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Sikivu Hutchinson on Feminism, Freethought, and the 99%; 7/24/14

The Freethought Society (FS) is very pleased to present noted author, blogger, feminist, and secular and human rights activist Sikivu Hutchinson on Thursday, July 24, 2014 at 7:00 PM at the Ludington Library (5 South Bryn Mawr Avenue, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania). Hutchinson is a dynamic speaker and the author of Moral Combat: Black Atheists, Gender Politics, and the Value Wars and Imagining Transit: Race, Gender, Sikivu Hutchinsonand Transportation Politics in Los Angeles. Her latest book, Godless Americana: Race and Religious Rebels has been a huge success. Hutchinson will speak on “Feminism, Freethought, and the 99%” at the event, which is free and open to the public.

Much of Hutchinson’s work focuses on the cultural and social history of African American secular humanist thought and its role in black liberation struggle.

“As part of the most religious ethnic group in the nation,” Hutchinson states, “African American nonbelievers are a tiny minority in a community which has borne the brunt of the economic downturn. While white atheist and humanist organizations go to battle over church/state separation and creationism in schools, black nonbelievers face a racial and gender divide precipitated by rollbacks on affirmative action, voting rights, affordable housing, reproductive rights, education, criminal justice, wages and job opportunities.

“Similar to the race/class schisms within feminism,” Hutchinson notes, “when progressive black atheists look to atheist and humanist organizations for solidarity on social justice there is a staggering disconnect.  In a nation where whites and people of color are still separate and decidedly unequal, culturally relevant humanism challenges colorblind myths of meritocracy.”

Hutchinson is a senior intergroup specialist for the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission. She received a Ph.D. from New York University and has taught women’s studies, cultural studies, urban studies, and education at UCLA, the California Institute of the Arts, and Western Washington University. She is a contributing editor for The Feminist Wire and was named 2013’s “Secular Woman of the Year.” In 2010, she founded Black Skeptics Los Angeles, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing outreach, advocacy and education for nonbelievers of color and their allies. She is also the founder and project director of the Women’s Leadership Project, a feminist, humanist high school mentoring program based in South L.A. In addition to her three nonfiction books, Hutchinson is currently working on a novel based on the 1978 Jonestown massacre, where the 918 dead were overwhelmingly people of color.

Hutchinson’s presentation is free and open to the public and begins at 7 PM on July 24 in the main level large meeting room of Ludington Library. The library is located at 5 South Bryn Mawr Avenue, Bryn Mawr.

For more information, contact:

Tom Melchiorre
Freethought Society Board Member and Event Host
Email: Publish@TomMelchiorre.com
Phone: (610) 960-2558

Dinner and a Movie:

Bondage in the Bible

FS’s “Dinner and a Movie” event format is back by popular demand.

Please bring your own dinner to the Norristown Library Community Room on February 21, 2012 to view Bondage and the Bible. The address of the library is 1001 Powell Street, Norristown, Pennsylvania. For information about public transportation please see the following website: http://www.septa.org/stations/rail/norristown.html

The movie will start at 6:00 PM. Attendees are encouraged to arrive between 5:30 and 5:45 PM to socialize and set up their dinner tables. FS will provide bottled water, napkins and paper plates.

Bondage and the Bible is a 60 minute independent film by Eric Harmon. This film includes the critical analysis of the Bible’s endorsement of  slavery and examines the inconsistent message in the New Testament, which supports slavery and inequality.

Synopsis

Bondage and the Bible tackles the controversial subject of African Americans who follow the bible as “the word of god” despite glaring passages that support and condone the institution of slavery.  The film examines how Old Testament curses and commandments legitimizes slavery and how New Testament scriptures urge slaves to obey even the cruelest of masters.  In addition, the film evaluates the psychological damage that ensues when African American people worship iconic images of a white god.  Using actual bible scriptures and interviews with people ranging from biblical scholars to ordinary citizens, the film offers a diverse look at how the bible’s support of slavery allowed U.S. slave owners to pass on a religion to African Americans that guaranteed an inferior relationship to all things divine.

View the trailer at: http://bondageandthebible.blogspot.com

Genres: Documentary // African American Heritage      Influences: The History Channel’s Mysteries of the Bible // Jesus Camp

Please RSVP using our Meetup page:  http://www.meetup.com/Freethought-Society-Meetup/events/49602002/

or our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/events/268988663166890/