(From Left to Right: Scott Kennedy, Anita Heckman, Grace Paley, Phil McManus, Deena Hurwitz, Betsy Fairbanks, Doug Rand, Judy Bloomgardener) Please join us for a celebration of the life and work of Grace Paley. A notable list of local poets, feminists, activists, pacifists, writers and rascals will read from Paley’s work, including, Lee Swenson, Julie Olsen Edwards, Darrell Darling, Emily Reilly, Betsy Fairbanks, Cappy Israel, Bill Monning, Morton Marcus, Nanlouise Wolfe, Barbara Hayes, Richard Moss, Shannon Spencer, Merrie Shaller, Lynn Zachreson, Nick Zachreson, Marion Vittitow and Ellen Bass. At the Mill Gallery, 131-B Front Street in Santa Cruz (south of Laurel). Come join us to celebrate this extraordinary woman and a life well-lived! $5-$20 suggested sliding-scale donation (no one turned away for lack of funds).Grace Paley, who died August 22, 2007, was most famously a writer of short stories. But folks at the Resource Center for Nonviolence knew her as a political activist, friend, ally and supporter who spoke at the Center’s Annual Dinner and Program in 1987. Grace Paley was, according to the LA Times, “an acclaimed writer and activist who in only three collections of short stories gave earthy voice to the interior life of the Bronx Everywoman.” Grace’s three collections of short stories, again according to the LA Times, “won her critical acclaim and the prestigious Rea Award for short-story writing. But Paley, known as a passionate activist for causes ranging from the Vietnam War to feminism to the Iraq War, was perhaps less prolific for those efforts - a diversity of experience she embraced in a June interview, saying, ‘It’s not as if anybody is one thing.’” A descendant of the East European Jewish socialist tradition, who came to her own as a writer in the tumultuous 1960s, Grace embodied good humor, imagination, working with other people, radical politics, and a dogged persistence — all necessary ingredient for times such as those in which we live.

Update 2/12/08: You can now listen to the whole program, available for free download from Indybay.org/santacruz. Please Click Here to visit the Indybay article which contains the evening divided into 9 MP3’s of all the speakers numbered and presented in order of how they spoke.

Special West Coast Speaking tour appearance in Santa Cruz!
Wednesday Jan. 30th, reception at 5:30 pm in the basement of the Vets Hall, 846 Front Street, main program at 7:30 pm upstairs in the meetng room of the Vets Hall.

Combatants for Peace was founded by former Israeli and Palestinian fighters who no longer see each other as enemies. They forswear violence and advocate an end to the Israeli Occupation of the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip. Bassam Aramin, formerly a Fatah fighter who spent 7 years in an Israeli prison, now heads the Al Quds Association for Democracy and Dialogue. Bassam received the Bremen Peace Award for reconciliation work and the Eliav-Sartawi Award for Middle Eastern Journalism. Elik Elhanan, served as a soldier in an Israeli Defense Forces combat unit from 1995-98 and is now a military refuser. In 1997 a Palestinian suicide bomber killed his sister in Jerusalem.

In January, 2007, Palestinian girls were walking home from school in East Jerusalem. Israeli Border Police firing rubber bullets wounded and killed 10-year old Abir Aramin, Bassam’s daughter. Combatants for Peace has joined other Palestinian, Israeli and International peace and human rights organizations in an effort to memorialize Abir to build ABIR’S GARDEN on the grounds of her school for her classmates to gather, play, and heal.

Elhanan and Aramin are part of a national speaking tour, one year after Abir was fatally wounded. Bassam’s wife Salwa and daughter Areen will be present. Suggested donation $5-$10 sliding-scale (no one turned away for lack of funds). Proceeds benefit Abir’s Garden & Combatants for Peace.

Combatants for Peace is hosted in Santa Cruz by the Middle East Program of the Resource Center for Nonviolence . The Combatants for Peace national tour is organized by The Rebuilding Alliance and Women of a Certain Age. For more information and to and support the Abir’s Garden Project go to www.rebuildingalliance.org/

Check out Bassam’s appearance on Democracy Now recently.

Update! Click Here to download Ann Wright’s talk at the Vets Hall or check the whole article from SC Indymedia with additional MP3’s of Neal Coonerty, Diane Rejman, and the Raging Grannies.

“DISSENT: VOICES OF CONSCIENCE” a book-reading and public presentation by COLONEL (Ret.) ANN WRIGHT. Sunday, January 20th 2008 3:00 p.m. Songs by “The Raging Grannies”! Introduction by County Supervisor Neal Coonerty. Veterans Memorial Hall 846 Front Street in Santa Cruz Sponsored by the Resource Center for Nonviolence, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, CODEPINK SC, Veterans for Peace, GI Rights Hotline, Women in Black members of the Corrie-Mizo Chapter 11. VFW Post #5888, MediaWatch, PUP (People United for Peace), Women in Black, the Santa Cruz Peace Coalition, Church and Society Committee of the United Methodist Church of Santa Cruz. For more information, contact (831) 423-1626 or www.rcnv.org.
“Dissent: Voices of Conscience–Government Insiders Speak Out Against the War in Iraq” by Colonel (retired) Ann Wright, (Koa Books, January 2008), profiles government officials whose loyalty to the Constitution and the American people ultimately transcended partisan politics. Originally scheduled for release in 2007, publication has been delayed until now by the State Department’s clearance process. Books will be available for author signing. Author Colonel (ret.) Ann Wright resigned from the U.S. Foreign Service on March 19, 2003, while serving as Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Mongolia, in protest of the war in Iraq and unnecessary curtailment of civil liberties. She joined the Foreign Service in 1987 and served in US Embassies in Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Grenada, Micronesia, Nicaragua, and Afghanistan. Before entering the Foreign Service, she served in the Army and Army Reserve for 29 years combined. She has Master’s and Law Degrees from the University of Arkansas and a Master’s Degree in National Security Affairs from the U.S. Naval War College. $5 - $10 suggested sliding-scale donation. No one turned away for lack of funds. The book “Dissent: Voices of Conscience–Government Insiders Speak Out Against the War in Iraq” is also available by mail for a $20 donation to Courage to Resist, 484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610. Proceeds to benefit Courage to Resist’s “Dear Canada: Let U.S. War Resisters Stay!” campaign underway.