Society
CU: Shakespeare on the road in anti-violence drive
Feb 25th
third anti-violence school tour
Following on the heels of its nationally recognized anti-violence school tours based on “The Tempest” and “Twelfth Night,” the Colorado Shakespeare Festival has hit the road with a new production of “Much Ado About Nothing.”
The highly praised program, co-created with the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado Boulder, brings abridged productions of Shakespeare’s plays into schools to stimulate discussion about the “cycle of violence.” More than 38,000 Colorado schoolchildren have participated in the program, which was launched in 2011.
Professional actors perform the play and lead students in small-group exercises exploring issues raised, such as gossip and bullying. Actors receive training through the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence and, among other things, educate students about Safe2Tell, an anonymous tip line to report bullying.
The new production focuses on the potential damage caused by gossip and the power of language, said Amanda Giguere, director of outreach for the festival.
In the play, Beatrice and Benedick are “frenemies” known for their constant verbal sparring. Their friends play a prank on them by gossiping within earshot about their mutual affection. In the meantime, the villain Don John fabricates a nasty rumor about Hero’s infidelity, which results in her public humiliation on her wedding day.
“Gossip and rumors can quickly damage a reputation and can have a negative impact on a person’s self-esteem,” Giguere said. “This play explores the power of words. When does a ‘merry war’ turn hostile? When does teasing go too far? What kind of damage can rumors cause? It’s a perfect vehicle for engaging students with questions about the cycle of violence and the negative impact gossip can have on a school climate.”
Some 26 percent of high school students report that other students have told lies or spread rumors about them, according to Beverly Kingston, director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence.
“Every day, kids are faced with difficult issues like gossiping and spreading rumors,” she said. “This play brings these issues to life and empowers students to reflect on these topics and see how they can make better choices.”
Whether they are exploring rumor-mongering, bullying or other harmful behaviors, one key goal of the plays and workshops is to help students feel empowered.
“One of the best things schools can do is to promote a positive school climate where students feel physically and emotionally safe,” Kingston said. “School climate is continuously created in every single interaction. This play is a tangible action toward building a positive school climate.”
Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s anti-violence production of “Much Ado About Nothing” is available for booking. For more information email csfedout@colorado.edu, call 303-492-1973 or visit coloradoshakes.org/education/csf-schools.
The Colorado Shakespeare Festival is a professional theater company in association with CU-Boulder and has performed the works of Shakespeare every summer since 1958. The Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence is part of CU-Boulder’s Institute of Behavioral Science. The anti-violence school tour is funded in part through grants from CU Outreach, the Boulder Arts Commission, the OAK (Outstanding Acts of Kindness) Foundation and One Lafayette.
The current tour began Feb. 11 and remaining tour dates include:
Feb. 25: St. Bernadette Catholic School and Mountain Phoenix Community School (Lakewood/Wheat Ridge)
Feb. 26: OLLI West and Denver Montclair International (Denver)
Feb. 27: Heatherwood Elementary (Gunbarrel)
Feb. 28: Brady High (Lakewood) and Jefferson Academy Elementary (Broomfield)
March 4: Ouray School
March 5: Ridgway Schools
March 7: Cherokee Trail High (Aurora) and CU-Boulder
March 14: Boulder Country Day
March 18: Endeavor Academy (Centennial)
March 20: Lincoln Academy Charter (Arvada)
March 21: McGlone Elementary (Denver)
April 1: Estes Park Schools
April 2: Louisville Middle School
April 3: Stein Elementary (Lakewood)
April 4: Estes Park Schools
April 8: Colfax Elementary (Denver) and East Elementary (Littleton)
April 9: Niwot Elementary
April 10: Bromwell Elementary and Columbian Elementary (Denver)
April 11: Rocky Mountain Elementary (Longmont) and Longmont Estates Elementary (Longmont)
-CU-
Tran Pacific Partnership like NAFTA on Steroids
Feb 20th
Tell Rep. Polis to Stop the TPP! At Rep. Jared Polis’ office, 4770 Baseline Rd., #220, Boulder 11:00 AM
What’s not to like under free trade? How about a staggering $181 billion U.S. trade deficit with NAFTA partners Mexico and Canada and the related loss of 1 million net U.S. jobs under NAFTA, growing income inequality, displacement of more than one million Mexican campesino farmers and a doubling of desperate immigration from Mexico, and more than $360 million paid to corporations after “investor-state” tribunal attacks on, and rollbacks of, domestic public interest policies.
Now the Obama administration–so concerned with “good jobs” for Americans, wants trade deals with East and Southeast Asian countries, where wages are as little as $ .25/hr. And he wants it fast. A broad coalition
of Congress isn’t supporting the TPP, but good ol’ liberal Rep. Jared Polis, D-CO isn’t one of them.
We need to pressure Representative Jared Polis to commit publicly himself to vote no on a TPP fast track. He has not made public statements vowing to vote no on the fast track and we consider his vote critical, especially since the Republicans are targeting newer representatives to urge them to approve it. We have a couple great weapons in our arsenal – signatures on a SignOn petition asking him to reject the fast track and our physical presence in his office while he is are home- so let’s use them to convince him that we are watching and waiting for him to show support for their constituents, not the corporations. MoveOn, as part of a coalition of progressives from Occupy Denver, Food and Water Watch, the Sierra Club, and Communications Workers of America will go to his Boulder office to deliver petitions and a letter this Thursday, Feb. 20. We will show him that we want him to represent us by taking a stand against the multinational corporations and the destructive TPP.
We urge everyone who can to join us for a show of strength and determination to stop the TPP fast track. This is a very critical issue that would negatively affect our economy, environment, workers’ rights, prescription drug availability, internet freedom, and much more. If you need more information, go to www.flushthetpp.org or www.stopthetpp.org. Then join us and exercise your right to representation, then to celebrate with us when we stop this intended corporate coup. Sign up here and get more details. Message from host:
For participants: : We will meet at Jared Polis’s office 4770 Baseline Rd., #220, Boulder 80303 at 11:00 a.m. We will bring talking points and a letter. All you need to do is join us. Later in the day, some of us will go to Rep. Ed Perlmutter’s office at 12600 W. Colfax Ave., Suite B-400, Lakewood, CO 80215 to deliver petition signatures and a thank you letter. You are invited to join us. He was leaning toward voting for the fast track until we made a lot of phone calls telling him that we the people do not approve of this and would never re elect him. He has now publicly stated that he will vote no on the fast track.
RSVP at http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/event.html?event_id=140717&id=91301-5272516-M2tTGsx&t=3
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Thursday, February 20th, 2014
Powering The U.S. With Wind, Water, and Solar Power For All Purposes
Mark Z. Jacobson
Director of the Atmosphere Energy Program, Stanford University
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Bechtel Collaboratory
Discovery Learning Center
Engineering Dr, CU, Boulder
Global warming, air pollution, and energy insecurity are three of the most significant problems facing the world today. This talk discusses the development of technical and economic plans to convert the energy infrastructure of each of the 50 United States to those powered by 100% wind, water, and sunlight (WWS) for all purposes, including electricity, transportation, industry, and heating/cooling, after energy efficiency measures are accounted for.
The plans call for ~80% conversion by 2030 and 100% by 2050 through aggressive policy measures and natural transition. Wind and solar resources, footprint and spacing areas required, jobs created, costs, air pollution mortality and climate cost reductions, methods of ensuring reliability of the grid, and impacts of offshore wind farms on hurricane dissipation are discussed.
More information can be found here: www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/susenergy2030.html
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Colorado Community Rights Network Presents:
COCRN.org ~ Facebook.com/COCommunityRights ~ Twitter.com/COCommRights Flier attached, feel free to print and distribute
1. Democracy School with Thomas LInzey
Friday, March 7, 6:30 – 9:30 pm Saturday, March 8, 9 am – 5 pm
First Unitarian Society of Denver, 1400 Lafayette St., Denver, CO 80218
Seating Limited ~ $125 if payment postmarked by February 26; $150 thereafter based on availability
Mail payment:
17087 E. 106th Ave., Commerce City, CO 80022 Make check out to Colorado Community Rights Network Limited scholarships available, contact COCommRights@gmail.com
2. Statewide Activist Strategy Session
Sunday, March 9, 9 am – 3 pm
RSVP to COCommRights@gmail.com ~ Location TBA
This or previous Democracy School (full, not mini) a prerequisite for attendance
Communities throughout Colorado and across the country are finding that, in the face of corporate exploitation, they don’t have full authority to protect public health, safety and welfare, economic and environmental sustainability, property value, and overall quality of life.
Corporations have court-conferred constitutional rights which they wield against communities to subjugate local rights that interfere with corporate expansion. Furthermore, corporate rights are defended by the state and federal government through the doctrine of preemption.
Citizens of five Front Range cities voted recently to ban or place a moratorium on fracking in their communities. The Colorado Oil and Gas Association, with the state’s support, is suing to overturn these elections. Local rights have been suppressed by other industries in towns and counties throughout the state.
The immortal words of the Declaration of Independence are regarded as a moral standard upon which our freedom was founded and to which we continue to strive: people are endowed with certain unalienable rights, “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” among them; government derives its power from the consent of the governed; and when any government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.
Today, our structure of law elevates corporate rights over the unalienable rights of citizens and usurps the consent of the governed.
To reclaim our rights, we must challenge corporate supremacy & change our structure of law that upholds it. Democracy School teaches you how.
Thomas Linzey, Executive Director and Chief Counsel for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, has over 15 years experience helping communities protect their health and quality of life in the face of corporate exploitation.
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February Events and Workshops
Feb 12th
Peers Building Justice
Love, Me … a free teen event.
Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art
1750 13th Street, Boulder
Join us for a teen event featuring an art workshop, food, photo booth, and other fun activities. With a focus on self-love and healthy relationships, BMoCA Studio Project and Peers Building Justice will be hosting this fun and free event!
RSVP to the Facebook Event
Thurs., Feb 13
7:00PM – 9:00PM
One Billion Rising
Worldwide Event: Rise, Release and Dance for Justice
Avalon Ballroom, 6185 Arapahoe, Boulder
We hope to see you rise, release, and dance for justice today. Just as important, we ask you to challenge yourself to a plan of action of how you will support, speak out, and stand up to ending violence.
Fri., Feb 14
3:00PM – 5:00PM
Sharing the Love
Chocolate Lovers’ Fling Raises $27,855
At the Chocolate Lovers’ Fling on February 8, we held a Paddle Raiser with the audience, with a goal of raising $35,000 to honor SPAN’s 35th Anniversary in 2014.
We came so close, with $27,855 in donations that night! We are asking our supporters to show us some love between now and the end of the month, raising the remaining $7,145 by February 28.
To sweeten the deal, if you make a donation of at least $50, we’ll send you a Chocolove bar as part of our thank you; donations of $500 or more will receive a delicious box of gourmet toffee! Donate Now.
Survivor Drop-In Group
Aging Adults Experiencing Violence Later in Life
3rd Wednesday Each Month
11:00AM – 12:00PM
Josephine Commons
455 N. Burlington Ave., Lafayette
2nd & 4th Tuesday Each Month
11:00AM – 12:00PM
Boulder Senior Center
909 Arapahoe; Boulder
Contact Becky for details 303.673.9000 or by email.