SCHEDULE OF EVENTS  

Download the Program (PDF)  

Friday, November 7, 2008

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Panels

*  Political Repression in Sudan: LOCATION, Sanctuary, 10:00AM

*  Building an Interfaith Anti-Genocide Network: LOCATION: Sanctuary, 11:00AM

Join Lou Ann Merkle, co-founder of the Darfur Alert Coalition, Gabriel Stauring, founder and director of Stop Genocice Now, and Tim Nonn, National Coordinator for Tents of Hope, for a discussion of proven strategies for organizing local interfaith groups to end and prevent genocide. The Darfur Movement is the first global grassroots anti-genocide struggle in history. We will examine the role of interfaith communities so we can better understand how to expand and strengthen the Darfur Movement and other anti-genocide efforts.

*  “Darfur in America,” LOCATION: Sanctuary, 12:00PM

A one hour multi-media play reading with actors, 100 visuals, sound track, all creating a virtual reality of a future, rebellious America like today's Darfur. Two displaced Americans, overwhelmed, walking in Darfuri shoes. Theater of social concern that you can do in your community.

Workshops

*  Genocide Survivors Create Social Change, LOCATION: Fireside Room, 10:00AM

Join Global Grassroots founder, Gretchen Steidle Wallace, as she demonstrates how Darfur refugees and Rwandan genocide survivors are using the tools of social entrepreneurship to create powerful grassroots change for women. Hear inspiring stories about how a Darfurian teacher is building a human rights library in his refugee camp one brick at a time, how Rwandan women have ended the practice of sexual exploitation in exchange for water, and how survivors are helping genocide orphans abandon prostitution as their only livelihood.

*  Mobilizing Muslim Countries for Darfur, LOCATION: Fireside Room, 11:00AM

Join Zainab Al-Suwaij, co-founder of the American Islamic Congress, in discussing the challenge of mobilizing Muslim countries to be more aggressive in confronting the genocide taking place in Darfur. In Muslim countries this genocide has not been acknowledged or addressed publicly.  While it has been mentioned in the media, the majority of this media attention has been censored.  Muslim governments have yet to acknowledge the existence of this problem.  Genocides have been ignored and abuses of human rights have not been addressed due to a lack of freedom and democracy.  What shall we do and how can we address this challenge?

*  Violence Against Women and Girls in Refugee Camps, LOCATION: Fireside Room, 1:00PM

*  Creating Community Between You and Darfur Refugees , LOCATION: Fireside Room, 2:00PM

Join Darfur i-ACTivists Gabriel Stauring and Katie-Jay Scott from Stop Genocide Now for a hands-on, interactive workshop that will personally connect you to the lives of Darfuri's who have benefited from your work. Learn how to weave their stories and voices into your activities, events, and lives of you and your community. Participants will leave this workshop with renewed dedication and a plan to personally connect Darfuri's and your community. 

*  Student Organizing Against Genocide, LOCATION: Library, 2:00PM

*  Investing in Genocide: What You Can Do To Stop It, LOCATION: Fireside Room, 3:00PM

Years after the genocide in Darfur was publicly acknowledged, millions of Americans are unknowingly and inadvertently investing in the companies that are funding this genocide. Investors entrust their family savings and pension funds to mutual fund and other investment firms, which in turn invest those savings in companies which help to fund genocide. The workshop will explain how Investors Against Genocide has been campaigning to end this practice, the results achieved, and the simple, no-cost, actions individuals can take to force the companies to change their investments. 

Films

*  The Devil Came on Horseback, LOCATION: Sanctuary, 1:00PM

The Devil Came on Horseback is a Break Thru Films production in association with Global Grassroots and Three Generations. The award-winning documentary, The Devil Came on Horseback, exposes the tragedy taking place in Darfur as seen through the eyes of an American witness who has since returned to the US to take action to stop it. Using the exclusive photographs and first hand testimony of former US Marine Captain Brian Steidle, The Devil Came on Horseback takes the viewer on an emotionally charged journey into the heart of Darfur, Sudan, where an Arab run government is systematically executing a plan to rid the province of its black African citizens. As an official military observer, Steidle had access to parts of the country that no journalist could penetrate. He was unprepared for what he would witness and experience, including being fired upon, taken hostage, and being unable to intervene to save the lives of young children. Ultimately frustrated by the inaction of the international community, Steidle resigned and returned to the US to expose the images and stories of lives systematically destroyed. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007, was broadcast on the National Geographic Channel in 2008, and has since been seen by millions worldwide.

*  Judgment on Genocide

This film documents a 2006 people’s tribunal (www.judgmentongenocide.com) that indicted and convicted Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of genocide. Judges on the tribunal included Nobel Prize Laureate Wole Soyinka and Rev. Gloria White Hammond. The film has moving testimony from Darfuris who witnessed first-hand the genocide in Darfur. The film raises key issues that relate to the ongoing indictment of Pres. Bashir by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Benefit Concert

*  Join us for an evening of fun and festivity! Cost: $35/ticket. All proceeds go to shipping tents to Darfur.

Performers include: Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Orion, Omar Ishas, and Berklee College of Music

Tent Activities

*  Empathy Labyrinth, National Mall near the Tents of Hope Main Tent

Foster Heart-to-Heart connection within yourself, with others, and with your Life-Force. Learn to go beyond your judgments, assumptions,
and habitual thinking. The Empathy Labyrinth®, created by Marc Weiner, is a tool to teach Nonviolent
Communications (NVC) which was developed by Marshall Rosenberg.

*  Camp Darfur , National Mall near the Tents of Hope Main Tent

An interactive awareness and education event that brings attention to the ongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan, and gives individuals the opportunity to discover their own power to make a difference. This traveling refugee camp raises awareness and examines Sudan's Darfur region and its humanitarian crisis – genocide – by placing it in historical context with Armenia, Holocaust, Cambodia, and Rwanda. CampDarfur empowers communities to raise their voice and take action for the individuals of Darfur.

*  Tent Painting

Come join this fun event for the whole family! We will have ten blank tents ready for painting! So, if you didn’t have a chance to paint a tent yet, come add your creativity and hopeful message for the people of Darfur. 

*  Art and Photography Exhibitions, LutheranChurch of the Reformation

Extra Options

*  US HolocaustMemorialMuseum, 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW, Washington, DC20024-2126, (202) 488-0400

A living memorial to the Holocaust, the United StatesHolocaustMemorialMuseum stimulates leaders and citizens to confront hatred, prevent genocide, promote human dignity, and strengthen democracy. Located among our national monuments to freedom on the National Mall, the Museum provides a powerful lesson in the fragility of freedom, the myth of progress, the need for vigilance in preserving democratic values. With unique power and authenticity, the Museum teaches millions of people each year about the dangers of unchecked hatred and the need to prevent genocide.

*  Civilian Art Project, 406 7^th St. NW, 3^rd Floor, WashingtonDC20004, (202) 347-0022

From October 24 to December 6, 2008, Civilian Art Projects will DARFUR/DARFUR, a traveling exhibit of images by world-renowned photojournalists on the crisis and culture in Darfur, Sudan, curated by Leslie Thomas. Projected worldwide over the past two years on facades of major cultural institutions, DARFUR/DARFUR serves as an advocacy tool, a body of evidence, and a stunning visual display on the culture and crisis in Darfur, Sudan. After viewing one of Brian Steidle’s images of a young girl shot by a Sudan government owned helicopter gunship, DARFUR/DARFUR was created in 2006 by Leslie Thomas, a mother and architect living and working in Chicago, IL. 

Sunday, November 9, 2008