Thursday, September 9, 2010

International Conference: Hate, Censorship and Forbidden Curricula


INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE/FLORICANTO ON

HATE, CENSORSHIP & FORBIDDEN CURRICULA
Photo Simon Ortiz, Acoma Pueblo author and poet

RODOLFO ACUNA – LESLIE MARMON SILKO - SIMON ORTIZ - CELESTE BUSTAMANTE – ZARCO– ISABEL GARCIA - ANDREA ROMERO - ANA O’LEARY - ANITA FERNANDEZ - SEAN ARCE - CELERINO FERNANDEZ - SANDRA SOTO – SAFOS THEATER - TOLTEKA - CIHUATL CE

DECEMBER 2-4
UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA & YWCA
TUSCON, ARIZONA

COMBATTING
HB2281 - ANTI-ETHNIC STUDIES LAW
SB 1070 - RACIAL PROFILING LAW
REPEAL OF 14TH AMENDMENT (BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP

PURPOSE: While the world has come to know about the draconian anti-immigrant legislation – SB 1070 & the forthcoming effort to eliminate birthright citizenship in Arizona – less attention has been paid to the Inquisition-style measure HB 2281 – a piece of legislation whose clear intent is to censor what can be taught in Arizona schools and to outright eliminate Ethnic/Raza Studies. The focus at this conference will be the student/community resistance to these measures.

CRITICAL PEDAGOGY & CRITICAL RESISTANCE: Students & educators from Arizona Colleges & Universities & Arizona K-12 schools will present their research and share their heroic struggles against Arizona’s repressive legislation, highlighting the effort to combat SB 1070 and defend Tucson’s highly successful Ethnic/Raza Studies Department. Such efforts have included a summer run from Tucson to Phoenix, all-night vigils, walkouts, marches, rallies & mass arrests.

PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATION: Educators, students and community elders will present the philosophical foundation for Ethnic/Raza Studies – a discipline that has been under intense attack since its inception more than 40 years ago. This foundation – part of maiz-based knowledge – is thousands of years old and Indigenous to this continent. The state superintendent of schools has labeled this knowledge “un-American” – this while insisting that only knowledge rooted in Greco-Roman Western Civilization is worthy of being taught in Arizona schools.

DAY OF RECKONING: Unless halted, HB 2281 – which creates a censorship mechanism to approve acceptable books and curriculums in Arizona schools – will go into effect Jan. 1, 2011. Books such as Rodolfo Acuña’s Occupied America and Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed have been singled out. Worse, Raza Studies-TUSD may in fact be banished on that day. Support is needed to defend Raza/Ethnic Studies. A forthcoming lawsuit here in Tucson will potentially decide the fate of Ethnic/Raza Studies at all levels nationwide. Educators & organizers nationwide are welcomed to present and organize panels, but also, are encouraged to learn from Arizona students & community organizers – who have spearheaded – physically and intellectually – the defense of their communities.

IN XOCHITL-IN CUICATL - FLORICANTO: Day three will include creative expression, from teatro, dance, performance art, corridos, poetry and spoken word to hip hop.

For further information, please contact: asst. professor, Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez at UA Mexican American Studies: rodrigu7@email.arizona.edu or 520-626-0824.


FOR UPDATED CONF INFO: http://drcintli.blogspot.com

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Censored News is published by censored journalist Brenda Norrell. A journalist for 27 years, Brenda lived on the Navajo Nation for 18 years, writing for Navajo Times, AP, USA Today, Lakota Times and other American Indian publications. After being censored and then terminated by Indian Country Today in 2006, she began the Censored Blog to document the most censored issues. She currently serves as human rights editor for the U.N. OBSERVER & International Report at the Hague and contributor to Sri Lanka Guardian, Narco News and CounterPunch. She was cohost of the 5-month Longest Walk Talk Radio across America, with Earthcycles Producer Govinda Dalton in 2008: www.earthcycles.net/
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