This is a recording of the event held at Barnard College in celebration of Grace Paley's birthfay.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Grace Paley Celebration at Barnard! TODAY
Grace Paley: Speaking Truth to Power
with Yvette Christiansë, Ynestra King, Nancy Kricorian, and Amy Swerdlow
A Panel Discussion: Friday, 12/11, 6:30 PM
James Room, 4th Floor Barnard Hall, Barnard College, 3009 Broadway, NYC
On Grace Paley's birthday, we present a conversation exploring how imagination, truthtelling, and courageous action flow out of Paley's life and work. A prolific writer, Paley's fiction highlights them everyday struggles of women, what she calls "a history of everyday life." In addition to her writing, Paley was also a committed activist, passionate about numerous issues, including women's rights, the Vietnam War, nuclear non-proliferation, and most recently, the war in Iraq. Her death in 2007 was a great loss, but her work continues to inspire.
Speakers, coming from a range of generations, will include politically engaged writers, artists, and activists in such causes as immigration rights, housing, human rights, gay and lesbian issues, foreclosure actions, anti-militarism and other important struggles. The speakers have all drawn inspiration from Paley's work and life and demonstrate various affinities to the amazing woman, artist and thinker who described herself as a "combative pacifist and cooperative anarchist."
Speakers will include:
Lucila Silva, a member of The Center for Immigrant Families Collective--The Center for Immigrant Families (CIF) is an inter-generational, collectively-run organization of low-income immigrant women of color
and community members in Manhattan Valley. CIF’s mission is to address the inter-connected challenges facing our communities by linking our personal/psychological well-being, health, and development to sustained organizing that transforms the root causes of the injustices we confront and their multi-layered impact on our lives and communities.
Yvette Christiansë, a poet, novelist and scholar, teaches African American, African and African Diasporic literatures at Fordham University. Her novel Unconfessed was a finalist in the 2007 Hemingway/PEN Prize and shortlisted for the 2008 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Her first book of poems Castaway (1999), was
nominated for the 2001 PEN International Prize and her latest book of poetry, Imprendehora was published in South Africa by Kwela Books/Snail Press in 2009.
Ynestra King, ecofeminist activist and educator, is the author of Ecofeminism: The Reenchantment of Nature (Boston: Beacon Press, 1991); and editor of Dangerous Intersections: Feminist Perspectives on
Population, Environment, and Development with Jael Miriam Silliman; and Rocking the Ship of State : Toward a Feminist Peace Politics with Adrienne Harris. Her classes in Ecofeminism at the Institute for Social Ecology in the late 70's were among the first in the country.
Nancy Kricorian is a New York-based writer and activist. Author of the novels Zabelle and Dreams of Bread and Fire, her poetry has been published in PARNASSUS, MISSISSIPPI REVIEW and ARARAT. She is
currently dividing her time between writing her third novel and working as the New York City coordinator for CODEPINK WOMEN FOR PEACE, a women-initiated grassroots peace & social movement known for its use of direct action and street theater.
Amy Swerdlow is Professor Emerita, Sarah Lawrence College where she directed the MA Program in Women's History and the Women's Studies Program. Swerdlow is a co-founding member of Women Strike for Peace and author of Women Strike for Peace: Traditional Motherhood and Radical Politics in the 1960s and numerous articles on radical reform movements from the abolitionists in the 19th century to the peace movements of the late 20th century.
contact:
Lucy Trainor
Program Manager
Barnard Center for Research on Women
p (212) 854-2067
f (212) 854-8294
http://www.barnard.edu/bcrw
with Yvette Christiansë, Ynestra King, Nancy Kricorian, and Amy Swerdlow
A Panel Discussion: Friday, 12/11, 6:30 PM
James Room, 4th Floor Barnard Hall, Barnard College, 3009 Broadway, NYC
On Grace Paley's birthday, we present a conversation exploring how imagination, truthtelling, and courageous action flow out of Paley's life and work. A prolific writer, Paley's fiction highlights them everyday struggles of women, what she calls "a history of everyday life." In addition to her writing, Paley was also a committed activist, passionate about numerous issues, including women's rights, the Vietnam War, nuclear non-proliferation, and most recently, the war in Iraq. Her death in 2007 was a great loss, but her work continues to inspire.
Speakers, coming from a range of generations, will include politically engaged writers, artists, and activists in such causes as immigration rights, housing, human rights, gay and lesbian issues, foreclosure actions, anti-militarism and other important struggles. The speakers have all drawn inspiration from Paley's work and life and demonstrate various affinities to the amazing woman, artist and thinker who described herself as a "combative pacifist and cooperative anarchist."
Speakers will include:
Lucila Silva, a member of The Center for Immigrant Families Collective--The Center for Immigrant Families (CIF) is an inter-generational, collectively-run organization of low-income immigrant women of color
and community members in Manhattan Valley. CIF’s mission is to address the inter-connected challenges facing our communities by linking our personal/psychological well-being, health, and development to sustained organizing that transforms the root causes of the injustices we confront and their multi-layered impact on our lives and communities.
Yvette Christiansë, a poet, novelist and scholar, teaches African American, African and African Diasporic literatures at Fordham University. Her novel Unconfessed was a finalist in the 2007 Hemingway/PEN Prize and shortlisted for the 2008 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Her first book of poems Castaway (1999), was
nominated for the 2001 PEN International Prize and her latest book of poetry, Imprendehora was published in South Africa by Kwela Books/Snail Press in 2009.
Ynestra King, ecofeminist activist and educator, is the author of Ecofeminism: The Reenchantment of Nature (Boston: Beacon Press, 1991); and editor of Dangerous Intersections: Feminist Perspectives on
Population, Environment, and Development with Jael Miriam Silliman; and Rocking the Ship of State : Toward a Feminist Peace Politics with Adrienne Harris. Her classes in Ecofeminism at the Institute for Social Ecology in the late 70's were among the first in the country.
Nancy Kricorian is a New York-based writer and activist. Author of the novels Zabelle and Dreams of Bread and Fire, her poetry has been published in PARNASSUS, MISSISSIPPI REVIEW and ARARAT. She is
currently dividing her time between writing her third novel and working as the New York City coordinator for CODEPINK WOMEN FOR PEACE, a women-initiated grassroots peace & social movement known for its use of direct action and street theater.
Amy Swerdlow is Professor Emerita, Sarah Lawrence College where she directed the MA Program in Women's History and the Women's Studies Program. Swerdlow is a co-founding member of Women Strike for Peace and author of Women Strike for Peace: Traditional Motherhood and Radical Politics in the 1960s and numerous articles on radical reform movements from the abolitionists in the 19th century to the peace movements of the late 20th century.
contact:
Lucy Trainor
Program Manager
Barnard Center for Research on Women
p (212) 854-2067
f (212) 854-8294
http://www.barnard.edu/bcrw
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Celebration of Grace's Birthday in Boston
REMEMBERING GRACE PALEY: DECEMBER 2009
Thursday, 10 December 2009 7-9PM
Friends Meeting House, 5 Longfellow Park (off Brattle Street), Cambridge, MA
With the holiday season fast approaching the William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences will once again celebrate the life and work of writer and activist Grace Paley. The Grace Paley Tribute Reading, which will be held at Friends Meeting at Cambridge on Thursday, December 10th, 7-9 pm, will feature local activists reading from Grace’s work.
This year we are pleased to welcome students from UMass Boston who received special recognition through the 2009 Grace Paley Award for their community involvement. They are Son-ca Lam, Stephanie Fail and Heather Turner. Joining them will be Bob Nicols, Nora Paley, Bob Glassman, Bob Zevin, Trudi Cohen, Tom Goodkind, Michael Ansara, Wayne Smith, Barbara Lewis and many other activists, teachers and community organizers.
A potluck reception will follow the reading – please let us know if you’d like to contribute! You can email us at joinercenter@umb.edu. Copies of Grace’s books will be available at the reception.
The Joiner Center is also pleased to announce Tru Grace: Holiday Memoirs, a special production of Grace Paley’s short story “The Loudest Voice” by the Underground Railway Theater. Adapted by Wes Savick of Suffolk University’s Theatre Department, the play premieres on Thursday, November 19th and runs through Sunday, December 27th along with Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory.” These whimsical tales will be playing at Central Square Theater. For reservations check
www.centralsquaretheater.org, or by call the box office at 866-811-4111.
The Underground Railway Theater would also like to extend an invitation the Joiner Center community to participate in the sharing of anecdotes and/or the reading of a piece by Grace on December 6th, directly after the 2 pm matinee, when they will be hosting a celebration of Grace's life
Thursday, 10 December 2009 7-9PM
Friends Meeting House, 5 Longfellow Park (off Brattle Street), Cambridge, MA
With the holiday season fast approaching the William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences will once again celebrate the life and work of writer and activist Grace Paley. The Grace Paley Tribute Reading, which will be held at Friends Meeting at Cambridge on Thursday, December 10th, 7-9 pm, will feature local activists reading from Grace’s work.
This year we are pleased to welcome students from UMass Boston who received special recognition through the 2009 Grace Paley Award for their community involvement. They are Son-ca Lam, Stephanie Fail and Heather Turner. Joining them will be Bob Nicols, Nora Paley, Bob Glassman, Bob Zevin, Trudi Cohen, Tom Goodkind, Michael Ansara, Wayne Smith, Barbara Lewis and many other activists, teachers and community organizers.
A potluck reception will follow the reading – please let us know if you’d like to contribute! You can email us at joinercenter@umb.edu. Copies of Grace’s books will be available at the reception.
The Joiner Center is also pleased to announce Tru Grace: Holiday Memoirs, a special production of Grace Paley’s short story “The Loudest Voice” by the Underground Railway Theater. Adapted by Wes Savick of Suffolk University’s Theatre Department, the play premieres on Thursday, November 19th and runs through Sunday, December 27th along with Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory.” These whimsical tales will be playing at Central Square Theater. For reservations check
www.centralsquaretheater.org, or by call the box office at 866-811-4111.
The Underground Railway Theater would also like to extend an invitation the Joiner Center community to participate in the sharing of anecdotes and/or the reading of a piece by Grace on December 6th, directly after the 2 pm matinee, when they will be hosting a celebration of Grace's life
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Aminetu Haidar: In Spite of Everything. Saharawi on Hunger Strike
by ATENEA AVECEDO
Aminetu Haidar was arrested at the El Aaiun Airport (former capital of Western Sahara, a country under Moroccan military occupation since 1975) because in filling out the corresponding entry form she wrote "Western Sahara" as her country of origin instead of "Morocco". The Moroccan authorities confiscated her passport and forced her aboard another aircraft bound to Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain). The Spanish authorities refuse to let her fly back to El Aaiun, where her children are, because she does not have the necessary papers. What might seem a mere red tape issue reveals, on one hand, the toughening of Moroccan policies against Saharawi human rights activists -being Saharawi and refusing to assume one's nationality as Moroccan is considered high treason by the Moroccan regime- and, on the other, the complicity between the Spanish and the Moroccan States. Aminetu Haidar initiated a hunger strike on 15 November as a protest against her current status.
Our senses, habituated to a never innocent violence – normalized through lingering media bombardment – only react when the scandalous aspect of news reaches the border between reality and fiction. Once in a while, almost always later than sooner, the violence that mercilessly strikes women appears in mass media headlines: women retained in Serbian rape camps, young working women slaughtered in Ciudad Juárez, women murdered by either romantic or sexual partners. Less frequently, a specific face repeats itself on the television screens and a name struggles to conquer a corner of our memory. Today such a face belongs to Saharawi activist Aminetu Haidar, a peaceful defender of human rights and international humanitarian rights whose case began to filter out through tiny snippets of information and now expands like a pool of uncontainable blood.
Aminetu – a former detainee in Moroccan secret jails, where she “disappeared” for years – has the willpower that we usually find in those who have lived and suffered enough to thoroughly know both the strength and fragility of the human spirit. The old and vile complicity between the governments of Spain and Morocco, a complicity that impedes Aminetu’s return to Western Sahara, her motherland – under military occupation since 1975 – and that has forced her to start a hunger strike against it, is the same that historically marks all perverse pacts signed to the detriment of people everywhere. Now it is the turn of the Saharawi people, affected for 34 years now by such complicity and surely even more as a former Spanish colony whose national identity was modified and resources exploited until the commercial alliances were consolidated that today define the inexcusable continuance of a shameful conflict.
Now, while Spanish government officials turn a deaf ear to a hunger strike in its second week, it’s useless to give an account of Spain’s violations of Aminetu’s demand to return to El Aaiun. Better to unmask the lie which is being repeated a thousand times to make it into a truth. But even more useful is to point out that what is happening in Aminetu’s case unveils the still concealed factual ins and outs of a political system that claims to be democratic and mistakenly acknowledges: 1) that democracy is simply dictatorship’s antonym, and 2) that societies are satisfied with periodic elections and spaces where they can shout their dissatisfaction even if nothing changes in the real world. Is this the harbor to which the globally celebrated “Spanish transition” has arrived after those very same 34 years? Or is it that the transition process is unfinished and one of its steps consists of a combination of handwashing and complicity with the current occupying power in its former colony?
A democratic government is based upon popular expression at the polls and assumes the commitment to represent the interests of majorities while listening to minorities, but it also acknowledges that democracy is a social construction process that involves the decision of not riding roughshod over the rights of other people beyond its borders. As well, it also consists on keeping a retrospective view motivated by the learning and amending of any errors in its own history. The Spanish government’s attitude in Western Sahara adds to so many other aspects of its foreign policy, that make evident an embarrassing desire to continue looking down on the South with contempt and neo-colonial thirst, both in Africa and Latin America.
In the face of such a devastating scene, people of Spanish descent who, coming from the most human solidarity transcend what they learned in their childhood textbooks full of omissions, set an example and remind us that people and government are not the same thing. In our countries, on this side of the Atlantic Ocean, it is disappointing to see rebellious societies with servile governments that don’t know how or don’t want to abandon their role as mental and economic colonizers.
This is Aminetu’s scene of resistance. Those who have experienced the horror of torture affirm that the only refuge against its cruelty is the mind, a place that people feel to be their own, a place where the repressor cannot enter, the haven that saves one from madness. On the other hand, in the black night of the prison without walls that is forced exile or life under military occupation, the body can become the last resource to call for justice. A woman appropriates her body and transforms it into a vehicle of transgression and denunciation. That gesture, both real and symbolic, not only means to appropriate her own life (we don’t get the accounts wrong: in these circumstances her latent death will continue being the responsibility of both the Spanish and Moroccan governments and of international indifference), but above all, to appropriate her own body, a body that has already been disappeared, forced, beaten and forcefully transformed into an instrument of terror at the hands of her torturer occupant.
Our world, still patriarchal, insists on seeing women as part of the collective property of men who are the holders of a people’s identity. For that reason, invaders vent their anger by raping women as an act to tarnish the masculine pride of a nation. Even the left has not been able to cast off the idea of women as either public property (“to protect our mujeres”) or private property, acquired through the sexual act (“I introduce you to my mujer”)*. Aminetu knows that in spite of everything, she only belongs to herself, as we all do, and from that conscience she has been partner, friend and fighter. Indefatigable survivor and owner of herself, she grabs what is within reach of all human beings demanding the observance of a right: the right to her mind, her body and her unredeemed heart.
I will never understand mankind’s ease in cyclically losing with complete indifference its most valuable and gifted people, the very same ones who could rescue it from its miseries. I hope it doesn't happen again this time.
*Spanish for women/woman.
English translation by Manuel Talens, edited by Machetera. Atenea Acevedo, Manuel Talens and Machetera are members of Tlaxcala, the international network of translators for linguistic diversity. This translation may be reprinted as long as the content remains unaltered, and the source, author, translator and editor are cited.
For more information on the Saharawi struggle and Aminetu Haidar's hunger strike, check out the show aired by Democracy Now on 1 December 2009.
source: http://www.tlaxcala.es/detail_artistes.asp?lg=es&reference=374
Friday, December 4, 2009
Grace Paley Celebration at Barnard!
Grace Paley: Speaking Truth to Power
with Yvette Christiansë, Ynestra King, Nancy Kricorian, and Amy Swerdlow
A Panel Discussion: Friday, 12/11, 6:30 PM
James Room, 4th Floor Barnard Hall, Barnard College, 3009 Broadway, NYC
On Grace Paley's birthday, we present a conversation exploring how imagination, truthtelling, and courageous action flow out of Paley's life and work. A prolific writer, Paley's fiction highlights them everyday struggles of women, what she calls "a history of everyday life." In addition to her writing, Paley was also a committed activist, passionate about numerous issues, including women's rights, the Vietnam War, nuclear non-proliferation, and most recently, the war in Iraq. Her death in 2007 was a great loss, but her work continues to inspire.
Speakers, coming from a range of generations, will include politically engaged writers, artists, and activists in such causes as immigration rights, housing, human rights, gay and lesbian issues, foreclosure actions, anti-militarism and other important struggles. The speakers have all drawn inspiration from Paley's work and life and demonstrate various affinities to the amazing woman, artist and thinker who described herself as a "combative pacifist and cooperative anarchist."
Speakers will include:
Lucila Silva, a member of The Center for Immigrant Families Collective--The Center for Immigrant Families (CIF) is an inter-generational, collectively-run organization of low-income immigrant women of color
and community members in Manhattan Valley. CIF’s mission is to address the inter-connected challenges facing our communities by linking our personal/psychological well-being, health, and development to sustained organizing that transforms the root causes of the injustices we confront and their multi-layered impact on our lives and communities.
Yvette Christiansë, a poet, novelist and scholar, teaches African American, African and African Diasporic literatures at Fordham University. Her novel Unconfessed was a finalist in the 2007 Hemingway/PEN Prize and shortlisted for the 2008 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Her first book of poems Castaway (1999), was
nominated for the 2001 PEN International Prize and her latest book of poetry, Imprendehora was published in South Africa by Kwela Books/Snail Press in 2009.
Ynestra King, ecofeminist activist and educator, is the author of Ecofeminism: The Reenchantment of Nature (Boston: Beacon Press, 1991); and editor of Dangerous Intersections: Feminist Perspectives on
Population, Environment, and Development with Jael Miriam Silliman; and Rocking the Ship of State : Toward a Feminist Peace Politics with Adrienne Harris. Her classes in Ecofeminism at the Institute for Social Ecology in the late 70's were among the first in the country.
Nancy Kricorian is a New York-based writer and activist. Author of the novels Zabelle and Dreams of Bread and Fire, her poetry has been published in PARNASSUS, MISSISSIPPI REVIEW and ARARAT. She is
currently dividing her time between writing her third novel and working as the New York City coordinator for CODEPINK WOMEN FOR PEACE, a women-initiated grassroots peace & social movement known for its use of direct action and street theater.
Amy Swerdlow is Professor Emerita, Sarah Lawrence College where she directed the MA Program in Women's History and the Women's Studies Program. Swerdlow is a co-founding member of Women Strike for Peace and author of Women Strike for Peace: Traditional Motherhood and Radical Politics in the 1960s and numerous articles on radical reform movements from the abolitionists in the 19th century to the peace movements of the late 20th century.
contact:
Lucy Trainor
Program Manager
Barnard Center for Research on Women
p (212) 854-2067
f (212) 854-8294
http://www.barnard.edu/bcrw
with Yvette Christiansë, Ynestra King, Nancy Kricorian, and Amy Swerdlow
A Panel Discussion: Friday, 12/11, 6:30 PM
James Room, 4th Floor Barnard Hall, Barnard College, 3009 Broadway, NYC
On Grace Paley's birthday, we present a conversation exploring how imagination, truthtelling, and courageous action flow out of Paley's life and work. A prolific writer, Paley's fiction highlights them everyday struggles of women, what she calls "a history of everyday life." In addition to her writing, Paley was also a committed activist, passionate about numerous issues, including women's rights, the Vietnam War, nuclear non-proliferation, and most recently, the war in Iraq. Her death in 2007 was a great loss, but her work continues to inspire.
Speakers, coming from a range of generations, will include politically engaged writers, artists, and activists in such causes as immigration rights, housing, human rights, gay and lesbian issues, foreclosure actions, anti-militarism and other important struggles. The speakers have all drawn inspiration from Paley's work and life and demonstrate various affinities to the amazing woman, artist and thinker who described herself as a "combative pacifist and cooperative anarchist."
Speakers will include:
Lucila Silva, a member of The Center for Immigrant Families Collective--The Center for Immigrant Families (CIF) is an inter-generational, collectively-run organization of low-income immigrant women of color
and community members in Manhattan Valley. CIF’s mission is to address the inter-connected challenges facing our communities by linking our personal/psychological well-being, health, and development to sustained organizing that transforms the root causes of the injustices we confront and their multi-layered impact on our lives and communities.
Yvette Christiansë, a poet, novelist and scholar, teaches African American, African and African Diasporic literatures at Fordham University. Her novel Unconfessed was a finalist in the 2007 Hemingway/PEN Prize and shortlisted for the 2008 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Her first book of poems Castaway (1999), was
nominated for the 2001 PEN International Prize and her latest book of poetry, Imprendehora was published in South Africa by Kwela Books/Snail Press in 2009.
Ynestra King, ecofeminist activist and educator, is the author of Ecofeminism: The Reenchantment of Nature (Boston: Beacon Press, 1991); and editor of Dangerous Intersections: Feminist Perspectives on
Population, Environment, and Development with Jael Miriam Silliman; and Rocking the Ship of State : Toward a Feminist Peace Politics with Adrienne Harris. Her classes in Ecofeminism at the Institute for Social Ecology in the late 70's were among the first in the country.
Nancy Kricorian is a New York-based writer and activist. Author of the novels Zabelle and Dreams of Bread and Fire, her poetry has been published in PARNASSUS, MISSISSIPPI REVIEW and ARARAT. She is
currently dividing her time between writing her third novel and working as the New York City coordinator for CODEPINK WOMEN FOR PEACE, a women-initiated grassroots peace & social movement known for its use of direct action and street theater.
Amy Swerdlow is Professor Emerita, Sarah Lawrence College where she directed the MA Program in Women's History and the Women's Studies Program. Swerdlow is a co-founding member of Women Strike for Peace and author of Women Strike for Peace: Traditional Motherhood and Radical Politics in the 1960s and numerous articles on radical reform movements from the abolitionists in the 19th century to the peace movements of the late 20th century.
contact:
Lucy Trainor
Program Manager
Barnard Center for Research on Women
p (212) 854-2067
f (212) 854-8294
http://www.barnard.edu/bcrw
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Blog Visitors from Around the World
Sitemeter reports this blog has been visited last week by people from:
New Zealand; Jakarta, Indonesia; Capetown, South Africa; Yeman; Flensburg, Germany; Nmes, France; Panama; Lombardy, Italy; Dronten, Netherlands; Halifax, Nova Scotia; London; and many places in the US: Winter Park, FL; Chicago; LA; NY; Little Rock, AR; Denton Texas, etc.
New Zealand; Jakarta, Indonesia; Capetown, South Africa; Yeman; Flensburg, Germany; Nmes, France; Panama; Lombardy, Italy; Dronten, Netherlands; Halifax, Nova Scotia; London; and many places in the US: Winter Park, FL; Chicago; LA; NY; Little Rock, AR; Denton Texas, etc.
Remembering Grace Paley in Boston
With the holiday season fast approaching the Joiner Center will once again celebrate the life and work of writer and activist Grace Paley. The Grace Paley Birthday Reading, which will be held at Friends Meeting at Cambridge on Thursday, December 10th, 7-9 pm, will feature local activists reading from Grace’s work. This year we are pleased to welcome students from UMass Boston who received special recognition through the 2009 Grace Paley Award for their community involvement. They are Son-ca Lam, Stephanie Fail and Heather Turner. Joining them will be Bob Nicols, Bob Glassman, Bob Zevon, Tom Goodkind, Michael Ansara, Wayne Smith, Michael Romanyshyn, and many other activists, teachers and community organizers.
This is a video of the Center's Grace Paley celebration in December, 2008:
At the Joiner Center this year there will be a potluck reception following the reading – please let us know if you’d like to contribute! You can email us at joinercenter@umb.edu. Copies of Grace’s books will be available at the reception.
This year the Joiner Center welcomes MFA graduate students Crystal Koe and Molly McGuire to our program staff. They will be working with Cat Parnell on the Grace Paley Tribute and the Grace Paley Award. Both Molly and Crystal bring extensive experience and good spirits to the center. We at the Joiner look forward to working with Crystal and Molly, and we hope you will welcome them when you meet them at the Grace Paley Tribute Reading in December.
The Joiner Center is also pleased to announce Tru Grace: Holiday Memoirs, a special production of Grace Paley’s short story “The Loudest Voice” by the Underground Railway Theater. Adapted by Wes Savick of Suffolk University’s Theatre Department, the play premieres on Thursday, November 19th and runs through Sunday, December 27th along with Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory.” These whimsical tales will be playing at Central Square Theater.
The Underground Railway Theater is offering the Joiner Center community discounted tickets ($17.50, regularly $35) to the production. To take advantage of this offer quote the discount code TRUGRACE either online at
www.centralsquaretheater.org, or by calling the box office at 866-811-4111.
The Underground Railway Theater would also like to extend an invitation the Joiner Center community to participate in the sharing of anecdotes and/or the reading of a piece by Grace on December 6th, directly after the 2 pm matinee, when they will be hosting a celebration of Grace's life.
This is a video of the Center's Grace Paley celebration in December, 2008:
At the Joiner Center this year there will be a potluck reception following the reading – please let us know if you’d like to contribute! You can email us at joinercenter@umb.edu. Copies of Grace’s books will be available at the reception.
This year the Joiner Center welcomes MFA graduate students Crystal Koe and Molly McGuire to our program staff. They will be working with Cat Parnell on the Grace Paley Tribute and the Grace Paley Award. Both Molly and Crystal bring extensive experience and good spirits to the center. We at the Joiner look forward to working with Crystal and Molly, and we hope you will welcome them when you meet them at the Grace Paley Tribute Reading in December.
The Joiner Center is also pleased to announce Tru Grace: Holiday Memoirs, a special production of Grace Paley’s short story “The Loudest Voice” by the Underground Railway Theater. Adapted by Wes Savick of Suffolk University’s Theatre Department, the play premieres on Thursday, November 19th and runs through Sunday, December 27th along with Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory.” These whimsical tales will be playing at Central Square Theater.
The Underground Railway Theater is offering the Joiner Center community discounted tickets ($17.50, regularly $35) to the production. To take advantage of this offer quote the discount code TRUGRACE either online at
www.centralsquaretheater.org, or by calling the box office at 866-811-4111.
The Underground Railway Theater would also like to extend an invitation the Joiner Center community to participate in the sharing of anecdotes and/or the reading of a piece by Grace on December 6th, directly after the 2 pm matinee, when they will be hosting a celebration of Grace's life.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Veto of domestic partners funeral bill sparks protest at R.I. State House
PROVIDENCE — About 150 protesters lit candles in the dark Thursday night and followed a black casket up the walk to the State House steps.
Six pallbearers placed the coffin on the white marble steps, a seventh placed a wreath of white roses upon it, and Joe Roch, 29, of Providence turned to address the somber crowd.
“We’re gathered here tonight out of a mutual sense of anger and frustration at Governor Carcieri’s recent veto of the domestic partners funeral bill” Roch said. He drew applause when he referred to comedian Stephen Colbert’s “shaming” Carcieri on national television. Although Carcieri killed the bill, Roch said, “Tonight we present you not with the mangled, defeated corpse of a dream deferred, but with a greater hunger for progress and equality for every man and woman in Rhode Island.”
Lt. Gov. Elizabeth H. Roberts told those attending the protests that “almost every single member of the House and Senate supported the legislation,” called the governor’s veto “a cruel act” and promised the next session of the General Assembly would overturn the veto. The bill would have added domestic partners to the list of people who can legally make arrangements for a deceased person’s funeral. In his veto message Nov. 10, Carcieri said the decision should be put on the ballot for the voters to decide.
dnaylor@projo.com
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Palestinians Breach Separation Fence
From Haaretz, November 9, 2009:
Activists breached a hole in the West Bank wall for the second time in less than a week on Monday in a demonstration to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Their faces masked, the activists tethered a 2-meter wide section of the cement barrier to a truck which then pulled it over. The crowd of around 50, which had gathered at a section of the barrier near an Israeli checkpoint at Qalandiya, cheered as the 6-meter high section fell. Israeli soldiers fired tear gas at the crowd, some of whom threw stones over the wall. Several demonstrators passed through the gap they had created, hoisting a Palestinian flag and setting ablaze tires on the other side.
On Friday, during a demonstration in the West Bank city of Na’alin, where activists and Palestinians gather every Friday to protest the route of the fence, masked Palestinian youths breached a section of the wall that runs through the village, while Israeli border guards fired tear gas and a foul-smelling spray from behind the high concrete barrier. Protesters levered open a space under one the pre-cast panels and used a hydraulic car-jack to topple it out of position. “No matter how tall, all walls fall,” read one banner pasted onto the structure by Palestinian youths assisted by Israeli activists, who say the wall on Palestinian land and through Palestinian communities is simply a land grab by Israel.
The panels of the walls in Israel’s separation barrier are cast in the same inverted T-shape as the wall constructed through Berlin by communist East Germany. Israel began building its barrier of fences and walls at the height of the Palestinian uprising that began in 2000 and it now runs along most of the West Bank border, at many points encroaching into West Bank territory.
It says it was built to prevent suicide bombers entering Israel and has largely succeeded in doing so. Palestinians see it as an attempt to seize land on which they aim to establish an independent state. “Today we commemorate 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall,” said Abdullah Abu Rahma, leader of the People’s Campaign to Fight the Wall. “This is the first step in a series of activities we will be holding in the coming days to express our firm attachment to our land and our rejection of this wall.”
In a non-binding decision in 2004, the International Court of Justice said the barrier was illegal and should be taken own because it crossed occupied territory.
Israeli leaders have said the barrier is a temporary obstacle that could be removed once a peace agreement with the Palestinians is signed.
Masked activists used a lorry to tear down a cement block of the wall [AFP]
From Al Jazeera:
Abdullah Abu Rahma, leader of the People's Campaign to Fight the Wall, said: "Today we commemorate 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. "This is the beginning of the activities, which we do, to express our hold on our land, and our refusal to this wall - the wall of torture, the wall of humiliation."
Activists have vowed to hold a week of protests in the Palestinian territories and around the world, including a campaign calling for the release of all anti-wall activists currently imprisoned. Last Friday, Palestinian youths almost toppled a segment of wall using a hydraulic car-jack in the West Bank village of Nilin. Protests against the wall have become a regular event in Nilin and in the nearby village of Bilin, where Palestinian, international and Israeli activists are commonly confronted by tear gas and rubber bullets fired by Israeli troops.
Israel began building its barrier, consisting of fences and walls, in 2002, citing security reasons. The wall is up to 8m high in places, twice the height of the former Berlin wall. Palestinian sources anticipate that it may be more than 750km-long when construction is finished, more than four times the length of the Berlin wall.
Palestinians say the route of the wall has been set in such a way that it grabs land that could have been included in a future Palestinian state. The International Court of Justice, in a non-binding decision in 2004, said the Israeli-built barrier was illegal and should be taken down because it crossed into occupied territory. A report by Stop the Wall, a Palestinian coalition of NGOs opposed to the wall, said that in 2007 alone, Israel demolished more than 160 houses and appropriated more than 3sq km of land in the Palestinian West Bank in its construction of the wall.
Grace Paley Peace Ornament Found on Web
The Grace Paley Permanent Peace Crane Origami Ornament
Grace Paley, an American Poet, Writer and Civic Activist, born December 11, 1922 died August 22, 2007.
Her most important and multiple times published work is "The Little Disturbances of Man"
Having spent several years as a typist and housewife, Paley turned her attention back to writing in the mid 1950s. After a number of rejections, Paley published her first collection, "The Little Disturbances of Man" (1959) with Doubleday. The collection features eleven stories of New York life, several of which have since been widely anthologized, particularly "Goodbye and Good Luck" and "The Used-Boy Raisers." RIP
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Paley
*****************************************************
Permanent origami peace crane ornaments by Nancy McNally;
http://www.nancymcnally.net
Monday, November 9, 2009
Celebrate Grace on December 11 at Barnard!
Grace Paley:Speaking Truth to Power
Ujju Agarawal, Yvette Christiansë, Ynestra King, Nancy Kricorian, and Amy Swerdlow
A Panel Discussion:
Friday, 12/11, 6:30 PM
James Room, 4th Floor Barnard Hall
Barnard College,
3009 Broadway
NYC
On Grace Paley's birthday, we present a conversation exploring how imagination, truthtelling, and courageous action flow out of Paley's life and work. A prolific writer, Paley's fiction highlights the everyday struggles of women, what she calls "a history of everyday life." In addition to her writing, Paley was also a committed activist, passionate about numerous issues, including women's rights, the Vietnam War, nuclear non-proliferation, and most recently, the war in Iraq. Her death in 2007 was a great loss, but her work continues to inspire. Speakers, coming from a range of generations, will include politically engaged writers, artists, and activists in such causes as immigration rights, housing, human rights, gay and lesbian issues, foreclosure actions, anti-militarism and other important struggles. The speakers have all drawn inspiration from Paley's work and life and demonstrate various affinities to the amazing woman, artist and thinker who described herself as a "combative pacifist and cooperative anarchist."
Speakers will include: Ujju Agarawal, member of the Center for Immigrant Families Collective; Yvette Christiansë, poet and novelist; Ynestra King, ecofeminist activist and educator, and editor of Dangerous Intersections: Feminist Perspectives on Population, Environment, and Development; Nancy Kricorian, New York-based writer and activist, author of Zabelle and Dreams of Bread and Fire, and coordinator of the New York City chapter of CODEPINK Women for Peace; and Amy Swerdlow, founding member of Women Strike for Peace and author of Women Strike for Peace: Traditional Motherhood and Radical Politics in the 1960s.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Massachusetts Review publishes Grace Paley issue
The Massachusetts Review is continuing its 50th birthday celebration with a special issue honoring the late Grace Paley.
An activist, poet and award-winning master of the short story, Paley died in 2007. She is best known for two story collections: The Little Disturbances of Man (1959) and Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1974). In recent years she was a frequent participant in the campus' Juniper Summer Writing Institute. Guest-edited by Dara Wier, Chris Bachelder, Noy Holland and Lisa Olstein, the issue includes manuscript pages, photos, previously unpublished interviews, previously uncollected fiction and essays and many remembrances of the iconic iconoclast Paley was and is.
Among the contributors are Grace Paley, Nora Paley, Lisa Olstein, Noy Holland, Jules Chametzky, Mark Doty, Chris Bachelder, Padget Powell, Terry Gross, Naomi Nye, John J. Clayton, Matthew Zapruder, Gillian Conoley, Faye S. Wolfe and Gordon Lish.
Massachusetts Review is available in Amherst at Hastings, Amherst Books and Food for Thought Books, and in Northampton at Broadside Bookshop. Copies may also be obtained from the MR office in South College, 413 545-2689.
An activist, poet and award-winning master of the short story, Paley died in 2007. She is best known for two story collections: The Little Disturbances of Man (1959) and Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1974). In recent years she was a frequent participant in the campus' Juniper Summer Writing Institute. Guest-edited by Dara Wier, Chris Bachelder, Noy Holland and Lisa Olstein, the issue includes manuscript pages, photos, previously unpublished interviews, previously uncollected fiction and essays and many remembrances of the iconic iconoclast Paley was and is.
Among the contributors are Grace Paley, Nora Paley, Lisa Olstein, Noy Holland, Jules Chametzky, Mark Doty, Chris Bachelder, Padget Powell, Terry Gross, Naomi Nye, John J. Clayton, Matthew Zapruder, Gillian Conoley, Faye S. Wolfe and Gordon Lish.
Massachusetts Review is available in Amherst at Hastings, Amherst Books and Food for Thought Books, and in Northampton at Broadside Bookshop. Copies may also be obtained from the MR office in South College, 413 545-2689.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
CELEBRATE GRACE'S BIRTHDAY
GRACE'S BIRTHDAY AT BARNARD
On Grace Paley’s birthday, we present a conversation exploring how imagination, truth-telling, and courageous action flow out of Paley’s life and work. A prolific writer, Paley’s fiction highlights the everyday struggles of women, what she calls “a history of everyday life.” In addition to her writing, Paley was also a committed activist, passionate about numerous issues, including women’s rights, the Vietnam War, nuclear non-proliferation, and most recently, the war in Iraq. Her death in 2007 was a great loss, but her work continues to inspire. Speakers, coming from a range of generations, will include politically engaged writers, artists, and activists in such causes as immigration rights, housing, human rights, gay and lesbian issues, foreclosure actions, anti-militarism and other important struggles. The speakers have all drawn inspiration from Paley’s work and life and demonstrate various affinities to the amazing woman, artist and thinker who described herself as a “combative pacifist and cooperative anarchist.” Speakers will include: Ujju Agarawal, member of the Center for Immigrant Families Collective; Yvette Christianse, poet and novelist; Ynestra King, ecofeminist activist and educator, and editor of Dangerous Intersections: Feminist Perspectives on Population, Environment, and Development; Nancy Kricorian, New York-based writer and activist,
author of Zabelle and Dreams of Bread and Fire, and coordinator of the New York City chapter of CODEPINK Women for Peace; and Amy Swerdlow, founding member of Women Strike for Peace and author of Women Strike for Peace: Traditional Motherhood and Radical Politics in the 1960s.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Obama's Greeter Wears Grace's Quote!
From Jodie Evans, via Huffington Post
Last week, a long-term CODEPINK supporter phoned to invite me to dinner with Obama. She said, "You went to a war zone to learn what the women of Afghanistan want to say to Obama -- I want to make sure he gets the message." She told me she spent $30,000 for two tickets to Obama's DNC fundraiser in San Francisco, and would gift one to me. After waiting for eight years to speak with the president of the United States about the wrongful invasion of Afghanistan, I jumped at the opportunity.
To prepare, I spent a few days transcribing conversations from our Afghanistan trip. I also reached out to the CODEPINK community to join the petition that Afghan members of Parliament, human rights activists and NGO leaders we met in Kabul signed:
President Obama: We, the women of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and the United States, implore you to refrain from sending more United States military forces to Afghanistan. We encourage you to work quickly for a political solution in Afghanistan that will lead to a reconciliation process in which women will fully participate and to a withdrawal of foreign military forces. Sending more military forces will only increase the violence and will do further harm to women and children. Instead, these funds should be redirected to improving the health, education and welfare of the Afghan people.
I wasn't sure that I would actually get into the dinner and we were careful to make the package very user and security friendly. It was filled with photos, quotes, thousands of signatures, a copy of Rethink Afghanistan and our 25-minute interview with Afghan MP Dr. Roshanak Wardak from Wardak Province, who is adamant that the U.S. should not send new troops and rather, must leave.
The front of my CODEPINK t-shirt read, "The most recognizable feature of HOPE is ACTION" (a quote from Grace Paley) and the back was stenciled with "End the Afghan Quagmire." This made getting in a bit difficult but our supporter continued to wave the $30,000 receipt as our ticket in. We arrived a few hours before Obama and were able to think through all the potential obstacles to being in the photo line and taking our own footage of the moment. This also gave us the opportunity to deliver the same packet of photos, quotes and signatures to Nancy Pelosi who was generous in her receipt of the message from the women.
The DNC staff was nervous and came over to make sure I knew I couldn't hand anything to the president, asked us to remove our CODEPINK buttons, and I couldn't take photos because there was an official photographer. Luckily the supporter who invited me to join her had a Flip cam to capture the meeting, and we uploaded it to a news truck immediately afterwards. The staff circled us until the last moment and we were pretty surrounded when it came time for me to move forward. I took strength from remembering that outside the hotel was basically surrounded by Bay Area activists clamoring for peace and justice
Expecting less than the minute I was warned I would have, I was in a hurry to say a lot and make that minute count. When it was my turn to meet with President Obama, I began by telling him I had just returned from Afghanistan and had brought back messages from the Afghan women who said they didn't want more troops. I passed along their message that the U.S. is supporting corruption and greed in Karzai: we would be more effective by changing how we operate in Afghanistan rather than adding more soldiers. I handed him the signatures from Americans through our online and paper petitions and from the women in Afghanistan and he told me to pass them on to his staff, which I did. But he did see the pile of signatures, marking the first time since the war began that we have been able to hand-deliver a peace petition to the president. After handing off the packet, I turned to him and said, "The women really want to be at the negotiating table." He responded with what about MY Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and we have a woman ambassador (whose name he failed to recall). I stopped him and said, "No -- the women of Afghanistan." His response was a revelatory, "Oh..." He then gave me a fatherly pat as he told me, "I am not going to be able to fix Afghanistan quickly," and I responded, " You won't be able to fix it at all. Only they can."
Our conversation, however brief, confirmed my fears about the insularity of the discussion about Afghanistan. When you are there, in the midst of everything, seeing the impact of our occupation and listening to the citizens brimming with ideas on fixing their war-ravaged country, you realize it is painfully clear to the people of Afghanistan that their ideas are falling on deaf ears. They are not part of the debate about the future of their country, and, heartbreakingly, they pay the price. So many of the Afghan women and men we met with asked me, incredulously, "Aren't you upset that your taxes have gone to nothing? That we are worse off than before?" The waste, corruption, greed, ineptitude, and our attempts to end violence with violence are deep wounds that Afghans and their country will continue to be forced to bear for decades to come.
One thing I learned from Obama is that he is making the decision about troops, and he is trying to learn as much as he can, and is going to take some time in making this VERY important decision. So, now is the time we who KNOW that more troops is WRONG to speak out, to deliver the message in the media, to the White House and in the streets. If one of the points of decision making is 'how will the voters respond?' he needs to know we won't be happy, nor will history.
Contact Obama today at http://www.codepinkalert.org/afghanistan for more info.
Follow Jodie Evans on Twitter: www.twitter.com/codepinkalert
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jodie-evans/delivering-a-message-to-o_b_326666.html
Last week, a long-term CODEPINK supporter phoned to invite me to dinner with Obama. She said, "You went to a war zone to learn what the women of Afghanistan want to say to Obama -- I want to make sure he gets the message." She told me she spent $30,000 for two tickets to Obama's DNC fundraiser in San Francisco, and would gift one to me. After waiting for eight years to speak with the president of the United States about the wrongful invasion of Afghanistan, I jumped at the opportunity.
To prepare, I spent a few days transcribing conversations from our Afghanistan trip. I also reached out to the CODEPINK community to join the petition that Afghan members of Parliament, human rights activists and NGO leaders we met in Kabul signed:
President Obama: We, the women of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and the United States, implore you to refrain from sending more United States military forces to Afghanistan. We encourage you to work quickly for a political solution in Afghanistan that will lead to a reconciliation process in which women will fully participate and to a withdrawal of foreign military forces. Sending more military forces will only increase the violence and will do further harm to women and children. Instead, these funds should be redirected to improving the health, education and welfare of the Afghan people.
I wasn't sure that I would actually get into the dinner and we were careful to make the package very user and security friendly. It was filled with photos, quotes, thousands of signatures, a copy of Rethink Afghanistan and our 25-minute interview with Afghan MP Dr. Roshanak Wardak from Wardak Province, who is adamant that the U.S. should not send new troops and rather, must leave.
The front of my CODEPINK t-shirt read, "The most recognizable feature of HOPE is ACTION" (a quote from Grace Paley) and the back was stenciled with "End the Afghan Quagmire." This made getting in a bit difficult but our supporter continued to wave the $30,000 receipt as our ticket in. We arrived a few hours before Obama and were able to think through all the potential obstacles to being in the photo line and taking our own footage of the moment. This also gave us the opportunity to deliver the same packet of photos, quotes and signatures to Nancy Pelosi who was generous in her receipt of the message from the women.
The DNC staff was nervous and came over to make sure I knew I couldn't hand anything to the president, asked us to remove our CODEPINK buttons, and I couldn't take photos because there was an official photographer. Luckily the supporter who invited me to join her had a Flip cam to capture the meeting, and we uploaded it to a news truck immediately afterwards. The staff circled us until the last moment and we were pretty surrounded when it came time for me to move forward. I took strength from remembering that outside the hotel was basically surrounded by Bay Area activists clamoring for peace and justice
Expecting less than the minute I was warned I would have, I was in a hurry to say a lot and make that minute count. When it was my turn to meet with President Obama, I began by telling him I had just returned from Afghanistan and had brought back messages from the Afghan women who said they didn't want more troops. I passed along their message that the U.S. is supporting corruption and greed in Karzai: we would be more effective by changing how we operate in Afghanistan rather than adding more soldiers. I handed him the signatures from Americans through our online and paper petitions and from the women in Afghanistan and he told me to pass them on to his staff, which I did. But he did see the pile of signatures, marking the first time since the war began that we have been able to hand-deliver a peace petition to the president. After handing off the packet, I turned to him and said, "The women really want to be at the negotiating table." He responded with what about MY Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and we have a woman ambassador (whose name he failed to recall). I stopped him and said, "No -- the women of Afghanistan." His response was a revelatory, "Oh..." He then gave me a fatherly pat as he told me, "I am not going to be able to fix Afghanistan quickly," and I responded, " You won't be able to fix it at all. Only they can."
Our conversation, however brief, confirmed my fears about the insularity of the discussion about Afghanistan. When you are there, in the midst of everything, seeing the impact of our occupation and listening to the citizens brimming with ideas on fixing their war-ravaged country, you realize it is painfully clear to the people of Afghanistan that their ideas are falling on deaf ears. They are not part of the debate about the future of their country, and, heartbreakingly, they pay the price. So many of the Afghan women and men we met with asked me, incredulously, "Aren't you upset that your taxes have gone to nothing? That we are worse off than before?" The waste, corruption, greed, ineptitude, and our attempts to end violence with violence are deep wounds that Afghans and their country will continue to be forced to bear for decades to come.
One thing I learned from Obama is that he is making the decision about troops, and he is trying to learn as much as he can, and is going to take some time in making this VERY important decision. So, now is the time we who KNOW that more troops is WRONG to speak out, to deliver the message in the media, to the White House and in the streets. If one of the points of decision making is 'how will the voters respond?' he needs to know we won't be happy, nor will history.
Contact Obama today at http://www.codepinkalert.org/afghanistan for more info.
Follow Jodie Evans on Twitter: www.twitter.com/codepinkalert
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jodie-evans/delivering-a-message-to-o_b_326666.html
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
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