I explain the Holy Road Tours Union (HRTU) as an intentional living community that supports artists and activists who advocate peace and sustainability in their art or lives. Its current manifestation is four fold:
1. The physical house in which I reside is a place where progressive activists and artists can come together to create and organize their dream into a reality.
2. Expression Sessions, open mikes every Friday evening, are the house's favorite times, when it is most full of diversity, freedom of speech, music, howling, truths, meditations, dissent, feelings, and even prayers.
3. HRTU wants to invest not only in local artists but also in local sustainability, both human and environmental. Residents conserve electricity and water (e.g., if its yellow, leave it mellow!). I put daily effort into growing local food for local people with a global conscience: I'm taking care of several community garden plots caddy corner to and at the side of this great house.
4. Lizzie West and Baba Buffalo's are on the first holy road tour. They're in recess after a series of shows on the east coast, in preparation for a series of shows moving toward the west coast. The ultimate goal is to have houses supported by local, progressive arts communities all across the nation from New York to California. Lizzie and Baba's vision has made much possible. They own the house; they run the 503c non-for-profit; they lit the candle. I am also realizing we have to make it what we want in the HERE and NOW:
So, 5. I'm starting HRTU's Activist Book Club: the ABCs of Everyday Activism for Global Peace and Sustainability. I am going to blog about the books we're reading so you can access or get involved with our our conversations. Indeed, here are the on the table for reading and discussion.
There are a couple memoir/novels on the table (Three Cups of Tea ; What is the What by Dave Eggars, Long Way Gone or another book about child soldiers in Africa). We're focusing on non-fiction books for motivating action. I have put them in my order of preference. What do you want to read that is on this list or elsewhere? Do you want to meet on Fridays from 7 to 8:30 for dinner and discussion or Thursdays 5 to 6:30 for snacks and discussion. Please respond via comments.
- Standing Up To The Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times by Amy and David Goodman
- Global Values 101 with interviews from Zinn, Goodman, Klein, Reich, Schor, Pollitt, Farmer, Guinier and others
- Feminism is for Everyone by Bell Hooks and/or Everyday Field Guide for Feminist Activism
- The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein
- 365 Ways to Live Green: Everyday Ways To Save the Environment
- A People's History of the United States of America by Howard Zinn
- An Update of Common Sense--> Global Sense: Awakening Your Personal Power for Democracy and World Peace" : by Judah Freed with an afterword by Dr. Vandana Shiva, Indian peace/sustainability activist
- An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire by Arundhati Roy
- Not For Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade--and How We Can Fight It by David Batstone
- Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky
- Target Iran: The Truth About the White House's Plkans for Regime Change
by Scott Ritter or another book about contemporary middle eastern politics
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4 comments:
Top of the mornin!
I'm good with thurs or fri night. I don't want to put it off another week, I'm sooo excited to get started!!
So I have ideas for when we have everyone in and suggestions are made:
1. I think we should refuse no suggestion but maybe make a limit of [one?, two? maybe three] their favorites per session that way each member gets equal input opportunity.
2. We each make a personal order of priority list, figure up the average of the combined lists, start with the average #1 and go from there.
3. I think since some, like you, will have many excellent choices should still bring them to the table so that those who want to come in with no suggestion can have relevant material to choose from.
4. Sessions can last as long as the lists.
I am excited to talk Democracy Now! and the feminism class, I could eat all that up!!
Althea, you rock the party that rocks the party - seriously. I am so grateful that you are living the dream and creating your reality at HRTU!!
much love,
Anna
I second the refusal of no suggestions and starting the meetings this upcoming week (Friday 25th) such that we can reconvene having read some part of something for the following week, the first week of August.
That was horrible grammar when I said 'refuse no suggestion' and I should have been more specific, sorry. I meant let's accept all suggestions that fit the bill, I think you agree :)
I hope I'm not intruding with all my ideas. I love the ABC idea and I want to see it be inviting, fun and able to sustain itself.
What did you think about having an equal amount of book suggestions from each participant when we make our final list to prioritize from? How about that average priority calculation? This will make it so everyone who wants to participate will get their book(s) read and discussed by the group in an order that we all basically agree with. The current list makes up the session. When we are done, we can start a new session and create a new list that new and existing participants contribute to.
Yes, let's get it ready to start reading after our first meeting. Can we present our favorite 2 suggestions and calculate the priority so we can have our list down at our first meeting? I guess if there are not very many people in the group then 3 or 4 personal favorites would be appropriate to include on each session's list.
Shouldn't we be reading together that way we can discuss the information as it comes? I know I'm a slow reader but maybe we could have some structure to what we will discuss so that we can prepare to be caught up or to discuss something we already read.
Thursday would be more practical, no dinner would get us right down to business and we wouldn't have the impending event to prepare for. Friday would be fun too tho, potluck dinner/discussion? Can we do it at 6:30 so there is time to clean up before expressions?
My book suggestions are:
People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
and
Listening to the Land by Derrik Jensen
peace
Our friend Lily at PeaceWorks has this to say: I don't have any strong preferences on the books listed on your blog. They all seem good! "Standing up to the Madness" seems like something I'd like to read. I've really enjoyed Ritter's "Waging Peace" (it seems to fit the ABC's of Activism theme, though we're doing a book reading on it now, so I don't know if it makes sense to do another). Less related to the theme but still a book that I have on my 'to read' list is Naomi Wolf's "The End of America." Mark and I have talked about a reading of Zen's "People's History" and emphasizing the importance of being informed about our history in an effort to truly challenge the current state of things. And another book, "The Uprising" by David Sirota has caught my eye, but I don't know much about it.
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