Online events with Peter Gelderloos, Modibo Kadalie, Winona LaDuke, Debbie Bookchin, etc.

Upcoming Online Events:

"Now" until Wed, 4/20, 4 pm -- Social Cinema: Kiss the Ground -- Join us for an online moderated discussion of the film "Kiss the Ground." -- We have made it possible for you to stream the film online at your convenience from now until the online discussion on April 20. To screen the film, and/or attend the zoom event, you are required to register in advance -- Speakers: John E. Peck has been the executive director of Family Farm Defenders for two decades and teaches Economics and Environmental Studies at Madison College (PhD UW-Madison EIS-Land Resources 2004). For the past five years he has also co-operated Yellow Dog Flowers and Produce, farming two acres near Edgerton, WI with his partner. He has long been involved in the broader food sovereignty, agroecology, and climate justice movement, and attended COP 15 in Copenhagen in 2009 as a delegate for La Via Campesina – North America -- Lynn Utesch lives in Kewaunee, Wisconsin, where he owns and operates Guardians of the Field Farm, raising 100% grass fed beef, with his herd of shorthorn cattle, utilizing rotational grazing methods on 150 acres. Lynn is married to his wife, Nancy, and has five children. For the past 25 years Lynn has been active in continuing education and events highlighting sustainable farming practices, animal husbandry, and protection of our natural resources, most notably water, at both state and local levels. Guardians of the Field Farm has hosted several educational events and presentations, pasture walks, and farm to fork dinners supporting local, organic farmers and their products:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/social-cinema-kiss-the-ground-tickets-306855532157?aff=ebdsoporgprofile


Mon, 4/18, 2 pm -- Assata Taught Me -- Join Donna Murch and Barbara Ransby for a conversation about state violence, racial capitalism, and the Movement for Black Lives -- Drawing its title from one of America's foremost revolutionaries, this collection of thought-provoking essays by award-winning Panther scholar Donna Murch explores how social protest is challenging our current system of state violence and mass incarceration -- “Donna Murch is one of the sharpest, most incisive, and elegant writers on racism, radicalism, and struggle today. In this collection of essays assessing the current contours of the contemporary movement against racism in the United States, Murch combines a historian’s rigor with a cultural critic’s insights and the passionate expression of someone deeply engaged with the politics, debates, and key questions confronting activists and organizers today. This is a smart and sophisticated book that should be read and studied by everyone in search of answers to the profound crises that continue to confront this country.”—Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, author of From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation -- Speakers: Donna Murch is an Associate Professor of History at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and is the president of the New Brunswick chapter of the Rutgers AAUP-AFT. She is the author of Assata Taught Me: State Violence, Racial Capitalism, and the Movement for Black Lives, and Living for the City: Migration, Education, and the Rise of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California -- Barbara Ransby is a widely acclaimed historian of the Black Freedom Movement, award-winning author, and longtime activist. She is the John D. MacArthur Chair and Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Black Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies and History at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She also directs the Social Justice Initiative, which promotes connections between academics and community organizers working on social justice. A founding member of Scholars for Social Justice, she works closely with activists in the Movement for Black Lives and The Rising Majority. She is an elected fellow in the Society of American Historians, as well as a recipient of the Angela Y. Davis Prize for public scholarship from the American Studies Association. Ransby is the author of multiple books, including the award-winning Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision, Making All Black Lives Matter: Reimagining Freedom in the 21st Century and Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/assata-taught-me-tickets-305618131057?aff=erellivmlt

Mon, 4/18, 3 pm -- Solidarity Economy Series: Cooperatives | Collectives | Mutual Aid | + More -- In this 3-part series, we will learn, support, & build economies that prioritize the wellbeing of people and the planet, over profit -- Solidarity Economy Series: In this three-part program we will explore forms of economy and community building that prioritizes the wellbeing of people and the planet over profit -- What steps can we take to perpetuate a world based on cooperation, solidarity, and sustainability? How can we build community wealth for all workers and beyond? -- Objectives: Redefine what is commonly understood as Economy, and highlight its relationship with Ecology -- Develop skills in critical thinking, problem solving, leadership, teamwork, and economic literacy -- Identify solutions: models, practices, and stories that can help our local workforces -- Identify problems within our local workforce & economies -- Map and engage economic assets throughout the city that emphasize cooperation, sustainability and participation -- Strengthen the local solidarity economy -- Solidarity Economy II: Strengthening the Seeds - Joined by local practitioners, together we will dive deeper into mapping our own local Solidarity Economy and discuss how we might strengthen the many models that exist locally:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/solidarity-economy-series-cooperatives-collectives-mutual-aid-more-tickets-256358624547?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch


Tue, 4/19, 10:30 am -- Multiple Crises: The Cost of Living Scandal and the Climate Crisis -- Every industrial dispute is a climate justice dispute – these crises are connected, so our struggles must also be linked -- Workers are facing the worst wages and bills crisis ever with fuel and food prices skyrocketing and the value of our wages and savings being eroded by inflation. Increases in National Insurance, Council Tax and rent hikes are only making matters far worse -- P&O is not the only company who thinks they can get rid of workers and replace them with cheaper labour. Last year British Gas attempted a similar move. In response, around 7,000 engineers staged 44 days of strike action after the company threatened to sack them if they didn’t sign up to detrimental changes to their terms and conditions -- The cost of living scandal is happening against a backdrop of the continuing and intensifying climate crisis. Across the world we are seeing terrifying weather events and temperature rises. In just the last month, whole towns and communities have been destroyed in the Northern Rivers region of Australia and the Arctic has recorded temperatures that were 40 degrees above average. Last year’s COP26 failed to address this crisis and now governments and corporations are back-sliding even further on their already inadequate promises to address it -- These crises are connected and therefore our struggles must also be linked. In the lead up to MayDay 2022 and the TUC Cost of Living Demo in June, the COP26 Trade Union Caucus invites you to hear from current industrial disputes and climate justice activists - every industrial dispute is a climate justice dispute -- Speakers TBC from: The Glasgow Equal Pay dispute; P&O ferries; Coventry bin strikes; University strikers; Transport for London; and Amazon USA:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/multiple-crises-the-cost-of-living-scandal-and-the-climate-crisis-tickets-311801054347?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch&keep_tld=1

Tue, 4/19, 1 pm -- The Solutions Are Already Here -- Are alternative energies & Green New Deals enough cause to bring about environmental justice? -- A presentation with author Peter Gelderloos -- As the climate crisis worsens, we must look to revolutionary strategy for justice -- Are alternative energies and Green New Deals enough to deliver environmental justice? Peter Gelderloos argues that international governmental responses to the climate emergency are structurally incapable of solving the crisis. But there are possibilities -- Across the world, grassroots networks of local communities are working to realize their visions of an alternative revolutionary response to planetary destruction, often pitted against the new megaprojects promoted by greenwashed alternative energy infrastructures and the neocolonialist, technocratic policies that are the forerunners of the Green New Deal -- Gelderloos interviews food sovereignty activists in Venezuela, Indigenous communities reforesting their lands in Brazil and anarchists fighting biofuel plantations in Indonesia, looking at the battles that have cancelled airports, stopped pipelines, and helped the most marginalized to fight borders and environmental racism, to transform their cities, to win a dignified survival -- PETER GELDERLOOS is a writer and movement participant. He is the author of How Nonviolence Protects the State, Anarchy Works and Worshiping Power: An Anarchist View of Early State Formation. He has contributed chapters to anthologies Keywords for Radicals and Riots and Militant Occupations:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-solutions-are-already-here-tickets-290720973257?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

Tue, 4/19, 4:30 pm -- 'Clean Energy Revolution: 3 Short Films' Watch Party -- Watch 3 short films that explore how communities are demanding and winning clean energy projects for the health and well-being of residents -- MIDWEST PREMIERE: El Poder del Pueblo: Ruth Santiago and Jobos Bay/2021/41 min/Energy, Environmental Justice, Health -- El Poder del Pueblo features the experiences of Jobos Bay residents in southeastern Puerto Rico. Follow community members as they resist the toxic assault driven by power plants and other extractivist industries in the area. Watch Jobos Bay residents take power into their own hands and confront the environmental racism and injustice they see -- Dangerous Neighbor: Sierra Club/2021/22 min/Energy, Environmental Justice, Health -- Dangerous Neighbor chronicles the battle against a polluting coal plant on the south side of Peoria, Illinois. A coalition of environmental groups, including Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Environmental Law and Policy Center, organized to push for cleanup and closure. Their lawsuit succeeded in channeling funds back into the surrounding community -- Community Power Indiana: Beyond the Line: Sam Mirpoorian/2022/3 min/Energy, Environmental Justice, Health -- The city of Indianapolis is taking a bet on Clean Transportation. Through a fully bi-partisan effort, IndyGo—the Indianapolis Public Transportation Corporation—created the first, and one of the largest, fully electric bus rapid transit (BRT) systems in the nation. It brings faster, more efficient transit, significant infrastructure upgrades, jobs, community benefits and cleaner air -- Post-film discussion with Facilitator: Susan Lucci, Soulful Facilitator -- Panelists: Kyra Woods, Policy Advisor, City of Chicago -- Kady McFadden, President, McFadden Strategies, LLC -- Mabette Colon, Film Subject, "El Poder del Pueblo":
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/clean-energy-revolution-3-short-films-watch-party-tickets-311862859207?aff=ebdsoporgprofile


Wed, 4/20, 11 am -- A Gramscian Roundtable: questions, perspectives and provocations -- An intersectional discussion on a range of contemporary issues, including Education, the Arts, Social Change and Radical Practice -- The April edition of Gramsci Goes LIVE and Digital is a roundtable, hosted by Pamela Ball (Antonio Gramsci Society UK; The Oasis): an intersectional conversation between Gramscian scholars/thinkers/writers -- Lou Mycroft, Sharon Moir, Peter Venables and Francesca Bernardi consider the influence of thinkers like Gramsci and create space to question hegemonic practices, reflecting on the role of critical attention towards contemporary issues, with examples from their respective positions:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-gramscian-roundtable-questions-perspectives-and-provocations-tickets-318874641637?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

Wed, 4/20, 2:30 pm -- Abortion is Essential for Democracy -- The fight for abortion rights, for equality, and for representative democracy are all in service of the same goal: Justice for all -- It is a perilous moment for abortion rights in America. Texas law S.B. 8, banning the provision of nearly all abortions in the state, has been in effect since last September. New restrictions are being introduced and passed across the country. And the U.S. Supreme Court will soon rule in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which poses a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade -- What are the democratic dysfunctions that have led to this pivotal point? How should we consider parallel affronts to participation and representation – the wave of voting restrictions and outsize role of big money in politics – and the anti-abortion agenda? Can we look to state courts to provide new avenues for protecting reproductive rights? And what is the legal and societal impact of criminalizing pregnancy and abortion, especially on communities of color? -- Speakers: Opening Remarks: Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, Fellow, Brennan Center for Justice; Executive Director for Partnerships and Strategy, Ms. Magazine -- Moderator: Michele Bratcher Goodwin, Chancellor’s Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine; Executive Producer, Ms. Studios and On the Issues podcast -- Panelists: Melissa Murray, Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law, NYU Law; Faculty Director, Birnbaum Women’s Law Network; Member, Brennan Center Board of Directors -- Lourdes Rivera, Senior Vice President, U.S. Programs, Center for Reproductive Rights -- Monica Raye Simpson, Executive Director, SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective -- Closing Remarks: Kathy Spillar, Executive Editor, Ms. Magazine; Executive Director, Feminist Majority Foundation -- Essay Series: "Abortion Rights are Essential to Democracy" https://www.brennancenter.org/series/abortion-rights-are-essential-democracy -- This Brennan Center for Justice event is produced in partnership with NYU Law's Birnbaum Women's Leadership Network and Ms. Magazine:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/abortion-is-essential-for-democracy-tickets-298717862167?aff=erellivmlt

Wed, 4/20, 3 pm -- P&P Live! Daisy Pitkin | ON THE LINE with Francisco Cantú -- Join P&P Live! with Literati books to discuss Daisy Pitkin's new book, On The Line, with Francisco Cantú -- On the Line takes readers inside a bold five-year campaign to bring a union to the dangerous industrial laundry factories of Phoenix, Arizona. Workers here wash hospital, hotel, and restaurant linens and face harsh conditions: routine exposure to biohazardous waste, injuries from surgical tools left in hospital sheets, and burns from overheated machinery. Broken U.S. labor law makes it nearly impossible for them to fight back -- Daisy Pitkin has spent more than twenty years as a community and union organizer, working first in support of garment workers around the world, and then for U.S. labor unions organizing industrial laundry workers. Her essays have been awarded the Montana Prize, the DISQUIET Literary Prize, the New Millennium Award, and the Monique Wittig Writer’s Scholarship. She grew up in rural Ohio and received an MFA from the University of Arizona. Pitkin lives and writes in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she works as an organizer with an offshoot of the union UNITE -- Pitkin will be in conversation with Francisco Cantú, a writer, translator, and the author of The Line Becomes a River, winner of the 2018 Los Angeles Times Book Prize and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in nonfiction. A former Fulbright fellow, he has been the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, a Whiting Award, and an Art for Justice fellowship. His writing and translations have been featured in The New Yorker, Best American Essays, Granta, and VQR, as well as on This American Life. A lifelong resident of the Southwest, he now lives in Tucson and coordinates the Field Studies in Writing Program at the University of Arizona, a residency that fosters work at the intersection of border justice and environmental issues:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pp-live-daisy-pitkin-on-the-line-with-francisco-cantu-tickets-295477379797?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

Wed, 4/20, 4:30 pm -- How the 1940s “Labor Board Crew” Revolutionized Union Mediation in America -- On Apr. 20, 2022, Battle of Homestead Foundation presents a free Zoom panel discussion of the new book The Labor Board Crew: Remaking Worker-Employer Relations from Pearl Harbor to the Reagan Era by Ronald W. Schatz with commentary by Dr. Schatz, labor historian Jack Metzgar and union organizer John Lepley -- In 1942, by order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, an unlikely group of technocrats and utopian reformers including Clark Kerr, John Dunlop, Jean McKelvey and Marvin Miller came together as the National War Labor Board, charged with rapidly mediating labor disputes that might threaten U.S. wartime production -- After the war, the Board's "graduates" would play important roles in shaping America's economy and society for the next 50 years, handling thousands of grievances and strikes and impacting major legal decisions in civil rights, union negotiations, student protests, school integration, professional sports and the end of the Cold War -- This Battle of Homestead Foundation program explores the "labor board crew's" unique legacy and its application for labor organizers and mediators today -- PANELISTS for April 20 Program: • Ronald W. Schatz earned his doctorate at the University of Pittsburgh and recently retired from Wesleyan University as professor of U.S. history. He has taught and published widely on labor history, the conservative movement, labor and religion and American Jewish history. He is the author of The Electrical Workers: A History of Labor at General Electric and Westinghouse, 1923-60 and numerous journal articles. Dr. Schatz’s new book, The Labor Board Crew: Remaking Worker-Employer Relations from Pearl Harbor to the Reagan Era (Univ. of Illinois Press), chronicles the team of young economists and lawyers recruited to the National War Labor Board to resolve union-management conflicts during the Second World War. Members of the Board went on to exert broad influence on the U.S. and the world for next half-century. • Jack Metzgar is professor emeritus of Humanities at Roosevelt University in Chicago, where he is a core member of the Chicago Center for Working-Class Studies. A former president of the Working-Class Studies Association, his books include Bridging the Divide: Working-Class Culture in a Middle-Class Society and Striking Steel: Solidarity Remembered. • John Lepley is former president of Pittsburgh-based USW Local 3657 and currently a member of the USW Education and Membership Development Department:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/how-the-1940s-labor-board-crew-revolutionized-union-mediation-in-america-tickets-312897303257?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

Wed, 4/20, 6 pm -- On Indigenous Voices and Restoring the Kinship Worldview: A Live Online Conversation with Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows) and Darcia Narvaez -- Indigenous worldviews, and the knowledge they confer, are critical for human survival and the wellbeing of future generations. Author and Professor of Education, Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows), and author and Professor Emerita of Psychology Darcia Narvaez have both written and lectured extensively on the need to integrate Indigenous worldviews into every aspect of society—from education to sustainability, wellness, and justice -- Through their work and writing, Four Arrows and Darcia emphasize the deep need to move away from the dominant Western paradigm—one that dictates we live without strong social purpose, fails to honor the Earth as sacred, leads with the head while ignoring the heart, and places individual “rights” over collective responsibility. Their most recent collaboration as editors of the anthology Restoring the Kinship Worldview, presents 28 powerful excerpted passages from Indigenous leaders including Mourning Dove, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Winona LaDuke, and Xiuhtezcatl Martinez -- Join Four Arrows and Darcia for a conversation exploring the wisdom of Indigenous worldviews and how embracing these precepts can nourish our individual and collective lives in these challenging times -- By embracing our kinship, we can realize an Indigenous vision and strong social purpose that sees all life forms as sacred and sentient. Discover how these ideals can provide a holistic orientation to lead us away from extinction toward an integrated, sustainable future -- Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows), aka Don Trent Jacobs, PhD, EdD, was formerly Dean of Education at Oglala Lakota College and a tenured Associate Professor of Education at Northern Arizona University, Four Arrows is currently a professor with Fielding Graduate University. His book, Teaching Truly: A Curriculum to Indigenize Mainstream Education, was selected as one of the top 20 progressive education books along with Paulo Freire, John Dewey, and Neil Postman -- Darcia Narvaez, Professor Emerita of Psychology, University of Notre Dame, researches moral development and human flourishing and is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Educational Research Association and former editor of the Journal of Moral Education. She has numerous publications, including more than 20 books such as Indigenous Sustainable Wisdom: First Nation Know-how for Global Flourishing; and the recent book, Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture and Wisdom -- Additional biographical info is on the Eventbrite page:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/on-indigenous-voices-and-restoring-the-kinship-worldview-tickets-266486988757?aff=ebdsoporgprofile


Thu, April 21, 9 am -- Farming as a Climate Solution: A View from Regenerative Farms -- Hear from several of the farmers hosting Terra.do's Climate Farm School program about how they are implementing regenerative principles -- In this hourlong webinar, Climate Farm School Director Dr. Laney Siegner will moderate a panel discussion with three of the host farmers for the program. Panelists will share how they are operationalizing regenerative agriculture on their farms, what challenges they are facing as they seek to catalyze a more regenerative and climate friendly farming future, and what they are most excited to share with participants who join in for land-based learning through this unique program offering. There will be plenty of time at the end for audience Q&A, so come get your questions about nature-based climate solutions answered by this panel of knowledgable land stewards! -- Moderator: Dr. Laney Siegner received her Ph.D. from the U.C. Berkeley Energy and Resources Group in 2019. Her research focused on sustainable food systems and climate change education, and she spent several summers during her graduate studies working and living on diversified farms. She joined Terra.do in May 2020 as the first instructor for the Climate Change: Learning for Action course, and launched the Climate Farm School program at Terra in fall 2021 -- Panelists: Aubrie Maze runs Brambletail Homestead, a Jersey cow dairy herdshare at Green Valley Farm + Mill. Having lived for on the land for 10+ years, Aubrie continues to deepen her relationship to this land by raising animals alongside her partner Scott Kelley. She is also launching a u-pick medicinal herb garden and community garden project this year to extend the gifts of the land to the surrounding community -- Nate Sander is the Education Manager at Round the Bend Farm in South Dartmouth, MA. Nate has worn several hats at the farm. As permaculture specialist, his early work focused on developing a perennial food landscape. He has also supported the work of the "agripreneurs"- from planting veg gardens to building animal infrastructure to hay making -- Spencer Fenniman came to Hawthorne Valley Farm in January 2012 to take on the position of Field Manager, where he provides feed for the livestock and manages the fertility of the land. He has expanded the Farm’s grain growing enterprise to provide food for the livestock and the Farm’s organic Bakery. With the help of Bruno Follador from the Nature Institute, Spencer also guided a process to systematize the Farm’s compost operation, a vital aspect of maintaining the fertility of both pastures and vegetable fields -- Additional biographical info is on the Eventbrite page:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/farming-as-a-climate-solution-a-view-from-regenerative-farms-tickets-317196371887?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

Thu, April 21, 4 pm -- The Human Quest for Freedom -- Social ecologist and lifelong revolutionary organizer Modibo Kadalie returns to celebrate the release of Intimate Direct Democracy -- From the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, many African people who were enslaved in North America emancipated themselves and fled into vast swamplands and across colonial borders, beyond the reach of oppressive settler-colonialism and the institution of slavery. On the peripheries of empire, these freedom-seeking "maroons" established their own autonomous, ethnically diverse, and intimately democratic communities of resistance -- In this new volume, Modibo Kadalie offers a critical reexamination of the history and historiography surrounding two sites of African maroonage: The Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia and North Carolina; and Fort Mose in Florida -- Modibo Kadalie has spent nearly six decades as an activist, organizer, teacher, and scholar in the civil rights, Black power, and Pan-African movements. In Pan-African Social Ecology: Speeches, Conversations, and Essays, he reflects on the sit-ins, boycotts, strikes, urban rebellions, and anticolonial movements that have animated the late-twentieth and early-twenty-first centuries. Kadalie demonstrates how the forms of direct democracy that have evolved through these freedom struggles present the promise of a future defined by social liberation as well as ecological healing -- Andrew Zonneveld is an independent scholar, writer, and musician from Atlanta, Georgia. He is the editor of The Commune: Paris, 1871 and To Remain Silent is Impossible: Emma Goldman & Alexander Berkman in Russia
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-human-quest-for-freedom-tickets-309007298147?aff=erellivmlt


Fri, 4/22, 9 am -- #CancelStudentDebt: A Conversation with Organizers from the Debt Collective -- A panel of organizers from the Debt Collective, the nation’s first debtors’ union, make the case for cancelling all student debt -- THE ISSUE OF STUDENT DEBT GETS TO THE HEART of questions about inequality, democracy, and the future of the economy in the United States. It also poses a challenge to the way higher education is currently organized in the country. Please join HANNAH APPEL and BRAXTON BREWINGTON, organizers from the Debt Collective, the nation’s first debtors’ union, as they make the case for cancelling all student debt. They will discuss what they have experienced in the course of their organizing and their evolving strategies in the face of the federal government's shifting positions on student debt cancellation. Moderated by Mitchell Center Graduate Fellow INDIVAR JONNALAGADDA -- THE DEBT COLLECTIVE organizes debtors’ unions using an emancipatory activation of household debt under finance capitalism. Alone, our debts are a burden, but together they make us powerful. Household debt leveraged collectively in the threat of a debt strike creates the power to remake contemporary financial relationships. The Debt Collective's first debtors’ union has won over $2 billion in debt abolition for people holding debt from for profit colleges. They have published a book entitled Can’t Pay Won’t Pay: The Case for Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition (2020) -- HANNAH APPEL is an economic anthropologist interested in transnational capitalism and finance; finance, debt and debtors’ unions; the African continent’s place in global capitalism; the economic imagination; anti-capitalist and abolitionist social movements. Her research and teaching interests are guided by the economic imagination. What does it mean to understand racial capitalism ethnographically, and to work actively to undo it? Her first book, The Licit Life of Capitalism, is both an account of a specific capitalist project—U.S. oil companies working off the shores of Equatorial Guinea—and a theorization of more general forms and processes that facilitate diverse capitalist projects around the world. She is also a co-founder and organizer with the Debt Collective and co-author of Can't Pay Won't Pay: The Case for Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition -- BRAXTON BREWINGTON is a communications professional and electoral organizer, focused on racial, economic and democratic justice. Braxton currently works with The Debt Collective, a national debtors union fighting to cancel debts and defend millions of households. Recently, Braxton worked as a Communications Lead for the Democratic Parties of Georgia and North Carolina, and served as a Field Organizer for U.S. Senator Cory Booker’s presidential campaign. Braxton was a Democracy Fellow with Common Cause, where he worked to galvanize students to become civically engaged by registering them to vote on campus, organized marches to the polls, and lobbied Congress. Braxton was a state spokesperson in North Carolina for the Rucho case, and cites his speech at the steps of the US Supreme Court as the event that propelled him into fighting for a powerful multi-racial democracy:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cancelstudentdebt-a-conversation-with-organizers-from-the-debt-collective-tickets-309845184287?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

Fri, 4/22, 11 am -- Vital Matters: Applied Jain Ethics for Earth Day -- Join panelists who will highlight Jain philosophical approaches that prioritize reducing harm to living things -- On April 22nd—celebrated as Earth Day—communities around the world call particular attention to the imperative to protect the environment and all living organisms. This program explores Jain principles and actions associated with the vratas or vows that govern pious conduct, and considers how these might serve as models for safeguarding the ecosystem and promoting food security, animal rights, and healthy diets -- Deriving from the Sanskrit word jina, meaning “a victor” over worldly attachments, Jainism is an ancient Indian way of life that emphasizes nonviolence, non-possessiveness, and acceptance of multiple perspectives. Our panelists will highlight Jain philosophical approaches that prioritize reducing harm to living things, including plants and animals. They will offer invaluable insights into the links between animal welfare, pollution, education, and public health -- Shivani Bothra is Bhagwaan Mahavir/Chao Family Foundation postdoctoral fellow in Jain studies at Rice University -- Parveen Jain is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Arihanta Academy and author of An Introduction to Jain Philosophy -- Amy Landau is director of education and interpretation at the Fowler Museum at UCLA, where she co-leads the Fowler initiative “Engaging Lived Religion in the 21st Century Museum.” -- Nisha Mehta Ivey is a New York City-based screenwriter and TV producer.who currently serves on the board of the Global Jain Network, a digital forum that connects Jains around the world -- Dr. Tushar Mehta practices emergency medicine in the Toronto area, is co-founder of http://www.towardsahimsa.com and has promoted Ahimsa philosophy in modernity and the interconnectedness of humans, animals, and all life -- Christopher Jain Miller is the Bhagwan Mallinath Assistant Professor of Jain Studies at Loyola Marymount University as well as the co-founder of Arihanta Academy, an international online non-profit institution for Jain studies -- Additional biographical info is on the Eventbrite page:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/vital-matters-applied-jain-ethics-for-earth-day-tickets-304951356717?aff=erellivmlt

Fri, 4/22, 3 pm -- An Evening with Winona LaDuke -- Celebrate Earth Day with renowned activist and author Winona LaDuke as she presents: Rights of Nature -- Followed by an audience Q&A -- Presented by Sustainable Woodstock & Pentangle Arts -- Winona LaDuke is a Harvard-educated economist, environmental activist, author, hemp farmer, grandmother, and a two-time former Green Party Vice President candidate with Ralph Nader. LaDuke specializes in rural development, sustainable economics, food and energy sovereignty and environmental justice. She is also an international thought leader and lecturer in climate justice, renewable energy, and environmental justice, plus an advocate for protecting Indigenous plants and heritage foods from patenting and genetic engineering. Living and working on the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota, she leads several organizations including Honor the Earth (co-founded with The Indigo Girls 28 years ago), Anishinaabe Agriculture Institute, Akiing, and Winona’s Hemp. These organizations develop and model cultural-based sustainable development strategies utilizing renewable energy and sustainable food systems -- Her seven books include: The Militarization of Indian Country (2011); Recovering the Sacred: The Power of Naming and Claiming (2005); The non-fiction book All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life (1999, South End Press); and a novel, Last Standing Woman (1997, Voyager Press). Her new book, To Be a Water Protector: Rise of the Wiindigoo Slayers (Fernwood Press/Columbia University), is an expansive, provocative engagement with issues that have been central to her many years of activism, including seven years battling Line 3 — an Enbridge tar sands oil pipeline in northern Minnesota:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/an-evening-with-winona-laduke-tickets-270967961467?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch

Fri, 4/22, 6 pm -- Honoring bell hooks -- bell hooks was born in the segregated south in 1952 and left us September 15, 2021. Her writing and teaching revolutionized our thinking about race, class, gender and education and that remains with us to remember her. She is sorely missed but her work will undoubtedly continue to change lives. In light of that, please join us in honoring the late bell hooks on Friday, April 22. You are invited to share your favorite passage or poem that has inspired you. Please choose an excerpt of not more than 5 minutes reading time and contact us to confirm your attendance, if you are also planning to share a text:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/honoring-bell-hooks-tickets-264903863587?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch


Tue, 4/26, 4 pm -- What is Nature? -- Journalist and author Debbie Bookchin is joined by professor Todd McGowan to discuss Murray Bookchin’s The Philosophy of Social Ecology -- Debbie Bookchin returns for this virtual conversation with professor Todd McGowan, who wrote the afterword to the upcoming rerelease by AK Press of Murray Bookchin's The Philosophy of Social Ecology -- In the essays of The Philosophy of Social Ecology, Murray Bookchin compellingly invokes the ideas of mutualism, self-organization, and unity in diversity, in the service of ever expanding freedom. Refreshingly polemical and deeply philosophical, they take issue with technocratic and mechanistic ways of understanding and relating to, and within, nature. More importantly, they develop a solid, historically and politically based ethical foundation for social ecology, the field that Bookchin himself created and that offers us hope in the midst of our climate catastrophe -- Murray Bookchin (1929–2006) was an active voice in ecology, anarchist, and communalist movements for more than fifty years. His groundbreaking essay, “Ecology and Revolutionary Thought” (1964), was one of the first to assert that capitalism’s grow-or-die ethos was on a dangerous collision course with the natural world that would include the devastation of the planet by global warming. Bookchin is the author of The Ecology of Freedom, among two dozen other books -- Debbie Bookchin is an investigative journalist and author. She has published in The Nation, Atlantic Monthly, HarperCollins' Best Science Writing and many other venues. She is coauthor of The Virus and the Vaccine (St. Martin’s Press, 2004) and recently co-edited and introduced a new book of essays by her father Murray Bookchin, The Next Revolution: Popular Assemblies and the Promise of Direct Democracy (Verso Books, 2015) -- Todd McGowan is a professor of theory and film at the University of Vermont. He is the author of Emancipation After Hegel, Universality and Identity Politics, Capitalism and Desire, and other works:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/what-is-nature-tickets-305900916877?aff=ebdsoporgprofile


Fri, 4/29, 10 am -- Gabe Winant: Deindustrialization and the Rise of the Care Economy -- A lecture from Gabe Winant on his new book, "The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America." -- Gabriel Winant is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Chicago. He is the author of The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America, which investigates the rise of the “service economy” in the aftermath of manufacturing. His second project, tentatively titled Our Weary Years: How the Working Class Survived Industrial America, explores similar problems in an earlier period. His writing also appears frequently in publications such as Dissent, n+1, and The Nation:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/gabe-winant-deindustrialization-and-the-rise-of-the-care-economy-tickets-270024649997?aff=ebdsoporgprofile