I swear...

A little piece of me just died. The owners of Parkway Speakeasy Theater are pulling the plug this Sunday, March 22, 2009.

http://www.parkway-speakeasy.com/

You've been one of the reasons why I love Oakland... I feel like someone just ripped out my heart, dragged it across shards of glass, and threw it against a wall.

I know I'm being melodramatic... but this is how distressed i am. WHY?!?!

Because there's too much to say about how AMAZING this theater was to me, I will sum up my experiences with a haiku as my euology:

An eclectic crowd

chilling on couches with beer

watching cheap movies

I am thankful to experience you while I could... R.I.P Parkway.

Spread the word. Join the movement.

March 3 through 5, 2009

Mills College and the Global Fund for Women are sponsoring the Transnational Feminist Studies Project to stimulate public interest and debates in feminist theory and practice related to militarism, peace, and security, politics and democratization, sexual politics and reproductive rights, and women’s movements internationally. Feminist activists, scholars and members of the Bay Area community will be invited to participate in public outreach programs, community discussion forums, and skill-building exchanges that will bring together activists from key women’s movements around the world.

The Transnational Feminist Studies Project will be launched during March 3 through March 5th, with a focus on militarism and gender. International scholars, activists and film makers from Africa, Asia and the U.S. will address the challenges posed by the dominance of militarism in the world today through a series of roundtable discussions, panels, film screenings, and working meetings during which the visiting scholars and activists will dialogue on setting feminist agendas for scholarship and activism. The week will culminate in a public film screening of the award-winning film about the Liberian women’s struggle for peace, *Pray the Devil Back to Hell, f*ollowed by a panel discussion with the film’s producer and key activists from Africa’s conflict zones.

Convener: Dr. Amina Mama, Barbara Lee Distinguished Chair in Women’s Leadership, Mills College

Co-Hosts:*
• Dr. Janet L. Holmgren, President, Mills College
• Ms. Kavita N. Ramdas, President and CEO, Global Fund for Women *

Honorary Committee:
• Ms. Charlotte Bunch
• Professor Angela Davis
• Congresswoman Barbara Lee
• Ms. Laurene Powell-Jobs

PUBLIC EVENTS PROGRAM:

*Tuesday, March 3, 2009 * * Venue: Lisser Hall*
6:30-7.00 p.m.
*Fashioning Resistance: A Cultural Show *
Performance art piece, presented by Mills students
Mills students display their ingenuity and creativity in a fashion extravaganza that highlights the pervasiveness of militarism in popular styles and cultures.

7:00-9:00 p.m.
*Roundtable Discussion and Public Conversation*
“Challenging Militarism: Transnational Feminist Activism and Scholarship”

‘Global Development and Human Security’
*Funmi Olonisakin,* Director of the Conflict, Security and Development Group at Kings College, London, author of the book Global Development and Human Security accomplished international scholar and policy activist

‘Researching and Documenting the Lives of Women during Armed Conflict’
*Ruth Ojiambo Ochieng,* Executive Director of ISIS-WICCE, the Kampala-based international feminist network will discuss the use activist-research strategies to document and heal women in the war zones of Northern Uganda and Liberia

‘US Bases and Women’s Resistance’
*You Kyoung Ko*, Anti-militarist activist, Executive Director, Seoul-based National Campaign against Crime by US Troops, discusses the situation in Korea and the faces of US presence in East Asia

‘The Global Import of US Militarism’
Catherine Lutz, Professor, Brown University and author of Homefront: A Military City and the American Twentieth Century, shares thoughts on the local and international dynamics of US militarism and the implications for democratization
Moderated by Dr. Margo Okazawa-Rey, Professor, Fielding Graduate University and one of the founding members of the International Network of Women Against Militarism

Thursday, March 5, 2009 Venue: Concert Hall
Oakland Film Screening *Pray the Devil Back to Hell*, an award-winning documentary about the Liberian Women’s Peace Movement

6:00 p.m. Welcome
President Janet Holmgren, Mills College
Ms. Kavita N. Ramdas, Global Fund for Women
Representative from Congresswoman Barbara Lee’s Office

6:30 p.m.—Film Screening: “Pray the Devil Back to Hell”

8:00 p.m.-8:45 p.m.—Panel Discussion with filmmaker and activists from the Africa region moderated by Dr. Amina Mama:
Abigail Disney, Producer
Yasmin Jusu-Sheriff, Human Rights Commissioner, Sierra Leone
Rose Mensah-Kutin, Regional Director ABANTU ROWA, Ghana

For more information, see http://www.mills.edu/academics/undergraduate/eths/transnational.php. If you are interested in attending the closed working meeting (not listed here) please contact Margo Okazawa-Rey at mor@sfsu.edu.

A word spoken...

Oscar Grant. Murdered by a Bart Police Officer on New Years Day.
One of the most tragic events that went down while living in Oakland.
Choppers still circling around our neighborhood since 5 pm.
It's 10:30 pm.
Protesters and angry people smashing windows and lighting trash cans and dumpsters on fire.
This is how angry the people are.
People chanting, "We are Oscar Grant" lying in the middle of the intersection just the way Oscar had layed face down right before the cold iron pumped into his lung.
How did this happen? How did the officer mistake his gun for a tazer?

I went to the Fruitvale Bart Station at 4:20 pm to pay my respects and to stand in solidarity for all the innocent victims killed and abused by the police.
I stood watching seeing familiar faces of activists worn out by the endless amount of injustice that pours into the city of Oakland.
Young students of color holding banners of their artistic cry to stop police brutality:
"PIGS WILL PAY! PIGS WILL PAY!"
The old gather hugging each other  to hold on to the last comfort they can afford as they've witnessed and experienced a hundred injustices in their lives.
"Hello my brother. How are you doing?"
I wish I could've stayed longer. But my fear of getting ticketed after being parked for more than 12 minutes on the green curb pulled me away from a crowd that stood in confusion and disbelief.
As I hear the last words of a woman speaker about the reality of there being more black men in prisons than there are in college, I break away and walk toward my car.
"Is there a ticket on my window? Oh God, thank God there isn't... Wait, should I feel guilty for moving on so quickly?"

I drive.
I presume my grocery shopping, scavenging for the best deals. I come home

"What in the world?"
Five helicopters perched above and near my neighborhood.
Blue and red flashing beyond a distance.
I rush upstairs passing neighbors who are looking up and just as confused.
I turn on the t.v.
"We are witnessing a group of protesters marching down the Oakland streets from the Fruitvale Bart station..."
"Damn! I should've stayed!"
Five minutes later, live on screen I watch as protesters start furiously shaking the parked police car. A dumpster rolls near with a huge fire inside.
"Maybe it was a safe idea to come home."
Cops bust out all their reinforcement to shield themselves from the truth about institutional injustices that started this mess. This mess that began long before Oscar Grant was murdered.

I saw glued to the tv and hating myself for being safe.
Safe from the physical danger of being beat with a baton by police officers or being intoxicated by the tear gases that was shot at the people who are advocating for truth and justice.

Did my green curb really save me from danger though?
I can't help but wonder what will come of me if I continue to choose a safe path only to protect myself like the police officers who sustain institutions like the prison industrial complex.