2007 Programs
2007 Programs
13th Anniversary of the Zapatista Uprising
Performances, Videos, Crafts, Updates on the Other Campaign, the Other Oaxaca, the Other Atenco and the Other Manhatitlan. Refreshments
DonÕt Call Me a Saint
The tumultuous life of Dorothy Day (1897-1980), the pacifist-anarchist co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, now under consideration for canonization by the Vatican. A crusading journalist in her 20s,...
An Evening of 3 Short Films
Arlington West
Directors: Peter Dudar & Sally Marr, USA 2005. English, 60 min., Documentary.
The story of the temporary cemeteries in the sand created at Santa Barbara and other Southern...
The Life of Bayard Rustin
Best-known as the main organizer of the historic 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Justice, Bayard Rustin spent most of his career as a peace activist and was, in fact, on leave from the staff of the War...
Christening 2007 with a live performance by Ultra Nate, renowned music diva beginning promptly at 11pm, followed by ""Capture This"", an afro-latin-punk dance performance by OrganicMagnetics. Residents DJ...
Join us on the 3rd Sunday of the month for music and dance from some of the many Afro-Latino communities in the New York region. A mainstay of the CafŽ is Cuban rumba Ð a celebratory, sometimes raucous...
Growth, Inflation and Decline
As the housing boom became a bubble that is now bursting, personal debts keep spiraling to new heights. These two problems now combine to put the US economy in a highly vulnerable situation.
The format...
ÒImagine if Spalding Gray had filmed himself doing a monologue aboutsome of the atrocities committed by the U.S. Government over the past 35 years rather thanthe minutiae of his daily life, and youÕll have...
An Evening of Film to Support the Al Rowwad ChildrenÕs Theatre
We will present the documentary film Visit Palestine by Henry Chalfant, and two short films, Nakba and The Exam by Dr. Abdelfattah Abusrour. The filmmakers will join us for a post-film...
9/11 First Responders Against War
The formation of, and actions by, Ground Zero for Peace, a group of 9/11 emergency workers who organized to oppose the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, focusing on the 2004 trip to Afghanistan by the group's...
Saturday: 10:00 am to 6:00 pm
Sunday: 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
An innovative approach to public forums, Forum Theater is rooted in the Brasilian popular education and culture movements of the 1950s and...
In 2005, Kevin Norton composed the The Aquarius Suitefor his ""Bauhaus"" quartet with Angelica Sanchez asfeatured soloist. This special Brecht Forumperformance focuses on the interaction of the pianoand the...
SaylesÕ only Spanish-language film (so far), this is the story of one manÕs belated political awakening: After his wifeÕs death, an aging doctor in an unnamed Latin American country goes on a quest for his...
The New York Writers Coalition (NYWC) provides free creative writing workshops to people from groups historically deprived of voice in society. Workshop participants have included the formerly incarcerated,...
In celebration of the birth and life of the Right Honorable Robert Nesta Marley, The Melting Pot NYC team is curating a special art exhibit, You are invited to spend an evening exploring his legacywith...
Mocking the stereotype that translates ÒromanticÓ into ÒutopianÓ or Òlove possessed,Ó Dorothy Parker wrote:
Byron and Shelley and Keats,
A trio of lyrical feats Ð
ByronÕs fair brow was...
Cuban Arts, State Power, and the Making of New Revolutionary Cultures
Sujatha Fernandes will launch her new book - Cuba Represent! - which examines artistic movements within Cuban society such as hip hop culture, film discussion groups, and performance art as providing a...
Initiated by Philip and Daniel Berrigan and other (mostly Catholic) opponents of the Vietnam War, the draft board raids of the late Õ60s and early Õ70s were an attempt to stop the U.s. Selective Service from...
Brecht Forum Commission / World Premiere
New art songs for the 21st century: spontaneous andpremeditated compositions audio machinations /meditations and explosive interludes. Dafna Naphtali(voice, live audio processing) with Briggan Krauss(baritone...
In this class we will read Karl MarxÕs Capital Vol. I (Vintage/Penguin) slowly and thoroughly as a text. The class will function as a study group and focus on the key question, Òwhat can we still learn...
A first course for those with little to no previous knowledge of the language. Students speak Spanish from the first day and acquire basic speaking, reading, and writing skills while learning about Spanish and...
This course is an investigation of how class works -- as a tool of analysis and as a reality in contemporary capitalism. We will concentrate on the marxist tradition in class analysis, though we will also give...
Students will continue to develop everyday conversational skills while learning more complex grammatical forms. Emphasis will be placed on increasing vocabulary and expressing more sophisticated ideas. At...
Students learn to read advanced texts, express themselves fluently, write long texts, and appreciate humor, irony, and wit in literary and non-literary texts. Depending on the students' needs, increased...
With a Screening of <i>Just Married</i>
(Bring chocolate and wine to share! Some will be provided.)
In 2003, the Israeli Knesset passed an amendment to its Nationality Law that barred Palestinians who marry Israeli citizens from...
Be it through the ballot box or direct mass action, Latin Americans have emerged as a formidable challenge to the hegemony of global capitalism and neoliberal ideology. At the moment at least 7 of 10 recently...
The story of the 40,000 men who rejected the war almost everyone believed inÑthe conscientious objectors of World War II. Some went to civilian camps, some went to prison; many, especially among the latter...
Join us on the 3rd Sunday of the month for music and dance from some of the many Afro-Latino communities in the New York region. A mainstay of the CafŽ is Cuban rumba Ð a celebratory, sometimes raucous...
Where Have all the Raises Gone?
Real wages have stopped rising since the mid-1970s. This is a profound, historic change for the US. We will discuss why this happened, the resulting deeper inequalities, and their economic implications.
...
Progressive Politics in a Phantasmagorical Age
What practical political lessons can we learn from corporate theme parks, ad campaigns, video games like Grand Theft Auto, celebrity culture, and Las Vegas? Former Brecht Forum board member and long-...
Two independent filmmakers were inside the presidential palace on April 11, 2002, when Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez was forcibly removed from office. They were also present 48 hours later when, remarkably...
Urgent Tasks for Educational Transformation--New York & Beyond
With the decimation of community-based alternative public schools, an increase in race-based hiring inequities, and continued under-funding, the Department of Education is clearly not working for the City's...
An Introduction for Teacher Activists
Teachers committed to social justice often avoid having anything to do with their union for a variety of reasons. Whether curious about individual professional rights or how to build a large-scale movement, we...
What started in May of last year as a teacherÕs strike for better wages and more resources for students erupted into a widespread insurgency for profound social change in Oaxaca. As the Oaxacan people...
Cuban filmmaker Angel Palacios presents images, testimonies and facts about the Venezuelan coup d'etat of April 2002, that unmask the conspiracies and plots leading up to the so-called massacre at the...
In this talk, interspersed with bits of live performance, Indian Sufi song and video clips from her work with the experimental performance collective Compagnie Faim de SiecleL (The Hunger of the Century...
Readings & Remembrances
Ellen Willis, who died at age 64 last November 9, was one of the most admired and influential radical writers of her generation. Her work, published in magazines and newspapers such as the
YouÕre never too young or too old to write your memoirs. All you need is paper and pen and a desire to retrieve what you thought was lost. Unlike biography with its need for facts and dates, a memoir is your...
Native American, African, Asian Pacific Islanders, Lation, Caribbean, Near- and Middle-Eastern Women wil show their inner and global resistance to discrimination against women (child brides, female infanticide...
12th Annual Open Poetry & Performance Benefit
Please join us for another scintillating evening of poetry, music, great food and solidarity! Benefit recipient to be announced. Previous groups have included women organizing in New York, New Orleans, Vieques...
American imperialism has traditionally ""been made plausible and attractive by the insistence that it is not imperialistic,"" but in recent years, the practice of American imperialism (""we're an empire now,...
By many estimates, the Internet is now comprised of over one billion people who communicate with each other across virtually every boundary. It is unique in human history and unprecedented in the impact it is...
Following the lives of two men who live on the streets of Caracas in the middle of the bosses' oil industry lockout in late 2002, this film offers a unique perspective on the Bolivarian revolutionary process....
Saturday, 10:00 am - 6:00 pm
Sunday, 10:00 am Ð 3:00 pm
The consensus process is much more than a decision-making tool. It is an opportunity to participate in a creative process, the outcome of which...
Mary Halvorson is a guitarist, composer and improviserliving in Brooklyn. She grew up in Boston and studiedjazz at Wesleyan University and the New School. Since2000 she has been performing regularly in New...
Join us on the 3rd Sunday of the month for music and dance from some of the many Afro-Latino communities in the New York region. A mainstay of the CafŽ is Cuban rumba Ð a celebratory, sometimes raucous...
Globalizing neo-liberal capitalism provoked a backlash. Unilateral militarism is one US response. We will discuss the economics of both globalization and the backlash now challenging it.
The format for...
Confronting Challenges Faced by the Anti-war Movement
Come celebrate the release of the Spring issue of Left Turn magazine as we discuss the myriad of challenges facing the US anti-war Movement four years after the invasion of Iraq. Join members of Iraq...
A Workshop for Educators
Why should even young children be informed on community and world events? Mainstream educators may feel that children should be shielded from the violence, inequities and complex problems facing society, while...
Produced by the Center for Research into Latin American Popular Memory (MEPLA), this film reveals the contradiction between the 80 percent of Venezuelans who live in poverty and the vast potential wealth of...
Saturday: 10:00 am to 6:00 pm
Sunday:9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Image Theater is part of the repertory of Theater of the Oppressed created by Brasilian director and cultural activist Augusto Boal as...
Why, during the 1980s, did many white union members--the so-called ""Reagan Democrats""--sometimes support programs that went against their interests as wage earners? Why, in the late 1940s, were white...
The Battle for Public Perception
Media critics and analysts Andersen and Cohen will discuss the connections between the media and war and the challenges this presents for the left. They will explore how the selection of which stories are told...
A People's History of the Third World
The Darker Nations traces the intellectual origins and the political history of the twentieth century attempt to knit together the world's impoverished countries in opposition to the United States and...
Covering the period from the 1989 ""Caracazo"" to the April 2002 coup against Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and beyond, this documentary examines the links between the Venezuelan Revolution and the...
Both the morning and afternoon seminars will offer unique practical investment information. They are intended for individuals seeking deep understanding in relation to their current or future...
Saul Landau
Botox promoters promise to wipe away wrinkles, the signs of aging--the signs of time passing. Such ""eternal youth"" potions metophorically help erase the very notion of time itself. In a phony world,...
An Anti-Power Workshop with screening of <i>Soma: An Anarchist Therapy</i>
Facilitated by Nick Cooper
Throughout civilization, oppression has inspired a rich history ofcreative resistance. Over time, though, resistance can harden and create new oppressions; systems of power can co-opt the methods and symbols...
Young Photographers from the Balata Refugee Camp
Outside the West Bank City of Nablus lies the Balata Refugee Camp. Home to almost 25,000 residents living on less than one square kilometer, Balata is the most densely populated refugee camp within the West...
In a city full of stories, so much goes unheard, unnoticed or untold. The writers in New York Writers CoalitionÕs (NYWC) Write Makes Might Reading Marathon describe streets weÕve never walked, faces...
Ecological & Agricultural Perspectives on Israel/Palestine
Joel Kovel & Hilary Martin
Israel began building what it calls the Separation Wall in 2002. Today,the Wall is still under construction, and approximately 10% of the WestBank is due to lie on Israel's side of the wall. In February of...
John Ross
On New Year's Day 1994 a small group of Mayan peasants, led by a charismatic former university professor, grabbed the worldÕs attention by taking over San Cristobel, the capitol of Chiapas, Mexico and...
A conversation with Dr. Nawal el Saadawi, Dr. Fawzia Afzal-Khan & Bina Sharif with a reading by Sohair Soukkary. Moderated by Barbara Nimri Aziz
Marisol Ruiz
A first course for those with little to no previous knowledge of the language. Students speak Spanish from the first day and acquire basic speaking, reading, and writing skills while learning about Spanish and...
Untying the Knots
Max Fraad-Wolff & Rick Wolff
The US economy is changing fast. Corporations consolidate via mergers, outsourcing, and foreign investments; they control or evade state power. ConsumersÕ economic problems grow; unions keep declining; and...
Jose Rosa
Students will continue to develop everyday conversational skills while learning more complex grammatical forms. Emphasis will be placed on increasing vocabulary and expressing more sophisticated ideas. At...
From the 1960s & 70s to the Present
Sheila Cohen & Kim Moody
Join us to celebrate the publication of two new books that look at key areas that have shaped the current realities of working class struggleÑthe concerted assaults on trade unions and the rise of the real...
The Brecht Forum is delighted by the return of MarcRibot, who will lead this 2-hour master class. Thissession is not limited to guitarists, but is open toall interested musicians.
Ribot has worked with...
Jose Rosa
Students learn to read advanced texts, express themselves fluently, write long texts, and appreciate humor, irony, and wit in literary and non-literary texts. Depending on the students' needs, increased...
Annette T. Rubinstein
We will read and discuss together ""Galileo"" and some of the ""Poems in Exile""
Discussion with filmmaker Kathleen Foster with Shahid Comrade & Lynne Stewart
The film chronicles the post-911 racial profiling, large scale round ups, detentions and mass deportations of Arab, Muslim and South Asian men as part of the governmentÕs ÒWar on Terrorism,Ó framing the plight...
Facilitators: Marie-Claire Picher and others TBA
Rainbow of Desire is an Image Theater technique similar to Cop-in-the-Head. Where Cop uses games and exercises to recognize and confront internalized forms of oppression, Rainbow of Desire deals with...
World Premiere, Brecht Forum Commission<br>Duo with Rashied Ali
Henry Grimes (acoustic bass and violin) and RashiedAli (drums). This new Brecht Forum-commissioned pieceis based on one of Grimes' poems that will appear inhis upcoming book Signs Along the Road. Grimes...
Anoush Ter Taulian
On January 19, 2007, Hrant Dink, the editor of the bilingual Turkish and Armenian weekly Agos newspaper, was assassinated outside of his newspaperÕs offices in Istanbul. Dink was a frequent target of...
Tony Alessandrini
Tony Alessandrini teaches at Columbia University. He specializes in postcolonial literature and theory, with specific interests in diaspora studies, contemporary Arabic and Middle Eastern literature and...
American War and the Financial Logic of Risk Management
Randy Martin
In this significant Marxist critique of contemporary American imperialism, cultural theorist Randy Martin argues that a finance-based logic of risk control has come to dominate AmericansÕ everyday lives as...
Kathy Engel
Kathy Engel reads from her new book, Ruth's Skirts, a collection of passionated, committed and lyrical writing that demonstrates the artificiality of the boundaries between poetry and prose, art and...
Annette T. Rubinstein
Franz Mehring, a late 19th century Marxist critic, said that while they live great radical writers are usually ignored but when they are too well known to be forgotten they are belied, their works hidden and...
Speakers TBA
Join us for an introduction to the constellation of anti-immigration forces in the United States--think tanks, interest groups, private foundations, corporations, political action committees, politicians,...
Edith Chevat
YouÕre never too young or too old to write your memoirs. All you need is paper and pen and a desire to retrieve what you thought was lost. Unlike biography with its need for facts and dates, a memoir is your...
An Evening with Grace Lee Boggs
Grace Lee Boggs is an activist, writer and speaker whose morethan sixty years of political involvement encompass the majorU.S. social movements of this century: Labor, Civil rights,Black Power, Asian American...
An Introduction to the Paulo Freire Methodology
Facilitated by Carmelina Cartei, Fernando Reals & Esperanza Martell
This is an introductory hands-on workshop in the use of popular education techniques based on the complementary approaches to education for liberation developed by two Brasilian cultural activists: philosopher...
World Premiere, Brecht Forum Commission<br>Solo Drumset & Percussion with Visual Art by Makoto Fujimura
Susie Ibarra, percussionist and composer has performedsoutheast Asian gong music, jazz, avant-garde,improvised and solo concert works. She has performedwith many great artists such as John Zorn, DaveDouglas,...
Philippine Gong and Drum Music Workshop
A 2-hour workshop limited to 15 percussion students.The class will explore Folkloric Kulintang Gong Musicand bring these instruments into modern applicationson the drumset and percussion. Practice...
Speakers TBA
How do we, as part of a broad anti-imperialist, anti-war, and internationalist left, engage and express real and meaningful solidarity with struggles for justice in the Middle East and North Africa? Despite...
An All-Queer Reading Hosted by Tamiko Beyer
The New York Writers Coalition (NYWC) provides free creative writing workshops to people from groups historically deprived of voice in society. Workshop participants have included the formerly incarcerated,...
+ El Golpe -- The Assault
Discussion with Filmmakers Tami Gold & Gerardo Renique
Through personal testimonials, Land, Rain and Fire examines the origins of social discontent in Oaxaca and documents its transformation into a pacific democratic insurgency. What began as a teachersÕ...
An Evening of Songs & Poems by Bertolt Brecht
With Barbara Barnes, Chris Carlson, Ellen Davidson, Gene Glickman, Mara Goodman, Sam Levine, Don Raphael, Marie Robinson, Sarah Safford, Martha Siegel & Ben Silver
Sarah Safford, dancer/puppeteer, and Sam Levine, tap dancer
Mara Goodman, contralto, and Ellen Davidson, soprano
with singers Chris Carlson, Don Raphael, Marie Robinson, Ben Silverand Gene Glickman...
Paintings by Political Prisoner Tom Manning
Can't Jail the Spirit exhibits Manning's paintings of political prisoners, freedom fighters, the earth and people struggling against oppression. For his actions, Tom Manning became a political prisoner...
Elizabeth Grant
Elizabeth Grant, PhD, from the New York Historical Society, will present on Early African Settlers in New York, which includes a history of slavery and abolition in New York City, especially how it relates to...
August 23, 1915 Ð January 22, 2007
Edward Boorstein was a life-long revolutionary internationalist from the Bronx who trained as an economist and placed his skills, energy and passion at the service of revolutionary governments in Cuba (1960-...
We will present and screen a documentary made by a group of of 4th and 5th grade students in collaboration with Manhattan Neighborhood Network on themes of borders and inequity
World Premiere, Brecht Forum Commission
Matana Roberts explores her Choctaw, Cherokee and Chickasaw heritage in a mixed media performance piece entitled ""Trail of Tear."" This is a new chapter in her ongoing musical blood narrative - Coin Coin...
Join us on the 3rd Sunday of the month for music and dance from some of the many Afro-Latino communities in the New York region. A mainstay of the CafŽ is Cuban rumba Ð a celebratory, sometimes raucous...
The ÒWar on TerrorÓ and Repression
Speakers TBA
Featuring attorneys from the Center for Constitutional Rights, as well as anti-war activists and organizers, this event focuses on detention, racism and war, linking struggles for justice in our communities in...
Patricia Foulkrod's unflinching documentary feature includes exclusive footage that will stir audiences. The filmmaker's subjects are patriotic young Americans-- ordinary men and women who heeded the call for...
An Image Theater Technique
Facilitated by Augusto Boal, Julian Boal & Marie-Claire Picher
Saturday & Sunday 10:00 am to 6:00 pm
Monday 10:00 am to 5 pm
with a public performance demonstration 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Rainbow of Desire is a technique similar to Cop-in-the-Head...
Techniques & Dialogues on the Aesthetics of the Oppressed
Facilitated by Augusto Boal, Julian Boal & Marie-Claire Picher
Tuesday & Wednesday; 10:00 am to 6:00 pm
Thursday: 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
This is an advanced workshop designed for people who have extensiveexperience as Theater of the Oppressed...
World Premiere, Brecht Forum Commission
""Unbroken"" with Louie Belogenis (tenor saxophone),Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz (bass) and Kenny Wollesen,(drums)
Speakers TBA
Come celebrate the release of the Summer issue of Left Turn magazine (#25) as we get ready to head down to Atlanta for the 2007 US Social Forum. Contributors and editors will discuss the possibilities...
Forum on Political Prisoners
Speakers TBA
The closing celebration for the month-long exhibit Can't Jail the Spirit : Art by Political Prisoner Tom Manning will feature a discussion and update on political prisoner Leonard PeltierÕs 30 year...
Facilitators: Autumn Brown, Samuel Conway, Stuart Rockefeller & Danielle Sered
Saturday, 10:00 am - 6:00 pm
Sunday, 10:00 am Ð 3:00 pm
The consensus process is much more than a decision-making tool. It is an opportunity to participate in a creative process, the outcome of which...
Written & Performed by Margo Lee Sherman
Margo Lee ShermanÕs compelling new solo performance is based on the actual words of contemporary American soldiers who have served in Iraq. Through a series of fragments and vignettes composed of quotes from...
DJs Kervyn Mark & Kamala
The Melting Pot NYC cordially invites you to ""SHINE,"" their official celebration of NYC Gay Pride. Be out, be proud and let your light shine brilliantly today and every day of the year. Resident DJs Kervyn...
Ollin Imagination
Anti-War Expressions is a Latino response to the Iraq war. It is a play combining poetry, spoken word and music to convey the horrific effects of war on communities in the United States and abroad. The...
Ollin Imagination
Anti-War Expressions is a Latino response to the Iraq war. It is a play combining poetry, spoken word and music to convey the horrific effects of war on communities in the United States and abroad. The...
with Author Robert Roth & Readings by Martha Lincoln, Margaret Mercer, Ralph Nazareth, Myrna Nieves & Carletta Joy Walker
4:00 - Reception
5:00 - Readings
Robert Roth's Health Proxy is a dynamic collage of consciousness‰ÛÓbits and pieces of perception, insight, observation, dialogue, interior monologue,...
Marisol Ruiz
A first course for those with little to no previous knowledge of the language. Students speak Spanish from the first day and acquire basic speaking, reading, and writing skills while learning about Spanish and...
Jose Rosa
Students will continue to develop everyday conversational skills while learning more complex grammatical forms. Emphasis will be placed on increasing vocabulary and expressing more sophisticated ideas. At this...
Kazembe Balagun
A reading group on this provocative book by James Boggs & Grace Lee Boggs.
Laurie Kellogg
When trying to speak in public, have you ever felt butterflies in your stomach? Has your mind gone blank? Or, have you found you were just rambling on and on? Um, like, ya know, well, uh ........ You are not...
Radical Interventions in the Public Sphere
Cynthia Copeland, Beka Economopoulos, Jason James, Alan Moore, & Gregory Sholette <br> Moderator: Lisa Maya Knauer
Videos: 6:30 ‰ÛÒ 7:30 pm
Panel: 7:30 ‰ÛÒ 9:00 pm followed by a Soiree
Light refreshments will be served.
Although we live in grim times, artists are continuing to provide provocative,...
Jose Rosa
Students learn to read advanced texts, express themselves fluently, write long texts, and appreciate humor, irony, and wit in literary and non-literary texts. Depending on the students' needs, increased...
29th Annual Intensive Introduction to Marxism
Stanley Aronowitz, Bhairavi Desai, Sujatha Fernandes, Forrest Hylton, Lisa Maya Knauer, Randy Martin, Biju Mathew, Rene Francisco Poitevin, Heather Rogers Anwar Shaikh & Others TBA
Click Here for Schedule
In the face of the pervasive war, poverty and environmental destruction that mark our times and even threaten life on this planet, people are beginning to...
Food & Autonomy in the City
Laura Kirchner & Representatives of Community Supporter Agriculture
The growth of urban permaculture and organic farming practices has brought the relationship between food and social justice into focus. In this presentation, Laura Kirchner of Fair Food NYC and members of...
Promises follows the journey of one of the filmmakers, Israeli-American B.Z. Goldberg. B.Z. travels to a Palestinian refugee camp and to an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, and to the more familiar...
Well, What Can We Do About It?
Ajamu Sankofa
Michael Moore's documentary SiCKO exposes this nation's dirty little secret: the 40 million Americans without health insurance in this country. This film has led to a questioning of the private healthcare...
Celebrate Summer w/ Avant-Jazz on the Loading Dock!!
Featuring Matt Lavelle (trumpet), Eric Mingus (bass and voice), Ras Moshe (tenor sax), Anders Nillson (electric guitar), Dave Ross (electric guitar), Catherine Sikora (tenor sax), Fay Victor (voice) and more....
The Brecht Forum invites all who participated in the first US Social Forum in Atlanta, June 27-July 1, and those who would like to hear about it, to come together for an open discussion of what happened and...
Discussion with Filmmaker Damian Lopez
Compromiso Cumplido is the first of a two-part documentary about the human rights violations during the current conflict in Oaxaca. The flim documents human rights violations committed by Governor...
Kenyon Farrow & Others TBA
Come join us for a celebration of Black gay writer/activist James Badlwin on the anniversary of his 81st birthday.
The Black Panther Party Library
Ashanti Alston, S.E. Anderson, Roz Payne & Others TBA
Friday: 7:30 - 10:00 pm
Saturday: Noon - 5:30 pm
Sunday: Noon - 5:30 pm
Join us for an entire screening (with breaks for discussion) of Roz Payne‰Ûªs 12-hour film compilation from her own...
Terry Dame, Kali Fasteau, Cooper-Moore, Melissa Moore & Bradford Reed
3:00 pm - Instrument-making workshops led by Cooper-Moore, Melissa Moore and Kali Fasteau
Participants in Melissa Moore's workshop will learn to make contact-microphones. Kali Z. Fasteau will lead...
Discussion with Filmmaker Ricardo Bacallao
An evening of short films by Ricardo Bacallao, a recent graduate of Cuba's Instituto Superior de Arte Works include A Short Radiography of Hip Hop in Cuba and The Maji-Maji Readings, which looks...
A Narrative History of Black Power
Peniel Joseph
The Black Power Movement transformed America's racial, social, and political landscape. Come learn about this movement's heritage and legacy from activist and scholar Dr. Peniel E. Joseph, who will be reading...
with Live Rumba Performance
Join us for this feature-length documentary on Cuban Rumba followed discussion with director Elio Ruiz and a live rumba performance.
Discussion Leader TBA
Marcus Garvey: Look For Me in the Whirlwind, the first comprehensive documentary to tell the life story of this controversial leader, uses a wealth of material from the Garvey movement-written documents...
S.E. Anderson
Join us to celebrate the republication of Black Holocaust for Beginners. The Black Holocaust - a virtually ignored travesty - killed millions of African human beings from the start of European slave...
An Evening of Performances by Old & New ‰ÛÏBlack Fires‰Û
Autum Ashante, Gail Burton, Khalil Al Mustafa & Others TBA
Black Fire, first published in 1968, is considered one of the seminal works of the period. It presents more than 180 selections from 75 writers. Edited by Amiri Baraka and Larry Neal, the contributor...
David Harvey
This course will undertake a close reading of Volume I of Marx's famous analysis of capitalist production, highlighting its relevance to contemporary conditions and its rootedness in working class politics....
Eric Anderson
The Untold Story of the Drowning of New Orleans
Discussion Leader TBA
In this half-hour film, Greg Palast and his team travel to New Orleans to investigate what has happened since Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast last year. He examines why residents had to leave, what really...
A Series of Paintings by Richard Bonomo
These group portraits represent a biologist‰Ûªs exploration of the diversity of our species and a search for humaneness.
Facilitated by Marie-Claire Picher and Others TBA
Friday: 6:00 - 9:00 pm
Saturday & Sunday: 11:00 am - 6:00 pm
Cop-in-the-Head is a collection of Theater of the Oppressed techniques that use games and exercises to recognize and confront...
New Works for Violin and Piano
with Mark Feldman
""That her music is as aesthetically beautiful as it is strange and mysterious is only further testament to her prowess as a composer"" ~ All Music Guide
Pianist and composer Syvlie...
A Radical Social and Political History of the Lower East Side
Jim Feast, Sarah Ferguson, Alan Moore, Clayton Patterson & Seth Tobocman
New York's Lower East Side has been pivotal in the development of politically radical practices, lifestyles and thought. This legacy, stretching back to the days of Emma Goldman's residence at the turn of the...
Discussion with Filmmaker Kathleen Foster
Afghan Women: A History of Struggle captures the resilience and courage of women who risk their lives on a daily basis to stand up for their rights. The film examines the drafting of the Afghan Women's...
Sr. Clare Marie Therese, ICM
Sr. Clare Marie Therese, who lives and works in a Dalit community in Tamilnadu, India, will show the documentary film Shit, which depicts the deplorable conditions faced by manual scavengers of human...
Facilitated by Sr. Clare Marie Therese, ICM
Using various exercises from street theater, Playback Theater and Theater of the Oppressed (especially Forum Theater), participants will gain insights into the experiences and the limited space into which...
A Play by Sean Huze
Performed by Peace Works Group Theatre International
We are most pleased to present the New York City Premier of The Sand Storm: Stories From the Front written by former Marine and Iraq veteran Sean Huze. With acclaimed productions in Hollywood and The...
A Play by John DiFusco
Performed by Peace Works Group Theatre International
To accompany Sean Huze‰Ûªs powerful play from Iraq on September 19, we are most pleased to also present a revival of Tracers, the signature play from the jungle quagmire of Vietnam. Tracers...
Readings by ""The Little Reverend"" & Others TBA
Join us for an evening of music, dancing and readings as we celebrate the publication of Pedro Pietri‰Ûªs book-length poem about children and war, If You Can Sleep, You‰Ûªre Heartless.
Discussion with Filmmaker Kevin Keating
‰ÛÏNothing less than a full frontal assault on the civic deification of Rudolph W. Giuliani.‰Û
- The New York Times, April 12, 2006
Kevin Keating‰Ûªs chilling documentary examines Giuliani...
Vivek Chibber
The 20th century was characterized by the rise of two historic forces, the newly emerging American imperium and the global socialist movement. At the turn of this century, socialism is in full retreat, while...
Part 1. ""TO SEE""
Maria Arettines, Carmelina Cartei, Kate Cavanagh, Esperanza Martell, Julie Nevies, Fernando Real & Other Popular Educators!
Part 1 of this Paulo Freire Methodology Intensive is an introduction to the theory of Pedagogy of the Oppressed and to the practical application of the Paulo Freire methodology. Through taking part in...
With Andrew Bemkey, Roy Campbell, Jr., Ken Filiano & Michael T.A. Thompson. Movement by Amon Bey
""You can hear the soft nurturing quality in SacoYasuma's compositional style... It serves her well!Her culture comes through loud & clear in her use ofspecific metaphors: Wind, Rain, Calm, Moon, Liquid...
William DiFazio
This class is continuing from the last term and welcomes new participants who can begin with Chapter 10 of Karl Marx's Capital Vol. I. The class functions as a study group and is reading the text slowly...
Rick Wolff
This course uses Marxian class analysis to examine the rise and collapse of the USSR between 1917 and 1989. We will show use how capitalist, socialist and communist class structures coexisted inside the USSR...
Edith Chevat
You're never too young or too old to write your memoirs. All you need is paper and pen and a desire to retrieve what you thought was lost. Unlike biography with its need for facts and dates, a memoir is your...
The Promise of Free and Open Source Software
Samir Chopra, Gabriella Coleman & Scott Dexter
Software is more that instructions for computing machines: it enables (and disables) political imperatives and policies. Nowhere is this potential for radical social and political change more apparent than in...
Rev. Luis Barrios
In this critical seminar, we attempt to analyze and discuss liberation theology as a humanistic school of thought and action and how faith inspires social justice. More specifically, how liberation theology...
Plus Film Sceening of <i>A Summer Not to Forget</i>
Bilal El-Amine
Bilal Elamine, currently living in Beirut, originally from SouthernLebanon, the former editor of Left Turn Magazine, will talk abouthis personal experince of the July (2006) War on Lebanon and...
An Economist's Travelogue
Michael Yates
The road trip is a staple of modern American literature. But nowhere in American literature, until now, has a left-wing economist hit the road, observing and interpreting the extraordinary range and spectacle...
Facilitated by Kelly di Bertolli, Kayhan Irani and Lisa Lindstrom
Saturday & Sunday: 10:00 am to 5:30 pm
An innovative approach to public forums, Forum Theater is rooted in the Brasilian popular education and culture movements of the 1950s and 1960s. It is designed...
The case of Vieques, Puerto Rico
Nilda Medina & Robert Rabin
Our speakers will address the struggle for justice and peace in Vieques, Puerto Rico in the years since the Navy has stopped itÕs bombing practice on the islandÑincluding the ongoing struggles for...
Behind & Beyond the Icon
Tariq Ali, Chesa Boudin, Juan Gonzalez & Greg Grandin. Moderator: Sujatha Fernandes
6:30: Exhibit Opening & Reception
7:30 pm Forum
Che Guevara, the Argentine-born Cuban revolutionary was murdered in Bolivia, with the backing of the CIA, 40 years ago this October. A leader of...
Real Life Encounters With Iraq
Barbara Nimri Aziz. Moderated by Lynne Stewart
In Swimming Up the Tigris Barbara Nimri Aziz allows ordinary Iraqis to speak directly to us. We learn of the breakdown of Iraq's once exemplary medical system, and of needless deaths as a result of poor...
Gerardo Renique
The presentation will focus on the latest trends and developments of Oaxaca's popular movement that have managed to weather successfully one of the most violent repressions in recent Mexican history.
...
Join us on occasional Sundays for music and dance from some of the many Afro-Latino communities in the New York region. A mainstay of the Cafe is Cuban rumba -- a celebratory, sometimes raucous, percussion-...
Reggie Boorstein, John Gerassi & Joseph Harris
When the photographer Alberto Diaz, known more popularly as Korda, aimed his Leica at Ernesto Guevara in March 1960 he had no idea that the resulting shot would become a famous and instantly recognizable...
Nonviolence & Resistance in the Middle East & Beyond
Ellen Davidson & Judith Mahoney Pasternak
A celebration of the War Resisters League 2008 Peace Calendar and a reportback and slide show by Ellen Davidson and Judith Mahoney Pasternak on their recent trip to Palestine as part of a delegation meeting...
Facilitators: Autumn Brown, Samuel Conway, Carter Klenk, Danielle Sered
The consensus process is much more than a decision-making tool. It is an opportunity to participate in a creative process, the outcome of which is a synthesis of the raw materials we began with. It is a...
Refugees from the War in Iraq
Hiba Dawood, Robert S. Eshelman & Richard Rowley. Moderated by Ash Rao
As a direct result of the US war and occupation an estimated 2 million Iraqis are now refugees. Another 1.5 million are internally displaced, living in camps without water, electricity or medical services....
Max Fraad Wolff & Richard Wolff
Analysis of turbulent economic times and their implications for US and global income, wealth and growth. Presentation followed by Q and A.
Laurie Kellogg
When trying to speak in public, have you ever felt butterflies in your stomach? Has your mind gone blank? Or, do you ramble on and on? Um, like, ya know, well, uh ........
You are not alone!
This...
Jane Franklin, John Gerassi, Michael Smith & Leonard Weinglass
Our panel will lay out the specifics of what we know about the CIA's involvement in the murder of Che Guevara and trace the links between the CIAÕs actions and continuing attacks on the Cuban Revolution.
Join us on occasional Sundays for music and dance from some of the many Afro-Latino communities in the New York region. A mainstay of the Cafe is Cuban rumba -- a celebratory, sometimes raucous, percussion-...
This session is not limited to guitarists, but is open to all interested musicians.Pre-registration is required.
Joaquin Mauricio Chavez, Sujatha Fernandes, Forrest Hylton & Others TBA
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez once remarked that the nineteenth century was the century of Europe, the twentieth was the century of the United States, and the twenty-first is to be the century of Latin...
Performances on November 1, 3, 4, 16 & 17 @ 8:00 pm
Brooklyn Playwrights Collective presents the premiere of short and original one-acts inspired by Bertolt Brecht and interspersed with songs and...
Bhairavi Desai & Ed Ott
In the 21st Century, conventional trade union organization has no longer proved to be sufficient for responding to the assaults on a labor force that is now fragmented into a variety of traditional and non-...
Focus on Immigration Issues
Facilitators: Marie Claire Picher & Others TBA
Image Theater is designed to develop individual skills of observation andself-reflection, and cooperative group interaction. Leadership-buildingand consensus-building games and techniques explore relations of...
Performances on November 1, 3, 4, 16 & 17 @ 8:00 pm
Brooklyn Playwrights Collective presents the premiere of short and original one-acts inspired by Bertolt Brecht and interspersed with songs and...
Performances on November 1, 3, 4, 16 & 17 @ 8:00 pm
Brooklyn Playwrights Collective presents the premiere of short and original one-acts inspired by Bertolt Brecht and interspersed with songs and...
Herb Boyd, Elombe Brath, Joan Gibbs, Joseph Harris & Rosemary Mealy
Africa was a major arena for Ernesto GuevaraÕs work of the early 60s. Not as well known as his activities in Latin America, CheÕs actions in Africa, which culminated in his personal participation in the...
A Reading and Writing Group
Kazembe Balagun & Julie Rosier
Conceived in the 1960s revolutionary upsurge, James and Grace Lee BoggsÕ Evolution and Revolution in the 20th Century became the one seminal texts of the New Left. Seeing personal transformation growing...
A Conversation on Successes & Challenges
Hye-Jung Park, Nan Rubin, Martha Wallner & Betty Yu
From the Media Reform Conference in January, through the U.S. Social Forum in July, and at a host of regional gatherings, FCC hearings and grassroots media trainings in between, this is an exciting year for...
Curated by L2EL Arts
The unimagined evolution and status of many politicized cultures continues to inspire multimedia artists throughout the world. The CENSORSHIP show presents the work of New York City and international artists...
The Long (and Contentious) Strategic Journey of the US Left
Mark Solomon
Part 2: ""TO ANALYSE & TO DO""
Maria Arettines, Carmelina Cartei, Kate Cavanagh, Esperanza Martell, Julie Nevies, Fernando Real & Other Popular Educators!
Part II of this Paulo Freire Methodology Intensive will focus on analysis and action plans. Participants will learn through practice the basic steps of the Freire methodology:
1. to express and see...
Marco Cappelli, Jennifer Choi & Vong Pak
Featuring the world premiere of the Brecht Forum-commissioned Improbaile for violin, guitar and korean percussion by Marco Cappelli, and other works by this exciting musical collective.
Jennifer...
Join us on occasional Sundays for music and dance from some of the many Afro-Latino communities in the New York region. A mainstay of the Cafe is Cuban rumba -- a celebratory, sometimes raucous, percussion-...
Readings of poetry and prose. Readers will include participants in the New York Writers CoalitionÕs (NYWC) creative writing workshops giving voice to unheard members of society. The Writing Aloud reading...
Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong
Come Meet Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong, a leading clinician/researcher on the effects of Agent Orange on the women and children of Vietnam. Dr. Phuong is the Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Medical...
Real vs Bogus Solutions
Patrick Bond, Mitchell Joachim, Jessica Lee & Elaine Matthews
How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death
Guided by media critic Norman SolomonÕs meticulous research and tough-minded analysis, War Made Easy reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose a 50-year pattern of government deception and media...
Performances on November 1, 3, 4, 16 & 17 @ 8:00 pm
Brooklyn Playwrights Collective presents the premiere of short and original one-acts inspired by Bertolt Brecht and interspersed with songs and...
Seen Differently
Max-Fraad Wolff & Richard D. Wolff
Morning and afternoon seminars will offer unique practical investment information. They are intended for individuals seeking deep understanding in relation to their current or future responsibilities to invest...
Performances on November 1, 3, 4, 16 & 17 @ 8:00 pm
Brooklyn Playwrights Collective presents the premiere of short and original one-acts inspired by Bertolt Brecht and interspersed with songs and...
Join us on occasional Sundays for music and dance from some of the many Afro-Latino communities in the New York region. A mainstay of the Cafe is Cuban rumba -- a celebratory, sometimes raucous, percussion-...
Norman Finkelstein
Embattled professor and penetrating analyst of the Middle East, Norman Finkelstein will examine the roots of the conflict between Israel and Palestine and the prospects for peace.Ê
Yvonne Bynoe
Ideas are the catalyst to all social and political change. Before there can be a movement, someone has to spell out what the problem is and how it needs to be solved. Activists as varied as W.E.B. DuBois,...
How a U.S. Police State Is Being Built
Clark Kissinger, Roberto Lovato, Michael Smith & Others TBA
Our panel will discuss the near completion since 911 of the infrastructure for a police state in the United States--including its legal and ideological apparatus.
Facilitators: Marie-Claire Picher & Others TBA
Saturday & Sunday: 10:00 am - 6:00 pm Rainbow of Desire is an Image Theater technique similar to Cop-in-the-Head. Where Cop uses games and exercises to recognize and confront internalized forms of...
Left Perspectives on the Current Political Economy
Participants in a Reading & Writing Group
Our panelists will present ideas, drawn from their just-completed study group on James and Grace Lee Boggs classic work, Revolution and Evolution in the 20th Century. They will present some reflections...
Featuring the world premiere of the Brecht Forum-commissioned Causing a Tiger
Carla Kihlstedt (violin, voice) - Shahzad Ismaily (percussion, guitar, bass) -Matthias Bossi (percussion, piano)
...
Join us on occasional Sundays for music and dance from some of the many Afro-Latino communities in the New York region. A mainstay of the Cafe is Cuban rumba -- a celebratory, sometimes raucous, percussion-...
Greg Wilpert
On December 3rd, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez suffered his first electoral defeat in nine years and 12 nation-wide votes. How did this happen and what does this mean for the continuation of the Bolivarian...
Directed by acclaimed Dutch director Paul Binnerts
Shows on Mon, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat @ 8:30pm
Brecht's prophetic 1926 classic MAN IS MAN follows the transformation of Galy Gay from a naive and ignorant porter in Colonial British India into a vicious...
Join us on occasional Sundays for music and dance from some of the many Afro-Latino communities in the New York region. A mainstay of the Cafe is Cuban rumba -- a celebratory, sometimes raucous, percussion-...