Sunday, May 22, 2016

Upcoming events for the week of May 22, 2016

UPCOMING EVENTS CALENDAR BY DANCEWATER

05/23/16 POTLUCK AND AUTHOR TALK AT BILTMORE UNITED METHODIST
Dr. Jeff Halper is the author of “War Against the People:  Israel, Palestine and Global Pacification”. Dr. Jeff Halper has been a peace and human rights activist for more than three decades. Born in Minnesota, he participated in the civil rights and Peace movements of the 1960s. Halper immigrated to Israel in 1973 after attending rabbinical school. In 1997, Halper co-founded the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions (ICAHD) to challenge and resist the Israeli policy of demolishing Palestinian homes. As a Coordinating Director of ICAHD, Halper organized and led nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience against Israel’s occupation policies and authorities, at times facing bulldozers in front of Palestinian homes. He also organizes Israelis, Palestinians, and internationals to help rebuild demolished Palestinian homes. Time of the potluck is 6 PM and location is Biltmore United Methodist Church. RSVP to 828-348-9884.

05/23/16 MUDDY WATER WATCH TRAINING DATES
The French Broad Riverkeeper and riverkeepers around North Carolina previously held dozens of Muddy Water Watch training programs around the state, training more than 150 volunteers and reporting hundreds of sediment runoff instances from construction sites. “The Muddy Water Watch program is a great way for people to have an immediate impact that benefits our local environment and water quality,” Carson said. “Western North Carolina’s rivers are some of our greatest treasures and economic assets. Both locals and visitors paddle and fish and play in these waters and we need to protect them.” Time is 5 to 8 PM and location is Sycamore building, classroom 106, at A-B Tech in Asheville.

05/23/16 TIMEBANK POTLUCK
Come join us and bring your friends. This is a great way to get to know other Time Bank members and connect so that you do more exchanges. We will provide an orientation for new members or old members who want a refresher after the dinner and fun. Time is 6 PM to 8:30 PM. Location is Parish Hall at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church at 337 Charlotte Street in Asheville. This is a facebook event.

05/24/16 AUTHOR TALK AT HIGHLAND FARMS IN BLACK MOUNTAIN
Dr. Jeff Halper is the author of “War Against the People:  Israel, Palestine and Global Pacification”. Dr. Jeff Halper has been a peace and human rights activist for more than three decades. Born in Minnesota, he participated in the civil rights and Peace movements of the 1960s. Halper immigrated to Israel in 1973 after attending rabbinical school. In 1997, Halper co-founded the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions (ICAHD) to challenge and resist the Israeli policy of demolishing Palestinian homes. As a Coordinating Director of ICAHD, Halper organized and led nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience against Israel’s occupation policies and authorities, at times facing bulldozers in front of Palestinian homes. He also organizes Israelis, Palestinians, and internationals to help rebuild demolished Palestinian homes. Time is 3 to 4:30 PM and location is Highland Farms Community, Black Mountain room, in Black Mountain. Contact Ken at jonesk@maine.edu for more information.

05/24/16 AUTHOR EVENT AT MALAPROPS
Dr. Jeff Halper is the author of “War Against the People: Israel, Palestine and Global Pacification”. Dr. Jeff Halper has been a peace and human rights activist for more than three decades. Born in Minnesota, he participated in the civil rights and Peace movements of the 1960s. Halper immigrated to Israel in 1973 after attending rabbinical school. In 1997, Halper co-founded the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions (ICAHD) to challenge and resist the Israeli policy of demolishing Palestinian homes. As a Coordinating Director of ICAHD, Halper organized and led nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience against Israel’s occupation policies and authorities, at times facing bulldozers in front of Palestinian homes. He also organizes Israelis, Palestinians, and internationals to help rebuild demolished Palestinian homes. Time is 7 PM. Please contact Malaprops for more information.

05/26/16 EARLY VOTING STARTS TODAY
This is for the second primary, for US House of Representatives and for NC Supreme Court elections. FYI - the June 7 election (as well as early voting or absentee) also includes a judicial race that voters need to be aware of. The unconstitutional ruling of the judicial "retention" process made this ballot measure necessary. Candidates for North Carolina Supreme Court elections, 2016 are: Seat 2: Robert H. Edmunds Jr. (R) (Incumbent); Sabra Jean Faires; Michael R. Morgan; and Daniel G. Robertson. Voting location is Buncombe County Administrative Building at 200 College Street in Asheville.

05/26/16 ANARCHY & ANTI-FASCISM IN THE BALKINS SOLIDARITY TOUR
Stories of autonomy, solidarity, mutual aid, and resistance to hierarchy in all forms. The speaker shares their experiences doing autonomous organizing in Belgrade, Serbia. The primary focus will be the 'Koko Lepo,' a youth solidarity collective coordinating a mutual aid program with residents of “the Dump”, a 'favela-type slum' in Belgrade inhabited by Roma people. The speaker will also discuss squatting movements, refugee solidarity efforts, and anti-racist organizing in the region.Time is 7 PM and location is Firestorm Cafe & Books at 610 Haywood Road in west Asheville. Contact Firestorm at info@firestorm.coop for more information.

05/27/16 JUST PEACE FOR ISRAEL/PALESTINE MEETING
This meeting will be at 3:15 PM at Brooks-Howell Home on Merrimon Avenue in Asheville. Meet in the media room. Contact Suchi at suchi1025@bellsouth.net for more information.

05/28/16 GREENWORKS STREAM CLEANUP
Join RiverLink, GreenWorks and Mountain True for 40th annual Clean Streams Day cleanup and kick off to the summer season. Boats and gear provided, but you're welcome to bring your own ride. Stick around after the cleanup for food and locally crafted beverages. Time is 10 AM to 2 PM and location is 144 Riverside Drive in Asheville. Schedule to pick up supplies by calling Kate at 828-254-1776 or email volunteer@ashevillegreenworks.org.

05/30/16 VETERANS FOR PEACE MEMORIAL DAY EVENT
As we did last year, at 10 AM on Memorial Day VFP 099 is planning to honor all veterans with a short wreath laying ceremony at the Veterans Memorial off Pack Square (a dedication to honor those who gave their lives in so many wars and expressing the hope of no more wars). For more information, contact gewalker@gci.net.

05/31/16 MUDDY WATER WATCH TRAINING DATES
The French Broad Riverkeeper and riverkeepers around North Carolina previously held dozens of Muddy Water Watch training programs around the state, training more than 150 volunteers and reporting hundreds of sediment runoff instances from construction sites. “The Muddy Water Watch program is a great way for people to have an immediate impact that benefits our local environment and water quality,” Carson said. “Western North Carolina’s rivers are some of our greatest treasures and economic assets. Both locals and visitors paddle, fish and play in these waters and we need to protect them.” Time is 5 to 8 PM and location is Haywood Community College, Regional High Technology Center, room 3021 at 112 Industrial Park Drive in Waynesville.

06/01/16 SIERRA CLUB MEETING / GREEN DRINKS
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, Danny Bernstein visited 71 park units in the Southeast and wrote the book “Forests, Alligators, Battlefields: My Journey through the National Parks of the South”. After the Sierra Club talk and slideshow, Danny will sign books and donate two dollars per book as she does at all non-profit group presentation. (Cash or checks only, no credit cards, please.)  Meeting starts at 7 PM and location is the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Edwin and Charlotte Streets in north Asheville. Free and open to the public. For more information, contact Judy at judymattox@sbcglobal.net or call 828-683-2176.

06/02/16 FUNDRAISER FOR JUST US UNITED
On Thursday, June 2nd, Just Us United will hold a Speakeasy Soirée at Lex 18 from 6 to 8 PM. The event will consist of an auction and fundraiser, with live music, food, drinks, and guest speakers participating. Businesses across Western North Carolina will be helping to make sure this event is a success by sponsoring our fundraiser, or making in-kind donations. Funds from our 2016 Speakeasy Soirée would allow us to hire the necessary field staff to run a campaign in house district 118. Throughout this campaign we will engage and educate voters through phone calls, door to door contacts, mailers, and media, to elect a representative who promotes policies that are in line with the needs of North Carolina families. Just Us United is a nonprofit based in Western North Carolina that engages in a combination of voter engagement, community outreach, legislative accountability, and advocacy, with the goal of promoting policies that support North Carolina families. We are committed to accomplishing our five point plan in North Carolina: improving public education, expanding access to affordable health care, promoting safe energy alternatives, supporting fair tax reform for the middle class, and restoring competitive democracy to our state. For more information, including how to register, contact kelsey.tavares@justusunited.org.

06/02/16 CREATION CARE ALLIANCE MEETING
Creation Care Alliance General Meeting will be from 5:30 - 7 PM at First Baptist Church of Asheville at 5 Oak Street, room MB306 (upstairs). Join us as we inspire one another to good work, hear about summer opportunities and our work empowering care for creation.  We will connect with one another, explore ways to care for creation. Following our regular meeting is a Potluck Dinner with Rev. Jim Antal and the Green Team of First Congregational Church. For more information contact Creation Care Alliance of Western North Carolina at creationcare@mountaintrue.org or call 828-258-8737.

06/03/16 CLIMATE ACTION WORKSHOP
Bringing hope to the climate crisis through faith and action is the purpose of the climate action workshop in partnership with the First Congregational Church. Location is 20 Oak Street in Asheville. Time is 10 AM to noon. Rev. Dr. Jim Antal is the Conference Minister and President of the Massachusetts Conference, United Church of Christ. Come to this workshop to be inspired by courageous initiatives already underway, and to consider how you and others might harness your religious communities to meet the greatest moral challenge humanity has ever faced. Email Karen Richardson Dunn at krichdunn@gmail.com for more information.

06/03/16 RURAL PRIDE SUMMIT SERIES
A day of conversations and information sharing around LGBT people, families, youth, and communities. The NC LBBT Rural Summit will be held at the Asheville Art Museum at 2 South Pack Square in Asheville. Time is 11:30 AM to 4:30 PM. Everyone is invited, free to the public and lunch with be served. This is hosted by the Campaign for Southern Equality, True Colors Fund, USDA, and National Center for Lesbian Rights. Must register. For more information including how to register, call 202-720-3808 or email LGBTRuralSummit@ascr.usda.gov. 

06/06/16 to 06/10/16 SUMMER SEMINAR ON ECOLOGICAL WELL-BEING
How can we think and act holistically about our interrelated challenges - ecological degradation, social inequity, and climate change - all of which find their focus around food? And for people of faith, how can we eat with a deeper sense of gratitude and communion? These are just some of the questions that will be explored in this annual 5-day course. All of this takes place in a beautiful mountain setting in one of the most diverse bioregions in the world at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa. Sponsored by the Food, Faith, and Religious Leadership Initiative at the Wake Forest University School of Divinity. More information under Wake Forest University School of Divinity. 

 06/08/16 JUST PEACE FOR ISRAEL/PALESTINE MEETING
This meeting will be at 9:30 AM at Black Mountain Presbyterian Church at 117 Montreat Road in Black Mountain. Contact Suchi at suchi1025@bellsouth.net for more information.

06/10/16 AUTHOR EVENT AT FIRESTORM
“Locked Down, Locked Out: Why Prison Doesn’t Work and How We Can Do Better” looks at how prison tears families and communities apart, creating a rippling effect that touches every corner of our society. Through the stories of prisoners and their families, as well as her own family’s experience of her sister’s incarceration, Schenwar shows how the institution that locks up 2.3 million Americans—and decimates poor communities of color—is shredding the ties that, if nurtured, could foster real collective safety. The destruction does not end upon exiting the prison walls: the 95 percent of prisoners who are released emerge with even fewer economic opportunities and fewer human connections on the outside than before. Locked Down, Locked Out shows how incarceration takes away the very things that might enable people to build better lives. Time is 7 PM and location is Firestorm Cafe & Books at 610 Haywood Street in west Asheville. Contact Firestorm at info@firestorm.coop for more information.

06/11/16 PTSD TOWN HALL MEETING 
A program for all military veterans, active duty personnel, their families and supporters will be held on Saturday, June 11 beginning at 11 AM, going until 6 PM.   Location is Mission Health/AB Tech Conference Center at 340 Victoria Road in Asheville. Hosted by Vietnam Veterans of America NC State Council. Call Allan at 808.383.7877 for more information.

06/15/16 GREEN DRINKS
Asheville Green Drinks is a networking party and part of the self-organizing global grassroots movement to connect communities with environmental ideas, media and action. People who are interested in environmental issues and topics meet up for a drink and occasionally listen to an expert in environment, ecology, and social justice. Asheville Green Drinks moves to a bi-monthly format in May. The location of Green Drinks will be the The Spot at 76 Biltmore Avenue in Asheville. Time is 5:30 to 7:30 PM. Call 855-232-4723 for more information.

06/18/16  HOW DO WE FIX OUR BROKEN WORLD?
We need hope, we need change, we need justice - and we have help. In this divided world Maitreya, the world teacher, is stepping forward. His mission has begun. Mastery and his group of enlightened teachers, are here to help us reverse the damage we have done to our planet and inspired us to create a new civilization based on sharing the world’s resources and justice - the way to lasting peace. Free presentations at 2 PM at Asheville Friends Meeting at 227 Edgewood Road in Asheville NC. Please call McNair at 828-398-0609 for more information. Sponsored by Share International Southeast.

06/20/16 MUDDY WATER WATCH TRAINING DATES
The French Broad Riverkeeper and riverkeepers around North Carolina previously held dozens of Muddy Water Watch training programs around the state, training more than 150 volunteers and reporting hundreds of sediment runoff instances from construction sites. “The Muddy Water Watch program is a great way for people to have an immediate impact that benefits our local environment and water quality,” Carson said. “Western North Carolina’s rivers are some of our greatest treasures and economic assets. Both locals and visitors paddle, fish and play in these waters and we need to protect them.” Time is 4 to 7 PM and location is Madison County Public Library at 1335 N. Main Street in Marshall. 

06/20/16 UNITED 2 RESTORE DEMOCRACY
The June 20 meeting will be at the North Asheville Library on Merrimon Avenue with HB2 as the topic.

06/24/16 JUST PEACE FOR ISRAEL/PALESTINE MEETING
This meeting will be at 2:30 PM at Brooks-Howell Home on Merrimon Avenue in Asheville. Meet in the media room. We will watch “Occupation of the American Mind” then discuss how to use this powerful up-to-date documentation of the Israeli government’s contracted PR specialists marketing the hasbara (propaganda) that controls almost all of US media’s representation of the situation. Contact Suchi at suchi1025@bellsouth.net for more information.

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ONGOING EVENTS
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TUESDAY
Veterans for Peace have a weekly vigil at 4:30 PM at Pack Square, Vance Monument
Showing Up for Racial Justice is from noon to 2 PM at Firestorm Cafe and Books at 610 Haywood Road in west Asheville. Educating and organizing white people for racial justice. Free.
Orientation session for Asheville Timebank. 4 PM at Firestorm Cafe & Books at 610 Haywood Road in west Asheville. Email help@ashevilletimebank.org for information and to register. 

WEDNESDAY
Haywood Peace Vigilers have a weekly vigil at 4 PM at Haywood County Courthouse in Waynesville
French Broad Riverkeeper has a paddle-n-plant to prevent sediment erosion most Wednesdays and Saturdays. Registration required at anna@mountaintrue.org. 

THURSDAY
Political Prisoners Letter Writing at Firestorm Cafe & Books at 6 PM on first Thursday of the month. Materials provided.

FRIDAY
Women in Black have a weekly vigil at noon at the City Hall in Hendersonville
Women in Black have a monthly vigil at 5 PM at Vance Monument in Asheville (first Friday only)

SATURDAY
Transylvanians for Peace and WNC Physicians for Social Responsibility have a weekly vigil at noon in front of the courthouse in Brevard. Call 884-3435 to confirm. 
French Broad Riverkeeper has a paddle-n-plant to prevent sediment erosion most Wednesdays and Saturdays. Registration required at anna@mountaintrue.org. 

SUNDAY
Youth OUTright meeting from 4 to 6 PM at First Congregational United Church of Christ at 20 Oak Street in Asheville. Ages 14 - 23 only.

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ACTIONS AND READINGS
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WNC 4 Peace announces a contest in which students across Buncombe county can enter via their schools creative works that promote the importance of peacemaking. There will be 4 "Winners" for Best Poem, Best Video, Best Artwork, and Best Essay on Peace . Please forward this message to Schools, Teachers and Students and help spread the contest. All students  will be honored on our website with their contribution .

The School from which winning students submit their poem, video, artwork or essay will be given $100 checks from WNC 4 Peace. The $100 prizes will be presented to schools (or homeschooling associations) to encourage students there to enter, as well as helping schools provide resources for them to teach peace related skills.

WNC 4 Peace and our peacemaker partner groups will raise funds to support this important youth project. We will invite Mountain Xpress and other local media to announce the competition and to also print the names of winning entries and their schools. 

We are naming awards in honor of recently deceased local  peace heroes:

*Isaac Coleman, who died recently, and was founder of Read to Succeed and former Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s;

    *Judith Hallock, co-founder of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance and leader of previous local International Days of Peace;

    *Tony Bing, former leader of the Palestinian/Jewish Egalitarian Team (formerly called Western Carolinians for Peace and Justice in the Middle East).

    *Ron Harayda, former chairman of Veterans of Peace Chapter 099 and host of their weekly WPVM radio program for years.

Deadline for submissions will be August 15, 2016.  All entries should be sent to WNC 4 Peace wnc4peace@gmail.com .  In the case of videos, send an email to the address above and give the name of the video, which has been uploaded to YouTube by the entrant.  Artwork should be uploaded as a. PDF attachment and sent in an email to WNC 4 Peace.  All students from elementary through high school are eligible to participate.  Be sure all entries include entrant's name, school, grade level, and contact information.

Two or Three local people will be selected and  asked to judge for each category.Volunteers are welcome to step forward to be a judge for  the four awards. Winners will be announced in September for International Day of Peace.  Details about the date and place to honor all entrants and winners will be announced at a later date. Cut off date for all entries is 15 August 2016 . For more information, contact WNC 4 Peace wnc4peace@gmail.com , or call 828-378-0125.

On Behalf of the WNC 4 Peace Team.
Rachael Bliss
Colin Neiburger 
Craig Klawuhn

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