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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080606T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080606T213000
DTSTAMP:20230626T154227Z
CREATED:20080606T145500Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230626T154227Z
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SUMMARY:"The Lost Generation" with Filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
DESCRIPTION:Internationally-celebrated filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy will speak at a screening of her new film The Lost Generation at The Sanctuary for Independent Media on Friday\, June 6\, 2008 at 7 PM. Admission is by donation ($10 suggested\, $5 student/low income). \n\n\n\nLocal presentation of Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is co-sponsored by Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace\, made possible by volunteer labor and small financial contributions from hundreds of patrons of The Sanctuary For Independent Media. \n\n\n\nSharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is the first non-American journalist to be awarded the prestigious Livingston Award and the youngest recipient of the One World Media broadcast journalist of the year award in the United Kingdom. \n\n\n\nOver the past seven years she has produced and reported on 13 films for major networks in the United States and Britain including CNN\, PBS\, Channel 4 (U.K.) and the Discovery channel. Her work has earned her major awards in broadcast journalism including the Overseas Press Club Award\, The American women and Radio and Television award\, The Cine Golden Eagle Award\, The Banff TV Rockie award and the South Asian Journalist Award. \n\n\n\nIn her latest film–The Lost Generation (2008)–filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy investigates the biggest and most catastrophic refugee crisis in the Middle East since the Palestinian diaspora of 1948. \n\n\n\nIn the past five years more than four million Iraqis–20 per cent of the entire population–have been driven from their homes as a result of the war and sectarian bloodshed. Two million have become exiles\, living desperate lives across the border in Syria and Jordan. \n\n\n\nThe film travels to Syria and Jordan to investigate the plight of Iraqi refugees. These are the very people on whom the new\, democratic Iraq was to be built–the professional middle classes–nearly half of whom now live as desperate refugees\, driven out by the violence and civil breakdown. \n\n\n\nSharmeen’s work has taken her to more than ten countries around the world. Her career in documentary filmmaking began when she examined the plight of Afghani refugee children in Pakistan for one of her articles. Their situation was so dire\, and their stories so compelling\, that Sharmeen decided to return to Pakistan and create a film about them. She petitioned Smith College and New York Times Television production division for the grants that would allow her to accomplish her goals. Intrigued by her story\, both organizations gave her the funds as well as production equipment and training. \n\n\n\nBorn in Karachi\, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy was the first woman in her Pakistani family to receive a Western education. Obaid graduated from Smith College with a bachelor of arts in economics and government and then went to complete two master’s degrees from Stanford University in International Policy Studies and Communication.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/the-lost-generation-with-filmmaker-sharmeen-obaid-chinoy/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Screening
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080611T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080611T210000
DTSTAMP:20230626T155906Z
CREATED:20080611T150600Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230626T155906Z
UID:10000836-1213207200-1213218000@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:"Energy Reality Check: A CoRE Project Special Event"
DESCRIPTION:So the cost of a gallon of gas has reached $4.00. Yet our nation is consuming imported oil and natural gas at a steadily increasing rate. Meanwhile\, we may now have passed through the pivotal point of “Peak Oil\,” leaving the world with an inexorably diminishing supply of oil in the face on continuously growing demand. When we look to our leaders for solutions\, the best they can come up with is a “Gas Tax Holiday”!!  \n\n\n\nThe folks at the CoRE Project think it’s time for an “Energy Reality Check.” There is mounting evidence that high energy prices are here to stay and that still higher prices are on the way. Prices for gasoline are already $8/gal in Ireland and $12 in England. Retired University of New Hampshire professor Clifford Wirth will be in Troy will present his analysis of just how serious is the predicament that we are facing\, followed by a panel discussion. Event includes a community potluck. \n\n\n\nClifford Wirth leads a group of professionals with diverse backgroundsin academics\, energy policy\, oil industry\, engineering\, electricutilities\, economic development\, applied policy analysis\,environmental science\, and local\, state\, and federal government. Thegroup is experienced in practical problem-solving\, contingencyplanning\, and risk management. They are dedicated to advisingindividuals and organizations on how to best handle the challenges ofPeak Oil. \n\n\n\nThe Community Renewable Energy (CoRE) Project is a loosely constitutedgroup of concerned citizens from the Hudson-Mohawk region who work toraise awareness of energy issues and advocate for conservation and amigration to less energy intensive public infrastructure.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/energy-reality-check-a-core-project-special-event/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Community Event,Panel Discussion
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080909T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080909T213000
DTSTAMP:20230626T153005Z
CREATED:20090909T153200Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230626T153005Z
UID:10000840-1220986800-1220995800@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Doug Blackmon on "Slavery by Another Name"
DESCRIPTION:Filled with archival photographs\, Doug Blackmon’s Slavery by Another Name is the true account of the re-enslavement of African Americans from the end of the Civil War until World War II.   \n\n\n\nCo-sponsored by Christ Church United Methodist in Troy. \n\n\n\nContrary to public understanding\, emancipation did not end slavery for hundreds of thousands of people in the southern U.S.   African Americans were arrested for minor offenses\, often for no offense at all\, and sentenced to hard labor in coal mines\, lumber camps\, farms\, and mills across the South.  Most were never released from deplorable working and living conditions.  This system\, which Blackmon calls Neo-Slavery\, did not end until the coming of World War II.  \n\n\n\nThe book is a sad story of a dark period in American history\, but it is a history that we all should know.  Doug has been a journalist for more than 20 years. He was editor of the Daily Record in Little Rock\, Arkansas\, and a reporter with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution before joining the Wall Street Journal in 1995. As a young journalist\, he covered the fall of the Berlin Wall and later the civil war in Yugoslavia. His work has been nominated four times for the Pulitzer Prize. He has written extensively about race in America\, religion\, the economy\, and numerous other social issues. In fact\, he has been writing and speaking about race since he was in the seventh grade in the Mississippi Delta. Douglas Blackmon lives in Atlanta with his wife\, Michelle\, and their children\, Michael and Colette.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/doug-blackmon-on-slavery-by-another-name/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080912T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080912T210000
DTSTAMP:20220404T163046Z
CREATED:20080921T154700Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220404T163046Z
UID:10001017-1221246000-1221253200@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:"Body of War" with Filmmaker Dee Dee Halleck
DESCRIPTION:Tomas Young\, 25 years old\, was paralyzed by a bullet to his spine after serving in Iraq for less than a week. Body of War (2007) follows Tomas as he comes to terms with his disability and finds his own unique and passionate voice against the war. This documentary was produced and directed by Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro. Legendary community media activist Dee Dee Halleck\, who played a major role in bringing this story to film\, will speak about the film. Iraq War vet Tyler Boudreau will sign copies of his new book Packing Inferno: The Unmaking of a Marine. \n\n\n\nCo-sponsored by the Independent Living Center of the Hudson Valley\, Women Against War and Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/body-of-war-with-filmmaker-dee-dee-halleck/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Screening
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20080915T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20080915T210000
DTSTAMP:20220607T151603Z
CREATED:20080915T165000Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220607T151603Z
UID:10001011-1221505200-1221512400@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Chris Carlson and "Nowtopia": Practical Rebellion & A New Politics of Work
DESCRIPTION:How do the Open Source software movement\, bicycle subculture\, guerilla gardening\, and the Burning Man Festival fit together? Nowtopia (2008) author and Critical Mass co-founder Chris Carlsson connects these dots as he profiles the social networks that are cooperating outside of economic regulation and laying the foundation for a genuine movement of liberation from market life. The event will feature an installation by the Rhizome Collective. Valet bike parking available. \n\n\n\nCo-sponsored by Troy Bike Rescue and the New York Bicycling Coalition.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/chris-carlson-and-nowtopia-practical-rebellion-a-new-politics-of-work/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Performance
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081010T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081010T210000
DTSTAMP:20230626T165311Z
CREATED:20081010T141500Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230626T165311Z
UID:10001021-1223665200-1223672400@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:"Disaster and Resistance: Comics and Landscapes for the 21st Century"
DESCRIPTION:A live multimedia presentation of the work in Seth Tobacman’s new book Disaster and Resistance: Comics and Landscapes for the 21st Century (2008)\, just published by AK Press. The presentation/performance features Seth\, drummer Eric Blitz and guitarist Steve Wishnia. In his bold comic style\, the longtime artist\, activist\, and educator skewers the individuals and institutions wreaking havoc across the globe today\, musing not on the chaos of instability and fear but on the struggle against it.  \n\n\n\nCo-sponsored by Women Against War. \n\n\n\nPress Release:\n\n\n\nAccording to former New York Times art director Jerelle Kraus\, “I repeatedly tried to get more of Tobocman’s work onto our pages\, but it was deemed too radical. Tobocman won’t compromise his principles for money or fashion.” \n\n\n\nIn his new book\, he outlines pressing social and political struggles at the dawn of the twenty-first century\, from post 9-11 New York City to Israel and Palestine\, to Iraq and New Orleans. Fans of his classic works\, “You Don’t Have to Fuck People Over to Survive” and “War in the Neighborhood\,” will see that his punch has not softened\, and his work continues to skewer the individuals and institutions wreaking havoc across the globe today. In his bold comic style\, Seth chronicles events as they happen\, musing not on the chaos of instability and fear but on the struggle against it. Seth will sign books after the show\, which is about an hour long. \n\n\n\nHere’s what others have to say: \n\n\n\n“For years now Seth Tobocman has been taking on the powers that be for all of us. He’s not slowing down either.” -Harvey Pekar\, groundbreaking graphic novelist and author of the American Splendor series \n\n\n\n“A graphic revelation\, an artistic and political document of enormous value in our troubled world.” -Paul Buhle\, esteemed historian of American radicalism \n\n\n\n“Once again Seth Tobocman stares straight into the eye of the storm and casts light on the darkness. His complete command of visual storytelling is perfectly matched by his unwavering ability to dissect and explain the most complex and urgent topics of the day. He brings us a behind-the-scenes view from the frontlines\, with heart and clarity\, and turns static headlines into flesh and blood realities. When people look back on our history\, Seth Tobocman’s inspiring comics will provide more insight into this era than a thousand newscasts.” -Peter Kuper\, author of “Speechless” \n\n\n\nSeth Tobocman is one of the founding editors of World War 3 Illustrated\, author/illustrator of three collections\, an educator\,and has shown his work in streets and galleries across the globe—including Exit Art\, The Museum of Modern Art\, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/disaster-and-resistance-comics-and-landscapes-for-the-21st-century/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Performance,Rock Music
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081016T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081016T210000
DTSTAMP:20230626T164557Z
CREATED:20081016T142500Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230626T164557Z
UID:10000847-1224183600-1224190800@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:"A Jihad for Love" with Filmmaker Parvez Sharma
DESCRIPTION:Muslim gay filmmaker Parvez Sharma has gone where the silence is loudest with a daring feature documentary\, A Jihad for Love (2007). Exploring the complex global intersections between Islam and homosexuality\, the film was created with great risk and secrecy in 9 languages and 12 countries where government permission was not an option. As a Muslim\, Parvez works from within the faith\, depicting Islam with the same respect that the film’s characters show for it.  \n\n\n\nCo-sponsored by Women Against War. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nStill from A Jihad for Love by Parvez Sharma \n\n\n\nPress Release:\n\n\n\nIn a time when Islam is under tremendous attack-from within and without-“A Jihad for Love” is a daring documentary filmed in twelve countries and nine languages. Muslim gay filmmaker Parvez Sharma has gone where the silence is loudest\, filming with great risk in nations where government permission to make this film was not an option. \n\n\n\n“A Jihad for Love” is Mr. Sharma’s debut and the world’s first feature documentary to explore the complex global intersections between Islam and homosexuality. Parvez enters the many worlds of Islam by illuminating multiple stories as diverse as Islam itself. The film travels a wide geographic arc presenting us lives from India\, Pakistan\, Iran\, Turkey\, Egypt\, South Africa andFrance. Always filming in secret and as a Muslim\, Parvez makes the film from within the faith\, depicting Islam with the same respect that the film’s characters show for it. “A Jihad for Love” is co-produced by Sandi DuBowski (director/producer of the award-winning “Trembling Before G-d”) in association with ZDF-Arte\, Channel 4\, LOGO\, SBS-Australia\, The Sundance Documentary Fund and The Katahdin Foundation. \n\n\n\nIn Western media\, the concept of “jihad” is often narrowly equated with holy war. But Jihad also has a deeper meaning\, its literal Arabic being “struggle” or “to strive in the path of God.” In this film we meet several characters engaged in their personal Jihad’s for love. The people in this film have a lot to teach us about love. Their pursuit of love has brought them into conflicts with their countries\, families\, and even themselves. Such is the quandary of being both homosexual and Muslim\, a combination so taboo that very little about it has been documented. \n\n\n\nAs a result the majority of gay and lesbian Muslims must travel a twisting\, lonely and often dangerous road. The majority of Muslims believe that homosexuality is forbidden by the Quran and many scholars quote Hadith (sayings attributed to the Prophet Muhammad) to directly condemn homosexuality. Islam\, already the second largest religion in the world\, is also the fastest growing. Fifty nations have a Muslim majority. In a few of those nations laws interpreted from alleged Quranic prohibitions of male homosexuality (lesbianism is allegedly absent from the Quran) are enforced by religious\, tribal or military authorities to monitor\, entrap\, imprison\, torture and even execute homosexuals. Even for those who migrate to Europe or North America and adopt Western personae of “gay” or “queer\,” the relative freedoms of new homelands are mitigated by persistent racial profiling and intensified state surveillance after the attacks of 9/11 and train bombings in Madrid and London. \n\n\n\nAs a result\, many gay and lesbian Muslims end up renouncing their religion completely. But the real-life characters of “A Jihad for Love” aren’t willing to abandon a faith they cherish and that sustains them. Instead\, they struggle to reconcile their ardent belief with the innate reality of their being. The international chorus of gay and lesbian Muslims brought together by “A Jihad for Love” doesn’t seek to vilify or reject Islam\, but rather negotiate a new relationship to it. In doing so\, the film’s extraordinary characters attempt to point the way for all Muslims to move beyond the hostile\, war-torn present\, toward a more hopeful future. As one can imagine\, it was a difficult decision for the subjects to participate in the film due to the violence they could face. It took the filmmaker six years to finish this film and he\, like those who have stepped forward to tell their stories\, feel that they are Islam’s most unlikely storytellers. All of them feel that this film is too important for over a billion Muslims-and all the non-Muslims in the world-for them to say no. They are willing to take the risk in their quest to lay equal claim to their profoundly held faith. \n\n\n\n“A Jihad for Love”’s characters each have vastly different personal takes on Islam\, some observing a rigorously orthodox regimen\, others leading highly secular lifestyles while remaining spiritually devout. As the camera attentively captures their stories\, the film’s gay and lesbian characters emerge in all their human complexity\, giving the viewer an honest rendering of their lives while complicating our assumptions about a monolithic Muslim community. \n\n\n\nCrucially\, this film speaks with a Muslim voice\, unlike other documentaries about sexual politics in Islam made by Western directors. In the hope of opening a dialogue that has been mostly non-existent\, in Islam’s recent history and defining jihad as a “struggle” rather than a “war\,” the film presents the struggle for love. \n\n\n\nParvez Sharma Biography:\n\n\n\nParvez Sharma (producer/director of “A Jihad for Love”) is a Muslim gay filmmaker born and raised in India. For three years\, Sharma worked as a broadcast journalist for Asia’s premiere and most highly-rated 24-hour news network\, the Star News Channel/NDTV\, covering major assignments across the Indian subcontinent and specializing in investigative/human rights stories and political profiles. He worked as producer and/or editor for BBC World Television’s Moneywise and IndiaTomorrow\, Central Television (UK)\, The Discovery Channel (US)\, and the World Bank Film and Video Unit (US). He was the assistant director for the award-winning feature\, “Dance of the Wind\,” produced by Pandora Film in Germany and NFDC India with director Rajan Khosa which won awards at the London\, Rotterdam and Nantes Film Festivals. In 2005\, he was a producer at Democracy Now!\, the nationally broadcast radio and television program which airs on 225 stations across North America with award-winning host Amy Goodman. He produced\, edited and did additional camera for the DVD of Peter Friedman’s Sundance Grand Jury Award winning film “Silverlake Life.” \n\n\n\nParvez Sharma received his bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Presidency College\, University of Calcutta (India) and three Masters degrees: Mass Communication (Film and Television) from India’s premier MCRC\, Jamia Millia Islamia University; Broadcast Journalism from the University of Wales College of Cardiff\, UK; and Film and Video from American University’s School of Communication. He has taught Indian film and other media courses at American University’s Department of Anthropology and its School of Communication in Washington\, DC. \n\n\n\nIn the nineties\, Sharma was a print journalist for several prominent Indian newspapers including The Telegraph\, The Statesman\, The Economic Times\, The Business Standard\, and India Currents Magazine. While at the Statesman he reported on what was the first ever detailing of the lesbian experience within India for a national newspaper-“Emerging from the Shadows” (July 3\, 1994)–which became a rallying point for lesbians around the country and was crucial in the formation of many lesbian organizations. As an activist he was instrumental in setting up the first organized LGBTQ effort in the eastern state of West Bengal\, setting benchmarks for many other LGBT organizing efforts around the subcontinent. Parvez has spoken internationally on distinguished film/media panels and panels on issues crucial to LGBT communities in a South Asian and Muslim context. He was a featured speaker at Yale University Law School\, at th Persistent Vision in San Francisco\, The Open Society Institute in New York\, The Center for Gay and Lesbian Studies in New York and at Amnesty International’s Human Rights Conference–Global Pride\, Global Action: Empowering the Spirit of Human Rights. \n\n\n\nSharma’s first feature documentary\, “A Jihad for Love\,” is co-produced with the UK’s Channel 4\, France’s ARTE\, Germany’s ZDF\, Australia’s SBS\, and U.S. MTV-LOGO. His work and the film have been profiled by The New York Times\, Variety\, The Atlantic Monthly\, Hollywood Reporter\, indieWIRE\, France’s Tetu Magazine\, San Francisco Gate\, on NPR-Chicago and numerous other publications. \n\n\n\nThe film has been supported by a wide number of foundations including The van Ameringen Foundation\, The Hartley Film Foundation\, The Mathilde Krim Foundation\, The Andrew Tobias Foundation-Stonewall Community Foundation\, the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation\, The Fledgling Fund\, The Bruce Bastion Foundation\, The Foundation for Fairer Capitalism\, The Ted Snowdon Foundation\, and The Mark D. Hostetter and Alexander N. Habib Foundation. He was honored with a nomination for a 2007 Rockefeller Film/Video/Multimedia Fellowship. \n\n\n\nWith his wide range of experience in film\, television and activism spanning three continents (Asia\, Europe\, and North America)\, and his proficiency in five languages (English\, Hindi\, Urdu\, Bengali\, and Punjabi)\, Sharma hopes to bring a rich cultural perspective and an honest and skillful depiction of Islam-and his very own communities- to this film and the courageous journeys it documents and the global dialogue it catalyzes.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/a-jihad-for-love-with-filmmaker-parvez-sharma/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Screening
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081024T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081024T210000
DTSTAMP:20230626T165926Z
CREATED:20081024T143700Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230626T165926Z
UID:10000850-1224874800-1224882000@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:"A Summer in the Cage" with Filmmaker Ben Selkow
DESCRIPTION:A Summer in the Cage (2007) is a stunning portrait of a battle with manic-depressive (bipolar) disorder that puts a human face on an illness that affects millions of American families. As this dramatic story unfolds\, it also becomes a unique tale about friendship and the ethical responsibilities of a documentary filmmaker. The intent was to make a film about successfully living with\, and managing\, a mental illness- but when the Hollywood ending proves too elusive\, the filmmaker and the subject are forced to ask themselves\, “When do you turn off the camera?”  \n\n\n\nThis event is co-sponsored by The Independent Living Center of the Hudson Valley. \n\n\n\nPress Release:\n\n\n\n“A Summer in the Cage” follows Selkow’s friend Sam for seven years ashe suffers delusional manic episodes\, battles paralyzing depressions\,and tries to escape the legacy of his father. By showing the difficultemotional impact of being bipolar on Sam\, his family\, and thefilmmaker\, “A Summer in the Cage” hopes to put a human face on anillness that affects millions of American families. But as thisdramatic story unfolds\, it also becomes a unique tale about friendshipand the ethical responsibilities of a documentary filmmaker. Theintent was to make a film about successfully living with\, andmanaging\, a mental illness. When the “Hollywood ending” proved tooelusive\, the filmmaker and the subject are forced to ask themselves\,“When do you turn off the camera?” \n\n\n\n“I saw this film earlier this year at a film festival\,” says Sanctuaryprogrammer Penny Lane\, “and I had never seen anything like it. Thevideo diaries made by Sam during his manias are some of the most rawand powerful images I have ever encountered.” Lane was compelled tobring the film and its maker to her community after witnessing thedialogue the film provoked in the audience. \n\n\n\n“Quite frankly\, one of the most powerful documentaries I have seen\,”says author Peter Earley (CRAZY: A Father’s Search Through America’sMental Health Madness)\, “I do not know of any other filmmaker who hascaptured the frantic highs of mania\, the devastation of depression androller coaster of ordinary life that a person with a diagnosis ofbipolar disorder experiences.” \n\n\n\nDr. Kay Redfield Jamison\, well known professor\, author and psychiatrist\, highly recommended the film\, calling it “powerful\, affecting and honest.” \n\n\n\nBen Selkow is the director/producer/director of photography/writer of “A Summer in the Cage\,” which premiered on the Sundance Channel in October 2007 and is being distributed for home video by Indiepix. The film was nominated for a 2008 Prism Bipolar Disorder Depiction Award.In 2003\, Ben was a participant in the annual Sundance Producer’sConference at the Sundance Institute in Utah.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/a-summer-in-the-cage-with-filmmaker-ben-selkow/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Screening
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081028T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081028T220000
DTSTAMP:20230705T152738Z
CREATED:20081028T145200Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230705T152738Z
UID:10000852-1225220400-1225231200@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Camilo Mejia: The Private Rebellion of a Staff Sergeant
DESCRIPTION:After serving in the Army for nearly nine years\, Camilo Mejia was the first known Iraq veteran to refuse to fight when he applied for discharge from the army as a conscientious objector\, citing moral concerns about the war and occupation. The principled stand described in his memoir\, Road From ar Ramadi: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejia (just published by Haymarket Books)\, helped rally the growing opposition and embolden other soldiers. He was eventually convicted of desertion by a military court and sentenced to a year in prison\, prompting Amnesty International to declare him a prisoner of conscience. Camilo will speak about his experiences.  \n\n\n\nCo-sponsored by Women Against War and Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace. \n\n\n\nRegaining My Humanity \n\n\n\nBy Camilo MejiaCodePink.org \n\n\n\nThursday 17 February 2005 \n\n\n\nI was deployed to Iraq in April 2003 and returned home for a two-week leave in October. Going home gave me the opportunity to put my thoughts in order and to listen to what my conscience had to say. People would ask me about my war experiences and answering them took me back to all the horrors-the firefights\, the ambushes\, the time I saw a young Iraqi dragged by his shoulders through a pool of his own blood or an innocent man was decapitated by our machine gun fire. The time I saw a soldier broken down inside because he killed a child\, or an old man on his knees\, crying with his arms raised to the sky\, perhaps asking God why we had taken the lifeless body of his son. \n\n\n\nI thought of the suffering of a people whose country was in ruins and who were further humiliated by the raids\, patrols and curfews of an occupying army. \n\n\n\nAnd I realized that none of the reasons we were told about why we were in Iraq turned out to be true. There were no weapons of mass destruction. There was no link between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. We weren’t helping the Iraqi people and the Iraqi people didn’t want us there. We weren’t preventing terrorism or making Americans safer. I couldn’t find a single good reason for having been there\, for having shot at people and been shot at. \n\n\n\nComing home gave me the clarity to see the line between military duty and moral obligation. I realized that I was part of a war that I believed was immoral and criminal\, a war of aggression\, a war of imperial domination. I realized that acting upon my principles became incompatible with my role in the military\, and I decided that I could not return to Iraq. \n\n\n\nBy putting my weapon down\, I chose to reassert myself as a human being. I have not deserted the military or been disloyal to the men and women of the military. I have not been disloyal to a country. I have only been loyal to my principles. \n\n\n\nWhen I turned myself in\, with all my fears and doubts\, it did it not only for myself. I did it for the people of Iraq\, even for those who fired upon me-they were just on the other side of a battleground where war itself was the only enemy. I did it for the Iraqi children\, who are victims of mines and depleted uranium. I did it for the thousands of unknown civilians killed in war. My time in prison is a small price compared to the price Iraqis and Americans have paid with their lives. Mine is a small price compared to the price Humanity has paid for war. \n\n\n\nMany have called me a coward\, others have called me a hero. I believe I can be found somewhere in the middle. To those who have called me a hero\, I say that I don’t believe in heroes\, but I believe that ordinary people can do extraordinary things. \n\n\n\nTo those who have called me a coward I say that they are wrong\, and that without knowing it\, they are also right. They are wrong when they think that I left the war for fear of being killed. I admit that fear was there\, but there was also the fear of killing innocent people\, the fear of putting myself in a position where to survive means to kill\, there was the fear of losing my soul in the process of saving my body\, the fear of losing myself to my daughter\, to the people who love me\, to the man I used to be\, the man I wanted to be. I was afraid of waking up one morning to realize my humanity had abandoned me. \n\n\n\nI say without any pride that I did my job as a soldier. I commanded an infantry squad in combat and we never failed to accomplish our mission. But those who called me a coward\, without knowing it\, are also right. I was a coward not for leaving the war\, but for having been a part of it in the first place. Refusing and resisting this war was my moral duty\, a moral duty that called me to take a principled action. I failed to fulfill my moral duty as a human being and instead I chose to fulfill my duty as a soldier. All because I was afraid. I was terrified\, I did not want to stand up to the government and the army\, I was afraid of punishment and humiliation. I went to war because at the moment I was a coward\, and for that I apologize to my soldiers for not being the type of leader I should have been. \n\n\n\nI also apologize to the Iraqi people. To them I say I am sorry for the curfews\, for the raids\, for the killings. May they find it in their hearts to forgive me. \n\n\n\nOne of the reasons I did not refuse the war from the beginning was that I was afraid of losing my freedom. Today\, as I sit behind bars I realize that there are many types of freedom\, and that in spite of my confinement I remain free in many important ways. What good is freedom if we are afraid to follow our conscience? What good is freedom if we are not able to live with our own actions? I am confined to a prison but I feel\, today more than ever\, connected to all humanity. Behind these bars I sit a free man because I listened to a higher power\, the voice of my conscience. \n\n\n\nWhile I was confined in total segregation\, I came across a poem written by a man who refused and resisted the government of Nazi Germany. For doing so he was executed. His name is Albrecht Hanshofer\, and he wrote this poem as he awaited execution. \n\n\n\nGuilt \n\n\n\nThe burden of my guilt before the lawweighs light upon my shoulders; to plotand to conspire was my duty to the people;I would have been a criminal had I not. \n\n\n\nI am guilty\, though not the way you think\,I should have done my duty sooner\, I was wrong\,I should have called evil more clearly by its nameI hesitated to condemn it for far too long. \n\n\n\nI now accuse myself within my heart:I have betrayed my conscience far too longI have deceived myself and fellow man. \n\n\n\nI knew the course of evil from the startMy warning was not loud nor clear enough!Today I know what I was guilty of… \n\n\n\nTo those who are still quiet\, to those who continue to betray their conscience\, to those who are not calling evil more clearly by its name\, to those of us who are still not doing enough to refuse and resist\, I say “come forward.” I say “free your minds.” Let us\, collectively\, free our minds\, soften our hearts\, comfort the wounded\, put down our weapons\, and reassert ourselves as human beings by putting an end to war. \n\n\n\n–Camilo Mejia \n\n\n\nPress Release\n\n\n\nAuthor\, anti-war activist\, prisoner of conscience and chairman of the board of Iraq Veterans Against the War\, Camilo Mejia will speak about his experiences and his book “Road from Ar Ramadi: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Mejía” at The Sanctuary for Independent Media on Tuesday\, October 28\, 2008 at 7 PM. Admission is by donation ($10 suggested\, $5 student/low income). The Sanctuary for Independent Media is located at 3361 6th Avenue in north Troy (at 101st Street). Call (518) 272-2390\, email info@MediaSanctuary.org\, or visit www.MediaSanctuary.org for directions and more information. \n\n\n\nCamilo Mejia joined the military at the age of nineteen\, serving as an infantryman in the active-duty army for three years before transferring to the Florida National Guard. After fighting in Iraq\, Mejia became the first known Iraq veteran to refuse to fight the war in Iraq\, citing moral concerns about the war and occupation. He was eventually convicted of desertion by a military court and sentenced to a year in prison\, prompting Amnesty International to declare him a prisoner of conscience. \n\n\n\nMejía is a former student of the University of Miami in Coral Gables\, Florida\, where he intended to major in psychology and Spanish on a military-funded scholarship. Mejía spent six months in Iraq (his first combat tour after enlisting)\, then returned for a 2-week furlough to the US after which he did not return for duty. He was charged with desertion and sentenced to one year in prison for refusing to return to fight in Iraq. In March 2004 he turned himself in to the US military and filed an application for conscientious objector status. \n\n\n\nMejía was court-martialed\, and claimed that he left his post in order to avoid duties that could be considered war crimes: more specifically\, the abuse and torture of prisoners. One of his attorneys\, former United States Attorney General Ramsey Clark\, claimed that he was thus protected from desertion charges by international law. \n\n\n\nOn May 21\, 2004 Mejía was convicted of desertion by a military jury and sentenced to a year in jail and a bad conduct discharge. Under Article 85 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice\, conviction on the charge of desertion during time of war can result in a sentence of death. \n\n\n\nMejía served his time at the Fort Sill military prison in Lawton\, Oklahoma. During his time in custody he was recognized by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience and was awarded by Refuse and Resist with its Courageous Resister Award. \n\n\n\nCamilo was also recognized by the Detroit City Council with a commendation for his stand. Detroit was the first city where Mejía spoke at an anti-war rally. While confined\, local and national activists organized a series of vigils outside the gates of Ft. Sill\, including one attended by Kathy Kelly and other members of Voices in the Wilderness. \n\n\n\nCamilo Mejía was released from prison on February 15\, 2005. Since his release\, he has spoken at many peace protests and to the press about his experiences and his opposition to the war in Iraq. \n\n\n\nMejía has recently written a book entitled “Road from Ar Ramadi: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Mejía” (Haymarket Books\, 2008) which recounts his journey of conscience in Iraq: \n\n\n\n“I say without any pride that I did my job as a soldier. I commanded an infantry squad in combat and we never failed to accomplish our mission. But those who called me a coward\, without knowing it\, are also right. I was a coward not for leaving the war\, but for having been a part of it in the first place. Refusing and resisting this war was my moral duty\, a moral duty that called me to take a principled action. I failed to fulfill my moral duty as a human being and instead I chose to fulfill my duty as a soldier. All because I was afraid. I was terrified\, I did not want to stand up to the government and the army\, I was afraid of punishment and humiliation. I went to war because at the moment I was a coward\, and for that I apologize to my soldiers for not being the type of leader I should have been.” \n\n\n\nIn August 2007 Mejía was named the chair of the board of directors of Iraq Veterans Against the War.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/camilo-mejia-the-private-rebellion-of-a-staff-sergeant/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Speaker
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081105T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081105T200000
DTSTAMP:20230705T153158Z
CREATED:20081105T155700Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230705T153158Z
UID:10000853-1225908000-1225915200@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Filmmaker Matt McCormick
DESCRIPTION:A renowned artist and filmmaker whose success spans both the art and independent film worlds\, Matt is touring New York State with classic works like The Problem with Machines that Communicate and Light Tiger Eye as well as brand-spanking-new music videos\, absurdist narratives\, and random miscellaneous tidbits and surprises. Matt is also the founder of Peripheral Produce\, an internationally recognized video distribution label specializing in short experimental work\, and the director of the Portland Documentary and eXperimental Film Festival\, Portland’s premiere event for experimental\, documentary\, and otherwise obscure contemporary cinema. \n\n\n\nThis event is made possible by the Experimental Television Center’s Presentation Funds. The Experimental Television Center’s Presentation Funds program is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts. \n\n\n\nMore About Matt\n\n\n\nMatt McCormick is an artist\, filmmaker\, photographer\, and musician who has produced several well-received projects in recent years. His films defy genre distinctions and fashion witty\, abstract observations of contemporary culture and the urban landscape. His project Future So Bright maps and catalogs the abandoned spaces in the American West\, while American Nutria examines the plight of an imported species while chastising capitalism’s tendency to create its own disasters. The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal makes the observation that the process of destroying one art form unwittingly creates another\, while his installation piece Ride a Wave To Tomorrow’s Sunset reflects on society’s need for ‘synthetic meditation’. \n\n\n\nMatt’s work has been exhibited in film festivals\, art museums\, and microcinemas around the globe\, appeared on MTV and the Sundance Channel\, and received positive reviews from Art Forum\, The New York Times\, and Film Comment magazine. Matt has worked and collaborated with many artists and musicians\, including The Shins\, Miranda July\, Sleater-Kinney\, The Postal Service\, YACHT\, Patton Oswalt\, and Calvin Johnson. Matt has had three films screen at the Sundance Film Festival\, and been included in the traveling group exhibitions “Uncertain States of America” and “Baja to Vancouver.” He has received awards including Best Short Film from the San Francisco International Film Fest\, Best Experimental from the New York Underground Film Fest\, and Best Short from the Ann Arbor Film Fest\, and his film The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal was named in ‘Top 10 / Best of 2002’ lists in both The Village Voice and Art Forum magazine. Matt also won a 2007 Rosey Award for a series of global warming public service announcements he directed for MTV.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/filmmaker-matt-mccormick/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Screening
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081108T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081108T203000
DTSTAMP:20230705T153508Z
CREATED:20081108T160400Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230705T153508Z
UID:10000854-1226167200-1226176200@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:A Night Out with "The Narcotic Farm"
DESCRIPTION:The U.S. Narcotic Farm just outside Lexington\, KY\, was a legendary meeting place for America’s drug addicts. This performance interweaves verbal\, visual\, and musical memories of a place that was a crossroads for drug addicts from 1935-1975. Authors Nancy Campbell and JP Olsen will read and screen portions of their works on this historic place\, mixed with jazz from musicians incarcerated at Narcotic Farm. \n\n\n\nThe list of Lexington Narcotic Farm musician alums reads like a who’s who of jazz: Chet Baker\, Tadd Dameron\, Joe Guy (Billie Holliday’s husband—she wasn’t at the farm but rather at Alderson\, the women’s prison in WV)\, Elvin Jones\, Stan Levey\, Jackie McLean\, Red Rodney (Charlie Parker’s sideman)\, Sonny Stitt\, Sonny Rollins. And there’s an interesting connection to MC5 (Wayne Kramer is the narrator of the film and part of the seminal pre-punk band\,); he spent time at Lexington in the 1970s). \n\n\n\nYou might find this month’s Jazz Times interesting; it has a photo feature on The Narcotic Farm. They also excerpted the chapter\, “The Greatest Band You Never Heard.” \n\n\n\nThere was a story about the project on NPR called “Americas First Drug-Treatment Prison Revisited” this weekend. \n\n\n\nPress Release\n\n\n\nThe author and the filmmaker of a new book and a video documentary airing on PBS called “The Narcotic Farm: The Rise and Fall of America’s First Prison for Drug Addicts” are presenting a multi-media performance/premiere with live jazz music at The Sanctuary for Independent Media on Saturday\, November 8\, 2008 at 7 PM. Admission is by donation ($10 suggested\, $5 student/low income). The Sanctuary for Independent Media is located at 3361 6th Avenue in north Troy (at 101st Street). Call (518) 272-2390\, email info@MediaSanctuary.org\, or visit www.MediaSanctuary.org for directions and more information. \n\n\n\nThe U.S. Narcotic Farm just outside Lexington\, KY\, was a legendary meeting place for America’s drug addicts. This performance interweaves verbal\, visual\, and musical memories of a place that was a crossroads for drug addicts from 1935-1975. Author Nancy Campbell and filmmaker JP Olsen will read and screen portions of their works on this historic place\, mixed with jazz from musicians incarcerated at Narcotic Farm–performed by a live band! \n\n\n\nA federal prison in Kentucky was a temporary home for thousands\, including Sonny Rollins\, Peter Lorre and William S. Burroughs as well as a lab for addiction treatments such as LSD. \n\n\n\nFrom 1935 to 1975\, just about everyone busted for drugs in the U.S. was sent to the United States Narcotic Farm outside Lexington\, Ky. Equal parts federal prison\, treatment center\, research laboratory and farm\, this controversial institution was designed not only to rehabilitate addicts\, but to discover a cure for drug addiction. \n\n\n\nNow a new documentary\, “The Narcotic Farm\,” reveals the lost world of this institution\, based on rare film footage\, numerous documents\, dozens of interviews of former staff\, inmates and volunteer patients\, and more than 2\,000 photographs unearthed from archives across the country. The film will appear on public television stations across the country throughout November. A book accompanying the documentary includes rare and previously unpublished pictures of “Narco\,” as the institution was called locally. \n\n\n\nAccording to the book\, the institution became a premier center for research into drug addiction and treatment\, advancing everything from the use of methadone to treat heroin withdrawal to drugs that blocked the action of opiates. Along the way\, Narco was frequented by legendary jazz musicians such as Chet Baker and Sonny Rollins\, as well as actor Peter Lorre and beat generation writer William S. Burroughs\, who recounted his experience in his first novel\, “Junkie.” \n\n\n\nThe documentary also chronicles how the Farm was shut down when Congress discovered that researchers there were using patients as human guinea pigs in CIA-funded experiments into LSD. Drug research on federal prisoners is now illegal. \n\n\n\nStill\, the filmmakers note accomplishments at the institution remain milestones in addiction science and treatment. Its most important contribution might be how it transformed the way society views addicts—”as people suffering from a chronic\, relapsing disorder that affects public health\,” says book co-author Nancy Campbell. \n\n\n\nNancy D. Campbell is an associate professor in the Department of Science and technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who studies the history of drug addiction research. She lives in Troy NY. \n\n\n\nJP Olsen is a filmmaker whose work has appeared on The Discovery Channel and many other stations. He lives in New York City. \n\n\n\nThe Sanctuary for Independent Media is a community media arts and production center located in an historic former church in Troy\, NY. The venue is an intimate and acoustically excellent space which seats about 150. The Sanctuary hosts screening\, production and performance facilities\, training in media production and a meeting space for artists\, activists and independent media makers of all kinds.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/a-night-out-with-the-narcotic-farm/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Jazz Music,Panel Discussion,Performance,Screening
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081113T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081113T210000
DTSTAMP:20230705T153953Z
CREATED:20081113T160900Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230705T153953Z
UID:10000855-1226599200-1226610000@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Abel Raises Cain with Media Prankster Alan Abel
DESCRIPTION:A roller coaster ride through the myriad of elaborate hoaxes and schemes pulled off over the years by the infamous underground media prankster\, provocateur and trickster par excellence Alan Abel\, offering and unprecedented glimpse into a life and bizarre career designed to provoke and amuse – while at the same time making people question everything that they see\, hear and read. Alan will be on hand to discuss the film.  \n\n\n\nThis event is made possible by the Experimental Television Center’s Presentation Funds. The Experimental Television Center’s Presentation Funds program is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts. \n\n\n\nAbel Raises Cain (trailer) is an unprecedented glimpse into the bizarre career of Alan Abel\, the infamous media hoaxer. Like a reverse Jon Stewart\, Abel has been producing fake news for the masses for over 50 years. He has made a name for himself several times over with stunts that are just ridiculous enough to be believed\, especially to a media that feeds on salacious\, lurid and wacky stories. \n\n\n\nAbel’s hoaxing career began in the late 1950s with S.I.N.A.\, the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals. This tongue-in-cheek moral crusade\, whose purpose was to clothe all animals for modesty’s sake\, was actually a commentary on censorship. After launching the campaign\, however\, Alan soon found himself in the midst of a national craze. Newspaper\, radio and television reporters couldn’t seem to get the story fast enough. Abel realized that\, with very little funds and very few props\, with a straight face\, he could convince America\, and the media\, that an absurd idea like S.I.N.A. truly existed. \n\n\n\nOver the years\, Alan continued masterminding scores of other allegorical satires and outlandish stunts\, all with the purpose to amuse and provoke. Ultimately\, with his hoaxes\, Alan’s goal has always been to give people\, what he calls “a kick in the intellect.” Abel continues to taunt the media and the masses with his nutty ideas\, imaginary organizations and seemingly nonsensical campaigns. In 2000\, Life Magazine recognized Alan as a cultural icon during the 20th century in their volume edition\, Century of Change. \n\n\n\nIn this loving documentary portrait of an eccentric father\, Alan’s daughter\, Jenny\, tells her firsthand account of what it was like growing up with a prankster dad. Abel Raises Cain takes the audience on a roller coaster ride through the myriad of elaborate hoaxes and schemes that Abel pulled off over the years\, all of which were designed to provoke and amuse… while at the same time\, make people question everything that they see\, hear and read. \n\n\n\nThe UTNE Reader praised the film for showing us that “long before the Yes Men satirized Exxon and Halliburton\, and before Ashton Kutcher was born\, Alan Abel was the undisputed king of media hoaxers.” Reviewers at slate.com called Abel Raises Cain “an invigorating and often hysterical look at a gifted comic and the nation of dupes he continues to use as his medium.” Abel Raises Cain has won numerous awards\, including Best Documentary (Slamdance\, Newport)\, Top Ten Audience Favorites (Hot Docs)\, and Best Feature (Brooklyn Underground).
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/abel-raises-cain-with-media-prankster-alan-abel/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Screening
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081203T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081203T200000
DTSTAMP:20230705T161046Z
CREATED:20081203T162300Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230705T161046Z
UID:10000859-1228327200-1228334400@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Frank Lopez Presents Submedia and Lost Film Festival: Guerilla Media Screening with "Ground Noise and Static"
DESCRIPTION:Video and web artist and all-around culture jammer Frank Lopez of subMedia.TV visits us from Vancouver\, BC!  His work includes the post- Katrina music video George Bush Don’t Like Black People (downloaded over one million times and counting) and the vlog It’s the End of the World as We Know It and I Feel Fine (which highlighted the Wafaa Bilal incident last spring).  He’ll be presenting Ground Noise & Static\, a powerful documentary filmed in the midst of the protests at last summer’s 2008 political conventions.  \n\n\n\nGround Noise & Static is a joint effort of Franklin López of subMedia.TV andPepperSpray Productions. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAbout Ground Noise & Static \n\n\n\nIn November\, one or the other of the corporate candidates willwin\, and then\, as always\, it will be what the people do\, not thepoliticians\, that counts. \n\n\n\nGround Noise & Static is a video report on the protests that occurred in connection with the Democrat and Republican National Conventions\, Ground Noise & Static is a manifesto. We went to Denver and St. Paul to take the pulse of the movement. Corporate media would cover the platitudes and posturing of the politicians\, we were interested in something else\, a story hidden in plain sight\, captured in the now-classic street chant\, “This is what democracy looks like.”
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/frank-lopez-presents-submedia-and-lost-film-festival-guerilla-media-screening-with-ground-noise-and-static/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Workshop
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20081206T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20081206T200000
DTSTAMP:20230705T161324Z
CREATED:20081206T162800Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230705T161324Z
UID:10000861-1228586400-1228593600@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:"I Need That Record" with Filmmaker Brendan Toller
DESCRIPTION:I Need that Record (2008)  is a documentary feature examining why more than 3\,000 independent record stores have closed across the U.S. in the past decade. Greedy record labels\, media consolidation\, homogenized radio\, big box stores\, e-commerce\, shoddy “stars” pushed by big money\, and the digital revolution all pose threats to the very well-being of our favorite record stores. Will these stores die? Will they survive? The filmmaker will lead a discussion following the screening. \n\n\n\nToller\, who researched the film for two years and traveled all over the U.S. talking to record store owners\, musicians and music lovers\, comments that “[r]ecord stores serve as important community spaces providing foundations for new musical and artistic scenes and movements\,” noting also the role of record stores as seedbeds for independent thought and meeting places for people of all kinds. I Need That Record! is a compelling tribute to this endangered phenomenon. \n\n\n\nI Need That Record! features interviews with Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth)\, Ian Mackaye (Dischord Records Fugazi/Minor Threat). activist/author Noam Chomsky\, Mike Watt (The Minutemen)\, Lenny Kaye (the Patti Smith Group)\, Chris Frantz (Talking Heads/Tom Tom Club)\, guitar composer Glenn Branca\, Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers)\, Pat Carney (Black Keys)\, punk author Legs McNeil\, rock photographer Bob Gruen\, BP Helium (Of Montreal)\, and the owners and employees of record stores in NYC\, Boston\, DC\, Cleveland\, Detroit\, Ann Arbor\, Chicago\, Minneapolis\, Memphis\, Nashville\, and Los Angeles. \n\n\n\nGreedy record labels\, media consolidation\, homogenized radio\, big box stores\, e-commerce\, shoddy “stars” pushed by big money\, and the digital revolution are all real challenges to independent record stores. I Need That Record! asks: Will these stores die? Will they survive? \n\n\n\nThe film has attracted buzz on Pitchfork\, The Onion A/V Club\, PunkNews\, Wiretap Magazine\, Brooklyn Vegan\, The Stranger and more.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/i-need-that-record-with-filmmaker-brendan-toller/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Screening
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20180413T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20180415T235959
DTSTAMP:20230306T194252Z
CREATED:20210921T141935Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230306T194252Z
UID:10001023-1523577600-1523836799@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Ruderal Ecologies: Grounds for Change
DESCRIPTION:CHECK OUT video documentation of RUDERAL ECOLOGIES! \n\n\n\nThis event was free and open to the public\, with donations encouraged  to build the NATURE Lab Environmental Education Center.  \n\n\n\nThis symposium marks the last weekend for our NATURE Lab crowdfunding campaign: help us build a center for community science\, bioart and environmental justice\, right here on our block in North Troy! The Sanctuary needs your support! Register and donate to find out more about how you can help us make this citizen science center a reality.Ruderal Ecologies is a weekend-long symposium to commence Earth Week. Art\, urban ecology\, and social justice activities focus on living in urban environments shaped by stress. “Ruderal ecologies” are formed by hardy and adaptive organisms and grassroots activist communities that grow out of the ruins of urban wastelands.Hosted by The Sanctuary for Independent Media’s NATURE Lab\, the symposium involves thinkers and activists from ecology\, public health\, urban planning\, environmental science\, environmental justice\, permaculture\, the arts\, and science and technology studies. Together participants look for growth and resilience in polluted but biodiverse environments\, asking: \n\n\n\n\nHow can we identify underserved marginalized communities to build engaged\, diverse networks\, on grounds considered “wastelands”?\n\n\n\nWhat forms of life flourish amid the ruins of ruderal ecologies?\n\n\n\nWhat happens when we include “nonhuman” forms of life–including plants and animals–in our thinking about human flourishing?\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFor more information on our diverse set of Symposium presenters:  \n\n\n\nSchedule Overview: \n\n\n\nFriday\, April 13 – Day 1 \n\n\n\n7pm Opening Keynote: Decolonizing the Anthropocene | Heather Davis \n\n\n\nDavis\, drawing on work with co-author Zoe Todd\, brings radical feminist and indigenous perspectives to the geological term\, the Anthropocene\, tracing colonialist origins and contemporary geographies. \n\n\n\n8pm Jayohcee| Hip Hop Performance by a First Nations Mohawk Warrior from the Akwesasne Mohawk Reserve | Jayohcee \n\n\n\n8:30pm Art Auction | NATURE Lab Environmental Education Center Crowdfunding Campaign \n\n\n\nDance with Plants Party | LRT/Location Responsive Theme!Ruderal and domesticated plants generate electronic music via bio-feedback sensors mixed to the beats and loops of electronic musician LRT. Join our NATURE Lab Environmental Education Center celebration\, featuring an Art Auction with works exhibited in the Sanctuary’s Underground Gallery over the past decade. Hit the floor and dance with the plants\, in a bio-art party with LRT/Location Responsive Theme! \n\n\n\nSaturday\, April 14 – Day 2 \n\n\n\n9:30-10:00am Coffee / Welcome \n\n\n\n10:00-11:15am Morning Panel: Plants\, People\, Health\, Risk | Mae-ling Lokko\, David Seiter\, Gail Wittwer-Laird & Xiaobo Xue \n\n\n\nDiverse networks interconnect as professionals from architecture and public health sectors discuss the implications that modern landscape designs have on wildlife and the future of the human species. \n\n\n\n11:30am-1:00pm Workshops: \n\n\n\nAppropriate Remediation: Ecoremediation vs. Toxisphere | Scott KelloggEcoremediation is a framework for looking at environmental contamination through a complex\, whole systems lens\, combining an environmental justice analysis of the “toxisphere” with simple and affordable bioremediation techniques. In this hands-on workshop\, we will build familiarity with our ecoremediation allies: microbes\, fungi\, plants\, insects\, and worms. \n\n\n\nArt in the Anthropocene:Radical Care Practices | Andrea Haenggi\, Ellie Irons\, Catherine GrauAgents of the Environmental Performance Agency lead a gleaning workshop on the streets around the urban environmental campus\, considering the informal public waste stream as offering\, resource\, and burden. \n\n\n\n1:00-2:00pm Lunch \n\n\n\n2:00-3:30pm Workshops: \n\n\n\nAppropriate Remediation:Watershed\, Sewershed\, Seedshed | Julia Cavicchi\, Anne Pfeifenberger\, Olivia GoldenIn this multidisciplinary workshop\, we will consider the aquatic ecologies of post-industrial Troy from multiple perspectives\, including watershed-scale interconnectivities\, troubled sewer infrastructure inheritances\, and possibilities for mitigation and adaptation. The workshop will conclude with a collaborative mapping project to invite reflections on the many unseen river crossings we make every day. \n\n\n\nArt in the Anthropocene:Plant Sensibilities: Tools for Many Kinds of Selves | Lucia Monge \n\n\n\nIn this workshop we will explore relationships to plants through the use of (speculative/prosthetic/por qué no/what if) tools to observe the thinking and action that emerge from attention to other ways of being. \n\n\n\n3:30-5:00pm Afternoon Panel: Soil\, Remediation\, Regulation\, Design | Moderated by Angelyn Chandler\, featuring Tatiana Choulika\, Kaja Kühl\, Leila Nadir & Seeta Sistla \n\n\n\n5:00-5:15pm Break \n\n\n\n5:15-6:15pm Closing Keynote: Grounding Environmental Justice in the Capital Region | Aaron Mair \n\n\n\nApril 15\, Sunday – Day 3 \n\n\n\n11:00am-2:00pm Bio-mapping Brunch: Ruderal Resource Mapping | Azuré Keahi & Oliver Kellhammer \n\n\n\nA potluck brunch is followed by a bio-mapping workshop in which we walk our North Troy neighborhood to observe and note our ever changing biodiverse urban ecologies. Using a combination of bio-blitzing and community cartography\, participants will explore assigned areas to map and highlight post-industrial resources to inspire grassroots\, environmental stewardship. \n\n\n\nSponsors: Ruderal Ecologies is hosted by folks from NATURE LAB; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Vasudha Living and Learning Community and the Vollmer Fries Fund; the Department of Science and Technology Studies and the Thomas Phelan Endowed Chair in the Humanities\, Arts\, and Social Sciences; the Department of the Arts; Skidmore College; and RADIX Ecological Center. \n\n\n\nFor information\, please contact:Kathy High\, email: high@rpi.edu and phone: 518-209-6209Ellie Irons\, email: ellieirons@gmail.com and phone: 909-702-1584Branda Miller\, email: miller@mediasanctuary.org and phone: 518-229-0441
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/ruderal-ecologies-grounds-for-change/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Community Event,Panel Discussion,Speaker,Workshop
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Draft1-RudEcoDesign-150dpi.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210118T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210118T130000
DTSTAMP:20230213T200903Z
CREATED:20210430T210753Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230213T200903Z
UID:10001216-1610967600-1610974800@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:MLK Holiday Labor and Community Celebration: Rise Up! The Struggle Continues...
DESCRIPTION:The theme of 2021’s twenty-second Capital District MLK Holiday Labor and Community Celebration was “Rise Up! The Struggle Continues…”  \n\n\n\nThe virtual event is over now\, but you can watch the video here soon.   \n\n\n\nWe saved the Zoom chat window so you can see it here. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nKey speakers were Charles Barron (Assembly member District 60)\, Dr. Ron Daniels (President\, Institute of the Black World 21st Century/IBW21) and Denise Berkley\, Executive Vice President CSEA. \n\n\n\nJerry Ford and Shana Davis were the MC’s\, with a guest appearance by musician Taina Asili.  The event featured local poets D. Colin\, Shania Jackson and Erika Diggs. Participants split up into “Break Out” thematic groups for intensive discussion and report backs! \n\n\n\n\nCommunity – Jerry Ford/ Team H.E.R.O. and Odell Winfield\n\n\n\nLabor – Sean Collins and Mark Emanation\n\n\n\nCulture- Taína Asili\n\n\n\nSystemic Racism – Renee Powell/NAACP\n\n\n\nNational/ International – Larry Wittner\n\n\n\nEnvironmental Justice – Alexis Goldsmith\n\n\n\nJustice Reform – Jamaica Miles/All of Us  and Amani Olugbala/ Troy 4 Black Lives +\n\n\n\nYouth/Education – Debra Garrett + Steve Fiqueroa/ YouthBuild\n\n\n\nEconomic Justice – H. Bosch Jr + Joe Paparone/ Poor People’s Campaign\n\n\n\nHealth Justice – People’s Health Sanctuary with Dr. Xavier Coughlin and Lisa Good/Urban Grief\n\n\n\n\nWould you or your organization like to participate next year? For more information\, call Willie Terry at (518) 369-4978 or (518) 272-2390. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMUSICIANS\n\n\n\nTaína Asili is a New York-based Puerto Rican singer\, filmmaker and activist carrying on the tradition of her ancestors\, fusing past and present struggles into one soulful and defiant voice. Her music combines powerful vocals carrying themes of hope and liberation with an energetic fusion of Afro-Latin\, reggae and rock. \n\n\n\nSPEAKERS\n\n\n\nDr. Ron Daniels is founder and president of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW21)\, a progressive\, African-centered\, action-oriented resource center dedicated to empowering people of African descent and marginalized communities. As the administrator for the National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC)\, IBW21 has emerged as a leading organization within the U.S. and global reparations movements. \n\n\n\nCOMMUNITY\n\n\n\nAssemblymember Charles Barron has been fighting for human rights since 1969\, when he joined the Harlem branch of the Black Panther Party as an 18 year-old\,  A self-described “elected activist\,” he currently represents the 60th District in Brooklyn in the New York State Assembly. Formerly\, he represented Brooklyn’s 42nd District on the New York City Council from 2001 to 2013. \n\n\n\nLABOR\n\n\n\nDenise Berkley is Statewide Executive Vice President for the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA)\, one of New York State’s largest worker unions. Her labor activism began in 1979\, working as a Mental Health Therapy Aide at the Brooklyn Developmental Center. Two years later she ran for president of her CSEA Local and won. She has worked to ensure working people have the power of a union behind them ever since.  \n\n\n\nMCs\n\n\n\nShana Davis has served as the  President of the Capital District Chapter Coalition of Black Trade Unionist since 2008 and a board member of the Capital District Area Labor Federation. An employee of the NYS Department Taxation & Finance for more than 30 years\, she has been a member of CSEA Tax Local 690 since 1989. She was elected as Treasurer of CSEA Capital Region IV in 2016\, CSEA Capital Region IV Executive Vice-President in 2020\, and the Chairperson of the CSEA Statewide Constitution & ByLaws Committee. \n\n\n\nDeacon Jerry Ford\, a husband\, father and leader; has seen his share of trauma and adversity. He lost his mother and father at a young age. He was raised by a loving aunt\, but found himself in the streets looking for the love he never received from his parents and eventually ended up in prison. After his 3rd prison stint\, he saw himself on a path toward life in prison or death. Finding strength in faith\,  Deacon Ford was able to make a 180 degree turn and now his story of resilience and hope is impacting communities across the nation. He started a nonprofit organization named Team H.E.R.O. standing for Helping Everyone Recognize Opportunities which focuses on youth mentoring\, character and leadership development and linking families to resources. He has been recognized both locally and nationally for his service to the community\, most notably winning  the Maytag Dependable Leader Award. \n\n\n\nPOETS\n\n\n\nD. Colin is a poet\, performer\, visual artist and educator living in Troy\, NY. She is the author of two poetry collections\, Dreaming in Kreyol and Said the Swing to the Hoop\, curates and hosts the weekly open mic Poetic Vibe\, and teaches workshops for schools ahd organizations. D. Colin has been involved with community theater since 2009\, writing and acting. \n\n\n\nShania Jackson is a local 4th grade teacher at School 2. She is the daughter of Eddie Jackson (passed) of Holy Serenity COGIC and Doris Jackson of United Ordained Church of Christ.Shania graduated with a Bachelors in Early Childhood/Childhood Education\, Concentration Black Studies\, Minor in Deaf Studies from SUNY New Paltz in 2018 and will be pursuing her masters shortly. \n\n\n\nGROUP MODERATORS\n\n\n\nOdell Winfield\, a retired Excelsior College faculty member\, is the founder and executive director of The A. J. Williams-Myers African Roots Community Center Library at 43 Gill Street in Kingston. It is a resource stocked with books and other learning materials focusing on the roots of African and African-American history and culture. \n\n\n\nH. Bosch Jr. is Hudson Mohawk Magazine producer of “The Triple E’s: Education\, Entrepreneurship and Empowerment\,” and an “Overcoming Adversity Specialist.” \n\n\n\nLisa Good\, MSW\, is founding the director of Urban Grief\, a trauma-informed community-based organization that educates on the effects of violence and supports those affected through outreach and victim advocacy. The former director of SNUG (formerly known as Cure Violence)\, she has over 25 years of human service experience. She facilitates trauma-informed workshops such as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)\, and community events\, and faith-based workshops aimed at creating healing spaces and empowering community members through information about trauma\, grief\, and resilience. \n\n\n\nDr. Xavier Coughlin\, MD is works as an ER physician at Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield and Samaritan Hospital in Troy. As “People’s Health Sanctuary” Coordinator\, Coughlin is excited to build on the generations of strong communities in the Capital Region and to foster health autonomy as a liberatory practice. \n\n\n\nJamaica Miles\, co-founder of All of Us\, is a seasoned comm. All of Us seeks to break down the subdivisions of Black and Latinx culture to unite and fully empower the greater community. \n\n\n\nDebra Garrett is originally from Brooklyn\, NY\, she is a mother of 4\, a former Council member for district 2 in the city of Troy. Debra is currently completing a dual degree in Health Science at Excelsior College. Debra is a member of the Nation Parents Union\, and she Co- chairs the Advocacy group for NYS Character Parent Council. She is the founder of Shades of Cocoa\, to support parents with education concerns and creating a sisterhood for young black and brown girls.  \n\n\n\nMORE ABOUT COMMUNITY PARTNERS\n\n\n\nThe Solidarity Committee of the Capital District\n\n\n\nThe Greyhound Strikers Solidarity Committee of the Capital District was created by Albany\, New York-area labor union activists who supported the autumn 1983 Amalgamated Transit Union strike against Greyhound Bus Lines. After the strike ended\, the organization was reconstituted as the Solidarity Committee of the Capital District. \n\n\n\nThe Solidarity Committee of the Capital District’s mission is “to promote solidarity and understanding of the labor movement\, through educating and organizing in times of need.” Its founders envisioned an organization that would organize and support strikes\, protest closures of manufacturing plants\, aid unemployed workers\, lobby for political and economic reform\, and organize non-union workers. Their vision continues to guide activities through the present day. \n\n\n\nTeam H.E.R.O./ The Block Center\n\n\n\nWe want to empower communities to improve the quality of life for young people and their families. We develop and implement programs to support youth making the transition from childhood to adulthood. We utilize a relationships first model\, prioritizing human connections rather than focusing on perceived problems; our strategies are long-term and built around the strengths and needs of people who make up the communities we serve. \n\n\n\nOur Programs: The Block Center is a positive youth development program for young people ages 11-17 living in the Troy\, NY area. Founded in 2015 in partnership with the Troy Boys and Girls Club\, the program connects caring adult mentors with young people for educational groups\, character-building activities\, field trips\, and more.Weekly sessions are held every Tuesday from 6:00-8: 00 PM. Learn more at https://theblockcentertroy.com/ \n\n\n\nAll of Us is a Black-led grassroots community organization fighting for Black Liberation and an end to all forms of racism\, oppression and exploitation. We are committed to a strategy that prioritizes the voices of the marginalized in localities across the Greater Capital Region of New York\, building toward change within New York State as a whole. All Of Us makes space for conversations that unite people across differences\, invests in the leadership development of local communities\, especially of its youth\, and works in coalition with other groups and organizations. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nUrban Grief is trauma informed and healing centered 501(c)(3) community-based organization. Urban Grief responds to the traumatic impact of community violence\, death and loss through community education\, crisis response\, victim advocacy and grief support. Urban Grief provides relevant and relatable information about trauma\, grief\, self-care\, resiliency\, and victim services. UG acknowledges the prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)\, along with chronic exposure to traumatic events\, and strives to avoid further re-traumatization. \n\n\n\nNATURE Lab People’s Health Sanctuary \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAs part of the Sanctuary for Independent Media’s growing NATURE LAB Urban Environmental Center\, a collective of care workers and organizers are working to establish a central space in Troy to share health skills\, provide basic integrative care and explore ways to build networks of community health. Though caring for our elders\, our children\, or cooking soul-nourishing food for family or friends may not be deemed ‘real’ healthcare\, we know that in fact\, it’s what holds us together and keeps us sane. Let’s bring our skills together to build a space where creative\, joyful health is possible and accessible! \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCo-sponsored by:\n\n\n\nThe Solidarity Committee of the Capital DistrictTeam H.E.R.O/ The Block CenterSave the Pine BushCapital District Coalition Against IslamaphobiaUnderground Railroad Education CenterPoor People’s CampaignTroy 4 Black LivesAll of UsWater Justice Lab
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/mlk-holiday-labor-and-community-celebration-rise-up-the-struggle-continues/
CATEGORIES:Community Event,Panel Discussion
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/MLK-Event.jpg
LOCATION:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/mlk-holiday-labor-and-community-celebration-rise-up-the-struggle-continues/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210209T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210209T203000
DTSTAMP:20220630T150500Z
CREATED:20210210T035600Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220630T150500Z
UID:10001190-1612897200-1612902600@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Clearing the Air in Coeymans: Community Forum on Clean Air vs. Tire Burning
DESCRIPTION:Hold this date for the Coeymans Community Clean Air Forum! \n\n\n\nLafarge/Holcim wants to burn millions of tires every year at their Ravena cement plant opposite the Ravena Coeymans Selkirk middle and high schools on Route 9W.  In 2019\, the Town of Coeymans adopted a Clean Air Law to establish clean air standards for waste burning facilities. The law requires continuous monitoring of 19 serious pollutants\, and places other restrictions on burning by any facility. This law defends the public from emissions containing highly toxic dioxins\, sulfur\, lead particulates\, benzene\, carbon monoxide\, and more. \n\n\n\nOn November 19\, 2020 the new business-backed Town Board held a public hearing on their decision to amend the Town’s Clean Air Law . These amendments would strip the strong pollution protections in the law and pave the way for any business to burn massive amounts of tires and waste.  On November 23\, the Town Board unanimously passed the amendments after only one public hearing and very little notice to town residents struggling in the middle of a pandemic. \n\n\n\nAs a result\, the Town of Coeymans is now the only town within the County of Albany where hazardous waste and tires can be burned in spite of the Albany County Clean Air Law prohibitions. Since the amendments to the clean air law went into effect immediately\, Lafarge/Holcim can now add the burning of tires to the waste it is already burning in the town. \n\n\n\nAmong the issues to be discussed in this community forum\, moderated by WOOC 105.3 FM correspondent Corinne Carey\, include: \n\n\n\nOverview of LaFarge’s history as a polluterThe Albany County Clean Air Law\, Amendments to the Coeymans Clean Air Law\, and the Permissive ReferendumHealth threats of burning tires and waste for fuel vs. coal in cement kiln incineratorsLaFarge’s threats of job loss or even closing the plantCoeymans Town Board misrepresentations to votersWhy the DEC and EPA does not protect us\, using the Norlite hazardous waste incinerator in Cohoes as an exampleThere will be plenty of time for Q&A\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPANELISTS\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAttorney Carlo A.C. deOliveira is a Ravena resident. He is actively involved in the community’s Ravena Soccer Club Board and volunteers as a coach during the year and most recently with the Coeymans Clean Air Coalition. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMatt Miller is a Selkirk Resident and Regents and AP Biology teacher in the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Schools. He is serving his first term in the Albany County Legislature representing the 36th Legislative District\, Committee Assignments: Conservation\, Sustainability and Green Initiatives\, Health \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJane Williams is the Chair of the National Sierra Club Clean Air Team. She is an environmental policy expert with 30 years of policy and advocacy experience. She has extensive knowledge on incinerators. (Photo: Earth Justice) \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJoseph Ritchie is an environmental justice advocate and the Executive Director of Saratoga Sites Against Norlite Emissions. He is a student at Syracuse University studying Environmental Policy. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nModerator Corinne Carey is a political & public affairs strategist taking on bold public health initiatives backed by sound evidence & human rights. She is a regular correspondent for WOOC 105.3 FM. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSponsored by the Coeymans Clean Air Coalition and the Hudson Mohawk Environmental Action Network.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/clearing-the-air-in-coeymans-community-forum-on-clean-air-vs-tire-burning/
CATEGORIES:Community Event,Panel Discussion
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/screenshot-cleanairalbanycounty.org-2021.01.22-19_09_21-300x168-1.png
LOCATION:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/clearing-the-air-in-coeymans-community-forum-on-clean-air-vs-tire-burning/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210421T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210421T203000
DTSTAMP:20230213T195954Z
CREATED:20210417T180545Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230213T195954Z
UID:10001191-1619031600-1619037000@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Local Voices / Local Media: The Struggle for Clean Air in the Hudson Mohawk Region
DESCRIPTION:You will receive links to the videos prior to the panel\, and then can join in for a conversation with the media makers and local activists. \n\n\n\nIn the Shadows of Norlite\, photo by Catherine Rafferty\n\n\n\nOn Earth Day\, we celebrate our local voices in their eloquent calls for environmental justice and clean air in the Hudson Mohawk region. We focus on local media makers who are creating media as an organizing tool\, whose work shines light on the power of personal voice. \n\n\n\nOur “mini-media festival” features a conversation with local Capital Region media makers Sonja Stark with “Albany Alert\,” Dave Publow with “We Care About Our Kids: Voices of the Victims of Norlite\,” and Catherine Rafferty with “In the Shadow of Norlite\,” along with the powerful voices featured in their films\, Joe Ritchie\, Judith Enck and Barbara Heinzen. \n\n\n\nOur featured local media makers focus their lenses on two grassroots environmental action groups: Lights Out Norlite\, who are raising awareness about the Norlite toxic waste incinerator located in Cohoes\, and Clean Air Coalition Of Greater Ravena-Coeymans\, who are addressing waste incineration and tire burning at the Lafarge/Holcim Ravena cement plant located next to the Ravena Coeymans Selkirk middle and high schools in Coeymans. \n\n\n\nSponsored by iEAR Presents! and the School of Humanities\, Arts and Social Sciences at Rensselaer\, made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. \n\n\n\n\nRegister Here\n\n\n\n\n\nEVENT SCHEDULE\n\n\n\n7:00-7:10 Opening Welcome/ Thanks & Acknowledgements \n\n\n\n7:10-7:40  Panel 1 Media as an Organizing Tool \n\n\n\n\n7:10 Sonya Stark\n\n\n\n7:20 Dave Publow\n\n\n\n7:30 “In the Shadows of Norlite\,” photojournalism essay by Catherine Rafferty\n\n\n\n\n7:40- 8:10  Panel 2  Power of the Personal Voice \n\n\n\nDiscussion with subjects of the films: Joe Ritchie\, Barbara Heinzen\, Judith Enck \n\n\n\n8:10 Final conversation/ Moving into action! \n\n\n\n8:30pm  End \n\n\n\n\nMEDIA MAKERS\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSonja  Stark \n\n\n\nSonja Stark began her freelance DP career in 2005.  Prior to that she was employed as an Emmy award-winning news videographer for the local CBS news affiliate WRGB for over a decade.   She has honed her craft shooting and editing footage in over 72 countries for documentaries about history\, environment\, music and social causes as well as episodic programming about travel for broadcast on cable channels and PBS.  She calls her one-woman business PilotGirl Productions. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nDave Publow \n\n\n\nDave Publow is an environmental activist\, radio journalist\, printmaker\, and videographer. He is also a resident of Troy\, NY\, one of the many communities directly affected by the Norlite hazardous waste incinerator. His focus is to use the tools at his disposal to spread awareness of environmental injustice\, and to help galvanize the community to find the powers within themselves to meet the challenge. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCatherine Rafferty \n\n\n\nCatherine Rafferty is a freelance photojournalist and documentary filmmaker from upstate New York whose work explores intimate\, complex themes with concern for social justice. She recently worked in Phoenix\, AZ at The Arizona Republic\, part of the USA Today network\, as a Pulliam Fellow covering the COVID-19 pandemic and calls for racial justice. She’s previously interned at the Times Union in Albany\, NY and The Sanctuary\, where she documented Uptown Summer in the Roots for Resilience solo exhibition. She graduated with a BFA in photojournalism from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2020. Rafferty produces the “Birth Justice” podcast on WOOC 105.3 FM and is currently media mentor to the Water Justice Lab Fellows at The Sanctuary. She’s excited to continue working with the fellows to tell the story of their community and its relationship to the river. \n\n\n\nFEATURING\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJoseph Ritchie is an environmental justice advocate and the Executive Director of Saratoga Sites Against Norlite Emissions. He is a student at Syracuse University studying Environmental Policy. Joe grew up in the shadows of Norlite. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEnvironmental Policy Expert Judith Enck founded Beyond Plastics in 2019 to end plastic pollution through education\, advocacy\, and institutional change. Passionate about protecting public health and the environment\, she teaches classes on plastic pollution as a Senior Fellow and visiting faculty member at Bennington College\, and was recently a Visiting Scholar at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. \n\n\n\nJudith has held top influential positions in state and federal government. Appointed by President Obama\, she served as the Regional Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency\, overseeing environmental protections in NY\, NJ\, eight Indian Nations\, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands – in addition to managing a staff of 800 and a $700M budget. Previously\, Judith served as Deputy Secretary for the Environment in the New York Governor’s Office\, and Policy Advisor to the New York State Attorney General. She was Senior Environmental Associate with the New York Public Interest Research Group\, served as Executive Director for Environmental Advocates of New York and the Non-Profit Resource Center\, and is a past President of Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. Judith appears on a weekly public affairs radio show on a local NPR affiliate\, the Roundtable on WAMC in Albany\, NY. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBarbara Heinzen is a long-term strategist and scenario planner with a successful 35-year practice working with companies and civil society\, usually in non-Western countries in Africa\, Asia and Latin America.  Recent assignments have been with two multi-stakeholder projects concerning the future of energy: one in East Africa and the other in Pennsylvania\, USA.  In 2011\, Barbara Heinzen returned to the USA from central London\, UK after buying 20 acres of land along the Hudson River in upstate New York.  This property is part of the Barbets Duet partnership. Individuals in East Africa\, England and the USA are working with their own land and communities to learn how to manage land for environmental benefit while improving local livelihoods. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\nRegister Here
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/local-voices-local-media-the-struggle-for-clean-air-in-the-hudson-mohawk-region/
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Screening
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LOCATION:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/local-voices-local-media-the-struggle-for-clean-air-in-the-hudson-mohawk-region/
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210425T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210425T153000
DTSTAMP:20230213T195739Z
CREATED:20210425T182300Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230213T195739Z
UID:10001209-1619359200-1619364600@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Arica: A Toxic Waste Scandal with "Our Soil" Panel
DESCRIPTION:View a special Northern Hemisphere sneak preview of the documentary Arica\, then join us for a panel discussion with directors\, Lars Edman and William Johansson Kalén\, plus local “Our Soil” project leader Professor Abby Kinchy and Professor Sebastian Ureta (Chile) and Rodrigo Pino (Chile). \n\n\n\nRegister to screen the Arica documentary by Lars Edman\, William Johansson Kalén plus join us for the  “Our Soil” Panel!  You will be sent a link once you register\, with a 24 hour window to view the film.  The panel will meet at 2 pm. Please view the film before or after the panel! \n\n\n\n[Please note: because this is a sneak preview\, we have agreed to close registration at 100 people\, so be sure to register!] \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nArica tells the story of a Swedish mining giant who dumped hazardous waste in Arica in northern Chile. Subsequently thousands of inhabitants are damaged. Now the survivors are seeking justice in a groundbreaking transnational corporate accountability trial. \n\n\n\nA Swedish mining company exports 20\,000 tonnes of toxic waste to the Chilean desert town of Arica. Thousands of people become sick\, many die from cancer. ARICA plunges us into the groundbreaking corporate accountability trial which begins after Lars Edman – born in Chile and raised in Boliden – exposes the scandal. \n\n\n\nAlongside his co-director William Johansson\, Lars follows the story for 15 years\, exposing how decisions made decades ago in Europe continue to affect people in South America.  Part personal journey\, part courtroom drama\, ARICA is the story of an afflicted community fighting for justice against a multinational company desperate to clear their name. \n\n\n\nToxic Colonialism – the export of waste material from rich to poor countries – is on trial.  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n“Our Soil / Nuestros Suelos” \n\n\n\nThe city of Arica is a sister city with our local city of Troy\, NY\, in the project “Our Soil / Nuestros Suelos.” \n\n\n\nFunded from a National Science Foundation grant\,  Our Soil involves community-engaged environmental research (“citizen science”). The Our Soil / Nuestros Suelos teams have been developing a Community Soil Study Toolkit to test soils for three heavy metals (lead\, arsenic\, and copper) that may be found in urban soils. One of our partners is in Chile\, Dr. Sebastian Ureta\, has done work with these DIY kits in Arica\, Chile. \n\n\n\nThe research involves The Sanctuary for Independent Media as a community partner\, bringing to the project strong record of involving neighborhood youth in environmental projects\, such as water testing and urban gardening.  Our plan is to hold a series of hands-on workshops with North Troy neighborhood residents\, to teach them how to sample and analyze soil from yards and gardens. It is important to note a distinguishing element of the project: unlike soil testing projects that exist elsewhere\, NSF has funded us to develop and evaluate a method of collaborative\, community-based soil research. It is not merely “soil testing” but a package of interdisciplinary education and collective action\, conducted and analyzed by an interdisciplinary research team. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMore about the Panelists\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLars Edman\n\n\n\nBorn in Chile and raised in Sweden\, Lars returned to South America to attend the Valparaiso Film School. Toxic Playground was Lars’ first film which went on to win 6 international awards\, screening in over 30 international festivals and being broadcast on TV across Europe. \n\n\n\nSince completing Toxic Playground\, Lars has retrained as a speech and language therapist and now lives in the north of Norway. Arica will be his second feature documentary. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWilliam Johansson Kalén\n\n\n\nWilliam Johansson Kalén has worked as a Director\, Editor in chief\, DoP and Film editor since 2006 and has been working with a number of documentaries\, documentary series and TV-programs. He co-directed the award-winning documentary Toxic Playground in 2009 and started as a film producer in 2015 when he also became a shareholder of Laika Film & Television. He is currently producing an artistic documentary about architecture that will premiere in early 2021 and producing a couple of Laika’s projects in development. He has worked as assistant producer on the documentary Cold Case Hammarskjöld and the fiction Beauty And The Dogs and The Man Who Sold His Skin. He is also the Swedish producer in the fiction Jordanian film Farha that premiere in spring 2021. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAbby Kinchy\n\n\n\nAbby Kinchy is a sociologist\, working in the interdisciplinary field of science and technology studies (STS). Her research examines the politics of pollution\, in order to illuminate the relationship between science and democracy. \n\n\n\nMost recently\, her research has focused on “citizen science”–public participation in environmental monitoring. Her goal is to bring concepts of power and social justice into sharper focus in popular and professional discussions of citizen science. What kind of citizenship is implied in citizen science? How can participatory environmental research enhance struggles for social change beyond merely generating data? Her book on this topic\, co-authored with Aya H. Kimura\, is Science by the People: Participation\, Power\, and the Politics of Environmental Knowledge (Rutgers\, 2019). Kinchy’s newest NSF-funded project\, Nuestros Suelos/Our Soil\, explores how citizen science could help urban communities to identify heavy metal contamination in soil and to advocate for solutions. \n\n\n\nProfessor Kinchy is the author of Seeds\, Science\, and Struggle: The Global Politics of Transgenic Crops (MIT\, 2012).  She was the PI on the NSF-funded Watershed Knowledge Mapping Project\, which examined the practices and politics of environmental monitoring in the context of shale gas development\, or “fracking.” She is also a co-organizer of STS Underground\, a research network that advances social science research on the technoscientific dimensions of mining\, burial\, and other forms of subterranean exploration. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSebastian Ureta\n\n\n\nSebastián Ureta is an Associate Professor in the Sociology Department at the Universidad Alberto Hurtado (Santiago\, Chile). He trained as a sociologist\, with a focus on science and technology studies. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degree in sociology from the Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago and completed his PhD in 2006 in the media and communications department at the London School of Economics (UK). Subsequently\, he worked as an Assistant Professor at the Instituto de Sociología\, Universidad Católica de Chile. From November 2007 to March 2008 he was also a British Academy visiting fellow in the sociology department at Lancaster University (UK). From May 2009 to March 2012 he was a Marie Curie International incoming fellow at the Center for Technology and Society (ZTG)\, Technische Universität Berlin. Currently he is working on a research project focused on the government of industrial waste in Chile\, in particular the massive waste produced by the country’s booming mining industry. In March 2015 he became the PI of the Millennium Nucleus for Energy and Society Research (NUMIES)\, a new research group studying the interrelations between energy issues and society in Chile. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRodrigo Pino\n\n\n\nRodrigo Pino is from Arica. Since the beginning of the controversy regarding Boliden’s waste more than 10 years ago\, Rodrigo has been quite probably the most important spokesperson of the affected communities. \n\n\n\n— \n\n\n\nToxic justice is a platform where we discuss waste trade\, corporate responsibility and ways to legally challenge human rights abuse by big corporations in the west. The platform is inspired by the case of Arica Victims KB vs. Boliden and the documentary film ARICA\, which describes the case. Our goals are prevention\, accountability and reparation. And justice for those of us who are affected. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSponsored by iEAR Presents! and the School of Humanities\, Arts and Social Sciences at Rensselaer\, made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/arica-a-toxic-waste-scandal-with-our-soil-panel/
CATEGORIES:Panel Discussion,Screening
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LOCATION:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/arica-a-toxic-waste-scandal-with-our-soil-panel/
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210430T080000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210430T170000
DTSTAMP:20210712T170242Z
CREATED:20210430T220436Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210712T170242Z
UID:10001218-1619769600-1619802000@www.mediasanctuary.org
SUMMARY:Community Forum to Address Capital Region Health System Merger
DESCRIPTION:This event is over but\, thanks to the magic of Sanctuary TV\, you can watch the video here.   \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Zoom chat window is here. \n\n\n\nIn October 2020\, the Albany Times Union reported a planned merger between Ellis Medicine in Schenectady and St. Peter’s Health Partners. Mergers between Catholic Health Systems and secular hospitals have raised concern in communities across the country and they have for many years as evidenced by this 1995 article in the New York Times about Leonard and St. Mary’s Hospitals in Troy. \n\n\n\nAccording to the national group MergerWatch\, Catholic hospitals follow a set of ethical guidelines that prohibit the provision of certain kinds of patient care\, most often\, reproductive\, LGBTQ+-inclusive\, and end-of-life care. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nConcerns about the financial stability of Ellis Medicine and its importance to the community reportedly drive the need for a partnership between two of the largest health systems in the region\, a solution that is the result of years of planning. \n\n\n\nBut religious restrictions and forces of healthcare economics threaten to have a disparate impact on residents who already face barriers in our healthcare system. A knowledgeable panel will discuss\, answer questions\, and hear comments from the community about: \n\n\n\n• How religious restrictions will affect (and how religious biases may affect) equitable access to healthcare services• Possible solutions to eliminating gaps in services through other local healthcare providers• Potential community benefits resulting from the partnership.• History of SPHS’s aggressive medical bill collection• Process required for partnership approval by the NYS Department of Health• The importance of memorializing the community’s priorities in the application for certificate of need\, including an effective enforcement mechanism• Opportunities for advocacy and continuing dialogue \n\n\n\nSpeakers:\n\n\n\nMichelle Ostrelich is a Schenectady County Legislator and Chair of the Legislature’s Health & Human Services Committee. \n\n\n\nLois Uttley\, MPP\, is Women’s Health Program Director for Community Catalyst\, a national consumer health advocacy organization. She has worked for more than 20 years to protect access \n\n\n\nto comprehensive reproductive health services\, LGBTQ-inclusive care and end-of-life options when community hospitals propose to merge with nearby Catholic hospitals.  She has published research about the growth of large Catholic health systems and\, as Founder/Director of the MergerWatch Project\, advised community coalitions in 38 states\, including several in NYS. Now based in Manhattan\, Lois serves on the steering committee of the statewide Health Care for All New York coalition and coordinators the work of Community Voices for Health System Accountability. Formerly a Capital District resident\, she served as Vice President of Family Planning Advocates of NYS\, Director of Public Affairs for the NYS Department of Health and an award-winning reporter and editor covering New York State government for the Albany Times Union. \n\n\n\nArthur Butler is the executive director of the Schenectady County Human Rights Commission. Butler helped found the Capital District African American Coalition on AIDS\, serving as their executive director for 17 years. He also worked for Hunger Solutions New York and as the national project coordinator of the Framework for Dialogue – USA. \n\n\n\nNikita Hardy\, MPA\, is the Affirmative Action Manager for Schenectady County She is a well-respected\, highly recommended political strategist and community engager with over 14 years of progressive experience\, including having held dynamic roles within legislative\, state and local government. She recently has taken on several endeavors to further causes impacting marginalized communities.  Most notably her passion for birth justice and breastfeeding advocacy led her to organize the Capital Region Black Breastfeeding Empowerment Network\, as well as her committed research on Maternal Mortality of Black Women in America. She is an advocate\, an educator\, a public speaker\, full-spectrum Doula and policy enthusiast. \n\n\n\nDr. Debbie Stulberg is a long-time colleague in the work trying to protect reproductive health care from Catholic health restrictions. She was a family medicine resident at West Suburban Hospital in Illinois when it was taken over by the Catholic Resurrection Health System. Since then\, she has become one of the nation’s leading researchers on the impact of religious restrictions on patients and doctors. \n\n\n\nGlenn Northern leads and implements Catholics for Choice US activities\, including advocacy\, outreach\, policymaker education\, legislative analysis and collegial relationships. He directs CFC’s Catholics in Public Life project\, a nonpartisan public education initiative that helps Catholic policy makers in the US clearly articulate prochoice positions grounded in progressive Catholicism and sound public policy. He oversees CFC’s strategic relationships with pro-choice Catholics\, policymakers\, reproductive health providers\, religious and secular activists and collegial organizations to inform and influence debates on sexual and reproductive health and rights\, social justice and religious liberty. Before joining CFC\, Mr. Northern led constituency building and advocacy efforts at Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. He holds a degree in political science and women’s studies from Williams College in Williamstown\, Massachusetts. \n\n\n\nThis People’s Health Sanctuary event is sponsored by The Schenectady Coalition for Healthcare Access. The Schenectady Coalition for Healthcare Access was formed to educate the administrations and the public about the risks of losses to our community from Ellis’ partnership with SPHP. In addition to education\, members of the Coalition seek to advocate equitable access to evidence-based\, inclusive\, and comprehensive patient-centered care\, including comprehensive reproductive care\, infertility care\, LGBTQ+-inclusive care\, gender affirming care and end-of-life care within our local community. www.schdy.org \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCommunity partners include:Local Care Midwifery\, PLLCNew York Civil Liberties UnionRosemarie Pérez Jaquith\, Niskayuna Town Board MemberProClergy.comProgressive Schenectady
URL:https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/community-forum-to-address-capital-region-health-system-merger/
LOCATION:The Sanctuary\, 3361 6th Ave\, Troy\, 12180\, United States
CATEGORIES:Community Event,Panel Discussion
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