Category: Events

People’s World Amistad Awards, Sat., Dec. 13

by CT People’s World Committee

People’s World is honored to present the Amistad Award to four wonderful allies and working-class champions. Together they represent the kind of unity, solidarity and vision needed to build a movement to defend our rights against vicious corporate assault, and transform our country to put people, peace and planet before profits.

AWARDEES:

Tabitha Sookdeo, director of Connecticut Students for a Dream, tirelessly defends immigrant youth and families across the state, organizing to end systemic oppression and dehumanization, while also building the movement for climate justice.

Wayne McCarthy, president of International Association of Machinists Local 700, stood united on strike against Pratt & Whitney to win a strong union contract that has uplifted all working people at a time of all-out assault on the labor movement.

Norma Martinez-HoSang and Constanza Segovia, Connecticut for All Director and Director of Organizing, led a multi-racial labor community coalition united to end systemic inequalities and build power for racial and economic justice in CT.

A narrated concert of multi-cultural freedom songs will highlight the event.

The event will stand “IN SOLIDARITY” with students and teachers for their leadership in the continued fight for justice for immigrants.

Hosted on the occasion of the 106th anniversary of the Communist Party USA, in the spirit of building unity against racism, red-baiting and all forms of bigotry for workers’ rights, equality, peace, democracy, and a better world. For tickets, please go to https://bit.ly/3K7jTFs.

Hosted by CT People’s World Committee and former awardees.

Community Dinner at Volume Two

by Volume Two/Never Ending Books

Folks will be hosting a Community Dinner every second Thursday from 6-8 p.m. at Volume Two (V2), A Never Ending Books Collective, at 810 State St., New Haven. Bring what you can and take what you need! Sign up to bring a dish here: https://tinyurl.com/2ndthurscommunitydinner and subscribe to the V2 newsletter at https://neverendingbooks.net.

V2 offers free books and a free space for your gig, group, or gathering. LGBTQIA and BIPOC events encouraged and celebrated! For all booking and other inquiries, contact NEBCollective@gmail.com.

Call for Proposals for the 25th SCSU Women’s & Gender Studies Conference

by Women’s & Gender Studies Department, SCSU

(Re)making the World: A “How-To” Conference on Feminist, Crip, and Decolonial Worldmaking, April 17–18, 2026, at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven

In As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance (2017), Leanne Betasamosake Simpson writes:

Resurgence is not a metaphor. It is the flight out of settler colonialism, towards something we have been taught is impossible.

This conference takes Simpson’s call for radical resurgence seriously — positioning “how-to” as a feminist practice, politic, and theorizing.

The 2026 Southern Connecticut State University Women’s & Gender Studies Conference invites communities to gather for a feminist, crip, and decolonial practice of refusal, survival, and worldmaking.

In an era of rising authoritarianism, climate catastrophe, and technological dispossession, we ask

How do we refuse extractive systems of labor, knowledge, and identity?

How do we create alternative economies of care, access, justice, and decolonial business?

How do we unlearn oppressive epistemologies and forge liberatory practices?

How do we crip, queer, Indigenize, and decolonize institutions not built for us?

How do we resist algorithmic bias, surveillance capitalism, and technocratic ableism?

How do we (re)imagine feminist futures?

The 2026 conference offers a space to explore the pedagogies, practices, and possibilities embedded in the question of “how to?” across disciplines, communities, and movements. We seek proposals that move beyond critique to praxis — embracing failure as pedagogy, interdependence as resistance, and joy as a radical act.

Submission Guidelines: Individual papers, workshops, roundtables, performances, exhibitions, teach-ins, skill-shares, activist toolkits, and other creative or non-traditional formats are welcomed.

We encourage proposals from caregivers, community organizers, entrepreneurs, artist-activists, and others whose work centers lived experiences, collaborative strategies, and collective visions for justice and inclusion.

The deadline is Jan. 5, 2026 (earlier submissions encouraged). Notifications will be sent by Jan. 30.

Send proposals to wgs@southernct.edu with the subject “2026 SCSU WGS Conference Submission” and include the name of the proposer, email, phone number, affiliation (if any), and any accessibility needs. The proposal should be approximately 150-250 words and should include a 50-word bio for each presenter and a separate section with a description of the proposed format of the session.

Registration details will be available shortly. Please email or phone the Women’s & Gender Studies Department at wgs@southernct.edu or 203-392-6133.

News from the First Unitarian Universalist Society

From 10:30-11:30 a.m. on Nov. 30, the First Unitarian Universalist Society will feature guest speaker Robin Greenfield at our service, at 608 Whitney Ave.

Robin is an activist, social reformer and servant to Earth, humanity and our plant and animal relatives. Robin lives simply and sustainably to be the change he wishes to see in the world and in active resistance to destructive and exploitative systems. His life is an experiment with truth and integrity. This year he devotes the entire year to foraging the entirety of his diet and teaching others how to forage. He also embarks on the One Million Community Fruit Trees Initiative with a goal of planting 1 million fruit and nut trees from 2025 through 2035. Read more at robingreenfield.org.

Lynne Charles will facilitate the service, which will be followed by a vegan potluck hosted by the UU family.

For more information about our congregation and how to Zoom our services, please visit uunewhaven.org.

TEDxProspectHill is Coming to New Haven on Dec. 14, 2025 at the Foote School!

 

Join us for a day of impactful talks featuring eight inspiring speakers, all coming together to spark conversations and new ideas. Interested in attending? Get your tickets at tedxprospecthill.eventbrite.com. Student tickets are $5, general admission tickets are $10. The Foote School is located at 50 Loomis Place, New Haven, and is wheelchair accessible. The event is from 4-8 p.m.

TEDxProspectHill is an independently organized TEDx event licensed under the global TEDx platform. Rooted in the Prospect Hill neighborhood of New Haven, this event brings together voices from the community, nonprofits, entrepreneurs, and academia to foster dialogue, build connections, and create opportunities for meaningful partnerships. By bridging gaps between groups, TEDxProspectHill seeks to amplify diverse perspectives and strengthen collaboration across sectors.  This year we are exploring the theme “What If?”, inviting community to share perspectives that spark conversation and reimagine the systems we live within. For more information visit tedxprospecthill.com. To get in touch with our organizing board, please email hello@tedxprospecthill.com.

News from the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen (DESK)

Thanksgiving has always been a cornerstone program at DESK. Although it’s just one day out of the year, Thanksgiving offers an important symbol for those we serve, reminding them that they are part of a warm and caring community.

Help us bring warmth and compassion to those who are most in need this Thanksgiving!

There are plenty of ways to get involved this year. Here is how YOU can help make this Thanksgiving special for those most in need in your community:

  1. Host a Thanksgiving Food Drive
    Email donate@deskct.orgor call 475-238-8778 to learn about our current donation needs and to get a customized flyer to help spread the word. These items will be distributed at our Thanksgiving Pantry on the day before the holiday, feeding over 250 households.
  2. Donate
    Love to help, but don’t have the time?
    Donate now at deskct.org/tfaand we’ll do the shopping.
  3. Become a Thanksgiving-for-All Sponsor
    Your sponsorshipwill help ensure that over 1,000 individuals won’t go hungry this holiday. Visit deskct.org.
  4. Volunteer
    Sign up forvolunteer shiftsfor Thanksgiving-related events in the days leading up to the holiday, including Thanksgiving Day. Each opportunity will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis and will fill up fast!

If you have any questions about this year’s Thanksgiving-for-All program, don’t hesitate to contact volunteer@deskct.org or 475-238-8778.

People’s World Amistad Awards, Saturday, Dec. 13

by People’s World Amistad Awards Committee

This year’s People’s World Amistad Awards Working Class Unity! To Defend Our Rights and Fight for Our Future will be held Saturday, Dec. 13 at 4 p.m. at the First and Summerfield Church – home to Unite Here – 425 College St., New Haven. The keepsake greeting book will be printed and will be in an electronic edition.

We invite your attendance and participation in the greeting book to honor the awardees and the occasion. The ad deadline is Nov. 20. For greeting book and ticket information, please call 203-624-8664.

People’s World is honored to present the Amistad Award to four wonderful allies and working-class champions:

Tabitha Sookdeo, director of Connecticut Students for a Dream

Wayne McCarthy, president of International Association of Machinists Local 700

Norma Martinez-HoSang and Constanza Segovia of Connecticut for All Director and Director of Organizing.

More about the awardees will be in the December issue of the Progressive Action Roundtable newsletter.

Courage Award to Go to Imprisoned, Tortured Palestinian Doctor

by LouAnn Villani, Middle East Crisis Committee 

The Middle East Crisis Committee (MECC) will give its 2025 Courage Award to Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya of Gaza, Palestine. Dr. Safiya was the Director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in north Gaza, Palestine when he was arrested on Dec. 27, 2024 by Israeli troops. He has been in their custody ever since. Israeli authorities claim he’s being held under “suspicion of terrorism.” He has not been charged in court with any crime but is held under a cruel legal-like measure the Israelis call “Administrative Detention.”

Dr. Abu Safiya was head of the pediatric department in Kamal Adwan Hospital before becoming its director. While not exclusively a pediatric hospital, Kamal Adwan Hospital was particularly known for its specialized pediatric services, including a critical Neonatal and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Like all Gaza medical facilities, Kamal Adwan performed incredible work despite severe shortage of essential supplies. And like all Gazans, he and his staff were being intentionally starved, often arrested, even as its building endured sieges and bombardment. In December 2024 the hospital was closed at gunpoint.

He has been seen by a lawyer very infrequently. In February, his attorney said Dr. Abu Safiya had suffered torture, including beatings with batons and electric shock sticks. In July his attorney reported that Dr. Abu Safiya had lost nearly 90 pounds while in Israeli custody.

Dr. Abu Safiya stands for all Palestinian doctors and healthcare workers who have done outstanding humanitarian work amid indescribable conditions and constant slander that they are terrorists.

We hope to have a ceremony in late November to honor Dr. Abu Safiya in absentia. MECC’s Courage Award was initiated in 2023. It was bestowed that year to Alaa Abd El-Fattah, an imprisoned activist in Egypt who has very recently been released. In 2024 the award was given to Palestinian journalists and media workers as a whole. Visit TheStruggleVideo.org for future developments.

Americans and the Holocaust: A Traveling Exhibition for Libraries

by Meriden Public Library

Americans and the Holocaust is on display at the Meriden Public Library, along with a series of related special events, through Nov. 9, 2025.

The 1,100-square-foot exhibition examines various aspects of American society: the government, the military, refugee aid organizations, the media and the general public.

Drawing on a remarkable collection of primary sources from the 1930s and ’40s, the exhibition tells the stories of Americans who acted in response to Nazism, challenging the commonly held assumptions that Americans knew little and did nothing about the Nazi persecution and murder of Jews as the Holocaust unfolded. It provides a portrait of American society that shows how the Depression, isolationism, xenophobia, racism and antisemitism shaped responses to Nazism and the Holocaust. Info: 203-630-4730, www.meridenlibrary.org. Meriden Public Library at 105 Miller Street, Meriden.

No Kings Day 2! Demonstrate on Saturday, Oct. 18

www.nokings.org

[Demonstrations on Oct. 18 will take place in many towns across the country and the world. The Hartford demonstration at the Capitol is from noon-2 p.m. The New Haven demonstration will be on the New Haven Green from 3-5 p.m. NOW IS THE TIME!!! See www.nokings.org for all locations. And check the time before you go to ensure the time has not changed.]

In June, we did what many claimed was impossible: peacefully mobilized millions of people to take to the streets and declare with one voice: America Has No Kings. And it mattered. The world saw the power of the people. President Trump’s birthday parade was drowned out by protests in every state and across the globe. His attempt to turn June 14 into a coronation collapsed, and the story became the strength of a movement rising against his authoritarian power grabs.

Now, President Trump has doubled down. His administration is sending masked agents into our streets, terrorizing our communities. They are targeting immigrant families, profiling, arresting and detaining people without warrants. Threatening to overtake elections. Gutting healthcare, environmental protections, and education when families need them most. Rigging maps to silence voters. Ignoring mass shootings at our schools and in our communities. Driving up the cost of living while handing out massive giveaways to billionaire allies as families struggle.

The president thinks his rule is absolute. But in America, we don’t have kings and we won’t back down against chaos, corruption, and cruelty.

Our peaceful movement is only getting bigger and bigger. “NO KINGS” is more than just a slogan; it is the foundation our nation was built upon. Born in the streets, shouted by millions, carried on posters and chants, it echoes from city blocks to rural town squares, uniting people across this country to fight dictatorship together.

Because this country does not belong to kings, dictators, or tyrants. It belongs to We the People – the people who care, who show up, and the ones who fight for dignity, a life we can afford, and real opportunity. No Thrones. No Crowns. No Kings.

 

Know Your Rights https://undocumented.media.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/3141/2025/03/Know-Your-Rights_One-Pager_Bilingual-2.pdf

Famed Professor to Speak on Biodiversity and Sustainability in War-Wracked Palestine

by Yann van Heurck, First Unitarian Universalist Society

Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh will speak via Zoom at First Unitarian Universalist Society of New Haven during the 10:30 a.m. church service on Sunday, Oct. 19.

Dr. Qumsiyeh, former professor of biology and genetics at Yale and author of many academic papers and books, including Sharing the Land of Canaan, is currently director of the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability, and of the Palestine Museum of Natural History, at Bethlehem University in Occupied Palestine. A Christian Palestinian, Dr. Qumsiyeh will share the groundbreaking work of the Institute to preserve the flora, fauna and human populations of the region amid devastating attacks on the environment.

Unitarian Universalism is a multiethnic, multireligious faith that encourages social activism in a context of spiritual awareness. Everyone is welcome to join our service at the meeting house (608 Whitney Ave., New Haven) or by Zoom link. Email Yann for the link at janinawoelfin@gmail.com. We urge all friends of nature and justice to join us!

6th Annual Kulturally LIT Fest, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Oct. 4

Oct. 4, 2025, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

ConnCAT, 4 Science Park, New Haven

Join us for the 6th Annual Kulturally LIT Fest — formerly Elm City LIT Fest — a dynamic celebration of Black literature, art, and cultural power. This year’s theme, “The Year of X,” honors the legacies of Malcolm X and Medgar Evers, two revolutionary leaders whose vision, sacrifice, and radical love continue to shape our struggles for justice and liberation.

The 2025 festival will center Black storytelling through powerful panels, workshops, music, vendors, and interactive art. We’ll explore the enduring impact of Malcolm and Medgar across generations. Expect bold conversations, creative expression, and space for both reflection and resistance.

Whether you’re a book lover, a budding writer, an artist, or a freedom dreamer, this festival is for you. Come experience the power of Black literature, legacy, and community.

For more information, please go to bit.ly/42IMJBY.

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