For information on Rev. Chris please click the link below.
The presentation will trace the historical struggle of the working class against war; the intersection of race and class; the struggle against poverty and militarism and the prospects for a renewal of mass anti-war movement.
Mark Emanatian comes from a working class town and a working class family. He has been a political activist for working class causes for decades. He has been active in union organizing and strike support, antiwar and peace groups, antiracist and antiapartheid movements, defence of women’s rights and equality, the fight for jobs and socialism, climate change and environmental causes and the struggle for civil liberties and democracy.
Mark Emanatian has lived and worked in Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Louisville, Boston and the Capital District. He has worked as an organizer, teacher, garment worker and musician.
Post-Corporate Song-Maker
provides a passionate, comedic, participatory, multi-media romp through society’s ills and thrills.
Known if not feared on many coasts and in some interiors for his sharp send-ups of topical subjects and the banksters and politicians who rule those subjects, Lippman has toured widely in the United States, Europe, Australia, and Central America in a 35-year musical career that has brought him respect, laughter, and occasional plaudits as a top-notch serio-comic documentary songmaker. His specialty genres range from clever tirades, often accompanied by his handcrafted videos, to unsingable singalongs, with lyrics projected for all to attempt.
Lippman’s notoriety began in 1969 when he was named an unindicted co-conspirator for singing about the “Guatemala sweepstakes” at a rally that preceded the escorting of a recruiter from the United Fruit Company off the campus. After having a song recorded by Country Joe MacDonald, Lippman joined with a San Francisco comedy group to create the Reagan for Shah Campaign, in which he introduced George Shrub, the Singing CIA Agent. Shrub then toured as security detail for the Ladies Against Women.
In the eighties, Lippman performed in war zones in Central America and toured from Birmingham Alabama to Birmingham England, then on to Belgrade. In Germany he sang for squatters and anti-nuclear activists. Stateside, he joined a caravan of Salvadoran refugees through Texas. Ex-CIA agent John Stockwell declared Lippman prescient for writing a song about the Grenada “rescue” a year before it happened; Lippman declared it manifest destiny, based on the size of the island.
After campaigning as George Stump, Moderate Clearcutter, with Earth First! in the Redwood country, he toured with Yippie founder Paul Krassner and the British anarchist comedian Tony Allen, as well as performing in theatrical runs in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Lippman brought Shrub to the School of the Americas in Columbus, Georgia, CIA Headquarters, the White House, and countless rallies and benefits for peace, global justice, living wages, fair trade, environmental sanity, and apple pie. In 2009, Shrub went back into the cold, only to be replaced by Wild Bill Bailout, the Bard of the Bankers, who rode in from the west to bail out the rest. Just lately, Lippman has collaborated with long-lost Trump cousin Davey Drumpf with edutaining videos. Stay tuned!
Lippman has fourteen releases to his credit, not counting jail. The latest is You Don’t Own the World. Previous releases include the 1987 LP Shoot from the Lipp and 1998’s I Hate Wal-Mart, which features “Guess Who’s Coming After Dinner” and “All My Friends Are Semi-Famous.” Other tunes: “Brother Can You Spare a Diamond,” “The Sport Futility Vehicle Tango,” “Your Car is Disgusting,” “Battle Him in Public.” and many more endearing titles. Two video DVD’s are in release, with many more mini’s on the Tube of You.
“Viciously funny” – Guardian (England)
“One of my favorite political satirists. This is a very funny man.” – Erich Lee Preminger
“The Dean felt that more harm than good would come from
your visit” – student, Skidmore College, New York
“God, that man can talk! What a great writer!” – Utah Phillips
Kateri's Shrine offers a sacred place of peace and healing for all who visit or know of us. We believe that the quest for peace would be easier if people acknowledge the integral relationship between God, people, and the whole of creation. Kateri and the Native peoples of her homeland had a profound connection with nature and the Creator. In recent years, our society has lost this connection. As the Shrine develops a vision for the 21st-century, we ask "how can we best serve as a center of peace and healing, and as a focal point for restoring relationships with each other and with the whole of creation?" The audience will have an opportunity to offer their ideas. Bill is a proud husband, father, and grandfather.
A brief overview of the 1968 Poor People's Campaign and discussion of the national effort to build a new Poor People's Campaign, and how it relates to movement building in New York State
Rev. Emily McNeill is Executive Director of the Labor-Religion Coalition of New York State. Originally from Fairport, NY, Emily joined Labor-Religion Coalition in 2014 as Lead Organizer. Emily is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. She holds an M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where she was a Fellow with the Kairos Center, a national network of grassroots and religious leaders organizing to end poverty. Prior to joining LRC, she was pastor of Parkland United Methodist Church in Tacoma, WA. Emily has also worked with United Methodist Kairos Response, a denominational network advocating for justice and human rights in Israel/Palestine, and Christian Peacemaker Teams. She has a B.A. in journalism from Ithaca College.
Barbara Smith is an author, activist, and independent scholar who has played a groundbreaking role in opening up a national cultural and political dialogue about the intersections of race, class, sexuality, and gender. She was among the first to define an African American women’s literary tradition and to build Black women’s studies and Black feminism in the United States. She has been politically active in many movements for social justice since the 1960s.
She has edited three major collections about Black women: Conditions: Five, The Black Women’s Issue (with Lorraine Bethel, 1979); All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women’s Studies (with Gloria T. Hull and Patricia Bell Scott, 1982); and Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, 1983. She is also the co-author with Elly Bulkin and Minnie Bruce Pratt of Yours in Struggle: Three Feminist Perspectives on Anti-Semitism and Racism, 1984. She is the general editor of The Reader’s Companion to U. S. Women’s History with Wilma Mankiller, Gwendolyn Mink, Marysa Navarro, and Gloria Steinem, 1998. A collection of her essays, The Truth That Never Hurts: Writings on Race, Gender, and Freedom was published by Rutgers University Press in 1998. Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith, edited by Alethia Jones and Virginia Eubanks with Barbara Smith was published by SUNY Press in November, 2014.
She was cofounder and publisher until 1995 of Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, the first U. S. publisher for women of color. She resides in Albany, New York and served two terms as a member of the Albany Common Council from 2006 to 2013. Currently she is the Special Community Projects Coordinator for the City of Albany helping to implement the Equity Agenda.
RECENT AWARDS:
2017--African American Policy Forum Harriet Tubman Lifetime Achievement Award
2015 – Doctor of Letters, Honorary degree awarded by the University at Albany
2015 – Lambda Literary Award for Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around
2015 – Publishing Triangle Award for Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around
2015--Women of Excellence Award for Distinguished Career, Women’s Business Council, Capital Region Chamber of Commerce
2015--Literary Legends Award, Albany Public Library Foundation
2012 – “Makers: Women Who Make America” AOL—PBS
2010 -- Capitaland Quarterly Dozen Who Make a Difference
2009 -- Alumnae Association of Mount Holyoke College Achievement Award
2005 -- Nobel Peace Prize Nominee
2000 -- Church Women United Human Rights Award.
2000 -- Essence Magazine, Profiled in lead feature article honoring Black women leaders for the special thirtieth anniversary issue.
1999 -- Albany Chapter National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Arts Award.
1998 -- The Truth That Never Hurts: Writings on Race, Gender, and Freedom, Honorable Mention, Gustavus Myers Human Rights Book Award.
1996-1997 -- Fellow, Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College.
1995-1996 -- Scholar-in-Residence, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
1987 -- Mount Holyoke College Alumnae Association Sesquicentennial Award
A practical and tactical discussion of ways to explain civil resistance and to find common ground with the juries tasked to reach verdicts in criminal proceedings. Working with both the legal and moral imperatives addressed by Dr. King and other human rights advocates and leaders we will look at why civil resistance is so vitally important at this juncture in history and the need to address juries thoughtfully and effectively in the subsequent legal proceedings.
Jonathan Wallace is a litigation attorney based in Amagansett, NY who devotes about half his time to pro bono defense of protesters in criminal court, including Occupy Wall Street people, Catholic Workers, Vets for Peace and anti-gentrification activists. Wallace has filed amicus briefs with the Supreme Court on First Amendment, enemy combatant and marriage equality matters, and has also handled some civil litigation affected with a public interest, including landlord-tenant cases and mortgage foreclosure defense. Wallace was arrested the night of the Zuccotti Park eviction and held overnight with 80 Occupiers in the Police Plaza holding cell, which he describes as "an exemplary civics lesson". He is the co-author with Mark Mangan of Sex, Laws and Cyberspace (Henry Holt 1996),on Internet freedom of speech. He has published the Ethical Spectacle website, www.spectacle.org, since 1995.