NEWS

Join Us!
 Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom - U.S.
33^rd Triennial Congress
Thursday July 27^th – Sunday July 30^th
University of Illinois at Chicago
Student Center West, 2^nd Floor Conference Rooms
828 South Wolcott Ave ●  Chicago IL 60612

REGISTER TODAY »

Join other strong & feisty women from across the U.S. who are rising up and organizing for action to create an effective, sustainable global grassroots movement.  Designed to be a working Congress, each conference segment is inspired by theme:  Rise Up, Revolt, Remember, Reimagine and Reclaim.  Attendees will sharpen their activist skills and enhance their knowledge of key issues worked on by WILPF members back home.  Collaborative workshops with next-step action items make this Congress a go-to-event for building strong alliances and forming a more peaceful and just world.

Congress Headquarters:
The conference will be held at the Student Center West Conference Facility on the University of Illinois-Chicago Campus, within walking distance of Jane Addams’s Hull House, the first settlement house for immigrants in the U.S.

Lodging will be offered in dorms close to the conference facility.  Most meals will be included in your registration, with a variety of on-your-own meal options available from the conference facility cafeteria and nearby culinary scenes in Little Italy and Greek Town.  Take advantage of your trip and come early or stay late to experience Chicago! 

See Registration and Chicago, for more details.

Program:
Chicago Activist Panel
Issue Workshops
Skill-Building Workshops
"March" to Hull House & Tour
Member Showcase
Entertainment & More!

Proposed Workshops:
Proposed workshop topics were selected based on feedback from a recent WILPF member survey.  An email will be routed to branches and members to collect workshop content offers from those who would like to present or co-present on one of the proposed topics below.

Proposed Issue Workshops to complement WILPF’s Issue Groups:

• Global Warming: Food Sovereignty and Regenerative Agriculture
• Next Steps after Ban the Bomb to Peace and Freedom
• Going Local: Community Democracy Took-Kit - ordinances, resolutions, public banking, participatory budgeting
• Election 2018: Reclaim Elections, Restore Voting Rights, Protect Our Ballots
• Transforming Today’s Militarized Policing and Prison Pipeline
• Women Forced to Flee: Confronting immigration, migration, refugees, human & sex trafficking       
• Our Bodies, Our Lives: Women’s Health and Reproductive Justice

Proposed Skill-Building Workshops:

• Building the Beloved Community: race, diversity and anti-oppression training
• Effective Advocacy: meeting with elected/appointed officials, lobbying, print and social media
• Solidarity Forever!  Networking and collaborative movement building
• Story-telling to Change the Narrative toward Peace and Freedom
• Creative Communication: music, theater, street performance, puppets, banners, chalk, light art, and more
• WILPF US 101: expanding membership, starting and maintaining a branch, finance & fundraising, internships, ONE WILPF calls, and Solidarity actions
• WILPF US 102:  collaboration with WILPF International to build a global grassroots WILPF movement, strengthening the Practicum and Local2Global seminars at the UN Commission on the Status of Women

See Schedule, for a daily overview.

Entertainment: 
Harmony, Hope & Healing
Let your spirits rise with inspirational gospel-style songs and heartfelt stories performed by a small ensemble cast of this sought-after hometown Chicago group. 

Harmony, Hope & Healing’s (HHH) mission is to create a safe environment where vulnerable individuals and families heal and rebuild through the restorative power of music. Founded in 2000 and incorporated as a nonprofit in 2003, HHH provides music programs at various shelters, residential facilities, community centers and the Cook County Jail, all located in some of Chicago’s most poverty-stricken and violent neighborhoods.  Supporting women, men and children as they heal from traumas associated with homelessness, addictions, violence, incarceration and isolation, HHH strives to improve the quality of participants’ lives. Through the transformative power of music, HHH programs foster the development of key life skills, including stress management, communication and parenting; building a sense of community and nurturing hope for a better future. Participants also have the opportunity to perform with the HHH choir at public events which helps them gain self-confidence and exposes them to a variety of new experiences and people. HHH helps individuals become independent and emotionally and socially healthy members of society.

Member Showcase: 
WILPF Branches will be given the opportunity to setup Branch Table Exhibits. A WILPF Tribute Video will also be produced to showcase all the members who make WILPF great! See Member Showcase, for more details.

Leadership Institute:
WILPF members are invited to attend the WILPF-US Leadership Institute, which will explore how skillful leadership can help branches build their vision, their direction, and more effective local work. During sessions held before the Congress and interspersed throughout it, participants will learn the skills and art of leadership especially needed for our times. To find out more, click here.

Scholarships:
Scholarships to help pay for Congress costs will be distributed as funds become available.  If you would like to apply for a scholarship or donate to fund a scholarship, please contact Jan Corderman at jancorderman@msn.com or 515-205-4504 for more information. 

Sponsors:
Our sincere gratitude for the generous sponsors who are helping to underwrite Congress to make it enjoyable and affordable for all.  Contact Mary Hanson Harrison at HARRISON0607@msn.com or 515-771-6161 to find out how you can become a sponsor!  See Sponsors, for more details.

For more information:
Contact Chris Wilbeck, Congress Coordinator, chris.wilpf@gmail.com or 515-229-6988.

2017 Fundraising Goal

Everyone IN, nobody OUT. That’s what it’s going to take to reach our fundraising goal for 2017.

Our Fundraising Goal for 2017 has been finalized and approved by the WILPF US Board. It’s a “Bold” plan that requires everyone’s participation. Fundraising is everyone’s job at WILPF. How well will we do together? If we ALL contribute, it won’t be hard to reach our goal.

The 2017 Goal for Development at WILPF: $73,000

• Cup of Coffee Campaign Goal (see more below): $13,200
• Major Gifts ($250 or more): $40,000
  • 50 gifts of $250 =    $12,500
  • 20 gifts of $500 =    $10,000
  • 10 gifts of $1000 =  $10,000
  • 3 gifts of $2000  =   $  7,500
• Appeals: $13,000
• Other (events, online giving, memorial gifts): $6,800

Total for 2017: $73,000

Be a Sustainer: Buy WILPF a Cup of Coffee

We are hoping to gain 220 new donors this year through our monthly automatic payment plan—a painless way to donate as little as $5 a month, but one that makes a big difference to WILPF US:

Cup of Coffee Campaign Goal: $5/month = $60/year x 220 members donating = $13,200.

The easiest way to invest in peace and peacemaking at WILPF is to be part of our Cup of Coffee campaign, with regular monthly or weekly deductions so small you won’t miss them, but large enough to make a big difference at WILPF US.

Participate in the Campaign.

ONE WILPF CALL

The next ONE WILPF CALL is Thursday, May 11, 4pm pacific/7pm eastern.

Find out what all the excitement is about! Join us. It’s easy. Connect, Engage, Lead—Together on the ONE WILPF ALL MEMBER CALL.

Just click on the Preregistration link to register.

You can call in with only your phone, or using both your phone and your computer for a fuller communication experience. All voices will be muted during the general part of the call and open during Break Out Rooms.

• PRESS 5 on your phone keypad if you have any technical problems.
• PRESS 1 on your phone keypad during Q&A to raise your hand and get on the stack, or to vote in real-time polls.

When We Stand Together . . .

We amplify each other’s voices . . . We strengthen each other’s work.

Our first Solidarity event, on April 22, offered inspiring images and created awareness of the breadth of our work across the US. Twenty-six branches from across the US participated on some level in the efforts we made to stand together as ONE WILPF, with the same message, on the same day, facing the same direction.

While the rest of the country was focusing on climate change and science, WILPF members were helping folks connect the dots between militarism and war and their unintended consequences in terms of

• climate (environmental degradation, water shortages, droughts, extreme weather);
• women (human rights abuses, human trafficking, the plight of climate and war refugees, the most vulnerable populations bearing most of the burden); and
• peace (the unthinkable consequences of nuclear winter if a nuclear bomb is used, the fallout of Trump’s foreign policy of aggression, and the endless cycle of war that profits the wealthy and devastates our young soldiers and their families).

The images we produced were pretty inspiring. Joining our efforts across the US underscored our broad capacity as ONE WILPF. In the face of the work that lies ahead of us, we’re going to need that vision of strength and solidarity every day. Your GIFT today to WILPF US helps fund this kind of organizing, and keeps us strong for all the work that lies ahead.

In the days leading up to April 22, we organized with banners and signs that united us under one theme, one graphic image. We were able to demonstrate a united front, and during the Earth Day weekend we flooded social media with images of unity and unanimity.

During that weekend, thousands of people visited our booths. Hundreds talked to our current members, picked up handouts, and signed up to receive more information or to become new members.

This, our first Solidarity experience, really was a winner! Standing together, on one day, with one theme and one voice, across the US . . . WILPF women, you look strong and ready to RESIST!

For a complete list of all the events held across the US, send an email to 1wilpfcalls@gmail.com with the subject line “EVENT LIST please.” To see more photos, visit the Peace & Planet Before Profit webpage.

Myrna Balk, “Two Sisters,” 1987, Fry Point on copper, 3”H x 4”W.
 

Myrna Balk’s retrospective exhibit, “Connecting the Dots—A 50-year Retrospective with Changing Materials and Themes: Emerging and Reemerging,” brings together a lifetime of art making. The exhibit opened May 4 at the Piano Craft Gallery, 791 Tremont Street, Boston, MA, and runs until May 28. This culturally rich, multimedia show includes 50 etchings and 20 sculptures in steel, clay, barn materials, found objects, and fiber art and reflects Balk’s continuing concern with issues of human suffering close to home and in other lands, as well as numerous works that are purely artistic.

Balk, who is both an artist and a social worker, worked closely with victims of sex trafficking in Nepal and helped them to translate their stories into pictures. Her work, which grew out of this collaboration, and which is included in “Connecting the Dots,” was previously exhibited in Nepal, Cleveland, and Boston. Eight of Balk’s etchings on sex trafficking were also part of an exhibit at the United Nations in New York in 2000.

A member of WILPF for many years, Myrna Balk has said: “My work is my way of standing up and saying ‘Pay attention!’ But when I work, I don’t work as an activist with a message. I work as an artist.” She is the recipient of three Mass Cultural Council grants and invitations to two international workshops, one with Sir Anthony Caro and one in Mumbai, India.

Using etchings, woodcuts, sculpture, collages, and installations, she pulls together multifaceted problems that are all around us. Her simple linear images allow us to think about the issues as we look at the art.

Through her expressive sculptures of clay, bamboo, and steel and a broad grasp of printmaking technique, including etchings, monotypes, and woodcuts, she asserts the essential dignity and humanity of abused women. With a light, almost innocent touch, her allegorical works bring us into shadowy environments that feel both domesticated and dangerous. Her courageous guidance empowers us to look with compassion on victims sex trafficking, genital mutilation, hunger, and the Holocaust.

Photographs of Myrna Balk’s work illustrated recent issues of Peace & Freedom magazine (spring/summer 2016 and fall/winter 2015). For more information about her work, visit her website.

Exhibit Information

Hours: May 5-May 28, 2017

• Friday hours: 4-8 PM
• Saturday and Sunday hours: 12-5 PM
• Open by appointment: myrna@myrnabalk.com

Opening Reception, Sunday, May 7, 3-6 PM
Discussion with the Artist: Sunday, May 21, 3 PM

Members of Earth Democracy Group, Fresno Branch, during Earth Week activities.

By Jean Hays, Earth Democracy Group

The Fresno Branch Earth Democracy Group planned a week of activities for April 22-29, 2017, that included creative learning about climate, especially for the young; a tribal water ceremony; and a challenge to Governor Brown to be a “climate” leader.

It was a busy Earth Week for WILPF Fresno. Activities included our two booths at the Earth Day Faire, where children of all ages cleaned the plastic from the ocean and freed plastic fish from plastic rings. This was the “hit” of our Booth One. Visitors could also learn to clean tiles using a vinegar solution and purchase “air-cleaning” plants.

On April 23, we hosted a river blessing at the San Joaquin River. Members of the Choinumni Tribe conducted a beautiful ceremony at the river’s edge, after which two people spoke about growing up on the river.

On the three days of April 24-26, the WILPF Library Committee visited various schools to present Earth lessons.

And, finally, on April 29, after participating in the People’s Climate March in the afternoon, we hosted an outdoor evening presentation with Adam Scow, California Director of Food & Water Watch. His talk, “Winning a 100% Clean Energy Future for California,” is a most important topic in this state, where Governor Brown wants to be praised as a “green” governor, yet continues to allow fracking, especially in the Central Valley, and the use of contaminated fracking water for agricultural irrigation. To go down in history as a real “climate” leader, the Governor needs to follow New York’s Governor Cuomo and other governors who have now banned fracking.

See more photos on the WILPF Fresno Earth Democracy Facebook page.

Inset: The Fresno Earth Democracy Group’s “fish pond.”