News

We can do better. We should do better.

CZ

Earlier this week, UU World published a problematic, hurtful, and harmful article. Instead of writing my own response, I am passing the mic. In their article on Medium, CB Beal “Centering the Marginalized: symphony and triptych” describes why the UU World article was so upsetting and how we can do better in the future.

“When we want to do justice, and I believe that UU’s do, we have always to ask ourselves “Who is this about, and where is their story?”” – CB Beal

Alex Kapitan also made a public response on Facebook. 

And here is the Response from TRUUsT : “Putting the “T” First: Public Statement on This Week’s UU World Article” written by the TRUUsT Steering Committee.

Please read them and share them widely.

 

Image Credit to Su’ad Abdul Khabeer from their twitter account @DrSuad.

2019 General Assembly Ware Lecturer Announced

CZ

General Assembly 2019
June 19-23, Spokane, WA

The Power of We

General Assembly (GA) is the annual meeting of our Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA).

The Ware Lecturer for this year is Richard Blanco.

“Selected by President Obama as the fifth inaugural poet in U.S. history, Richard Blanco is the youngest and the first Latino, immigrant, and gay person to serve in such a role. Born in Madrid to Cuban exile parents and raised in Miami, the negotiation of cultural identity characterizes his three collections of poetry: City of a Hundred Fires, which received the Agnes Starrett Poetry Prize from the University of Pittsburgh Press; Directions to The Beach of the Dead, recipient of the Beyond Margins Award from the PEN American Center; and Looking for The Gulf Motel, recipient of the Paterson Poetry Prize and the Thom Gunn Award. He has also authored the memoirs For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet’s Journey and The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood, winner of a Lambda Literary Award. His inaugural poem “One Today” was published as a children’s book, in collaboration with renowned illustrator Dav Pilkey. His latest book, Boundaries, a collaboration with photographer Jacob Hessler, challenges the physical and psychological dividing lines that shadow the United States. A new book of poems, How to Love a Country, is forthcoming from Beacon Press in April 2019. Blanco has written occasional poems for the re-opening of the U.S. Embassy in Cuba, Freedom to Marry, the Tech Awards of Silicon Valley, and the Boston Strong benefit concert following the Boston Marathon bombings. He is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and has received numerous honorary doctorates. He has taught at Georgetown University, American University, and Wesleyan University. He serves as the first Education Ambassador for The Academy of American Poets.

The 2019 Ware Lecture is Friday, June 21 at 7:30 p.m. PDT at the Spokane Convention Center. General Assembly registration is required to attend the lecture in Spokane. The Ware Lecture will be streamed live on uua.org/ga.”

 

Beloved Poet Mary Oliver, Who Believed Poetry ‘Mustn’t Be Fancy,’ Dies At 83

CZ

Here is Mary Oliver’s obituary. She was a lovely poet.

“To live in this world, you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.” – Mary Oliver

https://www.npr.org/2019/01/17/577380646/beloved-poet-mary-oliver-who-believed-poetry-mustn-t-be-fancy-dies-at-83

Unitarian Universalists offer homes to asylum seekers in caravan

CZ

Here is an article from Elaine McArdle published in UU World about the crisis at our border.

“Central American asylum seekers, fleeing violence at home, may be released from detention centers to sponsors’ homes.”

Photo Information:

“A volunteer lawyer informs migrants on what to expect when requesting asylum in the U.S., at an office in Tijuana, Mexico, Friday, April 27, 2018. Close to 200 migrants from Central America, mostly from Honduras, arrived in Tijuana seeking to enter the United States. (AP Photo/Hans-Maximo Musielik)”