by Gia Del Pinolead, organizer with Madres Sin Fronteras
In the aftermath of the Trump election a group of undocumented and semi-documented immigrants grouped together to stand up to the racism affecting their communities. After witnessing increases in bullying to their children and intimidation from their bosses they formed Madres Sin Fronteras to demand their human rights.
Posted in Articles, May-June 2017
The 2017 May-June issue of the Iguana is now available! If you want to get your hands on a hard copy, check out our distro locations here.
Posted in Articles, May-June 2017
by Joe Courter
For those of you who missed Pierce Pettis’s wonderful house concert about a month ago, he is coming back to town to do a “pro bono” benefit show for the Civic Media Center on Friday evening April 28. The location will be next door to the CMC in M.A.M.A.’s Place, a new addition to the block spearheaded by Faye Williams inside the old location of Citizens Co-op at 435 S. Main St. (Pierce is, as usual, on tour and this one night of availability corresponded to Art Walk, which the CMC was already booked for).
Pierce is a veteran singer-songwriter with a great talent for heartfelt songs, great phrasing and a very entertaining presence, and this is a very kind gesture to waive his fee (this is how he makes his living) to help the CMC raise the funds it needs to keep going in these times we are in. It is kind of a reward for the over half dozen times I have set up shows for him in Gainesville over the last 20 years, including the old CMC, the current CMC, the Thomas Center and the Acrosstown Repertory theater.
The concert will be at 8pm sharp, but since it is Art Walk night, you can come early and browse the downtown galleries beforehand. There is parking in the lot just south of the building, across the street on Main, or just north at the courthouse lot. Tickets will be $15 in advance and $20 at the door. More details from Joe at 352-378-5655 or gainesvilleiguana@cox.net.
Posted in April 2017, Articles
by Women’s March on Florida
The Women’s March on Florida, Gainesville Chapter is organizing for upcoming challenges to protect our civil liberties. During their first few months, they have created a sustainable grassroots organization with a foundation to support resistance efforts and to ensure that the voice of progressive Americans who care about our environment, civil rights and equality are heard.
WMFL is committed to supporting the causes you care about. Join the 400 volunteers as they work collaboratively with the local government officials and other grassroots organizations. Get involved by coming to one of their events, email them at womensmarchflgnv@gmail.com, and participate and like them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/wmflgnv.
Upcoming Women’s March Gainesville Events
See our complete list of upcoming events at www.hearourvoicegnv.org/calendar
April 17 at 6:30: Economic Justice Action Group Meeting. Alachua County Labor Coalition, 901 NW 8th Ave., Suite A1
April 22 at 11: March for Science. March begins at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium
April 27 at 6:30pm Action Group & Volunteers Leadership mtg.
Posted in April 2017, Articles
by Wes Wheeler
The League of Women Voters – Alachua, in partnership with FL Sun, has a brand-new web page (you are among the first ones to see this!) that explains the Alachua County Solar Co-op.
If you’ve ever wanted to go solar and you live in Alachua County, this is an opportunity to use group buying power to get a discounted price for solar panels. The link is: http://www.flsun.org/alachua/
Posted in April 2017, Articles
by Marcella J. Mulholland
“I would not agree that [CO2] is a primary contributor to the global warming that we see,” Environmental Protection Agency director Scott Pruitt said in an interview with CNBC on March 9. A mere three weeks into his term as Donald Trump’s EPA cabinet appointee, Pruitt displayed an alarming level of ignorance about the field which he is supposed to lead.
Unfortunately, Pruitt’s behavior is not uncommon in Washington. Over the past decade we have seen politicians attack science on all fronts. From funding cuts to gag orders to blatant denial our scientific community is plagued by a political body that largely ignores empirical evidence when it is inconvenient for their party affiliation or campaign donations.
Posted in April 2017, Articles
Patricia Sheehan [S], Orlando City Commissioner and past president of the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Local Officials, was interviewed by Holland Hall [H] in December 2016, six months after the Pulse nightclub massacre.
This is the 39th in a series of transcript excerpts from the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program collection at the University of Florida.
Transcript edited by Pierce Butler.
H: Who are some of your favorite queer artists …
S: Melissa Etheridge. We actually jammed together way back when, and we were working together on a community garden for breast cancer survivors. I’m just fried right now, really exhausted, trying to be visionary and what’s fun, it’s kind of hard to get into that space because it’s been really hard the last month or so. But yeah, Melissa, Katy Perry, I love Pink. I find their work to be hopeful. They overcome a lot of odds.
Posted in April 2017, Articles
by Gainesville Veterans for Peace
Veterans for Peace has, each Memorial Day weekend since 2007, assembled the “Memorial Mile” of grave stones along the stretch of NW 8th Ave running eastward from NW 34th St. Each grave stone holds the name, age, hometown, service status and date of death for an individual casualty in America’s wars in central and southwest Asia: the previous display showed 6,888 United States troops, with 63 more on the list for this year (so far).
Posted in April 2017, Articles
by Julie Matheney, Organizer with the Florida Homelessness Action Coalition
I know you’re busy. There are so many things competing for your attention, and it’s hard to keep up with all of the things happening in the world right now.
Trust me. I get it.
Since the election, I’ve felt really overwhelmed. I’ve kept busy with community organizing, petitions, calling representatives, and going to every demonstration I could. I’m encouraged to see so many people taking up new fights and continuing old battles … but there’s one underlying issue that’s not getting enough attention.
Posted in April 2017, Articles
by Julie Thaler
I’d like to share some shocking facts regarding voter disenfranchisement and its consequences in Florida:
Nearly 1.7 million Florida citizens have lost the right to vote due to a felony conviction. This includes 23 percent of Florida’s black citizens. One-third of all arrests are drug-related and only one-forth of those who were convicted served any time in prison.
Florida’s disenfranchisement rate remains the highest among the 50 states, and it is only one of three states, including Iowa and Kentucky, that impose a lifetime ban on felon voting unless restoration is actively sought.
Posted in April 2017, Articles
“Almost Sunrise” – a film about the remarkable journey of two Iraq War veterans – will be shown at the Hippodrome Theatre in downtown Gainesville on Monday, May 1, at 6:30pm.
The film follows two Iraq War veterans, Tom Voss and Anthony Anderson, both tormented by depression after they returned home from the military and pushed to the edge of suicide. The two embark on an extraordinary journey – a 2,700 mile walk across the country from Wisconsin to California, in order to reflect on their haunting experiences of war and to ultimately, save themselves.
Posted in April 2017, Articles
By Sherry Steiner
Donald Trump is taking office as the only climate-change denying world leader and threatening to throw all that progress away. We’re ready to fight back.
That’s why the People’s Climate Movement is seizing the first 100 days of the Trump Administration as our own and putting all of our energy toward stopping Trump’s attacks on our climate, our communities, and our jobs, and advance our vision of a new American economy that protects our planet and people.
Posted in April 2017, Articles
The Trump Train has left the station, and the trip is not gonna be pretty.
Yesterday (4/7/17) came the news of 59 Tomahawk missiles launched into Syria, and the confirmation of Neil M. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, bypassing the 60 vote requirement. Today we had Jacksonville police allowing a disruptive agitator to continually provoke a peaceful protest, then, when the agitator succeeded in provoking someone, cops jumped in and arrested six people.
We as a society have lost the skill and patience of diplomacy and negotiation. The people who think in terms of winning instead of cooperation have seized the controls and we are steaming down the tracks.
Posted in April 2017, Articles
What started out as a Poetry Reading in 1979 took place with a purpose: to celebrate the rich cultural heritage of the African American community and to sound the alarm that gentrification was coming. The first 5th Avenue Arts Festival was held.
The complexion and the culture of NW 5th Ave., along with Porters Community have changed so very much over this 38-year period. Mom’s Kitchen – a thriving community – is gone, along with Seminary Lane and hundreds of its residents. Yet, our message through the many years and themes has remained the same.
Posted in April 2017, Articles
Join labor and immigrant groups in a celebration of International Workers’ Day and immigrants’ rights. There will be live music, speakers, and tabling by social justice organizations.
Speakers: Madres Sin Fronteras/Mothers Without Borders, Dream Defenders, Industrial Workers of the World, North Central Florida Central Labor Council, Alachua County Labor Coalition, National Women’s Liberation, Interfaith Alliance for Immigrant Justice.
Music by Mama Trish, others TBA — Food and drink available from local vendors
by Gainesville IWW
May Day, founded in the United States in 1886 during the struggle for the 8-hour work day, is known around the world as International Workers’ Day, International Working People’s Day, or simply International Labor Day.
Posted in April 2017, Articles
The 2017 April issue of the Iguana is now available! If you want to get your hands on a hard copy, check out our distro locations here.
Posted in April 2017, Articles
The March 2017 issue of the Iguana is now available! If you want to get your hands on a hard copy, check out our distro locations here.
Posted in Articles, March 2017
by Lynn Jamieson
After two controversial solar amendments last year, consumers are curious about the rapid speed of solar power growing throughout Florida. Can Alachua County become a sustainable city?
In efforts to address this and other questions, the Interfaith Climate Group is presenting “What’s Next” – a free and open to the public forum examining solar solutions and climate change on Sunday, March 26 at 2 pm. The forum is sponsored by the Earthkeepers of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Gainesville, at 4225 NW 34th Street.
Posted in Articles, March 2017
Lawrence Goodwyn [G], eyewitness author of “Anarchy in St. Augustine” in Harper’s Magazine (1965), was interviewed by Dr. Paul Ortiz [O] in 2011.
This is the 38th in a series of transcript excerpts from the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program collection at the University of Florida.
Transcript edited by Pierce Butler.
O: I wouldn’t expect you to completely separate your life as a historian from your experiences in St. Augustine. But those experiences are really critical, because in Florida today, what people know about the Civil Rights Movement is almost nothing. And what the city of St. Augustine has done to the history of the Civil Rights Movement is to completely suppress it. You were there in [19]64. Can you talk about that?
G: I made a tour through the South in ’64 and the first stop was Mississippi Delta, which was undergoing Mississippi Freedom Summer.
They’d had what they call the Freedom Vote in ’63, in which they were trying to teach people who had never had the experience of voting how to do that. And in ’64 they were going beyond that. It was an active insurgency on the party of black people in Mississippi Delta even to have classes on how to vote. It drew a lot of attention in the nation. They recruited nine hundred people not from Mississippi, from college campuses, white schools, black schools, all kinds of schools.
Posted in Articles, March 2017
by Jon DeCarmine
Julie and Art moved out of GRACE and into a place of their own last week. Tonight, they can cook a meal together. They’re out of the cold (or the heat). They can plug in their phones without worrying about someone stealing them. And there’s a door they can lock behind them. Tonight, they can celebrate all of the little things we take for granted when we’re used to having a home.
We’re celebrating Julie and Art because they are the 300th and 301st person housed by GRACE since we opened. It took us about a year to house our first 100, and another year to house the next 100. This time it only took us 8 months to house the next 100.
Each of these successes is a story of GRACE, but more than that, it’s a story of personal struggle, setback, and resilience. We provide the place to safely crash land, but each of these stories starts and ends with the challenges people have to overcome, and the creativity and resourcefulness they stitch together to make it work.
Please get in touch with us to volunteer and help us get to #400 even faster: volunteer@gracemarketplace.org or 352-792-0800 x104.
Posted in Articles, March 2017