Category: Events

Dec. 10 Rally for Peace in New Haven: UN Human Rights Day

by Mary Compton, Greater New Haven Peace Council

The International Coordinating Committee of the Peace and Planet Conference, held in New York recently, called for public expressions on Dec. 10, United Nations Human Rights Day.

Many U.S. Peace organizations nationally have agreed to organize public expressions on Dec. 10, heralding the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights to create a peaceful world.

The Greater New Haven Peace Council and the City of New Haven Peace Commission have initiated a call for peace and will sponsor a public meeting on Thursday, Dec. 10 at noon, at the Amistad Statue in front of the New Haven City Hall. Speakers from a broad range of community organizations have been invited.

We call on all our friends who cherish peace to join us, to engage in creative peaceful, militant actions in our communities calling for ceasefires, an end to these wars, and peaceful inclusive negotiations including Syrian government. No U.S. troops to Syria. The human right to peace must be honored. Families, villagers and citizens have the right not to be violated by war. The enormous and irreplaceable resources spent on war are far better spent to address desperate human needs.

The surging dangers to world peace, including sending U.S. troops to engage in Syria, have created a crisis that with the slightest misstep can lead to World War 3. The bombings in France by terrorists are a blowback to the policies of accelerated aggression in the Middle East. The continued relations with the funders and sponsors of the various terrorist groups by the CIA and U.S. so-called allies, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have created a situation where U.S. weapons are fueling the terrorists and millions are fleeing for safety from the bombs for which the U.S. has a responsibility.

We must raise our voices for peace, against war! Insist on diplomacy and negotiations to end the wars in Syria, including the governments of Iran, Russia and Syria. Let us demand the Human Right to Peace.

At the Main Public Library, 133 Elm St.

Monday, Dec. 7, 6 – 7 p.m.
A Child’s Christmas In Wales. A special holiday treat! A dramatic reading with actor Colin Lane and musician Becca Zaretzky, who performed at the library two years ago to a standing-room-only crowd. Originally written for radio, Dylan Thomas’ poem is told from the viewpoint of a young child and celebrates Christmases past, portraying a nostalgic and simpler time. Info: Marie Jarry (203) 946-8129.

Thursday, Dec. 10, 6 – 7 p.m.
New Haven Guitar Quartet. a newly-formed ensemble of guitarists from Yale University dedicated to exploring the expressive possibilities of the guitar quartet. Members Daniel Corr, Katrin Endrikat, John Kossler and Trevor Babb perform both original and transcribed works, ranging from the Renaissance to the Contemporary. Info: Ashley Sklar (203) 946-8835.

Monday, Dec. 21, 10:30 – 11:30 a.m.
Dignity Music Concert Series: A Program of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Albrechtsberger. Ravenna Michalsen, a cellist and active participant in the CT musical scene, received a Mayor’s Community Arts Grant for the Dignity Music concert series which brings classical music to homeless shelters, breakfast programs, soup kitchens and other New Haven venues. Bethany Wilder joins her for this concert on viola and cello. Info: Ashley Sklar (203) 946-8835.

For a complete schedule, go online to http://calendar.nhfpl.org/cal/main/showMainEnd.rdo.

Listen Here! Short Story Reading Series

by Bennett Graff, Publisher, New Haven Review

The Institute Library is proud to host the Listen Here Short Story reading series. Join us for a night of classic short stories selected by the staff of the New Haven Review and read by cast members of the New Haven Theater Company. Reading starts at 7 p.m., with a talk back at 8 p.m. Also, freshly baked cookies and tea are available. $5 suggested admission, but no obligations!

Join us every 3rd Tuesday of the month at the Institute Library, 847 Chapel St, New Haven. Our next reading will be Dec. 15.

Our theme: “That Special Place.”

Our stories: “Cherubs” by Justine Dymond and “The Room” by William Trevor.

Please note that the Institute Library is one flight up and not wheelchair accessible. For more information, visit us at http://www.institutelibrary.org.

The Climate Stewardship Summit Nov. 5

The Climate Stewardship Summit sponsored by the Interreligious Eco-Justice Network will take place frmo 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5, at Congregation Beth Israel in West Hartford. Building on the moral vision articulated in the Pope’s encyclical, we will examine how we can build an integrated approach to seeking solutions.

Through an action oriented agenda, the Climate Stewardship Summit will promote the concept that we are “Standing on Holy Ground.” Speakers include celebrated climate activist Tim DeChristopher, Jacqui Patterson, Director of the NAACP’s Enviromental & Climate Justice Program and Allan Johnson, Founder of Christians for the Mountains. Deacon Art Miller, featured in the Hartford Courant’s Hometown Heroes series for his work in the Black Lives Matter and Moral Monday CT movements, will be our  morning keynote speaker!

The Interreligious Eco-Justice Network is a faith-based environmental organization that works to inspire and empower religious communities in Connecticut to be  faithful stewards of the planet.

CT Network to Abolish the Death Penalty Annual Meeting, Wednesday, Nov. 11

by Sheila Denion, Project Director

The Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty (CNADP) has been working to abolish the death penalty in Connecticut since 1986. We stand strongly opposed to the death penalty as it is poor public policy. The death penalty does not deter crime, it is not cost efficient, it kills the mentally ill, it is economically and racially biased, it kills the innocent, and it does not provide closure to families – it is simply revenge, not justice.

CNADP invites you to our 2015 Annual Meeting and celebration of the CT Supreme Court’s ruling that the death penalty in Connecticut was unconstitutional. The  celebration will be begin at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 11, at Raintree Condominiums Clubhouse, 45 Hickory Lane, Rocky Hill.

This decision moves us beyond the prospective repeal we achieved in 2012 to total abolition of capital punishment in our state. It’s time to party!

Come and reconnect with old friends within the movement and meet new ones. We will present our new board of directors and program platform for approval, so your attendance is important. And we will present awards to former State Representative Michael P. Lawler and to Public Defender Thomas J. Ullmann. Please join us in thanking and honoring both of them for their contributions to the success of our movement.

Refreshments will be available at 7 p.m., and our short program will begin at 7:30. Reservations are appreciated but not necessary. You can email [email protected] or call (860) 231-1489.

The meeting site is convenient to both Hartford and New Haven, just off Exit 23 from I-91. Please mark this date on your calendar now, and invite friends and family to join you at this free event. There is plenty of convenient parking.

Directions to Raintree Condominiums clubhouse:

From I-91 North – Exit 23 West St. Rocky Hill, turn right onto West St. From I-91 South – Exit 23, turn left onto West St. Turn left into Raintree Condos (Butternut Lane), first right onto Hickory Lane. The clubhouse is at the end of the street; parking in front of clubhouse.

CT Green Party News

by Barbara Barry, Secretary, GPCT

The next SCC (State Central Committee) meeting of the GPCT will be Tuesday, Nov. 17, at Portland Waverly Center, 7 Waverly Ave., Portland.

Social time is from 6 to 6:30 p.m., meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. The estimated length of meeting is two hours.

Agenda includes review of November 3 election results of our GPCT municipal candidates; preparation for our 2016 petition drive for GPUS (Green Party of US) candidates for president, VP and U.S. Senate and the Congressional Districts where GPCT wish to run but will need to petition to acquire ballot access; results of our fundraiser Oct. 21, “The Organic Farm to Table” dinner at Wheeler’s Restaurant in Woodbridge with Jeff Cordulack, executive director of CT NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association).

Other agenda items: ongoing efforts to promote our 2015-2016 proposals to the CT Legislature; interactions with other organizations with similar values/concerns; other events, forums and activities by GPCT members, chapters, the GPCT itself; and GPCT interaction with the GPUS.

More information:  http://www.ctgreenparty.org or on Facebook.

PACE Presents ‘Wake Up, Connecticut’ Nov. 21

by Judi Friedman, People’s Action for Clean Energy

Saturday, Nov. 21, People’s Action for Clean Energy will present WAKE UP, CONNECTICUT, featuring Connecticut leaders who are successfully working on renewable energy investments; Connecticut clean energy legislation; solar community-building; and solar panel installation. The 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Lucas Hixson (MI), who has just returned from inside the Chernobyl nuclear plant. He will showcase the ongoing dangers that this accident still represents and compare it to present and possible US nuclear plant scenarios.

Beginning at 6 p.m., homemade Stromboli, desserts and beverages will be available for purchase, with opportunities to view exhibits and literature. After a brief meeting at 7 p.m., opened by former State Rep. and PACE President Timothy Bowles, awards to unique Connecticut leaders will include State Rep. Jonathan Steinberg; the leaders of the Connecticut Roundtable on Climate and Jobs; Bernard Zahren of Clean Feet Investors; Allied Printing; and Beyond Nuclear board member Lucas Hixson.

This timely and special free public event will conclude with evocative songs sung by beautiful Teryn Kuzma with bandura accompaniment.

The program will take place at the Hartford Friends Meeting House, 144 S. Quaker Lane, West Hartford. For more information, go to http://www.pace-cleanenergy.org or call (860) 693-4813.

 

Fair Trade Holiday Gifts Dec. 5, Standing Up for Women’s Lives in Our Sister City

by Megan Fountain, New Haven/Leon Sister City Project

On Dec. 5, get your fair trade holiday gifts — organic coffee, hand-made crafts, and more — from the New Haven/León Sister City Project at the Bioregional Holiday Bazaar (Dec. 5, 11 a.m.-4 p.m., 608 Whitney Ave).

Be sure to stop by the Bioregional Holiday Bazaar to chat with us and buy fair trade: handwoven scarves, blankets and housewares from a women-owned business in León; organic Nicaraguan chocolate and coffee; embroidered purses and olive oil from Palestinian co-ops; natural soaps from Flatbrook Farm in Connecticut; local honey, and more! The Bioregional Bazaar features not only NHLSCP, but also a variety of local craftspeople selling their diverse wares. Info: [email protected], (203) 562-1607.
We also invite you to plan your own delegation or internship in Nicaragua based on a theme that interests you, or join the Teacher’s and Educator’s Delegation in summer 2016. To learn more, please contact [email protected].

Then consider joining our first Women’s Rights & Gender Justice Delegation to Nicaragua. Nicaragua is home to one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world, and the state fails to protect women and girls from sexual and physical violence. Rural women in NHLSCP are organizing to change that reality. The delegation, an 8-day trip to Nicaragua, will take place in spring or summer 2016, and the dates will be determined according to your availability. No Spanish is necessary.

Delegates may:

  • Learn how rural Goyena women are addressing domestic violence, reproductive and sexual rights, “unlearning” sexist roles, and more
  • Get to know daily life through home stays in León and activities in Goyena, which may include storytelling and community theater exercises
  • Visit León’s historical murals and sites to learn about the dictatorship, revolution, civil war, and current economic and political realities, with a focus on women’s participation
  • Experience the natural landscape and learn about environmental concerns via outdoor excursions
  • Activities will be selected to fit your interests (for example, visiting LGBTQ organizations or visiting a women’s health center)

Info: [email protected], (203) 562-1607.

Call for Proposals for SCSU Women’s Studies Conference

by Alisha Martindale, Graduate Assistant, Women’s Studies Program

The Southern Connecticut State University Women’s Studies Program announces its 22nd Annual Conference “#FeministIn(ter)ventions: Women, Community, Technology,” to be held on the SCSU campus Friday and Saturday, April 15 and 16, 2016.

The conference aims to provide a critical site of collective inquiry into the intersections of women (and girls), community, and technology. In what ways have women and girls worked with technology, broadly defined, for the advancement of communities and/or shaping and building movements? We invite proposals that investigate the past, present, and future of the intersections of women, community, and technology and showcase feminist in(ter)ventions with technology. How have women and girls participated (or not) in the fields of technology? In what ways does this inquiry intersect with the studies of gender, race, class, and sexuality?

Call for Proposals Suggested Conference Themed Topics:

  • Women & the Media Girls Who Code/Black Girls Code
  • Feminist Apps/Feminist Ethics & Technology
  • Feminism, Environment, and Technology
  • Women, Sustainability, and Technology
  • Gender, Class, and Technology/Gender, Sexuality, and Technology Feminist Values and STEM
  • Gender and STEM Ethics/Women in STEM
  • Women in the History of STEM/Women Making History & STEM Reproductive Technologies and Feminist Concerns
  • Feminist Pedagogy and Technology
  • Women, Social Media/Technology, and Academia
  • Online (In)Visibility of Bodies Feminism and Big Data
  • Feminist Knowledge and Media Technology
    and more!

Info: (203) 392-6133 or see SCSU Women’s Studies Website for details: www.southernct.edu/academics/schools/arts/departments/womensstudies/annualconference/index.html.
E-mail proposals to [email protected].
The proposal submission deadline is December 4.

Events at the Mitchell Free Public Library

All the following events will be held at the Mitchell Library, 37 Harrison Street, New Haven. For more information: (203) 946-8117, www.nhfpl.org. The library is wheelchair-accessible.

Saturday, Nov. 7 and 28, 10 a.m.

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)–Calling all aspiring writers! Join us for a workshop and write-in! Every November, aspiring writers around the world sit down to fulfill their dreams of writing a novel. NaNoWriMo, a 501c3 nonprofit, inspires this creativity in people of all ages. It has been incredibly successful in helping participants reach their creative potential and challenge their imaginations. Meet past NaNoWriMo participants and learn how they success-fully completed this personal challenge. Breakfast will be served sponsored by Bruegger’s. Please call to register: (203) 946-8117.
Mondays, 6:30 p.m.

Free English Classes–Clases de Ingles Gratis

Saturdays at 10 a.m.

Free GED Tutoring

Saturday, Nov. 21, 2 p.m.

A Glance at the World Through Film: Departures (2008), an award-winning film from Japan. A young man returns to his hometown after a failed career as a cellist and stumbles across work as a nōkanshi—a traditional Japanese ritual mortician. Free. Refreshments. Discussion led by Debbie Evans, world cinema buff. Wheelchair accessible.

Events at Ives Free Public Library, 133 Elm St.

Meditation Every Tuesday, 6 – 7 p.m. Through Dec. 29.

Meditation includes many different techniques to promote self-awareness, relaxation, mindfulness, build internal energy or life force and to develop compassion, love, patience, generosity and forgiveness.

In cooperation with the Art of Living Foundation, the NH Zen Center, and the NH Shambhala Meditation Center, the library is privileged to offer this wellness program. No matter why you come to consider meditation, starting with an experienced practitioner guide can be helpful. Our schedule of instructors is as follows:

  • 1st Tuesday of the month—-Art of Living Foundation
  • 2nd Tuesday of the month— New Haven Zen Center
  • 3rd Tuesday of the month— Art of Living Foundation
  • 4th Tuesday of the month— Shambhala Meditation Center of New Haven

Beginners are welcome. Basic instruction provided. Chairs are available for all, or participants may bring a cushion or pad if they wish. There is no charge, no sign up, walk-ins welcome. Questions: (203) 946-8138.

Listen Here! Short Story Reading Series

by Bennett Graff, Publisher, New Haven Review

The Institute Library is proud to host the Listen Here Short Story reading series, a night of classic short stories selected by the staff of the New Haven Review and read by cast members of the New Haven Theater Company.  Reading starts at 7 p.m., with a talk back at 8 p.m. Also, freshly baked cookies and tea are available. $5 suggested admission, but no obligations!  Join us at the Institute Library, 847 Chapel St, New Haven. Our next reading will be November 17.  Our theme: “Close Calls.” Our stories: “The Killers” by Ernest Hemingway and “Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” by Stephen Crane. Please note that the Institute Library is one flight up and not wheelchair accessible. For more information, visit us at www.institutelibrary.org.

Sing-Along Concert to Celebrate a New Songbook by the Authors of Rise Up Singing Oct. 16

by Kim Stoner, Promoting Enduring Peace

Annie Patterson and Peter Blood, the authors of the popular songbook Rise Up Singing, will be performing a sing-along concert to celebrate their new songbook Rise Again, and will be joined by Charlie King, The Nields, and Sally Rogers, singer-songwriters who have songs in the new book. The concert will be at 7 p.m. on Friday, October 16, at the Unitarian Society of New Haven, 700 Hartford Turnpike in Hamden.

Since 1988, Rise Up Singing has sold nearly one million copies around the world. This popular songbook contains the words and chords to 1200 songs from Beatles to ballads, from Bob Dylan to Broadway, from campfire favorites to gospel & Hebrew folksongs. Rise Again, the long-awaited sequel, includes the words and chords to 1200 entirely different songs – including new songs written since 1988 and new genres only lightly covered in Rise Up Singing, such as Motown, blues, jazz & swing, and country.

This historic event is co-sponsored by CT Folk and is a benefit for Promoting Enduring Peace (PEPeace.org), whose motto is “Peace On Earth — Peace With Earth.”

Advance tickets may be purchased online starting at $20 ($10 for under 18), $25 after Oct. 9, and $30 at the door. Group ticket rates are also available. Copies of Rise Again can be purchased in advance at www.riseupandsing.org/events/rise-again-new-haven or at the event.

Please Attend an Important and Unique Forum with Aida Touma-Sliman, Oct. 17.

by Henry Lowendorf, Greater New Haven Peace Council

Aida Touma-Sliman became an Arab member of the Knesset in the Israeli election last January. She is a lifelong political activist, Director-General of Women Against Violence, the largest Arab women’s NGO in Israel, editor-in-chief of Al-Ittihad, an Arab-language daily newspaper in Israel, and a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Israel.

Because of a new Israeli law intended to reduce the number of small parrties in the Knesset, the several Arab parties, with widely diverse ideologies and programs, created a Joint List, a coalition, to be voted on as a block. The election result was that the Joint List became the third largest block in the parliament.
Touma-Sliman was voted the Chair of the Knesset’s Permanent Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality, the first Arab chair of a Knesset committee.

In an interview in the Jewish Journal (www.youtube.com/ watch?v=hUslyGicqfs) Touma-Sliman describes herself: “I am not accepted because of my opinions, because I stood up against many of the things the patriarchal laws in our society… To be now in the mainstream of our society … gives us the power as a movement, to address new groups of people, to raise the voice of rights of women from the highest platform to the parliament and in our society.”

Of discrimination against Arabs in Israel proper, Touma-Sliman says that “In our villages and towns since 1948, not one industrial zone was built, no proper public transportation. Even in minimal civil rights we are not getting what we are supposed to get.”

She refers to the Israeli occupation: “We don’t want [Israel] to continue to be occupiers, because occupation is ruining not only those who are occupied, it is ruining also the occupiers themselves.” “Settlements are an international crime… You cannot use your crimes” to bargain.
With the recent peace agreement with Iran over Iran’s nuclear program, there is now increased attention on Israel’s existing nuclear arsenal, attention that the Israeli government constantly tries to deflect. In 2013, Touma-Sliman spoke at a peace conference to create a zone in the Middle East free of nuclear weapons: “If peace groups don’t make the connection that the Israeli government is the source of hostile policy against neighboring countries, and if we don’t speak about nuclear policy and to ask Israel to join international agreements and be under the control and inspection on that matter we are missing the point.”

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to hear Aida Touma-Sliman, Bethesda Lutheran Church, 450 Whitney Ave., 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17.

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