AMERICAN LEFT HISTORY

This space is dedicated to the proposition that we need to know the history of the struggles on the left and of earlier progressive movements here and world-wide. If we can learn from the mistakes made in the past (as well as what went right) we can move forward in the future to create a more just and equitable society. We will be reviewing books, CDs, and movies we believe everyone needs to read, hear and look at as well as making commentary from time to time. Greg Green, site manager

Saturday, November 10, 2018

Veterans Day is around the corner! Warrior Writers 11/7/2018 2:13 PM

Warrior Writers<info@warriorwriters.org>

11/7/2018 2:13 PM

Check out upcoming events, articles and films about veterans.

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Hello folks,

On the heels of Election Day, you’re no doubt feeling some intense emotions. But we thought we might inspire an energy shift and get you thinking about Veterans Day, coming up this weekend. We’re pretty excited about what will be happening in our world, and we’d love to hear what you have planned as well (please let us know on Facebook).

Firstly, on the Marine Corps’ birthday (the day before Veterans Day), our organization’s Founding Director Lovella Calica will speak on a panel at the Library of Congress in Washington DC! The Road Back Veterans and Literary Writing Symposium is a free, public, all day event which will also feature our friend and mentor Bruce Weigl.

Our friends in New Orleans are helping organize a Veterans Day Town Hall, inspired in part by a suggestion made by Sebastian Junger in his book Tribe. Veterans in Louisiana: consider adding your voice and story to this event.

Look for two new articles by staff member Kevin Basl, at Truthout.org and the Institute for Policy Studies’ Otherwords.org. We’ll post links on our website and Facebook page. As always, the opinions and views expressed in the veterans’ writing/activities we share are their own and do not represent those of the organization.

Warrior Writers members involved in About Face: Veterans Against the War helped publish a petition voicing their opposition to an award being presented on Veterans Day, calling it offensive and hypocritical. Joe Biden will be presenting the Liberty Medal to George W. Bush for his "commitment to veterans."

November 11 marks the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day, the ceasefire that ended the First World War. The Puffin Cultural Forum and Frontline Arts commemorate Armistice Day with an exhibition of art works created to inspire countering cultural forces that would allow history to repeat itself, yet again. The exhibition opening is Saturday, November 10 at 6 pm in Teaneck, NJ.The event is free and open to the public. It includes a poetry reading and talk back with the artists. The art show runs through January 19.

If you’re in NYC, climb aboard the USS Intrepid to check out Exit 12, a film about member Roman Baca who has worked with other veterans to confront their experiences through artistic expression, primarily dance. This film is part of Square’s award-winning For Every Dream series, is free and open to the public and takes place on November 11 at 5pm.

[Some of our presenters at Dodge Poetry Festival ~ L to R: Everett Cox,
Sarah Mess, Hipolito Arriaga, James Yee and Lovella Calica.]

We have been very busy around the country the past few months, presenting at the Dodge Poetry Festival, facilitating our last workshop for 2018 at Fort Belvoir, and building our Twin Cities and New Orleans chapters. We had a wonderful show with our Iraqi friends in Northeast Philadelphia complete with homemade dolma, traditional kite-making and an Arab drumming demo. To learn more about our work with the Iraqi community featured in Michael Rakowitz’s Radio Silence, check out this video by our partners at Mural Arts Philadelphia.

Many of our DC area members are featured in the amazing We Are Not Done Yet, a film that took best documentary short at the G.I. Film Festival in San Diego. Warrior Writers congratulates all the veterans, filmmakers, producers and artists at Community Building Art Works for their hard work and success! The documentary airs on HBO on November 8 at pm.

Group photo of participants of Two Rivers: Letters from the Tigris to the Schuylkill

Upcoming events - not related to Veterans Day

We’re excited to join forces with the ever-amazing Yvette Pino in Madison, WI at the end of the month to close out In Good Company: An Exposition of work from Emerging Veteran Artists. She has organized dozens of events bringing veterans from around the country. We will be hosting both a writing workshop and performance workshop led by Jeff Key on Nov 28/29.

Back on the east coast, we’re partnering with the Writers House at Rutgers-Camden, NJ for two events this month. The first is called War Letters, on November 14. The panel features a couple of our members, an Army veteran and his mother who will share some of their letters with the audience, as well as historian Andrew Carroll. On November 28, we will lead a writing workshop for veterans at the Writers House. The next one at Rutgers-Camden will be on December 5 from 5:30-7:30. Both of these are open to any veteran from any era, regardless of your experience with writing.

New Orleans is hosting their next monthly workshops on November 14 and December 12. You can reach them at nola@warriorwriters.org.

Minneapolis/St. Paul is hosting their next workshops on November 17th, and December 15th from 1-2:30pm at The Loft, 3rd floor, Room 302. The Loft is located at 1011 Washington Ave. South in Minneapolis. Contact them at twincities@warriorwriters.org.

Our selection team is hard at work reviewing applications for our newly forming Governing Body, which will be leading our vision for the next phase of our journey. We’re eager to work more closely with our members, utilize their genius, and grow stronger. No matter who is selected, we need all hands on deck as they form teams to increase our capacity. So, stay tuned for ways to get involved.

As always, we appreciate your support and know that we couldn’t do this without you. Please consider making a donation today in honor of Veterans Day and/or become a sustaining donor.

Take care of yourselves, and each other,
Lovella, Valerie, Camille, Carlos, Leslie, Eli, Blake, Chante, Ray, Zach, Jay, Stefan, Kristin, Jessi, Jan, Belena, Hipolito, James, Dayl, Everett, Sarah, Jeff, Yvette, Toni, Chantelle, Kevin, Jeremy, Dylan, Ray, Khudur, Siham, Nashwa, Yaroub, Mohaned, Faroq, Hussam and many more…

Fishing Buddies: Gin McGill-Prather (visual artist & former Army medic) and Mohaned Saad (painter & Iraqi refugee) speak about their fishy friendship at the Two Rivers show.

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Warrior Writers is a program of CultureTrust Greater Philadelphia, a nonprofit charitable trust supporting diverse cultural practices and traditions in the Philadelphia region. Support is provided in part by the Philadelphia Cultural Fund and the Seriti Fund of the East Bay Community Foundation. Our mission is to create a culture that articulates veterans’ experiences, build a collaborative community for artistic expression, and bear witness to war and the full range of military experiences.