Kopkind Colony

Kopkind Snapshot History

1998

October Harvest Fundraising Late Brunch, with music by Patty Carpenter 

1999

Theme: Can you have a left media without a left movement? Mentors, Margaret Cerullo (Hampshire College), Ron Nixon (Roanoke Times), Makani Themba Nixon (Praxis Project)  Campers, Jennifer Berkshire (Boston), Kim Diehl (Raleigh/Durham), Theo Emery (Amherst, Mass.), Liza Featherstone (New York), Marti Garza (Houston/Boston), Prasi Gupta (Rochester, NY)

Movie Night – U & I dot com, with director Branda Miller

Speaker’s Night – JoAnn Wypijewski on “Sex, Crime and the Culture of Straight Men”

October Harvest Fundraising Lecture – “Socialism and Media at Century’s End”, a conversation between Doug Henwood and Laura Flanders

2000

Theme: After Seattle: global justice, urban justice, a new landscape for the left?

Mentors, Alexander Cockburn (CounterPunch), Janine Jackson (FAIR), Bob Wing (Applied Research Center/Color Lines) Campers, Angela Ards, (New York) Rico Cleffi, (New Bedford, Mass.) Rona Fernandez, (San Francisco) John Grebe (Boston), Mindanao Hickey (San Francisco), Maureen Lane (New York), Emile Turner (New York)

Movie Night – Lavender Lake, with director Allison Prete

Speaker’s Night – Patricia Williams on “The Body Politic”

October Harvest Fundraising Lecture – “Election 2000: Al Gore and the Politics of Lowered Expectations”, with Alexander Cockburn

2001

Theme: The left in Bush time

Mentor, Mandy Carter (Southerners on New Ground) Campers, Tomas Aguilar (Boston), Pamela Bridgewater (Jacksonville, Fla.), Candace Carpenter (Austin), Pia Infante (Boston), Claudine LoMonaco (Los Angeles), Susan Phillips (Philadelphia), Yun Jong Suh (San Francisco)

Movie Night – Yes, In My Backyard, with director Tracy Huling

Speaker’s Night – Katha Pollitt on “Women, Liberty and the Left in the Age of Bush”

Kopkind/Independent Press Association collaborative session

Theme: Ethnic press and community

Mentors, Abby Scher (IPA, NY), Gregory Tewksbury (New School for Social Research), Greg Morris (City University of New York) Campers, Arkady Kagan, Reginald Juste, Yajaira deLeon, Dania Rajendra, Tom Watkins (all with ethnic or labor newspapers in NYC)

Movie Night – “41 Shots” and other videos from the youth film collective Listen Up!, with director Rhea Mokund

Speaker’s Night – Robin D.G. Kelley on “Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination”

October Harvest Fundraising Lecture – “Independent Politics, Independent Thought in Dangerous Times”, with Ellen David-Freedman of the Vermont Progressive Party

2002

Theme: War, ‘terror’ and the left

Mentors, Kevin Alexander Gray (Black News; South Carolina ACLU), Doug Lummis (Tsuda College, Tokyo, ret.; Okinawa peace movement activist) Campers, Adina Berrios (New York), Malkia Cyril (Oakland), Kathleen Fitzgerald (Boston), Richard Kim (New York), Angelo Logan (Los Angeles), Katy Reckdahl (New Orleans), Roopa Singh (Berkeley)

Movie Night – a 25^th anniversary John Scagliotti film retrospective

Speaker’s Night – Edward Said (canceled due to ill health)

October Harvest Fundraising Lecture – “War, Dissent and the Artist’s Voice”, with Grace Paley

2003

Theme: ‘The second superpower’, a new internationalism?

Mentor, Mike Marqusee (freelance journalist, author, founding member of Britain’s Stop the War Coalition) Campers, Rehan Ansari (New York/Pakistan), Gabriel Arteaga (Chicago), Eunice Cho, (San Francisco), Elizabeth Fox (Washington, DC), Ronald Lwabaayi (Toronto/Uganda), Jen Soriano (Oakland/Philippines), Rhianna Tyson (New York)

Movie Night – Novela, Novela, with director Liz Miller

Speaker’s Night – Selves and Others, a filmed conversation with Edward Said

Kopkind/EqbalAhmad Initiative collaborative session

Theme: Covering the Middle East at home and abroad

Mentors, Nabil Abraham, (Henry Ford Community College), Dunya Alwan (International Women’s Peace Service, Palestine), Margaret Cerullo (Hampshire College/Eqbal Ahmad Initiative), Sue Katz (freelance journalist, founding member of Israeli peace groups Women in Black and Black Laundry), Alisa Klein (former Zionist, Western Mass. peace and Palestinian rights activist) Campers, Brennen Bartlett (Minnesota), Kerry Eleveld (Berkeley), Tram Nguyen (Oakland), Melanie Smith (New York), Camille Taiara (San Francisco), Tom Wallace (Boston), Bernice Yeung (San Francisco)

Movie Night – The Settlers, with former Israeli settler Uri Strauss, and Gaza Strip

Speaker’s Night – Rabab Abdulhadi on “Sex, Gender, War: Radical Reinterpretations of Politics and Resistance in the Middle East”

October Harvest Fundraising Movie – Dangerous Living: Coming Out in the Developing World, with director John Scagliotti

October Harvest Fundraising Lecture – “The Clash of Fundamentalisms”, with Tariq Ali

2004

Theme: Cultures of resistance, histories of “our side”

Mentors, Rabab Abdulhadi (Center for Arab-American Studies, UM, Dearborn), Jack O’Dell (veteran labor, peace and civil rights activist), Jaime Veve (former Young Lord, founding member of New Directions, Transit Workers Local 100)  Campers, Peter Asen (Providence, RI), Paula Dobbyn (Anchorage), Willie Johnson (Detroit), Sarah Kim (Los Angeles), Kiyoko McCrae (New York), Saja Raoof (Detroit), Standard Schaefer (San Francisco), Talia Whyte (Boston)

Movie Night – The Weather Underground, with former Weather people Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn

Speaker’s Night – Phyllis Bennis, Jack O’Dell and Saja Raoof in conversation on “The War Abroad, the War at Home”

Late summer Speaker’s Night – Bill Dobbs of United for Peace and Justice on “Are We in a Police State?: Dissent, Repression & the Run-up to the Republican Convention”

October Harvest Fundraising Movie – Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train

October Harvest Fundraising Lecture – “War, the Elections and the Politics of Fear”, with Carol Brightman

2005

Theme: Religion and politics

Mentors: Suzanne Pharr (longtime activist in the women’s and gay rights movement, former director, the Highlander Center), Jeff Sharlet (editor of The Revealer, an online magazine of religion and politics; co-author of Killing the Buddha and author of a forthcoming book on the roots of the religious right, The Family) Campers: Billy Sothern (New Orleans), Roberto Lovato (Los Angeles), Malachi Garza (Oakland), Jen Angel (Toledo, Ohio), Camilo Romero (New York and Colombia), Jessica Wilbanks (Washington, DC)

Movie Night – Born Again, with filmmaker and author James Ault

Speaker’s Night – Eddie Glaude, Jr. on “What’s God Got to Do With It?: Religion, Rage and Resistance in American Life”

October Harvest Fundraising Movie – Sir, No Sir!, Vermont premier of the documentary by David Zeiger

October Harvest Fundraising Lecture – “Direct From the Heart of Texas: The Abu Ghraib Trials and the War at Home”, with JoAnn Wypijewski

2006

Political Camp

Theme: The law, the left and the state

Mentors: Pamela Bridgewater (American University professor of law), Mike Ferner (member of the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy, author of Inside the Red Zone: A Veteran For Peace Reports from Iraq) Campers: Alicia Schwartz (Oakland), Lisa Burriss (New York), Lisa Jervis (San Francisco), Bennett Baumer (New York), Cole Krawitz (New York), Erica Sagrans (Providence, RI), Maria Lupe Arreola (San Francisco), Ivy Schlegel (Boston)

Movie Night – The Road to Guantanamo, with civil liberties lawyer Aziz Huq

Speaker’s Night – Maria Elena Letona and Gary Younge in conversation on “Who You Calling ‘Illegal’?: Borderlines and the Immigrants’ Rising”

Film Camp, in collaboration with Susi Walsh and the Center for Independent Documentary

Theme: Diversity in filmmaking

Participants: Savannah Washington (New York), Joel Katz (Woodstock, NY), Deb Ellis (Burlington, VT), Emily Kunstler (New York), Eli Moore (Syracuse, NY), Alexandra de Gonzalez (Boston), Jennifer Kaplan (Cambridge, MA), Rebecca Snedeker (New Orleans), Robbie Leppzer (Wendell, MA), Nancy Kates (Berkeley), Tim McCarthy (Provincetown, MA)

Grassroots Film Festival, August 10-12

Far Out, work in progress

Sam Lovejoy’s Nuclear War and selections from other films from the 1970s antinuke movement, with filmmaker Charles Light

Cruel and Unusual, with filmmaker Dan Hunt and local transgender activist Michael Yowe

The Peace Patriots, with filmmaker Robbie Leppzer

The Devil’s Miner, with First Run distributor, Seymour Wishman

October Harvest Fundraising Movie – Grey Gardens, with co-director Muffie Meyer

October Harvest Fundraising Lecture – “The World Turned Upside Down: The Joy of Politics”, with Michael Bronski

2007

Political Camp

Theme: Looking South: The US and across borders

Mentors: Ajamu Dillahunt (Black Workers for Justice), Chris Kromm (Southern Exposure/Institute for Southern Studies) Campers: Jee Kim (New York), Tiffany Ten Eyck (Detroit), Cynthia Greenlee Donnell (Durham), Hope Hall (New York), Isaac Evans-Frantz (Putney,VT/New York), Robynn Takayama (San Francisco), Desiree Evans (Washington, DC)

Movie Night – The Sixth Section, by Alex Rivera, with sociologist Margaret Cerullo

Speaker’s Night – Amy Jordan, Ajamu Dillahunt and Chris Kromm in a panel discussion on “Katrina Two Years After: Disaster, Race and American Politics

Film Camp, in collaboration with Susi Walsh and the Center for Independent Documentary

Theme: Creativity

Participants: Nancy Kelly (Berkeley), Jonathan Skurnik (Los Angeles), Tim McCarthy (Provincetown, MA), Nancy Kates (Berkeley), Karen Everett (Berkeley), Bennett Singer (New York), Natalie Lardner (New York), Savannah Washington (New York), Carlyn Saltman (Greenfield, MA), Jim Wolpaw (Providence, RI)

Grassroots Summer Film Festival

Black Dawn and Haiti’s Piggybank, with filmmakers Robin Lloyd and Doreen Kraft

The Man of Two Havanas by Vivien Lesnick Weisman, with Sandra Levinson, Cuban Studies Center

Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin, with filmmakers Nancy Kates and Bennett Singer

World music concert featuring The Bakers and the Shakers

October Harvest Fundraising Movie – Hearts and Minds, with filmmaker Peter Davis

October Harvest Fundraising Lecture — “Left Alive?”, a conversation with Alexander Cockburn and JoAnn Wypijewski

2008

CineSlam: LGBT Film Shorts Camp and Pride Weekend Film Festival

Participants: Peter Condon (Keene, NH), Jonathan Gann (Washington, DC), David M. Hall (Guilford, VT), Tom Murray (Sarasota,FL), Larin Sullivan (New York), Joe Wilson (Washington, DC)

Winner of the festival’s Chessie Award: Love on the Rocks, by Yun Jong Suh

Political Camp

Theme: The politics of everyday life

Mentors: Frank Bardacke (sixties militant, onetime farmworker, local activist in Watsonville, CA, and author of the forthcoming history of the UFW, Trampling Out the Vintage), Kevin Alexander Gray (longtime civil rights/liberties activist in Columbia, SC, author of the Waiting for Lightning to Strike!) Campers: Justin Goldberg (New York), Charles Jones (Oakland), Kathryn Joyce (New York), Dani McLain (Minneapolis), Matt Nelson (Minneapolis), Angel Seda (New York), Spring Ulmer (Iowa City)

Movie Night – Chisholm ’72: Unbought and Unbowed, with filmmaker Shola Lynch

Speaker’s Night – Jeff Sharlet on “Sex, Power and the Faith of Obama: How the Religious Right Is Re-Inventing Itself for a New Day”

Film Camp, in collaboration with Susi Walsh and the Center for Independent Documentary

Theme: Storytelling

Participants: Betsy Kalin (Los Angeles), Daniela Broitman (Rio de Janeiro), Bene Naudin (Storrs, CT), Grace Shuler (Tel Aviv), Erin Sisk (New York), Heather Kaplow (Boston), Sarah Hesterman (New York), Lynn Cadwallader (Cambridge, MA), Terry Holzgreen (Los Angeles); guest adviser, Lyda Kuth (Lef Foundation

Grassroots Summer Film Festival

The Water Front, by Liz Miller, with regional Clean Water Action activist Tina Clarke

For the Bible Tells Me So, with filmmaker Dan Karslake

Body of War, by Elen Spiro and Phil Donahue, with regional Veterans for Peace activist Eric Wasileski

October Harvest Fundraising Lecture – “The Political Moment”, with Laura Flanders

2009

CineSlam: LGBT Film Shorts Camp and Pride Weekend Film Festival

Participants: Connor Clements (Belfast), Kelsey Chauvin (New York), Parthiban Shanmugam (Atlanta), Erika Martinez (Los Angeles), Robert Philipson (Oakland), Ethan Shoshan (New York), Lauren LoGiudice (New York), Arnie Levin (New York), Christopher Dawes (New York),

Winner of the festival’s Chessie Award: James, by Connor Clements

Political Camp

Theme: Crisis and opportunity

Mentors: Robin Blackburn (former editor New Left Review, prolific author and professor at the New School and University of Essex), Susan Smith Richardson (former newspaper reporter/columnist/editor in Sacramento, Austin and Chicago, senior writer at the MacArthur Foundation) Participants: Jamilah King (Oakland), Jeremy Gantz (Chicago), Robbie Clark (Oakland), Joseph Phelan (Miami), Prerna Sampat (Chicago), Mischa Gaus (New York), Lia Tarachansky (Ottawa/Washingon), Irene Monroe (Cambridge)

Movie Night – William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe, with filmmaker Emily Kunstler

Speaker’s Night – D.D. Guttenplan on “Izzy and Andy: Journalism on the Edge”

Film Camp, in collaboration with Susi Walsh and the Center for Independent Documentary

Theme: Brainstorming to the future in filmmaking

Participants: Dean Hamer (Washington, DC), Ann Bennett (New York), Bret Story (Montreal), Sharon Arkin (Tucson), Sanford Lewis (Amherst, MA), Matt Gossage (Austin), Kavita Pillay (Cambridge, MA), Betsy Kalin (Los Angeles), Joan Mandell (Detroit)

Grassroots Summer Film Festival

Polis Is This, with filmmaker Henry Ferrini

Straightlaced, with filmmaker Debra Chasnoff

Sneak preview, with filmmaker Liz Canner

October Harvest Fundraising Movie – Orgasm Inc., with filmmaker Liz Canner

October Harvest Fundraising Lecture – “Alien Nation: The Peculiar Politics of Obamatime”, with Patricia Williams

2010

CineSlam LGBT Film Shorts Seminar

Participants: Alison Segar (Burlington, VT), Betsy Jose (TK), Betsy Kalin (Los Angeles), Christopher Dawes (New York), David M. Hall (Guilford, VT), Dan Dowling (Boston), Kelsey Chauvin (New York), Laura Terruso (TK), Madeleine Olnek (TK), Mark Payne (Los Angeles), Matt Bucy (White River Junction, VT), Richard Davis (New York), Veronique Courtois (TK)

Political Camp

Theme: Past Present: the legacy of Andrew Kopkind & the convergence of culture, history and politics

Mentors: John Scagliotti (Guilford, VT), JoAnn Wypijewski (New York) Participants: Jake Blumgart (Philadelphia), Rae Gomes (New York), Amanda Haas (San Antonio), Adam Kader (Chicago), Emily Ratner (New Orleans), Brett Story (Montreal), Gina Womack (New Orleans),

Movie Night – Land of Destiny, with filmmaker Brett Story

Speaker’s Night – Chris Tinson on “Hip Hop Politics”

Film Camp, in collaboration with Susi Walsh and the Center for Independent Documentary

Theme: Making it

Participants: Ben Achtenberg (Boston), Jesse Achtenberg (Washington, DC), Annie Berman (New York), Gabriela Bohm (Los Angeles), Woody Bovota (Cape Cod), James Demo (Boston), Marcia Jarmel (San Francisco), Susan Rivo (Boston), Ken Schneider (San Francisco), Andrea Torrice (Cincinnati)

Grassroots Summer Film Screening

Stonewall Uprising, with filmmakers Kate Davis and David Heilbroner

October Harvest Fundraising Performance – Palestine, a staged reading by Najla Said of her solo show

October Harvest Fundraising Lecture – “Echoes of Colonialism”, with Vijay Prashad

2011

CineSlam LGBT Film Shorts Seminar

Participants: Blair Doroshwalther (TK), Ewan Duarte (TK), Giovanna Chesler (TK), Jon Crawford (TK), Jonathan Gann (Washington, DC), Pierre Stephanos (TK), Rodney Evans (TK), Ryan Logan (TK), Sam Berliner (TK), Yoruba Richen (TK)

Political Camp

Theme: Learning from the world

Mentors: Greg Berger (Cuernavaca, Mexico), Blanca Estela Kempis Robles (Cuernavaca, Mexico), Marina Sitrin (New York) Participants: Aja Beech (Philadelphia), Divad Durant (New York), Dianne Enriquez (Chicago), Luce Capco Lincoln (Philadelphia), Masum Momaya (Gilberts, IL), Hira Nabi (New York/Islamabad, Pakistan), Lysandra Ohrstrom (New York)

Movie Night – “The Revolution Will Be Videotaped”, a compilation of documentary shorts, Youtube videos and other web postings from the Arab Spring

Speaker’s Night – Maria Margaronis, on “Euro-Turmoil: Notes on Greece and Politics in Extremity”

Film Camp, in collaboration with Susi Walsh and the Center for Independent Documentary

Theme: You

Participants: Jesse Freeston (Ottawa), David A. Goldenberg (Cranston, RI), Jonathan Goldman (New York), Julia Haslett (New York), Lily Keber (New Orleans), Jan Krawitz (SF Bay Area), Pearl J Park (New York), Marilyn Pennell (Hartford), Karen Schoucair (Boston area/Beirut),
Martha Swetzoff (Providence, RI).

Grassroots Summer Film Festival

Coexist, with filmmaker Adam Mazo

Left on Pearl, with filmmaker Susan Rivo and Sue Katz

October Harvest Fundraising Event – “A Celebration of Guilford at 250 & the Contributions of Verandah Porche”, with Verandah Porche, music by Patty Carpenter and a screening of The Stuff of Dreams, by John Scagliotti

2012

CineSlam LGBT Film Shorts Seminar

Participants: Cheryl Furjanic (NYC), Elliott London (Los Angeles), JC Calciano (Los Angeles), Kareem Mortimer (Bahamas), Matt Paco (NYC), Randall Jenson (Chicago), Renee Sotile (Los Angeles), Sebastian La Cause (NYC), Mary Jo Hodges (Los Angeles)

Political Camp

Theme: Occupy, one year after

Participants: Patricia Gonzalez (New York), Laura Gottesdiener (New York), Amin Husain (New York), Diego Ibanez (New York), Lindsey Krinks (Nashville), Stephanie McGuinness (Philadelphia), Kate Savage (Nashville), Nathan Schneider (New York), Loren Taylor (Chicago)

Movie Night – American Autumn, with filmmaker Dennis Trainor, Jr. and members of the Occupy movement

Speaker’s Night – Robert Pollin on “Life vs. Austerity”

Film Camp, in collaboration with Susi Walsh and the Center for Independent Documentary

Theme: You

Participants: Jenny Alexander (Malden, MA), Alexandra de Gonzalez (Cambridge, MA), Helen De Michiel (Albany, CA), Maryanne Galvin (Boston), Bob Nesson (Somerville, MA), Michael Rossi (New York), Emmy Scharlatt (Berkeley), David Tames (Roslindale, MA), Bruce Weaver (Lummi Island, WA), Lise Zumualt (New York)

Grassroots Summer Film Screening

White: A Memoir in Color, with filmmaker Joel Katz

October Harvest Fundraising Lecture – “The Selling of the Presidency 2012: Big Money, Dirty Tricks and the Future of American Politics”, with Craig Unger

2013

CineSlam LGBT Film Shorts Seminar

Participants: Brennan Peters (Houston), Bryan Horch (Northampton), Heath Daniel (Los Angeles), Jonathan Skurnik (Los Angeles), Matthew Moore (Los Angeles), Ryan Steele (Vancouver), Sam Berliner (Berkeley), Sean Devaney (NYC), Viridiana Lieberman (Florida)

Political Camp

Theme: Border-crossings: danger, desire and delusion in this “country of immigrants”

Mentors: James Garcia (Phoenix), Debbie Nathan (New York) Participants: Jamie Blair (Philadelphia), Michelle Chen (New York), Matt Gossage (Austin), Laurie Ignacio (New York), Hannah Mintz (Oakland), Jose Orduna (Iowa City), Kristin Pak (New York/Seoul, S. Korea)

Speaker’s Night – Jennifer Berkshire on “Apart at the Seams: Race, Class and the War over Public Education (a farce)”

Film Camp, in collaboration with Susi Walsh and the Center for Independent Documentary

Participants: Vendana Sood-Giddings (Missoula, MT), Maureen McNamara (Cambridge, MA), David Pavlosky (New York), Laurel Chiten (New York), Meagan Murphy (Easthampton, MA), Lisa Leeman (Los Angeles), Casey Callister (Washington, DC), Irene Zabytko (New York), Robin Truesdale (Boulder, CO), Andrea Meyerson (Santa Monica, CA)

Grassroots Summer Film Screening

Still Moving: Pilobolus at Forty, by Jeffrey Ruoff

October Harvest Fundraising Lecture – “After Trayvon: Revisiting MLK’s ‘Triple Evils’, Reimagining Freedom”, with Pamela Brown

2014

CineSlam LGBT Film Shorts Seminar

Participants: Austin Bunn and Bob Hazen (TK), Casper Andreas (TK), Christopher Baum (TK), Dan Goldes/Urbanstreet Filmas (TK), Ewan Duarte (TK), Iris Moore (TK), Kareem Mortimer (Bahamas), Nathan Adloff (TK), Seyi Adebanjo (TK)

Political Camp

Theme: Solidarity vs. Alienation: recovering the commons, envisioning social happiness

Mentors: Peter Linebaugh (Ann Arbor, MI), Scot Nakagawa (San Francisco) Participants: Asam Ahmad (Toronto), Kevin Buckland (Barcelona/New York), Rebecca Burns (Chicago), Tristan Call (Nashville), Mara Kardas-Nelson (New York), Yates McKee (New York), Amity Paye (New York), Alyssa Rohricht (Washington, DC)

Speaker’s Night – Kevin Buckland on “We All Live Downstream”

Film Camp, in collaboration with Susi Walsh and the Center for Independent Documentary

Theme: You II

Participants: Derek Burrows (Mexico City/Bahamas), Lisa D’Apolito (New York), Alex Halkin (Burlington, VT), Lydia Harris (Cleveland? Cincinnati?), Indrani Kopal (New York/Kuala Lumpur), Melissa Langer (Boston/Palo Alto), Bill Lichtenstein (Boston), Roberto Mighty (Boston), Michaela O’Brien (Boston/Raleigh/Durham), Scott Ryan (Los Angeles), Tracy Heather Strain (Boston)

Grassroots Summer Film Screening

Power to the Pedals, with filmmaker Bob Nesson

AND COMING UP!

October Harvest Fundraising Events: Kopkind Alumni Reunion

AND   “Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Andy Kopkind, 1935-1994”, with Maria Margaronis and friends of Andy and this living memorial IN NYC.