Community Resource Directory
COMMUNITY RESOURCE DIRECTORY
Let AGENDA Cure Your Summertime Blues
In the upcoming months AGENDA intends to focus more closely on environmental and human rights topics, both locally and globally. Now that it is summertime and social paradigms are being contemplated over lemonade, what is to be our agenda for the future? AGENDA welcomes greater community participation in shaping future issues and in providing feedback on past and present issues. Now's a perfect time to get involved!
VOLUNTEERS: As always, AGENDA is seeking volunteers. Please call if you can help distribute the paper at the end of the month, if you can assist with fundraising, or if you have bookkeeping computer skills to lend. AGENDA also needs writers and reporters. If you'd like to talk to us about ideas for stories or are willing to take a reporting assignment, please call us! We are particularly in need of writers and reporters to cover cultural events.
Community Resource Directory: The directory is an excellent tool for networking. AGENDA now has a circulation of 20,000. For a minimum fee, groups can greatly increase their public visibility. CRD entries for July are due June 15.
ADVERTISING: AGENDA is now seeking to increase its non-business display advertising. Display ads are the regular advertisements of various sizes that you see throughout AGENDA. AGENDA ads can work for community organizations in many ways, e.g., recruitment of new members, publicity for upcoming events, highlighting an issue, advertising job openings, advertising items for sale, or announcing meetings. The deadline for camera-ready ads is the 23rd of each month. Please reserve space by the 15th. AGENDA also offers art production services. Write or call for an advertising rate card We are also seeking ad representatives to work for AGENDA. Call if interested!
SUBSCRIPTIONS: Why subscribe to a "free" newspaper? AGENDA is your print medium. Most of its articles are written by its readers. Like public radio or television, AGENDA must rely on community support. If you have read and like AGENDA, consider subscribing. By taking out a $15/year subscription you can support AGENDA while increasing its readership. Send a gift subscription to a friend who has moved away from Arm Arbor! (See page 11 for details and order form.)
Deadlines for July edition: June 10: News and feature first draft. June 15: Calendar & Community Resource Directory listings.
AGENDA, 202 E. Washington #512, Ann Arbor, Ml 48104, 996-8018.
Lesbian-Gay Pride Week Proclamation Issued
We invite all members of the community to attend the Lesbian-Gay Pride Week events listed in this month's Calendar. Ann Arbor Mayor Gerald Jemigan has issued a Pride Week Proclamation, one of several since the first, which was put forward in Ann Arbor in 1972. That Proclamation was, as far as we know, the first issued by a governing body in the United States. Jerry DeGrieck and Jim Toy supplied the text. For information about Pride Week, please call 994-5403 or 763-4186.
OTHER NEWS: Regrettably, ABC has dropped "HeartBeat," which had introduced the first openly-lesbian regular character on prime-time television. The Hartford Courant has reported that although "Dynasty" began featuring a gay male character several years ago, prime time had refrained from offering a lesbian soap star in a weekly show, thus testifying to the double burden that lesbians bear: being homosexual and being female. ABC has offered no reason for its action: we urge our readers to protest by writing to ABC Programming, 1330 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019.
The Kellogg Company has determined that their Nut & Honey television commercials do not encourage anti-gay violence. Chicago's Coalition Against Media/Marketing Prejudice (CAMMP) has protested the decision. The controversy centers around an advertisement in which the words "Nut & Honey," the name of a Kellogg's breakfast cereal, are mistakenly heard as "Nothin, honey." In one of several situations portrayed in the ad, guns are drawn against a cook when hungry cowboys think he has called them "honey." Kellogg's has stated that the would be eaters are upset because the cook has told them there is no food for breakfast.
GAY LIBERATION'S PURPOSE is to provide information, counseling, and related social services for people concerned about sexual orientation: (1) maintain Hotline for crisis intervention, peer counseling, referral; (2) help provide factual information to offset prejudice and misinformation about lesbians and gay men; (3) work to obtain human and civil rïghts for all, regardless of sexual orientation; (4) help lesbian and gay men's groups organize; (5) link to other community groups.
COMMUNITY SERVICES include a Hotline: Crisis Intervention, Peer Counseling, Referral. Education: Workshops and Conferences on lesbian and gay male concerns, with an emphasis on how people in the "helping professions" and "teaching professions can work positively with lesbian and gay male clients, patients, students. Speakers Bureau: Phone for information. Human & Civil Rights: Information and referral to help people under discrimination because of their actual or presumed sexual orientation or because of their presumed "cross-gender" characteristics; lobbying for human and civil rights. Community Organizing: Information and assistance in organizing groups, setting goals, addressing conflict, linking with other groups and resources.
MEETINGS, Membership, Organizational Structure: Our meetings vary according to purpose; we do most of our work in sub-committees (Counseling, Groupwork, Education, Civil Rights). Call for time and place. Gay Liberation includes U-M students, staff, and faculty, and people from the larger community. We have a President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer. At present we have approximately 50 members. We're a registered nonprofit organization.
Gay Liberation, c/o 4117 Michigan Union, Ann Arbor, Ml 48109, info: 7634186; hotline: 662-1977.
LASC Co-Sponsors Brian Willson Visit
CURRENT NEWS: The Latin American Solidarity Committee (LASC) recently co-sponsored the protest of the decision by U-M to grant an honorary degree to Jeane Kirkpatrick. LASC members and others carried signs and balloons into the stadium during commencement exercises, denouncing Kirkpatrick as a "Doctor of Terror." LASC will continue to protest the presence of those who commit crimes against humanity.
Most recently, on May 15, LASC co-sponsored the visit of Brian Willson, Vietnam veteran and peace activist. Willson spoke to over 200 people in Ann Arbor about the policies of oppression perpetrated by our government on people of color around the world. Willson's Ann Arbor visit was part of a national tour to raise funds for the newly established Center for the Practice of Non-Violence (see article about Willson's talk on page one).
PURPOSE: LASC is a nonprofit group dedicated to supporting the legitimate aspirations of Latin American peoples to self-determination. Its goals are to increase awareness here about contemporary realities in Latin America and the U.S. role in the region. Because current U.S. foreign policy perpetuates violence and injustice, LASC acts as a community of concerned citizens to pressure our government to change its military, political, and economic policies toward Latin America.
MEETINGS: This summer, LASC is working to increase its membership. All are welcome to join in our meetings, Wednesdays at 8 pm in Room 2435 Mason Hall. The first, third, and fifth meetings of the month will devoted to the study of Latin American issues. Examples include: the Puerto Rican independence movement, the role of the U.S. in political debate within Nicaragua, and the effect of U.S. militarization of Honduras. At the second and fourth meetings we will conduct regular LASC business. Information about weekly activities can be obtained by visiting or calling the LASC office. The office is normally staffed from 12 to 2 pm on weekdays, and messages can be left on the answering machine at all other times.
COMMUNITY SERVICES: LASC sponsors educational events such as films, slide shows, and speakers. The outreach committee provides speakers for University and high school classes as well as for other groups interested in Latin American issues. If you would like somebody to speak, contact us at 665-8438. The LASC newsletter La Palabra reaches about 800 subscribers. It contains a summary of our activities and updates on the news from Latin America.
Latin American Solidarity Committee (LASC), 4120 Michigan Union, Ann Arbor, Ml 48109, 665-8438.
Sun/Father Journal Begins Publication The Sun/Father Journal, a new Ann Arbor literary magazine, has chosen this year's season of growth and renewal to begin production of its cross-cultural, progressive, yet non-ideologically-based publication.
Last month saw much activity by men on men's issues in the Ann Arbor-Detroit area. For example, Robert Bly, a leading American poet and social observer, gave a workshop at Oakland Community College on "Power and Purpose in the Male Psyche." Over 120 men from Ann Arbor, Detroit, Chicago, Ohio, and Canada assembled in Detroit to discuss men's issues. Through fairy tales, poetry, music, and discussion, all who attended carne to a greater realization of what it means to be a man in the 1980's.
PURPOSE: The Journal will feature writing on men's issues by men who sincerely desire equality between the sexes on all levels of society, but who are suspicious of conventional feminism's denigration of masculinity. Most progressives associate "patriarchal" culture with much that is wrong with our society. Rape, the arms race, and imperialism are all attributed to masculine leadership, which has become synonymous with oppression. The Sun/Father Journal takes a decidedly more positive, yet progressive, outlook on masculinity and the teachings of those great men from whom we are descended. True masculinity, free of outside influence, is inherently inspirational, gentle, and outwardly rather than selfishly directed. The journal will aim, not only to answer the questions posed by traditional feminism, but to raise questions of our own in a non-polarized, no-pressure literary environment where all ideas and inspiration can receive a hearing.
CONTRIBUTORS: We welcome writing of men from all walks of life and of all opinions, energy, and sexual persuasion. Housing and child custody discrimination; masculine leadership and the Ancient Wisdom; relationships; the truth about God the Father; and the hidden agenda of the war on child abuse are some possible subjects. All men who send their essays, fiction, or poetry will receive a free copy of the Sun/Father Journal, whether their work appears in it or not. Send contributions to Jeff Zeth at:
Sun/Father Journal, P.O. Box 1995, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106, 769-5665.
WAND Speakers to Address Peaceful Conflict Resolution
Helen Weingarten, assistant professor in the School of Social Work at the U-M, will speak at the next WAND meeting, June 12, 1988. Ms. Weingarten will discuss conflict resolution as it pertains to our everyday lives. She will discuss how constructive conflict resolution can be a successful tool whether it is on a personal, organizational or international level. Doors open at 7 pm and the .meeting begins at 7:30 pm.
Calien Lewis, Executive Director of National WAND, will speak at the Ann Arbor Public Library on Friday, June 17, from 7:30 to 9:30 pm. Calien will discuss the importance of the peaceful resolution of conflict in the home and in the world; an end to violence. Calien, most recently has been the Executive Director of the Family Crisis Shelter in Portland, Maine, a program for battered women and children. This talk is being sponsored by WAND and The Domestic Violence Project. Admission s FREE. For more information please call 761-1718.
WAND'S GOALS are to educate ourselves and the public about the dangers of continued nuclear arms buildup, to influence our Congressional representatives by informed lobbying, and to empower people, especially women, personally and politically.
WAND MEETINGS are held the 2nd Sunday night of the month at St. Aidan's Episcopal Church (note new location)1679 Broadway, Ann Arbor. New members are always welcome. Call our Information Hotline at 761-1718 for a message announcing important lobbying information, meeting times, and upcoming events. Our Speaker's Bureau provides trained speakers who will address groups, classes, and public forums and rallies on a variety of issues. Contact Tobi Hanna-Davies at 662-7869.
Washtenaw County Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament, Inc. (WAND) P.O. Box 1815 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1815, 761-1718.
WHE-AC Addresses the Causes of Hunger
This past year, the World Hunger Education-Action Committee (WHE-AC) has organized many fundraising activities on the U-M campus. $8,000 was raised in the annual Oxfam fast in Ann Arbor. Fifty percent of this money went to Oxfam America for international projects and fifty percent went to local hunger organizations, such as The Shelter Association of Ann Arbor, the East Side Emergency Center, Mt. Nebo Resource Center, and Operation Help Inc.
WHE-AC held a benefit concert in March where JUICE, a local band, donated an evening's performance, raising $500 for Oxfam America. WHE-AC also had a bucket drive which raised about $1,000 for Tools for Peace and Justice, one of Oxfam America's projects. WHE-AC members have worked in the soup kitchen at the First Congregational Church, and during this spring and summer, members will have a table set up at the farmer's market every Saturday morning from 9 am to 1 2 pm to distribute information about Oxfam America.
WHE-AC's CURRENT PLANS include outlining the fall agenda. One of the proposed ideas is the adoption of a development project in Asia, through the Overseas Development Network.
WHE-AC IS A CAMPUS-BASED GROUP made up of students and non-students dedicated to examining the causes of hunger n the world and working towards its solutions. WHE-AC has been active for the past five years. It supports Oxfam America, which is an international agency that funds self help development projects and disaster relief in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. If you are interested in working with WHE-AC or would like to learn more about us, feel free to attend a meeting. Meeting times for the summer will be posted on room 4202 Michigan Union. Cali 663-4301 for more information.
World Hunger Education-Action Committee (WHE-AC), 4202 Michigan Union, Ann Arbor, Ml 48109, 663-4301.