Events

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AFSC offers resources for fostering religious tolerance

Quaker meetings and churches can help AFSC by doing some specific things to support our peace and justice work. This year we are inviting you to help with our work to create more religiously hospitable communities by engaging with a film resource, “Hawo’s Dinner Party: The New Face of Southern Hospitality.”

“Hawo’s Dinner Party” is a video module designed to support dialogue, bridge-building, and cultural exchange in communities that receive immigrants and refugees from Muslim-majority countries.

Directed and produced by Kim A. Snyder and executive produced by BeCause Foundation in association with Active Voice, the module follows the trajectory of Hawo Siyad, a refugee and former nurse from Somalia, who has come to work at the nearby Tyson Foods chicken processing plant. Dressed in colorful hijab even on the assembly line, Hawo is determined to learn English and to connect with her neighbors. But as news of “home grown terrorism” appears in the national media and as Hawo tries to reach out, we get an intimate glimpse into the honest—and often uncomfortable—encounters that emerge.

You can learn more about “Hawo’s Dinner Party” and the Shelbyville Multimedia Project at www.ShelbyvilleMultimedia.org. Active Voice would really like to know if you have offered an event; you can send that information to Lucy Duncan at lduncan (at) afsc.org and AFSC will pass it along.

Click here to read the full article, find event planning resources and discussion questions.

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Why you might consider boycotting SodaStream

When: Saturday, April 27 at 12pm noon
Where: Chicago City Target, 1 S. State St., Chicago, IL 60603 (map)

SodaStream is an Israeli corporation produces gadgets to make homemade soda from tap water. SodaStreamproduces its products primarily in an illegal settlement built on stolen Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank. They enforce harsh working conditions, low wages, and revolving door employment policies for Palestinian workers. SodaStream markets itself as an environmentally-friendly product to “Turn Water Into Fresh Sparkling Water And Soda.” But there is nothing friendly about the destruction of Palestinian life, land, and water resources.

This settlement company obscures its true illegal origin by marking its products “Made in Israel.” “Made in an illegal Israeli settlement” is more like it. Tell Target and folks thinking about buying SodaStream products, that there is nothing friendly about occupation!

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/380620872051571

Sponsored by: The Chicago Sodastream Boycott Campaign

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Peacebuilders Camp at Koinonia Farm

Camp registration opens today! Help find campers interested in creating peace in the world, living in a diverse community and having fun.

Peacebuilders Camp at Koinonia Farm is an overnight camp dedicated to bringing together a diverse group of campers to live in community, learn ways to create peace and justice in the world, and have fun. Campers build deep friendships, meet peacemakers, swim, hike, serve others, and learn new ways they can make a positive difference in their world.

There are two week-long camp sessions:
June 17-22, 2013 (ages 13-14)
June 24-29, 2013 (ages 11-12)

We will accept twelve campers for each session. Tuition is $650 for this 6-day, 5-night camp in Americus, Georgia. Scholarships are available. Our goal is to turn no one away for financial reasons.

Click here to learn more and register for camp!

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Join us for a Peace Testimony Workshop

Join us for fellowship & personal reflection:

Peace Testimony Workshop
Friday, April 12 – Sunday, April 14
Illinois Yearly Meeting
McNabb, IL

In 2006, the ILYM Peace Resources Committee developed a workshop aimed at deepening our individual and corporate understandings of Friends’ historic Peace Testimony and contemporary expressions of it. Join us!

The Peace Resources Committee of today invites Friends to gather at the Illinois Yearly Meeting Grounds for a day of storytelling, worship sharing, and personal reflection. The retreat will begin on Friday afternoon, April 12, with Friends encouraged to arrive beginning at 4pm. Explore the grounds, settle into your bunk, catch up with good F/friends, explore the recommended reading (see below), and enjoy a shared meal in nearby McNabb. Those not able to overnight are invited to arrive Saturday morning, ideally by 10am. The workshop will conclude in the early evening, culminating in each Friend authoring their own Peace Testimony. Friends are equally encouraged to stay over Saturday night and attend worship with Clear Creek Friends on Sunday, April 14, as a culmination to your retreat weekend.

We ask that those excited to participate RSVP by Monday, April 8: email PRC clerk Breeze Richardson at breeze.richardson@sbcglobal.net. The day will be free to all who wish to attend, with the opportunity to overnight at Clear Creek House or the cabins (a $5 donation per night is requested from those desiring overnight hospitality). Our shared midday meal on Saturday will be potluck.

We look forward to spending the day with you!

Recommended Reading:

In advance of gathering, we invite you to explore the Peace Testimony Workshop Advance Readings. Nothing is required, but exploration is welcome. In order to have some shared knowledge among those who gather, we specifically suggest the following. Paper copies will also be available upon arrival.

“A Declaration From the Harmless and Innocent People of God, Called Quakers, Against all Sedition, Plotters, and Fighters in the World…. Presented to the King Upon the 21st day of the 11th month, 1660.”
Download here: http://www.ilym.org/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=105

“Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence” by Reverend Martin Luther King
Download here: http://www.ilym.org/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=103

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White Privilege Conference 2013

April 9-13
Seattle, WA

White Privilege Conference (WPC) is a conference that examines challenging concepts of privilege and oppression and offers solutions and team building strategies to work toward a more equitable world.

Who attends the WPC?
The conference is unique in its ability to bring together high school and college students, teachers, university faculty and higher education professionals, nonprofit staff, activists, social workers and counselors, healthcare workers, and members of the spiritual community and corporate arena. Annually, more than 1,500 attend from more than 35 states, Australia, Bermuda, Canada, and Germany.

Registration information and 2013 agenda:
http://www.whiteprivilegeconference.com/schedule.html

About the WPC:
http://www.whiteprivilegeconference.com/wpc.html

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Creating a Peace Budget

You are invited to a special meeting on forming a peace budget hosted by the Southern Illinois Peace Coalition and Southern Illinois Quaker Meeting –

Shaping a More Peaceful and Just Federal Budget:
A Conversation with Friends Committee on National Legislation Staff Katherine Philipson

When:
Tuesday, February 19, 2013 at 6:30 pm

Where:
Carbondale Civic Center Room 111

Why:
Starting at the end of February 2013, current law called the Budget Control Act automatically cuts both human needs programs and planned Pentagon growth. Members of Congress are talking with each other now about whether or not to reverse those cuts and how to curb the deficit instead. Our solution is simple don’t balance the budget on the backs of the most vulnerable. Instead, reduce planned Pentagon spending by $1 trillion over ten years and restore lost tax revenue.

As a leader in the Democratic Party and the new Chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, Senator Durbin is one of the most influential members of Congress on this issue. When budget deals are reached, Senator Durbin is sure to be in the room. Please join Katherine to plan how we can encourage Senator Durbin to reduce unnecessary Pentagon spending and reinvest in true human security.

Sponsored by the Peace Coalition of Southern Illinois.

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Solitary Confinement in the United States

Thanks to AFSC for making these recordings available for additional audiences:

“Solitary Confinement & Mental Health”

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The Midwest Coalition for Human Rights, Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the National Religious Campaign Against Torture hosted Dr. Terry Kupers at a national strategic convening on solitary confinement and human rights.

Dr. Kupers is institute professor at The Wright Institute and distinguished life fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Dr. Kupers provides expert testimony in class action litigation about the psychological effects of prison conditions, including isolated confinement in super-maximum security units, the quality of correctional mental health care, and the effects of sexual abuse in correctional settings. At this event, he discusses the psychological damage of long-term isolation and explains how the practice constitutes a human rights abuse.

“Solitary Confinement & Human Rights: An Evening of American Stories”

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Listen in as activists consider the U.S.’s use of solitary confinement. Through art and story, we look at three regionally diverse cases. Keynote speakers for this event are Robert King, activist and author, and Tessa Murphy from Amnesty International. The stories reflect on the Angola 3, California Secure Housing Units, and Tamms supermax prison.

Forty years ago, three men—the “Angola 3″—were convicted of murder and condemned to solitary confinement in Louisiana’s Angola prison. Two have remained in isolation ever since. The third, Robert King, was released after 29 years and is committed to sharing his story with the world.

Hundreds of prisoners have been confined in California’s high-security segregation units for 10 or more years in conditions of severe isolation. The issue caught the public eye when, in 2011, inmates launched a hunger strike. Tessa Murphy will share Amnesty International’s recent research on conditions in CA security housing units.

Two hundred inmates in Illinois Tamms Closed Maximum Security Unit (CMAX) languish in prolonged solitary confinement. Governor Quinn blocked funding to the facility in July, 2012, but it remains open today. The story of Tamms will be told through the “Tamms Year Ten Campaign Office” exhibit at Sullivan Galleries.

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Interview with Dr. Zahir Wahab

Windows and Mirrors: Reflections on the War in Afghanistan is a traveling mural exhibit that makes a powerful statement on a nearly invisible reality.

The exhibit consists of more than 45 large scale paintings by artists from all over the country that memorialize Afghan civilian casualties. The exhibit also includes images collected from Afghan high school students by Dr. Zahir Wahab, a professor at Lewis and Clark College, who asked young Afghans to draw images from their daily reality.

It was in June 2011, while teaching in Kabul, Professor Zaher Wahab asked Afghan High School students – boys and girls – to draw pictures of their experience with war. These powerful images have been incorporated into the traveling mural exhibit.

Click here to read an interview where Wahab discusses why Americans need a visual reminder of the war in Afghanistan, now the longest war in U.S. history.

Click here to see the exhibition tour schedule.

Click here to explore the exhibition artwork.

Click here to read more about this AFSC project.

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Doing Time for Peace: Resistance, Family, and Community

The North Shore Coalition for Peace, Justice, and the Environment Cordially invites all to celebrate a book launch and signing of Rosalie Riegle’s new oral history…

Doing Time for Peace: Resistance, Family, and Community

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WHEN:
Saturday, December 1, 2012 from 3:00 to 5:00
Refreshments served.

WHERE:
Curt’s Café, 2922 Central Street in Evanston. (Near Lincolnwood.) Take Bus 201 from the Purple Line Davis Street stop. Curt’s Café provides training to Evanston’s at-risk youth in both food service and life.

WHAT:
In this compelling collection of oral histories, more than seventy-five peacemakers describe how they say no to war-making in the strongest way possible—by engaging in civil disobedience and paying the consequences in jail or prison or by “doing their time” at home while their loved ones are incarcerated.

Included in the book are interviews by Kathy Kelly, Mike and Nettie Cullen of the Milwaukee 14, John Dear, SJ, the Berrigan children, Brad Lyttle, Mike Giocondo of the Camden 28, and many more. A short program will introduce the book.

MORE ABOUT ROSIE:
Born to a political family from Flint, Michigan, Rosalie Riegle has been drifting to the left ever since she met Catholic Worker co-founder Dorothy Day in 1968. Prior to that, she was a typical Catholic woman, graduating from St. Mary’s College in Notre Dame, marrying after a short career in retail, and birthing four daughters. She says Dorothy Day changed her life. “I became active in nonviolent resistance to the Vietnam War and helped to found the Saginaw Valley Peace Watch in Saginaw, Michigan, where I lived for forty years. Oh, those were the days! We were certain our vigils and rallies and visits to the draft board would make a difference, and eventually they did, as the mighty chorus of the antiwar movement helped to end a needless and devastating war. I wish I could regain the hope of those heady years.” Click here to read more…

TO PURCHASE THE BOOK:
You can order “Doing Time for Peace: Resistance, Family, and Community” on Amazon.

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Sharing apple recipes and step-by-step directions for applesauce

As promised, here are a few resources that were shared during the weeks Friends worked together planning the Preserving Apples workshop, including recipes, storybooks, and step-by-step directions.

Applesauce 101
Download the step-by-step directions that walk through our workshop, complete with photos to show what things look like along the way.  Enjoy!

Danish Apple Cake
shared by Cathy Garra
This is a no-bake desert which depends on having good apple sauce. Best made the night before or on the morning of the day you plan to serve it.

Apple Cake
shared by Grayce Mesner
Remembered from a past Among Friends, this recipe is being shared by special request (and thanks to the recipe-keeping of Cathy Garra).

Rain Makes Applesauce
shared by Maurine Pile
Generations of Maurine’s family have read this children’s book, written in 1964 by Julian Scheer. She wrote PRC: ” I would like to recommend this book ; a favorite in my family.”

If you have any apple themed contributions, please consider adding them in the Comments section below. With Thanksgiving just around the corner, how might we prepare apples in celebration of our community? What apple stories might be shared?