Undoing Racism in the Detroit Food System
Greetings,
Over the last six months or so a committed group has come forth to have a frank dialog around issues of race and our Detroit food system. While this conversation is hardly new, the most recent incarnation can be traced directly to a workshop led by Monica White, a Detroit Black Community Food Security Network member and Professor of Sociology at Wayne State University, and Lisa Richter, Outreach Coordinator for Earthworks Urban Farm. This workshop, titled “Race, Food, and Resistance” took place at The Great Lakes Detroit Bioneers Conference in October 2009, and sought to bring to light the underlining issues of race and how it affects our local food system.
Many participants felt this workshop to be hugely beneficial, and requested follow up meetings. The result was continuing monthly meetings open to the public that take place on the first Saturday of the month. While talking and developing relationships is a great place to start, all involved felt that some sorts of action steps were needed. One of those steps was the organizing of a two day workshop called “Undoing Racism in the Detroit Food System”, to be lead by the nationally acclaimed People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond.
The purpose of this workshop is to help those working in, and served by Detroit’s food system learn how the issue of race directly and indirectly affects them and the culture they are a part of, but also to look inside themselves and recognize how race affects their actions and perceptions of the world. In addition to learning these lessons, participants will come out of the workshop with skills to combat racism in themselves, and their community.
It is with great pleasure that we invite you and your organization to take part in this community building activity. This workshop will take place over two days on the campus of Marygrove College, Saturday, March 20 and Sunday, March 21, 2010 from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. each day.
Enclosed with this letter is a position statement which further expands on the reason for our work, as well as a registration form. We look forward to your support of this important initiative to build justice within the Detroit Urban Agricultural Movement and Food System.
Sincerely,
The Undoing Racism in the Detroit Food System Planning Committee
Patrick Crouch, Pat Kolon, Malik Yakini, Billie Hickey, Kwamena Mensa, Lila Cabill, Elder T’Gamba Heru, Lisa Richter
Homelessness Radio Marathon
Dear Colleagues in Service to Homeless Individuals and Families –
On behalf of the Director and people of the Homelessness Marathon, we would like to invite you – and any of your Consumers and Clients – to the Homelessness Radio Marathon, on February 23 and 24, 2010. The 13th Annual Homelessness Marathon radio broadcast will originate this year from Detroit, starting at 7 p.m. Eastern time on February, 23rd and ending at 9 a.m., Eastern time, on February 24, 2010.
This year, Cass Community Social Services, Inc. will serve as the facility host to this marathon radio broadcast and homeless sleep in. We have offered our facilities, food, sleeping area and security as part of the HAND Continuum of Care and a large service provider in the Detroit.
As you may know, the Homelessness Marathon is an annual 14-hour radio broadcast featuring the voices and stories of homeless people from around the United States. The Homelessness Marathon features live call-ins all night long via a national toll-free number. The Homelessness Marathon is available for free to all non-commercial radio stations, and will be broadcast on several radio stations in Detroit and across Michigan. The Homelessness Marathon has been publicized several times in recent HAND General Meetings.
A Declaration of Principles from The Homelessness Marathon is attached for your review (http://homelessnessmarathon.org/2008/09/declaration-of-principles.html, 2010). Should you have any questions regarding this letter, or need any special accommodations, please contact me.
During the Homelessness Marathon, many different kinds of people are allowed and encouraged to talk who hold many different views about how to end homelessness. Many are homeless individuals. They present a wide diversity of opinion. We will be happy to pick up persons who are homeless from your facilities, if you’ll just RSVP the number of people to expect. This could end up being a time when your shelter or programs could operate with less staff, if the residents are all with us at the Marathon. E-mail me at vpittman@casscommunity.org or call me at 313-883-2277.
Sincerely,
Ms. Venise Pittman, MSN
Clinical Director
Cass Community Social Services, Inc.
11850 Woodrow Wilson
Detroit, Michigan 48206
313-883-2277
Declaration of Principles Homelessness Marathon
The Homelessness Marathon believe that the elimination of poverty is a moral duty for society; that fulfilling this duty makes for a better society; and, that there are many ways to fulfill this duty, but that all of them should be guided by the following principles:
1) The most severe forms of poverty must be addressed on an emergency basis.
2) National efforts to eliminate poverty must be funded through the national budget and must focus on changes in the system not in the poor.
These changes should include:
a) A universal living wage and universal health care.
b) A full employment economy.
c) Investment in public housing and public transportation.
d) Benefits for the truly needy that truly keep them out of need.
e) Fair taxes on corporations and wealth.
f) Recognition of food, shelter, health care and education as the rights of citizens.
3) Within these guidelines, we support a wide variety of approaches to poverty, including those based on charity, personal uplift, supportive services and economic opportunity.
Difficult Dialogues II Conference
CONFERENCE 2010
November 11-14, 2010
Sheraton Hotel, Denver, Colorado
PROPOSAL SUBMISSION DEADLINE: March 1, 2010
PROGRAM CO-CHAIRS:
Beverly Guy-Sheftall, NWSA President & Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women’s Studies, Spelman College;
Vivian M. May, Associate Professor of Women’s Studies,
Syracuse University
About the Theme
In response to wide demand, NWSA 2010 builds on conversations that began in Atlanta at the 2009 conference. Difficult Dialogues II will explore a range of concepts and issues that remain under theorized and under examined in the field of women’s studies.
Although the problem of omissions, silences, and distortions in women’s studies has been analyzed for decades, too often feminist scholarship continues to theorize on the basis of hegemonic frameworks, false universals, and a narrow range of lived experiences. The legitimate terrain of feminist theory, inquiry, and politics remains contested.
The Difficult Dialogues theme builds on Johnnella Butler’s essays (beginning with her 1989 article in the Women’s Review of Books) about the contested relationship among and between black studies, ethnic studies, and women’s studies in the US academy. Butler pinpointed a reluctance to engage questions of gender and sexuality in black studies and ethnic studies, and a reluctance to engage with questions of race and class in women’s studies.
NWSA 2010 identifies several thematic areas in which ongoing and new difficult dialogues are urgently needed:
- Indigenous Feminisms: Theories, Methods, Politics
- Complicating the Queer
- The Politics of Nations
- “Outsider” Feminisms
- The Critical and the Creative
Looking for reviewers
Are you a new or established reviewer looking for a place to publish your reviews?
If so, we want to hear from you!
Her Circle is currently accepting submissions from reviewers of women’s fiction, non-fiction, poetry and criticism.
Submit your review of 300- 500 words to books@hercircleezine.com.
Her Circle Ezine is an online portal of women’s creative arts and activism from around the globe, aimed at exploring the feminine experience in the world community.
Visit us online today at www.hercircleezine.com
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Don’t forget to join us March 6th – 8th for the International Women’s Day Virtual Festival! This year’s events include virtual author readings, an online art exhibition, and more! www.hercircleezine.com
Michigan:Breaking into Freelance Writing
March 13, 2010 1:00-3:00 pm
Facilitator: Anna Clark (RC ’03)
Workshop Description: This workshop is designed for people who want to participate in the public conversation by contributing to print and online publications. We will discuss how to generate and develop article ideas, what it takes to get editors to respond, and whether or not you should write for free.
We’ll also discuss what happens after you get the nod from a publication, with an overview of contracts, money, deadlines, and, of course, what it takes to actually write a great article that makes editors want to work with you again.
Workshop will be interactive. Whether or not you arrive with any clear idea of what you want to write about, you will leave with several article queries that are exciting to you and ready to submit to editors. You’ll also leave with a lot of resources to tap into as you navigate the dynamic freelance world. Please bring writing materials and a copy or two of a publication that you’d like to write for someday. The workshop will cost $20 per person and is open to anyone who wants to enroll, though enrollment will be capped at twenty participants.
The registration deadline is March 11. See full details of the workshop, including registration information, here.
Additional One-on-One Mentoring After the workshop, twenty-minute one-on-one focused conversations with the facilitator are available for anyone who wishes to sign up. This is a chance to speak more directly to the participant’s experience, intentions, and goals, and to offer more directed mentoring. Workshop participants may sign up for this to go deeper with their work; non-participants in the workshop may find this one-on-one opportunity better meets their needs. The fee for the one-on-one mentoring is $10. You do not have to be physically present in Ann Arbor to sign up for a mentoring appointment; we can arrange for our conversation to happen over the phone or through video chat.
About the Facilitator Anna Clark is a 2010 Fellow with the Peter Jennings Center for Journalists and the Constitution. Her writing has appeared, or is forthcoming, in The American Prospect, Salon, Utne Reader, The Nation, AlterNet, Hobart, Writers’ Journal, Bitch Magazine, Religion Dispatches, Common Dreams, The Women’s International Perspective, Women’s eNews, ColorLines, RH Reality Check, The Millions, make/shift, and BloodLotus, among other publications. Anna edits the literary and social justice website, Isak (www.isak.typepad.com), and she contributes video book reviews to The Collagist, a literary magazine. Anna is a writing mentor through the Linkage program in the Prison Creative Arts Project. She is also the Chief Developmental Editor with The Imagine Company, a Kenyan organization that marries media and social entrepreneurship. Anna is a graduate of the University of Michigan’s Residential College and Warren Wilson College’s MFA Program for Writers. She lives in Detroit, Michigan.
Location: The Michigan Daily building 420 Maynard Street Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
Registration: The workshop is open to anyone who wants to enroll, though enrollment will be capped at twenty participants. Mentoring appointments are also available to anyone who wants to enroll–whether or not they participated in the workshop. The registration deadline for both the workshop and one-on-one mentoring is March 11.
See registration details here: http://isak.typepad.com/isak/workshop.html
USSF presents United Voices of Detroit Choir
UNITED STATES SOCIAL FORUM PRESENTS
SUNDAY, MARCH 14, 2010 at 4:00 P.M.
Central United Methodist Church 23 East Adams, Detroit, MI - Next to Cmerica Park
Info: angesmith@ comcast.net
UNITED VOICES OF DETROIT CHOIR
BLUE GARDENIA with Ange Smith, Charles Boles piano
PAUL ROBESON CHORALE
TAKE NO PRISONERS REGGAE BAND
AFRICAN DANCE TROUP PERFORMING ARTS HIGH SCHOOL
THE WORKSHOP DANCERS FROM RENAISSANCE HIGH SCHOOL
LYNN MARIE SMITH Recording artist
MUSIC BY SBH TRIO
Spider Webb, Bill Myer, Ralphe Armstrong
POETS
Jim Perkinson
Aurora Harris
Wardell Montgomery
GAS BILL RAFFLE- winner gets a check to DTE!
ADMISSION AND RAFFLE TICKETS LOVE OFFERING
FACILITATED BY THE USSF COMMITTEE ON RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY
“another world is possible
another u.s. is necessary
another detroit is happening!”
USSF
Detroit
June 22-26, 2010
www.ussf2010.org
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Violence Against Girls & Young Women
The Chicago Taskforce on Violence Against Girls & Young Women is pleased to announce a call for contributions to its Occasional Papers series.
We welcome submissions from practitioners, community members, and like-minded allies in academia, and invite you to join us in “translating” knowledge about girls and violence to the general public. In launching the Occasional Papers series about Girls and Violence, we seek to offer relevant, practical, and useful information to the general public about the realities and impact of violence in the lives of young women and girls, innovative programming and approaches, and concrete tools that communities can use to end violence.
We also welcome submissions from girls and young women themselves who want to write about the realities of their lived experiences of violence. The Taskforce defines girls as those under 18 years old and young women as between 18 and 24 years old.
The Taskforce is seeking contributions of case studies, work in progress research papers, special reports, conference reports, and curriculum units on issues of violence against girls and young women. All writings are intended to be useful to those in the field.
We are particularly interested in soliciting work from Chicago practitioners who are engaged in direct service provision and/or grassroots organizing around issues of violence against girls and young women. We want to know about new approaches – what new models are you applying? What has worked and what challenges have you faced?
Violence against girls and young women is pervasive, complex, and cumulative. Individual organizations and individual community members cannot tackle this issue on their own. The Chicago Taskforce on Girls, Young Women and Violence has been founded to serve as a vehicle for addressing the following question: What are the conditions that need to exist locally and statewide to end violence against girls and young women? One of the most important goals of the Taskforce is to reassert community control over the production, documentation, ownership and use of our own information and experiences.
ABSTRACTS WILL BE DUE BY MARCH 31, 2010. Publishing decisions will be made by May 20 by a team of reviewers, for publication in fall 2010. We will work with authors, and respond with comments on submissions. Authors will have an opportunity to review and approve suggested edits. Please note that there will be no compensation for submissions.
Submission Guidelines
· Submission should include: the title of the submission, the author(s) names, an abstract of 250 words, and a brief biographical sketch, with affiliations, telephone and e-mail address.
· Language should be accessible to a broad audience including young people.
Please use Times New Roman 12 point font, and leave 1-inch margins all around.
· Please submit as a word document (.doc, not .docx) or as a PDF file
· Please send your submission to us electronically at chitaskforce@gmail.com.
Inquiries about the Taskforce’s Occasional Papers Series or other related questions may be directed to Melissa Spatz at chitaskforce@gmail.com
Detroit Parent Network is hiring
Are you PASSIONATE about children and their education?
Detroit Parent Network is hiring for professional and experienced Leaders in a number of open positions including Project Director, Project Manager, Parent Organizer, and an Administrative Coordinator to work with multiple Detroit Public School’s Parent Involvement Program.
If you are interested, please click on the following link to view full job descriptions:
Detroit: Boggs Center hosting an inspiring conversation with Starhawk
March 3, 2010
Boggs Center
3061 Field Street
Detroit, Mi 48214
6:30pm: Gather for Refreshments & 7:00 pm conversation begins.
From her early writings on the burning times to her recent peace mission in Gaza Starhawk provides words, analysis and vision that transcends old categories and lovingly guides people toward new ways of thinking and being.
Starhawk exemplifies solidarity, community, and leadership for a new time., Visionary and activist, she has worked to create both new forms of resistance and to spread the emerging alternatives for a life affirming future. She is a treasure of our movement, confronting the WTO, spreading the possibilities of permculture and restoring a sense of the sacred to every day life.
Link to Starhawk’s website: http://www.starhawk.org
On Wednesday evening, March 3rd, we will host a conversation with Starhawk and local activists to explore creating a new, spirit rooted economy. We are asking Word and World veterans Bill Wylie Kellerman and Jim Perkinson to join Starhawk and Ron Scott in a discussion of new visions for rebuilding our city. Grace Boggs will open the discussion.
Questions we will explore include:
How do we deepen our thinking, vision and practice as we commit ourselves to creating local sustainable economies in our country?
How do we create economies so we can live more simply so others can live?
How do we end the dominance and empire of consumption and production?
Join us for a unique opportunity for a conversation with Grace, Starhawk, Bill, Ron and Jim-
WRONGFUL IMPRISONMENT: A FORUM TO RAISE AWARENESS & TAKE ACTION!
Birmingham Unitarian Church
38651 Woodward Avenue, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
2-4 p.m. Sunday, March 21, 2010
Background:
• As Americans, we pride ourselves on our commitment to justice. Our
justice system uses the notion that a person is ‘innocent until proven
guilty’.
• However, as technology has improved in forensic science, people have
begun to realize that our system is more flawed than we hoped. People are
wrongfully imprisoned – even wrongfully put on death row – which strips
innocent people of their basic human rights – freedom, autonomy, dignity.
• Through programs like the Innocence Project, over 400 people –
including Ken Wyniemko from Michigan — have been exonerated by proving
their innocence through DNA testing.
• The federal government, the District of Columbia and 27 states have laws
to allow people who have been wrongly imprisoned to be compensated.
Michigan is not yet one of these states.
Learn How You Can Do Something About This Problem In Michigan:
• Hear Donna McKneelen, Director of the Cooley Law School Innocence
Project, tell what she and her colleagues are doing to address the problem
and what other states are doing.
• Gain insights from Ken Wyniemko, a Michigan prisoner released with help
from the Innocence Project.
• Learn about HB 4790 and HB 4791 (sponsored by Rep. Jon Switalski) to
compensate individuals proven to be wrongly imprisoned.
• Discover what you can do to help restore some justice for the wrongly
imprisoned.
NO CHARGE – DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED
For information, call Just Justice at 586-553-4790 or MUUSJN at 248-549-5170
Sponsored by:
Just Justice, the Innocence Project, the Birmingham Unitarian Church
Social Justice Committee, Michigan Unitarian Universalist Social Justice
Network, MOSES, The Michigan Campaign for Justice, and the National
Lawyers Guild Detroit and Michigan Chapter
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America’s Prisons: What We Can Do to Reform Them?
Featuring Alvin J. Bronstein
Renowned Civil Rights Attorney and MacArthur Foundation Fellow
Marygrove College Library Lecture Hall
Second Floor Liberal Arts Building
8425 W. McNichols Rd, Detroit
Thursday February 4, 2010
6:00-9:00 P.M.
FREE and open to the public. Refreshments provided. Generously co-sponsored by Marygrove Social Justice Masters Program.
Please RSVP in advance at http://www.aclumich.org
Alvin J. Bronstein is one of leading experts on human rights and prisons in the United States. The founder of the ACLU National Prison Project in NYC, Bronstein has authored numerous articles and books on human rights and the corrections system, and has served as an expert witness before domestic and international bodies regarding torture, prisoner abuse and human rights.
Bronstein received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (the “Genius” award) in 1989 for his groundbreaking work on prison reform.
Bronstein was also a member of the civil rights movement, during which he twice bailed Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. out of jail and served on Dr. King’s legal defense team.
We hope you will join us for this opportunity to talk with one of America’s most important prison reform experts.
RSVP at http://www.aclumich.org
Detroit: Roots, Rhythm & Salsa
“Roots, Rhythm & Salsa”
Beat the cold with a hot night of salsa dancing at the Charles H. Wright Museum! Come for the class, stay for the open dance. Presented by Duane Wrenn of Energetic Soul Dance Studios. Light refreshments and a cash bar will be available.
Session 1: 6 – 7pm Meet & Greet, 7 – 8pm Salsa Class
Session 2: 8 – 9pm Meet & Greet, 9 – 10pm Salsa Class
Open Salsa Dancing: 10 – 11pm
$7 Members / $10 non-members (per session). $5 of each sale supports student memberships at the Museum.
For more information, please call (313) 494-5853. There’s limited space per session, so call now!
Brought to you by the generous support of Bank of America, DTE Energy, and Masco Corporation.
Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
315 East Warren Avenue
Detroit, Michigan 48201-1443
(313) 494-5800
http://www.CharlesHWrightMuseum.org
Rejoice • Relive • Reconnect
Youthville Detroit open casting call
Calling all journalists in the making YouthVille Detroit holds second open casting call for new journalism program including radio, TV and print!
On Saturday February 6, 2010, starting at 9 a.m., YouthVille Detroit will host an open casting call for a new radio and broadcast program that will be produced and aired this year.
The YouthVille/NewsHub project is collaborating with Michigan’s Children, a statewide independent voice for children, and other partners to create a youth focused journalism project in Detroit called KidSpeak Neighborhood News. KSNN will be launched in the spring. More details will be released later. The program will feature stories on Detroit’s neighborhoods as well as stories on the region.
The broadcast component of the program is being funded by the Detroit Regional News Hub in partnership with ARISE Detroit!, an organization that inspires active engagement, personal responsibility and hope by connecting people to opportunities and resources to transform the quality of life for all Detroiters.
The Detroit Regional News Hub is funded by the New Economic Initiative and Business Leaders for Michigan. Vanessa Denha-Garmo with Denha Media and Communications will be the executive producer of the program.
YouthVille’s Digital Media Arts & Technology (DMAT) program includes a state of the art HD studio and facilities. “These students will be using equipment used by professionals in the field,” said Michael Kuentz, media operations manager. “They will learn new skills by doing work that journalist are doing every day.”
The new program is a youth-led media production. “YouthVille Detroit’s digital media arts & technology program is an excellent opportunity for youth and young adults to experience the latest in digital media, broadcasting and print journalism,” said Rita Clark, director of programs. “Our highly competitive courses exposes youth to several hands-on experiences that most adults wish they could learn. As a youth development center, it is our goal to maximize every youth members’ potential by exposing them to unlimited opportunities“.
YouthVille will be accepting applications for crew, reporters, writers and talent for radio and television? All applicants need to bring a resume. Anyone interested in on-camera talent should bring a non-returnable headshot or a DVD showing their talent to the casting call on February 6.
Detroit Youth Foundation (DYF) was formed in 1999 as a public charities organization transitioning from a previous program model of a W.K. Kellogg Foundation initiative. DYF implemented a conceptual and program implementation model called YouthVille Detroit to create safe space for youth providing programming opportunities and supports. This model was developed in consultation with several youth and family organizations. Some of these organizations later become tenant partners in the YouthVille Detroit facility.
YouthVille also provides tutoring, homework assistance and ACT/ College preparation to participating youth members. Anyone planning to attend the open casting call can email
mediaoperations@youthvilledetroit.org. A complimentary one year YouthVille membership will be given to all youth who audition.
Where: YouthVille Detroit – 7375 Woodward Avenue – Detroit, MI 48202-3157 – (313) 309-1300
Who: Local broadcast talent will cast 11 to 19 year olds to be part of the radio and television program
For media inquiries, please call Michael Kuentz, media operations manager or Rita Clark, director of programs at 313. 309. 1300 or Vanessa Denha-Garmo at 248-702.8687.
6th Annual Midwest Hip Hop Summit
| FREE Registration for the Conference here: http://hhcmidwest.com/summit-registration/ Concert on Feb. 5th is $10. See more below…
For more information, contact: Amer Ahmed, Summit Organizer, 734-763-9044 amahmed@umich.edu Erica Williams, Summit Co-coordinatorericadw@umich.edu
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