By Sylvia Arnold and Joe Courter, CMC Board Members
On Friday, March 22, the Civic Media Center will present the annual SpringBoard fundraising event with guest speaker Silvia Giagnoni, author of “Fields of Resistance,” addressing “The Coalition of Immokalee Workers: Grassroots Politics in the Age of Corporate Media.”
Silvia is an assistant professor of Communications and Dramatic Arts at Auburn University in Montgomery. Her book, “Fields of Resistance,” chronicles a seven-month period between November 2007 and May 2008, during which she visited the community of Immokalee, Fla. The narrative revolves around seasons, harvest, holidays and other celebrations of special significance for the community and seeks to show the various cultural and social realities that coexist today in this part of Florida: the farmworking community, the Seminole reservation and Ave Maria Town.
Members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a community-based organization of mainly Latino, Mayan Indian and Haitian immigrants working in low wage jobs throughout the state of Florida, will also speak about their mission, goals and work to improve the conditions for farmworkers.
The celebration will also include the presentation of the Jack Penrod Brigadas Award, which is given in recognition of local organizing work by the Penrod Committee made up of members from United Faculty of Florida, Alachua County Labor Party and Veterans for Peace. Jack was a wounded veteran of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War and a retired Professor of English at UF.
This year, the event will be held at the Alachua Conservation Trust’s Prairie Creek Lodge, a gorgeous wooden building located just seven miles southeast of downtown Gainesville. Our usual location for this annual event, the Matheson Museum, was booked up this Spring, thus the location change.
There will be food and beverages provided by local businesses and volunteers. There will also be raffle and silent auction items. Advance tickets are available for $10 at the Civic Media Center and Citizens Co-op. Tickets will be $15-$20 at the event. Please consider a donation to the CMC even if you cannot attend, and stop by the CMC to see all the changes going on.
For more information, please call (352) 373-0010, visit www.civicmediacenter.org or email coordinators@civicmediacenter.org.