Sunday,  July  6  at  1:00 pm
Bay Area Spark Collective Workshops and Chanting Circle
Presented by   James Bianchi	415-824-4220
Come enjoy the FireDance community and find another home in the Bay Area for your heart songs, your dance, your poetry, your music. You do not have to be a good singer.  You do not have to know a single chant.  Just bring your enthusiasm and your spark.  The Bay Area Spark Collective is a new flame, kindled from embers carried home from fire circles around the country -- an intentional community group that meets monthly to celebrate spirit, community, and each other.  Workshops begin at 1:00 pm.  Pot luck supper begins at 4:00 pm.  The sacred circle opens at 6:00 pm.  Participants introduce themselves and share their magic;  the four directions are called in;  a chant is sung;  and a sacred play begins.  From here on out, anything can happen:  drumming, a song, a poem, dancing, magic, drawing, writing, massage, deep trance.  As participants take their turns around the circle, they stir the container and mix in their magic to create a synergistic miracle in the space.  Everyone listens to what the moment needs.  Around 9:30 pm the energy of the circle rises to a fever pitch and then sweetly winds down.  The circle is closed with a chant, an "Om," that releases the four directions -- and plenty of hugs.
http://www.sparkcollective.org
$5 Donations Accepted

 

 

 

 

Monday,  July  21  at  7:30 pm
Compared to What?
Presented by   Judith Offer	510-444-8521
Here is a story about the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.  The job of Pullman Porter loomed large over Black American life in 1926 because it was the only job where any number of African American men without higher educations could wear a tie to work, travel, and earn enough (with tips) to modestly support a family.  They worked 18 and 20 hour days, often weeks on end;  they had no paid holidays or control over scheduling;  there was no route to promotion in the industry.  When A.P. Randolph and a small group of porters and ex-porters set out to form the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, they ran into the fear and reluctance of the porters to risk their comparatively superior position.  Judith Offer is one of the Bay Area's leading playwrights -- and she writes on working class issues.  Her latest play, Compared to What?, focuses on the struggle of the sleeping car porters to build a union.  This battle for unionization was also a battle against discrimination and segregation in the workplace.  Their emergence and success as a union is an important part of labor and black history in the U.S.   Judith will facilitate a discussion after her reading.
http://www.judithoffer.com
$5  Donations accepted

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday,  July  28  at  7:00 pm
Oakland's Racial Divide
Presented by   Wendy Snyder	510-295-7834 510-295-7834 510-295-7834
This evening's rally will be conducted by Bakari Olatunji of the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement and Wendy Snyder of the African People's Solidarity Committee.  Hear about the work of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement and Uhuru Foods supporting the African community.   In the midst of the wealth and affluence of the Bay Area, African and other oppressed communities live under deep poverty and oppression.   ●  One out of five households in Oakland live on less than $15,000 a year. ●  An African child in West Oakland can expect to die 15 years earlier than a     white child in the Oakland hills. ●  In Alameda County, Africans are sentenced to prison for drug offenses at a     rate 34 times higher than that of whites even though they use drugs at about     the same rate. ●  In 1990 African people made up nearly 50% of the population of Oakland and     now make up around 25% due togentrification. The Uhuru Movement campaigns to transform conditions of poverty, massive imprisonment, police violence, gentrification, and to unite African people in a struggle for the unification of their land and resources and to build a truly sustainable future.  The Uhuru Movement is calling for all allies to join in solidarity!
http://www.uhurusolidarityoakland.blogspot.com
Donations accepted