Code Pink Journals CodePINK Journals

Work 4 Peace,Hold All Life Sacred,Eliminate Violence! I am on my mobile version of the door-to-door, going town-to-town holding readings/gatherings/discussions of my book "But What Can I Do?" This is my often neglected blog mostly about my travels since 9/11 as I engage in dialogue and actions. It is steaming with my opinions, insights, analyses toward that end of holding all life sacred, dismantling the empire and eliminating violence while creating the society we want ALL to thrive in

Sunday, March 07, 2010

IWD Feast, Facts, Festival Report Back and THANK YOU!

Marvelous Angela took and put up photos here: (you might have to copy and paste if the link doesn’t work!) http://www.photoshow.com/watch/HQ5Kk4Nw - check out her website at grifinphotos.intuitwebsites.com

Oh behalf of Roke Noir, CodePINK, and the amazing womyn of our community, we want to extend our deepest, heart-felt THANK YOU to everyone who helped organize, who participated, who worked, who gave so much so we could have such an inspiring, awesome International Women’s Day Feast, Facts and Festival!

Womyn came from as far away as Cotati, Santa Cruz, and Chico and as close as around the corner from the hall. There were babies, crones, youth and mavens.

We began with a drumming and singing circle where womyn shared songs and stories from their ancestors. Then we marched down Fruitvale Ave to MacArthur and continued until Coolidge and the church hall. People honked, waved, joined us, and took our flyers!

At the hall, we sang, we danced, we performed, we sat and listened, we stood and shared, we ate, we schmoozed, we laughed.

At the risk of leaving anyone out – there are so many who contributed – we want to also THANK these womyn for making this grassroots production so real:

Genny & Yolanda translated our flyers into Spanish – THANK YOU!

Laurel created an amazing banner – THANK YOU!

Food Not Bombs donated scrumptious food, Celia contributed meat & meat-less lasagna and lemon squares, Jane made her veggie chilli, Sousan brought potato salad, Bernice home-made dips, and many others contributed food too -= THANK YOU!

Bernice and Celia did a remarkable job staffing the kitchen and the buffet, getting & keeping the food organized, heated, put out for all – THANK YOU!

Celia and Bridget put up banners and posters to make sure no one got lost and everyone could find the church hall – THANK YOU!

Bridget, Susan & Leeza did a fine job at the door welcoming folks, soliciting donations, and giving directions to make things run so smoothly – THANK YOU!

Vylma, Sandra, Wendy got us off to a fabulous and inspiring start, leading the drumming & singing circle, along with several other womyn from the neighborhood – THANK YOU!

Lola from KPFA and Soul from Berkeley Liberation Radio documented our Festival for the airwaves!

Angela documented our Festival with her pictures capturing many rousing moments – THANK YOU

Shazam provided all the sound, high tech knowledge (which we severely lack…) and support, as well as the equipment that enabled all our 23 performers to SHINE their best – THANK YOU!

Jennifer, Grace and Annie washed many dishes, pots & pans, helping us cut severely back on garbage, and maintain our green event – THANK YOU!

Alex and Dara did a wonderful job cleaning up, especially staying late and mopping the huge hall floor – THANK YOU

FVPC (Fruitvale Presbyterian Church) provided this huge, grand space for us in support of International Women’s Day – THANK YOU!

Wonderful womyn of Fruitvale neighborhood who welcomed the rest of us so excitedly and graciously to their part of town – THANK YOU!

The many organizations that sent information and folks to staff the tables and inform the rest of us at our Circles of Interest, including Oxfam, OLOC (Old Lesbians Organizing for Change), Health thru Art, Black Women’s Media Project, Mourning Mothers of Iran, Haiti Action Committee, Crescent Diamond & Heretics

And the SOUL of our Festival, the womyn willing to stand before us and share their insights, their talents, their mighty strengths, we so THANK YOU!

In order of appearance (sort of…):

Crescent Diamond, producer, presented a trailer of the movie “Heretics”, which will be premiering at the Roxie April 11th as part of the SF Women’s Film Festival – THANK YOU!

Roke performed an inspirational piece – THANK YOU!

Jennifer Haltz, lesbian sufi and muslim priest, sang as she played images of womyn from around the world – THANK YOU!

Dolores Helman tap danced and sang a “NO DRONES” she re-wrote the words for – THANK YOU!

Lotus performed a poem with Andrea backing her up – THANK YOU!

Lea Arellano performed a spoken word piece including song – THANK YOU!

Liza Smith sang and played the guitar – THANK YOU!

Sousan Ehteshami performed a poem she wrote and sang with Shazam accompanying her – THANK YOU!

Andrea Pritchett sang a song she wrote and played the guitar – THANK YOU!

Sharnistha Majumdar performed a funny and fierce spoken word piece – THANK YOU!

Shazam performed a song she also wrote, and backed up many others – THANK YOU!

Karen Broder shared a prose piece on nursing homes – THANK YOU!

Erica and Tina from IMPACT gave a self-defense demonstration – THANK YOU!

Dara Dixon sang a Sweet Honey song acapella – THANK YOU!

Terry Baum, Crackpot Crone, did a serious comedy performance piece – THANK YOU!

Irina and Rebecca performed a song written by Irina – THANK YOU!

Beverly and Christie did a Flamenco Sisters dance – THANK YOU!

Karen Soo Hoo belted out the blues – THANK YOU!

Gabby read a piece she wrote about her journey to become pregnant – THANK YOU!

Zoe and Citabra performed a lovely steamin’ ballroom dance – THANK YOU!

See ya’ll next year!

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home