Factsheet: activism is not a crime!!!

A peep of my submission  for Factsheet art show. Come through, check out the dope pieces from the Philippines and here, and learn something new!!!

FACT SHEET Exhibit

The FACT SHEET exhibit is a collection of the piece reflects a few of the endless cases of human rights violations in the Philippines. Each of the pieces are based on Fact Sheets that contain important information on these cases. Artists’ ARREST in collaboration with the KARAPATAN (RIGHT) collected works from artists as part of CineVeritas 2008.

Currently, the  FACT SHEET exhibit has crossed the Pacific Ocean  and presenting  30 posters about human rights violations in the Philippines. It is inspired by Bay Area’s Social Serigraphy movement that started in the 1960s, 20 works and ideas of Artists’ ARREST, an art collective in the Philippines.  In addition 10 pieces from Kwatro Kanto collective, Lainerz, KA68, and others artists from the U.S.  The exhibition will show how art can be used as a social practice by forming alliances and mobilizations, from a single person to an entire nation.

Media Contact: Lian Ladia, lian_ladia@yahoo.com

MHF Contact: DiAnne Bueno, dianne.bueno@manilatown.org

MHF: 415-777-1130, 415-399-9580

www.manilatown.org

Political Poster Exhibition on Human Rights at Manilatown

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – San Francisco – January 11, 2010

EVENT: Manilatown Heritage Foundation (MHF), a Filipino American community arts organization based in San Francisco, will host “FACTSHEET: Activism is Not a Crime,” an exhibition of 30 posters by artists in the U.S. and the Philippines about human rights violations in the Philippines, curated by Lian Ladia and Con Cabrera and co-presented with SF Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines.

WHEN: Exhibit runs from February 6-April 24, 2010

Opening reception: Saturday, February 6, 4-6  PM, with live performances and special guest,  Marie Hilo from KARAPATAN, a human rights organization in the Philippines. FREE, donations appreciated

Film & Discussion: Saturday, March 27, 4-6 PM

Film shorts about human rights in the Philippines from the Southern Tagalog Exposure, followed by a panel discussion with Bay Area community organizers. $5-$10, no one turned away for lack of funds

Closing Reception: Saturday, April 24, 4-6 PM

FREE, donations appreciated

WHERE: International Hotel Manilatown Center, 868 Kearny Street (and Jackson), SF

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION: “FACTSHEET: Activism is Not a Crime,” showcases 30 posters by artists in the U.S. and the Philippines about human rights violations in the Philippines. It is inspired by Bay Area’s Social Serigraphy movement that started in the 1960s, as well as by the works and ideas of Artist Arrest, an art collective in the Philippines. FACTSHEET shows how art can be used as a social practice to form alliances and mobilize, from a single person to an entire nation.

ABOUT MANILATOWN HERITAGE FOUNDATION: The Manilatown Heritage Foundation is a non-profit community-based organization formed in 1994 and incorporated in 1998, to advocate for the rebuilding of the International Hotel (I-Hotel) and the preservation of the Filipino legacy in the San Francisco Bay Area. Its mission is to promote social and economic justice for Filipinos in America by preserving our history, advocating for equal access, and advancing our arts and culture. The I-Hotel was the last vestige of a vibrant 10-block area known as Manilatown. Manilatown Heritage Foundation emerged out of the struggle to defend the tenants’ rights to their homes and to preserve the Manilatown District. 28 years after the brutal eviction of the tenants, the new International Hotel Senior Housing opened its doors in August 2005. The Manilatown Center has now come alive with exhibits, weekly events and activities.

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Pinay Stories: Connection, Memory, Roots

Start Time:	Friday, December 4, 2009 at 8:00pm
End Time:	Saturday, December 5, 2009 at 9:30pm
Location:	Off Market Theater
Street:	965 Mission St. #250
City/Town:	San Francisco, CA

The Babae Ensemble Presents…
Pinay Stories
Connection, Memory, Roots

An evening of original written work, theater, and performance by an all-Filipina cast.
Stories that will inspire, empower, and uplift you.

Friday, December 4 and Saturday, December 5
8pm show; doors open at 7:30pm

Off Market Theater
965 Mission St. #250
San Francisco, CA 94104

$12 admission
For tickets, visit http://brownpapertickets.com/event/89703

Pinay Stories is a national cultural arts project of GABRIELA USA that centers on collecting creative efforts of Filipino women in the United States reflecting their life stories, journeys and current lives.

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Babae (Tagalog for “woman”) is a grassroots and volunteer-based organization of Filipina women in San Francisco dedicated to supporting and empowering Pinays through critical education, leadership development, and community building. We are committed to taking up local and global struggles, immediate and long-term concerns of our communities, especially those directly impacting Filipino women. As part of the Philippine women’s movement for self-determination, we are committed to working towards a future of real sisterhood and international solidarity, true gender equality and opportunity for all women, and genuine sovereignty and democracy in our homeland.

info@babaesf.org | www.babaesf.org

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GABRIELA National Alliance of Women is a grassroots-based alliance of more than 200 organizations, institutions, desks and programs of women all over the Philippines seeking to wage a struggle for the liberation of all oppressed Filipino women and the rest of our people. GABRIELA-USA is the first overseas chapter of the Philippine-based organization, extending the Filipino womens mass movement to the United States.

www.gabusa.org

UPDATE: 9/25 Justice for Custodio Family: Filipino Community Support, SV Hosts Post Trial Community Gathering

Save the date!

What: Justice for Custodio Family: Filipino Community Support, SV Hosts Post Trial Community Gathering
When: Friday September 25, 2009 5:30pm-7:30pm
Location: Filipino Youth Coalition Office Welch Park – San Jose, CA

**Potluck event. Please bring something to share.**

Contact: Noemi Teppang – teppang_noe@yahoo.com; (408) 307-6717

The San Jose Filipino community has much to celebrate with the recent dismissal of Marilou Custodio’s case, but the struggle for complete justice continues. The denial of justice to Romel and Marlo Custodio is a temporary hurdle for the broader San Jose community’s ongoing struggle against racial profiling and police brutality.  The community at large has gained strength through the Justice for Custodios Family Campaign and we will continue to demand for justice to ALL victims of racial profiling and police brutality, and for San Jose to end all use of torture weapons such as tasers.

In affirmation of the community’s determination and ability to enact true change within the Santa Clara County judicial system, we invite all allies of the Custodio family to join Filipino Community Support, Silicon Valley and the Custodio Family as we gather and celebrate community strength and show appreciation to allies who have supported the JCFC campiagn for the past two years. The Custodio Family also will discuss their next steps for their future in the struggle for justice.

Justice for the Custodio Family!
Justice for All Victims and Families Affected by Racial Profiling and
Police Brutality!
Demand SJPD Accountability!
Ban Tasers and Other Weapons of Torture!
Immigrant Rights are Human Rights!

FOCUS  MISSION
As a broad grassroots community organization, Filipino Community Support of Silicon Valley (FOCUS-SV) defends the rights and interests of Filipinos in Santa Clara County against social and economic injustices.

FOCUS  VISION
We, the concerned Filipinos residing and working in Silicon Valley with our families and friends, realize the need to protect, assist, and advocate for our mutual and collective interest against exploitation, oppression, violence, and injustice. We come together to build a broad comprehensive grassroots organization that defends the rights gained by previous struggles and upholds the welfare of Filipinos. With nationalist and democratic values, we envision greater social, cultural, and political
resources for the Filipino community in Santa Clara County that would benefit everyone and promote greater equity and justice.

For more info contact: email focus.balita@gmail.com

Haiti/Honduras Vigil: Wednesday, Aug. 12 – 4:30 pm Brazilian Consulate – 300 Montgomery St. (at Pine, nr Montgomery BART), SF

Haiti/Honduras Vigil: Wednesday, Aug. 12 – 4:30 pm

Brazilian Consulate – 300 Montgomery St. (at Pine, nr Montgomery BART), SF

Haitians and Hondurans are still in the streets protesting political kidnappings and coups.

Return Lovinsky! Return Aristide! Return Zelaya!

• August 12, 2009 marks 2 years since the kidnapping and disappearance of Haitian human rights leader Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine. Yet the authorities have sat on their hands.

• Haitian President Aristide and Honduran President Zelaya – both kidnapped from their homes in the middle of the night and flown into exile in US-sponsored military coups – are still in exile and not permitted to return home. This is intolerable.

Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine

It is two years since human rights advocate Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine was kidnapped in Haiti. We are with the people of Haiti who have been living under occupation since their elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was kidnapped and forced into exile in 2004 by a US military coup, and with the people of Honduras whose president Manuel Zelaya was kidnapped and removed by a military coup in June 2009.

Jean-Bertrand Aristide

Please join Haiti Action Committee Wednesday, August 12th, to observe the second anniversary of the kidnapping and disappearance of grassroots organizer and leader, Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine.

Meet in front of the Brazilian Consulate at 300 Montgomery Street in San Francisco, 4:30PM. [Brazil heads up MINUSTAH, the United Nations military force that has been occupying Haiti since soon after US special troops kidnapped President and Mrs. Aristide in 2004 and flew them to exile in Africa aboard a US military plane.]

Lovinsky was kidnapped and disappeared in Haiti on August 12th, 2007 shortly after meeting with a US-Canadian human rights delegation. As a member of Fanmi Lavalas, Brother Pierre-Antoine is an extraordinary grassroots organizer and leading advocate for the poor, including street children, teenage mothers and victims of torture.

Despite international actions demanding an investigation into Lovinsky’s disappearance, there has been no effective effort by either the UN in Haiti or the Preval government to locate Lovinsky and secure his safe return, or to hold those responsible for his disappearance accountable.

Join with Haiti’s grassroots movement on August 12, together with friends and comrades in Haiti, Grenada, Los Angeles, London, and elsewhere, in events demanding the return of our dear brother, Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine. End the US/UN occupation! Brazil out of Haiti! Free the political prisoners! Return Presidents Jean-Bertrand Aristide and Manuel Zelaya!

Here is last year’s message of solidarity from Mumia Abu-Jamal:

For Haitians, this coming August is a reminder of the kidnapping and disappearance of their brother, Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, who was taken after a meeting with a US-Canadian human rights delegation visiting Haiti in mid-August, 2007.

Pierre-Antoine is a co-founder of the Fondayson Trant Septenm, (Kreyol for September 30th Foundation), a group which assisted and supported the people who during (and especially after) the 1991 and 2004 coups against the democratically-elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Members of the Fondayson have been targeted for years.

Around the world, activists have been organizing in Lovinsky’s support, calling on various governments, from Haiti’s President Rene Preval, Brazil (which forms the bulk of the United Nations forces in the country), Canada, the US and France, which organized the latest coup against Haitian democracy.

When Pierre-Antoine was abducted, it forced other democracy and human rights activists in Haiti to go into hiding to avoid waves of state repression.

Haiti has a proud and illustrious career on the world’s stage, becoming the first free Black republic in the West after its 1804 revolution against France, which abolished slavery almost 70 years before the US Civil War spelled the end to human bondage in the US. Their freedom spread the bright lights of liberty and independence throughout the Caribbean, and when South America rose against Spain, it was to Haiti that their Liberator Simon Bolivar turned for support, arms, and a place to rest.

For their bold struggle to bring Black freedom to the West, the US and Europe have unleashed an unholy war. France forced reparations (!) on Haiti — an act unprecedented in history, forcing the victor in war to pay away it’s wealth for almost a century. The US repeatedly invaded the country, brutalized its people, and imposed an assortment of puppet dictators to exploit the country for foreign benefit, and national impoverishment, for generations!

Because Haiti’s popularly elected Bertrand Aristide dared to oppose Haiti’s rich elite, and tried to make things nominally better for its peasantry, US Marines forced him into exile.

Because Lovinsky comes from the popular mass movements, he was snatched off the streets of Haiti a year ago, and the movement is building to bring him back home to his family, his community, and the popular movements of which he was a part.

Haiti must never be forgotten, and neither must we forget Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine. 7/30/08 (c) ’08 Mumia Abu-Jamal

Behind the kidnappings of these political leaders [excerpted from an article circulated by Global Women's Strike]:

Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine is co-ordinator of Fondasyon 30 Septanm for survivors of the military coups against Aristide, and an advocate for those with the least, starting with women and street children. He was kidnapped on August 12, 2007, two weeks after announcing he would run for the Haitian Senate. The grassroots in Haiti hold weekly vigils demanding his return and the return of Aristide, who was forced into exile in 2004 by a Bush administration military coup backed by Canada and France.

Latin American governments have rightly condemned the recent coup in Honduras and have been working for the return of President Jose Manuel Zelaya, but in contrast, they have collaborated with the occupation of Haiti….UN occupying forces in Haiti continue to be headed by Brazil and include troops from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay. Only Caricom (a grouping of the English-speaking Caribbean, Suriname and Haiti) and Venezuela have spoken out; Cuba continues to provide doctors to Haiti.

President Aristide, a liberation theology priest with a 91.8% mandate (2000 election), was removed because he fought to eliminate poverty. His policies angered the Haitian elite and the US which profit from sweatshops, privatisation and the import of [US] rice which has destroyed the local agriculture and contributed to starvation. Like Zelaya in Honduras and Chávez in Venezuela (who also faced a coup in 2002), Aristide increased the minimum wage, and invested in food, health and education.

Now, former US President Bill Clinton is pushing US policy to expand sweatshops in Haiti under the guise of global investments – and the UN occupiers are responsible for many rapes and murders, including recently opening fire on mourners at the funeral of Father Jean-Juste, another liberation theology priest….

Despite pressure from those in power to participate in elections, grassroots people in Haiti organized “Operation Closed Door”. This massive boycott of the US-financed ($17 million) elections was organised after all candidates from Aristide’s party Fanmi Lavalas were banned from running. The boycott was an outstanding success – only 3% voted, a fantastic example of grassroots organizing and solidarity! The ban [on Lavalas] came the day after a meeting between US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the present Haitian President, Preval. The reason for the ban?: Lavalas usually takes over 85% of the vote.

Haitians have been made to pay for their 1791-1804 revolution which overthrew slavery, making way for emancipation in the region and for liberation movements everywhere. The world owes a great debt to the Haitian people. They have never given up. [Courtesy of Global Women's Strike.] Read more about Brother Pierre-Antoine here:http://www.haitisolidarity.net/article.php?id=205

Haiti Action Committee
Information: www.Haitisolidarity.net www.globalwomenstrike.net www.haitiaction.net

REGISTRATION DEADLINE for the asian pacific islander american spoken word & peotry summit is JULY 15TH! HURRY!

The APIA  spoken word and poetry summit is a gathering of spoken word artists, poets, writers, musicians, thespians, activists, organizers, and artists throughout the world who convene based on the commonality of their Asian American, Asian, and/or Pacific Islander identity.  Since 2001, the Summit has gathered every two years in a different city in the United States, and for a span for four days engage in workshops, performances, and discussions directed toward the upliftment of the APIA arts and activism community.  In the past Summits have occured in Seattle (2001), Chicago (2003), Boston (2005), and New York City (2007).

This year, the 5th APIA Spoken Word & Poetry Summit will take place in the California Bay Area from July 30 to August 2.
Click here for details.

Roots of Resistance Music & Art Festival! Indigenous Delegation to Palestine Final Fundraiser!

It’s the final fundraiser for the Indigenous Delegation to Palestine traveling August 1-17, 2009!
http://indigenousdelegation.wordpress.com/

Tickets: $10 | ALL proceeds go to the delegation, which is a 100% grassroots effort – come bless us with your presence and energy! This send-off party features art and performance from Palestinian, Native, Xicano, Filipino and other communities!! Holla if you want to be involved!

ART GALLERY
Richard Castaneda
Nijla Mu’min
NuBe Iapalkuetlaxtli
artivista***
Dignidad Rebelde posters
Drama One
and more…

PERFORMANCES
DJ SAKE 1
Hoop Dancer Sage Romero
The Genie (skratch guitar)
Victor Duarte
Flash & Native Don (hip-hop)
Spoken Word by:
Dina Omar
Jennifer Fox Bennett
& Istuyee Montez-Bearchild
more to be confirmed…

FOOD

SPECIAL GUEST
Michel Shehadeh

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WHY AN INDIGENOUS DELEGATION? Did you know that the Palestine/Israel border is built by the same company that built the California/Mexico border? There are big differences between the societies in the U.S. and in Palestine but there are also similarities in both struggles. There is the struggle of keeping tradition and culture alive. Cultrural traits relative to both countries such as: traditional dancing, ceremonies and sacred sites are disappearing because of colonization. In both countries there is a huge disregard towards land by the people in power. In the U.S. sacred land is being destroyed and paved for the “necessities” of modern life. Palestinian homes and land are being destroyed to make way for Jewish settlements. By going to Palestine the delegation hopes to show more than just solidarity with the Palestinian people, we want to join the international struggle against imperialism. The delegation is going out to support our Palestinian partners and to learn their ways of resistance. We will bring back these experiences and share with our communities.

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And FOOD! / No drugs no alcohol / Also check out our Film Festival JULY 22: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=123274502952&ref=mf