[Antiracism] Estación Libre benefit tour in April: need hosting & sponsoring

[Ka Yan Cheung]

Dear members of the Pioneer Valley community,

My name is Ka Yan Cheung, a Smith College student and a member of Estación Libre - a US based collective of People of Color building with the Zapatista movement in Mexico. El is doing a benefit tour in April with hip hop performances and workshops to raise awareness about the Zapatista movement and its intersections with the community struggles of People of Color, as well as raise funds for our collective's work. We want to know if any community or student groups in the Pioneer Valley community would like to host/sponsor us. Please see below for more information on the tour; more information about EL can be found at http://www.estacionlibre.org/ . If you, or any group/person you know, would like to host/sponsor us, please contact me directly at 646.321.5413 or kcheung at smith.edu .

La lucha sigue...
Ka Yan 

Suggested Dates-
April 17-21 and/or Apr 29th  - Pioneer Valley/Amherst/Northhampton/Mass community

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Information about this Tour 
"El Otro Lado" - People of Color in the United States, the Zapatista Movement, and Collective Struggles

In 1994, the dawn of the North American Free Trade Agreement, indigenous peasants in Chiapas, Mexico took the world by storm by rising up in revolution. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN - Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional) emerged from the mountains and jungles to say "NO" to corporate globalization, neo-liberal colonialism, and the exploitation of indigenous people, women, the poor, and the oppressed. In 12 years, the EZLN has become a major voice in the international struggle against capitalism and neo-liberalism, and an inspiration and hope to struggles throughout the world.

Estacion Libre, a US based collective of People of Color, has been building with the Zapatista movement for over eight years. Through delegations to Zapatista communities, and a continued presence of a peoples space in Chiapas, hundreds of U.S. based community activists and organizers from communities of color have visited, shared with, and learned from the Zapatista movement. These lessons are brought home - back to community struggles against gentrification, police brutality, incarceration, racism, sexism, homophobia, and economic exploition. By sharing tactics and dialogues with the Zapatistas, we strive to create sustainability throughout communities of resistance here in the U.S., with hopes that we can defeat the monster of capitalism and corporate globalization here, in the brain of the monster.
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Suggested Program:

Discussion on the Liberation Struggles of People of Color and intersections with the Zapatista Movement - Ashanti Alston

Reflections on the Zapatista Movement, the Sixth Declaration, and What "Solidarity" Means for US - Estacion Libre (Mixpe, Olmeca, etc.)

Arts and Activism workshops - (Spiritchild, Olmeca, Mixpe, etc.)

Performance by Mental Notes and Olmeca

We will also take time to meet with student groups and community organizations, to help folks with their individual and collective struggles for liberation. These will be informal conversations and building - but they are a big part of what we prioritize as Estacion Libre.

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Bios for event participants:

Ashanti
Ashanti Alston has devoted his life to struggling against racism and oppression, and to building and participating in multigenerational, multiracial, grassroots movements of resistance. Born in Plainfield, NJ in 1954, Ashanti saw and experienced what most black youth did then and still see today: poor-quality housing, unemployment and lack of job opportunities, and schools that squelched students' desire to learn.  He became politicized at an early age and was one of the founding members of the Plainfield, NJ chapter of the Black Panther Party. He was also a member of the Black Liberation Army.
Through intensive studying with the Panthers, Ashanti began a career in self-teaching, popular education, and grassroots organizing through direct engagement with people about their experiences. He has continued this work during the 12 years he spent as a political prisoner, and living in Brooklyn in the years since his release. Through published writing, formal teaching jobs, participation in conferences and lectures, and membership in grassroots organizations, Ashanti has developed his scholarship and shared his critical analysis with young and old organizers, activists, and students around the country. He has spoken throughout North America on the past, present, and future of liberation struggles and the role of community. 
Ashanti has served as the Northeast Regional Coordinator for Critical Resistance, a national organization working for the abolition of the prison-industrial complex. Currently, Ashanti is a member of Estacion Libre, a National people of color collective inspired by and in dialogue with the Zapatista movement of Chiapas Mexico. Ashanti is also a board member for the Institute for Anarchist Studies. He authors the zine Anarchist Panther. 
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Jo Anna Mixpe Ley

Poet, storyteller, popular educator, artist, dancer, spiritual advisor to the stars, and revolutionary warrior - Mixpe has been a lecturer in Chican@ Studies at UCLA, and a teacher of culturally empowering, politically inspiring words and movements to young people throughout Los Angeles and the Western Hemisphere. She is currently one of the co-coordinators for Estacion Libre in Chiapas Mexico - whose objective is to open a space of dialogue between people of color struggles in the U.S. and the Zapatista communities. 

In her time in Chiapas, Mixpe has covered the political situation through written and radio commentary, documenting activities of the military and policing during the "Red Alert." She has built relationships with the autonomous Zapatista communities and shared art, music, movement, and struggles. Recently, Mixpe has served as a support for the Otra Campana of the Zapatista movement, and has coordinated the first delegation between U.S. based Women of Color activists and the revolutionary women of the Zapatista movement.

Through her work, she struggles for continued solidarity with autonomous communities, collectives, and minds. Her poetry and prose engages narratives and oral histories of borders, the colonization and liberation of bodies, always connected to the experiences of her communities and her families. She can breakdown the intersection of racism, classism, sexism and homophobia inside and outside of movements, without breaking you in the process.

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Olmeca

Artist, teacher, organizer, vagabond, traveler, and revolutionary - Olmeca has been the co-coordinator of Estacion Libre in Chiapas, Mexico since May 2005. During his time in Chiapas, Olmeca worked with Zapatista communities reporting on military and police incursions during the summer 2005 "Red Alert," teaching arts and skill sharing workshops, sharing the struggles of People of Color in the US with Zapatista communities, and supporting and observing the discussions around the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle and the "Otra Campana" of the EZLN.

In the occupied territory of the United States, Olmeca is a driving force in the fusion of music and community organizing. He worked to establish APC - the Autonomous Peoples Collective - a collective of community organizers. Artists, and musicians in East LA, and has engaged with countless grassroots struggles for community liberation through his voice and his music, including the Coalition of Imokalee Workers. 

Olmeca is a 7-year veteran in the Los Angeles music scene. Olmeca's unique lyrical style, bilingual rapping skills and unique song writing, has gained the respect of his peers. He has rocked the mic with the legends of the LA underground Hip-Hop scene (Freestyle Fellowship, Abstract Rude and Living Legends) as well as the greats from the Latin Alternative scene, (Roco from Maldita Vecindad, Fidel Nadal and others). 

His redefining and all encompassing song writing skills contain a focused and undaunted political and cultural message. This calls for the decoding of genres in music and, with that, the media and the system all together. Unwilling to separate art with politics, Olmeca has contributed to many grassroots movements as a participant, organizer and artist. Because of this, his music has come to be known as, "musica de los pobres or people's music." Olmeca calls for the "niñ@s de la tierra" to not only become critical of 
the system, but also to begin the process of deconstruction through reflection and action. 

His album, Semillas Rebeldes will be released in March 2006 by Nomadic Sound System.
http://www.olmeca1.com/ 

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Spiritchild

Spiritchild, a member of Escation Libre and the Movement in Motion Artists and Activists Collective was born in Harlem and raised in The Bronx. He is a founder of Mental Notes - a Hip-Hop Jam Band. Mental Notes has gained a reputation as a new innovative sound throughout the New York City Night Club Scene and has performed at such legendary venues as CBGBs, Knitting Factory and Nuyorican Poets Café. For Spiritchild, Mental Notes is not just a Hip-Hop Jam band that creates music, it is an outlet for political expression.  

During the Anti-War Movement that was re-ignited after September 11, 2001, Spiritchild collaborated with artists, activists, and students to establish Movement In Motion Arts Collective - a creative drive in the struggle for peace, justice and social awareness. In the name of information, Movement in Motion offers energy and rhythm to the global peace movement. Prompted by the present threat to civil liberties, they formulate creative spaces in NYC to share alternative news and information and by supporting other networks of informed activists. They fight for our constitutional right to rally and protest. Most importantly, they come out to help like-minded people dance. Members of Movement in Motion have traveled to Venezuela, India, Palestine, Mexico, and South Africa to build music and movement with struggles around the globe.

Spiritchild has also been active in exposing and educating the youth through Hip-Hop. As a youth educator, Spirichild has worked with kids throughout New York, teaching them the fundamentals of music, writing and how to Rap. 
www.movementinmotion.org 
www.mentalnotesnyc.com 
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