King Jr. Blvd. Rutgers Newark Campus, Newark, NJ
Register now to attend this conference. Hear and discuss with leading voices in the communities under attack about the assault on civil rights and plan how to respond.
"Mass Arrests of Muslims in LA", "US Assassinates American as 'Enemy Combatant' ", "NY Palestinian Activist Jailed After Denouncing Israeli Policies", "Thousands of Mid- East Immigrants Remain in Indefinite Detention"
The headlines say it all: There is a massive assault on civil rights in the United States, unparalleled since the days of McCarthyism and Jim Crow. Thousands are being targeted for their religion or for their political views, detained indefinitely without charges or even killed.
We will not stand by and let our fundamental civil rights be destroyed. The NJ Local of the National Writers Union (UAW Local 1981), together with other organizations, is hosting a conference of Middle Eastern, South Asian and Muslim-American writers to discuss with other writers and activists how to collectively respond to the attack on civil rights both overseas and domestically. All are invited to attend.
Writers have historically been champions for civil rights and freedom of _expression. When civil liberties have been threatened in the past writers have stepped forward and demanded that the Bill of Rights be upheld. Today these rights are again threatened. Join us in raising our voices of opposition.
Speakers include:
Suheir Hammad Palestinian-American poet now performing in "Def Poetry Jam On Broadway"
Sohail Mohammed, NJ based immigration attorney and activist who has defended post 9/11 detainees.
Nathalie Handal editor of The Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology an Academy of American Poets bestseller.
Jordan Elgrably writer, editor and producer, cofounder of Ivri-NASAWI and Open Tent Middle East Coalition , editor of Criminal Defense Weekly.
Plenaries and Roundtable discussions on: The attack on civil rights, self-censorship, feminism pushed in the background, writers as activists, writers and workers defend their rights, the endless war at home and abroad, new writers projects, writing on the Isreale-Palestine struggle. An Activist Plenary will make plans to fight back against the assault on civil rights. For conference schedule, full speaker list and registration: http://www.nwunj.homestead.com/whatsup.html --- Sent from UnionMail Service [http://mail.union.org.za]