Windham County Action Network (WeCAN)

"There will be no prison which can hold (a) movement down... The walls, the bars, the guns and the guards can never encircle or hold down the idea of the people."
Huey P. Newton

This weekend's Marches across the world were inspiring and beautiful; to acknowledge that we would like to feature some of your personal pictures and/or quotes in next week's email. Please send your thoughts and images to [email protected] by Friday, March 30th, 2018 at 10pm. Thank you! 

HAPPENING TODAY SUNDAY, MARCH 25th, 2018

Film Screening: “Mirrors of Privilege”, Part of the Looking Inward at White Power and Privilege Film Series 
sponsored by All Souls Church Social and Environmental Action Committee
Sunday, March 25th, 2018 at All Souls Church (29 South Street, West Brattleboro, VT). Screening begins at 12pm. 
Viewers are invited to come early to enjoy a simple free lunch. All shows in the series are free and open to the public. After the film viewers will be invited to share their thoughts and reactions.
All Souls Church will continue its film series “Looking Inward at White Power and Privilege” with a screening of “Mirrors of Privilege” on Sunday, March 25, at noon, proceeded by a simple lunch. This film was originally scheduled for February, but the event was cancelled because of weather.
The film’s full title is “Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible” and is produced by World Trust. It will be the third in the continuing series presented at West Village Meeting House at 29 South Street in West Brattleboro and will be followed by a discussion. There is no admission charge for the film or for the light lunch that precedes it.
According to World Trust, the film is designed to help bridge the gap between good intentions and meaningful change.  The film features stories from white men and women on overcoming issues of unconscious racism and entitlement. These reveal what is often required to move through the stages of denial, defensiveness, guilt, fear, and shame into making a solid commitment to ending racial injustice, according to World Trust
In its description of the film, World Trust writes, "After many years of doing diversity work, we recognized that an unhelpful pattern often emerged in the learning environment. In a typical workshop, people of color were asked to share their stories. The people of color in the seminar had a lot to say and a need to be heard and understood.  White people were usually overwhelmed by what was shared, and moved into guilt, shame or denial.  That left the people of color vulnerable to judgment or rejection by the white participants. People of color often ended up being the source of  'the problem' without any real learning taking place.  An unintended consequence, this pattern blocked healing and reinforced the fracture that racial misunderstanding causes all too frequently.
"It was clear that to enable participants to move beyond historical and contemporary understanding about race, that pattern needed to change and different tools were needed.  This film is designed to support a new, more effective dynamic of learning and healing between racial groups.” As the name suggests, “Mirrors of Privilege” focuses on white people to allow them to find their own voice and then reflect on how they may view the racial world. 
World Trust, according to its website, offers Racial Equity Learning modules that support transformative learning while promoting institutional change through opportunities for self-discovery and collaboration that lends itself toward collective action. The film series is sponsored by the All Souls Church Social and Environmental Action Committee. Catie Berg, a committee member, said, "Our exploration arises in part from uncomfortable realizations of systemic racism in hiring practices within the Unitarian Universalist Association. Plus, our nation struggles with the divide that erupted last summer between supporters of white supremacy and supporters of racial justice” most notably in Charlottesville and Boston. “The demonstrations in these and other cities show the challenge our nation faces in dismantling a system of gross inequality with roots nearly 400 years old,” Berg  said. George Carvill, another committee member, said the committee’s idea is to "try to make the invisible visible. The world that white people in this country navigate through every day is paved with presumptions and advantages so common and pervasive that we don’t even see them." The film series is designed to help make these advantages visible, he said. “A privilege for one can be a barrier for another”, he added. “Once visible we can then decide how we use or abuse these privileges and find ways to overcome the barriers they may raise for others.”

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HAPPENING THIS WEEK MONDAY, MARCH 26th, 2018-SUNDAY, APRIL 1st, 2018

Mother Up! Monthly Meet-Up
Monday March 26th, 2018 at KidsPLAYce (20 Elliot St., Brattleboro). 5:30pm-7:30pm.
A simple vegetarian meal and childcare for ages 8 and under will be provided. RSVP helpful, but not required. Contact Abby Mnookin for more info at [email protected].
Mother Up!: Families Rise Up for Climate Action is a project of 350Vermont that brings together families to talk about the tough realities of climate change and to participate in the transition to a healthier and safer world. We'll talk about (and celebrate) the Town Meeting Day Resolution campaign and explore where we are as a climate movement at this moment in time. 

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Climate Change Café: A Presentation on Prosocial Group Facilitation
a project of Post Oil Solutions
Tuesday, March 27th, 2018 at Brooks Memorial Library (224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT 05301). 6pm-8pm. FREE. Light Refreshments Available. For more information please email [email protected].
How do people work together effectively for change? And how do effective groups manage the tension between individual concerns and group concerns? Prosocial addresses these and other questions with well-articulated practices drawn from a collaboration between pioneers in political science and behavioral science.
Presented by local mental health counselor, Charlie Laurel, the Climate Café will examine the applicability of Prosocial to issues that surface in activist groups
Prosocial is a process that applies to fine-tuning or jump-starting groups interested in cooperative change. Prosocial facilitation aids group effectiveness at any stage of group process: formation; organizing; refreshing; conflict resolution, and more. Its methodology can apply generally to overall group performance or specifically to particular points of process. 
Charlie Laurel is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor based in Southern Vermont and a trained Prosocial facilitator. He has also worked for many years as a radical green builder and as a college professor of Human Ecology.

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7 Ways to Stop the Worry Cycle: Strategies for Managing Children with Anxiety in School and Home (A Free Parent Workshop)
sponsored by the Windham Northeast Supervisory Union
Wednesday, March 28th, 2018 at Bellows Falls Middle School (301 School Street, Bellows Falls, VT). 6pm-8pm.
When children and their parents are in the grips of anxiety and worry, it feels overwhelming and mysterious. Anxiety is a very persistent master; when it moves into families, it takes over daily routines, schoolwork, bedtime and recreation. To make matters worse, the things that we do intuitively as adults to help console our anxious children actually make the anxiety stronger. This workshop will discuss concrete strategies parents and educators can use with children and teens for families to handle current anxiety and to prevent the development of anxiety and depression later in life. parents who attend this workshop will receive a free copy of the book Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents, and be invited to participate in follow-up parent engagement workshops at their child's school. Led by Lynn Lyons, LICSW and hosted by Westminster Community Schools. 

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Protest Vigil at TD Bank
sponsored by Post Oil Solutions
Friday, March 30th, 2018 (and every Friday) in front of TD Bank Brattleboro (215 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 12pm-1pm. Signs will be provided.
TD is a major investor in Tar Sands. TD helps to fund the Dakota Access Pipeline. The State of Vermont Keeps Most of Our Cash in TD. What You Can You Do (besides attending the vigils):
If you’re a TD depositor, change banks!
Founded in 2005, Post Oil Solutions is a 501c3 community organizing project in Southeastern Vermont whose mission is to help empower the people of the Central Connecticut River Valley bioregion to develop sustainable, resilient , collaborative, and socially just communities leading to a self- and community-sufficient post petroleum society. For more information please contact [email protected] or 802.869.2141.

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Winter Farmers’ Market
sponsored by Post Oil Solutions
Saturday, March 31st, 2018 (and every Saturday through March) at the Robert H. Gibson River Garden (157 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 10am-2pm. 
Area musicians will perform from 11am-1pm. No pets allowed. Metered parking available within walking distance. Restrooms and cafe seating available on site. Family friendly. 
We are enjoying our 12th Season! Join us every Saturday for vegetables, fruits and meat from local farms, a variety of baked goods, locally and regionally produced artisan crafts, and freshly prepared food in the beautiful River Garden building on Main Street in downtown Brattleboro. 
EBT customers can turn $10 into $20 with CropCash
INFO: contact Market Manager, Sherry Maher, 802.869.2141, [email protected]

UPCOMING EVENTS

Miss Major in Conversation with Green Mountain Crossroads & The Root
hosted by The Root Social Justice Center and Green Mountain Crossroads
Friday, April 6th, 2018. Location TBD (Brattleboro, VT). 5:30pm-7pm. Doors open at 5:00pm. 
Suggested donation is $10-50 at the door, no one turned away. Tickets will be sold at the door, however we are asking folks to register  through the provided link so we can get a relative head count in case we need a bigger space! For more information or to sponsor the event please contact [email protected].
The one and only Miss Major is coming to town! Join Green Mountain Crossroads & The Root Social Justice Center in hosting an evening with the wonderful Miss Major Griffin-Gracy. Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, is a 73-year-old Black transgender woman who has been fighting for the rights of trans women of color for over 40 years. 
Miss Major’s personal story and activism for transgender civil rights, from mobile outreach and AIDS prevention to fighting the prison industrial complex, intersects LGBT struggles for justice and equality from the 1960s to today. She is a veteran of the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion and was incarcerated at Attica months after the 1971 Uprising. Most recently, Miss Major has served as the executive director of the San Francisco-based Transgender Gender Variant Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP), a grassroots organization advocating for trans women of color in and outside of prison that is led by trans women of color. Miss Major’s extraordinary life and personal story is one of resilience and celebration in a community that has been historically traumatized and marginalized. While mainstream gay rights and marriage equality dominate the headlines, Miss Major’s life is a testament to the fierce survivalism and every day concerns of transgender women of color, who so often live in the margin of the already marginalized. (from the press release at missmajorfilm.com) 
We will be showing clips from the incredible documentary, MAJOR! followed by a discussion between Miss Major and members of Green Mountain Crossroads and The Root Social Justice Center, focusing on building rural communities for trans communities and communities of color. 
www.greenmountaincrossroads.org
www.therootsjc.org
houseofggs.org 

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Candlelight Vigil for Democracy Under the “We Celebrate Democracy/Civil Rights For All” Banner
Sponsored by the We Celebrate Democracy Project: Woody Bernhard, Susan Kunhardt and Friends
Sunday, April 8th, 2018 at Pliny Park (Main & High Streets, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 7:25pm (Sunset). Email [email protected] or call (802) 464-3154 for more information. 
The WE CELEBRATE DEMOCRACY/CIVIL RIGHTS FOR ALL banner will be hung for one week over Main Street in Brattleboro beginning early Sunday morning the 8th of April. 
Democracy is the light of the world. But the Dark Force is trying to put it out. Stand up for democracy. Stand with people all around the world who cherish the promise of Democracy. We will gather at Pliny Park and light our candles for Democracy, hold a silent vigil, then listen to  some speeches, sing some songs and finish up around 8:30pm. If you would like to speak or sing a song or two please let us know. In order to stand up to the bullies in our society, we always say at our events: All who attend agree to act nonviolently in word and deed. To donate to "WCD/CRFA", POB 6231, Brattleboro,VT,05301.

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Banner Raising: We Celebrate Democracy/Civil Rights for All
Sunday, April 8th, 2018 at the Intersection of High Street and Main Street in Brattleboro, VT. 8:00am. 
The We Celebrate Democracy/Civil Rights for All banner will be hung for one week over Main Street in Brattleboro beginning early Sunday morning the 8th of April. We are: Woody Bernhard and Susan Kunhardt of Marlboro, Vermont. We are dedicated to positive non-violent public action promoting Democracy and Civil Rights. We are fundraising for an anniversary solo flight of  the "We Celebrate Democracy/Civil Rights For All" banner over Main Street in Brattleboro from Sunday, April 8th, to Sunday the 15th and to hold an anniversary "Light a Candle for Democracy" candle light vigil at Pliny Park, High and Main streets in Brattlleboro, Vermont at 7:25 p.m. (sunset) on April 8th. We need to raise $380:  A $300 hanging fee for the Fire Department to hang the banner, and $80 for permits ($75) and supplies ($5) for the candle light vigil. Please make a small donation. Please join us.
We will be there to watch the banner go up on the morning of April 8th. The fire company hangs main street banners at High & Main streets in Brattleboro, on Sunday mornings at 8 a.m. or a little after. The Works will be open. The vigil later that evening begins at sunset (7:25pm) in Pliny Park, Main and High Streets in Brattleboro Vermont. Bring a candle; we will have some there, too. In order to stand up to the bullies in our society we say at all our events: "All people who attend this event agree to be nonviolent in word and in deed."
This is the anniversary of the first banner raising and "Light a Candle For Democracy" candlelight vigil . We raised funds to have the banner made by Ann Brush of Starksboro Vt. We raised funds to fly the banner over Main Street in Brattleboro in 2017 on April 23rd, June 25, September 3rd and October 8th. We also held a candle light vigil for democracy at Pliny Park on the 23rd of April 2017, and 40 of us marched and carried the banner in the Brattleboro 4th of July parade. It was also up on Martin Luther King Day week, 2018. It will be hung again on Main Street on April 8th, on the week before the 4th of July, on Labor Day and on Columbus Day/Indigenous People's Day. We have made postcards from pictures of supporters holding the banner at the Brattleboro, Marlboro and Putney post offices. The cards are available at the Marlboro and Brattleboro town offices, and at the Brooks Memorial Library.

We Celebrate Democracy / Civil Rights For All banner projects are funded by small local donations. Please make a small donation to "WCD/CRFA", POB 6231, Brattleboro VT, 05302. Any over-funding will be donated to Brattleboro Area Hospice. Since April 2017, we have donated $358 to Hospice. THANK YOU FOR DONATING!

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Incarceration in America: Immigration Detention, Part of the CAPA Symposium

Friday, May 11th – Saturday, May 12th, 2018 at the Center for the Advancement of Public Action (1 College Drive, Bennington, VT, 05201). Free and open to the public. For more information please contact [email protected] or 802-447-4267.
Panel Discussions
-General Trends in Immigration Enforcement
-Immigration Detention and Private Prisons
-Local Government and NGO Involvement

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STANDING REGULAR MEETINGS

Lost River Racial Justice, Black Lives Matter-South, and People Of Color Caucus Regular Meeting

Reoccurring racial justice organizing meetings every 2nd Monday at The Root Social Justice Center (The Whetstone Studio of the Arts, 28 Williams Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301) on the First Floor. 6pm-8pm. Childcare provided. Fragrance & nut free space.  

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Youth4Change Regular Meeting 

The Root Social Justice Center (The Whetstone Studio for the Arts, 28 Williams Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). First Floor. 
Youth4Change (Y4C), a program of The Root Social Justice Center, builds the leadership skills of youth ages 12-21, especially those from/in historically disenfranchised communities who want to use education, art, and action to address issues of racial, class, gender, queer, immigrant and indigenous justice.

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Alternatives to Suicide meets every Wednesday 6pm-7:30PM at the Hive Space (24 Flat St, Suite 202, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). Second Floor, up one flight of stairs.

Alternatives to Suicide is a mutual support group open to anyone who has experienced thoughts of suicide. The group is guided by a charter of values provided by the Western Mass Recovery Learning Community. The group is non-clinical and does not link suicide with illness.  Participants are free to talk about and find meaning in their experiences in/on their own terms. 

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VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

Volunteer Sister District Soup Makers Needed

Volunteer soup chefs provide the time and the ingredients so that 100% of subscription fees went directly to support candidates. We distribute soup on the third Mondays of each month - February 19, March 19, April 16 and May 21.  All soups are vegetarian, dairy free and gluten free. We need cooking volunteers each month during the weekend before distribution Monday. Volunteers receive a simple recipe the weekend before they cook and pick up containers and labels the next Friday.  Soup makers cook in their own kitchens and purchase ingredients which should cost around $20/4 quarts. If you want to cook but can’t cover that expense, we will hook you up with an ingredient sponsor. Once prepared, the soup is delivered cold to our refrigerators in Putney or Brattleboro. From there, it is picked up by subscribers or donated to the Putney Food Shelf according to the subscriber’s instructions. 
You can sign up to make soup as many months as you want. If you would like to cook or have questions, please email Diane Shamas at [email protected] or call 802-579-8294.  We will need to know which months you’d like to cook, whether you’d like to make a single (4-5 quart) or double (8-10 quart) batch, and whether you want to pick up/drop off in Brattleboro or Putney. 
A Little About Southern VT Sister District: Subscriptions to our SisterDistrict Soup CSA raised $10,000 for progressive Democrats in strategic races! We helped elect two fine candidates, John Bell and Jennifer Foye, to the Virginia House of Delegates and our third candidate, Margaret Good, is running for Florida's House of Representatives on February 13, 2018. Read more about her here. Many many thanks to all of you who’ve cooked so far and donated the soup that makes it possible!!!

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Inclusion Center is Looking for People Who are Interested in Helping our Organization Grow and Mature in Various Directions
Inclusion Center is an amazing program that works with all people who have disabilities or medical issues, and everyone else who has an interest in being with us. 
The possibilities for what Inclusion Center could be in the future are endless: A drop in center within another program! Have our own space with our doors always open. Offer classes. Offer services as well as being a drop in center! And those are just a few of our ideas! 
However, in order for us to grow, we need a few more people who can either come to our board meetings (the second friday of each month at 2:00), or come to a work group each month (generally Friday mornings). 
At Inclusion Center we all matter. Everyone helps make decisions. It doesn't matter if you want to join the board or just drop in as often as you can. Either way, your ideas and input matter just as much as everyone else's.
Please contact us ([email protected] or 802-387-5285) to discuss how we could work together. 

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ONGOING EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMING 

Indigo Radio
Sundays at 12pm on Brattleboro Community Radio 107.7FM
To stream live: Visit www.wvew.org 
Indigo Radio, deepening understanding and making connections! IndigoRadio is a group of area educators seeking to learn through engaging with others in our community and throughout the world. We will be talking about educational and social issues both globally and locally and connecting them to our lives and Brattleboro community. Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/indigoradiowvew/. For archive recordings of past shows: https://soundcloud.com/user-654648353

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Democracy, Eventually 

WVEW 107.7FM, Brattleboro Community Radio Station
You can listen to recorded and archived episodes here: https://soundcloud.com/democracy-eventually and you can find us on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/democracyeventually/ and on Twitter here @Democrazeee.
We are Democracy, Eventually a radio show covering local, state, and underreported national news stories from a progressive analysis. We air live on WVEW 107.7FM LP Brattleboro Community Radio Station.

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And, finally, a request from fellow WeCANer Mary Ellen Copeland:
"Is there a way we can have a one of these events (https://www.trumpisnotabovethelaw.org/event/mueller-firing-rapid-response/search/?akid=201755.1246193.TdDRBo&rd=1&source-mo=&t=13) in Brattleboro?  I personally am older and can’t do it.  I am really hoping there are some people who can."
There is currently an event listed for Putney, VT; if/when an event is planned please be sure to email the details to [email protected]! Thank you and have a fantastic week.

Ann, Joanna, and Leslie