Venice Art Walk invitation From John Mooney - Sunday, May 22

Hi all,

My studio will be on the Venice Art Walk this year. My friend and very talented artist, Anna Sequeiros, will be showing  some of her work here at the studio as well. As always, just a couple blocks away at Westminister School, there's a silent auction with walls, tables and grounds covered with local art up for auction to raise money for the Venice Clinic. Though the Art Walk is not free, the auction is, and always worth a wander through. Who knows, you might find what you've been looking for, and get to be a highest bidder!

I've attached our card for the event. Thank you, Anna. 

Hope this finds all of you, as always, in good spirits. 

Cheers 

John

Blown/Sculpted Glass

johnmooneyglass.com 

 

     705 Hampton Dr. Venice,Ca,90291    

(310)399-0999

Humor From My Pen - June 4th 7pm SPARC

(VENICE/May 9, 2011) The International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five, in conjunction with the Social Public Art Resource Center's (SPARC) 35^th Anniversary Celebration: giving voice to art makers and building cultural bridges between communities, and Honorary Committee: Actors and Artists United for the Freedom of the Cuban Five presents  "Humor from my Pen", an exhibition of political cartoons by Gerardo Hernández Nordelo. The exhibit opens Saturday, June 4, and runs through Friday, June 17^th at the Old Venice Jail Gallery, 685 N. Venice Boulevard, Venice, California and includes works by Politico's editorial Cartoonist and Illustrator, Matt Wuerker; and the creator of the nationally syndicated daily cartoon "La Cucaracha", Lalo Alcaraz.

 

Opening night, June 4^th from 7 to 10pm, festivities include celebrating Gerardo's 46^th birthday, and panel discussion with Judy Baca, Founder/Artistic Director of SPARC, Emily Winters muralist and co-founder of the Venice Arts Council, and Carol A. Wells, Founder and Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics.  Alicia Jrapko, coordinator of the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five will give an update on the Cuban 5. There is a suggested donation of $10 for opening night.

 

Humor has accompanied Gerardo Hernández Nordelo since childhood. A great sense of responsibility, and sense of humor was always part of his philosophy of life. Even in the toughest moments, he has not given up the ability to laugh at adversity. Gerardo is one of the Cuban Five political prisoners held in U.S. prisons since 1998. He is currently serving two life sentences at the U.S. Penitentiary in Victorville, California. Gerardo, Ramón Labañino, Fernando Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero and René Gonzalez, internationally known as the Cuban 5, were accused of conspiracy to commit espionage. The US government never accused them of actual espionage, nor did it affirm that real acts of espionage had been carried out, as no classified document had been confiscated from the Five. Their actual mission in the United States was monitoring the activities of the groups and organizations responsible for terrorist activities against Cuba.

 

Event co-sponsors include: Aris Anagnos, James Cromwell, Ed Harris, Joe Perez and Susan Sarandon with support from the Venice Arts Council, KPFK, the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, Southern California Americans for Democratic Action, FILMS4Cuban5, the Los Angeles Coalition in Solidarity with Cuba, Local- SEIU United Service Workers West, James Beach, Canal Club, Danny's and ¡Sí Cuba! SoCal.  For more information visit: www.thecuban5.org or www.sparcmurals.org or call (310) 822-9560 x 15.  Danny Glover comments on the Cuban 5 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuZRKUZX40U&feature=related.                                                                                  

# # #

Biography

 

Gerardo Hernández Nordelo was born in Havana on June 4, 1965. He graduated with a degree in International Political Relations. While in school Gerardo participated in amateur festivals as part of a theater group. He also worked as a cartoonist-humorist for Cuban publications and collectives;Palante, Melaito and Aspirina. The members of Aspirina, collectively participated in two exhibitions at the University of Havana and created a mural at Havana Cuba Pavilion. "Asprina was a great school," recalls Gerardo. "We participated in the First National Encounter of Young Comedians, where he met Carlos Ruiz de la Tejera, Virulo, Tomy and other recognized professionals. For me, who always dreamed of being a journalist, that was really exciting ... but we learned a lot, because nobody wanted to look like anyone and everyone he was shaping his own line, his own style."

Gerardo's creation of one of his most endearing characters, "Cucumber and Company", exercising vegetarian humor and constructive criticism, appeared in the tabloid The Muñe, a publication of the Editorial Pablo de la Torriente Brau. Cucumber Series USA (2002) highlights the double standards of the U.S. in its vaunted fight against terrorism and was included in the anthology of 100 years compiled by the Cuban cartoonist Cecilio Avilés. Gerardo's pen also alleged, among other things, the looting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to the underdeveloped nations. As part of his work on the capital newspaper Tribuna de La Habana, Gerardo created humorous cartoons about specific topics.

Gerardo's cartoons have been seen in various galleries in Cuba, and, recently at the VIII Congress of Cuban Journalists in the province of Las Tunas. His works are a critical look at the injustice that keeps him imprisoned along with his four comrades.

His drawings have been published since 1982 and displayed in gallery exhibitions. His book of caricatures and humor, "You Can Achieve Everything with Love and Humor" was published in 2002. Whether experiencing degrading prison conditions or solitary confinement, Gerardo keeps optimistic, with a smile and fighting spirit. Even after 13 years of incarceration, and despite the massive correspondence, arriving from the farthest corners of the world, Gerardo has not stopped making brave, highly political and humorous cartoons from his prison cell in Victorville, California.

On September 12, 1998 Gerardo, and the other four men, was arrested. He was held in preventative custody for thirty-three months before the sentence was passed and was isolated in special cell, known as "the hole", designed for prisoners with serious disciplinary problems for almost 17 months prior to the trial and for 48 days after the verdict was passed. Seven month after his arrest the U.S. government amended Gerardo's charges to include conspiracy to commit murder for the shoot down of two planes of the terrorist organization Brothers to the Rescue by the Cuban Air Force within Cuban airspace. The shoot down of the plane was a decision of the Cuban government in which Gerard had no participation.

Gerardo's trial, held at the United States District Court Southern District of Florida, under Case No. 98-721-Cr-Lenard (S), began on November 26, 2000 and concluded on June 8, 2001, in Miami, Florida, home to over half-a- million Cuban exiles. This is a community with a long history of hostility toward the Cuban government – a record that a federal appellate court in the United States later described as a "perfect storm" of prejudice, precluding a fair trial.

What the Cuban Five and their attorneys did not know during the trial was that the U.S. government—through its official propaganda agency, the Broadcasting Board of Governors—was covertly paying prominent Miami journalists who, at the same time as the government conducted its prosecution, saturated the Miami media with reports that were highly inflammatory and prejudicial to the Cuban Five. The Five were not only victims of a politically motivated prosecution, but a government-funded propaganda operation as well.

Following his conviction, on December 12, 2001 Gerardo was sentenced to two life terms plus 15 years.  

Gerardo has been married since 1988 to Adriana Pérez O'Connor. His humor is present in every postcard send to his wife, who he knew at the time ofAspirina. Adriana has been denied the right to visit her husband in prison, a right that relatives of any prisoner has in the United States.

So Goes the Lincoln Ramp and So Goes the Venice United Church

The Lincoln Ramp is what locals called the skate ramp at the Venice United Methodist Church. It was brought to Venice by the church's prior [progressive] pastor Rev Tom Zeigert and the ramp owner Heidi Lemmon of Skate Park USA (SPUSA). Over the years this ramp has often been considered a safe haven for local youth to skate for free. But no more. Today the dismantling process started and the ramp is coming down completely tomorrow.

Since this newest pastor, Reverend A. Okechukwu Ogbonnaya who is a native Nigerian and a Apostolic Evangelic Fundamentalist Christian, the Venice United Methodist Church has severed any ties with the more liberal groups directly connected to the church.

They locked out the very popular and LGBT accepting youth program which consisted of local Venice at-risk youth. And they fired the Youth Coordinator, Aaron Anderson. Removing a large youth program in such a cruel fashion is something no church should do and clearly a sign that something is wrong there.

The pastor basically drove me out (I was the church Peace with Justice Coordinator among other things) and the church severed ties with the Venice Justice Committee and the Peace with Justice Pantry, which was a partnership between Venice Food Not Bombs and the church. Food Not Bombs was the main participant in this partnership.

Our pantry and Food not Bombs served well over 70,000 hot vegetarian meals and handed out tons of high quality nutritional food over the years from this location with almost no funding. The church served our Justice Committee with multiple evictions. The Justice Committee is the organization that rented an office in the church hall and was umbrella'ed by the church. It provides legal help to homeless people and works directly with NLG attorneys and Legal Aid attorneys. We
finally left this office because it was just so unfriendly and nasty that I felt like I had to have security just be in our office. Plus we were always waiting for the next eviction.


So now, last but not least, the Chair of the trustees, Patty Delli-Bovi, served Heidi Lemmon with a notice to seize abandoned property: the Lincoln Ramp and the Skate Ramp shed. I am absolutely sure Heidi was waiting for an eviction notice from this [not so nice] trustee chair person or the new pastor person. Anyone who knows anything knows Heidi did not abandon this property. Anyway, the Lincoln Ramp is going away now.

The main reason I am writing this is to let you and others know that this church is no liberal institution and they have hurt the progressive community programs that used to be connected to the church. The pastor and the chair of the trustees would like to paint us all as just a bunch of trouble makers. Yes, progressive people in
leadership roles can be troubling to fundamentalist Christians.

A formal complaint of charges were made and signed by 17 church members to the bishop who did nothing to stop this fundamentalist take over and the removal of the progressive LGBT friendly faction of the Venice United Methodist Church.

We contacted the Southern Poverty Law Center and reported the pastor as an anti-gay bigot and expressed our concern that this pastor was traveling to Uganda during the height of the religious push for the horrible gay kill bill in Uganda.

Bottom line the church needs to rent the hall or offices in the hall to pay the pastor and the church administrator because there is no congregation to speak of that provides enough tithing to support the church. They fired the janitor months ago - down to one day only (Monday night) and the bathrooms are usually filthy, especially on the weekends. Many of the tenants have left and I believe the main
large non-profit tenant left would leave except they have invested so much in the building.

If you know liberal or progressive groups and people that use the property at the Venice United Methodist Church or the adjoining Hall (the Center for Peace with Justice), I truly hope you forward this email and tell them about what has happened there.
I suppose if people really want to do something, they can contact Bishop Mary Ann Swenson at (626) 568-7300. But really up until now the bishop has done nothing more than turn it over to a district superintendent that is supporting the new pastor. Many people think there are plans to just sell the property to support the district office.

It is a shame, but progressive people and groups do not have to support this.

I tried to keep this story short, but there is so much to say. Also I thank all of the people who wrote letters asking that they do not evict us. It meant a lot to me. A lot.
Very Sincerely, PK