| #31; March 7, 2009 | www.highlandercenter.org |
Highlander Director Pam McMichael was a guest blogger on USA Service, the official website of the national organizing call to ongoing service issued by President Barack Obama on Martin Luther King Day on the eve of his inauguration. Pam's post, "Community Organizing: Balm for Tired Souls," says in part:
You can read the rest of Pam's post here. [Respond to this article here]
On March 19-21, the Solidarity Economy Network will hold a national gathering, "Forum on the Solidarity Economy: Building Another World," at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. As a member of the coordinating committee, Highlander is striving to have a good Southern and Appalachian contingent at the Forum to share the incredible work happening in our region and to learn more so that we can take our work further. If you are doing transformative work around economics, the environment, and the care economy and you would like to share it with other people on a panel or in a workshop, please contact Elandria Williams at Elandria (at) highlandercenter.org or 865-973-1896. For more information about the Forum, click here. [Respond to this article here]
On March 27-29, 2009, Highlander will hold its fifteenth "Interpreting for Social Justice" workshop at its Workshop Center in New Market, TN. The workshop is designed for bilingual social justice activists who would like to learn more about interpreting and translating in a social justice context to build alliances and empower immigrant communities. Sessions will include: interpreter role and ethics, interpretation modes, use of interpreting equipment, the impact of language barriers in social justice movement building, and how to create a multilingual space. Participants will engage in hands-on interpretation throughout the workshop. The 3-day workshop is provided at no charge, and includes room and board. We have limited scholarships available to assist with travel expenses. Child-care is available. For more information and to apply online, click here. [Respond to this article here]
Highlander Announces Our New Start one of your best summers ever with Highlander staff and people from around the country at the premiere of Highlander's new Wild and Wonderful, Witty and Wacky Workshop Work Week, May 25-29, 2009. Spend your morning in the idea of Highlander, learning from each other, having political discussions, and participating in workshops on popular education, organizing, movement building, and the history of social change. Spend the afternoon in service to the place of Highlander. As part of a team, help clear a trail, work in the garden, plant trees, paint a room, file in the office, or build a bench, for example. There will be volunteer jobs for all levels of skill and physical ability. In the evenings, sing with Guy and Candie Carawan, tell stories over homemade ice cream, watch movement films under the stars, and square dance with a caller and live band (lessons provided). It's a good old Highlander throw-down that will start with supper at 6:00 pm on Monday, May 25, and conclude with lunch at noon on Friday, May 29th. Cost: Sliding scale $350-500. Some partial scholarships available. How to apply: For more information, contact Highlander at hrec@highlandercenter.org or 865-933-3443. [Respond to this article here]
Created to nurture grassroots efforts within African American communities to use art and activism for justice, the We Shall Overcome Fund supports organizing in the South that is at the nexus of culture and social change. Started in 1966 and housed at Highlander, the Fund provides small grants ($2,000 maximum) for projects that reflect a blend of culture and struggle, embodied in the primary anthem of the Civil Rights Movement, "We Shall Overcome."
During the grant cycle ending January 15, 2009, twelve $1,000 grants were awarded. The following is a list of the recipients and their projects:
Any person or non-profit group/organization that uses arts, culture and community activism to organize for social, economic and political justice to the benefit of African American communities may apply. Requests are accepted from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. The next deadline is June 1, 2009. For more information about the January 2009 grantees and their projects, click here. For information about applying to the We Shall Overcome Fund, click here. [Respond to this article here]
In late January, the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center brought a delegation of women union educators from Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, and Yemen to Washington, DC and then to Highlander. The women came to the United States to share their experience and expertise in union education and organizing, and to learn more to help build the voice of workers in the Middle East.
As a report on the Solidarity Center's website notes, this was the first delegation of Arab trade unionists to visit Highlander. While they were here,
Following the group's visit, Lisa McGowan of the Solidarity Center relayed a story about two of the participants from Morocco who facilitated a gender workshop with workers there soon after they returned home. Many of the workers are non-literate, so the facilitators decided to get rid of their flip chart and sit in a circle, Highlander-style. They recorded the meeting in pictures and reported that the whole group had a wonderful educational experience. All of us at Highlander were inspired by the labor educators' amazing energy, courage, and dedication. We were enriched by their stories and their songs, and by the great meal they cooked for us. We also were delighted to have our first Arabic-English-French multilingual space! For more on the labor educators' visit to the United States, click here. Watch for more information Highlander Reports, which will include a song and a recipe from the group. [Respond to this article here]
Highlander workshops on popular education, cultural organizing and building a multilingual movement were big hits at the Task Force Academy for Leadership and Action, a special track within 21st National Gay and Lesbian Task Force annual conference, Creating Change, held January 28-Feb 1 in Denver.
The Academy was created by NGLTF to partner strategically with people and organizations best known for their training and leadership development to help build the capacity, skills and sustainability of lesbigaytrans and allied activists. Director Pam McMichael and Education Staff Roberto Tijerina conducted a workshop on popular education entitled, "From Stories to Action: What in the World is Popular Education". Tijerina then conducted a workshop "¿Qué Dijeron/What Did They Say?" Creating Multilingual Spaces, and McMichael conducted a workshop entitled "Show WhatYou Know: Cultural Work as an Organizing Tool." While Highlander staff were in Denver, friends of Highlander in the area hosted a coffee and desserts fundraising house party in the community. Special thanks to hosts Bruce and Betsy Boyens, Karen and Joe Mulloy, and Carmen and Ray Ramirez, and to all who came. It was great to connect with long time Highlander friends and make new ones. [Respond to this article here]
Highlander collaborated with the Rockwood Leadership Institute to bring Rockwood's "Art of Leadership" training to the South for the first time on January 26-29. This 4-day residential training was attended by 24 emerging and established leaders from across the South and was led by Michael Bell and Maria Ramos-Chertok. The Rockwood training is designed to teach powerful skills of visioning, listening, speaking, and presenting, and provides coaching, team-building and feedback. Susan Williams, Highlander's Education Coordinator, and Rob Reining, Highlander's Financial Officer, participated in the training. Said Williams,
[Respond to this article here]
Guy and Candie Carawan - musicians, activists, and long-time Highlander staff members - have received extensive coverage in the Knoxville press recently as a result of being among those honored for their work in the Civil Rights Movement by the Knoxville Presidential Inauguration Celebration Committee. On February 2nd, Knoxville television station WVLT-TV aired " "We Shall Overcome," a segment of their "Tennessee Traveler" series that highlights the Carawan's role in helping to spread "We Shall Overcome" throughout the Civil Rights movement and beyond.
On February 18th, the Knoxville New-Sentinel ran a front-page article about Guy and Candie, ""Carawans Used Music to Help Champion Civil Rights," as part of their Black History Month series on local civil rights pioneers.
"You can look to them to find a vision of hope," said Mary Thom Adams, who grew up at the Highlander Center and worked there as a development director. "Everything they did in 1959, they have managed to stay relevant." Highlander's Board and staff are honored to be associated with the Carawans, and join in celebrating their deep commitment to making music and culture a vital part of the fight for social and economic justice. For more on the Carawans and the other civil rights pioneers honored by the Knoxville Presidential Inauguration Celebration Committee, click here. [Respond to this article here]
On February 12, 2009, one hundred and fifty families from 12 states traveled to Washington DC as part of the Equal Voice for America's Families campaign to hand-deliver the National Family Platform directly to the offices of their Representatives.
The platform identifies key issues affecting families and makes policy recommendations to rebuild the safety net for low income Americans. It is based on the recommendations of families who gathered over an 18-month process that included 65 town hall meetings. Last September, more than 14,000 people simultaneously convened in Birmingham, Chicago and Los Angeles to ratify the platform. The Equal Voice campaign is sponsored by the Marguerite Casey Foundation in collaboration with grantee partners all over the country. For more information about the Equal Voice campaign, click here. Links to press coverage of the Action on the Hill are available here. Video from the event is available here. [Respond to this article here]
The State of the Dream 2009, by United for a Fair Economy, reveals that while the general economy is in a recession, people of color are experiencing a silent economic depression that, in terms of unemployment, equals or exceeds the Great Depression. Released on Martin Luther King Day, the report highlights the extreme economic inequality that marks the United States today, and the way that people of color suffer disproportinately because of structural racism and the web of policies that evolved from it. The report notes, for example, that 24% of blacks and 21% of Latinos live in poverty, compared to 8% of whites, and that among young Black males aged 16-19 the unemployment rate is 32.8%, while among their white counterparts it is 18.3%. United for a Fair Economy (UFE) is national organization that raises awareness that concentrated wealth and power undermine the economy, corrupt democracy, deepen the racial divide, and tear communities apart. You can visit UFE's website here. The full text of the State of the Dream report is available here. Links to additional information and resources on economic issues are available on the Highlander website here. [Respond to this article here.] |
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