Kopkind Colony

Kopkind and the Center for Independent Documentary present a film on the meaning of community

East LA Interchange

“Not just a story about one neighborhood, a funny, insightful and poignant documentary that will transform how you think about living in the United States today.” (Huffington Post)

With filmmaker Betsy Kalin, Kopkind/CID Film Camp Alumna

Saturday, August 3, 7:30 pm — The Organ Barn, Guilford, Vt.

Why do we build community? Can we make a difference together? And can we protect our communities and cultural tapestry in the face of tremendous obstacles? These are questions at the heart of Betsy Kalin’s fascinating documentary East LA Interchange. Telling the story of Boyle Heights—a multicultural, immigrant and working-class neighborhood of Los Angeles that has fought to survive despite highway construction, dispossession and other social and economic changes—the film explores the values of home (housing, health, human solidarity) that transcend geography. A provocative, hopeful film, originally workshopped at Kopkind/CID Film Camp, it has sparked discussion wherever it has been shown, in communities large and small. This is its first Vermont showing. The screening is free, open to the public and will be followed by discussion.

When:  Saturday, August 3, 7:30 pm

Where:  158 Kopkind Road, Guilford, VT

Information:  jwyp@earthlink.net or 802.254.4859

Please join us for Kopkind’s Potluck & Movie Night, a free public event, featuring James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket with special guest Kenyon Farrow, followed by discussion.

Janes Baldwin

In this our 20th anniversary summer we salute two other birthdays, Stonewall 50 and the 95th anniversary of James Baldwin’s birth, with the screening of this wonderful documentary. It is told mostly in the words of one of America’s greatest writers, whose exquisite voice, whether in fiction, essays, speeches or video and audio recordings, continues to call us to conscience on the price of history and the promise in the effort for love and human liberation. 

Joining us will be Kenyon Farrow, writer and activist, currently senior editor at TheBody.com, former executive director of Queers for Economic Justice, named by Black Entertainment TV as a Modern Black History Hero.

When:  Sunday, July 14; potluck cook-out begins 5:30 pm (bring a dish), with screening to follow

Where:  The Organ Barn, 158 Kopkind Road, Guilford, Vt.

Information or directions: stonewal@sover.net or jwyp@earthlink.net

With Everyone’s Books, Kopkind is thrilled to bring Peter Linebaugh, “the best, most creative, most original historian living today,” to Downtown Brattleboro on Friday, July 19 at 6 pm for a celebration of, and free public talk on, his new book

In 1803 an Irish renegade, Ned Despard, stood on the gallows in London to be hanged for revolutionary conspiracy. His final speech, written with his Caribbean-born wife, Kate, expressed the hope that “the principles of freedom, of humanity, and of justice will triumph over falsehood, tyranny, and delusion.” The radical love between Kate and Ned serves as a cornerstone for this monumental history of the origins of capitalism (and simultaneously the UK and USA) as well as resistance to it, told through the lives and deeds of people whose No to war, privatization, capitalism and inequality resonates into the present. It is a story of dispossession and defeat, but also of common dreams and of the lessons that interlaced struggles for freedom hold for today. Kopkind was pleased to have Peter Linebaugh—a wondrous speaker and writer, praised in the quote above by Robin D.G. Kelley—as a mentor in residence five years ago. We are so happy Everyone’s Books will host this event this year for Red Round Globe Hot Burning, which, as Noam Chomsky says, “provides fascinating insights into the origins of our society” and is a work of beauty and genius.
Please join us!