[Brecht-press] Please List: Boycotting Israel, Marx in Soho,
Immigr Rts,Anarchist Therapy & More
Liz Roberts
lizr at brechtforum.org
Mon Oct 30 11:18:50 EST 2006
*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**
**The Brecht Forum**
**451 West St**. (Betw Bank & Bethune)**
**New York**, NY 10014*
www.brechtforum.org <http://www.brechtforum.org>
*
Contact Liz Roberts (212) 242- 4201* lizr at brechtforum.org
<mailto:lizr at brechtforum.org>
_______________________________________________________________________
In this Email:
11/10 & 11/11 Marx in Soho BENEFIT PERFORMANCE OF HOWARD ZINN'S PLAY
11/11 2-DAY WORKSHOP BEGINS Consensus, Facilitation & Liberation
11/13 Workshop: SOMA Therapy: Nazis Vs. Zapatistas & The Struggle
Against Cooptation/
11/13 Documentary: SOMA: An Anarchist Therapy
11/16 Organizing for Immigrants' Rights
11/ 20 EXHIBIT OPENING / RECEPTION Fragmented Families: From the
Shadow's Side
11/21 Holding Israel Accountable: The Case for Boycott, Divestment,
Sanctions (BDS)
_______________________________________________________________________
Friday, November 10 & Saturday, November 11
8:00 pm
BENEFIT PERFORMANCE
OF HOWARD ZINN'S PLAY
Marx in Soho
Jerry Levy
"By showing us Marx the man, Zinn poignantly humanizes him. By showing
us Marx the theorist, Zinn gently educates us. And by bringing Marx into
today's era, Zinn cleverly and unmistakably argues the relevance of
Marx's ideas in our time." --Backstage West
Imagine all Karl Marx would have to say after one hundred years of just
being able to watch...
Howard Zinn's "Marx in Soho" portrays the return of Marx roughly a
century after his death. Embedded in some secular afterlife where
intellectuals, artists, and radicals are sent, Marx is given permission
by the administrative committee to return to Soho London to have his
say. But through a bureaucratic mix-up, he winds up in SoHo in New York.
>From there the audience is given a rare glimpse of a Marx seldom talked
about; Marx the scholar, the immigrant, the family man. Responding to
the fall of the Soviet Union and the conventional perception that Marx's
ideas are dead, Zinn resurrects this controversial historical figure,
embraces democracy and passionately rejects ideological rigidity with
the phrase "I am not a Marxist." In poignant, funny, and intimate
narrative, Zinn convinces us not only that Marx is not dead, but that
his critique of capitalism remains relevant today.
Sliding Scale: $10/$15/$25
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Saturday, November 11
11:00 am - 6:00 pm
2-DAY WORKSHOP BEGINS
Consensus, Facilitation & Liberation
Facilitators: Autumn Brown, Stuart Rockefeller, Danielle Sered & Others TBA
The consensus process is much more than a decision-making tool. It is
an opportunity to participate in a creative process, the outcome of
which is a synthesis of the raw materials we began with. It is a radical
method by which we re-socialize ourselves in order to confront and
reject our own desire for power over others, and the outmoded
hierarchical forms of group work we are used to participating in. This
workshop will focus on consensus as a revolutionary and liberating
practice, exploring its potential as an organizing tool through group
discussions, storytelling and games. During the first day, we will
examine past experience with participatory decision-making and group
work. We will then break down the consensus process into its component
parts, giving a framework for what is often an abstract experience and
revealing the flexibility inherent in the decision-making structure. In
learning a myriad of tools used in consensus group work and in
elucidating individual roles and responsibilities within the process, we
will come to a deeper understanding of consensus mechanics. During the
second day, we will bring our focus to the specific role of facilitation
in the consensus process. Once again, through shared experience,
hands-on training, and challenging exercises, we will arrive at a deeper
understanding of what it means to facilitate the consensus process, what
the possibilities and pitfalls of this role are, and what tools are
available to empower the facilitator and create a culture of
co-facilitation in a group. We will also work on practical skills such
as Active Listening, Co-facilitation for Large Groups Meetings, Agenda
Planning, and Conflict & Mediation. The content of the workshop is
divided into two separate days so that participants can choose to come
for one day or the other, or both. This workshop is open to anyone who
desires to learn about consensus, or fine-tune the knowledge she or he
already has. It is open to anyone who desires to communicate more openly
and work more creatively with others.
Autumn Brown was trained in Consensus Method for Decision Making and
Group Process by the UK-based collective Seeds for Change, and she is
committed to utilizing, teaching, and integrating consensus in her life
and work. She has extensive experience facilitating with social justice
and performance art collectives, and provides frequent consensus and
facilitation trainings in New York City. She currently works to promote
preparedness and resiliency as the Community Outreach and Training
Coordinator for New York Disaster Interfaith Services.Stuart Rockefeller
is an anthropologist working in Bolivia and Argentina. He first
discovered the power of consensus decision-making through the NYC Direct
Action Network. After taking a course at Training for Change in
Philadelphia, he began conducting consensus and facilitation trainings
in the New York area. Over the last few years he has done trainings for
activist groups in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.Danielle Sered's
current work is in Restorative Justice and prison re- entry. Her
facilitation, consensus, and conflict resolution training experience
includes work in prisons, jails, under-resourced schools, community
organizing, radical collectives, and extensive gang intervention work.
She is a trained mediator and is committed to approaching conflict as an
opportunity for transformation and community-building.
Sliding Scale: $15-$35 per day
No One Turned Away
__________________________________________________________________
Monday, November 13
6:00 pm
WORKSHOP & VIDEO SCREENING
SOMA Therapy: Nazis Vs. Zapatistas & The Struggle Against Cooptation
Plus Screening of Documentary: SOMA: An Anarchist Therapy
Nick Cooper
6:00 - 7:30 pm: WORKSHOP
7:30 pm: VIDEO SCREENING
Using Soma Therapy exercises and techniques developed by Brazilian
anarchist Roberto Freire, Nick Cooper will conduct a workshop that
explores the anti-fascist non-hierarchical currents in history,
philosophy, and psychology, criticism, and organizing tactics to find
ways to struggle against oppression in ways that don't create other
oppressions .Informed by Zapatista principles, Wilhelm Reich's Mass
Psychology of Fascism, and Hannah Arendt's Origins of Totalitarianism,
the workshop compares authoritarian models to those that are consensual,
communitarian or autonomous and develops a skill set for identifying,
challenging and defeating the authoritarian tool of cooptation..
Following the workshop we will screen Nick Cooper's documentary, Soma:
An Anarchist Therapy in which Nick Cooper traveled to Rio de Janeiro,
Salvador, Bahia, and São Paulo to find the exercises, principles,
voices, and movement of somatherapy. He interviews 79-year-old Roberto
Freire who continues to develop soma therapy although he now has
difficulty walking and is half-blinded from torture by the Brazilian
military dictatorship.
Workshop facilitator and filmmaker Nick Cooper became interested in
horizontal structures for change while working with Indymedia, Food Not
Bombs and other non-hierarchical groups. He traveled to Brazil to study
Soma Therapy, and to Chiapas, Mexico to study Zapatismo. He has also
attended events of the far right to study fascist and pre-fascist
organizing directly.
Suggested donation: $6/$10/$15
No One Turned Away
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Thursday, November 16
7:30 pm
Organizing for Immigrants' Rights
Aarti Sahani & Others TBA. Moderated by Ragini Shah
In 2006 an unprecedented mobilization of immigrants, immigrants' rights
activists and other supporters took place in the United States. The
mobilization was widely reported as a response to House bill 4437 which
among other things made unlawful presence in the U.S. a felony
punishable not only with immigration consequences but with time in
prison. However, many immigrants' rights groups were mobilizing well
before HR 4437. This panel invites some of those who have been
organizing in the field of immigrants' rights to speak about the framing
of the issue for organizing, organizing methodologies and sustaining the
movement. The panel will also discuss steps activists can take to
organize in our own communities for greater rights for immigrants
including how to make linkages to other social justice movements.
Aarti Sahani is from Families for Freedom. Moderator Ragini Shah
directs the Immigrant Children Representation Project at Columbia Law
School. She is also a member of the Emergency Broadcast Artists, a group
of people seeking to bring issues like immigrants' rights into everyday
life by using public theater.
Suggested donation: $6/$10/$15
No OneTurned Away
_____________________________________________________________________________
Monday, November 20
5:30
EXHIBIT OPENING / RECEPTION
Fragmented Families: From the Shadow's Side
A photo exhibit curated by Javier Machado
This group show examines the impact of U.S. Cuba policy on Cubans
living in the U.S. and their families on the island. In 2004, the U.S.
government issued new travel restrictions that permit Cuban-origin
residents to visit their own country only once every three years, and
then for only two weeks. Through documentary and experimental work,
Cuban and non-Cuban photographers respond to these developments.
Javier Machado is a Cuban photographer who moved to the U.S. in 2003.
He has been reworking a series of portraits that he shot in his old
neighborhood in Havana before leaving. His work was recently exhibited
at the P.S. 122 Gallery.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, November 21
7:30 pm
Holding Israel Accountable: The Case for Boycott, Divestment Sanctions
(BDS)
Issa Mikel & Riham Barghouti
Since 2002, there has been a growing movement for Boycott, Divestment
and Sanctions as the only principled means to place pressure on Israel
for its on-going violations of international law and the rights of the
Palestinian people. In Palestine, the Arab World, Europe and Africa,
diverse calls have come from unions, churches, solidarity organizations,
and political parties. The presentation will provide an overview of this
emerging movement and will attempt to respond to the major arguments
being presented by those who oppose BDS.
Issa Mikel is a lawyer and human rights activist living and working in
New York. He is a member of the NYC Campaign for Boycott, Divestment,
Sanctions. Riham Barghouti is the former Director of Public Relations at
Birzeit University in Palestine and is a member of the Palestinian
Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel and the NYC
Campaign for Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions.
Suggested donation: $6/$10/$15
No One Turned Away
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