Sunday, April 23, 2017

Warrior Writers- Upcoming Workshops & Readings in Cambridge

To   
Are you ready?
View this email in your browser
Friends,

We’re excited to share our upcoming workshops and readings scheduled over the next few months in Cambridge! Whether you're just beginning to explore writing, you're looking to develop your practice, or you want to connect with other writers and share your work – all are welcome!

Keep an eye out for more programming as we work to create opportunities for veterans to engage in creative communities in the area with the support of our incoming co-director Caleb Nelson. Caleb, a Navy veteran, writer, and longtime Warrior Writers facilitator, was recently selected to serve with Warrior Writers as part of a six-month community service fellowship with The Mission Continues. Welcome and congratulations, Caleb!

Last week we had a great night starting off our spring programming with dinner and a tour of the Longfellow House, and last night we celebrated the release of Marc Levy's book How Stevie Nearly the War and Other Post War Stories for our monthly Midnight Voices spoken word and poetry night. We look forward to seeing YOU at our upcoming events!
UPCOMING WARRIOR WRITERS WORKSHOPS & READINGS


Wednesday, April 26 @ 5:30pm
Join Warrior Writers for a workshop in the carriage house at the Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site for a workshop with FRED MARCHANT and KEVIN BOWEN! The National Historic Site preserves the home of Henry W. Longfellow, which also served as George Washington's headquarters during the Siege of Boston.

(Can't wait that long for poetry? Stop by the Cambridge Friends Meeting House TONIGHT @ 7pm for a celebration on the occasion of the publishing of A Grace Paley Reader, edited by Kevin Bowen and Nora Paley. You can also head to the Blacksmith House on Monday April 24 @ 8pm to hear Fred read from Said Not Said, his forthcoming poetry collection from Graywolf Press!)

Wednesday, May 10 @ 5:30pm
Warrior Writers workshop at the Longfellow House with ERIC WASILESKI

Thursday, May 18 @ 5:30pm
Warrior Writers workshop at the Cambridge Friends Meeting House (across the street from the Longfellow House) with CALEB NELSON. Stick around for our reading and open mic!

Thursday, May 18 @ 7pm
Calling all poets, slammers, wordsmiths, lyricists, rappers, misfits, and anyone who has the gift of gab! Join us for MIDNIGHT VOICES, our monthly reading and open mic and open mic night. Our featured reader for May will be KEVIN BOWEN, with ERIC WASILESKI as our MC. Arrive early to get your name on the list for the open mic.

Wednesday, May 24 @ 5:30pm
Warrior Writers workshop at the Longfellow House with KEVIN BOWEN

Wednesday, June 7 @ 5:30pm
Warrior Writers workshop at the Longfellow House with CHRISTINE TOSTI and RON WHITTLE

Thursday, June 15 @ 5:30pm
Warrior Writers workshop at the Cambridge Friends Meeting House (5 Longfellow Park, across the street from the Longfellow House) with CALEB NELSON. Stick around for our reading and open mic!

Thursday, June 15 @ 7pm
Calling all poets, slammers, wordsmiths, lyricists, rappers, misfits, and anyone who has the gift of gab! Join us for MIDNIGHT VOICES, our monthly reading and open mic and open mic night. Arrive early to get your name on the list for the open mic.

Wednesday, June 21 @ 5:30pm
Warrior Writers workshop at the Longfellow House – we'll use this workshop to prepare for our reading on the lawn of the Longfellow House on Wednesday, June 28 @ 6pm. Bring the work you plan to read for feedback and reading preparation.
In addition to regular workshops and programming, we're partnering again with the William Joiner Institute for the Study of War and Social Consequences for a retreat in conjunction with their 30th annual Writers’ Workshop from June 20-26! We are eager to be hosted by again this year by our friends at the Old Oak Dojo and Longfellow House for retreat programming and public readings and are especially looking forward to celebrating Warrior Writers' 10th Birthday!

Since 2012, the Boston Warrior Writers Retreat has offered participants an amazing opportunity to work closely with the Joiner Institute's distinguished veteran faculty, including Brian Turner,Bruce WeiglFred MarchantSean Davis and Larry Heinneman for master classes and writing consultations. It's also been a great chance for our community to show their support for veterans with dozens of local businesses and community members chipping in on supplies, meals, and other vital support for participants!

Stay tuned for more details. Please spread the word about our events and let us know if you plan to attend! For more information, or to get involved, email us at boston@warriorwriters.org


See you soon!
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Donate
Copyright © 2017 Warrior Writers
All rights reserved.

You are receiving this newsletter because you signed up to receive updates from Warrior Writers.

Our mailing address is:
Warrior Writers
1315 Walnut Street, Suite 320
PhiladelphiaPA 19107

Add us to your address book

Update subscription preferences 
Unsubscribe from this list

Email Marketing Powered by MailChimp

From Courage To Resist-The Support Network For Military Resisters-Join and Build The Resistance On All Fronts

To    

OBAMA VS. TRUMP ON DRONES: WHAT’S CHANGED?
drones protest

April 21,2017 - “Not only has Trump inherited Obama’s massive murder program, he also immediately eradicated its few meager restraints, aiming to make it even easier for the government to carry out assassinations..." Read more
We’re excited to be collaborating with independent journalist Joseph Gibson to produce an ongoing series of exclusive articles. This is the first product of that relationship.

PODCAST: JACOB BRIDGE
jacob bridge podcast

April 19, 2017 - We are proud to release the first episode in our new Courage to Resist podcast series. This inaugural edition features Marine officer turned conscientious objector Jacob Bridge. With the support of Courage to Resist, Jake was honorably discharged in 2015. Produced by Eric Klein. Listen now


WEBSITE REDESIGN, RELAUNCH
website redesign

We’ve completely redesigned, and relaunched, our website for a great reading experience on either desktop or mobile.

MAY 2017 PDF NEWSLETTER
pdf newsletter

COURAGE TO RESIST ~ SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT!
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland, California 94610 ~ 510-488-3559
www.couragetoresist.org ~ facebook.com/couragetoresist

Chelsea Manning Welcome Home Fund, and Final Reflections



Chelsea Manning Support Network
Chelsea Manning Welcome Home Fund
Is this email not displaying correctly?
View it in your browser.

Chelsea Manning's
Welcome Home Fund

gofundme.com/welcomehomechelsea

From Chelsea Manning's attorney Chase Strangio: This is the official campaign raising funds for Chelsea Manning. This campaign is being organized by her friends and family. I have known Chelsea as her attorney, advocate and friend for several years. The money will be deposited directly into her bank account, which is being managed by her current power of attorney. Upon her release on May 17th, she will have full control over all funds donated.

Final Reflections

support network logoThis will likely be the final email from the former Chelsea Manning Support Network. We hope that you'll help Chelsea restart her life by contributing to the Welcome Home Fund, and helping exceed the $100,000 goal. It’s still hard to believe that we won Chelsea’s freedom (only 80 days to go!).
Chelsea inspired me, and her actions forever changed my life. I remember watching the Apache helicopter video of American soldiers gunning down unarmed people in Iraq, including a Reuters journalist and two children. It fundamentally changed how I saw America’s overseas wars. ... It boggles the mind…

From Courage to Resist

courage to resist logoWe are extremely proud to have served as fiscal manager for the Chelsea Manning Defense Fund for nearly seven years. Those funds provided Chelsea a legal defense team at trial, funded most of her appeals, supported hundreds of events worldwide, and in the end, was immensely important to winning Chelsea’s freedom.
Chelsea Manning Defense Fund fiscal reports available include our summary of the first 18 months of the appeals phase (Jan. 2014 – Jun. 2015) [PDF LINK], as well as the pretrial and trial history (Jul. 2010-Dec. 2013) [PDF LINK]. The final report covering the most recent (and last) 18 months is forthcoming. That, along with other news and updates about Chelsea, will be available at couragetoresist.org.
In a nutshell, the Defense Fund as a positive balance of approximately $10,000, and we'll be disbursing that money soon, in consultation with Chelsea. Courage to Resist has provided significant material support to about 50 military objectors since our founding over ten years ago; however, our efforts in support of Chelsea easily eclipse all of our other campaigns.

Continue to stand with Chelsea!

Together, we did it! Wow.

The Harp Beneath The Crown- With The Chieftains In Mind

The Harp Beneath The Crown- With The Chieftains In Mind


By Sam Eaton

“I’m as Irish as the next goddam bogger,” shouted Jack Callahan, “I just don’t like to wear it on my sleeve. I don’t have to break out in song every time I think about what my maternal grandfather, Daniel Patrick Riley and that should be Irish enough for you, called the “old sod.” For him it was the old sod since his own grandparents had come over on the “famine” ships in the 1840s after the bloody Brits had starved them out of County Kerry with their wicked enclosure policies so they could have grazing land for their sheep or something and they, the Brits hoarding enough food for a full larder for everyone and the starved broken bodied piling up on the roads after eating tree bark or something you wouldn’t feed a pig. At least that was the way my grandfather told me his grandfather told him.” 

Jack’s whole uproar over his heritage, over his bloody green flag, harp beneath the crown heritage had been brought about innocently enough as he and Bradley Fox, a friend whom he had known since his school days at Riverdale High, sat in The Plough and Stars bar on Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge when Bradley had mentioned that the Chieftains would again be doing their yearly series of shows around Saint Patrick’s at the Wang Center in downtown Boston and had assumed that Jack would once again jump at the chance to show his green side.

And that outburst was the way that Jack had answered him with some put-upon air of righteous indignation that he had to prove himself and his Irish-ness. Prove it he added to a half-breed like Bradley whose own father was descended from the bloody Brits, had only with fire and determination on his mother’s part had he been brought up in the true church rather than some heathen Protestant chapel with those god-awful hail high Jehovah psalms beseeching an unjust god to forgive them their bloody heathen sins, and who had only been saved by his mother’s full-blooded Irish lineage (his mother’s great-great grandfather having come over on the famine ships with Jack’s maternal great-great-great grandfather if that was the right number of “greats”)from being totally ostracized in the whole neighborhood by the old “shawlies” who commented on every little deviation. So no this year he would not be going to the annual concert, maybe would not even go to the Saint Patrick’s Parade over in South Boston which he had been going to since he was a kid although less frequently over the previous few years as he had lost patience with the drunks, the rowdies and the one-day-a-year Irish. The Polish Irish they would call them when they were kids, the Poles being the other big ethnic group in the town, the ones who worked on the watch factories that had dotted the river in those days. They would come into school on Saint Pat’s Day all in green calling themselves MacWalecki or something. That was the way the two old friends left it that night, left like they did many a blow-up argument with a semi-smile since half the time after a certain hour or a certain number of whiskeys they would collapse in on their arguments. This one had that same fate.            

[What Bradley did not know that night, did not know for several more weeks, was that Chrissie (nee McNamara) Callahan, Jack’s wife of many more years than any of them wanted to count and who had been the classic high school sweethearts was giving signals that she wanted to leave Jack now that the kids were grown and they were “empty-nesters.” Wanted to in her words “find herself” before it was too late and that she had felt like a stranger in Jack’s presence. That fate weighted heavily on Jack since Chrissie had been his rock through those many years and he was not sure what he would do if she left him high and dry like that. Tried to argue her out of her thoughts always going back to the usually tried and true argument about how they had first gotten together and that night had pledged their eternal love. Bradley had known that story since he had been at Molly’s Diner the night it happened. Jack had had a crush on Chrissie since sixth grade when she had invited him to her twelfth birthday party and as such things went at “petting parties” she had given him a big kiss that he never really forgot about. But being shy and self-conscious he never pursued the matter. Time passed and as they entered high school it turned out that Jack was a hell of a football player who led his team to the state division championship senior year.

So Jack could have had any girl he wanted from sophomore year on. But he still retained his Chrissie thing and his shyness. Chrissie had been harboring some such feelings as well although as more outgoing and a beautiful girl she did not lack for dates and the evil intentions of guys. One Friday night in the later fall of sophomore year though she had had enough and knowing that Jack and the boys would be at Molly’s playing the latest rock hits on Molly’s jukebox while having their burgers and fries she went into Molly’s front door, drew a bee-line to Jack, and to Jack’s lap. The way Bradley always described it later was that Chrissie had had such a look of determination on her face that it would have taken the whole football team to get her off that lap. A look a Jack said that it would take the whole football team and the junior varsity too to get her off his lap. So that night their eternal love thing started. Jack had told Bradley in confidence that he could have had anything Chrissie had to offer that night when they left Molly’s for Jack to take her home. That would come later, the next spring when on Saint Patrick’s’ Day night after the parade was over and after they had both consumed too many illegal beers they went over to nearby Carson Beach and Chrissie had given Jack all she had to offer. So those mist of memories had been were driving Jack dyspeptic response to Bradley’s question.]              

Later that night after Jack got back to Hingham where he had his business, his Toyota car dealership (he was perennially Mr. Toyota in Eastern Massachusetts), and his too big house, Chrissie asleep upstairs (in one of the kids’ bedrooms, so that was the way things were just then) turned the light on and went into his den. Sat down on his easy chair and turned the light off. He had just wanted to think in the gentle dark about how he was going keep Chrissie with him but he found that he started to drift back to the days in Riverdale when he was a kid and being Irish meant a lot to him, felt he had to uphold the Easter, 1916 brotherhood, had to buck the trend that his parents and their generation had bought into-becoming vanilla Americans. Losing the old country identities that men like his grandfather held too with granite determination in the flow of too many other trends driving them away from what they had been, where they had come from in this great big immigrant-driven country.           

All the funny little rites of passage. First of all listening to his grandfather’s stories about the heroic men of 1916 (women too but they slipped through cracks in his telling the womenfolk being held in the background in that generation), above all James Connelly who had place of pride on his grandfather’s piazza wall. Then the times once his grandfather was in his cups a bit the singing of all the old songs, some he had never heard of then but which later he would find were ancient songs going back to Cromwell’s bloody hellish times. Later when he and his friends, usually not Bradley since his father was adamant that he not attend some frivolous doings, would sneak out of school, walk to the bus which would take them to the Redline subway station and over to South Boston and the Saint Pat’s Parade. See that day, March 17th was a holiday in Boston and Suffolk County, not Saint Pat’s Day but Evacuation Day, the day the colonial patriots drove the bloody Brits out of Boston during the American Revolution. But Riverdale in Middlesex County did not get a holiday hence the sneaking out of school.

Of course of all the Saint Pat’s Days the night he took all Chrissie had to offer stood well above all others. He thought about how Chrissie, all prim and proper on the outside, at first refused to skip school until he made a fuse over it that he wouldn’t have any fun without her. That got to her, and so they went with Jimmy Jenkins, Frankie Riley and a couple of other girls whose names he could not remember over to South Boston. They ran into one of Jack’s older cousins who gave them some beers. At first Chrissie balked at drinking the stuff but Jack said just take a sip and if she didn’t like it that was that. Well she liked it well enough that day (which was probably the last time she had beer since thereafter it was respectfully Southern Comfort, mixed gin drinks, and later various types of wine). They drank most of the afternoon, had somehow lost the rest of the crowd from Riverdale and Jack saw his big play. He asked Chrissie if she wanted to go to the beach to sit on the seawall and watch the ocean before going home. She didn’t resist that idea.  So they went to Carson Beach as it was starting to get dark, went to a secluded area near the L Street Bathhouse, and started to “make out.” Jack began to fondle her breasts and she didn’t push him away, didn’t push him away as he put his hand between her thighs either, actually held his hands there. And so they as they saying went after a Howlin’ Wolf song they had heard on Molly’s jukebox did the “do the do” for first time. He blushed as he thought about that first time and how they, foolish high school kids, didn’t have any “protection,” didn’t even think about such an idea. Later they got wise but then they were as naïve about sex and what to do, or not do, about it as any two Irish kids could be.

Jack as he sat there in dark then thought enough of this or he might head up those stairs, kids’ room or not. But above all that night he thought about his sainted grandmother, Anna, by his account, by all accounts, a saint if for no other reason than she had put up with his grandfather and his awful habits but also because she was the sweetest woman in the whole neighborhood and was not, it bears repeating, not afraid of the “shawlies” and their vicious grapevine (which had even caught wind of his and Chrissie’s trysts although they denied the whole thing every time somebody mentioned it-they were after all as good  virginal Catholics as anybody else in the neighborhood so there). He then remembered how when he was young she would sing the songs from the old country while she was doing the washing (the old-fashioned way with scrub board and wringer, clothesline-dried), Brendan on the Moor, Kevin Barry, The Rising of the Moon, and many others. He would always request The Coast of Malabar, ask her to sing it twice when she was in the mood. Such a song of being away from home. He always loved it when the Chieftains played the song as a part of their show.          

Jack had that song on his mind the next morning when after Chrissie had come down for her morning coffee he asked her, half expecting to be turned down, if she wanted to go to the Chieftains concert in March. She brightened and said “yes, yes of course.” Later that day he sheepishly called Bradley and told him to order three tickets for the Chieftains concert. Bradley chuckled. Enough said.         

In Boston- Join the Mass Protest Against Trump this May 1st!-Join The Resistance

In Boston- Join the Mass Protest Against Trump this May 1st!-Join The Resistance 

Stand Up for Immigrants on May 1st!
View this email in your browser

Strike and Protest on May 1st in Boston!

An Injury to One is an Injury to All!

We need to disrupt “business as usual” to defeat Trump’s agenda. Working people have the potential power to strike a blow at Trump and his billionaire backers by shutting down their profits on May 1.

Alongside immigrant organizations and labor unions, we will take action against the deportations, Trump’s wall, the Muslim ban, anti-union laws and attacks on women’s reproductive rights. We will oppose any retaliation by employers or schools against workers or students who strike or walk out on May Day.

Join us for this powerful protest on May 1st in Boston!
RSVP on Facebook!
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list
Tell Me: What Does The Resistance Looks Like-This Is What The Resistance Looks Like-Join The Resistance Now!!  



Saturday, April 22, 2017

From Socialist Alternative- Have you heard the news?-Vote Ginger

To   
Friends,

We are proud to announce that the Communications Workers of America Minnesota State Council (CWA) has endorsed our grassroots campaign for Minneapolis City Council Ward 3!

Representing over 10,000 workers, the CWA has a rich history of challenging big business and winning through struggle. In 2016, Socialist Alternative supported the CWA when Verizon attempted to cut benefits, and we will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with them in the fights ahead.


Donate $15, $100, $250, $600 to elect Ginger Jentzen

“It’s clear to the Communications Workers of America (CWA) MN State Council that we need to elect candidates who refuse corporate cash and are unapologetic about fighting for the needs of working people while at the same time building our grassroots power. That’s why the CWA MN State Council is endorsing Ginger Jentzen for Minneapolis City Council Ward 3. She has demonstrated those principles and fought alongside low-wage workers to build the movement for a $15/hour minimum wage in Minneapolis,” said Mona Meyer, president of the CWA Minnesota State Council.

All told, our campaign is backed by unions representing 30,000 working people and families in Minnesota. Both the CWA and the Minnesota Nursing Association endorsed Bernie’s campaign and have played a critical role in the fight for a $15/hour minimum, living the old labor slogan an “injury to one is an injury to all.”

Recently, a majority of Minneapolis City Council members have come out in support of $15 for Minneapolis, with no tip penalty! While we welcome their support, we need to be clear -  $15 has only come this far because of our powerful grassroots movement. Together, we've taken on powerful opposition from business groups like the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce, the Minneapolis Downtown Council, and now the Minnesota Restaurant Association.

These groups will continue fighting to delay and dilute a minimum wage proposal. And 
anti-$15 corporate interests are already trying to buy our local elections, hosting a fundraiser for Ward 1 City Council member Kevin Reich - part of the council majority that voted to block $15/hr from going to voters. We know that these same business executives and lobbyists will pour money into defeating my pro-$15, pro-worker campaign for Minneapolis City Council Ward 3.

If 30 people chip in $20 tonightwe can cancel out a $600 maxed out donation from an anti-$15 corporate executive, and show that it is is possible to build an alternative to corporate politics-as-usual.

We have the potential to build a new kind of politics. Our movements for renters, immigrants, and workers’ rights need a political voice. By endorsing our campaign for Minneapolis City Council, the CWA MN State Council and the MNA are taking a bold stand against corporate domination of politics and supporting a political alternative that’s on the side of working people.

Solidarity,
Ginger Jentzen

Prepared and Paid for by Vote Ginger Jentzen (not corporate cash)
P.O. Box 53162, Minneapolis, MN 55458
Share
Tweet
Forward

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list