24 hours in Nebraska

Filed Under events, uu culture, uuism, workshops | 2 Comments

I flew into Omaha yesterday to co-lead three anti-racism workshops at Prairie Star District’s Annual Meeting. People here have been extraordinarily nice. Sherry Warren, the district’s Youth and Young Adult Specialist, was a wonderful hostess. After picking us up from the airport, she took me and my Groundwork co-trainer, Braeden, to a steakhouse, where we all ate delicious Omaha Ribeyes with Wisconsin (?) cheddar mashed potatoes. Oh, gosh, that was so good. I hadn’t eaten a bona fide steak in a while. Sherry was excited that we were meat-eaters. Braeden ate every bite of his steak. They were big.

Okay, enough food chatter. Approximately 55-60 people went through our workshops, and the best word I can use to describe our reception is gracious. I’ve heard that Southerners are known for the hospitality, but I’ve found Midwesterners to be tops, so far. Just so earnest, and friendly. The people in our workshops thanked us profusely for being there, and were so engaged and - gasp - they filled out their evaluation forms! Amazing.

Last year, the Prairie Star District commissioned a team (now called GRACE: Growing Racial And Cultural Equity) to look at implementing specifically anti-racist policies and practices within the district. GRACE is the group that sponsored the workshops I co-led. I met Cheryll Wallace and Nathan Woodruff, who are on the GRACE team. I really enjoyed meeting and talking with them. Cheryll’s son and daughter-in-law attended one of the workshops along with her, and were active participants. The Saturday morning speaker, Rev. Meg Riley, weaved issues of race and racial history into her sermon/lecture about faith, family, and knowledge of self. What a great environment to come into!

After four plus years of doing Groundwork programming, this is my favorite yet. Even though it’s cold, dreary, and snowing here, my impression of Omaha, Nebraska, and the Midwest is very bright.

Popularity: 62% [?]

Sep

26

Riane Eisler Comes to Portland - Real Wealth of Nations

Filed Under books, capitalism, class, events, heteropatriarchy, local, people, workshops | Leave a Comment

I agreed to serve as moderator at Riane Eisler’s presentation on her book, The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics. Dr. Eisler is best known for writing The Chalice and the Blade, and having been an influence on David Korten, author of The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community.

Dr. Eisler’s talk will be followed by a panel discussion featuring four Portlanders who are working in areas related to children, sustainability, food, and local currency. We’ll be looking at how to create and support a “sharing and caring” economy in which meaningful work, families, health, and the environment are priorities - not afterthoughts.

The event will be held at First Unitarian Church (SW 12th and Main) in downtown Portland at 7pm on Friday, October 26, 2007. Co-sponsors include KBOO community radio. Tickets will be sliding scale, $5-$20 - but no one will be turned away due to lack of funds. Seating is limited (to about 600), so purchase your ticket today!

Click below for a link to pay using PayPal, your debit/credit card or checking account.

A little background information: Real Wealth of Portland was organized by several local women, namely Marcia Meyers and Pat Osborn, who both attend First Unitarian Church. They started a small group, which expanded to include me (Hafidha), Andrea Drury, Celeste Howard, Kimberly Ford, and Judy Bennett. The group has been meeting weekly since the first week of August to strategize ways to organize book groups, and foment a caring and sharing revolution in Portland. Marcia’s been indispensable; she has helped to coordinate bringing both Dr. Korten and Dr. Eisler to General Assembly in the past.

For more information, questions or comments, please visit realwealthpdx.com or email realwealthpdx@adrury.com

Click here to buy tickets!

Popularity: 39% [?]

Jul

1

GA Notes: “My Race is (Not) Your Race”

Filed Under events, ga, race, uu culture, workshops | 31 Comments

Notes from General Assembly - a week late!

“What is the racial construct that latinas and latinos are coping with?” This is the question Jorge Zeballos attempts to address in his presentation, My Race is Not Your Race. This event was sponsored by LUUNA (Latino UU Networking Association).

The following are notes I took during the program:

Popularity: 22% [?]

Jun

29

US Social Forum Day 2

Filed Under events, race, ussf, workshops | 1 Comment

Wow. Being here in Atlanta right now is like being around 10,000 of some of my favorite UUs. I actually have run into a number of UUs - some of whom I saw at GA! Small world. I love how I can talk to all of these people who understand things like the “gender binary” system, history of race and class in the USA, and current resistance movements.

I’m enjoying myself - there is so much to learn! And it warms my heart to see so many people of color here. There are many activist UUs and Portlanders, but they are mostly white. Sometimes I forget how many diverse groups of people of color are working together on issues. Even in the midst of typical, petty human dramas, there is solidarity here - the likes of which I have never personally witnessed.

This event has more workshops than GA - 975 programs!!! But there are really only 3 time slots per day (10:30, 1:00, 3:30). In the morning there is a daily opening (8:30) and at 6pm there is a plenary. It’s very different to be here with no role to play, as a total unknown, but it means I can just go to what purely interests me, stay up late, take breaks and maybe even sleep in a little.

Yesterday I attended the first half of plenary for the Social Forum. It was split into two sections: the first half addressing issues of the Gulf Coast, and the second half about the military and prison industrial complexes.

What is going on in New Orleans is absurd. One point a speaker made is that recovery is not “slow” as described in the media, but it is about the privatization of the area. Golf courses and expensive condos replacing public housing, etc. I could go on and on, but I want to keep this post of moderate length. UU congregations that want to send groups down to New Orleans need to be mindful of two things:

Mississippi needs work too!
If you are going to send anyone down to the Gulf Coast, you should be working in collaboration with existing, locally based groups that are approaching reconstruction in anti racist and anti classist ways. There are lots of resources (including within the UU community) for addressing both of these points. The UUSC has been working very hard to be accountable to the folks it seeks to serve.

Earlier in the day I attended a workshop put on by the Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (of NYC). We did a lot of work with imagery and using our bodies to express obstacles we have in relation to activist work. We used imagery again to be creative about ways to overcome those obstacles. It was hard for me to put myself out there in front of others, as I’m naturally reserved, but it was very joyful and loosened me up (emotionally).
The second workshop I attended was titled Teaching with Freire and the Feminists in the 21st Century, and I got some really good things out of it. There was a focus on adult literacy, and creating space for dialogue with humility and reflexivity. This event really underscored for me the challenge of teaching AS an act of radical liberation. So much of education is managerialism and - as many of the teachers in the room lamented - standardized testing. Which leads me to the third workshop I took which was called Teaching the People’s History to Kids through Fun and Play.

The instructor(s) didn’t show up (we have no idea what happened to them), so we attendees opted to facilitate the workshop ourselves, discussing education, history, and teaching techniques. I’m not a teacher, but as an unschooler, I’m very interested in theories of education. I’ve also done a lot of facilitating and volunteer teaching, from ESL tutoring to Muslim Sunday School, where I taught Islamic history to kids for years. Most of the other people in the room were educators, and it suddenly became even more apparent to me how oppressive parts of educational system is. One teacher in New York spoke about how recess and nap time had been taken out of the lower grades - including kindergarten. There were attempts to diagnose one five year old boy in her class with ADD - and she was fighting against this because all he wanted was to play! What the ?!* I felt badly for many of these teachers, who are striving to include radical ideas in a system that is so very, very conservative.

Okay, end of report from yesterday!

Popularity: 25% [?]

Jun

26

Ahead of the Last Thing

Filed Under ga, uuism, workshops | 3 Comments

Not-so-fast forward to Atlanta, Georgia, where I’ve come to participate in the 1st United States Social Forum (USSF). General Assembly flew by after Day 2, and I didn’t find myself with enough alone time to write entries I’d consider post-worthy. But what a shame … there were several experiences I really wanted to share with you all, but I’m a very, very slow writer.

I do want to make note of a few highlights, however:

The Bloggers’ Dinner, where I met a bunch of good people (Big hello to Mrs. Uupdater, 7th Day, and Finding My UU Soul!), and had a very enjoyable conversation with Philocrites about writing and drama. Also highly memorable were the drinks afterward at Apotheke (a low-key bar decorated mostly in white that looked like it belonged from 2001: A Space Odyssey), with Peacebang, ChaliceChick, Linguist Friend, Rev Ricky and Making Chutney (plus Philocrites, who joined us later). Our server, Caleb, was a real pleasure, too.
I almost missed the Sankofa Women’s gathering because I was so tired and wanted simply to sleep. Thank heavens I forced myself to go. This is an annual gathering of women of color at GA, especially those who are seminarians and ministers. This is an occasion when we come together to tell and learn the stories of sisters in the faith who have broken through and are breaking down barriers, and when we pray for those among us who are needing strength as they begin their ministries. I loved the prayers offered by the women there … for the second year in a row, this was the most spiritual event at GA for me. At one point, while standing in the circle looking at my sisters’ faces, I felt a real ache in my heart - I wanted each of the seminarians and ministers there to have a congregation that they could do this with. I just prayed and prayed that they would all be blessed with congregations that would appreciate them and help them fulfill their life’s mission.
Over 65 people attended the DRUUMM Annual Meeting - and it was great! Dr. Denise Hall led us in several songs; an award was presented to Dr. Jim Brown, an incredible elder in the community who has had a profound influence on the lives of many UU ministers of color; and someone (hmm; wonder who?) even succeeded in bringing fried chicken into the event! Not to reinforce stereotypes or anything - I mean, who doesn’t like fried chicken? (note: I actually didn’t eat any that night.)
I was very impressed by the Jorge Zeballos workshops I attended. I’d like to see about getting him out to Portland again for another event. His presentations on the understandings of race and ethnic identity within the Latino/a communities were fantastic. When he explained to his mostly-white audiences that only 7% of the African slaves were sent to the US (37% were sent to Brazil; the rest to all the rest of Central and S. America and the Caribbean), the shock they expressed confirmed for me the need for more education on race as it relates to cultures not seen as “black.” As a person of Cuban descent, it disturbs me when people talk about hispanic people as if they have no race - especially if those people are hispanic themselves! In Cuba, I heard fair and brown skinned people say “here, every one is equal - we are all Cuban.” But also in Cuba, I met a dark skinned, “black” Cuban man who saw things very differently. Colonization still lives with us today, and like the devil, I think it is most insidious where it is not believed to exist.
The Anti Oppression Game Show I coordinated for the Young Adult Caucus went very well. There was good participation - especially considering that none of the anti oppression programming for young adult caucus was listed in the GA schedule - and I have to say … I have never seen AR/AO programming where, as people poked their heads in the room, those already in attendance enthusiastically beckoned them to join in. It was an experiment, and I’m pleased with the response to it. Most importantly, there are some clear steps I can take to improve and develop the format further. I look forward to sharing it with the rest of the Groundwork collective for use by other members in future workshops.
I was confused about the location of the memorial service for the late Rev. Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley, but it’s probably a good thing I didn’t show up any earlier than I did. It turned out to be hugely emotional for me, and I embarrassed myself by crying uncontrollably, at which point, Elandria hugged and sang for me, which made me feel comforted, but sheepish, too.
And lastly, the musical workshop by the incomparable Dr. Ysaye Maria Barnwell, of Sweet Honey in the Rock. This DRUUMM-sponsored event was a marvelous ending to a hectic GA. Dr. Barnwell sang with us for 90 minutes - we sang songs about a guy named Jeremiah, and building walls, and chariots swinging down and continuing on. What a joyous event - I would love it if we sang like this even just once a month at my church! And there we were - over 350 people of different races and sizes, genders and ages - I haven’t seen that many UUs exuberant and delighted to that degree since Dr. Barnwell visited my large congregation to lead an all music worship for Mother’s Day several years ago. While she is indeed a fantastic lady, I don’t think she has to be with us in order for us to have experiences like that. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

And that is that - my GA experience wrapped up in a nutshell. There’s plenty more - especially related to personal interactions with folk, but there just isn’t time right now.

Popularity: 16% [?]