Camp Peaceprints in Buffalo uses the arts and educational experiences to get its participants involved in social justice and peacemaking, while still having fun. The camp will run for its 12th year from July 15 to 26. The camp is for children aged 8 to 13.
Each year, Camp Peaceprints takes on a theme. This year, the theme is Discovering Diversity: An Intercultural Adventure. The camp runs Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the St. Mary’s School for the Deaf. Registration forms are available online.
Co-Director of Camp Peaceprints and WNY Peace Center Executive Director Vicki Ross said campers get to build a diverse and connected community at the camp. The experiences campers get with the camp emphasize community, leadership, as well as awareness and appreciation of different cultures. Campers are able to learn to appreciate different cultures while having a lot of fun on field trips as well as swimming trips.
The camp in itself creates a welcoming community for children of all different cultures and communities. Campers also create a guide as to how they will treat fellow campers.
The camp hosts children from all different communities and recruits campers from a variety of communities. This creates a welcoming environment that campers can dictate. It is up to the campers how they behave with one another and campers make an agreement to guide their behavior at the beginning of camp. It includes appreciation and respect for all.
This year’s theme is all about welcoming different cultures. This year, campers will spend the day with a daycare of Muslim/Yemeni children.
“Engaging in different cultures is a great joy to me. All different languages, dress and food are wonderful to me.”
“My favorite part of camp is creating the beloved community and how close everyone becomes over time,” she said, “The love. The growing love in the community is my favorite part.”
Adult volunteers are needed for swimming on Tuesday and Friday afternoons during camp.
716-332-3904 6/19/19 wnypeace.org
Dear Friends,
We hope you’ll have joined us for tonight at 6 p.m. for the Traffic Stops, Fines and Fees: A Community Conversation at the Merriweather Library, 1324 Jefferson Ave (@Utica), Buffalo 14208. Ever had trouble paying an expensive traffic ticket? Has your driver’s license ever been suspended because of an unpaid traffic ticket? Ever experienced incarceration due to an unpaid traffic ticket? Did you know? Black drivers in Buffalo are 4 x more likely than white drivers to have their licenses suspended. People in Black neighborhoods are 8 x more likely to receive multiple traffic tickets than white folks.
Our Resist Militarism! Taskforce & Veterans for Peace meeting discussed our Infringement Festival Plans, Bolton’s War Mongering with Iran & Venezuela, and possible related actions. Future meetings will be the 3rd Wednesday of every month, in the Isais Gonzalez-Sato Branch Library, at 280 Porter Ave. at 5 p.m. Come out to the Old County Hall tomorrow at 2pm (92 Franklin) to support an Advisory Committee to the Sheriff’s Department, so sorely needed with deaths in the facilities at many multiples of in other facilities, and suits filed over brutality! And Friday, you won’t want to miss the Youth Climate Strike at 2pm on Niagara Square! The youth are taking the lead to stop the climate catastrophe already in process.
The Strawberry Moon Festival is this weekend! It is a communal, season-welcoming event and will be kicking off its inagural run on June 22nd at 3 p.m. in the Artpark Ampitheater. Tribe Called Red will be playing.
You may also be interested this weekend for the Bridging Black and Native Shores Conference for Black and Native Peoples. The conference will take place from June 21st to June 23rd in Pittsburg, PA. This conference is a gathering space to bridge communities that share many common trails but are often separated due to the nature of systemic oppression.
Register here: BIT.LY/O2OCOMMUNITY
We especially hope you can come when Damian Webster will present a broad overview of the Great Law on June 25th at 6:30 p.m. at Burning Books. It will kick off a reading group of the Kayanerenkó:wa: The Great Law of Peace by Kayanesenh Paul Williams. The group will meet the last Tuesday of every month.
And you’ll be inspired and refreshed to Welcome/Celebrate Summer on June 23rd at 4 pm., rain or shine at the Riverside-Salem Environmental Sanctuary. There will be music in the woods with Nan Hoffman, Joe Tumino and Kathy DeLoughry. Donations are free will. There will be refreshments and a potluck!
Join us for a NONAPL Demonstration on June 29th, from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. in front of the Chautauqua Mall in Jamestown. If you are unable to stay for the entire time, feel free to bring signs and come whenever you can!
No hate, no fear as we are #StillResisting. Peace, Thanks, Solidarity, and yes Love.
Events this week:
Traffic Stops, Fines and Fees: A Community Conversation
June 19th @ 6 p.m.
Merriweather Library
At this event, Buffalo residents will gather to share personal experiences with spiraling traffic debt along with a new coalition of local grass-roots organizations who will provide data-driven context about the Buffalo Police Department’s aggressive traffic ticketing practices, and the devastating effects that it has on communities of color and the poor. The meeting will give voice to individuals affected and an opportunity for experts to provide facts about traffic enforcement patterns in Buffalo and in New York State all in an effort to create solutions.
Refreshments will be provided. All are welcome!
Resist Militarism! & Veterans for Peace Meeting
June 19th @ 5 p.m.
Panera Bread on Elmwood Ave.
We will be discussing our Infringement Festival Plans, Bolton’s War Mongering with Iran & Venezuela, and possible related actions.
Strawberry Moon Festival
June 22nd @ 3 p.m.
Artpark Amphitheater
Join us for community fun and see Tribe Called Red play!
Bridging Black and Native Shores Conference
June 21st-23rd
Pittsburg, PA
Register here: BIT.LY/O2OCOMMUNITY
Damien Webster Presents Overview of the Great Law
June 25th @ 6:30 p.m.
Burning Books, 420 Connecticut St.
Walk-Out for Climate
June 21 @ 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Buffalo Climate Strike, with US Youth Climate Strike. All students, parents, activists, and concerned people: please join to demand our elected officials do something about the climate crisis. At Niagara Square (in front of Buffalo City Hall). Signs more than welcome!!
Celebrate Summer
June 23rd @ 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Riverside-Salem Environmental Sanctuary
NONAPL Demonstration
June 29th @ 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Jamestown, in front of the Chautauqua Mall along Fairmont Rd.
More events on the calendar and the previous weekly news.
Many thanks, peace, solidarity, and yes – Love
REGULARLY SCHEDULED EVENTS in the One Movement, One Struggle:
Riverside-Salem UCC/DC – Progressive program followed by potluck. Sundays, 4-7pm. Environmental Cottage, 3449 West River Road, Grand Island. All are welcome. This week, recognizing/remembering our Fathers.
Talking Peace with the WNY Peace Center Radio Show on 91.3FM, WBNY. Mondays, 1-4pm. Call-in show! Go to wbny.buffalostate.edu. Upcoming on Racial Justice & Environmental Justice.
Buffalo Supports Standing Rock Water Protectors/Nekanesakt. Indigenous support group/allies. Tuesdays, 6:30-8pm. At Burning Books, 420 Connecticut Ave. All are welcome!!
Prisoners’ Rights Taskforce – Wednesdays 4-5:30pm protest/vigils at the Erie County Holding Center (Delaware & Church). All are welcome. Please bring signs.
Interfaith Peace Network, 1stand 3rdThursdays, 9:15am at 1272 Delaware Ave, Buffalo NY 14209 entrance and parking round back.) Breakfast potluck, planning/publicizing, & discussion.
Vigil for Victims of ICE Terror – Thursdays, 5-6pm, ICE building on the corner of Delaware and Chippewa. Bring your signs and spirit of Solidarity. We will not stay silent! #EndICETerror #FamiliesBelongTogether #AbolishICE
Environmental Justice Taskforce – Vigil to Protest the Shipments of VERY Dangerous Radioactive Liquid from Canada coming over the Peace Bridge. Fridays 2-3pm, Front Park at Vermont & Busti, Buffalo. Signs welcome and also usually available.
Stop The Violence Coalition – 1st and 3rd Fridays of the month; 6pm, United Way Building, Delaware and Summer Sts.
Women In Black – Nonviolence vigil, Bidwell and Elmwood. Saturdays, Noon-1pm. Signs also available. (and you don’t need to be a woman or dress in black)
Of note: West African Drumming Sundays, 12-2pm, Little Africa Culture Club, 356 S. Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY.
We shall overcome #Unitethestruggles #Loveislove #PowerWITH-NOTPowerOver
***********
More listings on calendar and in previous email posts.
To subscribe, write to weeklynews@wnypeace.org with “subscribe” in subject line.
To unsubscribe, write to weeklynews@wnypeace.org with “unsubscribe” in subject line. (Sorry for occasional delays!)
Please submit possible listings for consideration to weeklynews@wnypeace.org.
The time is now, and we are the people we’ve been waiting for.
And remember to tune in: DEMOCRACY NOW! IS NOW BEING BROADCASTMONDAY-FRIDAY, 8AM-9AM (LIVE) ON WBNY 91.3FM. Hear it over the radio or streaming live at wbny.buffalostate.edu.
Dear Friends,
The West Side Community Day is doubling for the WNY Peace Center as an opportunity to celebrate and appreciate Silver Light on her last day as assistant director. Please come see her and thank her on June 13th, at 4 p.m. on Auburn and Grant Sts. Many thanks, Silver, for all your help and work. We will miss you!
Please join us June 14th to hear Gail Walker, Executive Director of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, speak on U.S. – Cuba relations. The talk will take place at 7:00pm at the Pilgrim St. Luke’s Sanctuary Church, 335 Richmond Avenue, Buffalo.
Gail Walker is the daughter of IFCO founder Rev. Lucius Walker, and a force for peace and healthy international relations and communities in her own right. Ms. Walker’s work – leading IFCO delegations to Cuba and Central America, combined with years as a journalist communications professional – gives her tremendous knowledge and understanding of the countries as well as the need for normal civilized relations between our countries. She comes as the guest of the WNY Peace Center and our Latin American Solidarity Committee. Ms. Walker will be leading the Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan leaving the US for Mexico City on June 22, and then on to Havana.
Two caravanistas from Buffalo will be joining 30+ others from across the United States and Canada on the 30th Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba. By circumventing the embargo, bringing in material aid, and challenging the administration’s travel restrictions, Victoria Ross and Marie Schuster of the WNY Peace Center endorse: “Love is Our License, Cuba is our Friend,” a slogan of the IFCO Caravan.
Juneteenth is this weekend! It takes place in MLK Park, on Fillmore and Best streets, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Juneteenth, also known as Juneteenth Independence Day or Freedom Day, is an American holiday that commemorates the June 19, 1865, announcement of the abolition of slavery in the U.S. state of Texas, and more generally the emancipation of enslaved African Americans throughout the former Confederate States of America.
The 2-day celebration in Buffalo includes a parade, arts and culture stages, vendors, classes, demonstrations and interactive, fun events.
The African Heritage Food Co-Op has acquired 238 Carlton Ave due to an anonymous donor. Now they are stabilizing it and beginning the build out. If you would like to help to bring healthy food access and options to the Fruit belt neighborhood, call 716-573-1844 or email ahfcinfo@gmail.com to donate. The Co-Op currently has other open locations in Buffalo and Niagara Falls for your shopping enjoyment! Visit myahfc.com for more information. Also, https://www.facebook.com/ahfcbuffalo/
We need calls and emails to the Governor and legislative leaders urging them to pass the Climate and Community Protection Act, the strongest climate bill possible before the session ends. If you can’t go on the trip to Albany on Tues, 6/11, please call. Especially today, we need calls and emails.
Contact Info:
Governor Cuomo: 518474-8390;
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie: 518-455-3791; Speaker@nyassembly.gov
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, (518) 455-2585; scousins@nysenate.gov
Assembly Environmental Chair Steve Engelbright – 518-455-4804; EngleS@nyassembly.gov
Senate Environmental Chair Todd Kaminsky – 518-455-3401; kaminsky@nysenate.gov
(More contact info at wnypeace.org/organizing-in-WNY
More listings on calendar and in previous email posts.
To subscribe, write to weeklynews@wnypeace.org with “subscribe” in subject line.
To unsubscribe, write to weeklynews@wnypeace.org with “unsubscribe” in subject line. (Sorry for occasional delays!)
Please submit possible listings for consideration to weeklynews@wnypeace.org.
The time is now, and we are the people we’ve been waiting for.
And remember to tune in: DEMOCRACY NOW! IS NOW BEING BROADCAST MONDAY-FRIDAY, 8AM-9AM (LIVE) ON WBNY 91.3FM. Hear it over the radio or streaming live at wbny.buffalostate.edu.
