Ruderal Ecologies: Grounds for Change
2018-04-13 00:00 - 2018-04-15 23:59 (America/New_York) | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
CHECK OUT video documentation of RUDERAL ECOLOGIES!

This event was free and open to the public, with donations encouraged to build the NATURE Lab Environmental Education Center.

This 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:

How can we identify underserved marginalized communities to build engaged, diverse networks, on grounds considered “wastelands”?

What forms of life flourish amid the ruins of ruderal ecologies?

What happens when we include “nonhuman” forms of life–including plants and animals–in our thinking about human flourishing?

For more information on our diverse set of Symposium presenters:

Schedule Overview:

Friday, April 13 – Day 1

7pm Opening Keynote: Decolonizing the Anthropocene | Heather Davis

Davis, 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.

8pm Jayohcee| Hip Hop Performance by a First Nations Mohawk Warrior from the Akwesasne Mohawk Reserve | Jayohcee

8:30pm Art Auction | NATURE Lab Environmental Education Center Crowdfunding Campaign

Dance 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!

Saturday, April 14 – Day 2

9:30-10:00am Coffee / Welcome

10:00-11:15am Morning Panel: Plants, People, Health, Risk | Mae-ling Lokko, David Seiter, Gail Wittwer-Laird & Xiaobo Xue

Diverse 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.

11:30am-1:00pm Workshops:

Appropriate 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.

Art 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.

1:00-2:00pm Lunch

2:00-3:30pm Workshops:

Appropriate 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.

Art in the Anthropocene:Plant Sensibilities: Tools for Many Kinds of Selves | Lucia Monge

In 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.

3:30-5:00pm Afternoon Panel: Soil, Remediation, Regulation, Design | Moderated by Angelyn Chandler, featuring Tatiana Choulika, Kaja Kühl, Leila Nadir & Seeta Sistla

5:00-5:15pm Break

5:15-6:15pm Closing Keynote: Grounding Environmental Justice in the Capital Region | Aaron Mair

April 15, Sunday – Day 3

11:00am-2:00pm Bio-mapping Brunch: Ruderal Resource Mapping | Azuré Keahi & Oliver Kellhammer

A 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.

Sponsors: 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.

For 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

MLK Holiday Labor and Community Celebration: Rise Up! The Struggle Continues...
2021-01-18 11:00 - 13:00 | https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/mlk-holiday-labor-and-community-celebration-rise-up-the-struggle-continues/
The theme of 2021’s twenty-second Capital District MLK Holiday Labor and Community Celebration was “Rise Up! The Struggle Continues…”

The virtual event is over now, but you can watch the video here soon.

We saved the Zoom chat window so you can see it here.

Key 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.

Jerry 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!

Community – Jerry Ford/ Team H.E.R.O. and Odell Winfield

Labor – Sean Collins and Mark Emanation

Culture- Taína Asili

Systemic Racism – Renee Powell/NAACP

National/ International – Larry Wittner

Environmental Justice – Alexis Goldsmith

Justice Reform – Jamaica Miles/All of Us and Amani Olugbala/ Troy 4 Black Lives +

Youth/Education – Debra Garrett + Steve Fiqueroa/ YouthBuild

Economic Justice – H. Bosch Jr + Joe Paparone/ Poor People’s Campaign

Health Justice – People’s Health Sanctuary with Dr. Xavier Coughlin and Lisa Good/Urban Grief

Would you or your organization like to participate next year? For more information, call Willie Terry at (518) 369-4978 or (518) 272-2390.

MUSICIANS

Taína 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.

SPEAKERS

Dr. 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.

COMMUNITY

Assemblymember 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.

LABOR

Denise 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.

MCs

Shana 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.

Deacon 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.

POETS

D. 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.

Shania 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.

GROUP MODERATORS

Odell 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.

H. Bosch Jr. is Hudson Mohawk Magazine producer of “The Triple E’s: Education, Entrepreneurship and Empowerment,” and an “Overcoming Adversity Specialist.”

Lisa 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.

Dr. 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.

Jamaica 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.

Debra 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.

MORE ABOUT COMMUNITY PARTNERS

The Solidarity Committee of the Capital District

The 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.

The 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.

Team H.E.R.O./ The Block Center

We 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.

Our 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/

All 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.

Urban 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.

NATURE Lab People’s Health Sanctuary

As 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!

Co-sponsored by:

The 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

Clearing the Air in Coeymans: Community Forum on Clean Air vs. Tire Burning
2021-02-09 19:00 - 20:30 | https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/clearing-the-air-in-coeymans-community-forum-on-clean-air-vs-tire-burning/
Hold this date for the Coeymans Community Clean Air Forum!

Lafarge/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.

On 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.

As 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.

Among the issues to be discussed in this community forum, moderated by WOOC 105.3 FM correspondent Corinne Carey, include:

Overview 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

PANELISTS

Attorney 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.

Matt 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

Jane 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)

Joseph 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.

Moderator 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.

Sponsored by the Coeymans Clean Air Coalition and the Hudson Mohawk Environmental Action Network.

Local Voices / Local Media: The Struggle for Clean Air in the Hudson Mohawk Region
2021-04-21 19:00 - 20:30 | https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/local-voices-local-media-the-struggle-for-clean-air-in-the-hudson-mohawk-region/
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.

In the Shadows of Norlite, photo by Catherine Rafferty

On 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.

Our “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.

Our 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.

Sponsored 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.

Register Here

EVENT SCHEDULE

7:00-7:10 Opening Welcome/ Thanks & Acknowledgements

7:10-7:40 Panel 1 Media as an Organizing Tool

7:10 Sonya Stark

7:20 Dave Publow

7:30 “In the Shadows of Norlite,” photojournalism essay by Catherine Rafferty

7:40- 8:10 Panel 2 Power of the Personal Voice

Discussion with subjects of the films: Joe Ritchie, Barbara Heinzen, Judith Enck

8:10 Final conversation/ Moving into action!

8:30pm End

MEDIA MAKERS

Sonja Stark

Sonja 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.

Dave Publow

Dave 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.

Catherine Rafferty

Catherine 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.

FEATURING

Joseph 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.

Environmental 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.

Judith 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.

Barbara 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.

Register Here

Arica: A Toxic Waste Scandal with "Our Soil" Panel
2021-04-25 14:00 - 15:30 | https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/arica-a-toxic-waste-scandal-with-our-soil-panel/
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).

Register 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!

[Please note: because this is a sneak preview, we have agreed to close registration at 100 people, so be sure to register!]

Arica 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.

A 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.

Alongside 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.

Toxic Colonialism – the export of waste material from rich to poor countries – is on trial.

“Our Soil / Nuestros Suelos”

The city of Arica is a sister city with our local city of Troy, NY, in the project “Our Soil / Nuestros Suelos.”

Funded 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.

The 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.

More about the Panelists

Lars Edman

Born 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.

Since 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.

William Johansson Kalén

William 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.

Abby Kinchy

Abby 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.

Most 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.

Professor 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.

Sebastian Ureta

Sebastián 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.

Rodrigo Pino

Rodrigo 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.

—

Toxic 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.

Sponsored 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.

Community Forum to Address Capital Region Health System Merger
2021-04-30 08:00 - 17:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
This event is over but, thanks to the magic of Sanctuary TV, you can watch the video here.

The Zoom chat window is here.

In 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.

According 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.

Concerns 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.

But 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:

• 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

Speakers:

Michelle Ostrelich is a Schenectady County Legislator and Chair of the Legislature’s Health & Human Services Committee.

Lois 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

to 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.

Arthur 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.

Nikita 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.

Dr. 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.

Glenn 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.

This 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

Community partners include:Local Care Midwifery, PLLCNew York Civil Liberties UnionRosemarie Pérez Jaquith, Niskayuna Town Board MemberProClergy.comProgressive Schenectady

Community Investment, Not Community Police
2021-05-02 19:00 - 20:30 | https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/community-investment-not-community-police/
This event is past – but you can watch the town hall on YouTube or below!

Did you know the City of Troy is voting next Thursday to expand the police force by six additional officers?

Join a coalition of groups from Troy in a Town Hall on Sunday, May 2, 2021 as we discuss recent actions by the City of Troy around policing. This gathering is being convened at the last minute as the City Council Finance Committee pushes forward to hire an additional SIX police officers to the Troy Police Department. The proposal passed in this Committee with a 5-2 vote and the full City Council vote will take place on Thursday, May 6, 2021.

Co-sponsored by Troy Coalition of Black Leaders, NAACP Troy Branch, YWCA of the Greater Capital Region, The Justice Center of Rensselaer County, Equality for Troy, and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists.

Register

Speakers

Jerry Ford (Troy Coalition of Black Leaders)

Renee Powell (NAACP Troy Branch)

Willie Terry (Coalition of Black Trade Unionists)

Diamond Owens (Community Youth)

Starletta Smith (Police Reform & Reinvention Collaborative)

Tasheca Medina (Equality for Troy)

Jessica Ashley (The Justice Center for Rensselaer County)

Deanna Ultimo Swenson (North Central resident)

Background

Recently, the City of Troy, like most municipalities across the State of New York, held a series of discussions on the topic of policing. Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order 203, issued in June of 2020, required municipalities with police forces to examine the policies and procedures of their police department and make recommendations for future changes to address police violence, biased policing, and systemic racism. The measure stated its intention was to provide transparency and build trust, urging localities to hold listening sessions and meetings with community members.

Mayor Madden did not announce the creation or intentions of the Police Reform & Reinvention Collaborative until the end of January 2021. There were nine highly controlled meetings held in February with very little open community participation—the city made little effort to inform residents about the meeting or how to get involved.

Once the report was drafted, in early March, Black leaders throughout the city expressed their dismay and loss of trust in the city about this process. This included all four Black PRRC committee members (Starletta Smith, Executive Director, YWCA of the Greater Capital Region, Inc. and Renée Powell, President of the NAACP, Troy, NY Branch, Pastor Justin Relf of Rhema Revealed Ministries, and Stacey Howard of Troy’s Police Objective Review Board). They released a statement decrying the report and saying that they felt “tokenized throughout this process.”

So why this, why now?

As critiques of policing grow across the country and calls for reallocating funds to expand or create new entities to respond to mental health calls, domestic disputes, traffic stops, and more, Troy is swiftly pushing forward to increase the police budget and add more police to the force. Again, with very little time for dialogue and discussion with community members and community leaders.

While the City of Troy, Mayor Madden, and the Troy City Council avoid input from community members, we are making space for dialogue and discussion. We know that with more investment in social services and community support, communities can better look out for each other and construct the means through which to survive and thrive.In what ways can we call for structural investment to address the history of deliberate marginalization and segregation? How can we invest in our under-funded, under-served, structurally marginalized Black and brown communities?

While Mayor Patrick Madden told the Times Union, “People want police officers out in the neighborhood. They want police officers to know them. They want to know their police officers.” Given the lack of space for open dialogue and discussion, we don’t know who the Mayor is referring to.

We are convening to address the lack of dialogue, alternatives to policing, alternatives to more police and a bigger police budget as an answer, and calls to invest in our neighborhoods and communities!

Join us. Listen. Share your thoughts.

What should Troy be investing in?

Why increase an already large police budget?

The problems of policing in Troy.

What are alternatives to hiring “community” police officers?

Local leaders will discuss their opinions and visions for Troy

What are strategies for moving forward?

You can listen to Renée Powell and Starletta Smith share more about their experience on the City of Troy’s Police Reform & Reinvention Collaborative committee with Hudson Mohawk Magazine producer, Elizabeth Press:

"Not Going Quietly" w/ filmmaker Nicholas Bruckman and panel discussion
2021-11-12 19:00 - 22:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Join us for a virtual film screening of “Not Going Quietly” with filmmaker Nicholas Bruckman, followed by a panel discussion.

The event begins with a quick introduction by filmmaker Nicholas Bruckman, then we will screen Not Going Quietly. Following the film, a personal message by Ady Barkan and brief Q&A with Nicholas will lead into a discussion led by People’s Health Sanctuary moderators Aileen Javier and Corinne Carey with panelists: Tracey Corder, ACRE (Action Center on Race and the Economy); Ursula Rozum, Campaign for NY Health; Julia Solow, Hand in Hand (The Network of Domestic Employers); Scott Desnoyers, health care activist.

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO DOCUMENTATION

On December 18, 2017, approximately 70 protesters against the GOP Tax Bill were arrested while staging a ‘die-in’ in the rotunda of the Rayburn House office building. One of the arrestees was health care activist Ady Barkan, who is living with ALS. Barkan said the GOP tax bill’s cuts to Medicaid will put his and 13 million other American’s life at risk. (Photo by Michael Nigro)

A rising star in progressive politics and a new father, 32-year-old Ady Barkan’s life is upended when he is diagnosed with ALS. But after a confrontation with powerful Senator Jeff Flake on an airplane goes viral, catapulting him to national fame, Ady and a motley crew of activists ignite a once-in-a-generation political movement called “Be a Hero.” Together, they barnstorm across the country and empower people to confront their elected officials with emotional, personal stories to demand healthcare justice, and Ady holds groundbreaking interviews with Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren. Through his journey, Ady discovers that collective action and speaking truth to power offers hope for his family and millions of others.

View Democracy Now! clip of “Not Going Quietly”: Paralyzed with ALS, Ady Barkan Continues Fighting for Medicare for All

This event is a collaboration between the iEAR Presents series with support from RPI’s ARTS department and School of Humanities, Arts and Social Science, and from the New York State Council for the Arts/ NYSCA, with The Sanctuary for Independent Media and People’s Health Sanctuary.

https://www.notgoingquietlyfilm.com

Nicholas Bruckman produced the feature film VALLEY OF SAINTS, which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for an Independent Spirit award. The film was released on Netflix and was a New York Times Critics Pick.

He previously directed the feature documentary LA AMERICANA, which won the best documentary prize at the NY and LA Latino Film Festivals. The film broadcast worldwide on networks including PBS, National Geographic, and Al Jazeera.

Nicholas Bruckman is the director of NOT GOING QUIETLY, his latest film about 32-year-old Ady Barkan’s life.

Nicholas’ work has received support from foundations including the Fledgling Fund, Cinereach, NYSCA, NYFA, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. He is the founder and CEO of People’s Television, a New York and D.C.-based branded & original content company.

PANEL

Tracey Corder, Campaign Director – Policing and Incarceration, ACRE (Action Center on Race and the Economy)

Tracey is a Deputy Campaign Director for ACRE ‘s Policing work. She comes to this work after serving as a social worker, electoral campaign organizer and political strategist.

Her most recent position as Director of Federal Action and Racial Justice at Center for Popular Democracy worked to advance direct action as a tactic to advocate for progressive legislation on housing, immigration, voting rights, climate and policing.

Tracey serves on the Advisory Board of Be A Hero, the Steering Committee of Black Womxn For and is a trainer for the Birddog Nation.

Ursula Rozum, Co-Director, Campaign for NY Health

Ursula Rozum, a Syracuse native, is an organizer building people power to win healthcare for all with Campaign for New York Health. In 2012, she was the Green party candidate for Congress. She likes bicycles and growing vegetables.Busy-bee organizer in Syracuse, NY.

The pandemic is exposing the weaknesses of the current healthcare system and why we must create a system that guarantees care for everybody. The New York Health Act (A5248a/S3577a) will provide comprehensive, universal health coverage — including long-term care — for every resident of New York.

Scott Desnoyer, healthcare activist

Scott Desnoyers says his son died because of $20 and Amy Sterling Casil was charged $50,000 after her baby died – they are among many Americans sharing their stories about the health system.

Daniel was 29 when he died. He killed himself after failing to get his medication refilled because he missed a $20 premium he was not aware of.

“I promised his siblings and him at the funeral in front of everyone that I was going to make our lawmakers look me in the eye and see the consequences of their decisions,” shares his father, Scott Desnoyers. a loving father who lost his son and became a Medicare-for-All activist.

Julia Solow, Lead NY Caring Majority Organizer at Hand-in-Hand: The Network of Domestic Employers

Julia’s passion for organizing comes from a long legacy of organizing in her family, personal experiences of struggle and amazing mentors along her journey. She first got involved in movement work when social work professors in college introduced her to immigrant rights leaders fighting for the DREAM Act in 2010. Since then, Julia has been organizing in solidarity with working class people of color-led movements and power organizations on efforts to address gentrification, living wages for farm workers and drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants in New York State, among others. Prior to her work at Hand-In-Hand, she has had the privilege of working at AFL-CIO National Headquarters in DC, Community Voices Heard in New York and as an Americorps VISTA in Cleveland, Ohio. Julia has a Masters in Social Work from CUNY Hunter College. She is bilingual in English and Spanish

Aileen Javier, co-moderator

Aileen Javier is a Community Health Worker/ Outreach Educator/Family Advocate. She is passionate about fomenting community health by supporting and empowering people to successfully navigate the local social and health care system. She worked as a Community Outreach / Family Advocate in Massachusetts. At the Sanctuary Aileen collaborates in the NATURE Lab’s newest initiative: Health Autonomy Clinic and she is working on radio production for WOOC 105.3 FM publishing pieces on local health resources. Aside from the radio production, she helps plan and organize events and distribute flyers, she is ready to help in any way that she can. In the near future she will do community outreach for the HAC.

She enjoys dancing, buying from local businesses and farms, meditation, yoga, hiking and living a healthy lifestyle. She loves talking and meeting new people. She is part of the People Power at the Sanctuary because she believes in the Sanctuary’s Mission “We use art and participatory action to promote social and environmental justice and freedom of creative expression.”

– From Aileen: The Sanctuary For Independent Media is My Tribe and my Second Family. I am honored to be part of such a Great Organization! I Love You Guys! See what Aileen has done with the Sanctuary

Corinne Carey, co-moderator

Corinne Carey is a political & public affairs strategist taking on bold public health initiatives backed by sound evidence & human rights. Carey is the campaign director of Compassion & Choices New York. Compassion & Choices improves care, expands options and empowers everyone to chart their end-of-life journey.

Compassion & Choices’ award-winning video features the groundbreaking filmmaker Hammer urging New York lawmakers to pass the Medical Aid in Dying Act. “My cancer is incurable … I will reach a very debilitated state,” she says in the video, in which she notes that she suffered through more than 100 chemo treatments for ovarian cancer over 12 years before entering hospice in late 2018. “I would so much like to be able to manage my own death by choosing the time and the person I’d like to have with me so that I can die in comfort and with compassion and not in pain and morphine-drugged.” Hammer died on March 16, 2019, at age 79 in her Manhattan home without access to this gently dying option. In February, Oscars in Memoriam honored her for her legacy as an experimental filmmaker. Watch the entire award-winning video of Barbara Hammer urging New York lawmakers to pass the Medical Aid in Dying Act.

Corinne Carey is a radio producer with Hudson Mohawk Magazine on WOOC 105.3 FM.

CO-SPONSORS

Be A Hero Fund

Be A Hero takes on the impossible fights. Big money. Special interests. Powerful politicians. We’ve taken them all on– and won.

The Be A Hero team is led by Ady and co-Executive Director Jamila Headley. Together with a group of committed organizers, Ady and Jamila are fighting for a more just health care system in the United States.

Four months after the birth of his son Carl, Ady Barkan was diagnosed with ALS. Confronting his own mortality, Ady decided to spend his remaining time fighting to transform America’s health care system so that it guarantees all of us the care and dignity we deserve and lifting up stories of incredible heroism in the face of injustice.

Jamila is an impact-focused leader and an accomplished advocate for healthcare, racial, and disability justice. She thrives at the intersections of strategy and implementation, building organizations and movements at the global and local levels, and caring for the individuals in them.

The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the brokenness of our healthcare system, and the time is ripe for transformational change. But in order to win, we must build a powerful movement and we can’t do it without you. Join our fight today!

NY Health: Healthcare for Every New Yorker

The New York Health Act [A.6058/S.5474] will provide comprehensive health care for every New Yorker. You and your healthcare provider of choice will work to keep you healthy—New York Health pays the bill. You will never have to fear going without coverage again—especially in the middle of a deadly pandemic.

Over the last year, tens of thousands of New Yorkers died, lost income, fell behind on rent, and struggled to pay medical bills. Meanwhile, private health insurance corporations made record profits. The COVID-19 pandemic puts everyone at risk, but Black, brown, and low-income New Yorkers carry the greatest burden of exposure, with disproportionately more serving as essential workers and disproportionately fewer having access to healthcare.

We need a legislative agenda of compassionate care to heal from this pandemic. That’s why we partnered with allies in the housing justice and decarceration movements to release the Compassionate New York Agenda. This is a road map to saving lives and billions of dollars by providing guaranteed healthcare, stopping unjust evictions, and reducing the number of people behind bars and harmed by the criminal and immigration systems. We reject the austerity agenda, and call for a movement based on compassion and care to drive the legislative agenda in New York.

Join us in building the movement to win universal, guaranteed healthcare — and more. Check out ways to get involved in passing the New York Health Act!

Direct Air Capture: False Climate Solution?
2022-03-10 19:00 - 20:30 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Join us for a virtual town hall and learn about Direct Air Capture.

REGISTER

This virtual event will begin with an overview of the Carbon Dioxide Removal Leadership Act (A8597/S8171), now pending in the NYS Assembly and Senate. Presentations by our speakers, June Sekera (policy scholar), Visiting Scholar at the New School University, New York, and a Senior Research Fellow at Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center; and Jim Walsh Policy Director for Food & Water Watch and Food & Water Action, will be followed by a Q&A. We’ll then end with a Call to Action!

Activists charge that the Carbon Dioxide Removal Leadership Act (A8597/S8171), now pending in the NYS Assembly and Senate, would generously subsidize the Direct Air Capture technology that they characterize as a false “greenwashing” solution. Comments from environmental experts opposing this bill:

“Let’s be clear that any government support for carbon capture or direct air capture is a FOSSIL FUEL SUBSIDY.“
-Stanford University professor Mark Jacobson, PhD

Carbon Engineering pilot plant in Squamish, B.C. featuring Direct Air Capture technology that captures carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from the atmosphere.
CC image by Stephen Hui, Pembina Institute

DIRECT AIR CAPTURE (DAC) is a costly mechanical-chemical method of carbon capture and storage that critics charge is unproven, dangerous and energy-intensive. They say DAC would likely require a massive build-out of pipelines to transport CO2 and that it is an unwise public investment that diverts resources and attention from real solutions.

Speakers

June Sekera is a Visiting Scholar at the New School University, New York, and a Senior Research Fellow at Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center. Her review article, “Assessing Carbon Capture: Public Policy, Science and Societal Need” was published in Biophysical Economics and Sustainability (October 2020).

Food and Water Watch Policy Director, Jim Walsh oversees campaigns to ban fracking, end water privatization, and push back on fossil fuel industry-backed false solutions to the climate crisis. Jim works with Food & Water Watch’s policy experts and national allies to develop and implement campaigns to mobilize the public and educate decision makers on strategies that support the development of a better food system, a safe and livable climate and support safe and clean public water for all.

The moderator for the event is Barbara Heinzen, PhD, Clean Air Coalition of Greater Ravena Coeymans

Co-Sponsors

Thank you to our co-sponsors: Clean Air Coalition of Greater Ravena Coeymans, Clean Air Action Network of Glens Falls, Beyond Plastics, People of Albany United for Safe Energy, Food & Water Watch, Green Education and Legal Fund, and NATURE Lab and People’s Health Sanctuary with The Sanctuary for Independent Media.

Ending the Prohibition of the Mind: A Mushroom Symposium
2022-04-19 19:00 - 21:00 | https://www.mediasanctuary.org/event/mushroom/
Join us as we explore the movement to decriminalize psilocybin, the challenges faced, and the way forward. This virtual event aims to connect local proponents to a larger movement, and give participants information, advocacy tools, and connections to pursue advocacy in this area. Co-sponsored by Collar City Mushrooms and the Peoples Health Sanctuary. Watch the recording below; see the Zoom chat here!

Psilocybin, the naturally occurring compound found in “magic mushrooms,” was banned by the federal 1970 Controlled Substances Act. It was classified as a Schedule I controlled substance that has “no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”

Within the past ten years however, research from institutions like NYU, Johns Hopkins, Imperial College and others have consistently demonstrated psilocybin’s ability to help treat conditions like depression, anxiety, OCD, substance dependency, and many others.

This research has propelled a grassroots movement to decriminalize psilocybin starting in the late 2010s, with Denver, Colorado becoming the first city to do so in May 2019. Other cities have followed suit, such as Oakland and Santa Cruz, CA, Washington, D.C., and Somerville and Cambridge, MA. There are now more than 100 cities and close to a dozen states, including New York, considering either decriminalization or legalization of psilocybin.

Like any movement to change laws, there are several factions with often complementary but sometimes competing strategies and arguments. This panel will seek to discuss some of these issues, such as:

Should psilocybin use be limited to strictly medical use, especially considering how expensive and ineffective our current healthcare system is?

What are the differences between medical use, therapeutic use, and adult use?

Who will have access to psilocybin? Who will be allowed to start psilocybin-related businesses?

Should the movement to decriminalize psilocybin be a part of the broader movement to decriminalize all drugs?

How can we honor the cultural value of psilocybin to indigenous peoples who have been using psilocybin for centuries, and preserve peoples’ ability to use the substance in its purest form found in nature; while others claim concern over quality control and dosage and pursue efforts to extract psilocybin and turn the substance into a commercially-produced “medicine”?

….and many more.

Guest Speakers include:

Dee Dee Goldpaugh, LCSW, psychotherapist, educator, activist

Dee Dee Goldpaugh, is a psychotherapist, educator, and activist in Woodstock, NY. Dee Dee specializes in Psychedelic Integration Therapy with a focus on LGBTQIA+ people as well as survivors of sexual trauma. They are a member of the Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy team at the Woodstock Therapy Center and they are the Community Integration and Support Director of the Hudson Valley Psychedelic Society. Dee Dee has taught and published widely on psychedelics and mental health, sexuality, and trauma.

Hadas Alterman, attorney, Plant Medicine Law Group

Hadas is an Israeli-American attorney, born in Jerusalem and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Hadas advises companies on matters of regulatory compliance, corporate transactions, policy advocacy, strategic planning, governance, and dispute resolution. She was the Policy Director of NYMHA, an organization that she co-founded that successfully lobbied for the introduction of a New York bill to decriminalize psilocybin. She is a Board Member of the American Psychedelic Practitioner’s Association and a Founding Board Member of the Psychedelic Bar Association. Hadas serves on the Equity Subcommittee of the Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board.

Noah Potter, consultant, Legal Market Strategies

Brooklyn-based Noah Potter is a psychedelic policy consultant who joined the psychedelic legalization movement in 1993. He writes the blog Psychedelic Law. He has worked to call attention to the racial disparities of drug law enforcement, and in 2020 co-founded an advocacy group dedicated to psychedelic law reform in New York. He has advised the Decriminalize Denver campaign, and advocates immediate, safe, and equitable (affordable, culturally-relevant, and non-exploitative) access to a psychedelic experience for anyone anywhere who could benefit from it.

Dmitri Mugianis, activist, musician, poet, writer, and psychedelic practitioner

Dimitri Mugianis is an activist, musician, poet, harm reductionist and writer with over two decades of experience as a frontline harm reduction worker and psychedelic practitioner. He is a co-founder of Cardea. Dimitri’s story and work have been featured in numerous media outlets including The New York Times, Village Voice, Rolling Stone, NPR’s This American Life, VICE HBO, The Daily Beast, and Crimetown podcast. He was the subject of the 2009 documentary “Dangerous with Love” by Michael Negroponte. He has written for Chacruna, Salon, The Guardian, and Jacobin.

Pamela Jackson, Founder and Director, Psychedelic Sisterhood

Pammy Jackson is the founder and executive director of the womxn-led, not-for-profit organization, The Psychedelic Sisterhood. Pammy started The Psychedelic Sisterhood to provide womxn with a safe space to discuss, learn, and share experiences about the healing power of psychedelics and reclaim the association of medicinal plants as their original indigenous source; offering an inclusive environment to thrive and grow.The Psychedelic Sisterhood also collaborates with like-minded organizations for psychedelic advocacy and to support drug policy reform.

Linda Rosenthal, NYS Assemblymember, sponsor of A6065

Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal represents the 67th Assembly District, which includes the Upper West Side and parts of Hell’s Kitchen. Since taking office in 2006, Assemblymember Rosenthal has passed more than 140 laws that have helped to improve the lives of all New York State residents. In 2021, Assemblymember Rosenthal passed legislation into law establishing a medication assisted treatment program for people battling a substance use disorder in state and local correctional facilities. She also is the sponsor of legislation to authorize safer consumption sites throughout New York State, a cause she has championed since 2016. Assemblymember Rosenthal sponsors two bills related to psilocybin: A6065, which would decriminalize psilocybin by removing it from the list of scheduled substances; and A7928, which would establish the psychedelic research institute and the psychedelic substances therapeutic research program charged with studying and providing recommendations regarding the use of psychedelic substances in the treatment of addictive disorders, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, end-of-life anxiety and other pertinent outcomes.

Pat Burke, NYS Assemblymember, sponsor of A8569

Pat Burke hails from Buffalo and was first elected to represent the 142nd Assembly District in 2019. Assemblymember Burke’s notable legislative accomplishments include a ban on microbead plastics, a repeal of Sunday Blue Laws, a million-dollar emergency fund created to combat the opioid crisis and the formation of the Erie County Broadband Committee. He also introduced legislation that would make the pharmaceutical industry pay its fair share to keep our local drinking water free of medical waste, and not pass the burden onto taxpayers. Assemblymember Burke sponsors A8569, a bill that would amend the public health law to allow for the medical use of psilocybin in a tightly controlled set of circumstances.

Moderators:

Corinne Carey, co-moderator

Corinne Carey is a lawyer and a political and public affairs strategist who takes on bold public health initiatives backed by sound evidence and human rights principles. Her policy work is grounded in her long history in the harm reduction movement. She founded and directed the Harm Reduction Law Project, and has also worked for Human Rights Watch and the New York Civil Liberties Union. She serves as the state director for Compassion & Choices in New York, and also works as a political & public affairs correspondent for the Hudson Mohawk Magazine.

Aileen Javier, co-moderator

Aileen Javier is a Community Health Worker, an Outreach Educator, and a family advocate. She is passionate about fomenting community health by supporting and empowering people to successfully navigate the local social and health care system. Aileen collaborates with the Sanctuary for Independent Media’s NATURE Lab on its newest initiative: the People’s Health Sanctuary, and she is also a radio producer for the Hudson Mohawk Magazine, producing news segments on housing and local health resources.

Listen to Interviews:

Read More

Intro to Ending the Prohibition of the Mind: a Mushroom Symposium

Read More

Noah Potter on Psilocybin Legalization

Read More

Psilocybin to Increase Wellbeing and Reduce Suffering

Read More

Veterans Group Advocates for Access to Psychedelic Therapy

Read More

Expanding Access to Psychedelics

Read More

Why Harm Reduction is Important When Legalizing Drugs

Read More

Psychedelic Sisterhood ED Pammy Jackson Speaks About Psilocybin Mushrooms

Read More

New York Bill Would Decriminalize Psilocybin

Read More

The Theraputic Value of Psilocybin and Society’s Understanding of “Drugs”

Sponsored by

Capital Region Harm Reduction Roundtable

Suggested Background Reading:

Three Bills Seek to Shift Psychedelics Policy in New York State by Noah Daly in Lucid News (March 23, 2022)

Could Magic Mushrooms Become the Next Marijuana? by Tyler Wetherall in the Albany Times Union (December 15, 2021)

Noah Potter’s blog, PsychedelicLaw.com, particularly this article: Psychedelic legalization now

Psychedelic Markets of the Future, by Noah Potter

What About “Those” Mushrooms? by Avery Stemple, Collar City Mushrooms

The “Equity Elephant”: Why Psychedelic Mutualism and Cooperatives are Crucial for an Accessible Future by Colin Pugh in Psychedelics Today (April 19, 2021)

Global Coalition Launches Push To Reschedule Psilocybin Under International Rules, by Kyle Jaeger (January 11, 2022)

Cosmic Queries – The Fungus Among Us with Merlin Sheldrake, podcast with Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson (July 21, 2021)

A Conversation with Robin Divine, founder of Black People Trip on the Psychedelics Today podcast (August 10, 2021) Psychedelic Exceptionalism and Reframing Drug Narratives: An Interview with Dr. Carl Hart, by Sean Lawlor in Psychedelics Today (February 18, 2020)

This Bicycle Day, Celebrate Albert Hofmann’s Psychedelic Discovery. by Mary Jane Gibson in Rolling Stone (April 19, 2020)

"A Woman on the Outside" Film Screening
2023-04-01 19:00 - 22:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Join Directors Zara Katz and Lisa Riordan Seville and protagonist Kristal Bush for the screening of the documentary film A Woman on the Outside, about the struggle to keep families connected despite incarceration. Before the film screening, all three women will give a Be The Media! workshop and give a brief opening reception to the Women on the Outside exhibition. After the film there will be a panel discussion with local prison justice activists.

5pm: Be The Media! Workshop: Participatory Design in Journalistic Process with directors Zara Katz and Lisa Riordan Seville with documentary participant Kristal Bush.6:30pm: opening reception for the Women on the Outside exhibition in the Sanctuary cafe.7:00pm: screening of A Women on the Outside followed by a panel discussion and networking.

Curator: Branda Miller.

Sponsored 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 The Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; Co-sponsored by: The Chris Wilson Foundation, The Release Aging People in Prison/RAPP Campaign, Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York, The Center for Law and Justice, and Capital Area Against Mass Incarceration.

Masks are encouraged and will be available at this event. If you are feeling unwell or have any symptoms of illness please stay home and rest.

“A Woman on the Outside” Q&A

About the Film

Growing up, Kristal watched nearly every man in her life disappear to prison. She channeled that struggle into keeping families connected, both as a social worker and with her van service that drives families to visit loved ones in far-off prisons. But when Kristal’s dad and brother return to Philly, her happiness meets the realization that release doesn’t always mean freedom. Passionate, funny and resilient, Kristal remains determined to carve out a different future — for herself and for her young nephew, Nyvae. Part observational documentary, part family album, A Woman on the Outside is a tender portrait of one family striving to love in the face of a system built to break them. website

https://vimeo.com/725900136?embedded=true&source=vimeo_logo&owner=9616283

By the end of the trip, Lois and Rachel, who are newer riders, laugh and talk with the other women. Kristal’s regular riders say they look forward not just to the visit, but to catching up with friends they have made on the van.

“It’s something to look forward to,” Tanesha says of visiting day. “We talk about this stuff all week long, all of us. Sometimes we all get together and cook food and sit down and talk. Because that’s what we be needing. From one sister to another. From one wife to another.”

Photos and Videos by Zara Katz and Lisa Riordan Seville

Filmmaker Bios

Zara Katz (Director/Producer) is a filmmaker and photo producer for editorial, documentary and branded content, specializing in crafting character-driven visual stories. Katz is currently Photography Director at NBC News.com, and has worked with outlets including The New York Times Lens blog, Time magazine, Medium, The Guardian U.S., Pop-Up Magazine and Lifetime/A+E Networks. She was the Senior Photography Producer on a Getty Images/Dove campaign photographed by more than 100 women and non-binary photographers, which won the Silver Glass Lion at Cannes in 2019.

Lisa Riordan Seville (Director/Producer) is an award-winning reporter and independent filmmaker whose stories explore how money, power and policy shapes the lives of everyday people. Her investigative and enterprise work has appeared across NBC News platforms, on BuzzFeed News, The Guardian U.S., Lifetime/A+E Networks and WNYC Radio. It has been recognized with a Peabody, a Hillman Award and a Sigma Delta Chi from the Society of Professional Journalists, among others. Her most recent piece was a cover story for New York Magazine about the deaths of 15 men in New York City’s notorious Rikers Island jail complex.

Panelist Bios

Kristal Bush is the protagonist of the documentary film A Woman on the Outside.

Jose Di Lenola, Clemency Campaign Director of RAPP

At the age of 16, Jose was sentenced to 26 1/3 years to life for second-degree murder and served eighteen of those years in Attica prison and various correctional facilities. While incarcerated he worked as a rehabilitation peer educator in relapse prevention, anger management, and mental health; and mentored at-risk youth diversionary programs. Jose co-founded and served as President of the Attica Lifer’s Organization and consulted several organizations. Jose was released in December 2021, has his own consultation business, Carceral Consultation, and is the Clemency Campaign Director for the Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP).

TeAna Taylor, Co-Director of Policy & Communications and Capital Region Organizer at RAPP

TeAna advocates for children of incarcerated parents, informed by their father’s nearly two decades of incarceration and working with We Got Us Now and the HALT Solitary Campaign. They have been engaging their community in restorative justice work for the past five years. They created and maintained a peer mediation program at a local middle school, leading mediations between youth, parents, and teachers; facilitating circles that ranged from community building within classrooms to repairing harm between community members; providing conflict coaching sessions for students; and training students in peer mediation and conflict resolution. TeAna has also facilitated circles to address issues faced by students and faculty of color at their alma mater, SUNY Schenectady, that led to policy change for a more inclusive and diverse campus.

Co-sponsors

The mission of the Chris Wilson Foundation is to transform the incarceration system by providing better and more sustainable programming for incarcerated individuals that centers personal relationships, resilience, development and agency. Our Master Plan Program focuses on trauma and resilience, systemic oppression and mass incarceration and goal-setting and reentry. The program is being implemented in three states, and is currently running at the Capital District Youth Detention Center in Albany.

The Release Aging People in Prison/RAPP Campaign is a grassroots advocacy organization created and led by formerly incarcerated people and family members of people in prison. We work to end mass incarceration and promote racial justice through the release of aging people in prison and those serving long sentences. We work to dismantle the racist policies of mass incarceration by expanding the use of parole, compassionate release, clemency, and other forms of release in New York State. We work with other organizations across the country to end life imprisonment in the United States. By organizing community power to free incarcerated elders, we work to uproot a system of endless punishment that fuels mass incarceration and damages Black and other communities of color.

The mission of Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York is to provide high quality, effective legal representation and assistance to indigent prisoners, help them to secure their civil and human rights and advocate for more humane prisons and for a more humane criminal justice system.

The Center for Law and Justice recognizes that the criminal justice system in the United States has a history of racism and classism, stemming from both laws and practices, that continues to this day. It is the center’s mission to reform the criminal justice system and dismantle its oppressive elements.

The Center for Law and Justice aims to eliminate the gap between law and justice by creating an equitable criminal justice system which values all human life and acknowledges community members as partners in public safety. The center seeks to achieve this goal through amplifying the voices of marginalized people and communities, while educating and empowering those same communities to demand an end to mass criminalization, mass incarceration, and systemic oppression.

Capital Area Against Mass Incarceration (CAAMI) seeks to challenge and dismantle mass incarceration and the systems of oppression that sustain it. We do this through coordinated actions and by opening the dialogue about mass incarceration and the criminal injustice system in a way that is empowering to all individuals and communities affected by them. CAAMI defines “mass incarceration” as both the excessive quantity of people caught in the criminal justice system, and the racially discriminatory and cruel quality of the current punitive model of social control. Police brutality, racially disparate sentencing, and post-prison discrimination function as a self-reinforcing system that damages communities.

"Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation" Book Talk & Discussion
2023-10-14 19:00 - 21:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Join us for a conversation around the book Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation, edited by Lesly Deschler Canossi and Zoraida Lopez-Diago, the duo that makes up Women Picturing Revolution. They will present their book before a discussion with local photographer and doula Jayana LaFountaine and ending with a Q&A with the audience.

5:00pm-6:00pm: Join Jayana LaFountaine for a photography-based workshop around our identities and lineage in Who’s On Your Face?

6:00pm-7:00pm: Community Meal

7:00pm-9:00pm: A discussion around Black motherhood and representations of it in photography, centered around the book Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation

About the book:

Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation questions how the Black female body, specifically the Black maternal body, navigates interlocking structures that place a false narrative on her body and that of her maternal ancestors. Drawing on a wide range of scholarly inquiry and contemporary art, this book addresses these misconceptions and fills in the gaps that exist in the photographic representation of Black motherhood, mothering, and mutual care within Black communities.

The essays and interviews, paired with a curated selection of images, address the complicated relationship between Blackness and photography and in particular its gendered dimension, its relationship to health, sexuality, and digital culture – primarily in the context of racialized heteronormativity. This collection, then, challenges racist images and discourses, both historically and in its persistence in contemporary society, while reclaiming the innate brilliance of Black women through personal stories, history, political acts, connections to place, moments of pleasure, and communal celebration.

This visual exploration of Black motherhood through pictures made by Black woman–identifying photographers thus serves as a reflection of the past and a portal to the future and contributes to recent scholarship on the complexity of Black life and Black joy.

Photography, revolution, representation. Through leading seminars, curating panels, and consulting services, Women Picturing Revolution (WPR) co-creators Lesly Deschler Canossi and Zoraida Lopez-Diago are reclaiming and retelling history in a manner that is both radical and necessary. By highlighting the work of woman photographers who have documented conflicts, crises, and revolutions in private realms and public spaces, WPR sheds light on personal and political experiences that are often overlooked or underrepresented. From images made as a response to forced silence, oppression, and the inability to act, to well-known visual journalists documenting upheaval, Lesly and Zoraida, along with WPR participants, examine not only the photographs but also the conditions under which women make images.

Jayana LaFountaine is an Afro-Latina portrait photographer and birth Doula based in Troy, New York. Her work focuses on vulnerability and the preservation of legacy through photo documentation and birth work. As a former foster youth with an adverse childhood she understands the importance of creating strong familial connections through this work. She does this work with Black and Brown folks at the forefront. Photography is a means for her to heal while creating a better reality outside of abuse and trauma. Birth work is her birth right as she is a 4th generation birthworker.

EVENT PHOTOS:

Be The Dance Party!
2025-06-07 14:00 - 17:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Spaces for joy are an important part of resistance movements when built around creating community, encouraging creative expression, and inviting inclusive participation. Be The Dance Party! is part panel discussion, part dance party. We will hear from folks on the panel on how they have each used joy, music, and creative expression to build movements in our community. The audience will then transition into party-prep to decorate, dress, and hydrate before the daylight dance party begins! This is a family-friendly event.

Panel discussion, 2-3pmDance party, 3-5pm

Panelists:

Moderated by Angela Beallor, a co-creator of The Flagsss Day Collective and Documentarian in Community Co-Creation of MDOCS at Skidmore College

Hana van der Kolk is a queer dancer, artist, and embodied learning, ritual, and celebration facilitator. She spends time looking for and co-creating bridges through pedagogy, performance, language, healing, celebration, transformation, and the dismantling of empire inside and out. Hana was part of starting and maintaining Polly, Troy’s underground queer dance party and community fundraiser from 2014 to 2019 and is part of the FlagsSs Day Collective with Angela Beallor and Elizabeth (EP) Press. https://www.hanavanderkolk.com/

DJ Nate Da Great is an Albany based DJ that has lit up dance floors across the Capital District and beyond. He’s best known for his mixing skills, creative music selection and ability to play for diverse audiences. Nate believes that creating community, inclusive vibes and moments of joy on the dance floor are all just a basic part of a DJs job.

Patrick Harris Jr. is a multidisciplinary founder who turns big ideas into systems that work. As CEO of Collectiveffort, he’s led brand, media, and infrastructure projects ranging from global companies to grassroots orgs and public institutions.

Dance Party DJed by Intell Hayesfield

This event includes music, panelists, and DJ from The No More Genre Show

Listen Friday and Saturday nights to Sanctuary Radio, from 10pm-1am, to hear The No More Genre Show. Tune into 105.3fm Troy or steam online at MediaSanctuary.org

Water Justice and Media Lab End of Season Celebration
2026-11-14 19:00 - 21:00 | The Sanctuary, 3361 6th Ave, Troy, 12180, United States
Celebration featuring youth-produced short film and presentations about the 2026 Water Justice and Media Lab Season. …more info coming soon
