http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/wishlist?email=bird@riseup.net&list=Saved%20From%20Shopping%20Cart

Mason’s job in prison is being a guitar instructor, so when you buy the music books, it benefits all of her students as well.

at Little Hamilton Collective
1318 Little Hamilton, Nashville
February 26th @ 6pm (Friday)
$5 donation
All Ages

Live music by the Thimbles

Followed by a Square Dance Party, featuring Daniel Frazer as caller

Free food provided by Food Not Bombs

“Marie is missed dearly by her community.  We are are putting on this benefit to support her and to make sure her needs are being met.”

&&&

We are calling on all supporters of Marie Mason to contact the warden’s office at Waseca prison and ask that she be provided with vegan food. Mason is a vegan for ethical, medical and spiritual reasons, but the prison has denied her vegan meals since her incarceration. Because of this, she has been in ill-health, suffering from symptoms like dizziness and extreme pain in her hands. We call on all supporters to contact the warden’s office and ask that her request for vegan food be approved. Please be very polite.

write:

Warden Nicole English
FCI Waseca
Federal Correctional Institution
PO Box 1731
Waseca, MN 66093

fax:
507-837-4547

Speakers:

Ramona Africa is the sole adult survivor of the May 13, 1985 massacre of eleven members of the MOVE organization. The FBI and the City of Philadelphia dropped a C4 bomb on MOVE’s 6221 Osage Avenue home in West Philadelphia. Carrying the young Birdie Africa (the only other survivor) with her, Ramona dodged gunfire and escaped from the fire with permanent scarring from the burns.

Eugene’s Jeff “Free” Luers is a environmental activist (and Fall Creek tree-sitter) who was sentenced to twenty-three and a half years in prison for making a political statement about global warning. He was recently released after serving ten years of that sentence.

Bands:

From one of the soggiest places in the nation, Eugene, Oregon, comes one of the best Latin-style bands in the country: Los Mex Pistols Del Norte. Don’t think of cumbias, or “La Bamba”. Think of a raging bull with a matador in his sights.

Los Mex Pistols Del Norte combine elements of traditional Paso Dobles (music played at bullrings to reward the participants of the bullfight), Tejana, Conjunto, Banda, Ranchera, Norteno, Spaghetti-Western and instrumental rock and roll to play to a wide variety of audiences. They have opened for several Grammy award-winning acts, including Los Lobos, Flaco Jimenez, Ozomatli, the Neville Brothers, as well as an assortment of other famous and well-established acts such as Pink Martini, surf guitar legend Dick Dale, rockabilly great The Reverend Horton Heat, and songwriter Jonathan Richman. The band also has played with famous Mexican acts such as Banda Los Lagos, and has won “battle of the bands” contests at Latino festivals. Music from the band’s cd, Esta Noche We Ride, has been featured in six films and one commercial.

Incorporating traditional instruments such as guitarronne, mandolin, accordions, trumpets, sousaphone, tympanis and concert chimes with electric and acoustic guitars and drums, as well as an organ, it is no wonder Los Mex Pistols Del Norte can play with almost anyone; they simply have other acts outgunned.

Blackbird Raum formed out of a squatter community living in abandoned buildings and greenbelt tree houses in Santa Cruz, CA in the early 2000’s. Finding themselves living without electricity, they began to learn to play folk instruments from each other and other members of the traveling punk/folk culture. They all grew up playing in anarchopunk, indie and ska bands and then, knowing next to nothing about traditional music, slowly gathered together the skills to create a new genre of music, based somewhere right in the middle of the two musical worlds they now inhabit.

Refusing the retro clichés of many of their contemporaries, they write entirely original music that is reflective of the world they live in: a world of abusive police, ecological devastation, creeping ambiguity and vague fear, but also a strong community sense and a deep love of a natural world constantly on the verge of collapse. They jump back and forth between extremely fast metal influenced jug band dancers to quasi-medieval chant and drone and to herky-jerky hardcore influenced time signature gymnastics. They have toured the country in a tiny truck, played mainstream folk festivals, punk houses, squats and all ages clubs.

Samba Já is Eugene’s own bateria — a thirty-member mobile percussion ensemble. They specialize in playing wild, funky, infectious and incredibly danceable street music from all over Brazil and the Americas, from the sounds of Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro to hip-hop tributes. Diverse, playful and innovative, Samba Já recently celebrated its eighth birthday as a not-for-profit groove cooperative.

The CLDC:

The Civil Liberties Defense Center is a nonprofit organization focused on defending and upholding civil liberties through education, outreach, litigation, legal support and assistance. The Civil Liberties Defense Center strives to preserve the strength and vitality of the Bill of Rights and the U.S. and state constitutions, as well as to protect freedom of expression.

Tickets are $10 advance, $12 at the door, available at WOW Hall or by calling 541-687-9180. Doors open at 6:30 pm and showtime is 7:00.

SHOWTIME: 7:00 PM, PRICE: $10 Advance, $12 Door.

We call on all supporters to contact the warden’s office and ask that her request for vegan food be approved. Please be very polite. Also note that currently (as of Wednesday, February 3) there is no Warden at Waseca. We expect that Warden English will be starting this position next week.

write:

Warden Nicole English
FCI Waseca
Federal Correctional Institution
PO Box 1731
Waseca, MN 66093

fax:
507-837-4547

If you make one, remember – don’t use anything like white-out, stickers, tape or glitter on it. We also recommend that you put her name and prisoner number on the card, lest the authorities “lose” the envelope and forget where it is going.

I’ve been incarcerated here a bit more than 6 months now and have appreciated your cards and letters of support so much. Thank you especially to those who’ve sent books and ‘zines, as these have been shared around and donated to our library here for all to use. It always makes me happy and proud to hear from all the folks at animal rights gatherings abroad, at anarchist and eco-groupings in the US and to know that there are so many in the struggle to confront this twisted, death driven, capitalist system and demand an end to fortune, exploitation and destruction. I’m proud to know you and share this struggle with you.

But without ideas and information to guide our actions, we can be lost and overwhelmed by the powers we confront. That’s why it’s so important to support the organizations that educate us and connect us to one another, celebrate our victories and rally us to solidarity. That’s why I’m asking that you consider making a donation or ordering a subscription to the Earth First! Journal this year.

These have been tough times financially for so many, but to lose this important voice for the wilderness would be a tragic loss and diminish our power as a movement. Please help if you can, with whatever you can and if you’d write me and say you gave to the Journal – it’d be the best holiday gift this prisoner could get. Thank you for all you do to defend the Earth.

Marie Mason
FCI Waseca

&&&

Earth First! Journal subscriptions are $25/ year in US ($22 for low-income). For more information and complete rates, see http://www.earthfirstjournal.org

(text adopted from www.freemarie.org)

Unfortunately, Marie Mason’s other needs are not being met. Mail delivery has continuously been disrupted. Contact  with her appeal lawyer was halted at one point, and he had to intervene to re-establish it. Contact with other lawyers is uncertain. Certain supporters were barred from contacting her, but then allowed to – only to find their communications were still censored or parts of them “lost”. Mason’s attempts to receive instruction in her chosen spiritual path also seems to be running into problems, and outside organizations have had to be informed regarding the situation.

The worst is her food situation; Mason is vegan, but has been unable to consistently receive vegan meals. She has been buying additional food from the commissary, but this too has caused a problem. There was too much money in her commissary account and therefore a monthly amount has been garnished (since Mason has to pay restitution as part of her plea bargain). This has created a vicious cycle: the prison system is refusing to provide her with vegan food, forcing her to buy food from the commissary; but because there is money in her commissary account to buy the food, they are punishing her for it. Mason is looking at options to get the prison to serve her vegan food. She is vegan partly for medical reasons, and her inability to receive a vegan diet is causing her significant health problems.

At this juncture, she wants supporters to be aware of the situation, but NOT to take any action. We also ask that supporters do NOT place money directly in her commissary account, but rather provide any funds directly to her family. (Donation information is available here.)

Supporters should be aware that the prison has notified Mason that she will not be allowed to use the new email system they are installing (although other Green Scare prisoners can). Additionally that they are implementing a list of 100 people that she can write to; all of these people must be authorized ahead of time. This can potentially limit contact with supporters, making events such as letter-writing nights impossible.  We are not sure if this is a system-wide change or one that is more limited; we post updates on this situation as they become available.  However, as of this time (October 19, 2009), anyone can still write Mason, so if you’ve been thinking about doing so, right now is the time. [Mason later clarified that the 100 person list only limits who SHE can write to; anyone is free to write her - but note that unless you are on her authorized list, she will not be able to write you back.]

Lastly, Mason’s appeal is still underway, and details will be posted as they become available.

Marie Mason

Summer 2009

Shut up here, news travels slowly. When the message finally came to me that my friend Samantha has passed on, I was very sad but not altogether surprised. Samantha and I had spoken several times while I was here on house-arrest last year and she was deeply troubled by long-standing family dysfunction and all the many issues surrounding transitioning gender. She was depressed and struggling with so much anger.

I met Samantha as Sam in 2000 in Bloomington, Indiana. At the time, we were trying to create an organizing space for both anti-authoritarian and environmental projects. In the central square, where so many community and University people gathered to talk and eat and shop – rents were extremely high. So high in fact, that even a supported infoshop could not afford to make rent every month. In an act of extreme generosity, Sam became the benefactor of the Secret Sailor by using an inheritance to pay a year’s rent for the infoshop. It was everything Sam had in the world, but Sam believed in what the project could do in a town like Bloomington.

Secret Sailor (the mysterious name Samantha chose referring to the safety escorts of the Toronto Anarchist gathering, but the subject of constant speculation) became a space where punk shows, speakers on current local events, mini-conferences and workshops, meetings of Earth First!ers, Wobblies, anti-globalization activists and writer’s groups could share ideas and location. And through it all, Samantha was the soft-spoken, kind-hearted volunteer who worked everyday to person the register, answer questions and direct interested and curious visitors to the groups they wanted to meet or subjects they wanted to know more about. A firm believer and practitioner of polyamory, Samantha and others held polyamory support groups at Secret Sailor to discuss discrimination and misinformation about alternative lifestyles that occurred even amongst people who considered themselves to be “radicals”. In a constant quest for personal liberation and social change, Samantha was a tireless and living member of a community of resistance.

I am sorry that Samantha is lost to us now. She had been working as part of the Slingshot collective and although struggling with family drama, had seemed positive and upbeat. But gender issues, and trans issues in particular, are still challenging even now for many self-perceived radicals, and Samantha had trouble engaging some friends and family during the process of reassignment.

Samantha was one of the sweetest human beings I’ve known while working in the “movement”. Probably the best way to celebrate and honor her life would be to continue working for justice, equality, respect and kindness in our human communities, and to keep striving to preserve and protect the natural world that Samantha loved so much.

Sunday, October 18^th

Minneapolis, MN

Bedlam Theater

1501 S. 6th St.

8pm – All Ages

suggested donation $5–10

with:

BROADCAST LIVE (NY)

EVAN GREER (MA)

JUNKYARD EMPIRE

E.G. BAILEY

GUANTE

BARTON STINK

The fundraiser will feature the radical hip hop group from New York BROADCAST LIVE and RiotFolk Collective member EVAN GREER from Boston on their cross-country Steel Strings and Break Beats Tour, as well as three local acts launching their Verbal Graffiti Tour. JUNKYARD EMPIRE is a Hip Hop/Jazz/Rock band that just released their new acclaimed album Rebellion Politik. Tru Ruts artists GUANTE – slam poet and mc extraordinaire – and E.G. BAILEY – a true spoken word master and multi-fasceted artist- round out the Verbal Graffiti Tour.  Also performing will be the hip hop/electronic/experimental artist BARTON STINK who recently performed at Camp Trans as well as a local show with JD Samson and Johanna Fateman of Le Tigre.

Co-sponsored by Earth Warriors Are Ok! (EWOK!) and the Twin Cities Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

Click here to download flyer for the show