[imc-st.louis] St. Louis activist events for March 17-21

[Ben West]

(for a formatted and updated version of this message, go to
http://blog.showmeprogress.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2603 )

It's Activist Hub 2.0! We've added a couple new features that will
hopefully help to keep people informed and connected. First, as
mentioned last week, Activist Hub is now on Twitter. You can join by
going to http://twitter.com/stlactivisthub and clicking "follow."
Second, we're working with Show Me Progress on a new project to
highlight activists doing great work in St. Louis and beyond. The
first interview was with Dana Dreher of the timely Save Our Tips
campaign designed to stop Missouri Republicans from lowering the
minimum wage for servers. Check it out at
http://blog.showmeprogress.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2562 and see if
you can help out.

This week's events:

Tuesday, March 17, 3- 5 PM. The Missouri Transportation Alliance is
going to be at UMSL today to assess the regional needs and priorities
of St. Louis. This would be a good opportunity to let them know that
you want more money to be focused on public transportation and less
on, oh say, things like building a highway extension through wetlands
for the sake of creating outer-ring suburb strip malls in a
floodplain. The meeting will be at the Student Government Chamber-
Millenium Student Center and you can see the link at
http://www.missouritransportation.org/calendar.html.

Also Tuesday, RESULTS is a nonprofit grassroots advocacy organization
committed to creating the political will to end hunger and the worst
aspects of poverty and hunger. They are currently focused on getting
universal health care in the U.S. and the St. Louis chapter is going
to be holding a Group Start Workshop today. If you'd like to get
involved, call or email Sister Toni at 314-397-0473 or
atemporit at sbcglobal.net.

Tuesday and Wednesday are the last two days of QFest, a film festival
that spotlights the diversity and inherent complexities of living an
alternative lifestyle in today's society. You can get the full
schedule at http://cinemastlouis.org/qfest.html .

Wednesday, March 18, 4:30 Haba na Haba, an amazing community arts
group from Nairobi, Kenya, is participating in a "Theater and Social
Change" panel discussion at the Brown Lounge at Brown Hall on the
WashU campus. They're in town for the whole week, so check for other
public events on Friday and Saturday if you can't make this one. There
are also a lot of events only open to WashU students, so I'll post
those on the discussion boards for anyone interested. I've heard great
things about them!

Also Wednesday, from 5 -8 PM, is the Diversity Awareness Partnership's
Happy Hour at the Premium Lounge. This is a fundraiser for their
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Initiative. The Premium Lounge
is located at 4199 Manchester and you can find out more at
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=52749392157 .

Thursday, March 19, 5 - 7 PM. Sarah M. asked me to mention that
StandWithUs, Sderot Media Center, and SLU Jews are hosting a
presentation on what it is like to live in Sderot, Israel, a city that
has been hit with rocket attacks. The event is in the Busch Student
Center, room 251 and you can find out more at
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=56874659627 . This is one side
of a very difficult political situation rooted in a lot of human
suffering. I hope we can make some progress now that there's a new
administration and Secretary of State!

Friday, March 20, at 4:30, there's a meetup for local progressive
bloggers being held by some of the good folks at Show Me Progress at
the Dubliner, 1025 Washington Avenue, prior to the Mike Lux visit (see
below). You can read more about it here:
http://blog.showmeprogress.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2597 .

Also Friday, Mike Lux is a longtime progressive strategist and a
blogger at what is generally one of the coolest blogs on the
internets, OpenLeft.com. Lux is also the author of the book "The
Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be" and he's
in town to talk about the book. He'll be at the new downtown location
of Left Bank Books at 7 PM, and you can find out more at
http://leftbank.booksense.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp?s=storeevents&eventId=409037
. Highly recommended!

Also Friday, Haba na Haba, the Kenyan community arts group mentioned
above, will be performing at the 560 Music Building (560 Trinity) at 8
PM. You can find out more about the group at these links:
http://www.mysakenya.org/content.php?id=20 and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhcOXy0tqvs (part 1 of an amazing
documentary!).

Saturday, March 21, will be six years and one day after the war in
Iraq begun. The St. Louis Instead of War Coalition is taking a bus to
Columbia for a statewide rally marking the anniversary of the war and
calling for the U.S. to start spending more money on a peace economy
rather than a war economy. The bus leaves at 10 AM and gets back
around 7, and you should reserve your seat soon by going to
http://www.insteadofwar.org/mailforms/PeaceBusReservation2009-03.html
(cost is $20).

Also Saturday, Haba na Haba will be hosting an open dance class for
the community. It will be in the Women's building, Studio I from 10 AM
to 11:30 AM.

Also, Saturday is the Great American Meatout hosted by the St. Louis
Vegetarian Society. The event is from 5 to 6:30 at the First
Congregational Church at 6501 Wydown. Check out the delicious menu at
http://www.start4animals.org/Calendar/Meatout_09.htm .

Have a fun and meaningful week!


-- 
Ben West
westbywest at gmail.com