World Issues Forum "Women and Children: Living the Travesty of War"

Fairhaven College Auditorium Wednesday,
January 16, 2008 Noon - 1:30pm
FREE
Living as a refugee in Jordan, Nadia was recently sponsored to come to the U.S. She is working to raise awareness about the refugee situation and, with film, especially address the impact on women and children.

Nadia left Iraq in 2001 to live in Jordan as a refugee with her two daughters. Not able to get a work permit, she volunteered as a social worker and started working with Palestinian refugees in Jordan; and after 2003, with Iraqi refugees. She is currently working to raise awareness about the situation of Iraqis in Jordon and the neighboring countries; and has started small projects to help children injured in the war, to get resources for education and families living in poverty.
For more information: http://www.wwu.edu/depts/fairhaven

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10th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Conference Whatcom Community College Syre Center Saturday, January 19, 2008 9:30am - 6pm FREE and Open to ALL 2008 will mark the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In honor of his work and in commemoration of his passing, the Whatcom Human Rights Task Force, along with co-sponsor Whatcom Community College and many others, are pleased to present the 10th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Human Rights Conference. The event, marking a decade of community education and activism, will be held at Whatcom Community College’s Syre Center. The theme for this year’s conference is “Breaking the Silence” and was inspired by Dr. King’s pivotal speech “A Time to Break Silence”, which was written in collaboration with this year’s keynote speaker, Dr. Vincent Harding. Registration begins at 9:30AM, with the opening ceremony and keynote address at 10AM. Over 25 Workshops for youth, educators, and community members will run throughout the day. The conference is FREE and open to all! Accommodations include childcare for those 2 years and older (pre-registration required), parking and light refreshments Sign language interpreters will be available. MORE INFORMATION ON OUR CONFERENCE PAGE

Bellingham City Hall MLK Celebration

Bellingham City Hall
Monday, January 21, 2008
12 Noon
Free

The City of Bellingham will host it's annual hour-long celebration of Dr. King's life on the Monday holiday. The event will feature annual emcee Clyde Ford, keynote speaker Dr. Vincent Harding, and a performance by our local 80-member choir Kulshan Chorus. This event is co-sponsored in part by the Whatcom Peace & Justice Center and the Whatcom Human Rights Task Force.

For more information: city hall site

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World Issues Forum "King's World Vision and Ours" with Dr. Vincent Harding

Fairhaven College Auditorium
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Noon - 1:30pm
FREE .

Dr. Harding worked closely with Martin Luther King, Jr., and as an influential leader of the civil rights and broader freedom movements, helped establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Congress of Racial Equality. Dr. Harding has had a distinguished career as a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, Spellman College, and Temple University, among others. Dr. Harding currently serves as co-chair of the Veterans of Hope Project, located at the Iliff school of Theology in Denver, where he also holds the position of Vice President of Institutional Transformation. Dr. Harding is the author of over a dozen volumes on African American History and the Civil Rights Movement, including There Is a River: The Black Struggle for Freedom in America and We Must Keep Going: Martin Luther King and the Future of America.

For more information: http://www.wwu.edu/depts/fairhaven

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WHRTF is interested in supporting educators and students who are trying to integrate human rights and multicultural education into the classroom. If you are interested in learning more about available resources, please contact WHRTF at whrtf@whrtf.org or 733-2233

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United for National Health Care Meeting

Laborer's Hall, downstairs,
1700 N. State St, Bellingham
Thursday, January 24, 2008  - 7pm
360-714-8999

All concerned citizens are invited to attend a meeting and educational program supporting health care as a basic human right.

For more information: contact Aileen Satushek 398-2295

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World Issues Forum "Stripped Naked: Divesting the Nation of the Racial Body in the Zuit Suit Wars of 1943" with Lisa Flores, Associate Professor in Communication at the University of Colorado, Boulder

Fairhaven College Auditorium
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Noon - 1:30pm
FREE
Approximately 15 years after the Mexican immigration wave of the late 1920s, the children of these immigrants were entering their teenage years. Growing up amidst the economic deprivations and the nativism of the Great Depression, many of these young adults began identifying with a street culture and came to be known as pachucos. It is around the figure of the pachuco or the zoot suiter that one of the largest race riots in U.S. history occurs. Flores argue that the race riots of 1943 emerge out of Mexican American youth’s “crimes of visibility,” and that the riots serve as a disciplinary function designed to restore rhetorical order to the nation.

For more information: fairhven college

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World Issues Forum "Ideal Femininity Changes Color: J Lo as the New Superwoman" with Lisa Flores, Associate Professor in Communication at the University of Colorado, Boulder

WWU Arntzen Hall 17
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
2:30pm
FREE .

Amidst the media flurry surrounding Jennifer Lopez and her well-publicized physical assets lies another persistent and perhaps surprising narrative. In several of her feature films, including Maid in Manhattan, Shall We Dance, and The Wedding Planner, Jennifer Lopez emerges as every man’s dream. The negotiations of gender and race that facilitate this narrative rely upon an all-too-familiar public fear, that feminism is destroying the very fabric of life.

For more information: fairhaven college site

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WHRTF eNews Submission Guidelines Any nonprofit organization or community member in the Bellingham/Seattle area may submit info on upcoming events related to Human Rights advocacy, education, legislation, activism, and outreach. Only those events pertaining to human rights issues will be listed in the WHRTF eNewsletter. Submissions may be e-mailed to Willow Rudiger atwhrtf@whrtf.org and should include relevant time, date, location, brief description, and contact information. They should be limited to 100 words, and may be edited for length.

Thank you for reading!

Willow Rudiger
AmeriCorps VISTA Whatcom Human Rights Task Force
Office: 360.733.2233
www.myspace.com/whrtf

The Whatcom Human Rights Task Force works to ensure an individual's right to be treated with dignity and to live without fear of violence, intimidation, or discrimination based on group identification or personal characteristics. Such groups include, but are not limited to: race, ethnicity, gender, national origin, sexual orientation (gender expression/identity), religion, age, class, disability, veteran/military status, political opinion or other arbitrarily assigned status. We envision Whatcom County as a diverse and compassionate community where every person enjoys equal justice and opportunity.

"Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." ~Margaret Mead