HUDSON VALLEY
ACTIVIST CALENDAR
February 13, 2014,
Issue #679
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NOTE: • We
regret missing some good events in earlier February but it was unavoidable. • The
next Activist Newsletter will be online in about a week. • The Activist Newsletter
is a co-sponsor of the March 6 International Women’s Day meeting at SUNY New
Paltz (see below) so please attend if you can.
Thursday, Feb. 13, WOODSTOCK:
Middle East Crisis Response, a group of Hudson Valley residents joined together
to promote peace and human rights in Palestine and the Middle East, will
hold its regular meeting tonight, 7 p.m.
at Woodstock Public Library, 5 Library Lane. Information, (845) 876-7906,
http://www.mideastcrisis.org.
Friday,
Feb. 14, NEW PALTZ (SUNY campus): There will be a One Billion Rising Flash Mob
Performance today — V-Day — to end violence against women and girls. This year
the One Billion Rising campaign is calling on people to “escalate our efforts.
This year’s event is calling on women and men everywhere to rise, release,
dance and demand justice.” Both students and community people are invited to
take part in this 4 p.m. event in the Student Union Building, Multi-Purpose
Room (wear Red, Black, or Pink). At 4:30 p.m., women and men all over the globe
will dance to support a world where women live safely and freely. We’re told: “For more than 15 years, V-Day activists have mobilized in more
than 200 countries and worked tirelessly on a grassroots level to demand an end
to all forms of violence against women and girls. In the face of resistance,
V-Day activists have raised consciousness, changed laws, funded rape crisis
centers and domestic violence shelters (often keeping the doors open), educated
their communities, and raised more than $100 million for groups doing the
essential work of ending violence and serving survivors.” The campus event is
sponsored by SCOPE
(Safe Campus Outreach Prevention & Education).
Campus map: http://www.newpaltz.edu/map. Information, Tara Sestanovich, sestanot@newpaltz.edu. The One Billion Rising website is
http://www.onebillionrising.org.
Saturday, Feb.
15, POUGHKEEPSIE: A memorial peace vigil for Pete Seeger will take place at
“Pete’s Corner” (a grass mini-peace park at the corner
of Rt. 9/9D near South Hills Mall/Staples). Seeger, a resident of Beacon in
Dutchess County, participated in the weekly antiwar vigils in this location
until just before his death. Many who regularly take part in this vigil will
show up plus all who wish to remember and honor this extraordinary performer,
progressive and humanitarian. Participants will also honor the late Rich
Carlson, long time organizer of this vigil. Activist and Dutchess legislator
Joel Tyner reported that “we'll be gathering with signs and banners for songs
and speeches to honor the memory of Pete and Rich. Pete's many appearances for
years at these weekly local peace vigils — in all kinds of nasty weather — were
featured at the end of Jim Brown's great documentary film on Pete, The Power of
Song.” This entire one hour and 23 minute video, which was featured on PBS
last month, is at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/pete-seeger/full-film-pete-seeger-the-power-of-song/2864/.
Information, joeltyner@earthlink.net, (845) 453-2105, http://www.DutchessDemocracy.blogspot.com/
POSTPONED. Tuesday, Feb. 18,
KINGSTON: Maggie Williams, founder of Move to Amend (Ulster County), will speak
at 6 p.m. on the state of the democracy movement and the need to take action
for social change. This group is part of the nationwide opposition to Supreme
Court rulings providing corporations with excessive, undemocratic rights. This
free public meeting will take place at the
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Catskills, 320 Sawkill Rd. Co-sponsors
include American Association of
University Women, Kingston
End the New Jim Crow Action Network
(ENJAN)
, Mid-Hudson Sierra Club,
Undoing Racism of the Hudson Valley
, Unitarian
Universalist Congregation of the Catskills Social Justice Committee and Move to
Amend of Ulster County. Information, (845) 331-2884. Move to Amend is at https://movetoamend.org/ny-saugerties.
Tuesday, Feb.
18, SCHENECTADY (Union College campus): Nick Turse, the award winning
distinguished investigative journalist and author of “Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam,” will speak
at 7 p.m. in the Reamer Campus Center Auditorium. Turse's coverage of
Washington’s recent conflicts and his articles about the global impact of the
Pentagon’s Special Forces have exposed the unjust nature of the Bush-Obama
wars. Turse is a Nation fellow, the associate editor of TomDispatch.com and the
winner of a 2009 Ridenhour Prize for Reportorial Distinction and a James
Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism. His free public talk is
sponsored by the History Department at Union College as well as Women Against
War's "Beyond Afghanistan" Committee. Information, Maureen
Aumand, (518) 869-6674, aumandmaureen@gmail.com.
Wednesday, Feb.
19, ALBANY (SUNY uptown campus): Nick Turse (see above) will speak at 4:15 p.m.
in the Recital Hall of the Performing
Arts Center as part of the Writer's Institute Visiting Authors series.
Information, Maureen Aumand, (518) 869-6674, aumandmaureen@gmail.com.
Friday, Feb. 21, MILLBROOK: "Emptying the Skies," a documentary film about the widespread poaching of migratory songbirds in the Mediterranean will be screened at 7 p.m. at the Cary Institute auditorium, 2801 Sharon Turnpike (Rt. 44). In parts of Southern Europe, songbirds are a culinary delicacy, commanding top dollar on the black market. Learn about the millions of protected songbirds that wind up on dinner plates, and the heroism of Italian bird-lovers trying to stop the practice. The film is based on a New Yorker essay by award-winning writer Jonathan Franzen. After the screening there will be a Q&A with director Roger Kass. Information about this free public meeting is at (845) 677-7600, Ext. 121, freemanp@caryinstitute.org.
Tuesday, Feb. 25, KINGSTON: The
End the New Jim Crow Action Network! (ENJAN), a Hudson Valley network dedicated
to fighting racist policies of racial profiling, police brutality, and mass incarceration
(the "new Jim Crow"), meets at 6 p.m. at the New Progressive Baptist
Church, 8 Hone St. Information, (845) 475-8781, http://www.enjan.org.
Wednesday, Feb. 26, POUGHKEEPSIE:
The End the New Jim Crow Action network will meet at 6 p.m. at the Sadie
Peterson Delaney African Roots Library, Family Partnership Center, 29 N
Hamilton St. Information, (845) 475-8781, http://www.enjan.org.
Thursday, March 6, NEW PALTZ
(SUNY campus): A public and student meeting to commemorate International Women’s Day
will be held at 6:30 p.m. in Lecture Center 108. The meeting will both
celebrate the advances women have obtained through struggle and signal the hard
work necessary to eliminate the remaining obstacles to full female equality. The
right wing offensive against women’s rights is picking up steam. Throughout
2013, 52 anti-choice measures were enacted in 24 states. Violence against women
and disparities in income, are among the remaining roadblocks. This meeting is
sponsored by Mid-Hudson WORD (Women
Organized to Resist and Defend), Mid-Hudson Valley Amnesty International and the
Activist Newsletter. “We will call for an end to violence against all women —
in the home, on the street and in all public and private spaces; reproductive
justice for all women — including full access to contraception, abortion,
health care and child care; a living wage for all, and equity in the workplace,
with paid family leave, and an end to sexual harassment at work; and full
equality for women in all areas of society. We stand for full equality and
respect and against racism, sexism, anti-LGBT bigotry, and commercialization of women in mass media." Campus map: http://www.newpaltz.edu/map. Information, directions, or to volunteer, np@defendwomensrights.org.
