Events from the Third Coast Activist

 Coffee with the Author and Book Signing

Date: November 5, 2015

Time: 12:00 pm  to  1:00 pm

KUT Radio’s Jennifer Stayton will interview University of Texas professor Robert Jensen about his new book, Plain Radical: Living, Loving, and Learning to Leave the Planet Gracefully at the Holy Grounds coffee shop. The book sketches the comprehensive radical politics of Jensen’s late friend and comrade Jim Koplin. Drawing on first-hand stories and the nearly 3,000 pages of correspondence that flowed between the two men between 1988 and 2012, the book is part love story, part intellectual memoir, and part political polemic—an argument for how we should understand problems and think about solutions to create a decent human future, if there is to be a human future at all.

 

Location: St. David’s Episcopal Church, 301 E. 8th St. Austin, 78701

– See more at: http://www.thirdcoastactivist.org/events/coffee-with-the-author-and-book-signing/#sthash.HU05wZOC.dpuf

 

 Green Movie Night featuring “Greedy Lying Bastards”

Date: November 6, 2015

Time: 7:00 pm  to  9:00 pm

 

The First Unitarian Universalist Church’s Green Sanctuary Committee will screen the documentary “Greedy Lying Bastards,” which investigates the reason efforts to tackle climate change have stalled despite consensus in the scientific community. The film details the people and organizations that cast doubt on climate science and claim that greenhouse gases are not affected by human behavior. A discussion group will follow the film. For more information, contact green@austinuu.org or (512) 288-4080

 

Location: First Unitarian Universalist Church, 4700 Grover Ave., Austin 78756

– See more at: http://www.thirdcoastactivist.org/events/green-movie-night-featuring-greedy-lying-bastards/#sthash.vd4QrOCw.dpuf

 

 Naomi Klein on Climate and Capitalism

Date: November 11, 2015

Time: 7:00 pm  to  9:00 pm

 

Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist, syndicated columnist, and author of several books, including her 2007 New York Times bestseller, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Her most recent book, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate, won the 2014 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction and was shortlisted for the 2015 PEN Literary Awards in the nonfiction category. Klein is a contributing editor for Harper’s and a reporter for Rolling Stone, and she writes a regular column for The Nation and The Guardian. In 2014 she received the International Studies Association’s IPE Outstanding Activist-Scholar award, and in 2015 she received the Izzy Award honoring outstanding achievement in independent journalism and media. The event is sponsored by the Texas Institute for Literary and Textual Studies and the Humanities Institute at the University of Texas.

 

Location: University of Texas, Lady Bird Johnson Auditorium, 2313 Red River, Austin, 78705

– See more at: http://www.thirdcoastactivist.org/events/naomi-klein-on-climate-and-capitalism/#sthash.n2HfGVdA.dpuf

 

 “Uniting Our Divided City: Addressing Health Disparities”

Date: November 13, 2015

Time: 12:00 pm  to  1:30 pm

 

Although Travis County and Austin have reputations for healthy populations, many residents are being left behind. This program features health care providers, advocates, and University of Texas faculty working to address racial and ethnic health disparities. Panelists include Christie Garbe, Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, Central Health; Miyong Kim, Associate Vice President for Community Health Engagement, UT; William Lawson, Associate Dean of Health Disparities, UT’s Dell Medical School; and Sal Valdez, Chief Operating Officer, The Latino HealthCare Forum. The moderator will be Sherri Greenberg from the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Attendance is free and lunch is provided, but seating is limited and an RSVP is required.

 

Location: University of Texas, LBJ School of Public Affairs, Room 3.122, 2300 Red River St., Austin

– See more at: http://www.thirdcoastactivist.org/events/uniting-our-divided-city-addressing-health-disparities/#sthash.kHCD9bLI.dpuf

 

 Campaign to End the Death Penalty Conference

Date: November 14, 2015

Time: 8:00 am  to  5:00 pm

 

The theme of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty conference is “Fighting the Death Penalty and Mass Incarceration.” Discussions will focus on police violence, abuse of prosecutorial discretion, harsh sentencing, execution methods, solitary confinement and prison conditions, and more. Register online ($25 regular, $10 for students and family members of prisoner or former prisoners). For more information, contact Lily Hughes, lily@nodeathpenalty.org.

 

Location: Huston-Tillotson University, 900 Chicon St., Austin, 78702

– See more at: http://www.thirdcoastactivist.org/events/campaign-to-end-the-death-penalty-conference/#sthash.yVdMkoM5.dpuf

 

 Jessica Gordon Nembhard on African American Cooperatives

Date: December 9, 2015

Time: 7:00 pm  to  9:00 pm

 

Jessica Gordon Nembhard, a professor at John Jay College of the City University of New York and author of Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Thought and Practice will speak about her vision for a sustainable economy in which Black lives matter. In her research and activism, Nembhard focuses on community economic development, wealth inequality, Black political economy, popular economic literacy, and community justice. Nembhard was a founding member of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives and is co-founder of the Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland, College Park. The event is sponsored by Cooperation Texas. More information online.

 

Location: Dickey-Lawless Auditorium, Huston-Tillotson University, 900 Chicon St., Austin, 78702

– See more at: http://www.thirdcoastactivist.org/events/jessica-gordon-nembhard-on-african-american-cooperatives/#sthash.TnlaCEp7.dpuf

 

 US Human Rights Network National Conference

Date: December 10 – 13, 2015

Time: 8:00 am  to  5:00 pm

 

The biannual conference of the US Human Right Network will be held in Austin December 10-13, with a focus on economic, social and cultural rights. This national network of organizations and individuals works to build and strengthen a people-centered human rights movement in the United States. PODER (People Organized in Defense of Earth and her Resources) will serve as the local anchor organization for the conference. Scholarships are available.

 

Location: Hilton Austin, 500 E. 4th St., Austin, 78701

– See more at: http://www.thirdcoastactivist.org/events/us-human-rights-network-national-conference/#sthash.YDS1iQ9L.dpuf

 

A Human Trafficking Awareness Event

A Human Trafficking Awareness Event

Oak Hill UMC

7815 Hwy 290 West, Austin

December 5, 2015

9:00am – Noon

Featuring a screening of a brief documentary on human trafficking followed by a community conversation with a panel of experts:

Sgt. Bob Miljenovich, Austin PD

Kay Firth-Butterfield, Texas Attorney General’s Human Trafficking Task Force

Calli Norris, Redeemed Ministries

David Fairchild, Refugee Services of Texas

Learn what you can do to stop labor and sex trafficking in Austin and meet local organizations working to bring an end to modern day slavery.

For more information about this event, contact
Cathy Herzog (chhtx50@sbcglobal.net) and /or Corinne Weisgerber (corrinew@stedwards.edu)

Save the Date – One Human Race Workshops

one-human-race-workshops-87The Rio Texas MFSA Chapter will sponsor the One Human Race Workshops in April 2016.

Three workshops focused on race reconciliation using materials from the PBS Series: Race: A Power of An Illusion. Materials have been updated and modified. If you are looking for a safe and friendly environment to start on continue a conversation about race reconciliation, this may be the ideal solution for you.

We recommend you attend at least the first workshop. Attendance to all workshops is not required, but recommended. To learn more about this movement, visit: www.OneHumanRace.info

Presented by: The Myra McDaniel Chapter, which is an affiliate of the national organization, the Union of Black Episcopalians. The Chapter advocates for and encourages greater involvement and participation of members of the African Diaspora in all levels of the Episcopal Church.

Justice for Sandra Bland

sandra_bland_petition_TOP_logo

MORE THAN 4,200 PEOPLE so far have signed our petition demanding justice for Sandra Bland!  Click here to add your name!  Share the petition with your friends so we can reach 5,000 signatures.  Also, we are planning to deliver the petition to Texas DPS in Austin on Sept. 10.  Donate to help us make the trip! For more information, contact Mary Moreno at (832) 829-4174, mmoreno@organizetexas.org.

Invisible in Austin

Launch of Invisible in Austin: Life and Labor in an American City

Date: Friday, September 4, 2015

Time: 7:00 pm  to  9:00 pm

Location:  BookPeople

, 603 N. Lamar Blvd., Austin, 78703

In Invisible in Austin, University of Texas sociologist Javier Auyero and a team of graduate students explore the lives of those working at the bottom of the social order: house cleaners, office-machine repairers, cab drivers, restaurant cooks and dishwashers, exotic dancers, musicians, and roofers, among others. The book makes visible the growing gap between rich and poor that is reconfiguring Austin, as low-wage workers are forced to the social and symbolic margins.

The panel discussion will feature co-authors Auyero and Katie Jensen, professor and Ph.D. student from the UT Department of Sociology; Pierette Hondagneu-Sotelo, University of Southern California sociology professor; Melissa del Bosque, Texas Observer reporter; and Cristina Tzintzún, executive director of the Workers Defense Project.

Robert Reich Lecture at UT Austin

Robert Reich Speaking at UT

Date: September 8, 2015

Time: 7:00 pm  to  8:30 pm

Location: LBJ Library, Lady Bird Auditorium, University of Texas, 2313 Red River St., Austin

The University of Texas’ Plan II Honors Program is hosting Robert Reich for the 2015 Liz Carpenter Distinguished Lecture.  Reich, former Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, is a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley.  He is the author of Beyond Outrage: What Has Gone Wrong with Our Economy and Our Democracy, and How to Fix Them and was featured in the documentary “Inequality for All.”

No tickets are required for this free event.

If you can’t make it to the LBJ Library, Reich will also be interviewed for KLRU’s Overheard with Evan Smith at the KLRU studios at 2:45 pm on September 8.   Event is free but reservations required.  More information: https://www.klrusupport.org/robert-reich-tapes-overheard?erid=6066134&trid=36457f0b-4505-499c-8626-3e4d8eebab2f

iACT – The Red Bench Conversations

redbench_logo-300x79Join us for a special Red Bench conversation as a part of Peace Day Austin!

Tuesday September 15, 2015, 6:30pm-8:30pm

Topic: Peace

Location: St. Edward’s University (Maloney Room, 3001 Congress Ave.)

http://interfaithtexas.org/events/the-red-bench-peace/

International Day of Peace

peace

Monday Sep, 21 2015

Building Green Justice Forum

Building Green Justice Forum: Cultivating Food Justice

Date: September 24, 2015

Time: 8:30 am  to  4:00 pm

Location: Dickey-Lawless Science Building, Huston-Tillotson University, 900 Chicon St., Austin, 78702, with free parking in the Chalmers Avenue lot and free street parking around campus.

Huston-Tillotson University will host the Second Annual Building Green Justice Forum, this year focusing on food justice. Activists, community members, students, and researchers will explore food access, local and global food systems, community-based solutions, nutrition, and health impacts.

Registration and coffee begins at 8:30 am, with speakers, panels, and workshops throughout the day. A full schedule is coming soon.

The forum—which is sponsored by Green is the New Black, The Dumpster Project, and the Third Coast Activist Resource Center—is free but please register online. For more information, contact Karen Magid,  kmagid@htu.edu

http://www.thirdcoastactivist.org/events/building-green-justice-forum-cultivating-food-justice/

First UMC – Austin Meeting on General Conference 2016

What to Expect at General Conference 2016 Sunday

September 27th 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.

Murchison Chapel

Presented by Jay Brim

Every four years, delegates from all over the world meet to decide on law and policy for the United Methodist Church.  Next year that meeting will be in May in Portland, Oregon.  Jay Brim is Chancellor of the Rio Texas Annual Conference (essentially the Bishop’s lawyer), a member of Westlake UMC, and a lay delegate to the 2016 General Conference.  He will inform us about the issues that General Conference is likely to address.  There is no charge for the course and there are no materials to purchase.

For more information, contact: marilyn@fumcaustin.org

Voices of Tamar

Can We Talk? Sexual Violence & Abuse

What’s Your Dating IQ?

(It’s more than just RED FLAGS)

Often Young Women and Men Get Caught in Relationship Nightmares,

Or are Unable to Awaken From the horror of Past Abuse.

FROM MOLESTATION/DATING VIOLENCE/DATE RAPE TO BEING TRAFFICKED

WHAT A TWISTED MESS.

September 27, 2015

2:00-4:30 PM

University United Methodist Church

2400 Guadalupe AUSTIN 78705

(use north entrance next to small parking lot)

Voices of Tamar, a faith-based ministry addressing violence in relationships.

Special Guests:    Imani Boyette and Chris Adams    

Cost: FREE

votwesleyministry@gmail.com

FOOD and DOOR PRIZES

Texas Impact – Better Neighbors Event

Better Neighbors Immigration Event in San Antonio, September 28, 2015

Time:  Monday, September 28, 2015, 6:30pm – 8:00pm

Place:  University Presbyterian Church.
300 Bushnell Ave, San Antonio, TX 78212

Texas Impact is coming to San Antonio to talk about programs to help strengthen our community!  This event will feature representatives of Texas Impact, discussing refugees, asylees and immigration in Texas. Texas Impact staff will also present details about the Community Partner program to assist eligible residents to access Texas benefits on-line.

The entire presentation is a part of Texas Impact’s Better Neighbors initiative.  Better Neighbors seeks to educate and engage local congregations to be “Better Neighbors” – by reaching out to people through direct service and policy implementation.  Each month Texas Impact provides resources for a “Focus of the Month” campaign on unique topics to inform local communities of faith how they can partner with the state to implement public policy at the local level. http://www.texasimpact.org

This month’s Better Neighbors newsletter, focusing on immigration, may be found online at  http://texasimpact.org/BetterNeighbors/2015-September

To see previous Better Neighbors newsletters, go to http://texasimpact.org/BetterNeighbors

For more information on Texas Impact, the presentation, or to RSVP, please contact our Congregational Outreach Director, Scott Atnip, at scott@texasimpact.org or by phone at 512.472.3903 x109

iACT – A Night Under One Sky

night under sky
Tuesday, October 6th, 2015
6:30-9:00pm at the Umlauf Sculpture Gardens and Museum

“A sacred evening of dining and dialogue in celebration of the relationships we have and those we hope to build.”

A Night Under One Sky has become a beloved tradition in our community. It celebrates the notion that there is common ground we can all walk in search of peace and respect in this world.  The setting is magical. The food is delightful.  The music is inspiring. The conversation is uplifting.

iACT brings people of all faiths together to serve our most vulnerable neighbors

God & Governing Project

godl_governingThe Texas Tribune and the LBJ Future Forum are pleased to present a special event marking the October launch of the Tribune’s newest reporting project, God and Governing, which explores the role Texas lawmakers’ personal religious beliefs play in their legislative decision-making.

In coordination with the project, we invite you to join us at the LBJ Presidential Library for a discussion with lawmakers about religion and the legislature. Tribune Editor Emily Ramshaw will moderate.

Wednesday, Oct. 7
6:30 p.m.
10th Floor
LBJ Presidential Library

http://www.texastribune.org/events/2015/10/07/god-governing/

Our panelists include:

  • State Rep.David Simpson, R-Longview
  • State Rep.Celia Israel, D-Austin
  • State Rep.James White, R-Woodville
  • State Rep.Donna Howard, D-Austin

The event will be held on the 10th floor of the LBJ Library. A brief reception with drinks and appetizers will follow. This event is free and open to the public.

Undoing Racism

Undoin RacismPISAB-logoThe People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond focuses on understanding what racism is, where it comes from, how it functions, why it persists and how it can be undone. Our workshops utilize a systemic approach that emphasizes learning from history, developing leadership, maintaining accountability to communities, creating networks, undoing internalized racial oppression and understanding the role of organizational gate keeping as a mechanism for perpetuating racism.

Tuesday, October 20, 2015 – Thursday, October 22, 2015

Whole Cities Foundation

Austin, TX

Diana Dunn

diana@pisab.org