CAN'T HOLD BACK THE SPRING!
May Party and Plant Sale
A Voluntown Peace Trust Fundraiser
May 24, 10am-6pm
Join us as we celebrate the beginning of the growing season with an open house, garden tours, yoga, poetry, may pole, and more!

Podran cortar todas las flores, pero no podran detener la primavera

They can cut down the flowers, but they can't hold back the spring!

Camp Little Windows -Traditional Music Weekend
May 2-3, 2008

Small, personally oriented vocal classes invite participants to explore the rich heritage of folk music from Irish, Appalachian, and other traditional cultures. Pre-registration required. Contact Julee Glaub at juleeglaub@aol.com. www.littlewindows.net

Spring Work Day
April 26, 2008, 9am to 4pm

Celebrate the season by helping out around the Farm with work on the garden, trails, and grounds. Lunch included.

Third Annual Winter Film Series: People Power
April 25: From Nashville to New York City and Beyond
Chapters or excerpts from A Force More Powerful, Malcom X, Slam, and Favela Rising.

The final event in the film series will look at contemporary examples--most from within the US--of nonviolence in action, from the streets of New York City to the jails of DC, from the Civil Rights Era to the National Security State, we'll explore the many ways that folks have individually and collectively been able to "break the script" and choose the "third way" of a nonviolent approach to conflict and oppression in their struggles for liberation.

This year's theme, People Power, is an invitation to explore the themes of social change and nonviolence through the lens of a People Power analysis. This analysis understands that power is not something that those in leadership positions hold, but is a fragile relationship between those in power and the rest of us. In this series we will unearth a history of communities organizing to take back power through revolutionary nonviolence.

As always, the evenings will begin with a community potluck at 6pm, followed by the film at 7pm, and a discussion afterwards. Suggested donation is $5 per person. RSVPs not necessary but welcome!

August 12, 2007, 5:30 p.m. - Almost Perfect Fifth

Experience the growth and development of music throughout history. The Almost Perfect Fifth, a random selection of musicians from New England, examines music history through the unique lens of a brass quintet. The concert will include Mozart, Brahms, Joplin, Mendelssohn, and others.

Bring your potluck dish at 5:30…or, come early and take a dip in the pond or a walk in the woods! The concert will be first, starting shortly after 5:30, followed by dinner. Donations will be accepted towards the funding of the concert.

September 29, 2007, 5:00 p.m. - Second Annual VPT Cauldron Party

Come celebrate the fall harvest with the Voluntown Peace Trust. We’ll be harvesting in the morning and then throwing it all into the cauldron in the evening for a taste extravaganzaa. Bring a side dish or dessert and a musical instrument if you have one.

October 26-28, 2007 – Group Facilitation Training

Join David Anderson Hooker and the Voluntown Peace Trust to delve deeper into the process of group facilitation. Through shared experience, hands-on training, and interactive exercises, this workshop will deepen our understanding of group facilitation and offer tools and resources to empower us as facilitators.

Facilitators: David Anderson Hooker and VPT Partners

June 27-July 1 U.S. Social Forum

Voluntown Peace Trust Partner Mary Novak and Activist-in-Residence Patty Adams will be traveling to the US Social Forum (USSF). The USSF will provide space to build relationships, learn from each other's experiences, share our analysis of the problems our communities face, and bring renewed insight and inspiration. It will help develop leadership and develop consciousness, vision, and strategy needed to realize another world.
Visit the US Social Forum website

VPT is organizing and facilitating two sessions at the Social Forum.

June 28: Pillars of War/Sectors of Struggle: Strategic Nonviolence in the Anti-war movement and Beyond
An analysis of the Iraq war from the Iraqi perspective, and a look at where the Anti-war movement is four years into the war. Plus, looking at the pillars that sustain war and empire as well as how the immigrants rights and labor movement connect to and are affected by war. Includes steps for identifying the tools, skills and resources needed to advance movements for social change. Cross-movement building and social analysis are central to this session.
Click here to download a flyer for the Session


June 30: Mapping Movements and Building Bridges: Social Change and Nonviolence
Using one tool for social movement analysis, Bill Moyer's Eight Stages of a Successful Social movement, to map where different movements are including the anti-war, transgender rights, immigrants rights, worker rights, and anti-militarism movements. Cross-movement building and social analysis are central to this session.
Click here to download a flyer for the Session

July 20 Potluck and Presentation

Join us for the next community potluck, which will include a presentation and discussion about the work of the Nonviolent Peaceforce and unarmed civilian peacekeeping missions. VPT's Patty Adams recently returned from an intensive month-long training in Ecuador (the civilian equivalent of "boot camp"), which makes her trained and eligible to be deployed by the Nonviolent Peaceforce to serve on a multinational field team in a conflict region. Come learn about the work of nonviolent peacebuildling--a real alternative to war--throughout the world and explore how this work can connect to local efforts in our own communities. Dinner at 6pm, Presentation and discussion at 7pm.

Visit the Nonviolent Peaceforce website

June 2007 Cordwood Cabin Building

Throughout spring and summer we will be working on rebuilding one of the deteriorating cabins outside the Ahimsa Lodge, using the green technique of cordwood building. Come lend a hand and contribute to the earth’s and VPT’s sustainability. Please contact us if you are interested in helping out.

April 20-23 Camp Little Windows

Camp Little Windows was born out of a growing interest in traditional singing. Small, personally oriented vocal classes led by Julee Glaub and Mark Weems invite participants to explore the rich heritage of folk music from Irish, Appalachian, and other traditional cultures. Contact us for more information.

April 12, 2007 Globalizing from Below: Grassroots Organizing for Social Change

At Connecticut College, from 4-6:30 pm. Join Swedish activist and peace researcher Stellan Vinthagen in an exploration of grassroots organizing and ways to connect our local struggles to global struggles for justice. Co-sponsored by Voluntown Peace Trust, War Resisters League and CCLeft.

April 11, 2007 Rivers and Tides

VPT closes its Winter Film & Discussion Series and inaugurates Community Pot-luck Nights with this film which invites us to explore our relationship with the land. The film follows renowned sculptor Andy Goldsworthy as he creates with ice, driftwood, bracken, leaves, stone, dirt, and snow in open fields, beaches, rivers, creeks, and forests. With each new creation, he carefully studies the energetic flow and transitory nature of his work. The pot-luck starts at 6pm and the film starts at 7pm.

March Greenhouse Preparation

Spring begins in the warmth of the green house here at VPT. We will be starting seedlings for our emerging Community Supported Agriculture project under the direction of gardener Mary Hill. Please contact us if you would like to participate.

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, offers a passionate and inspirational look at one man's fervent crusade to halt global warming's deadly progress in its tracks by exposing the myths and misconceptions that surround it. That man is former Vice President Al Gore, who, in the wake of defeat in the 2000 election, re-set the course of his life to focus on a last-ditch, all-out effort to help save the planet from irrevocable change. In this eye-opening and poignant portrait of Gore and his "traveling global warming show," Gore also proves himself to be one of the most misunderstood characters in modern American public life. Here he is seen as never before in the media - funny, engaging, open and downright on fire about getting the surprisingly stirring truth about what he calls our "planetary emergency" out to ordinary citizens before it's too late.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Thirst

By Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman

Is water part of a shared "commons", a human right for all people? Or is it a commodity to be bought, sold and traded in a global marketplace? Thirst tells the stories of communities in Bolivia, India and the United States that are asking these fundamental questions, as water becomes the most valuable global resource of the 21st century.

November 10, 2006 

VPT Fundraiser  

Join us as we heat up an Autumn night with music, dancing, and hearty hors d’oeuvres at the Pond House in Hartford’s Elizabeth Park. Festivities begin at 6:30 p.m. Tickets: $50.

October 14, 2006 

VPT’s Garden Coop Harvest Cauldron Party 

Celebrate the Fall Harvest with VPT. Please bring vegetables or other edible items to add to the cauldron. Remember that it is not a party without music, so please bring instruments and your singing voice to create music with us. Children are encouraged to attend. Festivities begin at 4:00 p.m.

October 9, 2006 

Ghandi’s Constructive Program 

Gandhi outlined three elements for social transformation and saw them as intertwined. Social change, according to Gandhi, will not come about by just doing one of them. The three elements are: personal transformation, political action and constructive program. MP Mathai is Professor and Director, School of Gandhian Thought and Development Studies, Mahatma Gandhi University, in Kerela, India. At 7:30 p.m. at the A.J. Muste Center on the VPT property, Dr. Mathai will present on Gandhi’s constructive program after which will be an opportunity for dialogue and questions. Donations for Dr. Mathai will be accepted.

September 23, 2006 

Benefit Dinner for VPT and Hartford City Mission 

Shane Claiborne, founding partner of The Simple Way community in Philadelphia and author of Irresistable Revolution will be the featured speaker for this benefit dinner. You are invited to join us at Scout Hall Youth Center, 28 Abbe Rd., East Windsor at 6:00 p.m. Seating for the event is limited so tickets should be purchased in advance from Hartford City Mission or Hartford Catholic Worker. Suggested donation is $15.00.

September 20, 2006 

Pilgrimage of Peace Dinner and Conversation 

A group of pilgrims – people of faith from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Unitarian Universalists and other traditions – are walking around Connecticut to announce the good news of peace between September 10 and 24, 2006. They will make stops every day along a route that goes from New London to New Haven to Hartford to Norwich and back to New London to sing and talk with people about genuine peace in the world. The Pilgrimage will conclude on the weekend when Jews celebrate Rosh Hashanah and Muslims begin the Ramadan fast. It is also during the week in which people around the world will be signing a “Declaration of Peace,” and calling on governments to end war. The pilgrims will be walking through Voluntown on September 20 and will rest for the night at the Voluntown Peace Trust. You are invited to join them for dinner and conversation at 6:00 p.m. Please RSVP and bring some food to share.

May 21, 2006                 Ched Meyers - A Theology of Sustainability

Ched Myers is a theologian committed to popular theological education and social analysis with faith-based activists.  He will be joining us for a time of liturgy, meal sharing and bible study reflecting on the Prophets as Defenders of Creation. 

March 31-April 2, 2006          Activist Retreat

Following the global days of action (March 18-20) responding to the 3rd anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, activists will gather to rest, reflect, learn and strategically analyze the actions.  Retreat Facilitator Cybele Locke, Ph.D. will guide this exploration.  Suggested contribution: $25.00, but no one will be turned away based on ability to pay.

March 9, 2006            Seeds, Hope & Concrete

VPT closes its Winter Film & Discussion Series with this film of concrete hope.  Highlighting inner-city youth learning to grow vegetables in urban garden projects, this film shows how, by so doing, they contribute to building community while learning vital life skills.   Featured in the film are urban agriculture projects in Brooklyn, Chicago, Little Rock, Toronto and Wisconsin supported by Heifer International.

*All workshops and retreats are subject to availability.  Call us at (860) 376-9970 if you have questions or would like to register for any of these events.