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Yes… it’s an all female team this year… and how very fitting, in a season dedicated to the memory of Texas Youth Word Collective’s Co-Founder, Shannon Leigh. Also fitting is the return to Chicago, where Shannon served as Team Captain of the Inaugural Austin Youth Poetry Slam Team in 2003 and continued on to become one of the leading spoken word artists in the country. The rest is history! Please help us continue the dream!

July 5th, 7 pm, Spoken & Heard Feature Performance, The Austin Youth Poetry Slam Team 2009, Kick Butt Coffee, 5775 Airport Blvd., Ste. 725, 78752

July 6th, 7 pm, Feature Performance, The Austin Youth Poetry Slam Team 2009, The Hideout, 617 Congress Ave., 78701

July 7th, 7 pm, Ruta Maya Open Mic Features The Austin Youth Poetry Slam Team 2009, 3601 S. Congress, 78701

July 10th, 8 pm, Old Skool Chi-City Send Off Dance Party, $10 cover, The Independent (corner of E. 5th & Brushy St.)

“Back in the day when I was young, I’m not a kid any more.” DJ F. Scott, resident turntable-ist for the Austin Youth Slam, as well as the Austin Poetry Slam, gets to be the night’s feature by popular demand. DJ F. Scott will be spinning his special mix of old school, conscious hip-hop and dance music you can’t find on Sixth Street or in the Warehouse District even on a good night. In addition to a full night of our music master, there will be a special performance by the Austin Youth Poetry Slam Team to kick off the night! “Shake your groove thang” and help send the team off to BNV at the same time!

For Information on all of these events contact:
Dr. Sheila Siobhan – (512) 422-6653
Tova Charles – (512) 963-8292
Ron Horne – (512) 632-5033
www.txywc.org
u21slam@yahoo.com

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July 6, 2009, 6pm-8pm, City Hall Council Chambers, 301 W. Second Street,1st Floor

Office of the Police Monitor, Regular Monthly Meeting, Public Input Agenda. The Public meeting will be held at City Hall Council Chambers at 6:00 p.m. The following is the agenda:

1) 2008-1589 Complainant alleges discrimination and retaliation.

2) 2009-0240 Complainant questions APD investigative procedures.

3) 2009-0318 Complainant alleges that officers failed to conduct an investigation and file charges.

4) Community Policing Issues

Complainants/Citizens may address the Citizen Review Panel about the above items. If you wish to address the Citizen Review Panel please sign up 30 minutes in advance of the Public session. For additional information on any agenda item, please contact Office of the Police Monitor, City of Austin 512-974-9090.

The City of Austin is committed to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. If you require special assistance for participation in our programs or use of our facilities, please call 974-9090.

Tuesday, July 7, 4:00 PM

RESPECT ON THE RIVERWALK: RALLY FOR HOTEL WORKERS UNION RECOGNITION

Join the UNITE HERE union members at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in bringing respect and dignity to the workers on the Riverwalk. UNITE HERE had won a card check campaign to represent workers at the Grand Hyatt — the largest non-union Hyatt in the country) over a month ago but are now facing a hard-fought battle for recognition over their union. Your support is essential in this critical campaign. Join a rally and celebration with music and food. Media coverage here of the International Hostel (2200 S. Lakeshore Blvd).
Location: Hemisfair Park Gazebo, 200 South Alamo St., San Antonio, TX
More info: UNITE HERE at (210) 224-1520

AUSTIN CARPOOL: Community supporters, labor activists, and UNITE HERE union members from Austin Bergstrom airport will be meeting and carpooling here in Austin. Gather in Austin at 2 PM at the parking lot of the International Hostel, 2200 S. Lakeshore Blvd.

Thursday, July 9, 7:00 PM, UT Campus, Parlin 306

Iranian society is experiencing its greatest upheaval since the 1979 revolution. What began as anger over election fraud exploded into protests of millions of people in the streets of Iran’s cities, animated by social and economic grievances and raising the possibility of revolutionary change. Come to a forum for presentations and open discussion on the background to the election crisis and the protests — and where the situation might be heading.

Speakers:

* Banafsheh Madaninejad, UT grad student & member of the Austin Coalition for Iran

* Snehal Shingavi, UT professor & member of International Socialist Organzation

Sponsored by International Socialist Organization and Iranians for Peace and Justice. More info: AustinSocialist@hotmail.com

RSVP on Facebook

8:30pm on Wednesday, July 9th, Congress Bridge on Lady Bird Lake (Bats Bridge), parking: Austin American Statesman parking lot

Int’l scroll signing and candlelight vigil, sponsored by Austin for Iran
http://www.austinforiran.org

July 9, 1999 saw the first widespread and violent public protests in Iran, since the early years of the Iranian Revolution. Moussavi’s coalition has promised a nationwide commemoration of that event this coming Thursday. In many ways, the 1999 crackdown set the background to the uprising we are witnessing today. This coming Thursday promises to be yet another important chapter in the current uprising.

ACTIONS for the night: There is an int’l movement to create the longest signed fabric scroll in the world and hang it from the CN Tower in Toronto to show the world’s opposition towards the fraudulent election results in Iran and send the message that “Ahmadinejad is not Iran’s president”.

Currently 48 cities have signed up to create their local scrolls. We hope to achieve the following: spread the message that “Ahmadinejad is not Iran’s president,” make the unfurling happen before the 27th of July inauguration, encourage the foreign powers not to recognize Ahmadinejad as president of Iran and finally show support for the Iranians inside Iran, assuring them that they are not alone in their struggle.

A candlelight vigil will also be taking place in commemoration of the 1999 crackdown.

We will provide candles & cups and the green scroll.

7pm Friday July 10, 2009, Resistencia Bookstore, casa de Red Salmon Arts, 1801-A South First St.,

Before she takes off to Minneapolis, Minnesota join us for… ON THE MOVE: an evening of Readings, Celebration and Music featuring Virginia Grise with guest Barbara Renaud Gonalez & music by Alexandro Hernández.

Virginia Grise will read excerpts from new work, including her play blu (winner of the Kennedy Center and Kendeda Award for playwrighting). She will also give us a sneak peak of The Panza Monologues DVD to be released at the end of the month. Barbara Renaud Gonzalez will read excerpts from her new novel Golondrina, the first Chicana novel to be published by UT Press. They will be joined by musician Alexandro Hernández.

Suggested Donation: Buy a book for the Genocide Studies Library in Kigali, Rwanda.
http://www.igscrwanda.org/

Artists Bios

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Tuesday, July 14, 6:30 - 8:00 PM, Location: Mexican American Cultural Center, 600 River St. (RSVP to Maribel at maribel@workersdefense.org or (512) 391-2305) Sponsored by Workers Defense Project

BUILD A BETTER AUSTIN: CELEBRATE AUSTIN CONSTRUCTION WORKERS. Learn about construction working conditions in Austin! Build a Better Austin is a family-oriented event that provides the community with an interactive opportunity to learn more about the results of Workers Defense Project’s study on working conditions in Austin’s construction industry and how you can help improve these conditions. Celebrate construction workers’ contributions to the community! Come and enjoy live mariachi music, a play put on by Workers Defense Project members, and children’s games. Food and drink will be available for purchase.

7:30pm Friday, July 17, 2009,  Resistencia Bookstore, casa de Red Salmon Arts, 1801-A South First St.

Come join us as the traveling caravan of Pastors and assistant citizen volunteers arrive in Austin to speak at Resistencia Bookstore about the Caravan to Cuba.

There will be a short reception after the meeting for those who gather.
All are encouraged to attend, and are welcome to contribute to those efforts by your presence and donations. Needed items include: Financial donations. Donations are tax deductible.

Over 30 Pastors for Peace volunteers from the US, Canada and Europe will challenge the immoral and illegal US blockade and travel restrictions against Cuba at the US - Mexico border on July 22, 2009.

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6pm - 10pm Saturday July 25, 2009, @ Space12, 3121 E. 12th St. Ave.

Young Scholars for Justice (YSJ) & Save Our Youth (SOY) present Skool is Out: Summer Dance Party & Fundraiser featuring DJ’s, B-boys & B-girls, poetry by YSJ & SOY poets & a woman play performance by Florinda Bryant

suggested donation:
youth (under 18yrs) $5 dollars/adults $10 dollars

FMI: 512-472-9921

YSJ, a project of People Organized in Defense of the Earth & her Resources (PODER), is dedicated to the development of youth & young adults of color to address education, environmental, economic, and social justice issues affecting them and ensure gender, racial and resource equity.

SOY, a project of Red Salmon Arts, seeks to empower youth through participation in writing workshops focusing on culture, arts, and literacy. SOY engages youth in alternative educational settings, middle and high school students, and those under the supervision of the juvenile justice system.

Wednesday, July 29, 7 pm, BookPeople, 603 N. Lamar Blvd.

Robert Jensen, Reading from: “All My Bones Shake: Seeking a Progressive Path to the Prophetic Voice” — Robert Jensen, a longtime activist fighting for women’s rights, racial equality, and global justice, reveals with this book the emotional journey that brought him back to the church after an entire adulthood of religious indifference.

Our world is perched on the verge of chaos, he warns. As political, economic, cultural, and ecological crises peak, the decisions we make are likely to have permanent consequences for our future and for the fate of our planet. In our nation, what underlies this chaos is a spiritual unrest, a stubborn conflict that has gotten in the way of understanding and slowed theological progress to a glacial crawl.

Drawing on the Old and New Testaments, contemporary philosophy, common sense, personal intuition, and progressive politics, Jensen offers a full defense of his conclusion, holding its consistency up to the best of religious and secular teachings. A touchingly open memoir that is also a study of the religious debate in America, “All My Bones Shake” marks an entirely new communion: a way to look at religion as a tool with which we may create closer ties to all humanity and begin to create a just and sustainable society–to face with confidence the uncertainty of our lives. Both political and spiritual, radical and universal, public and very personal, Jensen’s warmhearted text is a passionate testament to the potential of religion to offer sanity and stability in the face of our culture’s growing turmoil.