Friday, January 15

6 pm  Registration opens
7-10 pm  Arts exchange - song and poetry swap


Vukani Mawethu

Saturday, January 16
9-10 am Muffins, juice, coffee available – donations please; informal songswap/arts exchange

10-noon Workshops

A -10-11 SF Labor Chorus, 11-11:30 Seattle Labor Chorus, 11:30-12 Solidarity Notes Labour Choir (from Vancouver).

B -Jon Curl, History of Cooperatives; Design Action, "Designs on Democracy: Communication for Liberation".

Noon – 1 pm Lunch
Sandwiches and salad available at a reasonable price

1:00– 1:50 pm General Session: 
Vukani Muwethu report back from South Africa

2:00-3:30 pm Workshops

A - Using Culture in Organizing- Fruit of Labor

B - Outspoken Wordsmith & Human Beat Boxing

C - Health Care Reform Songs, Bobbie Rabinowitz & Eliot Kenin

3:45-5:15 pm Workshops

A - Women in Labor Films - Michel Fraser (From Roses to Rivets film) & Vivian Price (Labor Studies Coordinator at California State University Dominguez Hills), film credits include In My Own Words, Against All Odds, Hammering It Out and Transnational Tradeswomen.

B -Venezuelan grassroots movements

C - Laborfest Writers Workshop - Alice Rogoff and Margaret Cooley et al., Creative Ways to Tell Workers’ Stories

5:30-7 pm Dinner – Hot meal available at a reasonable price

7-10 pm Arts Exchange
Featured Performers:  Carol Denney, Liliana Herrera

Aya deLeon | Jimmy Collier

Sunday, January 17
9-10 am Muffins, juice, coffee available – donations please; informal songswap/arts exchange.

10:30 - Noon Workshops

A -Lessons From Black Labor History with the Freedom School

B - Blues Jam:  Sunday Morning Blues

Noon – 1 pm Lunch
Sandwiches and salad available at a reasonable price.

1:00-2:00 pm Tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr.
Featured performers: 
Freedom School, Charles Alston, Fruit of Labor, Alex and Harriet Bagwell (to be confirmed).

2:45-4:45 pm Practice for concert performance

5-6 pm Dinner – Hot meal available at reasonable price.

7 pm Benefit concert
Concert proceeds going to HERE Local 2
Labor Arts awardees: John Kouns, La Peña Cultural Center
MCs- Dave Lippman, Andrea Turner

Featured performers:
Lichi Fuentes, Blackberri, Seattle Labor Chorus, Fruit of Labor, Solidarity Notes (Vancouver), Dave Lippman, Festival Chorus.

Bev Grant


Jon Fromer and Jimmy Collier

“As you know, the establishment of social justice in our nation is of profound concern to me. This great struggle is in the interest of all Americans and I shall not be turned from it. Yet no sane person can afford to work for social justice within the nation unless he simultaneously resists war and clearly declares himself for non-violence in international relations.”
-Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

FILMS

BOYCOTT 
Sat. 10-12:  2 hrs.
This film is a great dramatization of the Montgomery bus boycott, which brought the black community together in one of the first major organized battles against segregation and racism in the 1950’s.  Focuses on the personal struggles and inspirational speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., played by Jeffrey Wright, and the Montgomery Improvement Association.  Bayard Rustin adds his sparkle to the list of important characters.  Actual newsreel footage, testimonials and handheld shots are combined by director Clark Johnson (HOMICIDE), with switching from color to black and white.  The soundtrack features songs by Nat King Cole, Dizzy Gillespie, Aaron Neville with Sweet Honey in the Rock, and BeBe Winans. 

MIGHTY TIMES:  THE LEGACY OF ROSA PARKS 
Sat. 2-2:45:  45 min.
Another story of the year-long Montgomery Bus Boycott, with all documentary footage; great music and interviews.

GRANNY D GOES TO WASHINGTON
Sat. 2:45-3:15:    30 min.
At the age of 89, Granny D walks from Pasadena, California to Washington DC to lobby for campaign finance reform.  As she says, “The folks who write checks define who gets to run for president and decide who you will vote for…citizens have got to take back their government.”

FREEDOM SONG
Sat. 3:45-5:40:  1 hr. 55 min.
This is a made-for-cable drama about the courage of civil rights activists and local citizens who challenge Mississippi segregation laws in a fictional small town.  Actual events in McComb, Amite County, Mississippi have provided the material on which the film is based.  In facing the cruelty of local whites toward Negroes who try to register to vote or order coffee at segregated lunch counters, the heroes of this story depend on nonviolence as a powerful technique.  Leadership is provided by a local barber, a “hauntingly peaceful” visitor from up north (strongly resembling Bob Moses), a team of cheerful singing SNCC workers, and others…but soon the young people of the black community take the initiative, and their elders must follow.    The film is based on eyewitness accounts of veteran activists. 

MADE IN L.A.
Sun. 10:30-12:   1 ½ hrs.
Tells the remarkable story of three Latina immigrants working in garment sweatshops as they embark on a three-year odyssey to win basic labor protections from a major clothing retailer (Forever 21).  The film gradually reveals the transformative impact of the struggle on each woman’s life.

Pete Seeger's 90th Birthday Celebration Concert at Madison Square Garden, May 2009, 2 hrs. 49 min.: Sat. and Sun., 12-1, Sun. 2:10-3:00. Room to be announced.

On May 3rd, 2009, at the Clearwater Concert, dozens of musicians gathered in New York at Madison Square Garden to celebrate Pete Seeger's 90th birthday, including Dave Matthews, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Morellos (Rage Against the Machine), Joan Baez, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Arlo Guthrie, Taj Mahal and many others. Consistent with Seeger's long-time advocacy for environmental concerns, the proceeds from the event benefited the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, a non-profit organization created to defend and restore the Hudson River.