TEACH IN FOR THE FIGHT FOR LULA’S FREEDOM WILL BE HOSTED AT THE PEOPLE’S FORUM
- Who is Lula? Why is he in prison? And why is Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing fascist in power?
The People’s Forum in New York City will host a Teach In on Former President Lula da Silva’s imprisonment on April 6th, at 6:30pm.
The event will bring together distinguished speakers, including famed US political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal and Valeska Martins, Lula’s lead lawyer and other activists involved in this campaign to free Lula. The event will highlight the latest updates with the case and with the ongoing struggle to defend democracy and oppose the Far-Right in power in Brazil. The event will conclude with the launching of the Free Lula Committee USA.
The event will also include:
- a panel on Lula’s legacy and history with NYU professor Barbara Weinstein and Union leader & lawyer Stan Gacek, currently the director of Global Strategies of UFCW;
- a performance by singer-songwriter Cissa da Paz;
- a panel on Lawfare with Valeska Martins, Lula’s defense team lawyer , in conversation with Stan Gacek;
- an audio participation by Mumia Abu-Jamal, as a political prisoner speaking from jail on Lula’s case;
- an interview with Breno Altman, renowned Brazilian journalist, discussing the Lula Livre campaign in Brazil and around the world;
- the launch of Free Lula Committee USA.
A photo exhibit showcasing Lula’s career will also open to the public during the event. It will cover his early days as labor union organizer, through to his rise to becoming the most popular President Brazil has ever had, to becoming a champion of the cause of ending world hunger, to his political persecution and arrest. The selection of photos is part of the 50 images donated by Fotografos Pela Democracia, which includes many important photographers, and whose prints, autographed by Lula, were auctioned online and in São Paulo on April 3, for a total of $723,000 Real ( US$ 190,000 approximately), to benefit the international campaign to free Lula.
To close the night, DJ Greg Caz, renowned for Brazilian music sets, and a regular at the East Village jazz venue Nublu will also bring in his dance and political tunes out.
April 06, 2019 • 6:30 - 11:30PM
Free of charge, with RSVP at https://peoplesforum.org/event/lula-teach-in/
The People's Forum • 320 W 37TH ST, NEW YORK, NY 10018
Participants:
Barbara Weinstein is a professor of Latin American and Caribbean history at NYU on race, gender, labor, and political economy in the making of modern Brazil.
Stan Gacek is the director of Global Strategies of UFCW. A labor union lawyer, he has been following Lula Da Silva’s career since the 1980s as a labor leader.
Mumia Abu-Jamal is an internationally celebrated black writer and radio journalist, former member of the Black Panther Party and supporter of Philadelphia’s radical MOVE, is also a famed U.S. political prisoner, organizer and inspiration for the prison lawyers movement. Mumia has spent the last 30 years in prison, almost all of it in solitary confinement on Pennsylvania’s Death Row. Finally on December 7, 2011, the Philadelphia District Attorney announced he was giving up his attempts to restore Mumia’s death sentence.
Valeska Teixeira Martins is Lula’s defense lawyer, in partnership with Cristiano Zanin Martins.
Breno Altman is a Brazilian journalist and activist, director of Opera Mundi website and editor of Samuel Magazine, he often speaks on TV 247 at blog Brasil 247. He is currently the Lula Livre International Committee coordinator.
Cissa Paz is a singer-songwriter and an eclectic performer influenced by the local jazz sounds of the Big Apple and her Brazilian Indigenous/African heritage.
DJ Greg Caz is a Brazilian music DJ, writer, music supervisor, “musicologist” in NY who seeks to offer full-and-beautiful sound samplings of random moments of miraculous Brazilian goodness.
Poster o f Teach In at The People’s Forum, New York, April 6, 2019