Let Your Voice Be Heard

WeAct for Environmental Justice and Community Board 9 are teaming up to protect West Harlem’s waterfront. You are invited to take part in the Marine Transfer Station Community Visioning meeting on Saturday, May 8th at 3pm. Below are the details from a letter released by WeAct and CB 9. With your help, we can change a trash transfer facility into a neighborhood treasure!

Dear Community Member:

West Harlem is no place for that old abandoned sanitation facility at 135^th St in the Hudson River. Do you have ideas for how the site can be redeveloped? Do you want a revitalized West Harlem waterfront for you, your family, and this community? If so the time has come!

The time has come to turn the abandoned 135^th marine transfer station (MTS) in the Hudson River into a community asset. The site is ripe for redevelopment to continue the revitalization of the West Harlem Waterfront that began with the West Harlem Piers Park. It is up the West Harlem community to decide what the MTS will become and what it will look like. That is why WEACT and Community Board 9 (CB9) have partnered to help make the community’s vision a reality.

We invite you to the 135^th MTS Community Visioning on Saturday, May 8^th from 9:30 am to 3 pm.

The Community Visioning will build off of the work from the Waterfront and Economic Development Committee of CB9 on potential re-uses of the site and a successful Community Forum co-led by WEACT and CB9 in November of 2009. The Community Visioning is your opportunity to express your ideas for how to reuse the MTS and engage in its redesign. However the Community Visioning is not your only chance to have input into the process of deciding what will be there and what it will look like. WE ACT and CB9 will coordinate follow-up community sessions to make sure the designers and architects get the community vision right.

The Community Visioning will take place at City College in their Faculty Dining Hall located on the 3^rd floor of their North Academic Center (NAC). The NAC is located on Convent Avenue between 135^th St. and 138^th St. Breakfast, lunch, translation, and childcare will be provided.

We hope you, your friends, your family and the West Harlem community will join us in determining the reuses and redesign of the 135^th MTS. Please spread the word about it. With your help we can transform it from being a trash transfer facility into a treasure for the community. In future years when we see the transformation, we will be proud we came together for the 135^th MTS Community Visioning on Saturday, May 8^th from 9:30 am to 3 pm.

Please RSVP with James Subudhi at WE ACT or Eutha Prince at CB9 if you will attend. Contact information is below.

Sincerely,

WE ACT and Community Board 9

**This article was submitted by WeAct for Environmental Justice, an NYFJ organizational partner.

House Gatherings

Come see the film, The End of Poverty, this Saturday for NYFJ's April Manhattan House Party. The End of Poverty is a film that addresses the roots and reasons for poverty today. Surely to lead to a vibrant discussion, join other people concerned with justice for an exciting and thought-provoking evening.

Manhattan House Gathering

Saturday, April 24th

6 - 8pm

4996 Broadway #1A

NY, NY 10034

map it here

Faith Leaders for Environmental Justice are Taking a Walk

Thursday is Earth Day and what a better way to honor this day than by joining the Faith Leader's for Environmental Justice on a green tour of West Harlem. The walk, based on the newly created Harlem Green Map, will be led by our colleagues at We Act for Environmental Justice. See a video on the Green Map here. We hope to walk with you as we celebrate this exciting new map.

What's Going On...

There are many great events to going on during the last two weeks of April. Check out what some of our Organizational Partners are doing!!

Metro Hope for Haiti
Join Metro Hope Church as they celebrate the Haitian people and tradition as they raise money to help in the rebuilding of Haiti through a night of music, poetry, and more. Tickets are $20 and all proceeds will donated to Haiti Partners.

Friday, April 23rd
8 - 10pm
Metro Hope Church
@The National Black Theatre, 3rd Floor
125th St. & 5th Ave.
This event was submitted my Metro Hope Church, an organizational partner of NY Faith & Justice.

God's Dog

For two years, Hope Ryden camped in remote areas of Wyoming and Montana, observing and photographing the coyote. Her book, God's Dog is considered the classic treatise on the coyote. You will learn about God's Dog and the effect the environmental crisis is having on the coyote.

Wednesday, April 21st

7:30pm

The Church of the Holy Trinity

316 E. 88th St.

between 1st & 2nd Ave

This event was submitted by the Peace & Restorative Justice Ministry of the Church of the Holy Trinity, an organizational partner of NY Faith & Justice

April Serve Together - Green Festival Outing
Join Faith House as they head to the NYC Grows outdoor fair in Union Square. In celebration of Earth Day, the group plans to learn about and share experiences in urban gardening, organic cooking, sustainable living and more. The event is family friendly and includes demonstrations, workshops, eco-friendly products, and local produce.

Sunday, April 25th
1:30 - 3:30pm
Union Square (cnr of 14th and University Place)
Please RSVP toBara
This event was submitted by Faith House, an organizational partner of NY Faith & Justice.

Radical Housemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture
Join Just Food and the Weston A. Price Foundation NYC as author and farmer Shannon Hayes tells the story of pioneering men and women who are redifining feminism and the good life by reclaiming control of home and earth. The presentation will include a panel discussion with several New Yorkers who are seeking to live more sustainably through urban homesteading activities.

Wednesday, April 28th
6:30 - 8:30pm
114 West 47th Street
(between 6th & 7th Ave)
First floor auditorium
Tickets are $10 for admission and $25 for admission & a signed book
click hereto buy tickets
This event was submitted by Just Food, an organizational partner of NY Faith & Justice

Episcopal Ecological Ministry

For her seminary studies, Sahra Harding is researching how being Episcopal can create a sensibility for environmental stewardship. This forum will teach you how the resources of the Episcopal faith can lead Episcopalians to a deeper connection with the earth and a commitment to ecological ministry.

Wednesday, April 28th

7:30pm

The Church of the Holy Trinity

316 E. 88th St.

between 1st & 2nd Ave

This event was submitted by the Peace & Restorative Justice Ministry of the Church of the Holy Trinity, an organizational partner of NY Faith & Justice

The New York Pastors Challenge
This month, a new group of New York pastors is challenging you to continue that tradition of faithfully responding to God's call to address the root causes of hunger. The "New York Pastor's Challenge" is to get 10,000 new Bread for the World members by October 2010. You can help out by:

• becoming a member of Bread for the World today
• Help spread the word by inviting your family, friends, and church members to join Bread via email, facebook, and twitter

This event was submitted by Bread for the World, an organizational partner of NY Faith & Justice.

Radical Living Parties for Immigration Reform

On March 13th, party's were held around the city to help educate and advocate for Comprehensive Immigration Reform using the NYFJ Immigration House Party Toolkit. One of these party's was hosted by the Radical Living Community in Brooklyn.

Thirteen people attended the Radical Living house party and were immediately welcomed with a lot of food and a lot of discussion on what kind of Immigration reform they would like to see enacted. After dinner, the group took part in playing the Immigration Jeopardy game included in the toolkit. The game led to even more discussion on Comprehensive Immigration Reform including deciding on who they can write letters to in order to show their support for CIR and let their voices be heard by the people making these decisions.

Radical Living is a good example of people becoming activated in order to make a more just world. If you would like to let your voice be heard on Comprehensive Immigration Reform, you can host a party by downloading our toolkit. You can also let your congressman know how you feel. Our own Senator Chuck Schumer is in charge of writing the Immigration Reform bill so New Yorker's have a rare ability to affect change for the entire country. Check out our sample letters and calling scripts.