Social Justice/Public Witness – Calendar Week of 4/22/24

Right To Be hosts its popular webinar: Bystander Intervention To Stop Xenophobic Harassment. You’ll start by talking about types of disrespect immigrants are facing right now — from microaggressions to violence — using a tool called the Spectrum of Disrespect. You’ll learn what to look for and the positive impact bystander intervention has on individuals and communities. You’ll talk through five strategies for intervention: distract, delegate, document, delay, and direct; and how to prioritize your own safety while intervening. Register here.

In addition to Saturday’s Earth Day event in Summit Park, Cincinnati Parks has partnered with Moerlein Lager House, 120 Mehring Way E, for the annual Arbor Day event. Cincinnati Parks are going to give away three hundred redbud trees. There will be a naturalist to discuss how trees safeguard our watershed. This event features a kid’s zone with a Cincinnati Circus bounce house from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; there will be free outdoor games from 11 – 5pm. Raptors Inc. will have an education booth. The Traveling Jam, string band, performs at noon, followed by the Foles, my favorite local acoustic band, at 3. Aglamesis will be offering $2 scoops of ice cream.

First UU hosts Knowing Him By Heart, presented by Dr. Matthew Norman. Frederick Hord and Matthew D. Norman’s anthology explores the complex nature of views on Lincoln through the writings and thought of Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Mary McLeod Bethune, Thurgood Marshall, Malcolm X, Gwendolyn Brooks, Barbara Jeanne Fields, Barack Obama, and dozens of others. The selections move from speeches to letters to book excerpts, mapping the changing contours of the bond–emotional and intellectual–between Lincoln and Black Americans over the span of one hundred and fifty years. Tickets are $7 but free for Harriet Beecher Stowe House members

Like to support our community partners? The Piggest Raffle Ever entries are $5 and features Ignite Peace as well as ALS United Ohio which we supported in last year’s Flying Pig Marathon. Grand prize is $10,000 ($5,000 to the winner and $5,000 to the organization), second prize is $5,000 and third prize is $3,000!

UU Council of Greater Cincinnati presents Deeper Than Skin, a special performance at St. John’s UU Saturday, May 4th from 3-5, followed by a joint service at First UU Sunday morning beginning at 10:30. Featuring Reggie Harris and Greg Greenway, two friends, one Black, one white who are musicians, storytellers, students of history and world travelers born 3 days apart. Two separate narratives forged into one powerful friendship aimed at finding common ground and helping others to do the same. An experience of singing and listening, of experiencing a connection so deep that it makes you laugh, smile, cry and reconsider what you know about our history. It’s an invitation to open your heart and mind to a story of shared humanity that resonates with your own.