January Announcements

author : WIP

by WIP

Emergency donations needed for Thurston County homeless

Please donate to Bread and Roses Homeless Advocacy Services which is open and accepting donations Monday through Friday at 1320 8th Ave E. in Olympia.

If you are able to donate this holiday season please consider the homeless community at Bread and Roses. The ice and snow has hit the homeless community hard this winter. There are not enough shelters for everyone. Some people are unable to access shelters because they lack “valid identification”. ...Small barriers, such as lack of I.D., prevent people from getting into housing and shelters leaving many people on the street, with out any warm, dry or safe place to be.

Simple things like bus passes, new socks, hand warmers, gloves, rain jackets, tents, flashlights, sleeping bags, tents and tarps go a long way. Money donations are also accepted; all donations go directly to homeless services and are tax-deductable. Love is an Action. ACT.

Please call 360-754-4588 or 360-754-4085 if you have questions about donations or to make sure we are open.

Kick off Photo Voices project with POWER

Monday, January 5, Potluck at 5:30, First United Methodist Church, 1224 Legion Way SE in Olympia. Onsite childcare from 6-8, and POWER can help with transporta-tion costs if needed.

Photo Voices, a project of Parents Organizing for Welfare and Economic Rights (POWER) provides cameras to low-income members of our community who then take photographs that help identify and improve their communities. The photographs represent what is happening in the participants’ lives and serve as a point for discussion about what can be done to change the present situation in regards to welfare, poverty, housing, caregiving, education and related issues. These photographs and their ac-companying stories give a face and voice to our community members living in poverty, can dispel myths and stigmas about who is poor and why and empowers those be-hind the camera.

For more info contact POWER at: 701 Franklin Street SE, Olympia, WA 98501, 360-352-9716 toll free 866-343-9716, welfarerights@riseup.net, www.oly-wa.us/power, www.myspace.com/parentsorganizing

Picket to support Olympia Local of the American Postal Workers Union

Monday, January 12, 11 am–1 pm, Olympia Downtown Post Office, 900 Jefferson Street

This informational picket is to call for the Postal Service to bring fired Union President Clint Burelson back to work and to bring the outgoing mail operations back to Olympia. The community is invited to join APWU in our efforts.

Olympia Climate Action at “Mondays at MIXX”

featuring Joe McHugh, local author and storyteller, Monday, January 12, 7 pm, MIXX 96 at State and Washington, Olympia

McHugh will share his experience of Living off the Grid: five years without electricity on a West Virginia farm. McHugh will also discuss his current novel, Kilowatt, which Jim Hightower calls, “an inspiring and entertaining tale about how ordinary working people can stand up to powerful corporate interests” in this case the electrical energy industry.

For more information, please contact Barb Scavezze 878-0991.

Sixth annual Middle East Film Festival: “Roots and Realities of Occupation”

Wednesday, January 21–January 30 at The Evergreen State College, Olympia

Guest filmmakers include Parva Sharma (A Jihad for Love), Jackie Salloum, (Slingshot Hip Hop), Raoud (Santa Claus in Baghdad).

For more info email sesame@evergreen.edu or call 360-867-6724 visit www.evergreen.edu/sesame

See program information on pages 6–7.

Oaxaca: Non-violent revolution in the 21st century

Film screening, music, and discussion

Thursday, January 29, 6:30 pm, Traditions Café and World Folk Art, 300 5th Ave SW, Olympia

The documentary film From the Edge of the Blade, about the popular uprising in Oaxaca, Mexico, will be screened with live music. After the screening, Jose Orozco, will speak about the current situation in Oaxaca, followed by a general discussion about what lessons we can learn from the Oaxacan social movement. Filmmaker and activist Jill Friedberg (This is what Democracy Looks Like, Grain of Sand, A Little Bit of So Much Truth), community activist Rochelle Gause, as well as Johan Genberg, director of From the Edge of the Blade, will participate in the discussion.

There will be a suggested donation of $8 at the door, but no one will be turned away for lack of money. All donations goes to the Oaxacan video collective Mal de Ojo TV, one of the few independent media outlets in Oaxaca.

For more info, contact Johan Genberg and Rochelle Gause of Trickle Up Films, johan.genberg@gmail.com, www.trickleupfilms.org, (360) 866-8644.

Potluck to create a Housing and Community Space Use Collective in Olympia

Friday, January 30, 7pm–9pm, Traditions Café and World Folk Art, 300 5th Avenue SW, Olympia

We welcome all individuals, organizations and progressive businesses to participate in these conversations. We are grateful for inspirational and financial help that we receive from all individuals and organizations. However, in order to maintain our independence as an educational center we are not accepting shared space applications from government groups, religious groups or multinational corporations.

If you are interested please send us an email by visiting the Peace Community’s website at www.PeaceCommunities.org and click on ‘Housing and Community Space Use Collective.’ Thank you. You can also call us from 11am-11pm, 7 days a week at (360) 539-8008 and we would love to talk with you.

Annual membership meeting, potluck, & contra dance

Friday, January 30, 6 pm, South Bay Grange Hall, 3918 Sleater-Kinney Road NE, Olympia

The evening is free and open to all—current members, prospective members, and everyone else interested in saving our local farms for the future. Find out what we’re doing to promote healthy local food and farming systems in the South Sound—and how you can help. Share a delicious meal with your friends and neighbors, kick up some dust on the dance floor, and play your luck in our fabulous farm basket raffle. Co-sponsored by the South Bay Grange.

Contact our Membership Coordinator, Caitlin Krenn, at (360) 402-0302 for details.

People’s summit and march on the Capitol

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Monday, January 19, 9 am Summit, 11:30 am March, St. John’s Episcopal Church 114 20th Ave SE, Olympia

Join us as we urge our lawmakers to fight for: Affordable Housing, Health Care for All, Income Support, Responsible Lending. The People’s Summit is a chance to trans-form the hope of election season into progressive action. Join us in Olympia to call on state lawmakers to invest in our communities, especially in this climate of economic uncertainty. Statewide Poverty Action Network builds grassroots power to end causes of poverty and to create opportunities for everyone to prosper. We organize people with low incomes across the state to vote, to testify at public hearings and to become engaged in the legislative process, especially on issues that directly impact them. Our work includes a variety of campaigns from promoting a Working Families Tax Rebate to fighting against predatory mortgage and payday lending. For more information visit www.povertyaction.org or contact Greer at (206) 694-6794 or greer@povertyaction.org.