Tag Archives: DC

EVENT
Mass Incarceration Spring Break Lobby Weekend Info Session

From Caroline Monahan ’16:

This spring break, work to end mass incarceration.

Come to 41 Wyllys Room 113 for an info session on a Wesleyan lobbying trip to DC from March 12-15. On this trip led by Wes for Peace, we’ll lobby our Congress members with over 200 other college students on the Sentencing Reforms and Corrections Act of 2015 (http://fcnl.org/events/slw/FCNL_SentAct2015_Sum.pdf).

Come lobby with us. Tell your representatives to make the right choice about mass incarceration. Come find out more at our info session, or email cmonahan[at]wesleyan[dot]edu if you can’t make it.

“We could choose to be a nation that extends care, compassion, and concern to those who are locked up and locked out or headed for prison before they are old enough to vote. We could seek for them the same opportunities we seek for our own children; we could treat them like one of “us.” We could do that. Or we can choose to be a nation that shames and blames its most vulnerable, affixes badges of dishonor upon them at young ages, and then relegates them to a permanent second-class status for life.”
— Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow

Date: Monday, February 15
Time: 8:00 – 9:00 PM
Place: 41 Wyllys Room 113

EVENT
Allbritton Talks: Gentrification

What do we mean when we talk about gentrification? Look closely at the history of any urban area and one is bound to find some demographic flux, yet there are elements of neighborhood change that are particularly problematic or harmful, namely the displacement of lower-income residents. Alongside the severe social costs, however, there may also be benefits to an influx of wealth.

Join us for an open discussion on the causes and effects of gentrification, as well as possible solutions: how can we, as citizens, neighbors, and consumers, ensure affordable housing and an equitable urban future?

Find more info and some suggested readings here. There will be pizza.

Date: Friday, April 24
Time: 12:00 – 1:00 PM
Place: Allbritton 311

Rob Wohl ’11 Occupies Russian Television

Rob’s message to the Wesleyan student body: “Drop out of college and occupy something.”

Given how much attention we’ve given to Wes alums commenting on the Occupy movement from afar, it’s nice to hear from one recent grad taking a direct role in the movement itself, with scathing conviction and a trademark look of rage I haven’t seen since Lightning Bolt occupied Eclectic.

In between his day job as a research fellow at Medicare and Social Insurance Works in DC, former Argus overlord and part-time Rocktimist Rob Wohl ’11 seems to have taken an active role with the Occupy DC Action Team. Earlier this week, Wohl appeared on RT, a prominent Russian news channel, discussing the current state of economic affairs, the future of Occupy Wall Street, and whether or not OWS warrants comparison with the Tea Party Movement. “We will do what’s necessary to interrupt this system,” says Wohl on cable television. “We want the members of Congress to know that we demand meaningful, powerful, overwhelming change in this country.”

As Ezra Silk ’10 puts it over at America Occupied: “Rob, I knew that one day I would see you play the revolutionary on Russian television. I just never knew it would happen this soon.” (Wohl also contributed a piece to Silk’s blog a few days prior.) Here’s the video interview:

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More Wes Presence @ Rally to Restore Sanity

As per our request in Monday’s Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear post, Chelsea Reutcke ’12 sends in stories and photos of her experience at the fantastic(al) event last weekend:

I attended the rally with fellow Wes students Rajeeta Iyer ’12, Ana Begazo ’12, and Kim Muellers ’12. Proving what a small world it is, the first person we met on our bus to DC was a Wesleyan alum. Alum MC Hall ’10 also made an appearance in a random photo of mine with the excellent Justin Beibers sign. Included are pictures of hilarious (and true) signs and one man’s epic struggle to climb a tree in order to glimpse Colbert and Stewart more clearly. There were people in every single tree, but when this man attempted to scale a tree near my group, the entire area erupted into cheers for him, then gasping as he started to slip. Together we started chanting “yes you can” as people both above and below him worked to get him up into the tree until he achieved victory. It was one of the most epic events of the day and demonstrated the shared joy of all gathered there—even the proximity to the porta potties couldn’t bring us down.

Two more photos after the jump.

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