[NYTr] Brecht Forum: Three Events + End-of-Year Party - NYC

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB)
451 West Street
New York, New York 10014
(212) 924-1858
toplab at toplab.org
http://www.toplab.org

Brecht Forum: Three Events + End-of-Year Party

Brecht Forum
451 West Street*
New York City

* travel directions appended below

more info at http://www.brechtforum.org or (212) 242-4201

***

Tonight! Thursday, December 13, 2007 at 7:30 pm

Thinking about Revolution and Evolution in the Twenty-first Century

presented by the participants in a reading and writing group

Our panelists will present ideas, drawn from their just-completed study
group on James and Grace Lee Boggs' classic work, Revolution and
Evolution in the Twentieth Century. They will present some reflections
on their own personal/political histories that might hopefully
illuminate some concrete next steps on our revolutionary and
evolutionary paths.

Suggested donation: $6/$10/$15
Free for Brecht Forum Subscribers

***

Saturday, December 15 at 9:00 pm

Neues Kabarett presents

Carla Kihlstedt

Featuring the world premiere of the Brecht Forum-commissioned piece,
Causing a Tiger

Featuring Carla Kihlstedt (violin, voice), Shahzad Ismaily (percussion,
guitar, bass), and Matthias Bossi (percussion, piano)

Carla Kihlstedt is a founding member of Tin Hat Trio and the art-rock
band Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. Her solo project, Two Foot Yard, uses
both her violin and voice simultaneously. She was one of three singers
in the band Charming Hostess for six years. Carla has performed with
Awadagin Pratt, Don Byron, Ear Play, the Berkeley Contemporary Chamber
Players and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. She was a
featured soloist in NYC's MATA in 2006, was commissioned by Merkin Hall
for itsemerging composer series, and has contributed to the recordings
of Tom Waits, Mr. Bungle and the Grassy Knoll.

Admission: $10

***

Monday, December 17 at 7:30 pm

Venezuela after the Failed Constitutional Reform: Which Way Now?

a talk by Greg Wilpert

On December 3, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez suffered his first
electoral defeat in nine years and twelve nation-wide votes. How did
this happen and what does this mean for the continuation of the
Bolivarian socialist project? Gregory Wilpert, the author of Changing
Venezuela by Taking Power (Verso Books, 2007) will present his analysis
of recent events in the context of Venezuelan history and the larger
leftward trend in Latin America.

Suggested donation $6/$10/$15
Free for Brecht Forum Subscribers

***

Tuesday, December 18 from 5:30 to 8:00 pm

The Brecht Forum's End-of-the-Year Party!

Friends, neighbors, activists, artists, organizers, poets, actors,
lovers and rabble-rousers! Join us to celebrate the Brecht Forum's
End-of-the-Year Party! Come and hang out with your favorite
anti-capitalists. Entertainment and light refreshments to be had.

*****

Travel Directions

The Brecht Forum is at 451 West Street (West Side Highway) in Manhattan,
between Bank and Bethune Streets, 1-1/2 blocks north of West 11 Street.

IND Eighth Avenue A, C, or E train to 14 Street or BMT Canarsie L train
to 8 Avenue (take a few minutes to look at "Life Underground", Tom
Otterness' series of whimsical bronze sculptures scattered throughout
both sections of the station); walk down 8 Avenue to Bank Street, turn
right, walk west to West Street, turn right.

IRT Seventh Avenue 1, 2, or 3 train to 14 Street; get off at south end
of station, walk west on 12 Street to 8 Avenue, left to Bank Street,
turn right, walk west to West Street, turn right.

New Jersey PATH train to Christopher Street; walk north on Greenwich
Street to Bank Street, left to West Street, turn right.

#8 bus to West Street; walk up West Street to 451.

#11, #14A or #20 bus to Abingdon Square; walk west on Bank Street to
West Street, turn right.

#14D bus to 8 Avenue and 14 Street, walk down 8 Avenue to Bank Street,
turn right, walk west to West Street, turn right.


===
The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB)
toplab at toplab.org
http://www.toplab.org

"My fellow Americans, major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the
battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed."
                                        --George W. Bush, May 1, 2003

"...I told the American people that the road ahead would be difficult,
and that we would prevail. Well, it has been difficult--and we are
prevailing."
                                        --George W. Bush, June 28, 2005

"Our cause in Iraq is noble and necessary....America is engaged in a new
struggle that will set the course for a new century. We can and we will
prevail."
                                        --George W. Bush, January 10,
2007

"Prevailing in Iraq is not going to be easy."
                                        --George W. Bush, March 19, 2007

+U.S. military fatalities through May 1, 2003: 140
+U.S. military fatalities through June 28, 2005: 1743
+U.S. military fatalities through January 10, 2007: 3017
+U.S. military fatalities through March 19, 2007: 3217
+U.S. military fatalities as of December 13, 2007: 3888 (this figure
exceeds the number of people killed in all of the incidents that
occurred on September 11, 2001)

+Iraqi deaths due to the US invasion, as of September 2004 (estimated by
The Lancet): 100,000+
+Iraqi deaths due to the US invasion, as of July 2006 (estimated by The
Lancet): 654,965
+Iraqi deaths due to the US invasion, as of December 13, 2007 (estimated
by Just Foreign Policy): 1,131,831*

*These figures are based on the number of deaths estimated in The Lancet
(the British medical journal) study through July 2006, and then updated
based "on how quickly deaths are mounting in Iraq". To do that, Just
Foreign Policy multiplies The Lancet figure as of July 2006 by the ratio
of current deaths reported by Iraq Body Count (IBC), divided by IBC
deaths as of July 1, 2006. The IBC numbers, considerably lower than
those cited by The Lancet, Opinion Research Business (a British polling
firm which estimated 1.2 million Iraqi deaths as of September 2007),
and even the Iraq Ministry of Health, are based on the number of
fatalities cited in various news reports and have been criticized, with
much justification, for not giving an accurate assessment of the real
Iraqi death count. The much more rigorous and statistically-reliable
study, conducted by teams from Johns Hopkins University, Columbia
University and Al-Mustansiriya University, and published in The Lancet
in September 2004, put the figure at around 100,000 civilians dead.
However, that data had been based on "conservative assumptions",
according to research team leader Les Roberts, and the actual count at
that time was credibly assumed to be significantly higher. For example,
The Lancet study's data greatly underestimated fatalities in Fallujah
due to the surveying problems encountered there at that time. The
second Lancet study, released on October 10, 2006, indicated that
654,965 "excess" deaths of Iraqis have occurred since the outbreak of
the aggression and genocide committed by the United States against the
people of Iraq. The current figures provided by Just Foreign Policy
seem to be logically consistent with the increasing rates of death from
2003 to 2004, and 2004 to 2006.

Sources: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html
http://icasualties.org/oif/
http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
http://www.zmag.org/lancet.pdf
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1338749,00.html
http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/Iraq_war.html
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php4?article_id=6271
http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20041025/008279.html
http://www.thelancet.com/webfiles/images/journals/lancet/s0140673606694919.pdf

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