Are you retiring? Graduating? Ready for a change? Peace Corps values your experience and welcomes volunteers of all ages. Come to one of the meetings this Sunday or Monday and find out if this opportunity is right for you.
The James River Ringers, Richmond’s premier handbell ensemble, will give a free concert at St. Andrew’s Church on Sunday, February 17th, at 6:00 pm. Located at the corner of S. Laurel St. and Idlewood Ave. on Oregon Hill, St. Andrew’s is offering this concert to the Richmond Community as part of its ongoing “Music with Grace Concert Series.” For more information call 648-7980 or visit www.standrewsec.org.
Author David L. Robbins will discuss his 2004 novel, Liberation Road, at the Virginia War Memorial this Saturday at 2PM. Free and open to the public. [via]
Upcoming film series at the Flying Brick Library
506 s. Pine Street.
The FlyingBrick Library Presents: Moving Images – Aseries of six movies to educate and ponder while it’s still coldoutside. Come to the library on Thursday evenings and watch somedocumentaries about real people’s struggles and triumphs withus.
The Library is at 506 S. Pine St. and can be accessed by wheelchair
Thursday, February 7 7:30 pm
UP THE RIDGE: A one-hour documentary by Nick Szuberla and Amelia Kirbyabout a maximum security prison in Virginia. In 1999 Szuberla andKirby were DJ’s for Appalachia’s only hip-hop radio program inWhitesburg, KY when they received hundreds of letters from inmatestransferred into nearby Wallens Ridge, the region’s newest prisonbuilt to prop up the shrinking coal economy. Filming began thatyear. The movie gives an in-depth look at the U.S. prison industryand the social impact of moving hundreds of thousands of inner-cityminority offenders to distant rural outposts.
‘When I visitedWallens Ridge in the spring of 1999, it was new and as yetunoccupied…It was both lavishly expensive and needlessly remote,built not because it was needed but because it was wanted bypoliticians who thought it would bring them votes.” –Joseph T.Hallinan Going Up the River: Travels in a Prison Nation, 2001
Thursday, February 21 7:30 pm
WINTER SOLDIER: Adocumentary about the Winter Soldier Investigation, a publicinquiry into war crimes committed by American forces in Vietnam, heldat a Howard Johnson motel in Detroit in February 1971. The Vietnam Veterans Against the War organized this event where morethan 125 veterans spoke of atrocities they had witnessed andcommitted.
On the 37 year anniversaryof this event the words of one participant veteran are eerilyrelevant:
‘Wegathered not to sensationalize our service but to decry the travestythat was Lt. William Calley’strial for the My Lai Massacre…if Calley were responsible, sowere his superiors up the chain of command, even to the president.The causes of My Lai and the brutality of the Vietnam War were rootedin the policies of our government as executed by our militarycommanders.’ –DonaldDzagulones,
AndLater: No! The Rape Documentary-about African-Americanwomen’s experiences, THIRST!-about water privatization, TheTake-about workers seizing control of factories in Argentina andWetback-documenting theexperiences of migrant workers crossing the border.
The second of the recently announced neighborhood-level Downtown Plan meetings is scheduled for Monday for the VCU, Monroe Ward, Oregon Hill, and Carver areas. The meeting will be at the William Byrd Community House (224 South Cherry Street) tonight from 6-8PM.
The City of Richmond Planning Commission invites property owners and interested members of the public to continue the discussion on the Draft Downtown Master Plan at neighborhood-oriented meetings. There are 6 meetings scheduled for Manchester, VCU/Monroe Ward/Carver/Oregon Hill, Shockoe, Broad Street & Jackson Ward, James River, and City Center.
The next meeting of the Sierra Club’s Falls of the James group will feature city officials to discuss recent flooding (hello Battery Park!), rate fee changes, and how well the utility is actually addressing water quality and stormwater runoff. The City has already held public meetings in various locations but this will give another chance to citizens to learn and question proposed changes in how Richmond manages H2O.
Richmond residents can register to receive free training in basic skills during an emergency as part of winter preparedness as part of Survivor Day training sponsored by the City’s Office of Emergency Management. The four-hour training session in fire safety, first-aid, anti-terrorism and weather response measures will take place from 9AM to 1PM on Saturday, January 5, at the Landmark Theater.
For more info, contact Patty Parks at librarian@wbch.org or 643-2717.
The final Byrd House Market of the year of the year is today, Tuesday December 11, 2007 from 3 until 6 PM. Stop by and pick up something from the unique craft vendors and “some yummy holiday treats for the body, mind and heart”.