This podcast was recorded by David Goodman of Ibis Radio: www.ibisradio.org

7:00pm reading and discussion with Aviva Chomsky

First Church in Jamaica Plain, Unitarian Universalist Parish Hall

With walls being built on our borders and heated debate this summer around the Immigration Reform Bill, our nation acts as if immigrants destroy the social, economic and cultural fabric of the United States. People hold firm beliefs that immigrants take American jobs, drain the American economy, contribute to poverty and inequality, destroy the social fabric, challenge American identity, and contribute to a host of social ills are openly discussed and debated at all levels of U.S. society.

However, according to Aviva Chomsky the current immigration debate is rife with myths, stereotypes and unquestioned assumptions about the history of immigration and how American society, economy and laws function. Chomsky argues that many opinions about immigration are based on a distorted and sanitized version of American history that is reinforced by textbooks, politicians and the media and rarely questioned. While most Americans believe the country was founded on the principles of equal rights and a generous immigration policy, Chomsky illustrates how a legacy of racial and ethnic discrimination has long-fueled social, economic and legal inequality in the United States.

This legacy of discrimination and the role of the U.S. in a system of global inequality, she argues, are the true undercurrents of today’s immigration debate. Chomsky argues that the historical structures that privileged white people in the U.S. continue to shape social realities and immigration policy today.

In addition to race, Chomsky asserts that today, immigration is structured by a complex global web that depends upon an economic system privileging few at the expense of many. As long as resources as unequally distributed in the world, she notes, people will look to escape regions deliberately kept poor and violent and seek freedom where the world’s wealth has been concentrated.

Chomsky’s new book, “They Take Our Jobs: And 20 Other Myths About Immigration” will be available for purchase.

Our Speaker

Aviva Chomsky is professor of history and coordinator of Latin American Studies at Salem State College. The daughter of noted activist and linguist Noam Chomsky, Aviva is the author of several books including Linked Labor Histories: New England and Columbia. She has been active in Latin American solidarity and immigrants’ rights issues from more than 25 years. Aviva Chomsky lives in Salem, MA.

Wednesday, September 19th, 2007

7:00pm Community Potluck (bring a dish to share!), 7:30pm discussion

First Church in Jamaica Plain, Unitarian Universalist Parish Hall

There many be nothing better than picking a ripe tomato out of your garden in late summer, or bighting into an apple right off the tree in the fall. As we observe the seasons shifting from the bounty of summer foods to those of the fall harvest, we may pause to consider what is special about the foods produced in Massachusetts.

“Local Food” is considered by many to be food that has been grown and/or produced within 100 miles of your home. Popular books such as Michael Pollen’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and Barbara Kingsolver’s “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle,” have sparked people’s curiosity about “eating locally.”

Enthusiasts claim that compared to their conventional counterparts, locally grown foods taste better, have higher nutritional content, and may be sprayed with fewer pesticides. Environmentalists argue that eating local foods from small-scale farms can diminish CO2 emissions from long-distance transportation, reduce soil erosion and support the local economy. Critics, however, say that locally produced foods can be prohibitively expensive, and the availability of many foods is only seasonal.

Please join the Jamaica Plain Forum for discussion on the benefits and challenges of eating locally grown and produced foods in the first of an on-going food-related series, “Food For Thought.” Bring a dish to share at 7pm, then listen at 7:30pm to our home-grown experts Mark Smith, Danielle Andrews, and David Warner.

We will learn about the environmental, cultural and economic arguments for eating locally, the joys and challenges of growing and selling food in the city, why some business people decide to sell local products, and the myriad of ways to access local foods.

About our Speakers

Danielle Andrews is the Boston Urban Grower for The Food Project, managing their 4 small urban farm plots in the Dudley neighborhood of Dorchester. She has worked in the sustainable agriculture field for the past 12 years, both on small family run farms and for non-profits running sustainable agriculture projects. She is a graduate of UCSC’s Agroecology program, and is particularly interested in small scale farming operations or market gardens.

Mark Smith is the Campaign Director for Farm Aid and Co-Founder of Brookwood Community Farm in the Blue Hills Reservation. Through Mark’s professional and volunteer work, he networks with many organizations to build a broader movement for family farm agriculture. He has worked on both a dairy farm and an apple farm, and with agricultural workers in El Salvador. In 2006 he helped to establish Brookwood Community Farm, a new organic community farm whose mission is to to reclaim and restore underutilized farmland for sustainable agricultural purposes, while connecting urban and suburban communitites to local food production. In his spare time Mark loves to grow vegetables with his wife and two children and dodge Boston drivers on his bike ride home. He organizes Boston’s annual Tour de Farms bicycle tour of local farms.

David Warner is the Co-founder of City Feed and Supply which opened for business in 2000. He was raised on a small farm in southern Missouri that eventually went out of business due to economic pressures and technical failures. Member of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies. Community gardener since 2000. Currently volunteering on the board for The Food Project. City Feed and Supply sources products locally whenever possible. Favorite foods: Foraged Wild Blueberries, River Rock Farm Beef, Cohicks Country Store Bacon, Tomatoes from our garden, Thomasville donuts.

Thank you to the co-sponsors for this event:

Brookwood Community Farm

Friday, January 4th at 7:00pm

First Church in Jamaica Plain, Unitarian Universalist

6 Eloit St, Jamaica Plain, MA

The Global Warming debate has come into the national spotlight in recent years with many politicians and celebraties taking it on as their core issue. We constantly hear about new scientific evidence leading to the same conclusion about the earth’s atmosphere: it’s getting warmer as a direct result of human activity. Pulitzer Prize winning Boston Globe journalist Ross Gelbspan has been watching and reporting on these climate change issues since 1984, and is considered an international authority on the issue. Ross visits the Jamaica Plain Forum to discuss new research findings, and share his long-sighted perspective.

Our Speaker

Ross Gelbspan was a reporter and editor for 31 years at The Philadelphia Bulletin, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe . At the Globe, he conceived, directed and edited a series of articles that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1984. Following his retirement from daily journalism, he published The Heat Is On: the Climate Crisis, the Cover-Up, the Prescription (Perseus Books, 1998). The book received national attention when President Clinton told the press he was reading it. In 2004, he published a second book, Boiling Point which received the lead review in the Sunday New York Times Book Review section. The review was written by Al Gore. Boiling Point was also rated one of the top science books of 2004 by Discover Magazine.

Recently, Gelbspan was one of several climate advocates featured in a new film, “Everything’s Cool,” that debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007. He has traveled and spoken extensively on the climate crisis, including appearances at The World Economic Forum, Renaissance Weekend, “Nightline,” “All Things Considered” and “Talk of the Nation,” “Now”, “Frontline,” and ABC World News Tonight. His articles on the climate issue have appeared in Harpers, The Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, The American Prospect and a number of other newspapers and magazines. Gelbspan has met privately with executives of Shell/EGYPT in Cairo, ExxonMobil and several other oil companies – and attended several rounds of international climate negotiations.

He maintains the website: www.heatisonline.org which currently receives about 200,000 discrete visits a year. Several years ago it was rated as the best climate website by the Pacific Institute.

This event is generously co-sponsored by

The Boston Climate Action Network

Friday, January 11th at 7:00pm

First Church in Jamaica Plain, Unitarian Universalist

6 Eliot St, Jamaica Plain, MA

Some consider stem cell research the Holy Grail of regenerative medicine. Others view the idea as morally wrong. But what would you do if your child became paralyzed from the waist down and you had access to the research that might allow them to walk again one day? These are questions our society continues to grapple with. Follow a respected neurologist into the unknown territory of stem cell research.

First Church in Jamaica Plain, Unitarian Universalist

6 Eliot St, Jamaica Plain, MA

From the 1860s to the 1920s, dozens of towns and counties across America violently expelled entire African American communities, forcing thousands of black families to flee their homes. A century later, these towns remain all white. BANISHED tells the story of three of these communities and their black descendants, who return to learn shocking histories. We will hold a discussion after the film.

First Church in Jamaica Plain, Unitarian Universalist

6 Eliot St. Jamaica Plain, MA

EVERYTHING’S COOL is a film about America finally “getting” global warming in the wake of the most dangerous chasm ever to emerge between scientific understanding and political action. While industry funded nay-sayers sing what just might be their swan song of pseudo- scientific deception, a group of global warming messengers are on a high stakes quest to find the iconic image, the magic language, the points of leverage that will finally create the political will to move the United States from its reliance on fossil fuels to the new clean energy economy - AND FAST.

Ross Gelbspan, film subject and Pulitzer Prize winning Climate-expert, returns to the Jamaica Plain Forum for a screening and discussion about this award-winning climate-change documentary.

Youth and families highly encouraged!

Listen to Ross’ recorded talk at the Jamaica Plain Forum on January 4th

Monday, April 30th at 7:00 and Monday, May 7th at 7:00 pm

First Church Jamaica Plain Unitarian Universalist Parish Hall

In preparation for the First Church Jamaica Plain Forum’s “Military Voices Against the War” event, come see “The Ground Truth” on

The First Church Jamaica Plain Forum presents “The Ground Truth,” a powerful documentary depicting the lives of returning American soldiers from military service in Iraq. With the terrible conflict in Iraq as the prelude, we follow soldiers through the unexpected battles that many face upon returning home: the personal demons of war, an uncomprehending public, isolation and an indifferent government. We watch as soldiers bear witness to the awful truth of war, learn to support each other, and call for all service members to return home from Iraq.

For more information, look to“The Ground Truth”: www.thegroundtruth.net

First Church of Jamaica Plain Unitarian Universalist, Sanctuary.

Featuring Nancy Lessin and Charley Richardson, co-founders, Military Families Speak Out and Liam Madden, co-founder, Appeal for Redress

The evening will feature JP residents Nancy Lessin and Charlie Richardson, co-founders of the national organization, Military Families Speak Out, and Liam Madden, co-founder of the Appeal for Redress. Our speakers will present a brief history and analysis of the current war in Iraq and describe their personal stake in the movement to oppose US military involvement. Discussion will focus on strategies to support existing troops while working to end the war.

Our Speakers

Nancy Lessin and Charley Richardson co-founded Military Families Speak Out (MSFO) in November of 2002 with the goal of building the voice of military families opposed to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. MFSO advocates an end to the war and U.S. military occupation of Iraq, bringing our troops home now and taking care of them when they get home. With over 3,300 member families across the U.S. and on bases in countries around the world, MFSO is the largest organization of military families to oppose a war in the history of the United States. Charley’s son/Nancy’s stepson served with the U.S. Marine Corps in Iraq in the spring of 2003.

Nancy and Charley live in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. Charley is the director of the Labor Extension Program at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell; Nancy works for the United Steelworkers/Tony Mazzocchi Center for Safety, Health and Environmental Education.

Liam Madden is a U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant, an Iraq War Veteran, and co-founder of the Appeal for Redress. Appeal for Redress provides means for individual service members to appeal to their Congressional Representative and U.S. Senators to urge an end to the U.S. military occupation. The first Appeal signatures were delivered to members of Congress on January 16, 2007 to coincide with at the time of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Appeal for Redress will continue to collect signatures until all active duty, Guard, and active reserve soldiers are out of Iraq. Currently, the Appeal for Redress has 1855 signers, and counting.

The wording of the Appeal for Redress is short and direct. It is patriotic and respectful in tone:

“As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq . Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for U.S. troops to come home.”

Members of the military have a legal right to communicate with their member of Congress. Attorneys and counselors experienced in military law are available to help service members who need assistance in countering any attempts to suppress this communication with members of Congress.

The Appeal for Redress is sponsored by active duty service members based in the Norfolk area and by a sponsoring committee of veterans and military family members. The sponsoring committee consists of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans For Peace, and Military Families Speak Out.

In building the Appeal for Redress, Liam has been a spokesperson for the over 1,800 service men and women who have signed the Appeal. Liam has been featured in the national and international media, including CBS’s 60 Minutes, MSNBC, CNN, National Public Radio, Newsweek, LA Times, and The Washington Post. The Army Times quoted Madden in an article covering the Appeal for Redress: “Not one more of my brothers should die for a lie. This is my generation’s call to conscience.”

Liam is from Bellows Falls, Vermont; during his four years of active duty he was based in Quantico, Virginia. He served on deployments to Iraq, Kuwait, Japan and several other areas. He is also a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Related Links:
Military Families Speak Out: www.mfso.org
Appeal for Redress: www.appealforredress.org
Iraq Veterans Against the War: www.ivaw.org
Veterans for Peace: www.veteransforpeace.org

First Church in Jamaica Plain Unitarian Universalist, Parish Hall.

Presenting Dr. Beth Roy; author of “Parent’s Lives, Children’s Needs: Working Together for Everyone’s

The evening will feature an interactive workshop for parents by Dr. Beth Roy, noted psychologist and author of the new book “Parents’ Lives, Children’s Needs: Working Together for Everyone’s Well-Being.” Appropriate for all types of co-parents, coupled, divorcing or single, Dr. Roy’s cooperative approach helps with challenges from infancy to adolescence. We will learn of Dr. Roy’s principles, work in small groups, and discuss our own questions around parenting.

Parenting is an exhilarating, exhausting, confounding, confirming activity. To put principles of social justice into practice with a screaming two-year-old or a rebelling teen tests the most committed of activists. Advice to parents more often focuses on how to control kids rather than how to bring children up in ways that exemplify the justice we crave in society. Dr. Roy’s interactive workshop offers concrete problem solving grounded in understandings of culture, community, and identity.

Our Speaker
Dr. Beth Roy is a long-time mediator, counselor, teacher and researcher who draws on her own parenting experiences as well as the wisdom of her many clients to guide parents in ways of acting that yield resources, growth, help and joy. Her work in multiculturalism, as a mediator and as a co-founder of the Practitioners Research and Scholarship Institute, laces through her approach to the pleasures and pains of parenting.

Dr. Roy teaches conflict resolution at the University of California, Berkley, where she received her doctorate in Sociology in 1991. Using lenses of storytelling and oral history, she researches issues in social conflict. Her earlier books include Some Trouble with Cows; Making Sense of Social Conflict and Bitters in the Honey: Tales of Hope and Disappointment across the Divides of Race and Time. She has parented two sons, both living rich and rewarding lives.

Related Links:

Personhood Press: www.personhoodpress.com

Parents Lives, Children’s Needs: http://parentslives.blogspot.com

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, Grassroots International and Spontaneous Celebrations invite you to an evening with physician, author, and activist

Alice Rothchild, author of Broken Promises, Broken Dreams Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Resilience

“Broken Promises, Broken Dreams” probes beyond the geopolitical realities confronting Israelis and Palestinians. It is a soul searching, painfully honest examination of ordinary people bonded in a tragic embrace. Ultimately this powerful book is about healing festering wounds and narrowing irreconcilable differences. It deserves the widest readership.”
- Bernard Lown, MD, Professor emeritus Harvard School of Public
Health, Co-recipient Nobel Peace Prize

Alice Rothchild takes us on an intimate journey through the complicated historical legacy of Israel and Palestine. Through her work with Israeli and Palestinian medical relief agencies, she brings to life the voices of people mutually entwined in conflict and invites us to engage in a different kind of conversation about Israel and Palestine, one rooted in Jewish humanism, grounded in empathy and forgiveness, and coupled with an appreciation of the urgent need for political action.

Spontaneous Celebrations
45 Danforth St., Jamaica Plain

Co-Sponsorsed by: Center for New Words, Jamaica Plain Forum and Jewish Voice for Peace, Boston

This is a free event. Middle Eastern food will be available for purchase.

For more information contact Daniel Moss at Grassroots International (617) 524-1400 dmoss@grassrootsonline.org www.grassrootsonline.org

First Church in Jamaica Plain Unitarian Universalist, Parish Hall.

Ellen Bravo Takes on the Big Boys

Nancy Pelosi’s election to Speaker of the House, Hillary Clinton’s realistic shot at the presidency, and Drew Gilpin Faust’s appointment as president of Harvard are being celebrated as breakthroughs for all women.

But are the barriers to women’s workplace success really disappearing? Ellen Bravo visits the Jamaica Plain Forum at First Church in Jamaica Plain, Unitarian Universalist to address this issue. In her new book, “,” Bravo spotlights the everyday lives of working women, especially working mothers — and finds that the times have not changed as much as we may think.

The former director of 9to5, National Association of Working Women, Ellen Bravo deflates the myths cooked up by the Big Boys, “those who have a real stake in maintaining gender discrimination.” Bravo calls for a new kind of feminism, one that aims not just at smashing the glass ceiling, but redesigning the building, from the ground up.

Ellen Bravo draws on over 30 years of experience to explain the real impetus behind welfare reform, the low-down on why women earn so little money (and what to do about it), and the advice given by management consultants for keeping a women’s group out of the office.

Bravo deconstructs dominant rhetoric to reveal stark baselines: the average female worker loses half a million dollars over her lifetime because of pay inequalities. Cameroon, Brazil and India offer better maternity leave than the United States. The percentage of female executives is down, and the percentage of children in poverty has gone back up.

Additionally, women are experiencing new forms of backlash: we’re told that women aren’t in the best jobs because they don’t want to be there, they’d rather be home with their kids – “unless they are poor, in which case they had better work at whatever job is available regardless of the hours.”

In “Taking on the Big Boys” Ellen Bravo draws a road map to a feminist future with the framing and organizing tips on how to get there. Its compelling reportage and powerful prescriptions for change clearly draw upon Ellen Bravo’s inspiring experiences in more than two decades at 9to5, National Association of Working Women.

Our Speaker:

Ellen Bravo is a long-time activist for working women. She began working for 9to5, National Association of Working Women in 1982, when she helped found the Milwaukee chapter, and served until 2004 as its national director. Currently, Ellen teaches Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, including masters level classes on Family-Friendly Workplaces and on Sexual Harassment, and serves as a consultant to 9to5. She coordinates the Multi-State Working Families Consortium, a network of state coalitions working for family-flexible policies.

Ellen is author of the new book “Taking on the Big Boys: Or Why Feminism is Good for Families, Business and the Nation” Ellen also wrote “The Job/Family Challenge: A 9to5 Guide Not for Women Only” and co-authored the book with Ellen Cassedy “The 9to5 Guide to Combating Sexual Harassment.” She has also written numerous articles and reports, including “Quality Part-Time Options in Wisconsin,” funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and an article in the March 2007 special issue of the American Prospect. Ellen is frequently interviewed by the media and is a leading spokeswoman on working women’s issues. A business editor once described her talks as “moving, witty and sometimes bawdy.”

Ellen has served on several state and federal commissions, including the bi-partisan Commission on Leave appointed by Congress to study the impact of the Family and Medical Leave Act. She co-chaired the Economic Sufficiency Task Force of the Wisconsin Women = Prosperity project led by Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton and serves as treasurer for the campaign of Congresswoman Gwendolynne Moore. She is a member of several boards and committees, including the Working for Good Jobs in America Fund, the Work-Life Law Advisory Committee, the Ms. Foundation for Women Advisory Committee, and the Grants Advisory Committee of the Milwaukee Women’s Fund. Among her commendations is a Woman of Vision award from the Ms. Foundation. Ellen lives in Milwaukee with her husband; they have two adult sons.

Related Links:

Ellen Bravo’s website: www.ellenbravo.com

9to5, National Association of Working Women: www.9to5.org

Feminist Press, publisher of “Big Boys”: www.feministpress.org

This event is co-sponsored by: Feminist Press at CUNY, Greater Boston Legal Serives, Massachusetts Paid Leave Coalition, Boston Women’s Network

First Church of Jamaica Plain Unitarian Universalist, Parish Hall.

Presenting Stacy Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, author of “Big Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s Independent Businesses ”

We are blessed with specialty restaurants and independent food markets, gift shops, hardware stores, local relaters, medical professionals, clothing boutiques, sporting goods, local banks, bakeries, yoga studios, owner-run bookstores, bicycle shops, and so on. While we celebrate these local businesses for making Jamaica Plain so special, we may wonder why the main streets of other towns are suffering. How can we preserve what we have?

A shopping trip down Center Street or Washington Street in Jamaica Plain is a unique experience thanks to the variety of independent businesses. Author Stacy Mitchell brings her insight and expertise to the Jamaica Plain Forum to discuss the disruption of the local business community by mega-box retailers, and what Americans can do it save it.

Large retail chains have become the most powerful corporations in America and are rapidly transforming our economy, communities, and landscape. In her deft and revealing book “Big Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s independent Businesses,” Stacy Mitchell illustrates how mega-retailers are fueling many of our most pressing problems, from the shrinking middle class to rising water pollution and diminished civic engagement.

Mitchell’s investigation takes us from the suburbs of Cleveland to a fruit farm in California, the stockroom of an Oregon Wal-Mart, and a Pennsylvania town’s Main Street. She uncovers the shocking role government policy has played in the expansion of mega-retailers and builds a compelling case that communities composed of many small businesses are healthier and more prosperous than those dominated by large chains.

More than a critique, Big-Box Swindle draws on real life to show how some communities are successfully countering the spread of mega-retailers and rebuilding their local economies. Mitchell describes innovative approaches—from cutting edge land-use policies to small-business initiatives—that together provide a detailed road map to a more prosperous and sustainable future.

Our Speaker

Stacy Mitchell is a senior researcher with the nonprofit Institute for Local Self-Reliance and has served as an advisor to communities across the country on strategies to strengthen locally owned businesses.

Mitchell regularly contributes articles and commentaries to magazines and newspapers, and produces an acclaimed monthly email newsletter, The Hometown Advantage Bulletin. She chairs the American Independent Business Alliance and is a co-founder of Portland Buy Local. She lives in Portland, Maine.

Related Links:

Big-Box Swindle

www.bigboxswindle.com
Named one of the top ten books of 2006 by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer!

Big Box Tool Kit
www.bigboxtoolkit.com

Hometown Advantage
www.hometownadvantage.org

Friday, July 27th, 7:00pm

First Church of Jamaica Plain Unitarian Universalist, Parish Hall

Presenting Sanho Tree, Fellow at Institute for Policy Studies and Director of the Drug Policy Project.

Our jails are filled with nonviolent drug offenders and our militarized approach to combating drugs overseas is destroying indigenous economies and sewing seeds of antagonism toward the US. Our global export on the War on Drugs from Colombia to Afghanistan has resulted in militarized aid to repressive regimes, punished the poor, and provided unintended price supports to traffickers through the economics of prohibition – all in the name of fighting so-called “narco-terrorism”.

It is no secret that current policy ignores the effects of racism and poverty that helps drive the illicit drug economy. In the US, these roots include decaying school systems, lack of inner city and rural jobs, shortage of affordable housing, lack of health care, and social alienation. International challenges include exportation of the “War on Drugs” to Colombia and Afghanistan, “counternarcotics” aid to repressive regimes, and environmental destruction caused by our eradication and fumigation policies.

Why have these policies not succeeded despite hundreds of billions of dollars having been thrown at the problem? Are there alternatives to the current drug war quagmire? Sanho Tree, Director of the Drug Policy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, will dissect the politics behind these failed policies and suggest avenues for fundamental reform. Mr. Tree advocates for systemic reform by reaching out to non-traditional allies and employing innovative tactics to promote a sustainable, constitutional, and humane drug control policy. He encourages replacing the punitive and coercive “social control” model of drug policy with a public health and economic development model.

About our Speaker
Sanho Tree is an international expert on drug policy matters. He is a Fellow and Director of the Drug Policy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC. He has been featured in the ABC News/John Stossel documentary on the drug war which aired in July 2002 and has also appeared on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. Mr. Tree is a former military and diplomatic historian; he has collaborated in the past with Dr. Gar Alperovitz on The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb and the Architecture of an American Myth (Knopf, 1995). From 1996-97, he assisted entertainer Harry Belafonte and continues to work as an occasional consultant for him on international issues. He was also associate editor of CovertAction Quarterly, an award-winning magazine of investigative journalism. In the late 1980s he worked at the International Human Rights Law Group. Currently, he serves on the boards of Witness for Peace and the Andean Information Network.

First Church in Jamaica Plain, Unitarian Universalist, Sanctuary

For the last 15 months, a powerful popular movement in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca has challenged the corrupt and repressive government of PRI Governor Ulises Ruiz. Journalist Nancy Davies, a resident of Oaxaca, has covered the rebellion and the rise of the popular assembly movement.

Nancy will be sharing stories from the front lines in her only U.S. appearance this year.

Nancy’s new book, The People Decide: Oaxaca’s Popular Assembly, will be available for purchase.The People Decide: Oaxaca’s Popular Assembly

First Church in Jamaica Plain, Unitarian Universalist, Parish Hall

Want to find out how democracy really works? Then head to China. Three eight-year-old students—a charismatic challenger, a ruthless incumbent, and a thoughtful outsider—all campaign for the coveted position of class monitor in a third grade classroom in Wuhan, China. Hot debates. Backstabbing. Alliances. Move over Little League, real sport is coming, and it’s called democracy.

First Church in Jamaica Plain, Unitarian Universalist, Parish Hall

How many beauty contestants can say “I competed in a pageant where I butchered a sheep?” Crystal Frazier can. Follow this introverted, self-proclaimed tomboy as she makes bread, weaves a rug, sweats her way through a language quiz—and that’s just the first day—on her quest to be the new MISS NAVAJO.

First Church in Jamaica Plain, Unitarian Universalist Sanctuary (6 Eliot Street)

In 2006 an energized electorate seemed poised to reassert ownership of the democratic process. Since the elections, however, polls show that citizens confidence in government has resumed its downward trend. Far from waning, disillusion and disengagement continue to spread.

Why is this happening, and how can we stop it? Frances Moore Lappe, author of sixteen books, including the 1971 three-million-copy bestseller, Diet for a Small Planet, has some suggestions.

Distilling decades of experience, Lappe begins from the simple notion that we create our world according to our ideas. From this understanding, she suggests that there is a central fault with America’s prevailing model of democracy: while democracy seeks to spread power broadly, the wealth-driven market concentrates power. This contradiction lies at the heart of what the author calls “thin democracy.”

Lappe reveals an emerging trend that stands in marked contrast to “thin democracy.” She explores developments from clean election initiatives to fair trade economies, from evolving standards of corporate accountability to emerging forms of citizen involvement. These are not isolated victories, Lappe submits, but signs of a burgeoning new worldview that empowers individuals and emphasizes community. She calls this new alternative “living democracy” and challenges us all to find entry points for involvement with this historical breakthrough.

Frances Moore Lappe will speak on Thursday, November 1 at 7pm at the Jamaica Plain Forum. The event will be at First Church in Jamaica Plain, Unitarian Universalist at 6 Eliot Street at the Monument.

France Moore Lappe’s books, including the new “Getting A Grip: Clarity, Creativity and Courage in a World Gone Mad,” will be available for purchase.

Our Speaker
Frances Moore Lappe is the author of sixteen books, beginning with the 1971 three-million-copy bestseller, Diet for a Small Planet, which awakened a whole generation to the human-made causes of hunger and the significance of our everyday choices. Her newest book, “Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity, & Courage in a World Gone Mad”, was released this month.

Her other recent works include the 2006 “Democracy’s Edge: Choosing to Save our Country by Bringing Democracy to Life” (Wiley/Jossey-Bass) and, in 2004, “You Have the Power: Choosing Courage in a Culture of Fear” (Tarcher/Penguin), co-authored with Jeffrey Perkins.

In 2002, Lappe and her daughter Anna Lappe published the 30th anniversary sequel to Diet, entitled “Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet” (Tarcher/Penquin). In it, the two Lappes explore answers to our planet’s most urgent questions of sustainability and democracy.

Lappe and her daughter are co-founders of the Cambridge-based Small Planet Institute and the Small Planet Fund, which channels resources to democratic social movements worldwide. In addition, Lappe is co-founder of two other national organizations; Food and Development Policy (Food First) and the Center for Living Democracy.

First Church in Jamaica Plain, Unitarian Universalist Parish Hall

6 Eliot St. (Across from the Monument)

Please come join us for the screening of Micheal Moore’s film “SiCKO,” followed by a discussion led by members of the Boston Liberation Health Group. We will discuss bill HR 676, the Expand and Improve Medicare For All Act.

This event is co-sponsored by The Boston Health Liberation Group, MataHari: Eye of the Day, Simmons Urban Leadership Program & Simmons Institute for Leadership and Change.

Can’t make it on the 8th? Then come to the next screening at Simmons College on Tuesday, Nov. 13th 7:00pm

Simmons College Main Campus Building, Room C103, 300 The Fenway

First Church in Jamaica Plain, Unitarian Universalist, Sanctuary

6 Eliot St. (Across from the Monument)

Since her first visit to southern Sudan in 2001, Rev. Gloria White-Hammond, co-pastor of Jamaica Plain’s Bethel AME Church, knew that she wanted to stand in solidarity with the women of that country. She had served as a medical missionary during several trips to Botswana, Cote d’Ivore, and South Africa, but it was on delegation of several other African-American ministers to Sudan that, Rev. White-Hammond participated in the liberation of over 6,700 enslaved women and children. Bearing witness to the untenable realities of slavery taking place in the 21st century changed her life forever.

Upon her return to Boston, she co-founded My Sister’s Keeper, a humanitarian women’s group that partners with women in Sudan and their efforts toward reconciliation and reconstruction of their communities. Since it’s inception in 2002, My Sister’s Keeper has listen closely to the concerns and opinions of the Sudanese women. It has assisted in community-initiated economic development, healthcare and education projects in Gogrial County, Sudan. Furthermore, by mobilizing resources in the United States on their behalf, My Sister’s Keeper works to lift up the plight of Sudanese women to the World.

This event will be in honor of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (Nov. 25th), World AIDS Day (Dec. 1st), and Human Rights Day (Dec. 10).

First Church in Jamaica Plain, Unitarian Universalist, Parish Hall

Whoever said, “One person can make a difference” must have been talking about Ralph Nader. For over forty years Nader has taken on big business and corporate America all in the name of the people. But lately this consumer advocate’s halo has been a bit tarnished. Is he a hero? A villain? A principled man? Or an egomaniac? You decide.

In a world where we increasingly see marketing in every nook and cranny, it is not surprising that there are advertisements targeted to children. However, what is surprising is the extent and reach of that marketing. For example, current statistics show us that children see more than 40,000 commercials on television, contributing to a $15 billion dollar industry. Susan Linn, child psychotherapist and author, is leading the pack in reducing the harmful effects of exploitative marketing on children.

Join Susan at the Jamaica Plain Forum as she reveals the impact that over-marketing has on the development and creativity of our children. By interweaving real-life stories of marketing to children, child development theory, the latest research, and what marketing experts themselves say about their work, Susan reveals the magnitude of this problem and shows what can be done about it.

Our Speakers

Susan Linn is Associate Director of the Media Center at the Judge Baker Children’s Center and an Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She has written extensively about the effects of media and commercial marketing on children. Her articles have appeared in the Boston Globe, the Christian Science Monitor, the Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post. Her commentaries can be heard on NPR’s Marketplace.

Dr. Linn is a co-founder of the national coalition Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. In 2000 she was appointed to the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on Advertising to Children. She has been featured on Sixty Minutes, Now with Bill Moyers, World News Tonight, Dateline, and in the acclaimed film, The Corporation. In 2006 she received the American Psychological Association’s Presidential Citation for her work on behalf of children.

Dr. Linn is the author of the books “Consuming Kids: Protecting Our Children From the Onslaught of Advertising and Marketing”. Her newest book, “The Case for Make Believe: Saving Play in a Commercialized World” is due out in April, 2008 from New Press.

Many thanks to the co-sponsors for this event

Please attend our re-scheduled screening of this film at the Boston Public Library on

Thursday, February 28th, 6-8pm

Rabb Lecture Hall, Boston Public Library,
700 Boylston Street, Copley Square, Boston, MA 02116

She’s already overcome tremendous obstacles to become the first woman ever elected president in Africa—now all she has to do is turn around Liberia — a country devastated by unemployment, debt, corruption, and the legacy of civil war. Follow Ellen Sirleaf Johnson through her first year in office as she faces angry mobs, ambitious political rivals, and high-ranking members of the international community. Her story is inspiring a new generation of leaders in Africa and around the world.

Can’t make this screening? Catch it on WGBH stations:

Wednesday, March 19, 8 - 9pm, WGBH WORLD

Sunday, March 23, 9 - 10pm, WGBX, Chanel 44

Due to inclement weather, this event is being postponed.
Please check this website for further updates, or join our email list for the most current information.

Catch it on WGBH stations:

Wednesday, March 19, 8 - 9pm, WGBH WORLD

Sunday, March 23, 9 - 10pm, WGBX, Chanel 44

She’s already overcome tremendous obstacles to become the first woman ever elected president in Africa—now all she has to do is turn around Liberia — a country devastated by unemployment, debt, corruption, and the legacy of civil war. Follow Ellen Sirleaf Johnson through her first year in office as she faces angry mobs, ambitious political rivals, and high-ranking members of the international community. Her story is inspiring a new generation of leaders in Africa and around the world.

Our film will be followed by an informal discussion. Free popcorn provided

Thanks to the resounding response from parents, our childcare slots available for this screening are now full.  Join our email list to stay updated on future events with childcare!

Join us for this potluck (at 6:30), documentary screening (at 7:30), and discussion with “King Corn” subject Ian Cheney.

Have you been wondering why Americans are so overweight? Or why certain foods are so cheap? Have you heard our average life expectancy is headed down, not up? Two college friends set out with director Aaron Woolf in search of answers to these questions and were surprised by what they discovered. You will be too as this film follows a crop of corn from seed to your dinner plate.

Want to contribute to the potluck?

We had a wonderfully successful potluck event at the JP Forum in October, and look forward to examining our food system while tasting the epicurean talents of Jamaica Plain residents!

Please bring a dish that you would like to share with the group. We will provide the plates, cups, utensils and napkins!

If you are looking for a challenge, try to make a dish without using any corn products!

It was the first hate-based murder in the wake of September 11, 2001–one of thousands of reported and unreported hate crimes in the years that followed. The victim: a turbaned Sikh man in Mesa, Arizona, where his family had sought religious freedom, searching for the American Dream. Meet a family still determined to believe in that dream, even as the nightmare continues for many religious and ethnic minorities in a climate of xenophobia and fear.

“The global water crisis is one of the most serious issues of our time. Maude Barlow is an outstanding leader who has pioneered people’s and nature’s right to water for the last decade. Blue Covenant will inspire civil society movements around the world.” –Vandana Shiva, physicist, ecologist, activist, editor, and author of Biopiracy and Stolen Harvest

The “water wars” are on the horizon. Just like oil today. We suffer a moral predicament as big corporations reap windfall profits from privatizing water while billions go thirsty. Bottled water today sells for many times more per gallon than gasoline as public water systems decay. Instead of our policy makers pressing for conservation, corporations are set to make billions on energy-intensive technologies to desalinate and clean sewage water and sell it back to consumers.

But who owns our water in the first place? How can we protect this common resource for all, now and forever?

There is no one better to address this issue than Canadian anti-corporate activist, and world renowned expert on water rights, Maude Barlow. She will discuss how protecting our water sources from corporate interests is as crucial as curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, she will lay out the actions that we as global citizens must take to secure a water-just world — a “blue covenant” for all.

Read Maude’s latest article on Alternet.com

About Our Speaker

Maude Barlow is the national chairperson of The Council of Canadians, Canada’s largest citizens’ advocacy organization with over 100,000 members and 70 chapters across Canada. Maude Barlow is also the co-founder of the Blue Planet Project which works to stop commodification of the world’s water.

Maude Barlow began her career as a high-profile leader of Canada’s Women’s Movement, eventually becoming an advisor on women’s issue to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. In 1985 she helped to found the Council of Canadians and continues to this day to act as its national chairperson.

Most of Maude’s work focuses on the regional and global trade agenda, with water being an issue of equal special concern. Working with Tom Clarke, Maude has been influential in defeating the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), and campaigning against the World Trade Organization’s free-trade agenda, especially at Seattle (1999) and Cancun (2003).

Maude serves on the boards of the International Forum on Globalization and Food and Water Watch and is a councilor with the Hamburg-based World Future Council. In addition to being nominated for the “1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005″ she is a recipient of the “2005/2006 Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship” and the “2005 Right Livelihood Award”. She is the best selling author or co-author of 16 books, including Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop Corporate Theft of the World’s Water (with Tony Clarke), now published in 47 countries.

This event co-hosted by:

Many thanks to the co-sponsors of this event:

Boston Climate Action Network (BCAN) Massachusetts Global Action

Clean Water Action - Massachusetts

Please note that the day and time of this event is different than other Jamaica Plain Forum Events

Saturday, March 29th from 1:00-5:00pm

If you were not able to RSVP for this event, please come!  We still have plenty of space for you!

Scientists overwhelmingly agree that human activity is dangerously warming the earth. Heat is being trapped in a layer of “greenhouse gases,” including carbon dioxide, produced by the fossil fuels we use to drive our cars and heat our homes.

We also know that global warming is a dangerous reality, one that will increasingly touch our lives, those of our children and grandchildren, and many of the poorest people on our planet. Serious consequences can already be seen in the form of floods, heat waves, more violent storms and the rise of sea levels.

But do you know that the typical U.S. household generates 55,000 pounds of CO2 annually… compared to only 27,000 pounds in Germany and a mere 15,000 pounds in Sweden?

There are many ways that we can lower our “carbon footprint.” And guess what…it’s easier when we all do it together. Come find out how!

We invite you to join us for an exciting “Global Warming Café” with the Boston Climate Action Network (BostonCAN) and the Jamaica Plain Forum. You will spend an afternoon interacting with a broad cross-section of friends and neighbors in frank and open conversations about Global Warming. We reflect deeply on what it means to each of us, individually and as a community by exchanging views, feelings and ideas. We will also learn about a program, Low Carbon Diet, to help us lower our personal carbon footprints and how to spread the carbon-cutting trend within increasingly greater circles of influence in our communities.

Make this year a turning point for climate action in your community–join us in Jamaica Plain for this Global Warming Café!

Save the date!
Saturday, May 17, 2008, English High School

The Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation invites you to join us in a day speakers, workshops, and films exploring what the Jamaica Plain community currently looks like, and what kind of a future we envision for our neighborhood.

JAMAICA PLAIN IS AT A CRITICAL JUNCTURE. Across the country, urban revitalization has typically conformed to the following scenario: a neighborhood starts out as run-down and affordable, becomes funky and diverse, and emerges as upscale and exclusive. Can Jamaica Plain be different? Can we change the end of the story? Many groups and dedicated individuals can share credit for the remarkable transformation of Jamaica Plain since the 1970s. Now we need to learn and work together to stabilize our community as equitable and inclusive. With the Neighborhood Summit, we want to promote dialogue among residents from diverse backgrounds, learn from each other and from the “experts,” and inspire action to protect and improve our unique community.

JAMAICA PLAIN SE ENCUENTRA EN UN MOMENTO CRITICO. A traves de todo el pais, la revitalizacion urbana se ha conformado de manera caracteristica en el siguiente escenario: un vecindario empieza desmantelado y barato, se convierte en “funky” y diverso, y emerge como exclusivo. ¿Puede Jamaica Plain ser diferente? ¿Podemos cambiar el final de la historia? El JPNDC y muchos otros grupos y personas dedicadaspueden compartir el credito por la increible transformacion que Jamaica Plain ha experimentado desde los anos ‘70. Ahora tenemos que aprender y trabajar juntos para estabilizar nuestra comunidad como equitativa y estable. Con la Reunion Cumbre, queremos promover el dialogo entre residentes de diversas formas de vida, aprender el uno del otro y de los “expertos,” e inspirar la accion para proteger y mejorar nuestra comunidad unica.

Check back for more information, or visit the JPNDC website.

“This is storytelling at the height of its powers: the ache of wrongs not yet made right, the fierce attendance of history made as real as rain, as true as this minute. Hillary Jordan writes with the force of a Delta storm.”
– Barbara Kingsolver

Please join us for an intimate reading with Hillary Jordan, 2006 recipient of the Bellwether Prize for Social Change Literature. The author will be available to sign books, provided by Rhythm & Muse.

Now available at Rhythm & Muse Bookstore in Jamaica Plain

MUDBOUND is a stunning debut novel told in the voices of six distinct characters.
A distinctly Southern tragedy on the grandest scale, MUDBOUND reveals what it was like for WWII soldiers—both black and white—to return to an unchanged South. Compulsively readable and rife with tension, MUDBOUND is about heroism and loyalty; family rivalry; and the myriad forms of prejudice, both subtle and brutal.

About the author

Hillary Jordan grew up in Dallas, Texas and Muskogee, Oklahoma. She received her BA in English and Political Science from Wellesley College and spent fifteen years working as an advertising copywriter before starting to write fiction. She got her MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University.

Books provided by:

Thursday, May 1st:  6:00pm - reception, 6:30-8:30 - screening

English High School Community Center, 144 McBride St., Jamaica Plain
Refreshments will be served.

“Unnatural Causes” is a documentary series that explores the racial and social inequalities in health. Please come to a special Jamaica Plain neighborhood viewing of the episode “Place Matters.” English-to-Spanish translation available.

Learn more about “Unnatural Causes” here

Bill McKibben, author, educator, environmentalist

Sunday, June 8th, 7:00pm

Read Bill’s most recent article on Alternet.org

As a part of our continuing series on climate-change, join the Jamaica Plain Forum for a conversation with Step-It-Up! global warming activist, Bill McKibben after the Bikes Not Bombs Bike-A-Thon and 1st annual Green Roots Festival.

Bill McKibben is an environmentalist and writer who frequently writes about global warming, alternative energy, and the risks associated with human genetic engineering. Well known for his lead role in the Step-It-Up campaign, Bill comes to the Jamaica Plain Forum to share his experiences organizing mass-climate action from the ground to Capitol Hill.

Bill has written a dozen books, including The End of Nature and Deep Economy: the Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future. In March 2008 The Bill McKibben Reader, a collection of 44 essays on various topics, was published.

He is a frequent contributor to various magazines including The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Orion Magazine, Mother Jones, The New York Review of Books, Granta, Rolling Stone, and Outside. He is also a board member and contributor to Grist Magazine.

In late summer 2006, Bill helped lead a five-day walk across Vermont to demand action on global warming. Beginning in January 2007 he founded stepitup07.org to demand that Congress enact curbs on carbon emissions that would cut global warming pollution 80 percent by 2050. With six college students, he organized 1,400 global warming demonstrations across all 50 states. Step It Up 2007 has been described as the largest day of protest about climate change in the nation’s history. A guide to help people initiate environmental activism in their community coming out of the Step It Up 2007 experience entitled Fight Global Warming Now was published in October 2007.

Rhythm and Muse will have Bill’s books available for purchase at the event. To purchase books beforehand, please visit Rhythm and Muse at 470 Center St. in Jamaica Plain.

Many Thanks to the Co-Sponsors of this event!
Boston Climate Action Network (BCAN)

Born in a Thai refugee camp on Cambodian New Year, filmmaker Socheata Poeuv grew up in the United States never knowing that her family had survived the Khmer Rouge genocide. In NEW YEAR BABY, she embarks on a journey to Cambodia in search of the truth and why her family’s history had been buried in secrecy for so long.

After the screening, we will have a community discussion facilitated by Kunthary Thai-Johnson, director of the pre-collegiate program of 500+ students from the seven Boston Public High Schools at UMass Boston.

Kunthary’s bio is below:
I am one of nine children born in Cambodia during the war and live through the Khmer Rouge Regime. When I was seven years old, my family was one of the thousands who secretly fled Cambodia in order to escape the Khmer Rouge. We spent about five years moving from one refugee camp to the next, while waiting for a country of the Western world to take us in. Finally, a Lutheran Church in the small town of Ephrata, Pennsylvania sponsored us in 1984. I was 13 year old when we arrived in the US and did not know a word of English, nor was I exposed to American traditions and cultures. I had to learn English for my own survival as well as that of my family.

Many Thanks to the CoSponsors of this Event

Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now! visits the Jamaica Plain Forum on Friday, May 16th at 7:00pmÂ

This event is a Fundraiser for the Jamaica Plain Forum. Tickets are $5.00

Doors open at 6pm, event begins at 7pm. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis

Tickets are on sale at Rhythm and Muse (470 Center St. in Jamaica Plain). Any unsold tickets will be available at the door.  Cash or Check please!

Where are the millions marching in the streets to defend human rights, civil liberties, and racial justice? Where is the mass revulsion against the killing and torture being carried out in our name? Where are the environmentalists? Where is the peace movement?

The answer: They are everywhere.

The award-winning sister-brother team of Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, and investigative journalist David Goodman traveled the country to detail the ways in which grassroots activists have taken politics out of the hands of politicians. Standing Up to the Madness tells the stories of everyday citizens who have challenged the government and prevailed.

Standing Up to the Madness not only is a timely, inspiring, and even revolutionary look at who wields the greatest power in America–everyday people who take a chance and stand up for what they believe in–but also offers advice on what you can do to help.

As the Bush administration has waged war abroad and at home, it has catalyzed a cast groundswell of political action. From African-American residents of deluged New Orleans who are fighting racism and City Hall to regain their homes; to four Connecticut librarians who refused to spy on their patrons, challenged the US PATRIOT Act, and won; to a group of high school students who were barred from performing a play they wrote in the Iraq War based on letters for soldiers; to the first U.S. Army officer to publicly refuse orders to deploy to Iraq, charging that his duty as an officer is to refuse to fight in an illegal and immoral war, Standing Up to the Madness profiles citizens rising to extraordinary challenges. And, in the process, they are changing the way that politics is done, both now and in the future.

In communities around the United States, courageous individuals have taken leaps of faith to stop the madness. They could only hope that if they led, others would follow. This is how movements are born. What begins as one, eventually becomes many. In that tradition, the authors have included the ways in which any individual can take action and effect change.

“14 Hands, 7 Toolbelts, and 1 New Orleans Family: A Report Back from Post-Katrina Louisiana”

Did you know that, since Hurricane Katrina, Boston-area building trades people have made several trips to rewire and replumb flood-damaged homes on the Gulf coast?

In fact, a crew of seven local electricians, plumbers, and carpenters just returned from New Orleans’ lower ninth ward. Come hear their stories and watch a multi-media presentation of storm-ravaged neighborhoods, recovery efforts, and the faces of marginalized minority residents who are fiercely determined to rebuild their community.

Come hear from electricians Peg Preble and Rick Yoder, plumbers Maura Russell and Barbara Taggart, general contractor Jeff Murray, carpentry and electrical helpers Louise Johnson of SEIU and her brother Eric Johnson of Red Sun Press.

We regret to inform you that this event has been POSTPONED and will not occur on June 28th.

Dear Jamaica Plain,

Thank you all so much for such a wonderful first year of the Jamaica Plain Forum! What started out as a few community conversations on current social issues has turned into a well-loved staple of the Jamaica Plain neighborhood.

This season our conversations ranged from parenting, to the local food movement, to genocide in Darfur, to Global Warming. Big-name speakers included Ross Gelbspan, Frances Moore-Lappe, Bill McKibben, Maude Barlow and Amy Goodman; big-hearted presentations included local community members sharing tips to decrease home carbon emissions, and volunteering to rebuild homes in New Orleans. Also, we featured new award-winning documentaries including SiCKO, King Corn, An Unreasonable Man, and New Year Baby. Visit “Past Events” to view all 33 events from the 2007-2008 season!

We are already building our line-up for the fall. You can look forward to conversations on immigration, re-localization, and the power of song in our lives. Also, the JP Forum will feature a new screen for movie viewing, and more comfortable chairs. We look forward to seeing you in September!

Happy Summer,

Sarah, Chuck and the Jamaica Plain Forum crew!

Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants, with David Bacon

“David Bacon is the conscience of American journalism; an extraordinary social documentarist in the rugged humanist tradition of Dorothea Lange, Carey McWilliams, and Ernesto Galarza.”
—Mike Davis, author of No One Is Illegal

Jamaica Plain has a rich history as a “landing pad” for new immigrants to the Boston area, and carries that identity with great pride. However, with recent worry about national policy and a lingering fear of ICE raids, members of our community are being impacted by larger-than-life forces.

Many of us may wonder how immigration policy, criminalization and globalization impact our personal lives, and the experience of others living within the Jamaica Plain community.

Veteran photojournalist David Bacon visits the Jamaica Plain Forum to discuss the connections between labor, migration, and the global economy. His book, “Illegal People” explores

• The human side of globalization, exposing the many ways it uproots people in Latin America and Asia, driving them to migrate.
• U.S. immigration policy makes the labor of those displaced people a crime in the United States
• Why our national policy produces even more displacement, more migration, more immigration raids, and a more divided, polarized society.

Through interviews and on-the-spot reporting from both impoverished communities abroad and American immigrant workplaces and neighborhoods, Bacon shows how the United States’ trade and economic policy abroad, in seeking to create a favorable investment climate for large corporations, creates conditions to displace communities and set migration into motion. Trade policy and immigration are intimately linked, Bacon argues, and are, in fact, elements of a single economic system.

Bacon powerfully traces the development of illegal status back to slavery and shows the human cost of treating the indispensable labor of millions of migrants—and the migrants themselves—as illegal. He also analyzes NAFTA’s corporate tilt as a cause of displacement and migration from Mexico and shows how criminalizing immigrant labor benefits employers.

Illegal People argues for a sea change in the way we think, debate, and legislate around issues of migration and globalization, making a compelling case for why we need to consider immigration and migration from a globalized human rights perspective.

Many thanks to the Cosponsors of this event

                

Find out what puts Cuba on the map in the quest for global health …

Cuba has trained more than 30,000 medical doctors from over 68 countries, including 100 from the United States, for free. Now they are working with the poorest of the poor all across the globe. Learn about their battle for global health, and the complex realities confronting the movement to make healthcare everyone’s birth right.

Many thanks to the Cosponsors of this event

 

 The July 26th Coalition

in Solidarity with Cuba

CHICAGO 10 is dramatic documentary that explores the build-up and unraveling of the 1968 Chicago Conspiracy Trial with Abby Hoffman, Tom Hayden, Bobbie Seale and Dave Dellinger. A parable of hope, courage and challenge as it portrays the struggle of young Americans speaking out and taking a stand in the face of an oppressive and armed government. Mixing animation with archival footage.

Join us with memories of this time, or reflections on its significance now, 40 years later.  Free popcorn provided!

 This event brought to us by

With a warming globe and diminishing oil, it is critical that we begin to live with a dramatically different way. Bike-power, rain water collection, permaculture and relocalization of our communites are just the beginning. We will discuss the creative methods that “urban environmental stewards” have been testing out to live within the earth’s limits and without corporate control of our livelihoods.

The Rhizome Collective has published  ”Toolbox for Sustainable City Living,”  This Toolbox is a step-by-step instructions for city dwellers interested in producing our own food, collecting water, managing waste, reclaiming land, and generating energy.

 Many thanks to the Cosponsors of this event!

They went to Iraq as cooks, clerks, and mechanics and returned a year later as part of America’s first generation of female combat veterans. Despite an official government policy that states that women are not supposed to partake in direct ground combat, the five women featured here most certainly did. LIONESS, tells the story of five women who served together for a year in Iraq.

 This event brought to us by

Communities are created and strengthened through singing together: no one knew this better than one of America’s most beloved folk singers, Pete Seeger. Come watch parts of the inspirational film, “The Power of Song” and observe Seeger’s ability to bring great social issues into popular discussion through song. and sing a few tunes about social justice, the environment, peace, civil rights and community.

This is a family-friendly event.

Potluck begins at 5:00pm, Singing and film begins at 6:00pm

What’s the real story behind the housing mortgage meltdown? Are you worried about the economy? Wondering how the new President will manage our financial affairs? Have you been mystified by the so-called experts who use obscure jargon to paint a rosy picture of “free trade,” corporate bail-outs, and wage stagnation?

Let Dr. Dollar –answer your questions about the current economic crisis, and what to expect from our new president.

Read Arthur’s article, “The Greed Fallacy” here, from www.dollarsandsense.org

Many thanks to the Cosponsors of this event

As the holiday shopping season looms ahead, is the “Shop-ocalypse” inevitable?  Join us for an inspiring film and discussion about deescalating the consumption frenzy. We will show the hilarious film, “What Would Jesus Buy?” featuring performance-artist, the Reverend Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping Choir.  Through retail interventions, corporate exorcisms, and some good old-fashioned preaching, Reverend Billy reminds us that we have lost the true meaning of the holidays.

After the film, we will adjourn to the Parish Hall for refreshments and a conversation cafe to share our own personal strategies for finding meaning in the holiday season with friends and family.  First Church’s Rev. Terry Burke will start our small group discussions with some initial reflections on “unplugging the Christmas consumption machine.”

Singing together helps to bring us into community, learn history, and share a folk-language that can pass through the ages. They give us a way to build and express community, calm the heart, and share emotions that defy ordinary conversation.

As we head into the winter darkness, let’s join together and light up from the inside with song. Often we find friends who intially complain that they “can’t sing” will be reluctant to stop after a two-hour songfest.

Come sing your old favorites: folk, pop, traditional and family music. Bring a potluck item to share, and your voices to join in with the celebration of food%

Did you know that Jamaica Plain is home to many of Boston’s distinguished and celebrated authors? For our first bi-anual “Local Authors” night, Brendan Halpin, Catherine Sasanov and Ron Maclean will join us for an evening of reading, discussion and celebration of our local literati, storytellers, and writers.

Brendan Halpin is the author of two memoirs and several novels for both adults and young adults. His most recent young adult novel, Forever Changes, was on the Fall 2008 Kids’ Indie Next List, and his novel Donorboy was the recipient of the ALA’s Alex award. Brendan was a high school English teacher for ten years and currently teaches in a workforce development program in Boston. He has lived in Jamaica Plain for fifteen years, and currently lives near Franklin Park with his wife Suzanne, their three children, and their dog.

Poet Catherine Sasanov has lived in Jamaica Plain for the past five years. She is the author of Traditions of Bread and Violence (Four Way Books) and All the Blood Tethers (Northeastern University Press), as well as two chapbook collections: What’s Left of Galgani (Franciscan University Press) and Tara, which was released in April by Červená Barva. Catherine recently returned from a writing residency at Blue Mountain Center where she finished a new book of poems, Had Slaves. The manuscript is written out of her discovery in 2005 of slaveholding among her Missouri ancestors. Since then, she has done field and archival research, trying to find out what happened to the 13 men, women, and children her ggg-grandfather and his descendants owned.

Ron MacLean’s fiction has appeared in GQ, Greensboro Review, Prism International, Night Train and other quarterlies. He is a recipient of the Frederick Exley Award for Short Fiction and a recurring Pushcart Prize nominee, and author of the novel Blue Winnetka Skies and the story collection Why the Long Face? He is former executive director (and still teaches) at Grub Street, Boston’s independent creative writing center. He has taught fiction at the Chautauqua Summer Writer’s Program, the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, and elsewhere. Currently he splits his time between writing and teaching fiction, and content development for values-based business ethics programs.

Books Available from Rhythm and Muse

THE DHAMMA BROTHERS tells a dramatic tale of human potential and transformation as it closely follows and documents the stories of the prison inmates at Donaldson Correction Facility who enter into this arduous and intensive program. This film, with the power to dismantle stereotypes about men behind prison bars also gives you hope for the human race.

with Meizhu Lui, Dedrick Muhammad and Amaad Rivera

Three national experts join us to both celebrate the election of Barack Obama and discuss the persistent disparities of wealth that still exist along racial lines. The forum corresponds with the release of “State of the Dream 2009,” a timely study examining racial wealth disparities.

Over the past few months, the nation has been energized by the election of the nation’s first black president, and many say that we are living in a “post-racial” America. Yet, economic statistics continue to show us that people of color are proportionally still earning far less than their white counterparts. How did this racial-wealth divide emerge, and how might it change with the Obama administration?

In recognition of the 80th birthday of Dr. King, the historic inauguration of President Obama, and the release of the annual State of the Dream report, please join us for a panel discussion on the State and Future of the Racial Wealth Divide. We will address the current reality of the racial wealth divide and the possibilities of bridging this gap. Panelists will include Meizhu Lui Director of the Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Initiative of Insight CCED, Amaad Rivera of United For a Fair Economy, and Dedrick Muhammad of the Institute for Policy Studies.

Please join us for this important discussion as to how 2009 can become a year of change we can truly believe in.

Meizhu Lui, Amaad Rivera & Dedrick Mohammad

This event graciously recorded by David Goodman

Many thanks to our cosponsors of this event:

Why Millions of Working Americans Are Not Getting Paid-And What We Can Do About It

Kim Bobo, the co-founder of Interfaith Worker Justice discusses her new book (“Wage Theft in America”) about how billions of dollars worth of wages are stolen from millions of workers.

Each year, billions of dollars’ worth of wages are stolen from millions of workers, a grand theft that exceeds every other larceny category on record annually. In today’s dwindling economy this crime affects more Americans than ever before. In her new book, author and community organizer Kim Bobo offers an incisive information for activists, workers, and concerned citizens on how to prevent flagrant exploitation of America’s working people, including a sweeping analysis of the crisis, hard-hitting statistics, and heart-breaking first-person accounts.

Kim Bobo is the Executive Director of Interfaith Worker Justice and co-author of Organizing for Social Change, the best-selling manual on progressive organizing.

Kim Bobo has written an excellent and informative book on one of the most pressing issues facing millions of hardworking Americans. She offers bold, practical, and progressive solutions for how policymakers and advocates can end the growing crisis of wage theft in America. —Senator Edward M. Kennedy

Also, Kim will be appearing on “RADIO with a VIEW” on Sunday, January 25th between 10:15 – 10:45am. Visit www.ibisradio.org for more.

Many Thanks to the CoSponsors and Collaborators for this event:

Books will be available for purchase at the event from

As a longtime labor and community organizer, Kim Fellner has spent her life fighting corporate abuse. But when fellow demonstrators at the 1999 “Battle of Seattle” smashed in the window of a Starbucks store, she couldn’t escape the feeling that something was wrong with the picture. How had a coffee company with a liberal reputation come to engender such hostility? Fellner decided to find out.

She interviewed global justice and union activists, baristas, independent coffee shop owners, coffee farmers and a dozen Starbucks executives, including CEO Howard Schultz. Along the way, she encountered some unexpected insights, not just about the Green Mermaid, but about how we, on the left, choose our fights and frame our issues.

Wrestling with Starbucks: Conscience, Capital, Cappuccino invites us to reflect on how we define and practice our values in the global economy from the vantage point of our morning brew-and presents a refreshingly different look at the company that changed the way the world drinks coffee.

Check out Kim’s latest article in Color Lines

Many Thanks to the Cosponsors of this event

We are joined by Bolivian activists as part of their Dignity and Defiance Tour across the U.S. We’ll learn about the changes under Bolivian President Evo Morales and hear powerful eyewitness accounts of Bolivia’s decade-long rebellion against globalization imposed from abroad.

In the United States, many of us experience the benefits of globalization and carry only a vague understanding of the impact that it has on less powerful countries.  Thus, it becomes our responsibility to listen to the stories that come from the communities that are the most effected by our global lifestyle. “Dignity and Defiance,” a new collection of stories from Bolivia, delivers just that.

Based on extensive interviews and first-hand accounts, “Dignity and Defiance” is a powerful eyewitness account of Bolivia’s decade-long rebellion against globalization imposed from abroad.  It weaves together stories of regular people striving to make their lives better along with vivid accounts of the political struggles that have made Bolivia international front-page news.  Sometimes the struggle manifests through popular rebellion and democracy carried to the streets. Other times it is about individuals making difficult choices for how to deal with a globalizing world.

Bolivia is challenging the world to make globalization something other than a set of economic orders from the north. It is about a people calling for global integration to be something different than it has been, something more fair and more just.

Books will  be sold at the event by

Iranian American filmmaker Marjan Tehrani chronicles her brother’s return to Iran during the start of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, as he travels with his American wife to have a traditional Persian wedding and explore his lost heritage.  But, when Alex’s Iranian-born parents and Heather’s conservative American father meet for the first time, cultures clash and test the couple to their limits.  In weaving the couple’s personal story with historical footage, ARUSI considers the history, impact and troubled relationship between Iran and America.

Free Popcorn!

The first is our Urban Sustainability Series, this hands-on workshop will explore many options for growing your own food in the city. From container gardening to raised-beds, Gabriel Erde-Cohen of Green City Growers will share basic skills and tips to help you grow the most local food possible - directly from your front yard, porch, or windowsill!

We will explore:

• Easy raised bed construction
• Site selection for containers, pots and raised beds
• Choosing between container gardens and raised-bed gardens
• Deciding what plants to grow and where

Come with your questions about growing food in a container and/or small garden setting, and share your insights with fellow JP green-thumbs.

Many thanks to the Cosponsors of this event

Join us for a special screening of the acclaimed documentary “Traces of the Trade,” with filmmaker and JP-resident Katrina Browne. Featured on PBS and at the Sundance Film Festival, this film recounts Browne’s inquiry into the DeWolf family, her forefathers and the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history.

“Traces of the Trade” follows ten DeWolf descendants as they retrace the steps of the Triangle Trade, visiting the DeWolf hometown of Bristol, Rhode Island, slave forts on the coast of Ghana, and the ruins of a family plantation in Cuba. Browne pushes the family forward as they struggle through the minefield of race politics.

Once back home, the family confronts the thorny topic of what to do now. In the context of growing calls for reparations for slavery, family members struggle with the question of how to think about and contribute to “repair.” Meanwhile, Katrina and her family come closer to the core: their love/hate relationship with their own Yankee culture and privileges; the healing and transformation needed not only “out there,” but inside themselves

JP Resident and "Traces of the Trade" Filmmaker, Katrina Browne

Many thanks to the cosponsors of this program:

First Church in Jamaica Plain, Unitarian Universalist

First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain

St. Mary of the Angles Catholic Church

Barack Obama, a liberal-leaning centrist Democrat was elected with the energetic support of progressive activists. Post-election enthusiasm remains high amongst progressives who believe that President Obama may be in a position to redefine the political center in just the way that Franklin Roosevelt did.

Mike Lux, author of the new book “The Progressive Revolution” offers a history and road map for progressives to support a new “Big Change Moment” in our nations’ history. Comparable “Big Change Moments” include the ending of slavery, giving women the right to vote, painstaking enactment of civil rights laws, the adoption of Social Security, and strengthening the middle class. Lux argues that we are on the cusp of a new Big Change Moment, and we need to know our history to fully embrace the upcoming change.

Mike will share examples of American history that lend lessons to current progressive policies, and how they may be channeled to solve the critical problems facing America today.

Mike Lux’s new book, “The Progressive Revolution” will be available for purchase.

About Mike Lux
Michael Lux is the President and CEO of Progressive Strategies, a political consulting firm, focused on strategic political consulting for non-profits, labor unions, PACs and progressive donors. He has worked with groups such as Political Action at People For the American Way (PFAW), Americans United for Change, Center for Progressive Leadership, Grassroots Democrats, Progressive Majority, Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, and Women’s Voices/Women Vote, Center for American Progress, and Air America.

In November of 2008, Mike was named to the Obama-Biden Transition Team. In that role, he served as an advisor to the Office of Public Liaison on relationship with the progressive community and has helped shape the Office of Public Liaison based on his past experience working on the Clinton-Gore Transition, as well as in the White House.

Many thanks to the cosponsors of this event

The Progressive Project

With warming weather and sunnier skies, springtime will soon be heralded in by our familiar friend, the honey bee.  But with staggering statistics about the rapid loss of bees, it may be time to consider small-scale and urban beekeeping as a remedy.  Begin your beekeeping experience by learning the basics from a master bee tender, JP resident Jean Claude Bourrut.

Many thanks to the Cosponsors of this event:

Singing together helps to bring us into community, learn history, and share a folk-language that can pass through the ages. They give us a way to build and express community, calm the heart, and share emotions that defy ordinary conversation.

Local musicians Ken Ward and Peter Thornton will bring down the house with their rousing style of leading us in song!

Kids and Families Welcome!

Bring a potluck item to share or a $5 contribution to food.  Potluck begins at 5:00pm

We are pleased to be selling the classic folk-song book, Rise Up Singing.  Purchase this book at the Songfest for yourself and your family ($20), or purchase one for community use at the  JP Forum’s Songfest ($15)!

Singing together helps to bring us into community, learn history, and share a folk-language that can pass through the ages. They give us a way to build and express community, calm the heart, and share emotions that defy ordinary conversation. This special Earth Day program will focus on songs about our big blue planet!

Lead by local songfest master, Ken Ward, and welcoming special guests Dean Stevens and Ginger Eliot. Come sing your old favorites: folk, pop, traditional and family music. Bring a potluck item to share, and your voices to join in with the celebration of food.

Kids and Families Welcome!

Bring a potluck item to share or a $5 contribution to food. Potluck begins at 5:00pm

We are pleased to be selling the classic folk-song book, Rise Up Singing. Purchase this book at the Songfest for yourself and your family ($20), or purchase one for community use at the JP Forum’s Songfest ($15)!

TAKING ROOT tells the dramatic story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai whose simple act of planting trees grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, protect human rights, and defend democracy-a movement for which this charismatic woman became an iconic inspiration.

ASK NOT is a rare and compelling exploration of the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. The film exposes the tangled political battles that led to the discriminatory law, and profiles charismatic activists determined to abolish it. As the war rages on, ASK NOT reveals personal stories of gay Americans who serve in combat under a veil of secrecy.

Many Thanks to Our Generous Co-sponsor for this Event

The Progressive Project