April15th: Operation Ghetto Storm, a report on the killing of Black people in the US. The War on Obesity: is it a war on women's bodies?.

Report on the Extrajudicial Killing of Black People in the US

In this segment, we discuss Operation Ghetto Storm: The Extrajudicial Killing of 313 Black People by U.S. Police, Security or Vigilantes in 2012, with Arlene Eisen of the Malcolm X Solidarity Committee.The corporate media have given very little attention to these extrajudicial killings. We call them “extrajudicial” because they happen without trial or any due process, against all international law and human rights conventions. Click here to download entire report.

Listen now or Get MP3 21:54 min.

Fabulous to be Fat and the Fairy Tale of Weight Loss. Fat Activists Speak Out.

Virgie Tovar, author of Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion and Jen Larsen, author of Stranger Here (how weight loss surgery transformed my body and messed with my head), talk about how the War On Obesity is really an undeclared war on Women's Bodies and how we can resist.

Listen now or Get MP3 30:08 min.

TONIGHT-Berkeley, CA: Angela Davis

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April 17, 2013

An Evening with

ANGELA DAVIS

In Commemoration of Palestinian Prisoner’s Day
Wednesday, April 17, 7pm
First Congregational Church of Berkeley
2345 Channing Way, at Dana
Just a 15 minute walk from Downtown Berkeley Bart

Introduced by Palestinian journalist from Dheisheh Refugee Camp,
Ziad Abbas, who will speak about Palestinian children prisoners 

Join and share the Facebook event!

Get your tickets now! This event could sell out!
$15 general, $10 low income

OR order directly from MECA:
Mail a check for however many tickets you would like to: Attn: Sue, MECA, 1101 8th Street, Berkeley CA 94710, along with a SASE and your phone number -- or come into our offices to buy tickets directly from Sue, 9am-noon weekdays.
You can also email her for info

$15 tickets also available (no service charge!) at these bookstores:
(East Bay) Books, Inc./Berkeley, Marcus Books, Pegasus/Solano, Pegasus/Shattuck, Walden Pond, Moe's, Diesel; (SF) Modern Times. 

Angela Davis co-founded Critical Resistance, taught the History of Consciousness, directed Feminist Studies, ran for Vice-President twice, and wrote many excellent books -- including Women, Race and Class and Abolition Democracy: Beyond Prisons, Torture, and Empire.

Now she is celebrating the release of her new book, The Meaning of Freedom and Other Difficult Dialogues. Angela will sign books after the event. 

This event benefits MECA's work with Palestinian children.

In 2011, she traveled on a women of color delegation to Palestine, which later issued a call for divestment from Israel. In 2012 she particpated in the Russell Tribunal on Palestine in New York City.

"Herbert Marcuse taught me that it was possible to be an academic, an activist, a scholar, and a revolutionary." --Angela Davis

"Davis' arguments for justice are formidable...The power of her historical insights and the sweetness of her dream cannot be denied." -- New York Times

Cosponsored by: KPFA, Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies/SF State University, Critical Resistance/Oakland, Arab Film Festival, Arab Resource and Organizing Center, Al-Awda, Justice Now, US Palestinian Community Network, Palestinian Youth Movement, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, California Coalition for Women Prisoners, Freedom Archives, All of Us or None, Jewish Voice for Peace, Bay Area Women in Black, San Francisco Women in Black, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Shomer Shalom Network for Jewish Nonviolence, Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism, National Lawyers Guild.

Click here to listen to the entire show. 59:50 min.

April 1st: Focus on Emerging Writers

FAST TIMES IN PALESTINE 

• Pamela Olson discusses her new memoir Fast Times in Palestine: A Love Affair with a Homeless Homeland. An East Oklahoma girl, Olson stumbled into Palestine and ended up staying for two years and becoming the press coordinator for a presidential candidate.

• Click here for official schedule for Pamela's spring 2013 book tour. She’d love to see you along the way! Please feel free to let others know about events they might like to attend. Get in touch if you have questions: pamolson@gmail.com. 
• www.pamelaolson.org

Listen now or Get MP3 29:28 min.

PERLA

• Carolina de Robertis talks with Nina Serrano and reads from her novel, Perla, which explores the legacy of Argentina's "dirty war" through one of the "stolen children" of the disappeared.
• De Robertis grew up in a Uruguayan family that immigrated to England, Switzerland, and California. Prior to completing her first book, she worked in women’s rights organizations for ten years, on issues ranging from rape to immigration. She makes her permanent home in Oakland, California, though she is spending 2013 in Montevideo, where she’s working on her third novel, about migration, sexual frontiers, and the tango’s Old Guard in early twentieth century South America.
• Carolina asked you to buy her book at your local independent bookstore.
• www.carolinaderobertis.com

 This piece was produced by Nina Serrano from La Raza Chronicles/Cronica de la Raza

Listen now or Get MP3 18:35 min.

Click here to listen to the entire show. 59:50 min.

March 25, 2013: Focus on Film

"Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years"

Dagmar Schultz and Ika Hügel-Marshall discuss their film "Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years" with Paola Bacchetta.  This unique film documents the time that Black feminist icon Audre Lorde spent in Berlin between 1984 and 1992.  Her presence there helped to build a community of Afro-German women.  She also challenged white feminists to acknowledge the significance of their white privilege and to deal with difference in constructive ways.  The film will screen at Oakland's Parkway Theater on March 31.

Ika Hügel-Marshall discusses her experiences growing up as the daughter of a white German woman and an African-American man after World War II in Germany. Dagmar Schultz reads from Hügel-Marshall’s book, Invisible Woman-Growing up Black in Germany.  Get MP3. 32:30 min.

"Pink Smoke Over the Vatican"

Jules Hart

Jules Hart directed and produced the award-winning film "Pink Smoke Over the Vatican," which chronicles the struggle of women for ordination in the Catholic church.  During the recent conclave in Rome, the Women's Ordination Conference released pink smoke as they had done in 2005, to dramatize their demands for inclusion. Get MP3. 20:07 min.


Ordain a Lady music video from YouTube

Listen to entire show.  59:51 min.

March 18th: Women's Magazine: Aging Women, Housing Rights & Domestic Violence

"How we treat people in this country--it's shameful." Rose Aguilar

The connections between domestic abuse and homelessness, issues that are increasingly affecting an aging population of women in San Francisco and the greater Bay Area, and leaving some women sleeping in plastic chairs. Do we have a real quest to invest in affordable housing in San Francisco? Or is City Hall too focused on tax breaks for new downtown businesses inviting higher rents? What are our priorities as we move forward as a City and as a nation?

 Rose Aguilar talks about older homeless women in San Francisco.

• Valerie Ibarra of Mutiny Radio interviews Rose Aguilar - Host of "Your Call" on KALW 91.7, author of "Old, Female and Homeless" in The Nation, February 13th. There are 19,000 older adults living below the poverty line in San Francisco. There is not enough affordable housing and the problem is getting worse. According to the Coalition on Homelessness, there are over 40,000 homeless seniors in this country. The amount of money spent on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in one month could house everyone in this country for a year. These are just a couple of astonishing facts presented in this segment with Rose Aguilar. She gives an up close and personal perspective of what it's like to be on the streets of San Francisco, how easily it can happen, what is being done about it and the huge challenge of fixing the ever-growing tragedy of homelessness.
• Resources for homeless people: St. Anthony's feeds, houses, clothes and provides other services. Mission Neighborhood Health Center offers health care, laundry services, showers and Ladies Night every Thursday. A Woman's Place, formerly OSHUN emergency shelter for women.

Listen now or Get MP3 21:53 min.

 One of the leading causes of homelessness is domestic violence.

• Lindsay Sweetnam, Community Programs Director of La Casa de las Madres, talks about La Casa, which provides a range of domestic violence services in San Francisco.

• La Casa de las Madres was founded in 1976 by a group of women who were survivors of domestic violence. It houses 35 women and children every night for up to 8 weeks in a safe, supportive, non-judgmental environment. La Casa provides many other services including counseling, support groups, education, legal support, referrals, and case management. They have two advocates working with the police at 850 Bryant and run 24 hour hot lines for help with domestic violence issues, including a hotline for teens.

• 24-hour hotline: 877-503-1850.
• 24-hour hotline for teens: 877-923-0700.

Listen now or Get MP3 34:58 min.

Click here to listen to entire show. 59:51 min.

March 11, 2013: Special International Women's Day Edition

 On this exciting edition of Women's Magazine:

• URGENT ACTION FUND FOR WOMEN'S HUMAN RIGHTS

“We need students, we need housewives, we need professional people, we need high profile people like religious leaders and actors, and singers and musicians, to all speak out in one voice against violence against women. One Billion Rising provides us with that opportunity.” – Sunila Abeysekera 

www.urgentactionfund.org

Kate Raphael speaks with Kate Kroeger, executive director of the Urgent Action Fund for Women's Human Rights, which provides funding to grassroots women's organizations in the Global South on an emergency basis, responding to applications in any language within 72 hours.

• LABYRIS, the LGBT organization in Kyrgyzstan

 Anna Kirei, cofounder of Labyris, the LGBT organization in Kyrgyzstan, discusses the queer and feminist movements in the former Soviet Union and especially in Central Asia.  She also talks about the commercialization of International Women's Day in the Soviet Union.

Click here to listen to this segment. 27:20 min.

or Get MP3

• Rally to save City College, Thursday, March 14, 2013 at 4:00 PM in front of City Hall, San Francisco. More info at www.saveccsf.org

•  Workers at Walmart organize for respect, better wages and affordable healthcare.

And in keeping with the labor origins of International Women's Day as International Working Women's Day, also hear from Venanzi Luna of OURWalmart about the ongoing struggle for justice at the nation's largest private employer.



Listen now. 20:47 min.

or Get MP3

• Register now for the 6th Annual Bay Area Arab Women's Conference. $15 for students, $25 general admissions. Registration fee includes lunch.

Click to listen to the entire show and to hear about other fabulous events for Women's History Month. 59:51 min.

February 11, 2013: Raising Women's Voices

Today we look at four women-led media projects

First up, we hear from three recipients of the 2012 Media Equity Collaborative awards, and from the founder of the collaborative, Ariel Dougherty.

• Susana Morris, member of Crunk Feminist Collective, which "aims to articulate a crunk feminist consciousness for women and men of color, who came of age in the Hip Hop Generation."
• Angela Tucker, producer of the hugely popular web TV series, Black Folks Don't.
• Kellia Ramares-Watson, investigative journalist, working on a project on how Big Pharma and government institutions are combining to push psychiatric drugs.

Listen to the interview (22:13):



or Get MP3.

Support Media Equity Collaborative.

Sauda Burch and Xochipala Maes Valdez are the coeditors of Road to Ife, a multimedia journal of spirituality and activism.  Ifa is an ancient spiritual tradition from West Africa, that traveled to the Americas with the slaves.  It evolved differently in every community, and has practitioners all over the world.  With this new venture, initiates, writers and artists Burch and Valdez strive to address the needs of Ifa practitioners and connect with practitioners of other earth-centered traditions.

Listen now (25:44):


or Get MP3.

Two weeks ago, over 400 people from all over California marched and rallied at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla.  Family members and friends of incarcerated women along with social justice activists from every community came together to protest the overcrowding and mistreatment of women being squeezed into even more crowded conditions as Valley State Women's Prison is being converted to a men's prison.  Governor Jerry Brown says the crisis over overcrowding and inadequate health care in California's prison system is over, but those with first-hand knowledge of the conditions for women disagree.

Listen now (5:55):


or Get MP3.

Listen to the entire show, including information about Thursday's One Billion Rising events.

Break the Chains: Forty Years After Roe v. Wade

Global Val speaks with Mona Lisa Wallace, a civil rights and environmental justice attorney and president of San Francisco NOW, and Rose Aguilar, host of the daily call-in show Your Call on KALW 91.7. We discuss the state of women's rights in our country 40 years after the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States. We'll also be reporting on Eve Ensler's V-DAY (Feb. 14th) campaign this year called "One Billion Rising" which encourages people to Strike!Dance!Rise! and demand an end to violence against women around the world. The number is based on a United Nations study showing that 1 in 3 women on our planet will be raped or beaten in her lifetime.

Listen now:


or Download the show.

Join us for the East Bay celebration of One Billion Rising. Night for the One Billion is a performance ritual featuring Bay Area artists and healers. 7:00 to 9:00pm at the First Presbyterian Church, 2619 Broadway Street Oakland. Thank you all for those who have signed up to volunteer. We no longer need volunteers for the event.

Bay Area Rising--performers, ritualists, and advocates for women and girls--are offering a community-based performance ritual as an accumulation of energy and joy after a day of actions with One Billion Rising. Join Holly Near, Jennifer Berezan, Destiny Arts, Fat Chance Belly Dance, Dance Brigade, Grrl Brigade, Gina Breedlove, Afia Walking Tree, Mona de Vestel, Shelley Doty, Arisika Razak, Richelle Donigan, Eve Decker, Youth Speaks, Luisah Teish, Hand to Hand, and Chhoti Maa for an evening of beauty, community, and holding the collective consciousness for a violence-free planet.

Tickets purchased via Brown Paper Tickets are sliding scale $20-50. 100% of proceeds go to IDEX women’s projects around the world http://www.idex.org/ and local organizations serving women and girls. First Presbyterian Church, 2619 Broadway Street Oakland. A social justice community.

For more information and/or Volunteer: www.bayarearising.org
To purchase tickets to the event, please visit: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/312857
To donate, please go to: http://www.razoo.com/story/Bay-Area-Rising?referral_code=share

The United Nations has declared that one billion women on the planet have suffered gender violence. Join 1 billion rising activities on February 14th. Be part of the change!

Get involved -- find a One Billion Rising event in your community