Hello all,
The news from the border is very distressing regarding children being forcibly separated from their parents.
Here in Westchester County, children continue to be separated from their parents in ICE raids.
Luis Yumbla with the Hudson Valley Community Coalition is organizing a Caravan of Hope, Solidarity and Freedom to reunify families both at the border and here in Westchester County. They will travel to Washington, DC, this Wednesday, June 20th. He is bringing seven local families who have family members detained by ICE to meet with our Senator Gillibrand in her DC office and to also meet with other representatives.
He is asking for us to gather at 5am on Wednesday at the Sleepy Hollow Senior Center located at 55 Elm Street in Sleepy Hollow with signs: KEEP FAMILIES TOGETHER to help with the morale of the families boarding the bus to DC. I will bring the signs from the WESPAC office and will help with media outreach. Please join me, either for the send off or to get on the bus if you can. There are seats available on the bus if people would like to travel down with the family members.
Funds are also still needed to pay for the bus.
Luis also says that calls to our Congressional representatives should continue (Nita Lowey, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand) to stop this massive violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
I hope to see many of you on Wednesday early morning. It really helps the families not to feel so alone. There should also be a welcoming crew when they return around 9pm that same day. Let us know if you would like to bottom line the evening welcoming crew. Luis can be reached at [email protected] . ... See MoreSee Less
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Art Journaling at WESPAC to Combat "Outrage Fatigue" with Susan Sheppard:Art Journaling at WESPAC to Combat "Outrage Fatigue": Based on Gayle Dunkelberger's successful sketching and water colors at WESPAC, the board would like to continue this type of programming at our social justice center to compliment community forums and planning meetings. Susan Sheppard spent her career with the Greenburgh Central School District as a teacher and has also taught art to teachers at Mercy College. This class will take place once a week for a 90 minute session starting in July. If you are interested, please RSVP to [email protected] by Monday, June 18th and I will then send out a doodle poll to all interested participants so that we can schedule the day and time of the week for this art series based on people's availability. $20 per class. All contributions to support WESPAC and no one will be turned away for lack of funds:
From Susan: An art journal is a “visual diary.” In addition to (or maybe in place of ) words, the journal keeper uses visual images to portray his/her thoughts and feelings. During these very stressful times an art journal can serve as a little haven in a world of madness.
My vision of this class is having the participants create an art journal over a series of workshops with or without the guidance of prompts combined with a variety of art techniques. For example, for the first class I would like to prepare the first few pages for future work and creating a self-portrait using collage. The prompt would be “The Me Nobody Knows.” The class would occur over several weeks depending on interest. Each participant would have to provide a “journal” (water color pad, composition book, or a hard cover book) , magazines and images that appeal to them, and writing tools of their choice. I would provide other tools and materials.
Some techniques are collage, printing, stenciling, drawing, painting, Zentangle, etc. The prompts can be whole class , personal to the participants, or pulled from a jar.
Dear Nada,
Here are a few photos. It is hard to see the “moving parts” from photos. The first one is a cover, the others are pages. There are pockets, niches, and pull outs to hold secret thoughts. ... See MoreSee Less
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