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Events for April 2009
Sunday Apr 5, 7PM @ 2640 : 7th Annual Ric Pfeffer Lecture: Arun Gupta on the Early History of the New Depression
- How global capitalism's tremors match the waning of US hegemony
- How neoliberal policies led to cascading economic disasters
- What deeper crises neoliberals failed to stave off
- What to fear and hope for in the aftermath of the crisis
Arun Gupta has been an editor of the Indypendent (NYC) since 2000 and was an editor of the Guardian (NYC) from 1989-1992. He is currently writing a book on the decline of U.S. hegemony.
Ric Pfeffer,in whose honor this series was established, was a powerful advocate for worker's rights and safety, and a passionate activist for social justice.
Thursday Apr 9, 7PM @ Red Emma's : EARTH FIRST ROAD SHOW !
The very future of life on Earth is in danger. Human activities—from hunting to habitat destruction—have already driven countless species to extinction, and the process is only accelerating. The destruction of the Earth and its sustainable indigenous cultures has led to tragedy in every corner of the globe.
Meanwhile, scientists have confirmed what indigenous cultures have taught for thousands of years: all forms of life are vitally connected. Removing even a single strand from the web of life produces a widening ripple of catastrophe. On a more spiritual level, Earth First!ers under stand that we can never be the healthy humans that we were meant to be in a world without wilderness, clean air and the howling of wolves under the moon.
It is not enough to ask politicians and corporations to destroy less wilderness. We need to preserve it all, to recreate lost habitats and reintroduce extirpated predators. We need to stop and reverse the poisoning of our air, water and soil, as well as the modification of life's genetic code. It is not enough to oppose the construction of new dams and developments. It is time to free our shackled rivers and restore the land.
This Roadshow’s primary intention is to strengthen our radical grassroots ecological network. For almost 30 years, we have been an organized voice bridging conservation biology with grassroots community organizing, road blockading and eco-sabotage. In the past 5 years we have seen numbers and experience-level in the EF! movement decline drastically. Yet, our place has never been more urgent. New groups are popping up across the country, but they are detached from many of the groups, history, and skills that preceded them. We can¹t afford to stumble and repeat the same mistakes.
We are at the tail end of a decade where corporate globalization rooted itself in the US and spread across the planet like a plague. And now that the reality of climate change is finally sinking into the mainstream consciousness, the same superpowers that pushed so-called ‘free trade’ policies to exploit wild nature more efficiently are promoting carbon trading in attempt to make a profitable industry out of the disasters they’ve created. The spineless Big Green environmental NGOs are scrambling for crumbs and cutting deals with the industry for shallow public relations victories. Earth First! must rise and recognize that it’s presence is a strong component of making the broader environmental movement truly effective. We are its spine, or as an EF! co-founder, Howie Wolke, has put it, we are the lions of a movement ‘ecosystem’. Our niche is critical, and its presence (or absence) is felt deeply by our surroundings.
Friday Apr 10, 8PM @ 2640 : Gimmer Shelter: A Benefit for Heart's Place Shelter
Local performance poetry troupe Gimmer Shelter performs at 2640 as a benefit for Heart's Place Shelter (which runs in the basement of the 2640 building)! Come out and support the cause - Heart's Place is always in need of extra funds to keep their doors open. Donations at the door are appreciated - concessions provided by Red Emma's!
Saturday Apr 11, 7PM @ Red Emma's : Wood to Stone to Sea Tour
Join us at Red Emma's for musical pluckings, vocal reverberations, queer puppetry and trans activism with East Coast performance artists Modern Day Pinnochio, A Stick and a Stone and Adelaide Windsome, collaborating to bring us the Wood to Stone to Sea Northeast Tour!
Modern Day Pinnochio , a techno/rock/folk fusion from North Carolina who is the founder of Trans-Genre.net, a website promoting transgender artists, A Stick and a Stone , an evocative singer/songwriter, frequent traveler, and Philadelphia-based activist, and Adelaide Windsome, puppeteer and performance artist who work has focused on queer and trans issues, mental health support and environmental justice among the irreverent, yet poigant humor, join us for one evening and one evening only! With their diverse experiences, passions and modes of expression, this looks to be an exciting and engaging evening.
Be prepared to be tickled pink!
Monday Apr 13, 7PM @ Red Emma's : Beware of vegetarian sharks !
“Dangerous Shortcuts and Vegetarian Sharks” is the blueprint for understanding how Imperialism has worked and the explanation for why it has persistently failed. In “Shortcuts” Mr. Greeman exposes the singular logic of Empire throughout its history and various loci, while giving readers the sense that we are all witness to the inevitable emergence of a new human consciousness-- one that is destined to be a resounding ‘NO!’ to the question of Empire. “Shortcuts” is a clear and concise Q & A on the subject of human freedom in the 21st Century; recommended reading alongside Mr. Greeman’s earlier ‘how-to’ collection of essays in “The Revolutionary Kit: or, how to build your own Invisible International”. Exposing the fallacies of our past is essential as we proceed into our future, and Mr. Greeman has given us the critical lens we need in order to honestly move ahead. Mr. Greeman’s ideas are indeed dangerous because they threaten to refocus our attention on the real inner workings of Imperialist machines.RICHARD GREEMAN is a veteran socialist, scholar and activist
Saturday Apr 18, 7PM @ Red Emma's : Coal Mountain Elementary
“Coal Mountain Elementary" is an imaginative and shocking reminder of what it means, in the most human and poignant terms, to be a miner, whether in this country or in China, or for that matter anywhere in the industrial world. It is also a tribute to miners and working people everywhere. It manages, in photos and in words, to portray an entire culture, the culture of the miner and his family, and it is a stunning educational tool.
A poet and labor activist heralded by Adrienne Rich for “regenerating the rich tradition of working-class literature,” Mark Nowak regularly leads transnational poetry workshops between American and international trade unions. The author of Revenants and Shut Up Shut Down, he is also a frequent contributor to the Poetry Foundation’s Harriet blog.
Tuesday Apr 21, 7PM @ Red Emma's : Diana Block reads at Red Emma's!
What is it like to raise children who don’t know their mother’s real name and birthday? How does it feel to see your own history distorted on an episode of “America’s Most Wanted”? Which aspects of underground life are terrifying, which are stultifying, and which ultimately strengthen the spirit and will to resist? Join us for an evening's discussion with political revolutionary and feminist author Diana Block, who will read from her new memoir Arm the Spirit, published in March by our comrades at AK Press! The memoir chronicles Diana's experience living underground for a decade, forced into hiding with her two-week-old son and five other companions, by the threat of arrest for their revolutionary activities on behalf of the Puerto Rican independence movement.
Diana is a superb speaker - and this promises to be a fantastic event! Don't miss it!
Friday Apr 24, 7PM @ Red Emma's : Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women
In 1974, women imprisoned at New York's maximum-security prison at Bedford Hills staged what is known as the August Rebellion. Protesting the brutal beating of a fellow prisoner, the women fought off guards, holding seven of them hostage, and took over sections of the prison.
While many have heard of the 1971 Attica prison uprising, the August Rebellion remains relatively unknown even in activist circles. Resistance Behind Bars is determined to challenge and change such oversights. As it examines daily struggles against appalling prison conditions and injustices, Resistance documents both collective organizing and individual resistance among women incarcerated in the U.S. Emphasizing women's agency in resisting the conditions of their confinement through forming peer education groups, clandestinely arranging ways for children to visit mothers in distant prisons and raising public awareness about their lives, Resistance seeks to spark further discussion and research into the lives of incarcerated women and galvanize much-needed outside support for their struggles.
Monday Apr 27, 7PM @ Red Emma's : Gringo! Chesa Boudin reads from his new novel
Activist kid and already-prolific author Chesa Boudin comes of age with his new memoir Gringo: A Coming of Age in Latin America. The book charts the sweeping transformation of Latin American politics from Hugo Chávez's inauguration as president of Venezuela in 1999 and the rise of a new generation of progressive Latin American leaders. It weaves together the voices of Latin Americans--both rich and poor--and the endeavors of a young traveler to understand the world around him while coming to terms with his own complicated past. Along the way we learn more about Chesa's experiences growing up as the son of Weather Underground activists Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, both imprisoned when Chesa was 14 months old for their role in a politically-motivated robbery in upstate New York, and as the adpoted child of another set of Weather Underground activists, Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. Currently a student at Yale's Law School, he studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, had translated and authored books on Latin American politics, and co-edited the fantastic compendium, Letters From Young Activists in 2005. Should be a great talk - don't miss it!
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