help publish this enews so we can work together to free Asif, feed Vermonters, and fight unchecked extraction capitalism with a
membership. And it will be doubled if you give in September!
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PJC Educational Programs & Events
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This three-part program is designed for all who are concerned about the impact of racism and/or white privilege on our children. It includes resources, discussion, and role playing. This program is held in collaboration with St Mikes Civil Rights Alliance. Fees vary. Register online here.
T
uesday, September
24, 7-8:30pm,
241 N Winooski Ave,
Burlington.
Join us for a Rapid Response Training to learn about how community members can show up in support of immigrants and the
farm-worker
community in times of crisis. We'll be going over how to recognize immigration enforcement around the state, resistance to checkpoints and how to support
farm-worker
leadership in #Not1More Deportation campaigns. This location is wheelchair accessible.
September 26, 7-9pm, Starksboro Public Library.
Border residents have been on the front-lines of the humanitarian crisis caused by increased border enforcement build up. This film is an intimate and unique portrait of resistance from the residents in a small rural community, caught in the cross-hairs of global geo-political forces. Entry by donation. Profits benefit Migrant Justice. RAICES, and the Vermont Freedom Bail Fund.
Seeing & Disrupting Racism: A Focus on White Fragility Thursday, October 3 6:30-8:30pm at the Lamoille County Civic Center, Morrisville. Addressing racism should not be the responsibility of those who experience it. In this workshop, developed for predominantly white audiences, you'll learn about the concept of white fragility, how it perpetuates racism, and specific ways to disrupt that cycle. Register in advance here. FREE
POC in VT Affinity Group, Wednesday, October 16, 6-8pm at the PJC.
This program is led by people of color, for people of color. It is a monthly gathering for POC to come together to share their experiences and explore their identities. This month's meeting will focus on body image and self-esteem; specifically how POC manage living in a culture dominated by Eurocentric standards of beauty. We will also look at recent examples of double standards and the sexualization/fetishization of POC bodies. FREE.
Building Empathy & Addressing Racial Oppression, Wednesday, October 16, 23, 30, 6:30-8:30pm at Sterling College. This program strives to give participants the opportunity to build skills and knowledge to engage in conversations about oppression. Space is limited so advanced registration is required.
Register here. Fees vary, no one turned away for lack of funds.
Cocoa Campaign Presentation Saturday, October 19, 2-3:30pm, PJC. This presentation focuses on the issue of child slavery and human trafficking in the cocoa industry. It is designed to educate, brainstorm solutions and create tangible action steps that fit each participant. Stick around after the presentation for our New Volunteer Orientation to learn more about how to get involved with our work. FREE
Toxic Whiteness Discussion Group, Monday, October 21, 5:30-6:30pm, PJC.
This space is held specifically for white people to process how white supremacy culture is toxic to them. The hope is that by joining this space, they will be better able to allow for the emotional needs of people of color to take priority in multi-racial spaces. FREE.
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Voices for Palestine:
International Law and the Rights of Palestinian People
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Despite the Geneva Conventions and UN Security Council Resolutions, the Israeli government blatantly ignores international law in dealing with Palestinian people. In the prolonged military occupation and colonization of Palestinian territories, Palestinian people have experienced egregious assaults on their lives on a daily basis.
Actions that that were outlawed after or before WWII have become normal: civilians are subject to extra-judicial killings, collective punishment (curfews and home and infrastructure demolitions), night-time home invasions, arrests of children, torture and detention without trial. Travel restrictions and checkpoints cut people off from their livelihoods, medical care, their friends and relatives.
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Want to see more of the Peace & Justice Center more often?
Follow us on social media to see pictures, read articles, and be in the know about what we are up to, community issues, events, and more.
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Center Hours
Monday-Friday: 10am-6pm
Store Hours
Closed Mondays
Tuesday-Saturday: 10am-6pm
Sunday: 10am-5pm
Hours are subject to change. Call (802) 863-2345 x2 to confirm.
Location
60 Lake Street, Suite 1C
Burlington's Waterfront.
(Next to Skinny Pancake)
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Pick up a voucher for these shows at PJC and pay $2 cash at the box office. For current PJC members and volunteers. For information on membership click here. Limited supply!
Sesame Street Live! C is for Celebration
Friday, 9/20 at 2:00 pm
Join in the excitement, laughter, and music as Elmo shows how easy dancing can be and Abby magically chases away the rain. Shake it up with Cookie Monster, move to the music with Rosita, and make cool new friends with Casey and Caleb as they host this delightful, fast-paced get-together celebrating the power of caring and community, what forever memories are all about.
Tinariwen
Wednesday, 9/25 at 7:30 pm
Tinariwen's musical legacy converges at the crossroads of western blues and eastern mysticism. A fundamental sense of displacement informs the Grammy-winning band of eight Taureg nomads' desert psychedelia, as the group has been engaged in a decades-long struggle against the Malian government over land rights. Gritty, quartertone guitar lines and a guttural drone of Tamashek poetry wander in modal, trance-inducing vamps.
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We are excited to announce that we are holding our Annual Meeting in a Community Meeting format. We hope to attract a broad audience beyond our membership.
At this Community Meeting, we will discuss what it means to be an anti-racist organization andput marginalized and oppressed communities at the center of our work.
Members will vote for the Board of Directors as part of the meeting but a majority of the time will be a presentation and discussion. All are welcome to attend and hear about our work. Also, all are encouraged to
become a member
(giving levels start at $15 a year) to join our work! Now is a great time to give because all donations in September will be doubled thanks to a generous matching gift.
Please join us and share what you'd like to see the PJC do in the coming years and help us refine our plans to set new leadership up for success.
PJC Annual Meeting and Town Meeting
Sunday, October 27, 2017
4-5:30 followed by reception
Burlington (exact location TBA)
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From the Blog: Run, Hide, Fight and The Climate Crisis
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-Bram Moreinis, PJC Volunteer
When Burlington School District teachers returned to work in August, after a year of training focused on Restorative Practice (building a culture of communication, empathy, and social justice),we took a sharp turn into "Run, Hide, Fight" -- preparing classroom responses to active shooters in our school buildings.
The Climate Crisis started by high schooler Greta Thunberg is strongly related to both initiatives, as it turns out. Thunberg has been skipping school to organize this movement every Friday, because she was moved both by the injustice of the North growing rich off fossil fuel economies while the South suffers the effects. It is also her decision to fight something we cannot run or hide from: the Climate Crisis.
The Burlington Educational Association recently surveyed its members, and eighty percent plan to take the first day of Global Climate Strike Week (next Friday, September 20th) to teach our students about the Climate Crisis, whatever our assigned curricula may be.
The "March for Our Lives" movement in response to the school shooter in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, is founded on the same raw "fight" response that moves the climate activists. They see is nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide. Both student movements express moral outrage at elders who pursue business as usual in the face of existential threats to themselves and their children.
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Welcome Aris Garcia to the PJC team as our new Volunteer Coordinator and Assistant Store Manager!
Greetings to my New Community!
I am so excited to be joining the Peace & Justice Center as the Volunteer Coordinator/ Assistant Store Manager and as a facilitator of the Racial Justice, Fair Trade, and Nonviolence Educational Programs! It is not lightly that I step into this work. As a Lakota and Latina Woman I realize the importance of the work that is being done by PJC. It is my hope to continue to foster amazing relationships with all of you while engaging in dynamic conversations that will bring about real healing change.
I am incredibly blessed to have grown up at
Kunsi Keya Tamakoce in Huntington, VT. KKT is a nonprofit organization that is led by my Unci (Grandmother) Beverly Little Thunder (who is on the PJC board of directors) and my family. We are dedicated to teaching the ways of our Lakota people to help build stronger communities through ceremony and spiritual guidance. It is a part of my culture to be of service to my family and to my community and having the opportunity to work with my Unci at PJC is a prayer come true!
My intentions for my time with you at PJC are to continue the amazing work of Alex as the Volunteer Coordinator and build our family of Volunteers. I am also very open to hearing from you about things that are important in your spaces and communities so that I can be more impactful. Our door is always open at PJC and I am so blessed to be standing on the other side with arms wide open to welcome you as I have been so lovingly welcomed.
Pilamiya,
Aris Garcia (She, Her)
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This
is a partial listing. See more in our public
calendar
.
The PJC is not directly involved in all of these events.
September 17, Tuesday
- 6-8pm, 350VT meeting. 350VT Office, 179 S Winooski Ave, # 201, Burlington
- Art Exhibit: Votes...For Women? Middlebury College Museum of Art. Through December 8.
September 18, Wednesday
- 4:30-6pm, Weekly meditative sit at ICE office, 188 Harvest Ln, Williston. Organized by Radical Dharma BTV
- 6-8pm, Families United. The Root Social Justice Center, Brattleboro
- 6-8pm, RAD meeting. 423 Main St, Bennington
September 19, Thursday
September 20, Friday
September 21, Saturday
September 22, Sunday
September 23, Monday
- 7:30-9pm Mobilizing Climate Action for Health. Get inspired and motivated by stories of successful action against climate change and for human health. Panelists include: Adriana Gonzalez, an environmental justice organizer working in Puerto Rico; Dan Quinlan, chair of VT Climate & Health Alliance; Bindu Panikkar, Assistant Professor, UVM Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. Free but please register here.
September 24, Tuesday
September 25, Wednesday
September 26, Thursday
September 27, Friday
- 7-10pm, JAG Juke Joint: A Benefit Dinner Party with Performances & Southern Home Cooking. Newberry Market, White River Junction
September 28, Saturday
- 10-11am, Visible in Vermont: Our Stories, Our Voices Panel Discussion. Bennington Museum
- 3:30-6pm, Anti Racism Workshop with DiDi Delgado. Otter Creek Yoga, The Marble Works, Middlebury
- 7-9pm, Film: The Man Who Saved World. Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, 60 Lake St, Burlington
- 7-8pm, Never Again is Now: Rosh Hashanah vigil. More info: email Nancy. Pliny Park, Brattleboro
September 29, Sunday
September 30, Monday
- 1-4pm, 2019 Cross Class Dialogue Circles. VIRTUAL CIRCLE Level 2. For more information and to sign up.
October 1, Tuesday
October 2, Wednesday
October 3, Thursday
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| Action Alert #1: Help protect food access for over 13,000 Vermonters |
The Trump Administration's latest attack would spike hunger for 3 million people.
On July 23, they announced thep roposal to effectively eliminate broad-based categorical eligibility, which allows Vermont, along with 42 other states, to expand access to 3SquaresVT for vulnerable, low-income Vermonters (including working families, children, older adults, and people with disabilities).
If enacted, this rule could cut 3.1 million Americans and over 13,000 Vermonters off from crucial benefits that allow them to put food on the table for themselves and their families.
More information at Hunger Free Vermont
Submit a public comment here to oppose this change to 3SquaresVT by September 23rd to let the Trump administration know that you don't support these cuts.
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Action Alert #2: Prisoner held in solitary confinement in New Hampshire
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An inmate at the
Berlin Federal Corrections Institution in New Hampshire named
Asif Salem has been in solitary confinement for over a month for unknown (or no) reason.
We understand from Asif's wife that Asif is known to be a model inmate and never tries to cause any trouble.
We believe that Asif's identity as a Muslim and POC is a reason why he is suffering what is deemed torture by the UN (solitary confinement over 15 days).
His family is asking that everyone please call the prison. Here is a sample script:
"I am concerned about Asif Salim, who has been held in solitary confinement for over a month without being told the reason. His register number is
86551-083.
He was told there was an investigation, but was not told what it was about. He was not charged with any disciplinary violations, and I don't believe he did anything wrong. Solitary confinement for more than 15 days has been deemed torture by the United Nations. I request that Asif be released into the general population right away."
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