WILPF of San Jose, California

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
and San Jose Raging Grannies
RAGING GRANNIES
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HOLIDAY PEACE FAIR
in past years
*Photos from 2009 fair*

HOLIDAY PEACE FAIR 2009

The 27th annual fair took place Saturday, Dec. 5, at Campbell United Methodist Church, 1675 Winchester Blvd, south of Hamilton. Check the link above right to see scenes from this year's fair.

We featured non-violent toys, books and games, international handcrafts, Fair Trade coffee and cocoa, and political
T-shirts and buttons. Vendors are South Bay peace and justice groups. Homebaked desserts and inexpensive lunch are available.
This year's beneficiaries will be the Low Income Self Help Center in San Jose and the International Solidarity Movement, which aids people in Gaza.

ENTERTAINMENT SCHEDULE -- 2009

MCs: Anne and Phil Pflager (Annie & the Vets)
10 am Welcome & Opening Song w/ Annie & the Vets
10:15-10:30 am Saratoga Sister City Taiko Group
10:50 am Annie & the Vets
11:10-11:25 am Announcements - Lunch, dessert, beverage offerings, etc.
11:30-11:45 am San Jose Peace Chorale
11:45 am-noon Presentation - HPF Memorial moment (Lisa Atkinson)
Beneficiaries: Low Income Self-Help Center & International Solidarity Movement
12:15-12:35 pm Raging Grannies
12:50-1:10 pm Annie & the Vets
1:30-1:50 pm Classical and Modern Persian Dance by Niosha Dance Academy
2:00-2:20 pm 2 PM - Contemporary rock
2:30-2:50:pm Halanda Dance Company Authentic dances from the Arab Peninsula
3-3:20 pm Rainbow Women's Chorus, Ruth Huber, Co-director
3:30-4 pm Closing remarks/song w/ Annie & the Vets
COORDINATOR: Shirley Lin Kinoshita


Linh Nguyen offered face painting during the 2008 supervised children's activities. Zoe is eager to begin. (photos by Joan Bazar)


Eigen tries out an oversize puzzle -- one of the alternative toys and games featured at the tables of peace and justice groups.

Kinshasa's
Street Children

Friday, Oct. 16
San Jose Peace & Justice Center, 48 S. 7th Street
Potluck at 6 p.m., Program at 7 p.m

Gilbert Mulamba's film, Kinshasa's Street Children, documents the street children phenomenon in the context of the current state of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The film presents historical footage of foreign intervention and shows how the exploitation of Congo's resources threatens the country's social fabric.

A Q&A session follows, with attention to Silicon Valley's connection to the crisis in the DRC. Makuba Sekombo of Mobilization for Justice and Peace in the D.R. of Congo will be on hand to answer questions about his homeland. See www.friendsofthecongo.org for background information on the DRC.

Pedro and the Captain -- The Psychology of Torture

Adrianne Aron, PhD, will spoke Sept. 18 about survivors of torture, those who carry out this practice and the role of U.S. training. She is co-editor of "Writings for a Liberation Psychology" by Father Ignacio Martin Baro and, most recently, translator (into English) of Mario Benedetti's play "Pedro and the Captain" (the dramatic interchange between a Latin American prisoner and his torturer--Cadmus Editions, 2009). Dr. Aron is a clinical psychologist based in the Bay Area who has documented the torture of refugees applying for political asylum.

 

How to Convert War to Peace with Ellen Thomas

Ellen Thomas, a national and international peace and justice activist, spoke in San Jose about her cross-country roadshow and efforts to convert nuclear and military funding to human needs, including the Proposition 1 campaign. She has led a peace park vigil in front of the White House since 1984, and she is co-chair of the WILPF Disarm, dismantling the war economy committee. For more on the campaign, go to http://prop1.org. For more info on local work, contact Granny Shirley at 408-255-6559 or grannies(at)wilpfsanjose.org.
   


Lois (in pink) narrated, Katy (in orange) represented the future of WILPF, Grannies Joan W, Shirley (partly hidden), Bonny, Roberta and Essie sang "Peace, Peace, Peace."

94th Birthday Party
Nourished by slices of history and chocolate cake, we celebrated the activism and sisterhood of WILPF on April 18, 2009. Some were surprised to hear that WILPF's parallel congress had decried the 1919 Treaty of Versailles as punitive and laying the foundation for future war, that WILPF in the 1920s sent fact-finding delegations to China, Haiti, Nicaragua and Indo-China to unmask imperialism, warned in 1932 of the growing totalitarian threat in Germany and opposed U.S. entry into WWII. The goal has always been to create conditions for peace with justice. We continue into the 21st Century informed by our international sister-sections in 37 countries and our offices at the UN in New York and Geneva, invigorated by the Raging Grannies and hopeful that the Y-WILPF will flourish with the energy of women under the age of 35.

Shirley, as Marii Hasegawa, waves at infiltrator in the 1970s.


Meg reads dispatch as Emily Greene Balch at 1915 conference.
Dr. Aletta Jacobs called the conference at The Hague.
In the 1920s WILPF condemned anti-Semitism
The '60s and '70s saw protests and efforts to connect with nations designated as enemies.
Saratoga Library displays award-winning books

Paula Rochelle, Saratoga resident and WILPF member, arranged with librarian Peggy Baker for the Saratoga Library to feature the six 2008 winners of WILPF's Jane Addams Children's Book Award.

The Escape of Oney Judge: Martha Washington's Slave Finds Freedom, the winner in the Books for Younger Children Category, is written and illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully and published by Farrar Strauss Giroux. Mrs. Washington declares that young Oney is just like one of the Washington's own children, but Oney is not fooled. On the night Mrs. Washington tells Oney she will not grant her freedom upon her death, Oney thinks quickly, acts courageously and flees. Expressive watercolors within this well-researched biography portray the bravery of Ona Maria Judge, an African-American woman who claimed, and fought for, the right to have "no mistress but herself."

We Are One: The Story of Bayard Rustin by Larry Dane Brimner, published by Calkins Creek, an imprint of Boyds Mills Press, Inc., is the winner in the Books for Older Children Category.
Working behind the scenes because of his sexual orientation and unpopular political stands, African-American pacifist and civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, a trusted adviser to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., organized the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Succinct prose, powerful quotations and fresh historical photographs place the story of Rustin's life alongside the story of the March, revealing the breadth and depth of Rustin's decades of commitment to confronting racism and promoting peace in the United States and in countries around the world.

One book has won honors in the Books for Younger Children Category.
One Thousand Tracings: Healing the Wounds of World War II, written and illustrated by Lita Judge is published by Hyperion Books for Children. After discovering one thousand yellowed foot tracings in her grandmother's attic, Lita Judge wrote this tribute to her grandmother who had used these newspaper tracings to find appropriately-sized shoes to send to needy German families in the aftermath of World War II. A combination of paintings, collages of original photographs and reproductions of foot tracings underscore the message of compassion at the heart of this family story.

Three books have won honors in the Books for Older Children category.
Rickshaw Girl by Mitali Perkins, with illustrations by Jamie Hogan and published by Charlesbridge, is a contemporary novel set in Bangladesh. In clear prose and detailed black-and-white drawings, ten-year-old Naimi excels at painting alpanas, traditional designs created by Bangladeshi women and girls. Her talent, though valued by her family, cannot buy rice or pay back the loan on her father's rickshaw as a son's contribution would do. Determined to help financially, Naimi disguises herself as a boy and sparks surprising events that reveal an expanding world for herself and women in her community.


Tessie Parker and daughter, Laney, 1, get a look at A Place Where Sunflowers Grow, on display in the Children’s Department of the Saratoga Library. Tessie Parker and daughter, Laney, 1, get a look at A Place Where Sunflowers Grow, on display in the Children’s Department of the Saratoga Library. Paula Rochelle, left, and Joan Goddard, background, arranged for the display of the books.


Joan Goddard, a Campbell resident and national board member of the Jane Addams Peace Association, displays books with librarian Peggy Baker. (Joan Bazar photos)

Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis, published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic, Inc., is a sensitively-written historical novel infused with the spirit of youth. Eleven-year-old Elijah bursts with pride at being the first child born free in Buxton, Canada, a settlement of runaway slaves just across the border from Detroit. When a scoundrel steals money saved to buy an enslaved family's freedom, Elijah impulsively pursues the thief into Michigan. The journey brings him face-to-face with the terrors of slavery, pushing him to act courageously and compassionately in the name of freedom.

Birmingham, 1963 by Carole Boston Weatherford is published by Wordsong, an imprint of Boyds Mills Press, Inc. Deftly-written free verse and expertly-chosen archival photographs lay open the horror of the 1963 Birmingham church bombing by telling the story in the voice of an imagined girl in the "year I turned ten." Four memorial poems, each a tribute to one of the four girls murdered in the bombing, conclude this slim, powerful volume and carry its emphatic message: No More Birminghams!
Since 1953, the Jane Addams Children's Book Award annually acknowledges books published in the U.S. during the previous year. Books commended by the Award address themes or topics that engage children in thinking about peace, justice, world community, and/or equality of the sexes and all races. The books also must meet conventional standards of literary and artistic excellence.

A national committee chooses winners and honor books for older and younger children. Members of the 2007 Jane Addams Children's Book Awards Committee are Susan C. Griffith, Chair (Mt. Pleasant, Michigan), Barbara Bair (Washington, D. C.), Ann Bower (Harwich, Massachusetts), Sonja Cherry-Paul (Yonkers, New York), Eliza T. Dresang (Tallahassee, Florida), Oralia Garza de Cortes (Pasadena, California), MJ Grande (Juneau, Alaska), Daisy Gutierrez (Houston, Texas), Margaret Jensen (Madison, Wisconsin), Jo Montie (Minneapolis, Minnesota), Sarah Park (Long Beach, California), Pat Wiser (Sewanee,Tennessee) and Junko Yokota (Skokie, Illinois). Regional reading and discussion groups participated with many of the committee members throughout the jury's evaluation and selection process.

Contact JAPA Executive Director Linda B. Belle, 777 United Nations Plaza, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10017-3521; by phone 212-682-8830; and by e-mail japa@igc.org.
For additional information about the Jane Addams Children's Book Awards and a complete list of books honored since 1953, see www.janeaddamspeace.org.