie Island Farms as well. This workshop has been in the planning stages for some time and we are very excited to have Matt and his guest come to the GHC.
Then we have two more workshops the following weeks. Another beautiful memberas you all are, of the GHC, Lish, will be hosting a workshop with an expert guest on the current state of LNG (Liguified Natural Gas) proposed projects in and around Oregon and sensitive habitat areas.
Finally, an amazing activist from Witness for Peace (WFP), SOA Watch, and other organizations, Beth Poteet, will be hosting a panel discussion workshop with three other ladies from WFP about their delegation trip to Columbia and Nicaragua. The WFP delegation was there to document problems with so called free trade agreements, talk to farmers, workers, and others who have been affected by free trade agreements and human rights violations.
We at the GHC, are extremely excited to have a full month of workshops and amazing people to share our space with. In the next few days and coming weeks we will be sending out detailed emails about these upcoming workshops.
We look forward to seeing you all very soon!
Much love, light, and blessings,
The Green House Collective
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