AFSC Midwest Digest

Highlights of Recent Work from Around the Region

October 2, 2014

Iowans are “ready” for all the presidential candidates An estimated 10,000 people heading to Senator Tom Harkin’s final steak fry drove slowly by AFSC’s new “Governing Under the Influence” banners south of Des Moines. View photos here. AFSC’s Presidential Campaign Project recently added new Iowa staff Josh Skipworth and Kevin Rutledge; they’ll team up with colleagues in New Hampshire in a coordinated birddogging effort.

Freedom School comes to St. Louis Following upon a successful Freedom School in St. Louis, AFSC is ready to increase the number of young people involved in our peacebuilding program, providing them with spaces for healing and helping them identify strategies to build peace in Ferguson. Under the direction of Peace Education Director Joshua Saleem, AFSC is creating a Youth Undoing Institutional Racism chapter in the St. Louis area. Stay tuned for more. Moral Mondays come to Indiana (and soon to Ohio) Erin Polley of AFSC worked closely with the NAACP and other groups for a successful launch of the inclusive Moral Mondays Movement in Indiana. More about the efforts in this Public News Service story. Quaker photographer Jeff Kisling shares these photos and video. Boycott Poster exhibit coming to a town near you! In September the Boycott Poster art exhibition opened in Chicago at Uri-Echen Gallery in the West Pilsen neighborhood. An opening-night discussion featured a teacher involved in the Chicago teacher’s strike and boycott of standardized testing; a filmmaker from Karte-mquin films who spoke about a new documentary on the 1963 Chi-cago teacher’s strike; and a professor who is writing a book on the Meat Boycotts in the US. Two sets of the exhibit will travel to other Midwest locations this fall, and a new video is set for release in early October. For more info, contact poster@afsc.org or visit here. AFSC Chicago Middle East staff headed to San Diego in September to attend the 13th annual conference of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. Shirien continues to provide leadership on the Steering committee, and Jennifer led a workshop on Child Detention at this year’s gathering of 350 activists. AFSC welcomes Joleen Erb-Abplanalp, a history and religion major from Manchester University who is interning at AFSC Chicago this fall. The AFSC Chicago program is happy to help groups participate in the “Pinwheels for Gaza” project launched this month to remember the children killed during “Operation Protective Edge.” For more infor-mation, check out this link.

Iowans raise awareness about corporate influence.

St. Louis youth examine institutional racism.

Rev. William Barber at the Indiana Statehouse

From AFSC’s Boycott Poster exhibit

Speaking of posters...a call for submissions From Ferguson to Gaza, we can see the way that militarism has a direct impact on the lives of all of us. AFSC is looking for graphic artists, print-makers, street artists, comic artists, and other print-based visual artists who are interested in creating unique posters for a traveling exhibit. The deadline is December 15, 2014. More info here. Iowa Dreamers rock the vote Claudia Thrane’s work with immigrant youth in Des Moines has resulted in this creative Spanish-language video urging people to vote in support of the issues they care about. Forty years a prisoner Four days after being released following 40 years of imprisonment in Michigan, T.J. Spytma describes in this video the parole process and why AFSC Michigan’s Parole Readiness Workshops are so important. Taxidrivers in Chicago win on some income issues AFSC is a community ally of the United Taxidrivers Community Council in Chicago, and UTCC recently won some income improvement steps for drivers. More about the success in this Sun-Times article and on AFSC’s website. St. Paul youth explore healthy communities Seven St. Paul youth ranging in age from 12-16 recently participated in an 8-day service-learning project designed to educate them about structural racism through an analysis of healthy communities. To learn more about their adventures from staffer Sharon Goens-Bradley and 12-year-old Dasheniyah Hall, click here. Move to Amend finds momentum in Ohio Northeast Ohio AFSC was the key organizer of recent talks in Akron and Cleveland by David Cobb, spokesperson of national Move to Amend (MTA), the multiracial and multigenerational coalition seeking a consti-tutional amendment to end the constitutional doctrines declaring "corporations are people" and "money is speech." AFSC coordinates the Ohio MTA Network of 16 affiliate/partner groups across the state. Ten communities have now passed either council resolutions or ballot measures in Ohio. AFSC is working with activists in two other communi-ties who have MTA initiatives on this November's ballot. Final notes AFSC’s work with students in Iowa concerned about peace and justice in the Middle East continues to grow; check out these photos from a recent vigil….AFSC’s Google Hangout on Iraq and Syria is still timely; author Phyllis Bennis is worth following on Facebook….To subscribe to AFSC Kansas City’s weekly e-news, click here….To share your ideas for future Midwest Digests, please e-mail Jon Krieg. Thanks as always for your support of AFSC — and for all your work for peace and justice.

Poster by Jason Zepeda and la

Mina Circle

A young reader checks out a Maya Ange-

lou classic at Ancestry Books, an African

American-owned store in Minneapolis.

Young people in Iowa are ready to push all

the candidates to work for peace and justice

for Palestine.