Calendar

9896
Mar
30
Sat
No Coal in Richmond Canvassing @ Bobby Bowens Progressive Center
Mar 30 @ 1:30 pm – 4:00 pm

​If you learned that coal dust containing arsenic, lead, mercury, and cadmium was blowing through your neighborhood, wouldn’t you want to take action? Come help No Coal in Richmond reach out to as many residents as possible between now and late March or early April. That’s when the Richmond City Council will vote on an ordinance to prohibit new coal or pet coke facilities, prevent the Levin-Richmond Terminal from expanding, and phase out existing coal handling and storage.

​We have less than a month to reach the most affected Richmond residents about the massive amounts of coal-for-export coming through their neighborhoods in 100-car trains of open rail cars and sitting in uncovered piles next to the Bay, just blocks from homes, schools, and workplaces.

We’re door-knocking every weekend between now and late March or early April to
collect emails and signatures on a letter to the council demanding the strongest
possible ordinance.

And talk about gratifying! Nearly all those who answer the door say, “No coal in
Richmond? Where do I sign?” and proceed to thank you profusely for doing this.
Check out the new and improved No Coal in Richmond website for background, up-
to-the minute news, and other ways you can fight this climate and public health
menace in Richmond.

 

RSVP:  ACTION@SUNFLOWER-ALLIANCE.ORG

65863
Mar
31
Sun
ACLU: A Tour on your rights and freedoms. @ Jack London Square
Mar 31 @ 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

Walk through groundbreaking interactive and immersive exhibits. Meet leading civil rights activists. Learn how to reduce prison populations, protect immigrants, and ensure everyone’s constitutional right to vote. Take action.

A family-friendly event for people of all ages. Free + open to all.

RSVP at ACLU100.org

Schedule below (subject to change)

ALL DAY ACTIVITIES:

Art workshops led by Artismobilus, Justice For Our Lives. Screen printing with Lukas WhatWhat and face painting with Miss Naomi Bee.

Network with Bay Area and California non-profits making the change happen, including: Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Heyday Books, Initiate Justice, League of Women Voters of the U.S., Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS), ACILEP network for immigrant rights, Youth Speaks, Oakland Public Library, Secure Justice, Design Action Collective,
Anti-Recidivism Coalition, TGI Justice Project (TGIJP), and ACCESS Women’s Health Justice.

SATURDAY, MARCH 30

10:00 am–4:00 pm
Qulture Collective vendor village featuring local queer and POC artists and makers

11:45 am–12:45 am
SambaFunk! featuring FUNKTERNAL
A collective of dancers, musicians and drummers spreading JOY and social consciousness through their work.

1:00 pm–1:05 pm
W. Kamau Bell – sociopolitical comedian and host of docu-series United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell

1:05 pm–2:00 pm
Act to Save Lives: Panel Discussion on Critical Police Reform
Featuring Stevante Clark, brother of Stephon Clark, Uncle Bobby from Love Not Blood Campaign, and James Burch from Anti Police-Terror Project . Moderated by Miguel Quezada from CURYJ

2:00 pm–2:30 pm
Dancing Earth
A collaborative group of intertribal indigenous dance artists

2:30 pm–3:30 pm
Audiopharmacy
Spawned from its roots in hip hop, Audiopharmacy intricately fuses live instrumentation and global musical styles

3:30 pm–4:30 pm
Jonah Melvon featuring adeshamusic
A sibling duo playing music from a new project by Jonah Melvon, Rain Water, and Adesha’s inspiring soul music collection

4:30 pm–5:30 pm
Man Haters: Women, Queers, Comedy
An all-women comedy group based in Oakland, California featuring Irene Tu, Dominique Gelin, Brooke Heinichen and Alexandria Love

6:00 pm–7:00 pm
Hip Hop for Change
A non-profit dedicated to using Hip Hop as a means of positive cultural change

SUNDAY, MARCH 31

11:00 am – 12:00 pm
The Void
Funky jazz soul from Oakland youth

12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
West Grand Brass Band
Dixieland brass band tradition combined with modern musical genres and sounds

1:00 pm– 2:00pm
Art as Activism
Panel featuring Gregory Sale, lead artist at the Future IDs Project, Inno Negara who wrote the best-selling A is for Activist, Rob Liu Trujillo illustrator, author, and co-founder of the Trust Your Struggle, and Sabiha Basrai from Design Action Collective. Moderated by Gigi Harney, ACLU of Northern California Creative Strategist.

2:00 pm– 3:00 pm
Book signing with best selling author Inno Nagara

4:00 pm– 5:00 pm
Mission Delirium
An invitation to revel in the sound of earth shaking drums and face-melting brass

66234
Antidotes to White Fragility Workshop @ Sierra Club
Mar 31 @ 10:00 am – 1:00 pm

What skills, tools and approaches are useful in encouraging white people to sustain balanced engagement with anti-racism/racial justice education and work? How can we cultivate resilience (as opposed to white fragility) in ourselves, our communities, and our movements?

White Fragility is defined by Robin DiAngelo as “A state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation (2011).” What skills, tools and approaches are useful in encouraging white people to sustain balanced engagement with anti-racism/racial justice education and work? How can we cultivate resilience (as opposed to white fragility) in ourselves, our communities, and our movements? Resilience is, in part, defined as:

1. Staying with the conversation

2. Giving and receiving information and feedback from facilitators and peers without becoming highly defensive, reactive, or shut down/dissociated for long period of time

3. Managing the guilt and shame that can arise in learning about the history and current reality of race and racism in the US.

This workshop will explore the role of the body, community, spirituality, intellectual knowledge and other themes that you bring from your experience. We will cover basic information about how the brain and body responds to perceived threats, and explore how to work with this toward greater resilience in moments of challenge.

This workshop is for all experience levels. Participants will be invited to discuss in small groups, move around the space, and hold their bodies in different shapes for 1-2 minutes if available. Content will be presented in both verbal and written formats.

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Democratic Socialism: An Impossible Dream? @ Niebyl Proctor Library
Mar 31 @ 10:30 am – 12:30 pm

Is industrial civilization compatible with economic democracy, or is democratic socialism impossible in a globalized industrial society?  This presentation will examine the powerful material conditions that have frustrated every effort to replace capitalism with genuine democratic socialism.  Hopefully, this will become the starting point for a discussion about what kinds of energy sources and technologies are most conducive to democratic control.


Strongly suggested background reading:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/11/30/democratic-socialism-the-impossible-dream/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/02/01/why-did-socialism-fail/


Craig Collins, Ph.D. 
is the author of Toxic Loopholes (Cambridge University Press), which examines America’s dysfunctional system of environmental protection. He teaches political science and environmental law at California State University East Bay and was a founding member of the Green Party of California.

His forthcoming books: Marx & Mother Nature and Rising From the Ruins: Catabolic Capitalism & Green Resistance reformulate Marx’s theory of history & social change and examine the emerging struggle to replace catabolic capitalism with a thriving, just, ecologically resilient society.

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What Can We Do About Mass Incarceration? @ First Unitarian Church of Oakland
Mar 31 @ 12:15 pm – 1:30 pm


Panel and Dialog:

Jose Bernal: Senior Organizer Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. Serves on the S.F. Reentry Council; advocates for restorative justice policies; spearheaded campaigns to de-privatize reentry services and end gang  injunctions. Graduate of Stanford University’s Project ReMade program, a course aimed at empowering the formerly incarcerated.

Jonathon Simon: directs the Center for the Study of Law and Society at UC and teaches about punishment, prisons, and mass incarceration. His books include, Governing through Crime: How the War on Crime Transformed American Society and Created a Culture of Fear (2009) and Mass Incarceration on Trial: A Remarkable Court Decision and the Future of Prisons in America (2014). Simon believes that invoking human dignity can fuel efforts to change the direction of the carceral state. Listen to his interview on Dignity and The Carceral State: https://kpfa.org/episode/against-the-grain-april-4-2018/

Starr King Room-light lunch provided

66028
Sunflower Alliance @ Bobby Bowens Progressive Center
Mar 31 @ 12:30 pm – 3:00 pm

 

 

66132
Hands Off Venezuela @ Federal Building
Mar 31 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm

march_31_demo.pdf_600_.jpg

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TANC General Assembly @ Omni Commons
Mar 31 @ 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
This month we’re continuing to try out a new day/time for our assembly: Sunday afternoon!

For this February assembly, we’ll be preparing to protest: TANC is planning a rally for sometime in the next couple months. We’ll also be brainstorming a longer-term project to work with the public housing. We’ll also be checking up on other projects, including tenant councils.

Let’s get organized against the Bay Area housing market!

Our general assemblies are open and free for anyone to join. We’ll be discussing ongoing projects: tenant organizing, houseless organizing, public housing organizing and more. Rent is too high, and we’ve got to organize and fight against marketized housing. Come through and let’s get organized against the housing market!

– – – – – – – – – – – –

We are a group of Bay Area tenants who are fed up with rising rents, evictions, and harassment at the hands of landlords. We are fed up with our neighbors having no option but to live unsheltered and at constant risk of police harassment. We want to stop landlords, developers, and cops from looting our communities.

A council is a group of tenants who work together to wield collective power against a shared landlord in order to improve their conditions. While, in general, councils may organize for more affordable, habitable, and safer housing, the issues that a council decides to organize around is ultimately dictated by its members. Councils can be powerful because they can directly apply their collective pressure on their landlord without the permission of city hall or other third parties.

TANC will help organize councils and bring them together as a network. While councils interface directly with their landlord, they can find support from other councils who rent from different landlords. We will assist in getting the word out to tenants and researching landlords. Neighbors will get to know each other during dinners, BBQs, and other events that TANC will support. We will compile complaints that are common across councils and aid in seeking their resolution. Councils will discuss and demand timely repairs, and support tenants threatened with eviction. Ultimately, the point is to reconfigure power dynamics of landlords and tenants in the Bay Area.

65700
Occupy Oakland General Assembly @ Oscar Grant Plaza
Mar 31 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

NOTE: During the Plague Year of 2020 GA will be held every week or two on Zoom. To find out the exact time a date get on the Occupy Oakland email list my sending an email to:

occupyoakland-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

 

The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 4 PM at Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater at 14th Street & Broadway near the steps of City Hall. If for some reason the amphitheater is being used otherwise and/or OGP itself is inaccessible, we will meet at Kaiser Park, right next to the statues, on 19th St. between San Pablo and Telegraph. If it is raining (as in RAINING, not just misting) at 4:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. (Note: we tend to meet at 3:00 PM during the cooler months from November to early March after Daylights Savings Time.)

On every ‘last Sunday’ we meet a little earlier at 3 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.

OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over six years, since October 2011! Our General Assembly is a participatory gathering of Oakland community members and beyond, where everyone who shows up is treated equally. Our Assembly and the process we have collectively cultivated strives to reach agreement while building community.

At the GA committees, caucuses, and loosely associated groups whose representatives come voluntarily report on past and future actions, with discussion. We encourage everyone participating in the Occupy Oakland GA to be part of at least one associated group, but it is by no means a requirement. If you like, just come and hear all the organizing being done! Occupy Oakland encourages political activity that is decentralized and welcomes diverse voices and actions into the movement.

General Assembly Standard Agenda

Welcome & Introductions
Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
Announcements
(Optional) Discussion Topic

Occupy Oakland activities and contact info for some Bay Area Groups with past or present Occupy Oakland members.

Occupy Oakland Web Committee: (web@occupyoakland.org)
Strike Debt Bay Area : strikedebtbayarea.tumblr.com
Berkeley Post Office Defenders:http://berkeleypostofficedefenders.wordpress.com/
Alan Blueford Center 4 Justice:https://www.facebook.com/ABC4JUSTICE
Oakland Privacy Working Group:https://oaklandprivacy.wordpress.com
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity: prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/
Bay Area AntiRepression: antirepression@occupyoakland.org
Biblioteca Popular: http://tinyurl.com/mdlzshy
Interfaith Tent: www.facebook.com/InterfaithTent
Port Truckers Solidarity: oaklandporttruckers.wordpress.com
Bay Area Intifada: bayareaintifada.wordpress.com
Transport Workers Solidarity: www.transportworkers.org
Fresh Juice Party (aka Chalkupy) freshjuiceparty.com/chalkupy-gallery
Sudo Room: https://sudoroom.org
Omni Collective: https://omnicommons.org/
First They Came for the Homeless: https://www.facebook.com/pages/First-they-came-for-the-homeless/253882908111999
Sunflower Alliance: http://www.sunflower-alliance.org/
Bay Area Public School: http://thepublicschool.org/bay-area

San Francisco based groups:
Occupy Bay Area United: www.obau.org
Occupy Forum: (see OBAU above)
San Francisco Projection Department: http://tinyurl.com/kpvb3rv

64398
Free Dinner and a Movie Discussion Night – Oakland Greens @ It's Your Move Games
Mar 31 @ 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm
The Oakland Greens 2019 FREE Dinner and a Movie discussion series.

As usual, the doors at the It’s Your Move Games and Hobbies store will open at 6:30 p.m., a free dinner will be provided at 7 p.m., and the movie will start promptly at 7:30 p.m.
65437
Film: “From Soweto to Berkeley” @ Redwood Gardens Community Room
Mar 31 @ 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm

From Soweto to Berkeley, an important, seldom-seen documentary, made in 1987 by Scott Wiseman, about the massive, militant anti-Apartheid movement at U.C. Berkeley in 1985-86 that succeeded in getting the University to divest its holdings in companies doing business with South Africa.

When Nelson Mandela spoke at the Oakland Coliseum on 30 June 1990, he thanked specifically both ILWU Local 10 and the movement at U.C. Berkeley for their contribution to the struggle that had led to his release a few months earlier and the beginning of the end of apartheid in South Africa. Mandela’s Oakland speech can be seen on YouTube:
Part 1Part 2
The references to the Bay Area solidarity actions are near the start of Part 2.

The film is 50 minutes long and will be followed by discussion. People who were participants in the struggle are especially encouraged to attend and share their recollections.

66254
Apr
1
Mon
Ban RoundUp in Alameda County @ Alameda County Administration Building, 5th Floor
Apr 1 @ 9:00 am – 12:00 pm

UPDATE
The Board of Supervisors, for a reason unknown to us, canceled their scheduled Transportation and Planning Committee meeting scheduled for Monday 3/4, at which this issue was scheduled to be heard. As far as we know, the issue will be heard Monday April 1st at 9am. Please come, and spread the word!

We have an historic opportunity to place a moratorium on Bayer’s (formerly Monsanto’s) RoundUp, and all toxic herbicides containing glyphosate in Alameda County. We need YOU to come out on April 1st and to spread the word. The Transportation/Planning Committee of the BOS will be considering the moratorium, and it won’t happen without mass turnout and thousands of signatures. Please sign and share this petition: https://www.change.org/p/alameda-county-board-of-supervisors-ban-roundup-glyphosates-in-alameda-county?recruiter=6256975&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_term=share_petition

Here’s the deal: Alameda County agencies still spray thousands of gallons of RoundUp on Alameda County residents without their knowledge, despite clear scientific evidence spanning years of studies around the globe demonstrating glyphosate’s toxicity to humans and Life. They only post notifications when they spray on public trails/trailheads, but the vast majority of RoundUp is sprayed on literally thousands of linear miles of waterways and flood control channels, many of which border homes and backyards of East Oakland and unincorporated Alameda County residents. These residents are NOT warned, and are being put at risk by Alameda County agencies and officials by toxic RoundUp “drift”.

RoundUp is associated with higher rates of cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, early pregnancy terminations, low-birth weight, endocrine disruption, and it kills beneficial gut bacteria which is linked to a growing list of health problems. With this knowledge, Alameda County agencies are at risk for class action lawsuits if they don’t stop. Like Dewayne Johnson, who recently won a $289 million settlement against Monsanto, the Alameda County workers who are tasked with spraying this poison are also at great risk. And in this moment of severe climate disruption, why would Alameda County continue to spray RoundUp directly into the waterways of the Bay???

Let’s follow the lead of our indigenous elders who are leading this fight to force Alameda County to stop using glyphosates. Goats are being used by the county already with great results, at a comparable financial expense. Let’s have Alameda County join the dozens and dozens of cities and countries who have banned glyphosates, and help inspire other cities and counties throughout the U.S. to follow suit!

66130
Tax the Rich Sing-A-Long with Occupella @ Outside the Old Oaks Theater
Apr 1 @ 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

We’re still playing every Monday that it doesn’t rain!

Occupella organizes informal public singing at Bay Area occupation sites, marches and at BART stations. We sing to promote peace, justice, and an end to corporate domination, especially in support of the Occupy movement.

Music has the power to build spirit, foster a sense of unity, convey messages and emotions, spread information, and bring joy to participants and audience alike. See spirited clip of an action at BART. Check out the actions calendar and come add your voice. There are lots of ways to participate and everyone is welcome.

65826
Public Bank East Bay General Membership Meeting @ East Bay for Everyone
Apr 1 @ 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm

Next Organizers’ Meeting: Come Get Involved in the Effort to Create a Regional Public Bank!

Public Bank East Bay

Working Group Meetings:

Some of our working groups meet between organizers’ meetings, and others just confer by phone and email. You can plug into any one of these:

  • Outreach to Organizations
  • Outreach to Individuals
  • Digital Outreach
  • Advocacy (working with politicians)
  • Governance
  • California Public Banking Alliance
  • Operations

Just send us a note and we’ll help you get connected to the work you want to do.

The Advocacy Working Group meets with public officials, government staff and other stakeholders to learn what they can teach us about integrating a public bank into existing systems, and to convince them to support our bank. Drop us a note (contact@friendsofpublicbankofoakland.org) if you want to participate.  Read a report on a recent Sacramento lobbying and public testimony outing.

The Outreach Working Group needs organizers, and people to staff tables and talk to folks about public banking. Send us a note at contact@friendsofpublicbankofoakland.org if you can help.

The ad hoc Governance Working Group is working on updating our governance plan in light of new information. Drop us a note at contact@friendsofpublicbankofoakland.org if you want to be part of this effort.

65611
Oakland Justice Coalition @ ACCE
Apr 1 @ 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Futuring OJC

In the way of all things in springtime, we want to engage what is emerging around us and begin to assess where we need to be in the months to come. You’re invited to join us for a “What’s Next for OJC” conversation. The focus of this meeting will be the beginning of our engagement around these questions:

  1. What is my individual capacity for future work in this coalition? What is my organization’s interest in participating?
  2. What is my individual capacity and interest in taking up organizing roles within OJC?
  3. What commitment am I willing to make as an individual to organize to build OJC’s capacity in particular?
  4. What is my comfort level with struggling together in the event that leadership develops work that may not always be in perfect alignment with all coalition partners?

RSVP to help us prepare

Snacks provided.
P.S. Copies of our platforms and other material will be available at the meeting. Contact info@oaklandjustice.org to get copies in advance.

66027
Oscar Grant Committee Meeting @ Zoom Meeting
Apr 1 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Because of the COVID pandemic we will be meeting virtually via Zoom on the first Monday of the month.

Meeting ID: 828 0976 4186

If you wish to get the password please subscribe to the Oscar Grant Committee mailing list by sending an email to:

The Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality & State Repression (OGC) is a grassroots democratic organization that was formed as a conscious united front for justice against police brutality. The OGC is involved in the struggle for police accountability and is committed to stopping police brutality.

In alliance with the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) we organized the October 23, 2010 labor and community rally for Justice for Oscar Grant. On that day the ILWU shut down the Bay Area ports in solidarity. Our mission is to educate, organize and mobilize people against police and state repression. Sisters and brothers! The Oscar Grant Committee invites you to join us in this vital struggle.

We meet on the 1st Monday of each month
You can join our discussion list by sending a blank (doesn’t even need a subject) email to

oscargrantcommittee-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

63650
Apr
3
Wed
Ella Baker Monthly Meeting with Nikki Bas @ Fruitvale-San Antonio Senior Center
Apr 3 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

66283
Permanent Real Estate – Hosted by East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative @ Sustainable Economies Law Center
Apr 3 @ 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm

Come learn how you fit, and where you can plug into, the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative.

The East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative (EB PREC) uses community investment to develop permanently affordable cooperative housing that uses regenerative practices, like wealth re-distribution, to empower sovereign, self-determined Black Indigenous and POC communities.

Our mission is to facilitate BIPOC and allied communities to cooperatively organize, finance, purchase, occupy, and steward properties, taking them permanently off the speculative market.

By co-creating community controlled assets, thereby reducing risk of displacement, we help people meet their basic social, economic, and emotional needs, and empower them to cooperatively lead a just transition from an extractive capitalist system into one where communities are ecologically, emotionally, spiritually, culturally, and economically restorative and regenerative.

Points of Unity:
This is not an exhaustive list and it is a work in progress. For now, EB PREC has adopted the following points of unity.

~We stand for the liberation and healing of all people and lands oppressed and exploited by histories of Genocide, Slavery, Low wage labor, Land theft, Predatory lending, and Forced migration.

~We provide mutual aid to front-line communities first, the liberation of black and indigenous communities is fundamental to the liberation of all people, a rising tide lifts all boats.

~We believe restorative solutions are rooted in collective land stewardship and decision-making. We prioritize people, planet, and future generations over profits. We move at the pace of community, not capital.

~We build trust and safe spaces with each other by doing the healing work required to transform antiquated capitalist notions into regenerative and cooperative relationships.

~We build productive capacity for disinvested BIPOC communities through community education and networks of cooperatives. EBPREC helps communities manifest vision into reality on the communities terms.

No photo description available.

 

65728
A Savage Order: How the World’s Deadliest Countries Can Forge a Path to Security.  @ Books, Inc
Apr 3 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

RACHEL KLEINFELD at Books Inc. Berkeley

Rachel Kleinfield author photo and A Savage Order cover image

Senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Rachel Kleinfeld discusses her comprehensive work, A Savage Order: How the World’s Deadliest Countries Can Forge a Path to Security.

The most violent places in the world today are not at war. More people have died in Mexico in recent years than in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. These parts of the world are instead buckling under a maelstrom of gangs, organized crime, political conflict, corruption, and state brutality. Such devastating violence can feel hopeless, yet some places–from Colombia to the Republic of Georgia–have been able to recover.

In this powerfully argued and urgent book, Rachel Kleinfeld examines why some democracies, including our own, are crippled by extreme violence and how they can regain security. Drawing on fifteen years of study and firsthand field research–interviewing generals, former guerrillas, activists, politicians, mobsters, and law enforcement in countries around the world–Kleinfeld tells the stories of societies that successfully fought seemingly ingrained violence and offers penetrating conclusions about what must be done to build governments that are able to protect the lives of their citizens.

Taking on existing literature and popular theories about war, crime, and foreign intervention, A Savage Order is a blistering yet inspiring investigation into what makes some countries peaceful and others war zones, and a blueprint for what we can do to help.

65739
The Long Honduran Night: Resistance, Terror, and the United States in the Aftermath of the Coup @ St. Johns Presbyterian Church
Apr 3 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

Advance tickets: $12: brownpapertickets.com :: T: 800-838-3006  or
Pegasus Books (3 sites), Books Inc (Berkeley),
Moe’s,
Walden Pond Bookstore,
East Bay Books,
Mrs. Dalloway’s

As the United States continues to tear-gas and imprison asylum seekers on the U.S.-Mexico border, we wonder why so many Hondurans are fleeing their homeland, now one of the most violent countries in the world due to a devastating drug war and a political crisis stemming largely from a U.S.-backed coup. Dana Frank’s powerful narrative recounts the tumultuous time in Honduras that witnessed then-President Manuel Zelaya overthrown in 2009. Told through first-person experiences layered with deeper political analysis, this narrative weaves together two perspectives; first, the broad picture of Honduras since the coup, including the coup itself and its continuation in two repressive regimes; secondly, the evolving Honduran resistance movement, plus an emerging solidarity movement in the United States.

 

While full of disturbing incidents, this narrative directly counters mainstream media coverage that portrays Honduras as a pit of unrelenting awfulness, in which powerless sobbing mothers cry over bodies in the morgue. Rather, it’s about sobering challenges and the inspiring collective strength with which people can face them.

 

Dana Frank, Professor of History Emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is the author of Baneras: Women Transforming the Banana Unions of Latin America. Since the 2009 military coup her articles about human rights and U.S. policy in Honduras have appeared in The Nation, New York Times, Politico Magazine, Foreign Affairs.com, The Baffler, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, and many other publications, and she has testified before both the US Congress and Canadian Parliament.

Diana Martinez is a native of El Salvador. She graduated from medical school in Mexico City and worked as a community doctor in rural Mexico. Later she served in the conflict zones as part of the liberation movement during the war in El Salvador. Subsequently Diana returned to academics to study public health and demographic sciences. After doing a fellowship at UCSF, she coordinated innovative research in health literacy, reproductive health, pesticide exposure, and chronic disease among Latino immigrants and farm workers across California. Through her use of multimedia in public health education interventions, Diana became passionate about radio production. She graduated from the KPFA Apprenticeship program and has since been involved at the station as a producer for more than ten years. Currently she is KPFA’s senior producer for Letters and Politics.

KPFA benefit

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