Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Event: Undoing Racism

Event: Undoing Racism
 
Time, Day & Date:
Friday, February 26, 2010 - 6 to 10 pm
Saturday, February 27, 2010 - 9 am to 10 pm
 
Location:
Resurrection Roman Catholic Church
276 W. 151st St.
Village of Harlem, New York 10039
 
Fee: $350.00 [Now reduced to $150.00].
  • Student scholarships are available. For more information, Call Sandy Bernabei: 914-522-5997.
  • Because we recognize that many people and organizations are struggling financially, we are offering 50% scholarships ($175) for EACH of these trainings. Call Sandy Bernabei: 914-522-5997
  • Anyone who has attended a workshop in the past is able to come FREE of charge if you bring one paying participant with you. We'd love to see you again! 
Contact:
  • Maurice Lacey @ 347-739-1181 or modollo@aol.com
  • Margery Freeman @ margeryfreeman@yahoo.com
  • Decon Ken Radcliffe @ 347-459-0393 or klr1735@verizon.net 
Workshop Sponsors:
  • NYC Men of Color Group
  • Men of Faith of St. Charles Borromer/Resurrection - Harlem
  • Black Law Enforcement Alliance 
More Information on Program:
  • The People's Institute is hosting FOUR Undoing Racism workshops in the next 4 weeks! Two in Manhattan, one in the Bronx, one in Westchester.
  • We need your help! You know what is needed: Phone calls to key people you've been wanting to have attend a UR workshop.
Program Host:
The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond

Program Sponsoring Partners:
  • Black EquityAlliance
  • Columbia University School of Social Work
  • Teachers College-CU Institute of Urban and Minority Education
  • Fordham University, Graduate School of Social Service
  • Human Services Council of NYC
  • Hunter College School of Social Work
  • NASW-NYC Chapter
  • NASW NYS Chapter-Westchester Division
  • NYU Wagner Graduate School of SocialService
  • Puerto Rican Family Institute
  • Yeshiva School of Social Work  
Program Contact:
Sandy Bernabei @ 914-522-5997 for all future workshops

Program Sponsored By:
This program is sponsored by AntiRacist Alliance OASAS Provider Number 0882

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

New York UPR [Universal Periodic Review] Human Rights Consultation

Event: New York UPR [Universal Periodic Review] Human Rights Consultation

Note: For the sake of clarity and disclosure - This is late notice, for this type of event the venue is small and Columbia worked in a limited fashion with community grassroots groups on this consultation. More to come....

Time: 9 am – 4 pm
Day & Date: Friday, February 26, 2010

Registration:
Space is limited, so if you plan to attend the orientation and/or the consultation, please register by Monday, February 22 using this link:
http://www.law.columbia.edu/center_program/human_rights/new_york_UPR_consultation.
(Official Date - Monday, February 22, 2010 / Still try after the date).

Location:
Columbia University Faculty House
Presidential Room
West 116 th St. between Amsterdam Ave. and Morningside Dr.
(http://facultyhouse.columbia.edu/files/facultyhouse/web/Faculty_House_Directions.pdf)

Contact:
If you have further questions about the consultation, please contact JoAnn Kamuf Ward at Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute at jward@law.columbia.edu or 212-854-0009.

Day Schedule | Agenda:
  • 9 – 9:30:   Registration
  • 9:30 – 9:50 :   Welcome and Introductory Remarks
  • 9:50 – 10:35 :  Housing
  • 10:35 – 10:45:  Break
  • 10:45 – 11:30:  Employment and Labor
  • 11:35 – 12:20:  Education
  • 12:20 – 12:50:   Lunch
  • 12:50 – 1:35:  Health
  • 1:40 – 2:25:  Criminal Justice/Detention
  • 2:30 – 3:30:  Open Comment Period
  • 3:30 – 3:45:  Closing Remarks and Adjournment
Background (Provided by Columbia University):

As you know, the Obama Administration is convening consultation sessions across the country to solicit information and recommendations regarding the U.S. Government’s fulfillment of its obligation to protect human rights. The purpose of these sessions is to assist the government in developing its human rights report for submission to the United Nations as part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process. Information and materials about the UPR can be found on the US Human Rights Network’s website:  http://www.ushrnetwork.org/campaign_upr.

We encourage participation from people who can share their experiences of how the denial of human rights affects individuals in our communities and ways the Administration can address these issues.  This consultation is also an opportunity for us to collaborate and to strengthen the ties among community members working for improved human rights protections.

To prepare for the meeting, there will be a pre-consultation UPR orientation for participants on the evening of Thursday, February 25th, 2010 (details forthcoming).

More Information (Provided by Columbia University):
  • At the request of the U.S. State Department, the consultation will be held at Columbia Law School.  The Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute, the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, and the Urban Justice Center are partnering to host the consultation.  Together, we worked with organizations in New York and the region, as well as the U.S. Human Rights Network to develop the program below.  Each section of the program will include presentations by activists, followed by discussion and comment periods.  There will also be an hour for open comments from participants. 
  • Given the schedule for the day, statements will be limited to 2 minutes or less.  If you intend to present a question or comment, it will be useful to plan your statement in advance and think about framing your statement to include recommendations for how the government can improve its human rights record in relation to human rights obligations (in treaties or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights).  We also encourage participants to bring written statements that can be submitted to the Administration to ensure that all our recommendations become part of the record as not everyone may have a chance to speak. 

Invitation to Third NYC Encuentro for Dignity & Against Displacement

Event: Third NYC Encuentro for Dignity and Against Displacement

En español abajo

Invitation: To members and families of organizations, community members, and people of good conscience, who are fighting against displacement in their communities across NYC.

Hosted By: Movement for Justice in El Barrio

Time: 4:00 p.m.
Day & Date: Sunday, February 28, 2010

Location: El Barrio, NYC

Register:
RSVP "As soon as possible": 212-561-0555 or movementforjusticeinelbarrio@yahoo.com
  • The number of adults and children that will be attending, their names and an address at which you would like to receive your tickets.
  • Once you have RSVP’d you will receive your tickets and more details on the Encuentro.

Background:
An echo that turns itself into many voices, into a network of voices that, before the deafness of power, opts to speak to itself, knowing itself to be one and many, acknowledging itself to be equal in its desire to listen and be listened to, recognizing itself as different in the tonalities and levels of voices forming it. A network of voices that resist the war that power wages on them. – Words of the Zapatistas at the “First Intercontinental Encuentro for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism.”

An Encuentro is a space for people to come together, it is a gathering. An Encuentro is not a meeting, a panel or a conference, it is a way of sharing developed by the Zapatistas as another form of doing politics: from below and to the left. It is a place where we can all speak, we will all listen, and we can all learn. It is a place where we can share the many different struggles that make us one.

“The rebels search each other out. They walk towards one another, breaking down fences, they find each other.” — “First Intercontinental Encuentro”

The rebels have met. In our first and second Encuentros, rebels who are fighting for dignity and against displacement came together to voice their presence, their rage, their struggle and their dreams. We broke down the fences that power constructs to divide us, we listened to one another’s voices, and we learned from one another.

Now the moment is different. Around the city, the country, and the globe, capitalism is heaving and shaking. We see it showing thin cracks in its concrete walls. We see its self-destruction as it razes its smaller empires. We see it exploit the cynical opportunities it envisions in terrible natural and human disasters. We see its agents rush to the battlefield to crack down on communities rising up to build something different.

We walk along a trembling fault line of resistance and oppression and construct a path towards a future with dignity. With the knowledge of other compañeros and compañeras in this struggle we have walked forward stronger and now we must find ways to support each other.

Here in East Harlem, the giant has fallen. The London based multi-national corporation Dawnay, Day Group bought up an empire of 47 buildings in El Barrio with the intention of displacing our community members from our homes and raising rents by ten-fold.  They failed in their mission in the face of years of fierce organized resistance from the tenants of Dawnay, Day that form part of Movement for Justice in El Barrio. They fell victim to their own greed. Now they face foreclosure. Movement for Justice in El Barrio is building an alternative in the ruins.

Across Harlem, the three council members that represent East, Central and West Harlem, millionaire Melissa Mark-Viverito, Inez Dickens and Robert Jackson have time and again joined billionaire Mayor Bloomberg, as he holds on tightly to the reins of power, in planning, promoting, and approving plans that displace our communities.

As we struggle here, we do not forget our sisters and brothers resisting in the far corners of the world. Nor do we forget where we come from and that many of us have already experienced displacement from our homelands. We join the humble and simple people across the world in their resistance as we stand up and join the fight against a global capitalist system that has pushed us to this dignified rage.

In this Third NYC Encuentro for Dignity and Against Displacement we will hear directly from movements fighting against displacement from across the world:

We will facilitate direct live participation from the South African Shack Dwellers to the Third NYC Encuentro. The South African Shack Dwellers Movement is fighting against displacement under the banner of “Land & Housing in the City.” They are standing tall and fighting back against forced removal and continued state repression.

We will also facilitate direct live participation from San Salvador Atenco, Mexico by the Peoples Front in Defense of the Land who will share about their organized creative resistance to protect their land and their culture and to free their political prisoners.

In Haiti, a natural disaster unfolds and amplifies into a man-made disaster from the roots of neoliberal capitalism and from new visions to regenerate its exploitation. We will hear from organized Haitians who have been fighting against displacement for years and will be returning to NYC from Haiti to report directly on the most recent devastation.

Local politicians use their power, influence and money to try to buy-off resistance and pacify dissent. There are those that choose to accept the money of the powerful and ride on the currents of their power. In this Encuentro, we seek to speak directly to those who have chosen to fight against displacement and for dignity from the ground up and who will not be swayed by the seduction of the powerful and their riches.

Power seeks to divide and marginalize us as people of color, as women, as transgender, gay and lesbian, as youth, as the elderly, as workers, as immigrants, as tenants. We must resist division. We must seek to come together.

In this Third Encuentro, we will premiere a documentary of our 2nd NYC Encuentro for Dignity and Against Displacement in which 38 groups came together to share their struggles.

Groups fighting against displacement across New York will share our struggles and use this gathering to find ways to mutually support each other. We will share whatever form of expression we choose, whether it be verbally, through song, poetry or rhyme, through a video, through artwork or however people can best express their struggle.

P.S. Children are especially invited to come break open the “Neoliberal” Piñata!

We will provide dinner, childcare and Spanish/English translation.

Movement for Justice in El Barrio
We are a group of humble and simple people who fight for justice and for humanity. Movement for Justice in El Barrio is fighting against gentrification in El Barrio, a process that is better understood by we who are affected by it as the displacement of families from their homes for being of low income, immigrants and people of color. We are part of the Zapatista initiated transnational movement called “The Other Campaign.”

For Movement for Justice in El Barrio, the struggle for justice means fighting for the liberation of women, immigrants, lesbians, people of color, gays and the transgender community. We all share a common enemy and its called neoliberalism. Neoliberalism wishes to divide us and keep us from combining our forces. We will defeat this by continuing to unite all of our communities until we achieve true liberation for all.


Evento: Tercer Encuentro De Nueva York por la Dignidad y contra el Desplazamiento

Invitación a: Al pueblo de Nueva York, i ntegrantes de organizaciones, a sus familias, y a la  gente de buena conciencia que est á luchando contra el desplazamiento en sus comunidades.

Organizado por: Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio

Tiempo: 4:00 p.m.
Día y Fecha: Domingo, Febrero 28, 2010

Ubicación: El Barrio, Ciudad de Nueva York

Registro:
RSVP "tan pronto como sea posible": 212-561-0555 or movementforjusticeinelbarrio@yahoo.com
  • Una vez que confirme, recibirá sus boletos y más detalles sobre el Encuentro.
  • Para  más información o confirmar que viene, por favor contáctenos al  (212) 561-0555 o a: movimientoporjusticiadelbarrio@yahoo.com
Historial:
“Un eco que se convierte en muchas voces, en una red de voces que, frente a la sordera del Poder, opte por hablarse ella misma sabiéndose una y muchas, conociéndose igual en su aspiración a escuchar y hacerse escuchar, reconociéndose diferente en las tonalidades y niveles de las voces que la forman. Una red de voces que resisten a la guerra que el Poder les hace”: Palabras de los zapatistas en el “ Primer Encuentro Intercontinental por la Humanidad y contra el Neoliberalismo ”

Un Encuentro es un espacio de intercambio humano y de reflexión. Un Encuentro no es una conferencia con discursos o con un panel de oradores, sino un momento de intercambio que los Zapatistas han diseñado como otra forma de hacer política: de abajo y a la izquierda. Es un lugar donde todos podemos hablar, donde todos vamos a escuchar a los demás, y donde todos podemos aprender. Es un lugar donde podemos compartir las muchas luchas diferentes que hacen de nosotros uno solo.

“Los rebeldes se buscan entre si. Se caminan unos hacia los otros. Se encuentran y, juntos, rompen otros cercos. ”:
“ Primer Encuentro Intercontinental ”

Los rebeldes se han reunido. En nuestro primer y segundo E ncuentros, los rebeldes que están luchando por dignidad y contra el desplazamiento se reunieron para dar voz a su presencia, a su rabia, a su lucha y a sus sueños. Rompimos las barreras que el poder construye para dividirnos; escuchamos la voz del otro, y aprendimos uno del otro.

Ahora el momento es distinto. Por toda la ciudad, por todo el país y por todo el planeta, el capitalismo está tambaleándose. Lo vemos mostrando grietas delgadas en sus muros de concreto. Vemos su autodestrucción mientras va demoliendo sus imperios más pequeños. Lo vemos explotar las oportunidades que cínicamente visualiza con terribles desastres naturales y humanos. Vemos a sus agentes precipitarse a los campos de batalla para dividir a las comunidades que se levantan para construir algo diferente.

Caminamos a lo largo de una falla en tierras de resistencia y opresión y construimos un camino rumbo a un futuro con dignidad. Con el conocimiento de otros compañeros y compañeras en esta lucha hemos caminado más fuertes, y ahora tenemos que encontrar formas de apoyarnos los unos a los otros.

Aquí en el este de Harlem, el gigante ha caído. La corporacion transnacional basada en Londres, Inglaterra, Dawnay, Day Group había comprado un imperio de 47 edificios en El Barrio con la intención de desplazar a nuestra comunidad y subir las rentas hasta diez veces más. Fracasaron en su misión al enfrentarse a años de una feroz resistencia organizada por los inquilinos de Dawnay, Day, que forman parte de Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio. Ellos cayeron víctimas de su propia codicia y la corporacion se derrumbo. Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio está construyendo una alternativa sobre las ruinas.

Desde todas partes de Harlem, una vez más, los tres concejales que representan el este, el centro y el oeste de Harlem —la millonaria Melissa Mark Viverito, Inéz Dickens y Robert Jackson— se han unido con el billonario alcalde Bloomberg, quien no suelta las riendas del poder, para planificar, fomentar y aprobar planes de expulsión de nuestras comunidades.

Mientras aquí luchamos, no olvidamos a nuestros hermanas y hermanos que resisten en todos los confines del mundo. Tampoco nos olvidamos de dónde venimos y que muchos de nosotros hemos ya sido desplazados de nuestra patria. Nos unimos a la gente humilde y sencilla de todo el mundo en su resistencia; nos unimos al esfuerzo por derrocar un sistema capitalista global que nos ha obligado a esta digna rabia.

En este Tercer Encuentro Nueva York por la Dignidad y contra el Desplazamiento vamos a enterarnos directamente de lo que nos cuentan los movimientos que luchan contra el desalojo por todo el mundo:

Facilitaremos la participación en vivo desde San Salvador, Atenco, México del Frente de Pueblos por la Defensa de la Tierra, quienes compartirán con nosotros su resistencia creativa y organizada para proteger su tierra y su cultura y para liberar a sus presos políticos.

Facilitaremos la participacion en vivo desde Sudafrica del Movimiento de Los de Casas de Carton que está luchando contra el desalojo bajo el lema de “Tierra y Vivienda en la Ciudad”. Están manteniéndose en pie de lucha y respondiendo a la expulsión forzada y al continuo estado de represión.

En Haití, un desastre nacional se despliega y amplifica como un desastre de fabricación humana desde las raíces del capitalismo neoliberal y desde nuevas visiones para regenerar su explotación. Vamos a oír a los haitianos organizados que han estado luchando contra el desalojo durante años y que regresarán desde Haití a la ciudad de Nueva York para informarnos directamente de la más reciente devastación.

Los políticos locales usan su poder, su influencia y su dinero para tratar de comprar la resistencia y de pacificar a la disidencia. Hay quienes eligen aceptar el dinero de los poderosos y navegar en las corrientes de su poder. En este Encuentro, buscamos hablar directamente con quienes han elegido luchar contra el desplazamiento y por la dignidad desde la base, y que no se dejan dominar por la seducción de los poderosos y sus riquezas.

El poder busca dividir y marginarnos como gente de color, como mujeres, como homosexuales, como lesbianas, como transgéneros, como jóvenes, como ancianos, como trabajadores, como inmigrantes, como inquilinos... Debemos resistir la división. Debemos de buscar la manera de unirnos.

En este Tercer Encuentro estrenaremos un documental de nuestro Segundo Encuentro de la Ciudad de Nueva York por la Dignidad y contra el Desplazamiento, en el cual 38 grupos se reunieron para compartir sus luchas.

Los grupos que luchamos contra el desalojo por todo Nueva York compartiremos nuestras luchas y utilizaremos esta asamblea para encontrar formas de apoyarnos mutuamente. Compartiremos cualquier forma de expresión que elijamos: puede ser verbal, o mediante una canción o poesía o rima, un video, una pintura o lo que sea con lo que la gente mejor pueda expresar su lucha.

PD: ¡Los niños están especialmente invitados a venir a romper la “piñata neoliberal”! 

Habrá cena, atención a los niños y traducción español/inglés.

Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio.
Un grupo de gente humilde y sencilla que luchamos por justicia y humanidad. Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio está luchando contra el desalojo en El Barrio, un proceso que, como mejor lo entendemos nosotros a los que nos afecta, es que es el desalojo de las familias, sacarlas de sus casas por ser gente pobre, inmigrantes y gente de color. Somos parte del movimiento transnacional iniciado por los zapatistas llamado “La Otra Campaña”.

Para el Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio, luchar por justicia significa luchar por la liberación de las mujeres, los inmigrantes, las homosexuales, la gente de color, las lesbianas y la comunidad transgénero. Todos tenemos un enemigo común que es llamado neoliberalismo. El neoliberalismo desea dividirnos e impedir que combinemos nuestras fuerzas. Lo derrotaremos mediante la unión de todas nuestras comunidades hasta que logremos una verdadera liberación para todos.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

PROGRAM: NO Cost Job Training and Employment Program at Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow (OBT)

PROGRAM: NO Cost Job Training and Employment Program at Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow (OBT)

Date: Next Cycle starts February 16, 2010

Note: Internships also available (restrictions apply).  

Background:
Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow (OBT) is now registering young adults 17 – 21 for the Job Training and Employment Program at both locations (Sunset Park and Bushwick/Williamsburg). The training program provides courses in Business English, Business Math, World of Work, Office Procedures, Computer Training, Public Speaking and Communication, GED preparation (if needed), and job placement assistance.

For additional information visit our website www.obtjobs.org or visit us at:

Sunset Park
783 4th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11232
718-369-0303

Bushwick/Williamsburg
25 Thornton Street
Brooklyn, NY 11206
718-387-1600

Contact:
  • Social Media: Facebook & MySpace.com/obtjobs
  • Deborah Román
    Marketing and Recruitment Coordinator
    Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow
    P:  (718) 369-0303
    F: (718) 369-1518
    OBJobs.org
    OBT MySpace ; OBT Facebook ; Donate
About OBT:
The mission is to help disadvantaged populations recognize their own self-worth, and advance towards self-sufficiency and financial security through employment and training, academic reinforcement, improved life skills, job placement, and support services. Our approach has been described as “tough love,” with the goal being to expose students to the high standards and demands they will face in the workplace, while at the same time, offering counseling for those who are experiencing personal difficulties during their training. Services: Youth Education, Training, and Employment; Adult Employment Training and Placement; Young Adult Internship Program, and Adult Literacy Classes. For more information visit our website:  www.obtjobs.org

Event: Letter Writing and Community Education Table - Horizontal Drilling and Hydraulic Fracturing

Event:  Letter Writing and Community Education Table - Horizontal Drilling and Hydraulic Fracturing

Time: 12:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Day & Date: Saturday, Feb 6, 2010
[Check the web page here on Sat. AM if weather is questionable]

Location:
104th St.  & B'way, NE Corner 
(In front of Ben & Jerry's)

Background:
Gas drilling companies are leasing land throughout the New York watershed and statewide. They will use the most destructive type of drilling that pollutes millions of gallons of water. Join us to tell Governor Paterson to ban this dangerous and unnecessary practice.

Millions of gallons of fresh water laced with chemicals and sand are pumped into gas wells where the pressure fractures the rock to release trapped natural gas. There is then no safe way to dispose of the water.  This process, known as hydraulic fracturing, is exempt from federal environmental regulations.

We support the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, our local elected officials Borough President Stringer, State Senators Schneiderman and Perkins, Assembly Member O'Donnell, Council Member Mark-Viverito, and many others who want this stopped now.


Watch These Videos:
  1. Drill (Click this link then click Open)
  2. Horizontal Drilling and Hydraulic Fracturing


PROGRAM: 2010 Summer Transportation Internship Program for Diverse Groups (STIPDG)

PROGRAM: 2010 Summer Transportation Internship Program for Diverse Groups (STIPDG)

Date: Only applications submitted by February 5, 2010 will be accepted.

Note:  The STIPDG is open to all qualified applicants but is designed to provide qualified women, persons with disabilities, and members of diverse groups with summer opportunities in transportation where these groups have been under-represented.

Background
The U.S. Department of Transportation's (USDOT) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is accepting applications for the 2010 STIPDG Internship Program.  Funded by the FHWA's Office of Civil Rights' On-the-Job Training Supportive Services Program.

Objective:
The objective of the STIPDG is to provide college/university students with hands-on experience and on-the-job training while working on current transportation-related topics and issues. 

Additional Information
Visit: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/education/stipdg.htm

Contact:
Shinu R. Shilesh
Diversity Management Bureau
NYS Department of Transportation
Email: sshilesh@dot.state.ny.us
Phone: (518) 485-9616

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

PROGRAM: Horn of Africa Conference

PROGRAM: Horn of Africa Conference

Topic: The Horn of Africa in Crises and Future Prospects

Time: 1pm to 5 pm (Doors open and registration starts at noon).
Day & Date: Saturday, February 27, 2010

Flyer:  Flyer about the event can be downloaded from the CSH Flyer Depot here.

Location:
A. Philipp Randolph School (PS 76) Auditorium
220 W 121 Street
Harlem, NY.

Contact:
Afrikan Unity of Harlem, Inc
Mailings: P.O. Box 1121 NY,NY 10027
Telephone: 212-531-0384

Background:

The Horn of Africa consists of 8 countries neighboring each other in the Eastern part of Africa. It is called the “Horn” due to the shape in which the countries form. The world has been shocked by the recent currents taking place in the Horn from the callous genocide raids and the raping of women in Darfur, war over territorial lands between Ethiopia and Eritrea, to even the so called pirates in Somalia, who try to preserve their food resources. Those who live in countries in the Horn of Africa have faced pervasive and perpetual crisis for over thirty years.

The purpose of this conference is to illustrate the need for a sincere and critical panel discussion from an intellectual and Pan African perspective.  These panel decisions will address the Horn from areas of pre and post colonial times and highlight the areas of ancient kingdoms, cultures and traditions.

“This is a conference where Africans gather to discuss timely and crucial issues pertaining to the homeland Continent. It is a gathering of well meaning Africans from Africa and the Diaspora for exchange of ideas and experiences in politics, socio-economic issues, and the common cultural heritage of Africans. It is an opportunity for all Africans to have a say in the fate of Africa”, says Dr. Ghelawdewos  Araia, President of African Idea and professor at Lehman College.

All welcome!

Sponsored by the follwing organizations and educational institutions on the aftermath of the suffrage of the Haitian people.
Afrikan Unity of Harlem, Inc
Department of African American Studies, York College CUNY,
The Institute of Development and Education for Africa (IDEA), Inc
Department of African and African American Studies, Lehman College CUNY,

PROGRAM: The First Annual Democratic Education Symposium - The Evolution of Education: Democratic Education By the People for the People (Final Call for Presentations)

PROGRAM: The First Annual Democratic Education Symposium

Topic: The Evolution of Education: Democratic Education By the People for the People

NOTE:
Final Call For Presenters. Please submit proposals electronically to msrdiaz@aol.com.  See below for more information
PRESENTATION SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Friday, February 5, 2010

Time: 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Day & Date: Saturday, February 27, 2010

Location:
Founder's Auditorium
Medgar Evers College, CUNY
1650 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11225

Speakers:
Keynote: Dr. Jean Anyon, CUNY Graduate Center
Opening Remarks: Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz

Contact:
Dr. R. Diaz
Telephone: 718-270-4916
Email: msrdiaz@aol.com

Background:
The Education Department  at CUNY Medgar Evers in collaboration with The Brooklyn Free School invite presentation proposals for its First annual Democratic Education Symposium to be held on Saturday, February 27, 2010 at Medgar Evers College. Using the theme, “The Evolution of Education: Democratic Education by the People for the People,” the symposium seeks to bring together all those invested in education and personal development to work on ways society's approach to education can be more learner centered and supportive of the contributions students, teachers, and parents can make as unique individuals with an equal voice.

Our goals are to acknowledge and empower students and teachers to be the voice of  education; Create a better understanding of what a Democratic Education entails; Support all those committed to change in our current system; Share what a true democracy within our schools can look like; Nurture students in becoming the confident, passionate, and caring individuals needed to build a better future.

By stimulating activities and discussions, the symposium invites scholars, researchers, educators, parents and students to examine and transcend the boundaries that divide them. The democratic nature of this symposium provides an opportunity for all those invested in our educational system to interact outside of their traditional roles and seek common ground.

Presentation Proposals:
  1. Presentation proposals should be no more than 250 words in length, 
    1. Should include a cover page with name, academic affiliation (if applicable) and contact information. 
  2. Panel proposals and alternative, non-paper presentations will also be given consideration.
  3. Please submit proposals electronically to msrdiaz@aol.com
    Presented By:
    • Medgar Evers College of The City University of New York and
    • The Brooklyn Free School

    PRESS CONFERENCE: Students, Activists and Supporters of CM Charles Barron

    PRESS CONFERENCE: Students, Activists and Supporters of CM Charles Barron

    Organizers: Reverend Daughtry and Reverend Al Sharpton

    Time:
    11:00 a.m.
    Day & Date: Tuesday, February. 2, 2010

    Location: City Hall steps

    Purpose:  Press Conference to denounce and speak out against Speaker Quinn’s removal of Council Member Barron from the Chairmanship of the Higher Education Committee.

    Contact:
    Ndigo at 212-788-6957 or 646-363-0415 cell

    Background:  "New York City Council Member Charles Baron has been the voice of the powerless (non-connected) throughout New York City. He has taken many "hits" for his positions on issues that affect those who have not been able to bring these same issues to the forefront even after reaching out to their own Council Representatives. Because of his concern and intervention for all the powerless and disenfranchised residents of New York City Council, Member Barron has become the Peoples' Council Member who speaks “Truth to Power”

    When it came to the surprise "Rezoning of 125th Street", Council Members Charles Barron and Tony Avella were the only Council Members who came out and listened to the Harlem Community at forums and one on one." (Charles Barron is running for Speaker of the New York City Council).