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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 05102005 - PR2 NOT R WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF HATE HAPPENS U T WNi IN YOUR TOWN? i .211- Free public showing of a new documentary "Not In Our Town Northern California: When Hate Happens Here"' followed by a community conversation Thursday, May 12, 2005 Doors open 6:46, program 7:00-9:30 Centre Concord, 5298 Clayton Road, Concord What would you do if hate hit your town? All too frequently we hear stories of hate violence from vandalism to harassment to murder. Most of us would like to do something. And the good news is—we do. "Not In Our Town Northern California" looks at 5 communities over a 5-year period as they take action when their neighbors are targets of bigotry. After a transgender teen is killed by local youth in the Silicon Valley suburb of Newark, high school, students, residents and civic leaders struggle to deal with a brutal and preventable crime; Sacramento mobilizes after the worst anti-Semitic arson attacks in the California capital's history; Redding citizens find a new strength in diversity after a prominent gay couple is murdered; the Shasta County town of Anderson joins forces to make their values clear when a cross is burned on an African-American family's lawn; and the San Francisco Public Library turns the mutilation of gay-themed books into an opportunity for creative community action. Hosted by: Not In Our Town Contra Costa,Concord Human Relations Commission,and City of Concord Sponsored by: ACLU-Mt. Diablo, Black Families Association of Contra Costa County, CCC Green Party, Center for Human Development, Central Labor Council of Contra Costa AFL-CIO, City of Concord/Concord Human Relations Commission, City of Walnut Creek, Diablo Valley JACL, Diablo Valley League of Women Voters, First 5 Contra Costa Children&Families Commission, Fresh Start-Walnut Creek, GLSEN San Francisco-East Bay, Gray Panthers of Central CCC, Interfaith Council of CCC, Jewish Community Center of CCC, Kaiser Permanente, Latino Student Alliance of DVC, LULAC Bay Area Council 3096, Mentoring Partners Alliance, Monument Community Partnership, Mt. Diablo Peace&Justice Center-a secular program of the Mt. Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church, National Alliance for the Mentally III (NAMI)-Contra Costa, Peets Coffee-Ygnacio Valley Rd Walnut Creek, Rainbow Community Center, Rainbow Grocery-San Francisco, Trader Joe's-Oak Grove. (List in formation, For more info about the event Mt. Diablo Peace&Justice Center, info@mtdpc.org/925-933-7850 For more info about the film: wwwEggg-o4niot The film is a co-production of KQED Public Television and The Working Group. DIRECTIONS.- Centre Concord Is located at 5298 Clayton Road, Concord, in the Clayton Fair Shopping Center (almost to Ygnacio Valley Road)-behind Mavericks Sports Club and next to Clayton Bowl. Hotline for directions: 925-671-3466 Map:www ci concord.ca.ustabout/directions.hbTiftentreconcord Not In Our Town - Contra Costa " HATE HAS NO HOME HERE NOT '44, c/o Mt. Diablo Peace&Justice Center • 55 Eckley Lane,Walnut Creek, CA 94596 TOWN 04� (925) 933-7850 info@mtdpc.org hftp://www.pbs.org/niot Hello, We are the Contra Costa branch of Not In Our Town (NIOT), a national movement that encourages community response to hate crimes and works to increase awareness and prevention of hate and intolerance. Our group has been actively involved in this County for over 10 years working to: • Educate ourselves and others about the many forms of intolerance. • Share information about specific incidents that are happening in our communities. • Seek ways to speak out against these actions and to stand as allies with people and groups being targeted by acts of violence and prejudice. • Support individuals, families, organizations, grassroots groups and the community in the prevention of hate and intolerance. • Encourage public recognition of individuals, groups and agencies that contribute significantly to creating a more peaceful community. • Collaborate with others to promote peaceful resolutions to conflicts. A few years ago we learned about the Not In Our Town project and watched the original film shown on PBS about hate crimes committed in Billings Montana in 1993. It tells a moving story of individuals, groups and the whole of a small community standing strong together against hate and intolerance. It created a new grassroots movement all across our country. A follow-up film, Not In Our Town II, describes this movement. Throughout the US, community members rebuilt churches and acted to prevent racially motivated arson. Office workers, police officers, union members and newspaper reporters created positive community solutions to hate violence and the resurgence of Ku Klux Klan activity. A new film, Not In Our Town-Northern California, looks at 5 communities over a 5-year period as they take action when their neighbors are targets of bigotry. Contra Costa NIOT has been privileged to show these films and lead discussions with many groups. This has proven to be a wonderful organizing and educational awareness tool. We would like to bring this program to your group. After showing the film our trained facilitators will lead small discussion groups in which people are encouraged to share their stories, create their own solutions and build support for healing. There is no charge. If you would like to arrange an event, learn more about our group, or join us, please contact us at the address, phone or email noted at the top of this letter. If you would like to join our email listserv, send an email to: Not/nOurTown-subscribe@yahoogroups.com . Thank you for your interest. rev.4/15/05 Monument Community Partnership, Mt. Diablo Peace&Justice Center, a secular program of the Mt. Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church, National Alliance for the Mentally III (NAMI)-CC, Rainbow Community Center. List in formation For more info about the event: Mt. Diablo Peace&Justice Center, info@mtdpc.org/925-933-7850 For more info about the film: www.kged.org/niot The film is a co-production of KQED Public Television and The Working Group. DIRECTIONS: Centre Concord is located at 5298 Clayton Road, Concord, in the Clayton Fair Shopping Center (almost to Ygnacio Valley Road)behind Mavericks Sports Club and next to Clayton Bowl. Hotline for directions: 925-671-3466 Map:www.ci.concord.ca.us/about/directions.htm#centreconcord NOT IN OUR TOWN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA: WHEN HATE HAPPENS HERE Story Synopses Staging a Response to Hate., Newark, CA Fall 2002 In the fall of 2002, Newark Memorial High School was making plans to present The Laramie Project as the school's fall play. The play explores how the residents of Laramie, Wyoming dealt with the murder of Matthew Shepard, a shocking act of violence that focused the country's attention on hate crimes. In the middle of rehearsals for the play, students learned that one of their peers had been murdered in a crime horrifyingly reminiscent of the one they were exploring on stage. Gwen Araujo was found brutally beaten and strangled to death and her body dumped in a shallow grave in the Sierra Nevada mountains over 100 miles away. She was allegedly killed by a group of male students upon their discovery that Gwen was biologically male. The story follows cast members as they apply the lessons about hate and homophobia they learned from the play in their own lives, and illustrates how the play became a catalyst for parents, residents and civic leaders in Newark to take action and respond to these issues in their community. Summer of Hate, Sacramento and Redding, CA, 1999 In the early morning hours of June 18, 1999, three Sacramento synagogues Congregation B'Nai Israel, Congregation Beth Shalom, and the Kenneset Israel Torah Center- were all fire-bombed within a 45 minute period. It was one of the worst anti-Semitic attacks in California's history. Jimmie Yee, a Sacramento City Councilmember who oversees the district where the crimes took place, was personally shaken by the hate crimes, as six years earlier, Yee and his family were targeted in a series of attacks against the Asian and African American communities when a gasoline-filled bottle was thrown through a window in his home. The night after the synagogue bombings, Yee and several members of the Asian and African American community organized to take a collective stand against anti-Semitic hate crimes. The next day, approximately four thousand people, including some three hundred clerics of diverse religious backgrounds, politicians, and law enforcement officials, shared a stage at the Sacramento community center under the banner"Sacramento Together United We Stand." The arson attacks in Sacramento were only the beginning of the "Summer of Hate." The avowed white supremacists who allegedly committed the synagogue bombings, brothers Benjamin Matthew and James Tyler Williams, returned to their hometown of Redding and committed a deadly crime. Gary Matson and Winfield Scott Mowder were found murdered in their home less than two weeks after the Sacramento arsons. Less than a week after the murders, the Williams brothers were arrested on suspicion of murder. The community was shocked to find out that the Williams brothers were from the area and possessed a cache of weapons and white supremacist and anti-gay literature in their home. Four hundred people gathered to remember Scott and Gary and speak out against discrimination against the gay community. Activists, religious leaders of different faiths, and politicians all took a public.stand against hate crimes of every kind. Though these acts of hate connected the members of the torched synagogues to the family of the murdered men in Redding, this relationship had not been recognized by the two communities until a B'Nai Israel congregation member made the discovery that his assistant was married to Gary Matson Is brother. In the spring of 2004, the congregation of B'Nai Israel held a Shabbat service for Gary Matson and Scott Mowder, recognizing the connection between the crimes and the power of coming together and uniting their communities against hate. Welcome Signs, Anderson, CA, Winter 2004 In January of 2004, an 8-foot cross was erected and burned on the lawn of an African American family in the town of Anderson in Shasta County. Fearing for their safety, the family considered moving. City officials met with the family and encouraged them to stay, vowing to take action. The police chief treated the cross burning as a hate crime and called in the FBI to treat the offense as a federal crime. Six hundred people led by the mayor and an all volunteer organization, Shasta County Citizens Against Racism (SCCAR), showed up the following week to march through the neighborhood as a demonstration of support for the family. In addition, the city was declared a "no hate zone" as signs were installed at the city limits stating: "No Room for Racism, Hate, or Violence." The two offenders were caught and convicted of their crimes. Reversing Vandalism, San Francisco, CA 2000 In 2000, library staff at the San Francisco Central Library discovered books vandalized beyond repair. Most disturbing was the pattern of the crime - all the books were gay-oriented texts. For over a year, the vandalism continued until library workers decided to take action. On one of her days off, a librarian staked out book stacks where mutilated titles had been discovered before. She happened upon a man returning a freshly-slashed book. San Francisco Police Department Inspector Milanda Moore, of the department's hate crimes division, responded immediately, arresting 46-year-old security guard John Perkyns, who had fresh razor blades and book carvings in his jacket pocket. In all, more than six hundred books had been destroyed .After the prosecution of Perkyns, the police returned the damaged books. The library staff decided to offer the damaged books to artists as materials for creative expression; books. When the books came back in their altered form, they would take on a life of their own. The resulting spring 2004 exhibition, "Reversing Vandalism," included over two hundred original works of art created from the damaged books, by artists in over 20 states and from as far away as Japan and France. Community and education outreach partners for Not in Our Town Northern California include: Facing History and Ourselves; San Francisco Public Library; San Francisco Chronicle in Education; Amnesty International; GLSEN San Francisco/East Bay and North Bay; Frameline; Anti-Defamation League; LGBT Alliance of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties; PFLAG San Francisco and Newark; Alameda County Human Relations Commission; Fremont Human Relations Commission; Sonoma County Human Rights Commission; East Bay Community Foundation; ACLU; California Council of Churches; United for Safe Schools Novato; Greater Sacramento Taskforce on Hate Crimes; Newark Unified School District; City of Newark; and the Interfaith Coalition of Sacramento. Major funding for this program has been provided by Ambassador James C. Hormel and Timothy C. Wu. Additional support has been provided by the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, Columbia Foundation, R. Gwin Follis Foundation, Glenn Perry and Eric Knudtson, Jennifer Essex and Steve Marcus—the 2004 Robert and Carole McNeil KQED Volunteer of the Year Award Winners, John Logan and Kevin Woodward, The Bernard Osher Foundation, and the KQED Campaign for the Future Program Venture Fund. Not In Our Town Northern California is a co-production of KQED-TV and Oakland-based production company The Working Group, producers of the Not In Our Town films and the www.pbs.org/niot website. This new hour-long documentary is the first regionally-focused episode in the Not In Our Town series. KQED Public Broadcasting operates KQED Public Television 9, one of the nation's most-watched public television stations during prime-time, and KQED's digital television channels, which include KQED HD, KQED Encore, KQED World, KQED Life and KQED Kids; KQED Public Radio, the most-listened-to public radio station in the nation with an award-winning news and public affairs program service (88.5 FM in San Francisco and 89.3 FM in Sacramento); KQED.org, one of the most visited station sites in Public Broadcasting; and KQED Education Network, which brings the impact of KQED to thousands of teachers, students, parents and media professionals through workshops, seminars and resources. The Not In Our Town campaign has grown to become one of the country's leading resources for community organizations seeking to prevent and respond to hate crimes. Providing tangible, practical tools to stimulate dialogue in town hall meetings, classrooms, churches, union halls, and training sessions for public policy makers and law enforcement officers, the Not In Our Town events encourage and guide communities by g learnin from each other. To enhance the reach of Not In Our Town Northern California and build community awareness and participation, KQED Public Broadcasting and The Working Group are working with an extensive network of partner organizations to offer community and educational outreach and a content-rich Web site tied to the program. Events will include the following: • A series of Alameda County premiere events, screenings, and organizing efforts in Newark, Fremont, Oakland and Hayward working with the Alameda County Human Relations Commission, City of Newark, Newark Unified School District, Oakland Film Commission and East Bay Community Foundation • Two KQED Teacher Workshops for Bay Area Teachers • Novato screening and facilitated discussion sponsored by United for Safe Schools • San Francisco screening and panel discussion at the Main Public Library coinciding with the national "Choosing to Participate" exhibit • Santa Rosa Rialto Theater community screening and discussion sponsored by the Sonoma County Commission on Human Rights • Sacramento screenings with the Hate Crime Taskforce and the Interfaith Coalition In addition, KQED Education Network (EdNet) and The Working Group will partner with Facing History and Ourselves, a national nonprofit organization promoting the teaching of citizenship, to develop Educator Guides in both online and print formats. The activities and lesson plans target students at the middle and high school levels but can also be used at the elementary level. All content aligns with the California State Standards for Social Studies and English. On the companion Web site (www.kged.o[g/niot), visitors can find out more about what constitutes a hate crime, how to report one, and standard recourse for citizens. Users can also connect with local resources through the directory of various Northern California county human rights commissions, anti-hate organizations, monitoring groups and law enforcement agencies. The site also includes stories from city and community leaders in Anderson, Newark and Contra Costa County, in particular, who share their communities' unique responses to hate crimes. Additional site features include an interview with an East Bay transgender media activist, Shelly Prevost, who has been documenting the events around Gwen Araujo's death. In early Spring 2005 additional components will be added to the site such as curriculum guides, classroom activities, a discussion guide, an outreach event calendar and digital stories produced through EdNet. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Yoonhyung Lee, Publicist Tel: 415-553-3338 Email: yleeakged.orq www.kged.ora/press Not In Our Town Northern California: When Hate Happens Here A new documentary produced by KQED and The Working Group profiles communities taking action against hate San Francisco, CA--- California prides itself on diversity. Immigrants from all over the world make their homes here, many of our leading elected officials are people of color, and the state is at the vanguard of the battle for gay civil rights. Still, we are far from immune to hate-based violence. Not In Our Town Northern California: When Hate Happens Here (www.kqed.org/niot), a co-production of KQED Public Television and The Working Group, looks at five local communities over afive-year period as they take action when their neighbors are targets of intolerance. Premiering on Friday, April 8, at 9:00 p.m. on KQED Public Television 9, Not In Our Town Northern California will also air on KQED digital channels. Not In Our Town Northern California is the newest production in The Working Group's Not In Our Town series, amedia-based national movement that encourages community response to hate crimes. In Not In Our Town Northern California, "ordinary" people come together to take action when their neighbors are targets of bigotry. From the state capitol to the center of San Francisco, from the shadow of Mt. Shasta to the suburbs of Silicon Valley, community leaders and citizens have found new ways to see through controversy and difference to create a safe place for all residents. The stories and communities include: • After transgender teen Gwen Araujo is killed by local youth in the Silicon Valley suburb of Newark, the town's residents and civic leaders must acknowledge and deal with this brutal and preventable crime. Through their local high school production of The Laramie Project, the students and Newark residents become aware of the parallels in their own community. • Sacramento mobilizes after the worst anti-Semitic arson attacks in the California capitol's history. • Redding citizens find new strength in diversity after a prominent gay couple is murdered. • Residents of the Shasta County town of Anderson join forces to make their values clear when a cross is burned on an African American family's lawn. • The San Francisco Public Library turns the mutilation of gay-themed books into an opportunity for creative community action.