Events 2012

Woolman students will be hitting the streets this Spring to help the Nevada City Happiness Initiative survey local residents. Join Reinette Senum, Nevada City Council Member, Saturday, the 14th of January 2012, to hear about the launch of this exciting project.  Measuring and Promoting Happiness in Nevada City is one of the workshops sponsored by the Wild & Scenic Film Festival. It will be held at the Activist Center, in Nevada City's City Hall.  Look for smiling faces to come knocking at your door, Nevada City!

Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) is a nationwide and worldwide association of volunteer groups offering experiential workshops in conflict resolution, responses to violence, and personal growth.

AVP is dedicated to reducing the level of violence in our society. Our goal is to reduce the level of violence by introducing people to ways of resolving conflict that reduce their need to resort to violence as the solution. The Alternatives to Violence Project is designed to create successful personal interactions and transform violent situations. We're dedicated to teaching the same non-violent skills and techniques that were used by Mohandas Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

The AVP Basic Workshop

The Basic AVP Workshop is a learning experience which teaches interpersonal conflict resolution skills through a series of step-by-step processes. These experiences in small groups and one-to-one interactions build a sense of community and trust through exercises focusing on:

• Affirmation -- Building self esteem and trust.
• Communication -- Improving both listening skills and assertive methods of expression.
• Cooperation -- Developing cooperative attitudes that avoid competitive conflicts.
• Creative Conflict Resolution -- Getting in touch with the inner Transforming Power to resolve violence. Role plays provide an opportunity to explore this power and learn new and creative ways to respond to real life conflicts in our lives

Sorry, this workshop is not open to the public.

ART is our WEAPON,
our MEDICINE, our VOICE, our VISION

"Creativity is the antidote for violence and destruction. Art is our most human expression, our voice to communicate our stories, to challenge injustice and the misrepresentations of mainstream media, to expose harsh realities and engender even more powerful hope, a force to bring diverse peoples together, a tool to rebuild our communities, and a weapon to win this struggle for universal liberation."

alixa + naima


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WHO IS CLIMBING POETREE?

Climbing PoeTree is the combined force of two boundary-breaking soul-sisters who have sharpened their art as a tool for popular education, community organizing, and personal transformation. With roots in Haiti and Colombia, Alixa and Naima reside in Brooklyn and track footprints across the country and globe on a mission to make a better future visible, immediate, and irresistible.

With flawless cadence and impeccable lyricism, these soul-sisters weave together their voices to draw vital connections between shared struggles and common solutions in a critical moment in human history. Alixa and Naima's acclaimed performance is composed dual-voice poems that explore diverse themes, including: healing from state and personal violence, social / environmental / economic / racial / sexual justice, human rights, spirituality, and woman's empowerment. Soul-stirring and heart-opening, the poetry Alixa and Naima deliver challenges its listeners to remember their humanity, dissolves apathy with hope, exposes injustice, and helps heal our inner trauma so that we may begin to cope with the issues facing our communities.

In the last 8 years, Alixa and Naima have been workshop facilitators and guest artists at hundreds of youth programs, conferences, correctional facilities, high schools and colleges-- from Cornell University to Rikers Island Academy. They have painted murals on walls from the Bronx to Santiago de Cuba. And they have rocked over 500 mikes in more than 75 cities from Los Angeles to Johannesburg, alongside visionary leaders and artists such as Erykah Badu, Alicia Keys, Jean Grae, Vandana Shiva, Angela Davis, Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, Danny Glover, The Last Poets, and Dead Prez.

Alixa and Naima have traveled over 10,000 miles with an all-women crew in a recycled vegetable oil-powered bus, delivering their latest production, Hurricane Season: the hidden messages in water, to over 9,000 people across the nation, and featuring 150 community-based organizations. They are currently translating this award-winning production into a multi-media curriculum that employs art and culture to help learners analyze systems of oppression and resistance, and uses a popular education model to build new leadership essential for fundamental social change.

Sorry, this workshop is not open to the public. Climbing Poetree will be performing that night at The Haven in Nevada City if you are interested!

 

Students will be enaging in direct-experience exercises with the goal of exploring prejudice and oppression in our lives with community activists.

This event is not open to the public.

Is there an alternative to the current economic system of which we are all entrenched? The answer is yes! On April 16th, The Woolman Semester School students will be exploring the idea of a Gift Economy. Local activists will be joining us to share videos by Charles Eisenstein and facilitate our very own gift circle!

Want to know more? Please read this article from Yes! Magazine!

http://www.yesmagazine.org/happiness/to-build-community-an-economy-of-gifts

This workshop IS open to the public, please email emilyz@woolman.org if you are interested!

Join us for a day of volunteering in our garden, forest, and other sites around campus. We'll have lunch, share work, celebrate spring and dance. Contra dancing with community musicians & caller! Bring work gloves, garden tools, and your dancing shoes..

• Saturday, April 28th from 8:30am-3:30pm
• More info: Call Estrella at  530.273.3183 x16 or email estrella@woolman.org

Please click here to RSVP, preferably by April 25th.

Students have been pouring their hearts into these 4 documentaries that are sure to make you stop and think!

Please join us for their first public viewing at The Unitarian Universalist Church in Grass Valley on Friday, May 18th at 7:00 p.m. As the final project for English: Peace Studies class, students collaborate on short 10 minute documentary films on a wide range of topics. Documentaries feature interviews with local and national experts as well as Nevada City/Grass Valley community members and are filmed, written, edited, produced and directed by students. The documentary project allows students to engage social justice, storytelling, narrative construction, advocacy and media literacy in hands-on and immediate ways.

This semester’s documentaries include:

BIG in the U.S.A.: How do we cope in a society in which we are profusely encouraged to both consume and diet excessively? Don't miss this shocking exposé about what the media is spoon-feeding us!

Bike Cycle Revolution: Four young bicycle enthusiasts will take you on a ride towards a more peaceful and sustainable future. Highlighting the perks from environmental to personal, as well as the inspiring bike-friendly initiatives popping up worldwide, this film will make a convincing case for trading in your keys for a helmet! '

Occupy Wall Street: A Diversity of Voices on a Diversity of Tactics: From Gandhian nonviolent action to property damage, each of us has a different idea of how to get our message across while protesting. When these 4 students set out to measure the effectiveness of these different tactics, they were ready to compare nonviolence with proponents for violence. What they found was that these lines are much more blurry and complicated.

Happiness vs. The American Dream: Inspired by our work on the Nevada County Happiness Initiative, this group of students decided to make a documentary that further explores the myth of the American Dream and its effects on our understanding/experience of happiness.

This semester’s documentaries will be presented at a public event at the Unitarian Universalist Community of the Mountains at 7:00 pm on Friday, May 18th. All are welcome to attend the event, which is free, to watch the documentaries and hear students speak about their work.

Click Here to RSVP

Come discover Human Rights Defenders from all over the world, while learning how to follow in their footsteps! Students have been researching various contemporary and Human Rights issues and the brave citizens who said "Enough is enough!" The presentations of what they have learned will inform and inspire even those who consider themselves well-versed in this topic!

This event will transpire in the Meeting House on campus at 12:30 p.m. following brunch! Please call our admissions office if you plan to attend brunch, too! 530.273.3183

Refreshments will be served!

Click Here to RSVP