Pieces

Events

Collateral Damage (exhibit), 11/30-12/17; Tufts University's Aidekman Arts Center on Talbot Ave, Medford MA; an installation of 25 muslin fabric panels filled with ribbons representing victims in the Iraq war; ( 617/901-5266; www.ase.tufts.edu/gallery/shows/thesis

Gulag: Soviet Forced Labor Camps and the Struggle for Freedom and Territories of Terror: Mythologies and Memories of the Gulag in Contemporary Russian-American Art, 10/24-1/14/07; Boston University Art Gallery; paired exhibits focus on the history and current artistic responses to the Gulag; 617/353-3329; 808 and 855 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA; www.bu.edu/art

What's Next? Creating Another World in a Time of War, Empire, & Ecological Devastation, 12/14, 7-9:30 pm; Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury St, Boston MA; $20; with Noam Chomsky & Alice Lovelace; benefit event for new Boston movement-building space & organizing center, Encuentro 5; reception 5-6:30 pm ($50) by reservation only at Encuentro 5; 617/482-6300; www.encuentro5.org

Annual Christmas Caroling at ACI Women's Prison Unit, 12/24, 7pm; Cranston, MA; dress warmly, bring flashlights, lanterns, unscented candles. Songsheets provided; Joyce 401/247-1434

First Annual Peace on Earth Event, 12/30, 6-10 pm; 85 Seaverns Ave, Jamaica Plain MA; music, silent auction, raffle, screening of Sir, No Sir (film about GI resistance during Vietnam war), discussion with veterans; benefit for Military Families Speak Out & People United for Peace (a project of Boston Mobilization); sponsored by United for Justice with Peace, POB 390449, Central Square, Cambridge MA 02139; 617/491-4857; www.justicewithpeace.org

Walk for a New Spring: Protest Nuclear Power & Nuclear Weapons, 2/25; a walk from Putney VT to the Entergy headquarters in North Brattleboro; Reverend Gyori Kato of Leverett Peace Pagoda will lead this walk as part of the Mayors for Peace Project; support vehicles will be available for anyone needing assistance; this is an alcohol- & drug-free event; for more information, contact Citizens' Action Network at can@nukebusters.org or Deb Katz at 413/339-5781

Gatherings

International Day to Shut down Guantánamo, 1/11; Washington DC or organize your own vigil, demonstration, or community event on the 5th anniversary of the first prisoners being brought to Guantánamo; for action ideas, fact sheets, etc., contact Witness Against Torture c/o Jonah House, 1301 Moreland Ave, Baltimore MD 21216; 410/233-6238; www.witnesstorture.org

Bring the Mandate for Peace to Washington DC, 1/27-29; Washington, DC; join United for Peace & Justice in a massive march on Washington, DC to call on Congress to take immediate action to end the war; United for Peace & Justice, 261 W. 36th St, New York NY 10018; 212/868-5545; www.unitedforpeace.org

Friends Facing Genocide & Humanitarian Crisis: What Are We Called to Do? 1/26-28; Pendle Hill Conference Center, Wallingford PA; weekend conference led by Jack Patterson (recently Quaker Representative to the United Nations in New York), with Landrum Bolling, Charles Nelson, & Mary Lord. How are Friends called to respond to genocidal situations like the one in Darfur & other humanitarian crises? Join with others for an interactive conference on this provocative challenge to our peace testimony; Matching scholarships available. The Steve Cary Memorial Lecture by Jack Patterson is at 8 pm on Friday, 1/26 & is open & free to the public; Pendle Hill, 338 Plush Mill Rd, Wallingford PA 19086; 610/566-4507; registrar@pendlehill.org

Facing Race, 3/22-24; New York City NY; a conference bringing together key policy advocates, academics, researchers, organizers, & activists interested in exploring innovative strategies & successful models for changing public policy to produce more racial equity; sponsored by the Applied Research Center & the Center for Humanities at CUNY Graduate Center; ARC, 32 Broadway #1801, New York NY 10004; 212/513-7925; www.arc.org

Walk for a Nuclear-free Future, 3/24- 4/1 (including a day of public fasting on 3/28; to observe the anniversary of the 1979 nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, Citizens Awareness Network & the Buddhist order of Nipponzan Myohoji will coordinate a walk through Vermont towns to support safe, sustainable energy choices & abolish nuclear power & nuclear weapons; host communities & colleges will discuss issues surrounding Entergy's application for a 20-year license extension of the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor & the dangers Vermont Yankee creates for New England; support vehicles will be available for anyone needing assistance; this is a drug- & alcohol-free event; contact CAN at can@nukebusters.org or call Deb Katz, 413/339-5781

Alternatives to Empire: Latin American Solidarity Conference IV, 4/14-15; Chicago IL; US grassroots solidarity activists will be joined by activists & organizers from Latin America & the Caribbean to plan, evaluate, & celebrate the growing US Latin America solidarity movement; participants will exchange information & develop action plans; art & culture, which is an integral part of grassroots movement- building throughout the Americas, will be a strong component of the conference; sponsored by the Latin America Solidarity Coalition, www.lasolidarity.org

Summer Peacebuilding Institute, four 7-day sessions 5/7-6/19; Harrisonburg VA; a place to share your experiences & to discover the interconnections between hope, conflict transformation, equitable development, protections of human rights, sustainable management of the environment, & global security; apply by 1/7 to the Center for Justice & Peacebuilding, EMU, Harrisonburg VA 22802; 540/432-4672; www.emu.edu/spi

United States Social Forum, 6/27-7/1; Atlanta GA; come to connect with others, share your story, gain leadership skills, get inspired, link with a global movement that is changing the world; www.ussf2007.org

Campaigns

Stop Construction of the Boston Bioterror Lab; organizers are urging NIH to hold a community meeting to answer questions about the potential impact of the lab on our health & lives, & to obtain our input into the risk; for a community petition & more information, visit www.stopthebiolab.org

No Name Calling Week, 1/22-26; No sticks, no stones, no dissing; an annual week of educational activities aimed at ending name-calling of all kinds and providing schools with the tools and inspiration to launch an on-going dialogue about ways to eliminate bullying in their communities; www.nonamecallingweek.org

Think Outside the Bottle; students & religious activists across the country are calling on Coca-Cola, Nestlé, & Pepsi to provide water quality information about bottled water comparable to reports provided by public water utilities; Corporate Accountability International, 46 Plymouth St, Boston MA 02118; 617/695-2525; www.stopcorporateabuse.org

Opportunities

Earlham College seeks Peace & Global Studies Professor (tenure-track) who will also serve as Director of the Peace & Global Studies Program; applications will be accepted until position is filled; you can find this posting & more about Earlham & the PAGS program at www.earlham.edu/jobs/pags.html

Leading from Spirit, 1/19-20 & 4/27-28; Boston MA; trainings & workshops to create a world that works for all; Women s Theological Center, 140 Clarendon St, Boston MA 02116; 617/585-5655; www.thewtc.org

"I Dream a World" Youth Arts Competition; an opportunity for youth (ages 13-20) to express their thoughts on peace, justice, & capital punishment; two- or three-dimensional artwork, electronic media, written word, performances, photography may all be submitted; cash prizes; entries must be postmarked by 5 pm on 3/1/07; cosponsored by American Friends Service Committee, 56 Arbor St 2nd floor, Hartford CT 06106; www.afsc.org/ct/idream.htm

Resources

TRUCE Annual Toy Action Guide from Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children's Entertainment, a national group of educators concerned about the impact of children's entertainment & toys on the play & behavior of children; the guide (available on-line) discusses ways to engage kids in creative, developmentally appropriate play, offers tips on how to help both children & adults resist pernicious marketing ploys, & recommends a few currently available toys (at affordable prices) for different ages; TRUCE, POB 441261, Somerville MA 02144; www.truceteachers.org

Peace Bonds for $10-500; these beautiful "bonds," with designs chosen from annual international competitions, represent donations to the Nonviolent Peaceforce, which sends teams of unarmed peacemakers to areas of conflict in several countries; www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org

Gifts with Heart & Hope; honor your family & friends with the gift of a goat for a family in Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere; there are several other gifts to choose from as well, shop online at www.afsc.org/give/give.htm

Chicana/Latina Education in Everyday Life: Feminist Perspectives on Pedagogy & Epistemology, Dolores Delgado Bernal, C. Alejandra Elenes, Francisca E. Godinez, & Sofia Villenas, eds.; also new from SUNY Press, Battered Black Women & Welfare Reform: Between a Rock & a Hard Place, by Dána-Ain Davis; Solving the Health Care Problem: How Other Nations Succeeded & Why the United States Has Not, by Pamela Behan; SUNY Press, 194 Washington Ave #305, Albany NY 12210; 518/472-5000; www.sunypress.edu

Creating More Victims: How Executions Hurt the Families Left Behind; a report from Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, with a foreword from Amnesty International USA; this report, which grows out of the No Silence, No Shame project, presents the voices & experiences of three dozen surviving family members of people who have been executed in the United States; MVFHR, 2161 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge MA 02140; 617/491-9600; www.mvfhr.org

Communities without Borders, David Bacon; 235 pp; 29.95 hb; 148 half-tones; In this work of photojournalism and oral history, David Bacon documents the new reality of migrant experience: the creation of transnational communities; Cornell University Press, www.cornellpress.cornell.edu

Inside the Red Zone: A Veteran for Peace Reports from Iraq, Mike Ferner; an account of a peace activist's two journeys from Ohio to Baghdad, the first trip just before the US invasion in 2003, & the second a year later; includes interviews with soldiers, journalists, Iraqi citizens, Cliff Kindy of Christian Peacemaker Teams, & Kathy Kelly of Voices for Creative Nonviolence; Greenwood Publishing Group, 88 Post Road West, Westport CT 06881; 203/226-3571; www.praeger.com

Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace, Maxine Hong Kingston, ed.; contributors include combat veterans, medics, & others who have served in war, gang members, drug users, victims of domestic violence, draft resisters, deserters, & peace activists; Koa Books, POB 822, Kihei, HI 96753; www.koabooks.com

What Lies Beneath: Katrina, Race, & the State of the Nation, edited by the South End Press Collective; this book takes readers beyond the Superdome & demonstrates why US government amnesia must not be permitted; in this book, survivors & commentators explore the complexity of what could be a fundamental turning point in US history; SEP, 7 Brookline St #1, Cambridge, MA 02139; 617/547-4002, www.southendpress.org

Activist Forum: Films for Organizers

Peacework asked activists across the country to fill in the blank, "If I could show one under-appreciated film or video to a room full of potential organizers, I'd show..." and explain why or how they'd use that film. A selection of their responses follows. Several of the more commercial of these films can be located via www.imdb.com. Some of them can be borrowed through the AFSC film and video library, www.afsc.org/resources/video-film.htm, and these films are marked below with an asterisk*. Please comment on these movies, and suggest your favorite activist films, on our first-ever, experimental, Peacework readers' forum. If you wish, you can close the forum and return to this article, or to the table of contents for the December 2006/January 2007 issue in which this article appeared.