[Newleaf] coal event info

[Rebecca Simone Siegel]

Here is some info about the coal event:
where: ASH Auditorium
When: Wednesday, March 23 at 7:00pm

Here is how the event will roll:
0-10 minutes: assemble and start event, allowing 5-10 minutes for
latecomers to arrive
10-20 minutes: I give a brief overview of MTR and efforts to end it,
and introduce film
20-55 minutes: show excerpts from film: "Low Coal"
55-70 or so minutes: Q&A
70-90 or more minutes: informal networking, for as long as anyone wants

Here is background info about the event (quoted from Tricia Shapiro)
I'm the author of the recently published book "Mountain Justice:
Homegrown Resistance to Mountaintop Removal, for the Future of Us
All." While traveling to promote this book, I'm also aiming to extend
and deepen discussion about mountaintop removal coal mining among
individuals and groups both inside and outside Appalachia, and to
connect that discussion with related concerns about climate change and
efforts to move toward more sustainable ways of living.

At my speaking events, topics covered vary according to the interests
of the audience but typically include: what mountaintop removal (MTR)
mining is and what it does to natural and human communities nearby,
coalfield-based efforts to end MTR in recent years, my work as an
embedded reporter covering anti-MTR campaigns that use nonviolent
civil disobedience tactics, why people outside the coalfields have a
stake in ending MTR, and the anti-MTR movement's relevance for other
social- and environmental-justice movements.

I'll be showing and discussing a
new film about MTR, from the makers of "Coal Country."
"Low Coal" offers an immersion experience into life in Appalachia's
coalfields, mostly West Virginia, with footage of events ranging from
a pro-coal rally to an anti-MTR tree-sit, as well as interviews with
coal supporters, anti-coal activists, and local people directly
affected by MTR.  Here's a link to more information about it:
www.lowcoal.com

A link to the publisher's webpage for my book is below. My book is not
an academic work but rather a journalistic narrative, based on my own
reporting over six years at events covered in the book, and on many
hours of interviews with people engaged in coalfield-based efforts to
end MTR. It focuses primarily on nonviolent civil disobedience against
MTR since 2005, but also connects those efforts with their historical
context and with contemporary efforts other than civil disobedience
aimed at curbing the ill effects of strip mining in Appalachia.

My book and the "Low Coal" film are unusually complementary, as the
film's maker (Jordan Freeman) and I have been sharing information for
years, in the course of each of our work. Since book and film cover
overlapping aspects of the same beat, I can draw on my own reporting
experience to answer questions and provide information about the
people and events shown in the film.

"Low Coal" presents a lot of powerful real-world footage without a lot
of explanation.When I show it, I usually speak briefly before the film
is shown, to flesh out the context of the film and some of the events
it covers, making it easier for viewers to understand what they're
about to see.