Joanna Macy Events
January 19th- 22nd 2012
Boise, ID
The Snake River Alliance invites you to three events in Boise in January while Joanna Macy is here in support of the Alliance’s long-standing efforts to protect Idaho from nuclear waste and contamination.
Who She Is
The breadth of Joanna’s interests, teaching and activism is amazing. There are lots of labels that fit her, none that wholly capture her wisdom, spirit and energy:
- Wonderfully wise and powerful woman and elder
- Spiritual teacher & Buddhist scholar
- Eco-Feminist & Deep Ecologist
- Environmental activist and teacher
- Anti-Nuclear activist
- Systems theorist
- Internationally renowned author
- Translator of poet Rainer Maria Rilke
More than thirty years ago, when the Alliance formed and began its work, Joanna was developing teachings that paralleled these efforts. Her ground breaking book, Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age, was a strong influence on some founding members of the Alliance. At 82 she continues to travel the world teaching and inspiring resistance to the domination based industrial growth society in which we live.
Why She Is Coming to Boise
This June four folks from Idaho went to Seattle for one of Joanna’s multi-day workshops. We asked her to come to Boise to help grow and nourish anti-nuclear resistance here. She keenly agreed, having just participated in resistance efforts at the Rocky Flats nuclear waste site while in Colorado.
As we told Joanna, there is a strong and urgent need to rally anti-nuclear resistance here Idaho in light the so-called “nuclear renaissance” which includes a proposal to build a uranium enrichment factory in eastern Idaho to manufacture fuel for nuclear power reactors. The French company Areva wants to build the project adjacent to the Idaho National Lab. The byproduct of the factory would be a toxic legacy of radioactive waste stored above the Snake River Aquifer. It has been licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and is scheduled to begin construction this spring despite the global decline in demand for this material and years of opposition from the Alliance. The project would be funded by a $2 billion loan guarantee from the DOE, using our tax-payer dollars.
In addition to this threat, the President’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future has Idaho on the radar screen as a potential site for the consolidated storage of the nation’s commercial radioactive waste. 2012 will be a critical time for Idahoans to continue to refuse this role and insist that nuclear waste should be stored as safely as possible as close to its point of generation as possible.
Joanna Macy’s visit will provide an opportunity to create solidarity and community to oppose these threats and promote better, cleaner, safer and more affordable energy options.
The Events
Thursday, January 19: 5 pm
Reading & Book Signing
Rediscovered Books – downtown Boise at 180 N 8th St
Joanna will read from the fresh, modern translations of Rainer Maria Rilke’s poetry on which she and her friend Anita Barrows collaborated.
Location: Rediscovered Books, downtown Boise @ 180 N 8th St
Cost: Free Contact: Rediscovered Books at 208-376-4229
Friday, January 20: 7:00 – 9:30 pm
Public Presentation & Book Signing
First Congregational United Church of Christ in Boise at 23rd and Woodlawn
Join us for an inspired evening with Joanna Macy and musical guests Josh Bogle and Mary Beth Whitaker. Joanna will sign books after the presentation.
Cost: $10 suggested donation (no one will be turned away) Contact: Dan Walters @ 208-424-0409 or dan@chavous.net
Saturday and Sunday, January 21 & 22
Experiential Workshop: “In League with the Future: Containing the Poison Fire”
Basque Center – downtown Boise at 6th and Grove on the Basque Block
Join us for two full days of the “Work that Reconnects” -- deeply interactive, experiential group work and teachings that draw upon diverse spiritual traditions, deep ecology & systems theory. There will a special focus on nuclear guardianship at this workshop.
Cost: Early bird rate through Dec. 23: $100 per person
Regular rate: $130 per person
Pre-registration is required: www.snakeriveralliance.org
Some partial scholarships available.
Contact: Dan Walters: 208-424-0409 or dan@chavous.net
