Iran Teach-In at Loyola

"Averting Another Catastrophe" is the theme of a panel presentation and related activities at Loyola University, Saturday, Dec. 8 at 2pm.

Three scholar-activists discuss the folly and repercussions of an attack on Iran.

Place: Damen Hall, Room 144 (1/2 block north of Devon and Kenmore). No charge, contributions welcome. Info: 847-331-3286.

Download a flyer.

DART Seeks Organizers - Will Pay

The Direct Action & Research Training (DART) Center is currently
accepting resumes from those interested in social and economic justice
issues for their paid, four-month community organizing training program
known as the DART Organizers Institute. The application deadline for
this program is January 1, 2008.

The DART Center has built non-partisan community organizations
throughout the country that have won important improvements on a broad
set of issues affecting low-moderate income people including:

. Education reform in low-performing public schools
. Job Training
. Drugs and Violence
. Affordable Housing
. Criminal Recidivism
. Neighborhood Revitalization, etc.

The DART Organizers Institute starts June 17, 2008 and combines a 7-day
classroom with 15-week field training. Organizer Trainees will learn
such things as:

. Entering a community
. Identifying and training local leaders
. Strategic planning and issue cutting
. Relationship and community building
. Direct Action on community issues
. Fundraising

This is a paid training program designed to promote successful
graduates into permanent salaried positions making up to $35,000/year
in starting salaries, plus benefits. Graduates from the DART Organizers
Institute have gone onto accept Executive Director and Associate
Community Organizing positions throughout the country. We continue to
train the best of those working to build the power of low-moderate
income neighborhoods to win victories on important issues in their
community.

To apply, please send an updated resume to:

Ben MacConnell, the Recruitment Director at:
institute@thedartcenter.org before January 1, 2008. You can also call
him with questions: (785) 841-2680. To find out more about the DART
center, check out our website: www.thedartcenter.org. Download flyer.

100 Projects for Peace returns!

Sponsored by the Davis United World College Scholars Program,100 Projects for Peace is an invitation to all undergraduates enrolled as of fall 2007 to design grassroots projects that they will implement during the summer of 2008. The 100 projects judged to be the most promising and do-able will be funded at $10,000 each. The objective is to encourage and support today’s motivated youth to create and tryout their own ideas for building peace in the 21st century. One SAIC student is guaranteed to realize his or her project.

Students will submit 2-page proposals and 1-page budgets for their projects, which can be collaborative and need not be art-based. To support this process, Michael Ryan, and Nancy Gildart will present a workshop on proposal development, Tuesday, November 13 from 4:15 to 6 p.m. in 1240 Sullivan. The SAIC deadline is January 15, 2007. 3 finalists will be chosen by a faculty committee and submitted to the Davis UWC Scholars office. You can contact Nancy Gildart at ngildart@saic.edu.

For more information : http://www.kwd100projectsforpeace.org.

We're Regisitering You

Thanks to Emma, Melissa, Megan and Rebecca for staffing a voter registration table before the "Arts & Politics" lecture on Wednesday night in the Columbus Avenue building. We registered half the audience for the lecture!

Spread the word - we'll be registering people to vote again before the November 15 and November 28 lectures.

VOTER IQ QUIZ...
What percentage of people aged 18-29 voted in 2006?
(a) 15% (b) 25% (c) 38% (d) 64%
Click here for the answer

Jena 6 National Day of Protest Nov. 7

Wed Nov 7: The Jena 6 Are Back in Court

Drop All the Charges! Free the Jena 6!
No More Nooses!

Nationwide Protests - DC, NYC, LA, SF & more
Chicago Protest, Federal Plaza, 5 - 7 pm

For more info call 773-463-0311. Federal Plaza is at the corner of Adams & Dearborn. For directions to Fed Plaza click here. Bring your signs, banners & voices of protest! Download flyer.

Initial Endorsers in Chicago: Act Now to Stop War & End Racism - Chicago; Charles Hendrix, Chicago Organizer for Nov 16 National March in DC for Jena 6; Chicago Area CodePINK, Chicago Progressive Alliance; Committee on Pilipino Issues; Greater Chicago for Dennis Kucinich, Nicaragua Solidarity Committee; October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality; World Can't Wait - Chicago; 8th Day Center for Justice

To endorse call Chicago ANSWER at 773-463-0311 or e-mail answer@chicagoanswer.net

"Consuming War" @ Hyde Park Art Center

Hyde Park Art Center - Focusing on the U.S. conflict in the Middle East over the past 10 years, Consuming War addresses the ways the American media and consumer culture have manipulated and influenced our perceptions of war, often turning it into a spectacle for American consumption. While war is an underlying theme in all the works, each addresses the concept of war, and our relationship to it, from a variety of angles, creating pieces that range from political cartoons to sculptures that recreate the archeological artifacts looted from the National Museum of Iraq and large suspended papier mâché bombs made from sale advertisements. Timely in its subject matter, Consuming War offers an innovative platform in which the complex and multifarious connections between war, capitalism, American consumer culture, and our everyday lives can be re-situated and critically examined.

Prostrations for Peace
Sunday, November 11 Veteran’s Day, 12 - 3 pm
Community gathering for peace, with yoga practice, peace offerings, prayer flags and more.
This event will be taking place at the lakefront as well as HPAC.

Fightin' Words - The Literature of War

The Poetry Center of Chicago presents an evening of work dealing with war’s impact on those who serve. Brian Turner and Bruce Weigl share stories inspired by their own military experience.

Wednesday November 7, 2007, 6:30 pm
Ballroom, 112 S. Michigan Avenue

$10, $8 for students, free for members and SAIC students, faculty and staff.

Brian Turner is a soldier-poet whose debut book of poems, Here, Bullet, won the 2005 Beatrice Hawley Award and the New York Times “Editor's Choice” selection. Turner served seven years in the US Army, as an infantry team leader in Iraq and in Bosnia-Herzegovina with the 10th Mountain Division. Turner's poetry has been published in Poetry Daily, The Georgia Review, and in the Voices in Wartime Anthology published in conjunction with the feature-length documentary film of the same name.

Bruce Weigl is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry, and the best-selling memoir The Circle of Hanh. He has been awarded many honors, including the Paterson Poetry Prize, Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Yaddo Foundation, two Pushcart Prizes, and the Poet’s Prize from the Academy of American Poets.

Prior to the reading, special guest Issa Boulos will play a selection of classical Arab compositions. An acclaimed musician, composer and teacher, Boulos is the director of the University of Chicago Middle East Music Ensemble.

Directly following the reading moderator Tom Nawrocki will facilitate a dialogue between the poets, leading an in-depth discussion on their work and experiences. A professor of English at Columbia College Chicago, Nawrocki teaches a course every semester covering various aspects of the Vietnam War. He has published articles, interviews, and reviews in The Michigan Quarterly Review, The Writer’s Chronicle, Gravity, Another Chicago Magazine, Hyphen and others.

Critical Mess, er, Mass - Garbage in Chicago

Check out this article from October 25 issue of The Reader on garbage and recycling in Chicago, "Critical Mass."

Eyes Wide Open - The Cost of War to Illinois

“An exhibit that speaks directly to our hearts and reminds us of the human cost of war.”

Over 135 pairs of empty combat boots – tagged with the names of Illinois servicemen who have died in the current Iraq war – will be displayed, together with a visual representation of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians who have died during the conflict.

DePaul University’s Quad

Fullerton Avenue Lincoln Park Campus

Chicago, Illinois

October 31, 2007 8:30AM-7:00PM

Professors Scott Hibbard and Khalil Marrar from the political science department will speak from 6:00-7:30 on the Iraq War

John T. Richardson Library, the Rosati Room 300.

Eyes Wide Open is the American Friends Service Committee's widely acclaimed exhibition on the human cost of the Iraq war. Info at www.afsc.org/eyes.

Join Tom at Columbia on Oct 30 - "Artists as Leaders"

The Center for Teaching Excellence at Columbia College and the Chicago Teaching Artists Collective present..

The Politics of Creativity - Artists and Educators as Leaders

When: 7:00 p.m. on Tues., Oct. 30 Where: C33 Space, Columbuia College, 33 E. Congress, first floor

This event will be free and open to the public. Please RSVP to dgodston@sbcglobal.net.

Do you believe that creativity is a national value? Should creativity be a principle to guide progressive public policy and civic engagement? Do artists and other cultural workers have any special set of values, skills or experience that might make them excellent leaders in the public sector? Do creative professionals have any special civic obligations as citizen-creators? Join us for an evening of conversation around the issues of creativity, power and leadership. The session will be kicked off by Tom Tresser, a long-time cultural activist and educator. If you'd like to read an essay on the subject, go to www.tresser.com/manifesto.html.

Joining Tom will be Susan Eleuterio exchange views. An open dialogue session follows. The event will take place on Tuesday, October 30, from 7:00pm to 9:00pm at the C33 Space (33. E. Congress).The Center for Teaching Excellence supports the continuing efforts of all Columbia faculty members to become more informed, confident, creative, and reflective practitioners of the art of teaching, thereby enhancing the quality of learning for a diverse community of students. Online at http://www.colum.edu/CTE/About/index.php.

The Chicago Teaching Artists Collective is a volunteer-based network of artists from all disciplines working together to build the field of the artist as teacher on local, national, and global levels. The CTAC is equally interested in the material as well as the aesthetic concerns of teaching artists; and living a functional lifestyle as well as pursuing the pedagogical, philosophical, spiritual, and social implications of our work. web site: http://chicagoteachingartist.typepad.com/collective

About the Presenters:

Tom Tresser is a consultant, producer, educator and trainer who can help individuals, companies and communities leverage and amplify their creative assets in order to make meaning, solve problems, create economic value and trigger civic engagement. To find out more about Tom, visit www.tresser.com.

Susan Eleuterio is a folklorist, writer and educator and a volunteer workshop leader for the Neighborhood Writing Alliance. She is an active member of Chicagi Code Pink and NW Indiana Code Pink, which uses theater and other creative arts to organize for peace and other civic engagement.

Get Smart About Recycling

Mike McNamme, Director of Recycling for the Chicago Resource Center joined us on October 23 to help us get smart on recycling in Chicago and at the School. For over 30 years, the Resource Center, a non-profit environmental education organization, has led the way in demonstrating innovative techniques for recycling and reusing materials. They provide recycling services for several of the school's buildings.

We watched a video clip showing the work of photographer Chris Jordan. His "Running the Numbers" series dramatically visualize the tons of waste we produce in the U.S. every day.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

You can make difference! Download "21 Things you Can Recycle". Get background info on recycling from Earth911.

Sierra Club Magazine "Go Big Green" covers the nation's top 10 green colleges. Download article.

Register to Vote

Find out more: Rock the Vote or Declare Yourself.

Take a Test to See Which Candidate You Agree With

You can take a quick 11 question test to see which Presidential candidate most closely agrees with you. Go to : http://www.wqad.com/Global/link.asp?L=259460

Types of Social Change Organizations

Here is the presentation on types of social change organizations. This framework is borrowed from the Midwest Academy, one of America's premiere community organizing training centers.

October 27 Mobilization to Protest the War

Visit http://www.oct27chicago.org to learn more.

Welcome to the SIAC blog for creativity + activism!

Welcome to the blog for the new student group at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. Your friendly neighborhood faculty adviser is Tom Tresser, who is teaching "The Art of Crossing the Street - The Artist as Citizen" for the Fall 2007 semester.

Our first meeting was on September 26. The main points of discussion are summarized below.

But first...

(1) Introduce yourself. Tell us where you're from, what you're area of focus is at the school and something about your civic engagement/volunteer experience.

(2) Weigh in on the main questions:

- What to call this new group
- What should be the first project of the group? See the summary below...

OUR NEXT MEETING IS WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10, at 4:445pm, ROOM 112, 112 S. MICHIGAN AVENUE.

Issues raised as possible focus of projects:

- The war
- Alternative energy
- Making SAIC green
- Media activism
- Reproductive rights
- Sexual assault
- Racism/privilege
- Sweat shops
- Public education
- Gender equality
- Voter registration & issue awareness

But there was also discussion of an overarching question. How can we help members of the SAIC care enough to get involved in these issues or any issues? How can we, as creative people, use our skills to help inspire and educate other students?

OK, we're up and running. Let's get creative!