Freedom Voices, the Media Alliance Poverty Rights Journalism Committee, the American Friends Service Committee, Poor Magazine/Poor News Network, the Coalition on Homelessness, Street Sheet, the Western Regional Advocacy Project, and BOSS invite you to a:
Emergency Benefit for
Street Spirit Editor Terry Messman
and Ellen Danchik
7 pm, Thursday, September 20, 2007
Berkeley Friends Church
1600 Sacramento Street at Cedar, Berkeley CA
(2 blocks from the North Berkeley BART Station)
Donations requested: sliding scale $10
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Doors open for art sales and light refreshments at 7pm
Featuring art by: Doug Minkler, Art Hazelwood, Joan St.Clare, Jos Sances, Christine Hanlon, Anthony Ryan, Calixto Robles, Favianna Rodriguez, Gato, Lincoln Cushing, Emily Duffy and pre-Columbian art figures
Performances, spoken word and remarks by: Tiny, the Welfare Queens, Praba Pilar, Margot Pepper, Eric Robertson, BenJesse Clarke, Paul Boden, Michael Parenti
Music by Andrea Pritchett (Rebecca Riots) and Maggie Forti (Buffalo Roam)
Presenting the TallMountain Circle Award for Writing and Community Service
Terry Messman is the founding editor of Street Spirit Newspaper, one of the outstanding examples of street newspapers and progressive journalism in the country. Terry has dedicated over 20 years to organizing with homeless people in various ways, from occupying and winning housing for shelter to the brilliant advocacy journalism he has practiced in Street Spirit for over a decade. In addition to providing a free speech venue for poverty rights, peace and social justice views that are censored by the mainstream, the paper provides income for scores of homeless people who act as vendors earning honorable income selling papers on the street.
Ellen Danchik is currently disabled as a result of a brain tumor and consequent surgery. She was the legal coordinator for Nuremberg Action Group in the late 1980s, and helped organize the legal defense for hundreds of protesters arrested for civil disobedience at the Concord Naval Weapons Station. For the past 14 years, Ellen has worked as a dedicated advocate for homeless people with disabilities in Contra Costa County, first as a patients rights advocate, then, for the past 8 years, as the Housing Coordinator for the County Mental Health Department, where she helped find housing and supportive services for many of the poorest and most disabled people in Contra Costa County.
Donations by check can be sent to Freedom Voices, P.O. Box 423115 San Francisco, CA, 94142
Additional information and credit card donations in response to the medical emergency posing an eviction threat to Terry Messman and his family can be read at view link
