2015 Western Workers Labor Heritage Festival - January 16-18

Join us for the 2015 Western Workers Labor Heritage Festival on January 16, 17, & 18 at Machinists Hall. 1511 Rollins Road Burlingame, CA 94010

More Information and to Pre-Register Now, visit http://www.westernworkersfestival.org/

The Western Workers Labor Heritage Festival is an annual celebration of the artistic and spiritual culture of labor and working men and women. It is held every year on Martin Luther King Junior weekend, a commemoration of the kind of social justice and economic change that this great leader so firmly endorsed. It's a three-day festival of workshops, presentations, dance, film, graphic arts, spoken word and lots of music ... practically anything that can be interpreted as an artistic expression of worker's voices in the working world will be found at our festival.

FULL PROGRAM SCHEDULE. Check website for up to date information: http://www.westernworkersfestival.org/
_____________________________________

FRIDAY, JANUARY 16th

6 pm - Registration

7-10 pm - Arts Exchange
(song, poetry, and story swap)

Featured Performers:
• Eliot Kenin
• Francisco Herrera
• The Re-Sisters
_____________________________________

SATURDAY, JANUARY 17th

9 am - Registration
(continental breakfast, informal song swaps)

10 to noon - Workshops
(music, visual arts, spoken word, film/theater, labor history/culture)

• Rockin’ Solidarity Chorus

• Working Women Songwriters: Beyond Little Boxes
Mark Loring, Mary Rose and Jim Cook

"Wisconsin Rising"
Sam Mayfield and Mike Konopaki
(Film and discussion)

Noon to 1 pm - Lunch

1:15 to 1:45 - Featured Performers

• Mark Levy
• Seattle Labor Chorus
• Avotcja

2 to 3:30 pm - Workshops

• Political Geography and the Future of Labor Movement
Dick Walker and Sasha Lilley

• Strategies to Integrate Songs at Activist Events
Ben Grosscup

• The Sitka Project
Joe Moore

3:45 to 5:15 pm - Workshops

• Low Wage Workers
Saru Jayaruman

• Rosie the Riveter
Betty Reid Soskin

• Displacement Literature
James Tracy and others

5:30 to 7 pm - Dinner

7 to 10 pm - Arts Exchange

Featured Performers:
• Emma’s Revolution
____________________________________

SUNDAY, JANUARY 18th

9 to 10 am - Registration
(continental breakfast, informal song swaps)

10 to 11:30 - Workshops

• Worker, War, and Warming - the Confluence
Emma’s Revolution

• Avotcja

Noon to 1 pm - Lunch

1:30 to 2:30 pm - Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Jimmy Collier
• Alex and Harriet
• Liliana Herrera
• La Pena Community Chorus
• Youth Spoken Word

3-4:45 pm - Practice for concert performance

• Participatory reading to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of Joe Hill

5 to 6pm - Dinner

7 pm - Benefit Concert

• Andrea Turner, MC
• Labor Arts Award to Lincoln Cushing and Union Honor Roll
• Vukani Mawetho
• Emma’s Revolution
• Roy Zimmerman
• Saru Jayaruman
• Chris Chandler

_____________________________________

2015 Western Workers Festival Film Festival
Program Schedule and Descriptions:

Saturday, 1/17, 10am to 12

“Wisconsin Rising,” by Sam Mayfield, Lower Third Productions, 2014, 55 min. Following conservative Governor Scott Walker’s announcement of his controversial “Budget Repair Bill,” the people of Wisconsin rose up, occupied their state capitol and took to the streets as rarely before seen in American History. Their collective actions are the largest sustained gathering of any workers’ resistance in US history.

Film will be shown as part of a workshop with Sam Mayfield and Mike Konopaki.

Saturday, 1/17, 2pm to 3:30

“Inequality For All,” directed by Jacob Kornbluth, based on a book by Robert Reich, 2013, 90 min. Features Robert Reich, a professor, best-selling author, and Clinton cabinet member, as he demonstrates how the widening income gap has a devastating impact on the American economy. Through his singular perspective, Reich explains how the massive consolidation of wealth by a precious few threatens the viability of the American workforce and the foundation of democracy itself. Spanish subtitles; also English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired.

Saturday, 1/17, 3:45pm to 5:15

“SB1070: The Faces,” by Renato Avalos, 2011, 76 min. This film shows the first 18 months of dramatic changes caused by the adoption of SB1070 in Arizona, changes to a community which still clings to the search for the American dream. It also documents the evolution of our laws against illegal immigration, and the rise and fall of Russell Pearce, one of the most important opponents of undocumented immigration in the united States and the main promoter of SB1070. What were the motives of these promoters? Why Arizona? Who are the people most affected? These are some of the questions answered by the film. In Spanish and English.

Sunday, 1/18, 10am to 11:30

“Dirty Wars,” by Jeremy Scahill, directed by richard Rowley, 2013, 90 min. Viewer’s comments: “A must for everyone who is a keeper of the real American dream: the opportunity for self-determination through character, selfless responsibility, and courage. ‘Dirty Wars’ is about Jeremy Scahill’s investigative journalism and where his search for the truth takes him…this is an oasis from the callous and sanitized insanity of our 20 year war on “terror.”

Sunday, 1/18, 3pm to 4:45

“Langston Hughes: The Dream Keeper.” 2000. 60 min. A film about the poet Langston Hughes, his life and times, and his work as an artist. Born in 1902, he was one of the few prominent black writers of his day to champion racial consciousness as a source of inspiration for black artists. In addition to his example in social attitudes, Hughes had an important technical influence by his emphasis on folk and jazz rhythms as the basis of his poetry of racial pride.