Come see beautiful new Fair Trade copper art from Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacan and Puech Ikots alebrijes from Oaxaca!

Come by and toast the season! Food, drink and good company will be available as well as art for sale.

Unique art and jewelry make wonderful holiday gifts, and you will be directly supporting artisans with your purchase.

1118 W. Loyola Ave., #3
December 11
12:00-5:00

Loyola Red Line stop
155, 147, 151 bus stops

More information contact Cuentos: 773 412 9838
info@cuentosfoundation.org
www.cuentosfoundation.org
www.puechikots.com

In its twentieth year of Black Friday anti-activity, Buy Nothing Day is teaming up with #Occupywallstreeet to create #Occupyxmas.  The idea of Buy Nothing Day is to opt out of the Black Friday shopping frenzy that benefits large corporations and to instead refrain from all consumer activities, to literally not buy anything for 24 hours.

However, the ability of some folks to live their lives and support their families depends on other people shopping.  For example, some fair trade artisans rely on foreign consumers to buy their hand made items in order to put food on the table and send their children to school.  If you’d like to purchase fair trade gifts for Christmas, Hanukah, and any other gift giving occasion this year, come to the Waldorf Holiday Fair, on December 3rd. http://www.cuentosfoundation.org/events.html

December 3, 2011
9 am – 5 pm
The Chicago Waldorf School
1300 West Loyola Avenue
Chicago, IL 60626

Chicago Waldorf Holiday Fair
Vendor Marketplace – unique holiday gifts and treasures
More information Contact Cuentos: 773 412 9838

The Saturday after Thanksgiving will also see alternative holiday shopping activities around the country: Small Business Saturday, a chance to support a local business.  A friend posted the following on Facebook in Colombia:

“Propongámonos comprar todos nuestros regalos de Navidad a través de emprendedores: La amiga que hace postres, la vecina que vende por catálogo, el artesano que hace aros, la amiga que vende por internet, el amigo que tiene su taller en casa. Hágamos que nuestro dinero llegue a personas comunes y no a grandes multinacionales y así, más personas tendrán una Feliz Navidad.

“We’re proposing to buy our own gifts this Christmas instead of buying from businesses: the friend that makes posters, the neighbor that sells by catalog, the artisan who makes rings, the friend that sells on the internet, the friend who has a workshop in his house.  Let’s have our money get to people we know and not to big multinational companies, and this way more people will have a Merry Christmas.”

It’s something to think about.

Come sip on fair trade wine, cocktails, and the delicious Vida y Muerte ale.  I was lucky enough to try this brew, made special for Day of the Dead, at an underground supper club in Pilsen, and it is my absolute fall favorite.  It’s also made here in Chicago by 5 Rabbits brewery.

In addition to imbibing fair trade and local beverages, you will be able to hear Edison Mamallacta’s story.  Mr. Mamallacta, the Marketing Director for the Kallari Association of Kichwa cacao growers, will be there to tell it himself, all the way from Ecuador.  The Kallari Association of Kichwa cacao growers are a cooperative that not only grows cacao beans but also produces chocolate bars from those very same beans.  Then open your ears to stories from ten more  Chicago fair trade businesses who source products in Latin America.

For more information or to buy tickets, click here.

Come check out a very extensive sampling of artisanal items from around the world.  The City of Evanston has provided a list of all the ethnicities that will be represented at the festival.

You can visit the Cuentos Foundation booth at the Evanston Ethnic Arts Festival and see beautiful new fair trade items from the amazing copper smithing community of Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacan, Mexico.

Join our community and spread the good word! Art that gives voice !
Public transportation: Dawes Park is located just a few blocks west of the Davis Street Metra and CTA stations. Dawes Park is located between Davis and Church Streets on the lakefront.

Sheridan Road construction update

There is a very good chance that construction on Sheridan Road will be completed before Saturday, July 16, 2011. Those driving to the festival from the north are able to enter the NU parking lot (which is three blocks north of Dawes Parkl) with no problem. If you are driving from the south, please check this page closer to the festival dates for an update on potential detours.

If you are driving to the festival from the south:

Take Sheridan Road to Church Street. To park, continue past the festival grounds to the NU parking lot 3 blocks north of the festival at the bend in the road (look for the signs). Continue driving straight into the parking lot (do not take the curve to the left). A free shuttle bus will travel between the garage and the festival grounds.

If you are driving to the festival from the north:

Take Sheridan Road and stay in the left lane as you travel past Northwestern University, because Sheridan jogs to the left (if you go straight you will be on Chicago Avenue). In about two blocks, you will see the NU parking garage entrance on your left, just before the road jogs to the right. A free shuttle bus will travel between the garage and the festival grounds.

Canto de los Martillos: Santa Clara del Cobre

Song of the Hammers: Santa Clara del Cobre

 Centro Cultural Colegio Jesuita , Morelia, Mexico

The complex relationship between “artisans” and “artists” reflects the rich dialogue between the labor of the body and the labor of the mind. The artist/artisans of this exhibition “Canto de los Martillos” unify these often polarized fields through their ingenuity, creativity, sincerity, and deliberate technical excellence. The copper material is manipulated for expressive means, telling stories and singing songs, new and old, that resonate, echoing their community’s history, their personal histories, their desires, passions, dreams, and daily life full of traditions, fiestas, family, and devotion. These artists/artisans confront the global world with tranquility, dignity, and with open souls, with the desire to understand, learn, and participate.

 This exhibition – “Canto de los Martillos is part of “Cuentos en Cobre: Santa Clara del Cobre – Arte Comunal e Individual”, a series of educational, intercultural and artistic programs organized by Cuentos Foundation. The exhibition is organized by Cuentos Foundation’s artistic director Michele Feder-Nadoff, artist, Fulbright scholar; Vice-presidents, Santa Clara artisan, Sergio Velazquez and Napoleón Peréz Pamatz, and the Santa Clara women artisan’s collective members.

The second part of this exhibit are prints, autobiographical texts, cuentos and engraved and silver-plated plates created by the Santa Clara Women’s collective as part of the Taller de Mujeres Artisticas – a cultural and artistic exchange workshop organized by Michele Feder-Nadoff with Dra. Ioulia Akhmadeeva of Cátedra de Gráfica of the Escuela Popular de Bellas Artes de la Universidad Michoacána San Nicolás de Hidalgo. Santa Clara women artisans, teachers and students of the Bellas Artes exchanged designs and the techniques silver-plating and engraving. The prints were created at Colegio Ex Jesuita, thanks to Director Francisco Oñate and the studio director Maestro Derli Romero Cerna, Alter.Nativa Grafica, and Professor Ioulia Akhmadeeva. Finally, the third part is a homage in the form of a small installation – by Feder-Nadoff including a sample of her forged vessels created during her Fulbright apprenticeship to Maestro Jesus Perez Ornelas during 2010-1, to express her affection and appreciation to her mentor and to all her maestros in his studio, and to the Santa Clara community for their beautiful art, traditions, and hospitality. Viva Santa Clara del Cobre!

What more could one ask for in a film?

Gael García Bernal featured in a Spanish-made drama about the battles of water privatization in Bolivia – not much is left to desire for two hours of your attention.

After watching the trailer for También la lluvia (Even the Rain), I was experiencing Andean and Iberian nostalgia galore, dreamily remembering bus rides through the Ecuadorian mountains and hearing Spanish accents in Madrid.  After further browsing of the movie’s website,  I found a Milan Kundera quote in the synopsis of the film. I wondered how this movie could appeal to me any bit more.  The screenplay was written by Paul Laverty, the film was directed by Iciar Bollain, and my expectations were thouroughly exceeded upon viewing at the Landmark theater. I highly recommend catching this film wherever you can.

Last fall I had the pleasure of once again seeing the Beehive Collective at their presentation of  “The True Cost of Coal” at the Little Village Community Center. I saw there the original mural-sized poster illustrate the Appalachian mountains’ flora and fauna, the effects of mountaintop removal coal mining and the struggles against it, and a smaller version of the poster depicting all that now happily hangs in my apartment.

And after the picture lecture is the after party! Join Radios Populares, a Chicago-based collective that collaborates with communities struggling for social justice to build low-power FM community radio stations, for their Report Back from Mulukuku, Nicaragua at 1430 W. Leland 7:30 – 11:30.  Enjoy food and beverages (for a donation), video from their recent visit, interview with Gretel from Maria Luisa Ortiz, and information and dates on their Spring Making Waves Workshops. In the words of Radios Populares:

Radios Populares recently took a follow-up visit to Radio Mulukuku which is managed by the Maria Luisa Ortiz Cooperative and Women’s Health Center. This cooperative was founded by a group of women working together to rebuild their communities after they were destroyed by Hurricane Joan in 1988. In 1991, the cooperative established the Women’s Health Center, which now provides medical care for a population of 30,000 inhabitants, in Mulukukú and the surrounding areas. Other projects of the cooperative include literacy classes, preschools, reforestation, and programs in nutrition, prevention of family violence, and midwifery.

The cooperative, in collaboration with Radios Populares in 2004, began a radio station to disseminate their work around women’s health and wellness to the community of Mulukuku, Nicaragua.

Their radio station is being used primarily for education, and will play a central role in the development of their community. Currently, they are on the air 7 days a week and have boosted their power to 300 watts. They reach a radius of up to 20-30 miles.

A gallery tour in the midst of a revolution? Yes indeed, if you’re in Benghazi, Libya.  Check out video footage of an anti-Gadhafi art gallery featuring images drawn by anti-government protesters, most depicting the Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi.  The gallery has been called makeshift, and who knows how long these ephemeral works really will remain intact and in Benghazi.  There’s immense value in these pictures as a medium to understand what’s going on right now in Libya, especially when drawn by Libyans’ own hands. We may not understand the Arabic writing, but there are other symbols we can recognize. It’s  a privilege to see these newly created images made to share the protesters’ stories to each other and the international media.  A picture is worth a thousand words after all, right?

A local iman, Salem Jaber, delivered a sermon to about 8,000 people of Benghazi at prayer services on February 25, 2011.  Jaber told the crowd “we want a white revolution…Kadhafi wants to turn it red — but we will not allow that. This is a revolution made by the people. From now, no one will rule except the people.”

Time to polish those dancing shoes! Warm up with Cuentos  this Thursday at the Wicker Well.

Come for the live music with DJ Jimmy James, the bake sale,  fair trade art from Santa Clara del Cobre and Oaxaca Mexico, $5 drink tickets (proceeds go to Cuentos), and an all night dance party!

We need you there!

Your support helps Cuentos to provide cultural programming promoting diversity, promote the fair trade copper initiative in Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacan, Mexico, and fiscally sponsor numerous cultural organizations (Chiapas Media Project, Puech Ikots, Radios Populares)

In just two weeks you’ll have the chance to learn more about Mexican art and artists at  the Holiday Celebration in Support of Artists in Mexico.  Come join us on Saturday, December 11, 6pm – 11pm at the Calles y Sueños Art Gallery, 1901 S. Carpenter St.  The evening will include a live performance by Benjamín Anaya y los Extraños Unidos, DJ Sarvelio spinning Cuban classics, videos of artists at work, complimentary food and cash bar,  as well as art from Oaxaca (Puech Ikots) and Michoacan (Cuentos Foundation) for
purchase.  A $10 donation to enter will be asked.