A benefit to help pay our rent! It’s a 7-Soup mixer! Come out to enjoy tasty soups, breads, and fun times.

When: Tuesday, 2/21, 6-9pm
Where: the Free Space, 3458 Minnehaha Ave., Minneapolis
Suggested donation: $5-15

Download the flier above (or a 1/4 sheet version here) and print it to help promote this fundraiser for the Free Space! (pro tip: real-world promotion works wonders) :-)

Cold Nights, Hot Issues! is an event series exploring hot topics with a radical lens, learning from the wisdom of local activists, and building local and global struggles towards a world free from oppression and domination. Each event starts with food at 6:30, followed by a moderated discussion at 7pm at the Minnehaha Free Space.

Friday February 17 –
Beyond Marriage:
Queer Struggles in the Context of Marriage Equality

Dinner at 6:30pm – Panel Discussion at 7pm
FREE with Donations Welcome
3458 Minnehaha Ave., Minneapolis MN 55406 (on the #7 bus line)

This coming November, Minnesotans will vote on a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and woman only, a measure that wouldmake it more difficult to extend marriage rights to all couples in the future. The campaign battle is sure to be huge, as organizations both for and against the amendment have already raised over 1.2 million dollars each.

However, as other states have fought similar amendments, while six states including Iowa have won marriage equality for couples of all genders, many activists have witnessed these battles being waged at the expense of racial justice, economic justice, and the struggles facing marginalized queer and trans identities.

What is the significance of the struggle for marriage equality in 2012? What’s being done locally to connect it to intersecting oppressions and systemic forms of violence like homelessness and unemployment? And how might the marriage amendment be defeated without losing sight of the big picture?

Panelists Include: Raquel (Rocki) Simões (Avenues for Homeless Youth GLBT Host Home Program), Rebecca Waggoner (Outfront Minnesota), Ryan Murphy (Twin Cities GLBT Oral History Project and contributor to Queer Twin Cities), and others working for justice for queer and trans folks in the Twin Cities. Come to learn from local activists, ask questions and share your experience!

(note: organizations listed for identification only)

www.minnehahafreespace.org
612-729-FREE
facebook.com/MinnehahaFreeSpace

Join us on Friday, February 10th, 7pm-11pm, for Holey Moley, the first of potentially more fix ‘em up skill share nights at the Free Space.

Bring clothing items that you want to patch, darn, or adjust, and some food to share if you are able.

We will provide some patching material, thread, needles, yarn & darning needles, and a sewing machine for careful use.

Share with others your favorite stitching methods, best reinforcement techniques, and other tips and tricks you’ve picked up over the years.

*No experience required!*

Invite your friends – in person or on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/166442993466330/

Come enjoy FREE MOVIES at the Free Space every Monday in February! Featuring: Happy Feet, The Coconut Revolution, Dead Man, and Cultures of Resistance. Movies start at 7pm. Arrive early for snacks and stick around for engaging discussions! See descriptions below…

Feb 6 – Kid’s Night! showing Happy Feet
Into the world of the Emperor Penguins, who find their soul mates through song, a penguin is born who cannot sing. But he can tap dance something fierce! Eat popcorn and other snacks and join the family fun!

Feb 13 – documentary: The Coconut Revolution
This is the modern-day story of a native peoples’ remarkable victory over Western Colonial power. A Pacific island rose up in arms against a giant mining corporation – and won despite a military occupation and blockade. The movie tells the story of the successful uprising of the indigenous peoples of Bougainville Island against the Papua New Guinea army and the mining plans of the Rio Tinto Zinc (RTZ) company to exploit their natural resources.

Feb 20 – movie: Dead Man
A dark, bitter commentary on modern American life cloaked in the form of a surrealist western, Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man stars Johnny Depp as William Blake, a newly-orphaned accountant who leaves his home in Cleveland to accept a job in the frontier town of Machine. Upon his arrival, Blake is told by the factory owner that the job has already been filled. Dejectedly, he enters a nearby tavern, ultimately spending the night with a former prostitute. A violent altercation with the woman’s lover leaves Blake a murderer as well as mortally wounded. He flees into the wilderness, where a Native American named Nobody (Gary Farmer) mistakes Blake for the English poet William Blake and determines that he will be Blake’s guide in his protracted passage into the spirit world.

Feb 27 – documentary: Cultures of Resistance*
Directed by Iara Lee
Does each gesture really make a difference? Can music and dance be weapons of peace? In 2003, on the eve of the Iraq war, director Iara Lee embarked on a journey to better understand a world increasingly embroiled in conflict and, as she saw it, heading for self-destruction. After several years, travelling over five continents, Iara encountered growing numbers of people who committed their lives to promoting change. This is their story. Featuring: Medellín poets for peace, Capoeira masters from Brazil, Niger Delta militants, Iranian graffiti artists, women’s movement leaders in Rwanda, Lebanon’s refugee filmmakers, U.S. political pranksters, indigenous Kayapó activists from the Xingu River, Israeli dissidents, hip-hop artists from Palestine, and many more…
*A note on viewer discretion: this film is as intense as the struggles it chronicles. There are scenes of violence and graphic images that may be triggering for some. Please see http://culturesofresistance.org/ for more information on the film.

For more info on the free space, see http://minnehahafreespace.org/

Three free workshops in February through South Side Free Skool
and Experimental Community Education of the TC (EXCO)

Are you interested in building more resilient, sustainable and just communities? Over three Sunday workshops, FOOD FEBRUARY will merge the theory and practice of food justice. Together, we’ll grow the conversation by learning from people already getting their hands dirty in the Twin Cities. No matter if you have little experience or a lot, come to connect with others, share knowledge, and nurture community sustainability.

Each workshop will build off the others, but can also be attended individually.  All run from 12-2pm at the Minnehaha Free Space.

February 5 – WINTER GARDENING SKILLS
Learn about winter gardening, including how to grow small herbs and microgreens and how to sprout at home. This workshop will give practical tips for building sustainability at home.

February 12 – FOOD JUSTICE THEORY
This second workshop will transition from self-sustainability to the systems that affect access to food. Join local food justice activists to converse about why our communities often lack culturally appropriate, affordable and nutritious food with which to sustain ourselves.

February 19 – FOOD JUSTICE IN ACTION!
Come to this final workshop to explore what’s being done locally to put food justice theory and practice to work for solidarity, not just charity. Bradi Baker from Project Sweetie Pie, an urban gardening program for North Minneapolis youth, will share her experiences teaching about growing our own food and reconnecting with the land in a culturally appropriate way.

To learn about other free classes and workshops this spring, visit www.excotc.org.

Cold Nights, Hot Issues! is an event series exploring hot topics with a radical lens, learning from the wisdom of local activists, and building local and global struggles towards a world free from oppression and domination. Each event starts with food at 6:30, followed by a moderated discussion at 7pm at the Minnehaha Free Space.

Friday January 27:
Prison Abolition

Dinner at 6:30pm – Panel Discussion at 7pm
FREE with Donations Welcome
3458 Minnehaha Ave., Minneapolis MN 55406 (on the #7 bus line)

Right now in the United States, over two million people sit in a prison or jail cell, while over seven million are under some form of correctional supervision. The U.S. alone incarcerates over 25% of the world’s prison population. As the system called the prison industrial complex keeps growing into a massive for-profit net of social control, more and more people are organizing as prison abolitionists, believing that this system can’t be reformed—it must be abolished.

How does the prison industrial complex affect our communities, and what’s being done locally to resist it?

Featuring speakers from the Women’s Prison Book Project, the Cece McDonald Support Committee, and others in the struggle against prisons and policing. Come to learn from local activists, ask questions and share your experience!

www.minnehahafreespace.org
612-729-FREE
facebook.com/MinnehahaFreeSpace

Wednesday, January 25
7-10pm at the Free Space

Slutwalk Minneapolis are hosting another Open Mic event at the  Minnehaha Free Space.

This is an event for survivors and their supporters to participate in however they feel comfortable: free verse, story telling, or music. Read more…

Calling student radicals!  The MARS student group is hosting a Public Speaking for Activists training on Saturday, February 18 from 12-4pm at the University of Minnesota.  The training is designed for people who wish to express radical ideas in spaces where this can often be scary or difficult.  Space is limited, so we require that you RSVP in advance.  Read on for more information and a link to register. Read more…