Fire Talk

Deborah Henry was curious about the duality of her own Jewish/Irish heritage; Henry was inspired to examine the territory of interfaith marriage and in so doing was led to the subject of the Irish Industrial School system. She has traveled to Ireland where she has done extensive research and interviews. She has written a book entitled The Whipping Club.
Set in 1960s Dublin, The Whipping Club follows the travails of Marian McKeever, a feisty, young Catholic school teacher, and Ben Ellis, the Jewish journalist with whom she falls in love. Against all odds they plan to marry–until a stunned Marian discovers she’s pregnant. Confused, overwhelmed by the onslaught of objections to their marriage, and believing that she is protecting her future with Ben, Marian decides to hide her pregnancy from him and delivers the baby in secret. Assured that a better life with an American family awaits her infant Adrian, Marian relinquishes him to the nuns of Castleboro Mother Baby Home.
To learn more go to:  http://www.deborahhenryauthor.com/
Cinematic Book Trailer, Eric Roberts in: The Whipping Club by Deborah Henry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Omk_tKYhf4c
http://red14films.com/

Welcome David G. McAfee to the show. McAfee is an outspoken atheist who opposes biblical literalism. He is a columnist for Canadian Freethinker Magazine and a contributor to American Atheist Magazine. His first published book, Disproving Christianity and Other Secular Writings, is a critique of biblical literalism. McAfee's newest title, Mom, Dad, I'm an Atheist, is a guide to living as an atheist in a society that's largely intolerant of disbelief.

Whether you're new to disbelief and looking for the cleanest possible break from your former faith or you're a lifelong atheist who wants to establish a sense of community with like-minded people, this guide provides useful resources including: tips for handling potential conflicts with believers, the author's answers to some of the most frequently asked questions on behalf of believers, and numerous references to support groups, services, and advocacy organizations dedicated to non-theists.
To learn more go to: https://www.facebook.com/DavidGMcAfee
http://davidgmcafee.wordpress.com/
Music by Shelley Segal: https://www.facebook.com/shelley.segal

A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim Crow South
Alex is the author of The Eyes of Willie McGee.  The story is about Willie McGee, a young African-American man from Laurel, Mississippi, who in 1945 was "sentenced to death for allegedly raping Willette Hawkins, a white housewife. At first, McGee's case was barely noticed, covered only in hostile Mississippi newspapers and far-left publications such as the DailyWorker. Then Bella Abzug, a young, New York labor lawyer was hired by the Civil Rights Congress--an aggressive civil rights organization with ties to the Communist Party of the United States--to oversee McGee's defense. Together with William Patterson, the son of a slave and a devout believer in the need for revolutionary change, Abzug and a group of white Mississippi lawyers risked their lives to plead McGee's case. After years of court battles, McGee's supporters flooded President Harry S. Truman and the U.S. Supreme Court with clemency pleas, and famous Americans--including William Faulkner, Albert Einstein, Jessica Mitford, Paul Robeson, Norman Mailer, and Josephine Baker--spoke out on McGee's behalf.
By the time the case ended in 1951 with McGee's public execution in Mississippi's infamous traveling electric chair, "Free Willie McGee" had become a rallying cry among civil rights activists, progressives, leftists, and Communist Party members. Their movement had succeeded in convincing millions of people worldwide that McGee had been framed and that the real story involved a consensual love affair between him and Mrs. Hawkins--one that she had instigated and controlled. As Heard discovered, this controversial theory is a doorway to a tangle of secrets that spawned a legacy of confusion, misinformation, and pain that still resonates today.
To learn more go to: http://eyesofwilliemcgee.com/index.html
 

Welcome Esther  Altvater Attean and Misty Sioux Little to the show. We will be discussing the Indian Child Welfare Act and the effects it has within the communities.
The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978 is Federal law that governs the removal and out-of-home placement of American Indian children. The law was enacted after recognition by the Federal Government that American Indian children were being removed from their homes and communities at a much higher rate than non-Native children. ICWA established standards for the placement of Indian children in foster and adoptive homes and enabled Tribes and families to be involved in child welfare cases. Find resources related to ICWA, including Tribal, State, and local examples .
These communities have suffered greatly from many laws and ACTS that removed children from their communities. This resulted in many children being removed from their Tribes via religion, Boarding schools, adoption and protective services. These efforts are contributing to the continued genocide of these people. Each community has its own historical trauma and history of the government attempting to assimilate their children into society at the complete loss of their culture and identity. They will always come for the children so it is very important for use to understand the tools they use when they come.
To learn more go to:
http://mainetribaltrc.org/index.html
 http://lakotalaw.org/resources-for-media/icwa-coalition-report-to-congress/
http://lakotalaw.org
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Maine-Wabanaki-Child-Welfare-Truth-and-Reconciliation-Commission/171354362894349?ref=ts&fref=ts

An Appalshop Films Documentary
Anne Braden: Southern Patriot is a first person documentary about the extraordinary life of this American civil rights leader. Braden was hailed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail as a white southerner whose rejection of her segregationist upbringing was “eloquent and prophetic. Ostracized as a “red” in the 1950s, she fought for an inclusive movement community and mentored three generations of social justice advocates. Braden’s story explores not only the dangers of racism and political repression but also the power of a woman’s life spent in commitment to social justice.

Anne Lewis makes documentary films about social actions, human rights, labor, environmental justice and cultural democracy. She came out of a movement to make media that creates opportunity for social change.

Mimi Pickering documentaries often feature women as principle storytellers, focus on injustice and inequity, and explore the efforts of grassroots people to deal with community problems and work for change.

You can see why these women were a perfect combination to come together in order to  make Anne Braden: Southern Patriot.
Anne Braden: Southern Patriot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvmasu_ was produced and directed by Appalshop filmmakers Anne Lewis and Mimi Pickering.
http://appalshop.org
Anne Braden, 81, Activist in Civil Rights and Other Causes, Dies
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/17/national/17braden.html

We will be discussing the effects of Colonialism and historical trauma. Some of the topics will be:

How it has impacted multiple generations health and community well being. 

How the womb is effected by the environment from which it is created.

What are reparations and the reasons why they are necessary?

How there is a need for us to come together in an understanding of each other’s history and in common fights so that we can protect the next generation from experiencing the same historical trauma.

Welcome ,Esther Stanford-Xosei to the show. She is an internationally acclaimed Jurisconsult passionate public Lecturer, Policy Analyst and Broadcaster. With a proven track record as a law related education and training consultant, Esther has extensive experience of formulating reparative policy and programme interventions as well as developing specialist advocacy services for communities who are survivors of historical and contemporary trauma as a result of systematic violations of their human and peoples' rights. Esther is a founder member and the Co-Vice Chair of the Pan-Afrikan Reparations Coalition of Europe (PARCOE). On behalf of PARCOE she is a broadcaster on Britain’s first licensed Afrikan community radio station, Voice of Africa Radio where she facilitates a weekly discussion programme specifically educating the wider public on reparations related aspects of Pan-Afrikan current affairs. She has a special interest in exploring the differential impacts that the vestiges of enslavement has had on Afrikan women, men and children.

To learn more go to:

http://estherstanford.com/

http://www.voiceofafricaradio.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Esther-Stanford-Xosei/218669171501058

A Son's tribute to his father:

You know for as long as I can remember... I've always been a daddy's boy... I've always strived to impress you and make you proud of me. I would always study your every move and I wanted to be able to do all the things you could and go everywhere you went... I tried my best to get good enough as a musician because I always wanted to get up and be on that stage with you and be able to make music next to you... I wish we of had the chance to write songs together... But we did get a little time of playing together in... We have so much in common and I'm lost without being able to know that when I write a new song I can't hurry over to let you listen because I want you to be proud or tell you about my accomplishments at work or in life... There's so much that I wanted to tell you but I know you know already know and I'm sad but happy that your finally at peace and able to do the things you love once again... I hope that I can one day be as talented and humble as a person as you are... I love you more than you'll ever know and you mean the world to me and I'll always think of you in everything I do because I know you’re still watching and I'll be looking for that smile that you give because of how proud you are... Your forever in my heart...did expect for it to be this soon... RIP I love you Dad!

RIP Sam, you are loved and missed by us all.

Please welcome Rupert Isaacson to the show. He will be speaking about his book The Healing Land: The Bushmen and the Kalahari Desert.

Brought up on stories and myths of the Kalahari Bushmen, Rupert Isaacson journeys to the windling hunting grounds. Little by little he is drawn into the fadry vast grassland — which stretches across South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia — to find out the truth behind these childhood stories.  Deep in the Kalahari, Isaacson meets the last groups of Bushmen still living the traditional way, caught between their ancient culture and the growing need to protect and reclaim their dscinating web of ritual and prophecy that make up the Bushman reality. He hears of shamans who turn into lions, sees leopards conjured from the landscape as though by magic. He attends trance-inducing dances and witnesses incredible healings. But he also sees the heart-wrenching social problems of a dispossessed people. What follows is an adventure of an intensity he could never have predicted. The Healing Land records Isaacson's personal transformation amid these extraordinary people, and his passionate contribution to their political struggle. It captures his enchantment with the character, corruption, kindness, and confusion of a place that has wrenched itself from the Stone Age into the new millennium.

Please check out his other book and the past Fire Talk Production show about it. The book is called The Horse Boy: A Father's Quest to Heal His Son.

To learn more go to:

http://www.horseboyworld.com/

http://www.horseboyfoundation.org/

Segal’s latest release, ‘An Atheist Album,’ embodies her thoughts on religion. The Melbourne Australia based singer-songwriter became involved in secular activism over two years ago, despite her father being the president of a local synagogue. Her songs are a passionate response to dogmatic belief, inequality, religious oppression and the idea that only the devout can be grateful and good. She enjoys bringing this usually controversial topic to the public discourse and finds music to be an effective medium for expression and raising awareness.

‘An Atheist Album’ gives a voice to the often underrepresented views of non-religious people, the fastest growing minority in many countries.

To learn more go to:       

http://www.shelleysegal.com

https://www.facebook.com/shelley.segal

Charles R. Hale was born, raised and educated in New York.  He is the co-founder of the Irish American Writers and Artists’ Salon. The Salon allows writers and artists the opportunity to present works in progress or published works at venues throughout the New York metropolitan area. He has a Masters in cultural history and has had a number of his family and ancestral history essays published in literary magazines. He has now gathered his stories into a multimedia performance, which incorporates voice, photos, music and live performance.

Charles R. Hale maternal grandmother's third child, Florence, died shortly after she was born. Since she was unbaptized she wasn't allowed to be buried with her family. He went on a search to find where Florence was buried to honor his grandparents’ pain.

According to Catholic theology, babies who were stillborn or who died shortly after birth and had not been baptized could be denied a cemetery burial in consecrated ground. In many Irish parishes, the babies were secretly buried in the hedgerows and ditches around the cemetery between dawn and dusk by the parents themselves so that the babies could be close to consecrated ground.

"The Death of Baby Florence" by                    

Charles R. Hale

http://storiesconnectloveheals.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=B94TAzTM1nY

https://www.facebook.com/charles.r.hale

http://storiesconnectloveheals.com/tag/unbaptized-babies/