April 13 talk by Charles Hardy:"Cowboy in Caracas"

Cowboy in Caracas:

One North American's

Life in Venezuela

a talk by

Charles Hardy

Friday, April 13

7:00 p.m.

Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine

170 Park St., Bangor

A former priest turned journalist, Charles Hardy has lived in Venezuela for eight years, where he has been a witness to history: the discontent that brought Venezuelan Hugo Chávez Frias to power, the U.S.-orchestrated coup that briefly toppled him, and the peaceful, democratic revolution that returned him to the Presidency and has been transforming the lives of Venezuela's poor.

His memoir, Cowboy in Caracas, has just been published by Curbstone Press and is already receiving rave reviews:

"Read this important book, and drop the propaganda sandwich in the trash where it belongs." --Peter Coyote, actor/writer

"Charles Hardy has given us a unique perspective on the Chávista revolution as viewed from a cardboard shack on a hillside barrio in Caracas. Writing in a graceful and conversational style in a series of vignettes, Hardy conveys with genuine affection and admiration the dignity and courage of the ordinary people of Venezuela.... This book is a must read for all Americans--but a must read that you won't be able to put down." --Dave Lindorff, columnist for Counterpunch and co-author with Barbara Olshansky of The Case for Impeachment

"This book is an antidote to the poisonous US government mantra against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. Ironically, 'Cowboy' isn't about Chávez, but about the exciting processes he has helped initiate and about the awakening of Venezuela's poor whom the US media neglects." --Saul Landau, author of A Bush & Botox World

April 12 talk by Bob St. Peter - "Local Food in a Global Context

PICA's Comida Justa y Local/Fair and Local Food Committee presents

LOCAL FOOD IN A

GLOBAL CONTEXT

a talk by

Bob St. Peter

Director, Good Life Center

Thursday, April 12

7:00 P.M.

Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine

170 Park St., Bangor

Bob St. Peter is a third generation Mainer from Caribou with a passion for promoting and creating just, sustainable, and self-governing communities. He currently serves as Director of the Good Life Center, which works to "perpetuate the philosophies and lifeways promoted and exemplified by Helen and Scott Nearing, two of America's most inspirational practitioners of simple, frugal and purposeful living." In Spring 2005, Bob founded the Independent Food Project (IFP) to promote community food security and to raise awareness about the negative social, economic, and ecological effects of our industrialized food system. IFP has recently merged with GE Free Maine to become the umbrella group Food for Maine's Future, where Bob serves as a board member and the volunteer Food Independence Campaign Coordinator. He is currently working with the Protect Maine Farmer's campaign, a project of Food for Maine's Future, to pass legislation in Maine that will protect all farmers from negative impacts of GMO contamination.

In addition to his commitment to preserving traditional farming in Maine, Bob has also worked on food, poverty, and rural sustainability issues internationally as the development director for Sustainable Harvest International. Bob serves on the advisory board of the Maine Marijuana Policy Initiative and is an advocate for ending the prohibition of marijuana and hemp as a matter of civil and human rights. He is a freelance writer, subsistence farmer, popular educator, and a devoted husband and father. Much like Scott Nearing, Bob has chosen a simpler life devoted to work with head and hands as a way of limiting his involvement in the current economy. He views this lifestyle as one way to work towards creating change in a world rife with exploitation and over-consumption.

His talk will be the first in a monthly series of educational events organized by PICA's Comida Justa y Local/ Fair and Local Food Committee. The committee is organizing a campaign to connect farmers and farmworkers with consumers, building an alliance to work together for a world in which everyone has enough to eat, those who produce our food are paid and treated fairly, food is grown and processed in ways that are healthy for our bodies and the land, and that sustain rural communities.

Building on twenty years of experience building connections between people working for justice in Maine and El Salvador, PICA is dedicated to building solidarity across geographic and cultural borders in the struggle to create just, democratic, and sustainable communities.