Thursday, January 19 at 6:30 pm

Community Democracy Forum

with Occupy Oakland

Presented by Shawn McDougal

It’s time for us progressives to take our work to the next level — from agitation and defense to shifting the terrain of struggle altogether.  We’re looking for people interested in participatory democracy and building an effective, broad, high-impact movement for progressive change.  Let’s create a social life beyond the rat-race competition for scarce resources;  a broadly-shared sense of our interdependence, based on concrete experience and not just good intentions;  synergy between the hard-won wisdom of elders and the bold ideas of youth;  community that emerges from dialog across differences rather than static assumptions about “us vs. them;”   a politics of participation, interaction, and conversation, instead of the elite-driven politics of personality, performance, and spectacle;  an informed and vigilant public that will hold leaders accountable;  and a working model of collective power  emphasizing the regular actions of many over the extraordinary actions of a few.

Community forums, i.e., neighborhood assemblies, would not merely make recommendations to officials but they would actually make fundamental decisions.  They would decide the city budget:  what percentage of it should go to police, to youth programs, parks, transit, and so on.  How much of it do we provide for new programs;  which progams do we phase out?  Should we change our revenue stream?  And so on.  We would have strong participatory democracy  at the local level.  The neighborhood assemblies could be a scalable model for deepening democracy at the county, state, and national level.  Bringing people together to discuss, debate, and decide on concrete issues that affect our lives — this is exactly the kind of culture shift our society needs.

Tuesday Meeting

Tuesday, October 18 at 7:00 pm

East Bay Study of Gaia Meetup

Presented by the Fellowship of Humanity

Alder Stone‘s online course on Gaia 101, using geophysiology and systems sciences to understand climate change, is designed to be understood by everyone.  Let’s take his course together at Humanist Hall, one section at a time, over a period of months, and build a network of friends of Gaia.  We expect that friends of Gaia meeting at Humanist Hall will be humanists or humanist-friendly people.

Alder Stone’s slides may be shown on our large screen and Alder Stone may be available by skype for Q&A.  Please sign up for his course on his website at:

http://alderstone3.com/?p=1847

To learn more about Sunday Programs held

at Humanist Hall

click here

Wednesday, August 24 at 7:30 pm

The Grapes of Wrath

by John Ford

This classic film was the most popular left-leaning film with a socialist theme of pre-World War II Hollywood. It tells the story of the Joad family, uprooted from their home in Oklahoma and sent hurtling into a new life in California.  The film honestly and realistically recreates the socio-economic impact of the Great Depression and a mid-30s drought upon one representative family — the Joads, a poor midwest family forced off of their land.  The film’s theme of an oppressed people’s epic move to a new home parallels the Biblical story of Exodus.  The story is a part of American history.  It shows an understanding of the hardships experienced by those who owned and lived on farms in the dust bowl states during the late 1920s and 1930s. 

The film’s portrayal of rural life on the plains during the dust bowl years is done with great accuracy and astute realism. The Joad family suffers the misfortunes of the homeless in the Great Depression — trying to continue to live the American dream!  Numerous families lost their farms and land during this terrible time and headed west to find new lives. The plight of the Joad family is universalized as a microcosm of the thousands of other tenant farmers during this country’s time of crisis.  They all suffered from the oppression imposed by the banks and big mechanized farm interests.  The dispossessed, migrant family’s departure from their windy and dusty land, and their slow disintegration, provide insight into the thousands of Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas Panhandle, and West Kansas families who were evicted and uprooted from their dust bowl farm land and forced to search westward in the inhospitable Eden of California for jobs and survival with thousands of other migrant workers.  Migrant workers were driven to California from the Midwestern states after losing their homes in the throes of the depression: inclement weather, failed crops, land mortgaged to the hilt and finally taken over by banks and large corporations when credit lines ran dry.  Lured by promises of work aplenty, midwesterners packed their belongings and trekked westward to the Golden State, only to find themselves facing hunger, inhumane conditions, contempt, and exploitation instead.  This raw, brutally direct, yet incredibly poetic masterpiece film is testimony to the poverty, disillusion, and the degradation of the human spirit of those times and continues to touch nerves deeply rooted in modern society’s fabric — including and particularly in California, where yesterday’s Okies are today’s undocumented Mexicans.

http://www.filmsite.org/grap.html

To learn more about Film Series held

at Humanist Hall

click here

Sunday, May 15 at 6:00 pm and 7:00 pm

Ferment Change!

for City Slicker Farms

Produced by Max Cadji

This is City Slicker Farms‘ fourth annual fermented feast and celebration of urban agriculture to benefit the amazing urban ag heroes of City Slicker Farms! This year they’ve created the beneficent “Backyard Garden Program.”   Join them to celebrate this and the East Bay Refugee Garden Program! And bring your friends! And bring your checkbook! And bring a fermented food to share or other home-made delight that might be collectively devoured! This celebration features local food activists and a huge fermented food and drink potluck extravaganza.  The most delectable fermented food will win a prize.  Entertainments will abound as well.  A Live Ferment Workshop and a plant sale will be on hand too along with an abundance of fermented foods.  Help yourself and feed food enthusiasts and community activists! Bring a fermented food and win a prize ! This event features hundreds of homemade fermented items to share, live music, slide shows, culture swap, and five rotating skill shares.   Bring a dish to share and get entered in the drawing.  RSVP your dish at info@fermentchange.org

Ferment Change will host a pre-party cocktail this year with Sandor Katz and gardeners from the East Bay Refugee Garden Program in East Oakland.  This intimate social hour will feature a short talk and cross-cultural ferment with author Sandor Katz and with Tila Dhakal from East Oakland’s Bhutanese-Nepali community and the East Bay Refugee Garden Program.  Home-brew, cultured drinks, and fermented treats will be served.  In fact, this cross-cultural conversation will be accompanied by an 8-course flight of cultured cocktails, hand-crafted homebrews, and locally fermented fare.  Proceeds from this event will benefit the East Bay Refugee Garden Program.

http://www.fermentchange.org

Wednesday,  February 3  at  7:30 pm

Inside the Venezuelan Revolution

A Talk and Slide Show Presentation

Presented by Laurie Tanenbaum

In 2003, knowing nothing about the country of Venezuela, Laurie Tanenbaum and Nick Wechsler saw the film, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” a documentary made by an Irish film crew.  The filmmakers were interviewing President Hugo Chavez in 2002 when doors burst open and they were witness to a military coup.  No one threw the crew out so they kept filming.  They documented the process of the coup and then the peaceful uprising of the poor who came into the streets and forced an end to the coup within 24 hours.

An amazing film that introduced thousands of people around the world to the revolution taking place in Venezuela, Laurie was so surprised and moved that she began to study what was taking place.

In January, 2008, Laurie and Nick went to Venezuela with Global Exchange to meet this peaceful revolution.  This evening they will tell their story of the amazing efforts of Venezuelans to build a new society.

www.venezuelanalysis.com

To learn more about films and film series

at Humanist Hall,

click here