Dear Friends,
 FOR staff and National Council members are on the road this month, organizing with grassroots activists for nonviolent social change. Last week our leadership traveled far and wide: from Texas to Ohio (marching 85 miles for an end to the death penalty); from New York to Colorado (strategizing with activists in the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement); from Missouri to Michigan (addressing the crises of water privatization and economic injustice), and from Colorado to Washington D.C. (advocating changes to global drug policy).
Upcoming events
In collaboration with our members, chapters, and allies, our team will continue to travel nationwide in the coming weeks and months, and we want to connect with you! Here are some other places we'll be showing up this month.
.png) October 15 - 19 -- Salt Lake City, UT -- the Parliament of the World's Religions. Be sure to check out "Interfaith Perspectives on Nonviolence and Peacemaking", an FOR workshop on Sunday at 8:15 a.m., featuring Rev. Kristin Stoneking (executive director, FOR, Davis CA), Laurie Childers (chairperson, FOR National Council, Corvallis OR), Sahar Alsahlani (FOR National Council, Stony Point NY), Ciprian Iancu (FOR National Council, Washington DC), and Rabbi Gerry Serotta (FOR member, executive director, Clergy Beyond Borders, Frederick MD). If you can't be there in person, you can follow along with the live web broadcast for the duration of the event.
 TONIGHT: Oct. 13 -- New York City -- "Peace, Nuclear Disarmament, Civil Rights: The Connection" -- 2015 William Sloane Coffin Peacemaker Award Gala featuring keynote speaker Rev. Osagyefo Sekou (FOR Bayard Rustin Fellow) at All Souls Unitarian Church.
TOMORROW: Oct. 14 -- Albany, NY -- "Deep Abiding Love: militant nonviolent civil disobedience in the era of Ferguson" -- Rev. Sekou will keynote the Upper Hudson Peace Action's annual dinner at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church.
Thursday, Oct. 15 -- Normal, IL -- "A New Civil Rights Movement? Ferguson, Black Lives Matter, and the Future of Nonviolence" -- Rev. Sekou will deliver the Hibberts Roberts lecture at Illinois State University.
Friday, Oct. 16 -- Springfield, IL -- "The Importance of Nonviolent Protests to Oppose Racial Injustice in Ferguson" -- with Rev. Sekou and Pastor Cori Bush (of Ferguson Frontline Activists and the Truth Telling Project) at the University of Illinois, Springfield.
Tuesday, Oct. 20 -- Boston, MA -- "Because #BlackLivesMatter" -- a forum convened by the Boston University School of Theology (time/location TBA), with Rev. Sekou and other speakers, to discuss systemic discrimination, police violence against Black persons, and challenges to authentic diversity in academic contexts.
And please remember to join us in New York City for FOR's Centennial Celebrations taking place Nov. 5-7!
We look forward to seeing you out in the field. Thanks for all that you do to build the Beloved Community!
In peace and for justice,
Kristin, Ethan, Linda, Gretchen, Sekou, and the whole team at FOR
Photos: Rev. Jeff Hood (FOR National Council member from Denton TX, participating in the Walk to Stop Executions organized by the Scioto Peace & Justice FOR chapter based in Lucasville OH -- courtesy Walk to Stop Executions); Rev. Osagyefo Sekou at the Peace and Planet event, courtesy of photographer Kyle Depew. |
