El Sunza video

CD Release Party

Join us Thursday December 13, 7pm at 5619. Live music, potluck feast and Christmas fun. CDs and t-shirts will be available.

Rosa Loves – Designed for Good

Just wanted to let everyone know about our friends at Rosa Loves. They are a t-shirt company based in Florida and they share many of our ideals – in fact, I would say that they are definitely far more concerned about people than profit. Each shirt weaves a person’s story into the design and money raised from sales benefit specific people. Give their site a look to learn more.

PNP info piece

courtesy of David “Jem Cohen” Stout

DIY Event this Saturday

Come visit us this Saturday at:

A $5 cover benefits Habitat on Wheels, a local non-profit project that helps homeless people in Austin get on payment plans for RVs.

True Knowledge=Shattered Perceptions

[ Letter to a professor in response to the prompt: why should American university students study African Politics and its connection to Globalization in today’s world?]

Dear Doctor Wilson,

After giving the prompt much thought, I have decided that the interests of college students across America would best be preserved by avoiding the study of Globalization and Post-Colonial Africa altogether. Such a course holds a substantial amount of content capable of endangering our generation’s current perception of the world. If taught effectively and with objectivity, I fear that the information released may prove somewhat devastating to the economic and cultural foundations of our nation as a whole. We have spent far too much time and effort covering our eyes and ears to now suddenly find ourselves exposed to such impractical and obstructive truths. Consider what will happen to our daily routines when we discover that convenience actually has a cost, and further, a cost that impedes the well being of men, women, and children around the globe. How will we swallow our Venti Ethiopian Roast when we are no longer ignorant of the Ethiopian farmer who received 23 cents per pound at a regional auction for his beans? What will happen to our perception of the American Civil War when we realize slavery was never truly abolished, just shifted back across the ocean and later disguised with futile wage figures. Only guilt and shame can result from such nonsense. And who knows how guilt and shame might affect the monthly checks to my World Vision sponsor child in Tanzania.
If this course cannot be avoided, I ask that it be taught with sensitivity. Instructors must take note of our fragile American hearts. Instead of focusing on how the West’s demand for cell phones added fuel to a civil war in the DRC, why not discuss how three California bred teenagers brought down the LRA single handedly* with their 8mm cameras. We want to hear about Bono’s One Campaign, not about Heinz Ketchup and its corporate hoarding of Zimbabwean farm land. Yes, the horrors of the Rwandan genocide should be discussed, but instructors should be sure to explain that the United States Government simply found out too late to do anything about it. Deep down we American college students mean well. Sometimes too much reality can cripple our bright spirits. I want to feel proud to wear my “Save Darfur” t-shirt and not have to worry about the fact that it was constructed in a Fruit of the Loom sweatshop factory in El Salvador.

*technically speaking, “single handedly” should not be used to describe the work of three individuals, but “six handedly” doesn’t seem to produce the desired effect.

-Patrick Brosnan

Art, a Seed of Hope

First of all, let these words of Alexandr Solzhenitsyn (1970 Nobel Lecture) inspire you.

So perhaps that ancient trinity of Truth, Goodness and Beauty is not simply an empty, faded formula as we thought in the days of our self-confident, materialistic youth? If the tops of these three trees converge, as the scholars maintained, but the too blatant, too direct stems of Truth and Goodness are crushed, cut down, not allowed through – then perhaps the fantastic, unpredictable, unexpected stems of Beauty will push through and soar to that very same place, and in so doing will fulfill the work of all three…

And the simple step of a simple courageous man is not to partake in falsehood, not to support false actions! Let that enter the world, let it even reign in the world – but not with my help. But writers and artists can achieve more: they can CONQUER FALSEHOOD! In the struggle with falsehood art always did win and it always does win! Openly, irrefutably for everyone! Falsehood can hold out against much in this world, but not against art.

Full lecture here. It is worth your time.

There are many out in the wide world whose hearts resonate with these words. Here are two such examples:

Make Art Like You Care blog courtesy of Todd Drake. Click on his art below to see his personal site.

The Groundswell Collective’s blog about arts and activism:

FotoVoz gallery opens Friday Oct. 5

Fotos taken by the kids can be viewed online here

Another Sky Press

Props for Another Sky Press out of Portland Oregon. They are definitely about people, not profit. Check out their beliefs and their mission. Their motto: Read Free. Support what you Love.

Open letter from the Salvadoran Church

SALVADORAN ECUMENICAL MOVEMENT

San Salvador, 3 September 2007

ALERT IN EL SALVADOR
The people are forsaken and scattered.
“When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
Matthew 9:36

Pastoral Letter from the Historic Churches

To: All Salvadorans of good will
To: The three powers of the Salvadoran state: the executive, legislative and judicial branches
To: Churches throughout the world
To: Accredited Governments and Diplomatic Corps
To: The United Nations, the Organization of the American States, international organizations, and international solidarity groups

From this small country, the home of the prophet Oscar Arnulfo Romero, as historic Christian churches and Christian-ecumenical groups, we send this message to world-wide churches and religions and to men and women of good will, greeting you in our faith in the One God.

We name this letter, “Alert in El Salvador,” because we live from one crisis to the next, from one emergency to the next — emergencies caused by natural, political, economic and social phenomena. In light of all these emergencies and crises, our recommendation is “Be alert.” “Alert,” an expression of security, means to be awake, with attentive ears and a clear mind that can glimpse and distinguish the danger that is threatening us and denounce this sin, without forgetting that we also are called to proclaim the Good News of abundant and true life (Matthew 25:46 and Romans 1:17).