Eyewitness from Haiti: an unnatural disaster

7pm WED Jan 27

UW  Architecture Hall  Room 147

JESSE HAGOPIAN, a UW alumni and Seattle International Socialist Organization member, was in Port-au-Prince with his 1-year-old son to visit his wife when the earthquake hit.  His wife, an aid worker, works until the evening on most days, but by sheer luck, she came to the hotel where they were staying early on Tuesday–just minutes before the quake struck at 4:53 p.m. This spared Jesse and his family agonizing hours or days trying to find one another amid the chaos

Within hours, the hotel where they were staying became known as a place where some medical help was available, because another hotel guest happened to be an emergency medical technician. Jesse got a crash course in treating severe injuries–broken bones, head wounds and more–as people desperate for help kept arriving. After five days Jesse and his family were evacuated and have returned to Seattle.

Come hear first hand about the situation in Haiti from Jesse Learn about what happened in the immediate aftermath of the quake, and why help hasn’t reached most of the victims of Haiti’s earthquake–because the priority of the U.S. government is on imposing its control. Most Haitians have seen little humanitarian aid so far. What they have seen is guns, and lots of them. Armored personnel carriers cruise the streets. UN soldiers aren’t there to help pull people out of the rubble. They’re there, they say, to enforce the law. Instead of sending ample food, water and rescue teams to help the victims of this devastating earth-quake, the Obama administration is essentially organizing an occupation of Haiti.

We will also be collecting donations for grassroots aid organizations in Haiti

Help get the word out! The Poster for the event can be downloaded here http://www.box.net/shared/b6m7b5my4k

An in depth reading packet can be download here NATURAL AND UNNATURAL DISASTERS: How U.S. policy has impoverished and devastated Haiti
News reports on Jesse in Haiti can be found here  http://isoseattle.blogspot.com/2010/01/eyewitness-report-from-haiti.html

Sponsored by The Seattle International Socialist Organization
isouw@uw.edu or 206-612-6137
www.seattleiso.org

Sign up for the ISO’s e-mail announcement list for weekly updates about upcoming meetings and events.

World Habitat Day, Oct. 5

Go check out all the information including photos, video and press releases about World Habitat Day.

Event: Seattle LGBT Equality Weekend Oct. 10-11

REPOST

Seattle LGBT Equality Weekend October 10 – 11, 2009

Seattle OUTProtest has brought together a grassroots coalition of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and straight people and organizations to organize a series of solidarity events to coincide with the National March for Equality this October.

March and Rally

Forty years after the Stonewall Rebellion, we march in solidarity with our brothers and sisters and allies in Washington, DC to demand equal protection in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states and to show our public support for the Approval of Referendum 71 here in Washington state.

Sunday, October 11

2:00 pm:  Volunteer Park, 10^th Ave E & E Prospect

5:00 pm:  Rally, Federal Courthouse, 7^th & Stewart

Thinking Queerly:  Community Workshops on LGBT Issues

Community organizers and activists will present a series of workshops on a range of issues affecting the lgbt community including Stonewall and lgbt movement history, homelessness, hate crimes and self defense, lgbt health, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, lgbt legal issues, Gay-Straight Alliances, marriage equality, and more.

Saturday, October 10

9:30 am to 5 pm

Piggot Auditorium, Seattle University

HIV/AIDS Vigil

As the AIDS pandemic nears its fourth decade, we gather to educate and raise awareness about the continued struggles of people living with HIV/AIDS and their families, friends, and support networks as well as to demand all resources and all funding necessary for prevention, treatment, and a cure.

Saturday, October 10

Starting at 6 pm

Seattle Central Community College South Plaza, Broadway & E Pine

Generation Q Mega Mixer

Come mingle and mix with seasoned leaders and activists of the GLBTQ community at the Generation Q Mega Mixer.  Young leaders (25 and under please) will have the opportunity to socialize, learn from, and quite possibly have a dance off with some of the community’s most inspiring members in a relaxed social environment.

Sunday, October 11

6:30 pm

Sole Repair Shop, 1001 E Pike

Seattle LGBT Equality Weekend March & Rally

http://nationalmarch.seattleoutprotest.org/

Get involved with one of our planning committees!  Contact for more time and details:

March/Rally Committee, March@seattleoutprotest.org

Workshops Committee, Workshops@seattleoutprotest.org
Outreach Committee, Outreach@seattleoutprotest.org

Mixer Committee, Mixer@seattleoutprotest.org

HIV/AIDS Vigil Committee, Vigil@seattleoutprotest.org

Biweekly General Organizing Meetings, please contact whitney@seattleoutprotest.org for time and location.

National Equality March:  Equality Across America

www.equalityacrossamerica.org

Approve Referendum 71

Keep the Domestic Partnership Law

–
We will wait no longer…There are no fractions of equality. Every compromise, every delay undermines our humanity. We seek nothing less than equal protection under the law, in all matters governed by civil law, in all 50 states.

-Cleve Jones, longtime friend and collaborator of Harvey Milk

Event: Wine Country Harvest Picnic, Oct. 3

From Cascade Harvest Coalition:

For immediate release

Contact:
Brenda Vanderloop
brenda@21acres.org
425-788-9846

Wine Country Harvest Picnic to Benefit 21 Acres Showcases Local Cuisine

Sammamish Valley, WA – 21 Acres, a non-profit organization with the mission to cultivate, demonstrate and advance systems supporting sustainable agriculture, presents Wine Country Harvest Picnic, Saturday, October 3. Bringing together farmers, chefs and winemakers, the Harvest Picnic kicks off the 21 Acres Harvesting Excellence Farm Meal Series with notable chefs presenting course selections with the freshest, local ingredients from 21 Acres and local area farms.

The picnic begins with A Taste of 21 Acres, including amuse bouche and wine tastes presented throughout the Farm during a tour of the grounds; followed by a three course, wine paired picnic lunch. Chef Emily Moore is recognized for her flavorful creations having received top reviews from local and regional food critics for her innovative local cuisine. The outdoor table setting showcases the new wood-fired brick oven.

The Harvest Picnic will benefit 21 Acres Center for Local Food & Sustainable Living. 21 Acres is a 501c3 non-profit charitable organization with land supporting an organic urban farm growing food for families, markets, schools and hunger relief.  A portion of each purchase may be tax deductible. Cost per person is $55 or $100 for two; 21 Acres members, $50 or $90 for two. RSVP required. To reserve your space or for more information visit 21acres.org, e-mail generalinfo@21acres.org or call 206-442-2061.

Brenda Vanderloop
PR & Communications Consultant
21 Acres http://www.21acres.org
brenda@21acres.org
425-788-9846
cell: 206-498-9731

Building Beyond Green – the 21 Acres Center for Local Food and Sustainable Living
Demonstrating Technologies for Long Term Energy Efficiency

Event: Peninsula Local Food Chef Showoff, Sept. 15

From Cascade Harvest Coalition

Peninsula Local Food Chef Showoff
Tuesday, September 15, 4-10 p.m.
President’s Hall, Kitsap Fairgrounds, 1200 NW Fairgrounds Road, Bremerton
Tickets: $25 in advance, $30 at the door
Order on line www.LocalFoodChefShowoff.org

The Peninsula Local Food Chef Showoff will set another mark on the way to culinary heights,  especially for the Kitsap and Olympic Peninsula. The hard work and generosity of so many chefs, farmers and volunteers will be displayed and enjoyed. Monica Downen has an amazing lineup of chefs. Harbour Pub is in charge of the local refreshments. Speakers Nash Huber and Kate Dean, acknowledged leaders in the developing area of farmland preservation and farm succession will supply the brain food for the evening and our bluegrass band, some of the fun. There will be plenty of time for networking, eating and exchanging contact information, something which our regular meetings always seem to blot out.

To see a summary of some of the local press coverage look here:

http://www.buylocalfoodinkitsap.org/local-food-local-chefs-fun-good-health-opportunity

So, come on out and  join the local food network.

Event: Growing for Market Workshop, Sept. 22-25

From Cascade Harvest Coalition:

Foxglove Farm and the Centre for Arts, Ecology & Agriculture presents:

Growing for Market

With Michael Ableman & Josh Volk

September 22^nd – 25^th

See http://www.foxglovefarmbc.ca/program/2009/growing-for-market/ for more information.

The resurgence of interest and demand for regionally produced food has created a huge opportunity for those who want to become growers and has expanded possibilities for those who are already farming.

Join veteran farmers Michael Ableman and Josh Volk for a two-day intensive workshop on growing fruits and vegetables for market. Day one will focus on production, from soil fertility and preparation, to seed selection and propagation, through harvest and post-harvest. Day two will be devoted entirely to marketing, with sessions on region specific market planning, farmers’ markets, CSA, displays, and restaurant and wholesale sales. This is a nuts and bolts workshop which will cover a range of both perrenial and annual crops and enable participants to learn some of the specific techniques and strategies of a successful market farmer.

Michael Ableman has been farming for over thirty five years. His books, lectures and workshops have inspired people throughout North America. Ableman created Fairview Gardens, at its peak one of North America’s most successful models of local and urban agriculture, where he farmed for twenty five years. Michael currently farms at Foxglove Farm on Salt Spring Island.

Josh Volk has been immersed in the study and practice of vegetable farming in the Northeast, desert Southwest, California and the Pacific Northwest for over twenty years. He helped to develop and manage the very successful Sauvie Island Organics CSA, an intensive twenty-acre vegetable farm outside of Portland, Oregon where he trained over twenty apprentices. Along with farming, Josh has been working as a consultant, writer, and teacher assisting numerous small scale farmers and gardeners. More information can be found at about Josh at www.slowhandfarm.com.

Cascade Harvest Coalition
“We are your local food and farming resource center.”
www.cascadeharvest.org

Event:Party with Sierra Club Candidates! Sept. 20

From Sierra Club WA Chapter:

This November is the Sierra Club’s best opportunity yet to bring you true environmental leadership.  With two former leaders of the Cascade Chapter in the running for major City offices, and the threat of climate change on our doorstep, there has never been a better time to get involved with the Sierra Club to help us elect a slate of real environmental champions!

Please join us as for an election season kick-off party and fundraiser where you can meet our endorsed candidates and learn more about how the Sierra Club will get them elected. Confirmed guests include:

• Dow Constantine – Executive, King County
• Michael McGinn – Mayor, City of Seattle
• Mike O’Brien – City Council #8, Seattle
• Richard Conlin – City Council #2, Seattle
• Nick Licata – City Council #6, Seattle
• Rob Holland – Port Commission #3, King County

We suggest a donation of $25 at the door, but please, don’t let money keep you from coming.

6-9 p.m. Sunday, September 20th, Spitfire in Belltown, 2219 4th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98121

You can read all about our endorsed candidates here, or, come to our election season kick-off and speak to them face to face!

Can’t make the party, but still interested in learning more about how you can help us elect a slate of real environmental champions?  Just send us an email and we’ll fill you in on all of the fun things we have planned for the next two months.

Thanks a lot and I hope to see you at the party,

Craig M. Benjamin
Conservation Program Coordinator
Cascade Chapter, Sierra Club

BAW Call for Voluneers, Oct. 24

From Bicycle Alliance of Washington:

Here’s your opportunity to help the Bicycle Alliance of Washington raise thousands of dollars for bicycle advocacy and education in Washington State by volunteering for a few hours!

Our annual fundraising auction is slated for Saturday, October 24 at Seattle Center Fisher Pavilion.  We rely on volunteers to make this event a success, and we are actively recruiting volunteer assistance!

We need volunteers for a variety of roles, including event set up (morning/early afternoon) and clean up (evening).  During the event, we need assistance with guest registration and greeters, data entry/data techs, cashiering/checkout, food servers, auction runners/closers, raffle ticket sellers, etc.  If you’d like to sign up as volunteers or have questions about tasks, contact our Volunteer Coordinators Ron and Theresa at baw.volunteer1@gmail.com.

Thanks for caring about bicycling in Washington State!

--
Bicycle Alliance of Washington
PO Box 2904
Seattle, WA 98111
206.224.9252 x303
www.bicyclealliance.org

Seattle Event: Greendrinks!

Hello Greendrinkers!

Here’s a huge thanks to Antioch University for hosting such an amazing gathering on Tuesday, and to everyone who came! We had an amazing evening, and raised some funds for their featured non-profit, iLEAP.

We’ll be sending out the standard email next week with information on the October Greendrinks. However, we wanted to remind you to get your tickets to the upcoming Fresh, at which we’ll be tasting some amazing Oregon wines, paired with some gorgeous chocolates, in a venue featuring photo prints from the Facing Climate Change group, whose work has been featured in Mother Jones and Orion. Tickets are extremely limited, as this event will be an intimate evening; tickets are now on sale at Brown Paper Tickets.

Agent Green is rising. Have you joined the group yet?

Seattle Greendrinks: Coming Events

Seattle Greendrinks presents Fresh!: 17 September

Some of you may remember the joyous marriage of wine and chocolate, photography and music, and on top of it all, an intimate group of great people that was the first iteration of Fresh, held back in April at the Vineyard Table. Well, we’re back! Join us for a pairing of excellent wine and comestibles on 17 Sep. Click here to buy tickets on Brown Paper Tickets.

Bloom!

Featuring amazing speakers on innovation in sustainability, Bloom is back! Stay tuned for more information – and click here for more information if you’re interested in speaking.

Seattle Greendrinks: Partner Events
Seattle Repertory Theatre’s The Crew: Alfred Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps”

Seattle Greendrinks is joining together with the Seattle Repertory Theater’s Crew
to meld communities! The Crew celebrates the social experience,
welcoming new people to theater and cultivating lifelong connections
with the arts. The partnership is focused upon the Crew Night for The 39 Steps,
on 25 September at Seattle Repertory Theater. Join The Crew and Seattle
Greendrinks for a pre-show reception, as well as post-show
conversation.

Sponsors
Thanks, as always, to our ongoing sponsors: Sierra Nevada Brewing Co, Full Circle Farm, Snoqualmie Vineyards, The Essential Baking Co, and Chaco Canyon Cafe.

Slainte,

Gabriel Scheer

Antarctica! At the Burke Museum 10/3-11/29

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: MaryAnn Barron Wagner, Communications Director
206.543.9762,  <mailto:maryannb@u.washington.edu> maryannb@u.washington.edu
OR Julia Swan, Public Relations Coordinator
206.616.7538,  <mailto:burkepr@u.washington.edu> burkepr@u.washington.edu

Wondrous Cold: An Antarctic Journey
World’s most hostile continent featured in Smithsonian exhibit at Burke

Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture
Oct. 3 – Nov. 29, 2009

Atka Bay penguinsSeattle – Antarctica is the coldest, windiest, highest,
driest and most remote continent on the Earth. Despite these hardships,
dozens of countries maintain research stations there to study its geological past, its spectacular glaciers and abundant coastal wildlife, and our global environment. A new exhibit at the Burke Museum of Natural History of Culture offers a glimpse at the life of researchers on this majestic continent through large format photographs, displays of camp equipment, and presentations of recent research findings from the University of Washington.

Wondrous Cold: An Antarctic Journey opens at the Burke Museum on October 3 and remains on view through November 29, 2009. Developed by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, Wondrous Cold features the photography of Joan Myers, who spent October 2002 through January 2003 in Antarctica. Real Antarctic camp equipment, fossils, and research findings from scientists at the University of Washington will accompany Myer’s photography at the Burke.

Actual camp gear, such as a skidoo, tent, and cold-weather clothing, will
show what it takes to survive and work in extreme Antarctic conditions.
Learn about paleontological and geological research being conducted in
Antarctica by University of Washington scientists. See real Antarctic
fossils, such as a giant prehistoric amphibian, being studied by the Burke’s
curator of vertebrate paleontology, Dr. Christian Sidor, and parts of an
Antarctic dinosaur named Cryolophosaurus. Recent UW research on Antarctic climate change will also be highlighted with a display of lab equipment used to analyze ice cores.

Fifty of Joan Myers’ color and black-and-white photographs place the work of UW’s Antarctic researchers into a greater context. Myers’ photographs juxtapose large panoramas of Antarctica’s austere beauty and inhuman scale with wildlife, people, and the abandoned huts of early explorers Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton. Explore how scientists conduct research in climatology, glaciology, biology and astronomy at the American scientific research station McMurdo Station, and learn about the support staff that keeps the station functioning. From the South Pole to the top of Mt. Erebus, to McMurdo Station, Myers photographed in below freezing temperatures, with wind chills as low as -84 degrees Fahrenheit. Wondrous Cold transports museum visitors to places where extreme conditions prevent most people from ever visiting.

Related events
Exhibit Opening Day: Wondrous Cold: An Antarctic Journey
Sat., Oct. 3, 10 am – 4 pm

Spend the day hearing firsthand about Antarctica from those who have
conducted research there. Lecture topics include fossil collecting, sound
recording, Antarctica’s role in global climate change, and the geological
history of the continent. Click here
<http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/event/wondrouscold_opening/>  for a
full schedule of presentations.

Ice Age Archaeology
Sun., Oct. 18, 10 am – 4 pm

Bring the whole family to the Burke Museum for a day of hands-on activities and exhibits about what life was like during the coldest time our state has ever known. Burke archaeologists will be on hand to give you the inside scoop on human life 12,000 years ago. See and touch fossils of giant animals who shared the earth with people during a time when our environment was radically different. Attend talks by UW professors on megafauna extinctions and fact vs. fiction in Hollywood’s depiction of the Ice Age.

Dinosaurs on Ice: Jurassic Dinosaurs from Antarctica
Thu., Nov. 12, 7 pm

Dr. William Hammer of Augustana College, Illinois, made his first trip in
search of fossil vertebrates in the Central Transantarctic Mountains as a
graduate student in 1977. Since then he has led six expeditions to
Antarctica. In a lecture at the Burke Museum, he will discuss Jurassic
dinosaurs, scavenging theropods, a new sauropodomorph, a “beaver-like”
tritylodont, a pterosaur or flying reptile, as well as other Jurassic finds
from his over 30 years of research into the secrets of Antarctica.

Wondrous Cold: An Antarctic Journey features photographs by Joan Myers. The exhibition is organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and made possible through the generous support of Quark Expeditions.

Additional support for the exhibit and its related programs has been
provided by the Hugh and Jane Ferguson Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Smithsonian Community Grant Program, funded by MetLife Foundation, and donors to the Burke Museum Annual Fund. Media sponsorship for Opening Day has been provided by 94.9 KUOW.

High-resolution images are available by contacting burkepr@u.washington.edu.

Link to this release:
http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/info/press_release.php?ID=204