Friday 7/19 – Thursday 7/25
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Each fall, thousands of activists from the School of the Americas Watch go to Fort Benning, Georgia, to protest the existence of the SOA, a 56-year-old military school that has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in combat and counterinsurgency tactics. Recently renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, the SOA is, say its opponents, directly linked to decades of human rights violations perpetrated by such notorious graduates as Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega. To commemorate the 1989 massacre in El Salvador of six Jesuit priests, one of their coworkers, and her daughter by SOA-trained soldiers, the protesters annually trespass on SOA property and, every year, some are arrested. The trial for the most recent arrests took place last week, and of the 37 defendants 13 were found guilty, including 2 from Chicago. Tonight there will be a fund-raiser for their legal defense; Sones de Mexico and others will perform. It starts at 7 at Saint Gertrude’s Church, 1401 W. Granville. For more information call 312-641-5151.
20 SATURDAY Last year the Smithsonian Institution asked the Dalai Lama to perform a healing act in the wake of September 11. He sent the monks of the Drepung Loseling monastery to New York and D.C. to make Metrupa mandalas–elaborate sand circles, named for one of the five transcendental Buddhas, that are believed to transform hate into insight and are appropriate when mass deaths have occurred. Over the past week Nawang Chojor, senior monk at the Dalai Lama’s personal monastery, has been creating a similar mandala at the Unity in Chicago spiritual center. It will be ceremonially dismantled and swept away as part of today’s Tibetfest, which will also include Tibetan movies, music, chanting, lectures, films, and food. It’s from 10 to 7 at Unity, 1925 W. Thome. Admission is $7, $5 for seniors and students, free for kids under 12. Call 773-743-7772 or see www.buddhapia.com/tibet.
Why Architecture Matters: Lessons From Chicago. Kamin, who writes in his introduction that the city “often serves as the great American exaggeration, expressing at larger scale–and often in excruciating contrast–design trends evident elsewhere in the country,” will discuss his book tonight at 7:30 at Borders Books and Music, 1144 Lake in Oak Park (708-386-6927).
