Kopkind Colony

Speaker’s Night

with Robert Pollin, on:

Life vs. Austerity

Friday, July 27   The Organ Barn, 7:30 pm

Please join us for a talk and discussion with Robert Pollin, a brilliant radical economist, founding co-director of the Political Economy Research Institute at UMass, Amherst, longtime activist analyst of the perils of casino capitalism, and author, most recently, of Back to Full Employment. Pollin, who has recently been advising the economics team of Syriza, the left party in Greece, will speak on Life vs. Austerity.

 As Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, has said, “Pollin lights the way forward with a roadmap for a sustainable economy for generations to come and poses the burning question, ‘If not now, when?’  As a writer and speaker, he is intelligent, inspirational, and—a rarity among economists—accessible for all those seeking passage out of the ‘austerity trap’ delusion.”

Before the Talk, Bob will say some words about his long time friend Alexander Cockburn.

Alex Cockburn, Treefrog Farm, 1984

For more information or directions, contact 802.254.4859, stonewal@sover.net or jwyp@earthlink.net.

For our friends in the Southern Vermont area, where Alexander once lived with Andy, John and Katherine Kilgore  at Treefrog, we will be joining together for an impromtu remembrance around the Organ Barn in Guilford on Thursday (July 26, 8PM) .  We’ll have coffee, tea and some sweets.   Please feel free to email John (stonewal@sover.net) if you need directions to the Organ Barn.  JoAnn says it will be a Hawaiian “Talk-Story.”

Below is a fun moment at Treefrog presenting to those at the party, the birthday convention ticket for President and Vice President, 1984.

John Scagliotti, Kopkind Administrator

The birthday convention ticket for President and VP, August 1984.
l to r: Andy Kopkind, Katerine Kilgore, Alexander Cockburn, John Scagliotti

To have known Alexander is to have known lots of style surprises… like what to drive across the country.  Can you say “gas guzzler?”  Somehow it all fit.  He talked Andy Kopkind into going down with him to Florida in the summer of 1981 to help him pick up his old Imperial.  They had a great road trip back to the farm.   We posed on the Imperial  with Alexander’s wonderful daughter, Daisy.

l to r: Andy, Daisy Cockburn, Alexander, and John, Treefrog Farm 1981

This week JoAnn Wypijewski and John Scagliotti, friends of Alexander, will be organizing a remembrance.  Stay tune here for details for those who would like to attend.

Meanwhile we will have a few pictures posted here from Alexander’s times here at Treefrog Farm in Vermont.

John Scagliotti, Kopkind Administrator

Alexander Cockburn, July 4th BBQ (1982) Treefrog Farm

still from AMERICAN AUTUMN

“Occupy Kopkind” begins this week in Guilford with OWS

Sunday, July 22 Potluck barbecue 5:30 pm; Screening 7 pm The Organ Barn, 158 Kopkind Rd., Guilford, VT

On Sunday, July 22, the Kopkind Colony will open its summer season with American Autumn, a film that documents the action and articulation of grievances that began in New York City as Occupy Wall Street, spread to cities and towns across the country, and continues in myriad projects under the banner Occupy.

Filmmaker Dennis Trainor, Jr., takes a view of the early months of the Occupy movement from the inside out, from the meeting rooms to the streets, from the encampments to the police lines and beyond. American Autumn follows the people and the actions in New York City, Boston and Washington with a style, an energy and a politics that, as MichaelMoore.com put it, is “radically different from what you’ll see at your local movie theater…. This is a movie with us in it.  I don’t mean our little group of activist friends.  I mean us, the people of this country, our stories, our hardships, our triumphs, our injustices, our tragedies, our humor.”

With an original score by Goldi, of the OWS music Rebel group and the street band Guitarmy, plus additional songs by Mike Lawrence-Yanicelli and the legendary punk band FUGAZI, the film captures the beat of the moment and the movement.  It weaves together the voices of protesters, the vivid action in the streets and interviews with veteran writers and activists including Cornel West, Naomi Klein, Medea Benjamin and many more.

Kopkind’s Movie Night begins on Sunday with a potluck barbecue at 5:30 pm, outside the Organ Barn in Guilford, 158 Kopkind Road. The screening of American Autumn will begin at 7, followed by discussion with Trainor and members of the Occupy movement, who will be in residence for this, Kopkind’s first summer seminar/retreat session of the year.  Contact John Scagliotti, Kopkind Administrator for directions to the Organ Barn in Guilford. stonwal@sover.net