Tuesday, November 20, 2007

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.

Friday, November 9, 2007

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.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

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

Monday, November 5, 2007

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

Sunday, November 4, 2007

"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.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

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.