Get Ready for Rock to Rock!

by Chris Schweitzer, New Haven-León Sister City Project

Only in its eighth year, the Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride has quickly grown into one of the region’s largest environmental events and fundraisers. Starting at 9 a.m., the event itself — on Saturday, April 30 — is a day-long celebration of Earth Day and New Haven’s rich environmental and cultural resources.

1,500 cyclists will travel between West Rock and East Rock, with celebrations on both sides of the city. Along the way, they will eat tasty food, hear great music, take on environmental challenges and service projects, and explore the city’s parks. They will travel along the Farmington Canal Trail and official city bike lanes, pass through many of the city’s beautiful neighborhoods, and make stops in Edgewood and Beaver Pond Parks on their way between the Rocks. In 2016 there will be five rides: the 8-mile family-friendly ride; a 12 mile adult ride; the 20-mile ride; the 40-mile ride; and a metric century (60+ miles), all traveling through scenic and park filled routes in the New Haven region. Music at various stops and at the end at East Rock will be provided by CT Folk and with include performances by local musicians.

The goals for 2016 are $200,000 raised and 1,500 riders. In 2015, the Ride attracted 1,307 registered riders – the largest number ever; 2,958 donations made to local environmental work; $186,802 raised – up from our previous $152,158 record; 40 sponsors, contributing $60,912 and critical in-kind support; 100+ volunteers; 20-plus high-impact environmental organizations whose work is fueled by this event. Creating a city full of healthy food, street trees, community gardens, green jobs, outdoor adventures, clean and accessible parks, bike trails, educational opportunities and much more. Register at http://www.rocktorock.org or for more info call (203) 285-6147.

Best Video Film and Cultural Center April Schedule

1842 Whitney Avenue, Hamden. (203) 500-7777. All events are at 8 p.m. and $5 except where noted.

  • Friday, Apr. 1. Blues Rock: Just Us with Noah Kesselman
  • Sunday, Apr. 3. 2 p.m. Free. Afternoon Bluegrass Jam
  • Sunday, Apr. 3. Best Video Film & Cultural Center & The Institute Library present “Books To Film: The Way,” with special guest Jack Hitt at The Institute Library.
  • Monday, Apr. 4. Film Screening: “The Best Man”
  • Wednesday, Apr. 6. Indie Rock with Redscroll Records
  • Thursday, Apr. 7. Blues: The Moody’s BluesBEST-VIDEO
  • Friday. Apr. 8. Folk: Hugh Birdsall & Dana Takaki
  • Monday, Apr. 11. Film Screening: “The Contender”
  • Thursday, Apr. 14. Indie Rock: Spit-Take, Box Fan
  • Tues., Apr. 19. Film Screening: “Bulworth”
  • Wednesday, Apr. 20. Jazz: Badslax
  • Thursday, Apr. 21. Indie Folk: The Mid Season
  • Friday, Apr. 22. Jazz: Rebecca Abbott & Friends
  • Monday, Apr. 25. Film Screening: “A Face In The Crowd”
  • Thursday, Apr. 28. Sephardic Music: The Heretics Of Cordoba

May Day Celebration on the Green 2016!

by Jeff Spalter, May Day Celebration Committee

Come celebrate May Day, International Workers’ Day, from noon until 5 p.m. Sunday, May 1, on the New Haven Green. (Raindate: Sunday May 8.)

maypole-smallThis is the 30th consecutive year of May Day on the Green. May Day is a multi-cultural festival featuring live music, poetry, dance, children’s activities, speak-out time, a May Pole Dance, free vegetarian food and displays and information tables from local labor, peace, social service and social justice groups. May Day is a participatory event that is free and everyone is invited.

At a time when labor unions are being harassed around the country, we celebrate labor unions as being a workers’ best hope. At a time when immigrants are still struggling for their rights, we celebrate our immigrant heritage and culture. At a time when violence threatens our communities, we say tax the rich and give us jobs. At a time when US forces and drones are still deployed around the world, we say no more war.

Our featured performers on the Green include Coalition Hip Hop, N-Finity Muzik and Not Here.
For more information visit us at http://www.facebook.com/newhavenmayday or call Jeff Spalter (203) 843-3069, [email protected].

May Day mission statement: to organize a multi-cultural festival that honors and celebrates our labor history and the labor, peace, social service and social justice groups that today continue the struggle for peace and human rights.

2016 Annual Conference and Meeting: Labor History: Looking Back, Going Forward

Joan Cavenaugh, Archivist/Director, GNH Labor History Association

The theme of this year’s annual conference and meeting on Sunday, June 5, from 1:30 to 4:40 p.m., has a special poignancy given the death of our co-founder and President Emeritus, Nicholas Aiello, last November, as well as the passing of so many of our members in recent years. We will be honoring them and looking back at the history of this organization as we also envision our future.

laborAnthony Riccio’s presentation, “Sisters and Sweatshops: The Life of Nick Aiello,” will be a keynote, with discussion to follow. We urge all who have memories of Nick and stories to share to come prepared to do so!

There will also be a presentation about LHA’s 28 year history, followed by a discussion of its future. This is a crucial time not only to look back at what has been accomplished, but to imagine and begin to plan ways to accomplish the organization’s continuing goals in a social climate that is markedly different than it was in 1988. We need all hands on deck for this discussion session!

This year’s Augusta Lewis Troup award will be presented to Louise Fortin, sister of Nicholas Aiello and a retired garment worker.

The conference will conclude with the annual meeting, where members in good standing will vote on the newest by-laws revisions and for the slate of officers for 2016-2018.

If you have memorabilia from Nick’s life or from the 28 years of the Labor History Association’s work, please contact us ASAP. We’re thinking about possible formats to display such things for posterity.
Visit the conference website at http://www.conference.ctcor.org.

Critic of Israeli Government Speaking March 1 in New Haven, and March in 2 New Britain

by Stanley Heller, Promoting Enduring Peace

Professor Ilan Pappé is an Israeli who taught at Haifa University. He left his teaching position in Israel after he was isolated by an ever more right-wing faculty and even started receiving death threats. Pappé and other “new historians” examined Israeli army records and disputed the conventional excuses for the expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinians. They revealed that the Palestinian narrative about what happened to them in 1947-1948 was essentially correct.

Ilan Pappé

Ilan Pappé

Pappé now teaches at the University of Exeter (UK) and is author of many authoritative texts including “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” and “The Forgotten Palestinians: A History of Palestinians in Israel.”

He will be speaking at Yale on Tuesday, March 1, at 8 p.m. in Linsly-Chittenden Hall, Room 102, 63 High St., New Haven. He’s sponsored by Students for Justice in Palestine (Yale).

The next day, Wednesday, March 2, he’ll be speaking at 7:30 p.m. at Vance Academic Center – Room 105, Central Connecticut State University, 1615 Stanley St., New Britain.

Short Story Reading series at the Institute Library continues March 15

Listen Here! Short Story Reading series at the Institute Library. Join them 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 Co.

Reading starts at 7 p.m., with a talk back at 8 p.m. that explores the background, meaning, and dramatic interpretation of that night’s stories.

Also, freshly baked cookies–a different batch at each reading–and tea are available.

Admission is free!

Join them every third Tuesday of the month at the Institute Library, 847 Chapel St. The next reading will be March 15.  The theme: “Say It Again.” Our stories: “Mudder Tongue” by Brian Evenson and “The King of Sentences” by Jonathan Lethem.

Please note the Institute Library is one flight up and, most unfortunately, not wheelchair accessible.

For more information, visit us at http://www.institutelibrary.org.

Best Video Film and Cultural Center March Schedule

  • Wednesday, Mar. 2. Singer-Songwriter: Ben Erickson, Stephen Hladun
  • Thursday, Mar. 3. Singer-Songwriter: Joy Ike
  • Friday, Mar. 4. Jazz: Jovan Alexandre
  • Sunday, Mar. 6. Film Screening & Q&A with screenwriter Donald Margulies (co-presented with The Institute Library): “The End Of The Tour.” 2 p.m., $15 in advance, $20 at the door
  • Monday, Mar. 7. Oscar Series Film Screening: “Suffragette.” 7 p.m., $7
  • Wednesday, Mar. 9. Singer-Songwriter: Pat Stone with Amanda Belitto
  • Thursday, Mar. 10. Experimental: Human Flourishing, Light Upon Blight
  • Friday, Mar. 11. Acoustic Guitar: Shawn Persinger Is Prester John
  • Sunday, Mar. 13. Free Afternoon Bluegrass Jam. 2-5 p.m. • Wednesday, Mar. 23. Experimental: Nick Di Maria, The Forest Room
  • Thursday, Mar. 24. Rock: Parker’s Tangent
  • Friday, Mar. 25. Singer-Songwriter: Dick Neal
  • Wednesday, Mar. 30. Indie Rock/Singer-Songwriter: Eugene Gallagher, Western Estates
  • Thursday, Mar. 31. Singer-Songwriter: Frank Critelli, Joe Flood

1842 Whitney Avenue, Hamden. (203) 500-7777. All events are at 8 p.m. and $5 except where noted.

March Events for 64 Days of Nonviolence

by Women’s Studies Dept., SCSU

The 64 Days officially begins each year on Jan. 30, the day Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, and ends on April 4, the day we commemorate Dr. King. In our thirteenth annual observation of the 64 Days at Southern Connecticut State University, we continue to celebrate the peace and justice heritage in many of our cultures and heritages, including our observation of Black History Month, Women’s History Month, and Asian/Pacific Heritage Month.

  • Wednesday, March 2: An Interfaith Dialogue  1-2 p.m., Engleman A 120
  • Thursday, March 3: Alyssa Liles-Amponsah, “Portraits of American Moms. #BlackLivesMatter, and #SayHerName”  12:25-1:40 p.m., EN B 216
  • Monday, March 7: “Chops Beyond the Practice Room” with Jessica Meyer 1-2 p.m. Engleman C 112
  • March 7-17: SCSU Campus E-Waste Collection  Mon & Wed: 7:30-11:30 a.m., 1-2:30 p.m., Thurs: 7:30 a.m.-noon. Facilities Operations Warehouse, 615 Fitch Street
  • Tuesday, March 8: Screening of “Journey to the Bottom of the N-Word,” by Frank Harris III. Co-Sponsored by Multicultural Center, Anthropology Department, History Department, Sociology Department, VPAS and Women’s Studies.  7 p.m., Adanti Student Center
  • March 9-16: Week of Wellness
  • Tuesday, March15: NDN (American Indian) Women’s Cultural Production & Sustaining Turtle Island with Teresa Juarez and Ali El-Issa, 12:25-1:40 p.m. Engleman B 216
  • Saturday, March 19: The 21st Annual African American Women’s Summit, a Sisters’ Collective in New Haven 8 a.m.-3 p.m., Wexler-Grant School, 55 Foote St.
  • Monday, March 28: “Gender, Projected” 5:30-7 p.m. Adanti Student Center 301
  • Tuesday, March 29: The 7th annual “The Z Experience,” in memory of Zannette Lewis, in conjunction with Women’s Appreciation Day. 7:30-10 p.m., Adanti Student Center Ballroom
  • Thursday, March 31: Slut Walk at SCSU. Panel Discus-sion at 2 p.m.; One-Mile Walk on Campus, beginning at 3 p.m.

For more info: Office: (203) 392-6133; (203) 392-6864 http://www.southernct.edu/womensstudies

Plans for May Day 2016 Have Started! Help Bring this World-Wide Holiday to the New Haven Green

by Jeff Spalter, May Day Celebration Committee

It’s time to start planning May Day again. This will be our 30th May Day.

I hope everyone had a wonderful year and in the midst of melting snow you are ready to bring on Spring by focusing on our important event. The peace and social justice struggles at home and around the world bring hope and comfort and make life meaningful. It’s time again to wake up the Green with our demands, our solidarity and a magnificent multi-cultural festival.

maypole-smallThe 2016 May Day celebration will be on Sunday, May 1, from 12-5 p.m. on the New Haven Green. Please come to our meetings or contact me directly about what you would like to see at May Day or what you can do to help. This is a free space for expression where the people will be heard!

By the time you receive this newsletter, we will have had our second meeting. Please call or e-mail me about our next meetings and join us. If you are unable to attend meetings there are still lots of ways to participate. We need help fundraising, ideas for performers, help contacting area activists and groups, help to publicize May Day and lots of volunteers on the day to set up, staff tables and clean up.
Thank you!

Jeff Spalter (203) 843-3069 [email protected], http://www.maydaynewhaven.org

May Day’s mission statement is to organize a multi-cultural festival that honors and celebrates our labor history and the labor, peace, social service and social justice groups that today continue the struggle for peace and human rights.

CARE (Connecticut Assembly for Reason and Ethics) Conference: April 2

by CT Humanist Society

In October, 2013, members of Connecticut’s secular community held the SANE conference (Secular Assembly for the Northeast) at the University of New Haven. It’s time to do it again.

On Saturday, April 2, the full-day 2016 CARE conference (Connecticut Assembly for Reason and Ethics) will be held at the Mark Twain House and Museum at 351 Farmington Avenue in Hartford. Registration opens at 8:30 a.m. and the conference will continue through 5 p.m.

Hemant-Mehta-friendly-atheistThe keynote speaker will be Hemant Mehta, author of several books including “I Sold My Soul on eBay: Viewing Faith Through an Atheist’s Eyes” and “The Young Atheist’s Survival Guide,” and host of the popular Friendly Atheist blog at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/.

Additional speakers include Jason Heap, National Coordinator for the United Coalition of Reason, Amanda Knief, Legal and Public Policy Director at American Atheists, and Wendy Thomas Russell, author of Relax, It’s Just God: How and Why to Talk to Your Kids About Religion When You’re Not Religious, and host of the Natural Wonderer’s blog at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/naturalwonderers/.

Breakout sessions will cover the diverse topics of interfaith dialog, community building, and political action. This is a great opportunity to visit the Twain House, connect with friends and like-minded people, and learn more about the various secular organizations in the area!
Visit the conference website at http://www.conference.ctcor.org/.

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