A Festival of Conscience in New York

Festival of Conscience is being run in conjunction with the play, "Another Life", about the collective trauma post-9/11, greed, war and the ensuing U.S. torture program. Both events are produced by Theater Three Collaborative, Inc. in residence at the Irondale Center, Fort Greene, Brooklyn; March 8-24, 2012.

Tickets:  http://www.irondale.org/Anotherlife.html

The goal of this three-week series is to foster meaningful dialogues across disciplines to address the most pressing questions facing us today:  What kind of nation have we become?  What kind of country do we want to be?

Festival of Conscience Calendar of Events

Darius Rejali presents: Torture & Democracy

Thursday, March 8

One of the United States foremost experts on torture discusses his latest book, Torture and Democracy, whichwon the 2007 Human Rights Book of the Year Award from the American Political Science Association, and the state of the US torture program ten years after 9/11.

Blackwater Revisited, Conversations of Privatization, Torture, and War From the Front Lines

Friday, March 9

From the front lines in the fight against Blackwater and Abu Ghraib, lawyer Susan Burke, who brought suits against private contracting firms for their role in the torture program, and Donovan Webster, journalist and author who accompanied Susan to Iraq to take testimony from torture survivors talk about their experience.

Tortured and Torturers

Saturday, March 10

Tortured and torturers: a contrasting discussion on how soldiers came to torture, and the consequences for both the victims and the perpetrators. The event will feature Zeke Johnson, National Security Director of Amnesty International and Joshua Phillips, author of None of Us Were Like This Before: Americans Soldiers and Torture, the story of American soldiers who tortured in Iraq.

Faith and Terror, Part 1

Tuesday, March 13

Religious leaders, journalists and activists come together for a two-part discussion about consciousness, belief, torture, and resistance. Join the National Religious Campaign Against Torture’s Director of Program Coordination John Humphries and New York St. Mary’s Episcopal Reverent Earl Kooperkamp for dialogue about faith, torture, and the religious communities response to torture and war in the shadow of 9/11.

South of the Constitution: Ten Years at Guantanamo

Wednesday, March 14

Lawyers representing Guantanamo detainees and Amnesty International discuss and debate Guantanamo today. The event features Tom Parker, National Security Director, Amnesty International, DC, and Baher Azmy, Legal Director for the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Intersection

Thursday, March 15

Activists and authors discuss the intersections of torture, militarism, and the prison-industrial complex.

The War On Terror Comes Home

Friday, March 16

Lawyers, family members, and community leaders discuss how the war on terror has affected Arab Americans, and what is being done to change it. Leading the evening is Pardiss Kebriaei, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights currently working against the backlash of the domestic war on terror.

Occupy Movement Presents: A History of Non-Violent Resistance

Saturday, March 17

The Occupy Movement premiere a new documentary on the history of nonviolent resistance created for Occupy by videographer Paul McIsaac, plus performance by the high school students from Bedford-Stuyvesant’s Bailey’s Café arts initiative.

Women and Resistance

Tuesday, March 20

In conjunction with Women’s History Month, Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin and eco-feminist Ynestra King will lead a discussion with prominent women’s anti-war activists on women's role in the movements’ against militarism, nuclear weapons, war, and torture.

Mark Danner presents: Torture and the Forever War

Wednesday, March 21

Mark Danner Presents: Torture and the Forever War. Writer and Berkeley professor Mark Danner talks about the permanent "new normal" when it comes to human rights and torture in the post-9/11 era.

Faith and Terror, Part 2

Thursday, March 22

Religious leaders, journalists and activists come together for a two-part discussion about consciousness, belief, torture, and resistance.  Rabbi Simkha Weintraub of Rabbis for Human Rights-North America, author David Swanson, and activist and CUNY professor Ramzi Kassem talk about the faith-based response to torture and the recent Witness Against Torture actions in Washington DC.

A Decade of Torture and Law

Friday, March 23

International human rights leaders Gabor Rona of Human Rights First, Jonathan Hafetz, of Seton Hall Law, and Alexander Abdo of the ACLU leads the night with the highs and lows in the legal battles against torture.

Closing Evening and Reception

Saturday March 24

In the finale of ‘Another Life’, playwright and producer Karen Malpede sits with Larry Siems, author of The Torture Report to discuss her inspiration, research, and motivations in developing and producing the play. Reception to follow.