Wednesday July 12, 2006, 6pm
at The Atwater Kent Museum
of Philadelphia,
15 S. 7th Street
215-685-4830
During the third century of the American Experiment the concept of revolution grew once again becoming a social movement as well as a political and economic one. The Soviet suppression of the Hungarian revolt left many disillusioned at the end of first half of the twentieth century, but by the 1960s there was a new kind of revolution -- Cultural Revolution. The Civil Rights Movement, The Women's Movement, The Gay Rights Movement, Students for a Democratic Society and The Black Panther Party for Self Defense were born. Che became a cultural icon, Mao organized a cultural revolution within his own Chinese Communist Party, students and workers took to the streets in Paris with slogans like, "Be Reasonable, Demand the Impossible and Run Comrade, the Old Order is Behind You." Philadelphia was not to be left behind.
Our speakers are:
* Robert J. Brand, a member of SDS at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1960s, where he received both his Master of City Planning and Bachelor of Arts in economics. Robert has continued to be active in the Revolution for Social Equality with a specialty in public health issues. He founded Solutions for Progress, Inc., in 1992 to provide grassroots organizations, unions, government and others assistance with health care policy, long-term care policy, economic development issues, and trade union concerns. Together with his colleagues they have developed the Benefit Bank which helps low and moderate income people get all the tax refunds and public benefits to which they are entitled.
* Reggie Schell was chair of the Philadelphia branch of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense which opened at 1928 W. Columbia Ave in 1968. The party offered free breakfast programs, free clothing programs, a free clinic, did anti-gang work, anti-drug work and offered political education classes, all in response to the needs of the Philadelphia Black Community. Reggie will be happy to separate fact from myth about the Black Panther Party.
* Mary Day Kent is Executive Director of The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and has worked with American Friends Service Committee and the Friends Peace Committee. The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom was founded in 1915 during World War I, with Jane Addams as its first president. WILPF works to achieve through peaceful means world disarmament, full rights for women, racial and economic justice, an end to all forms of violence, and to establish those political, social, and psychological conditions which can assure peace, freedom, and justice for all WILPF works to create an environment of political, economic, social and psychological freedom for all members of the human community, so that true peace can be enjoyed by all.
* Thom Nickels, author/journalist/poet, was a member of the (1969) Gay Liberation Front and Philadelphia's Gay Alternative Magazine Collective. He is the author of eight published books, including Gay and Lesbian Philadelphia, Philadelphia Architecture and Out in History. He is the architecture critic/writer for Metro Newspaper and winner of the 2005 Lewis Mumford Award for architecture journalism. As a young Boston gay activist he attended the Black Panther Convention in Washington, D.C.