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Exit Wounds: Combat Trauma and Trials of Homecoming

Photos of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans by Jim Lommasson.
Over two thousand photos by the soldiers taken while in country, including interviews and writing by the soldiers.

922 SE Ankeny Street
Portland, OR 97214
Thursday - Sunday, Noon - 6PM + By appointment.

The Myth of Return
Photographer Jim Lommasson will present a series of photographs and interviews with American veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The soldiers speak the truth about war, their participation, and the effects on themselves and those caught in the crossfire.  This exhibit examines and raises questions about a generation of soldiers largely invisible to the American public.  The stories are profound and timeless. Returning soldiers have always had to process the real and transformative traumas of battle while integrating into a new civilian culture that lacks the clarity, meaning, and sense of ‘mission’ that war can provide. But how will these returning ‘silent warriors’ shape the social fabric into which they must now incorporate? With bodies and minds completely attuned to the violence and exigencies of war, what is the psychic space these young veterans inhabit after their tours? What happens when battle-bred virtues, such as a heroic disregard for one’s life and pain, become a liability or even contemptible in their new home? Exit Wounds looks at some of the trials of reintegration for this generation of invisible warriors and asks whether they do in fact get to ‘come home.’

 
More info about the exhibit.

Every Sunday.

Location: Estacada, Estacada City Hall, Hwy 224 and Main St.

Contact: Peter Hamer, phamer@cascadeaccess.com

Winter Soldier Northwest: Eyewitness Accounts of War is only days away!

In addition to the main program of powerful testimony from 12-5 pm this Saturday, you are invited to two opportunities to mingle with Winter Soldier speakers and participants: at a reception and photo exhibit Friday night, and a concert and poetry reading Saturday night. All the details on this incredible weekend of resistance to war are below–-we hope to see you there!

Winter Soldier Northwest
Hear eyewitness accounts of the realities of war from soldiers, their families, Iraqi refugees, and Afghan-Americans. Panelists will discuss the true costs of war, and what we can do here at home to support our veterans, work in solidarity with the Iraqi and Afghan people and end the war.

Where: First Unitarian Church 1011 SW 12th Street (at Main), Portland Oregon

When: Saturday, October 18 12:00-5:00
Topics include: Veterans' Voices from Iraq and Afghanistan, Human Costs of War and Building Resistance to War.

Cost: $5-10 sliding scale, no one turned away.

Sponsored by: PDX Peace Coalition, Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) Seattle Chapter, American Friends Service Committee, American Iranian Friendship Council, Code Pink Portland, First Unitarian Church Peace Action Committee, International Socialist Organization (ISO) Portland Chapter, KBOO Community Radio 90.7 FM, Living Earth, Military Families Speak Out Oregon, MoveOn Portland, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, Peace Memorial Park Foundation of Portland, People of Faith for Peace, Portland Peaceful Response Coalition, Recruiter WatchPDX, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, Vancouver for Peace, Veterans Bridge Fund, Veterans for Peace Chapter 72, Veterans for Peace Chapter 123, War Resisters League Portland, Workers' Action and more.

For more information, to volunteer or to cosponsor Winter Soldier, email wintersoldier@pdxpeace.org or call 503-230-9427.

Friday Night: Photo Exhibit and Reception with Winter Solider Speakers

Exit Wounds: Combat Trauma and Trials of Homecoming

Photos of
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans by Jim Lommasson. Over two thousand photos by the soldiers taken while in country, including interviews and writing by the soldiers.

Where: New American Art Union, 922 SE Ankeny Street
When: October 17 to November 30, 2008
Thursday - Sunday, Noon - 6PM + By appointment.
Reception: Friday, October 17, 6-9.

Photographer Jim Lommason has invited Winter Soldier speakers and participants to attend the reception.

The Myth of Return
Photographer Jim Lommasson will present a series of photographs and interviews with American veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The soldiers speak the truth about war, their participation, and the effects on themselves and those caught in the crossfire. This exhibit examines and raises questions about a generation of soldiers largely invisible to the American public. The stories are profound and timeless. Returning soldiers have always had to process the real and transformative traumas of battle while integrating into a new civilian culture that lacks the clarity, meaning, and sense of ‘mission’ that war can provide. But how will these returning ‘silent warriors’ shape the social fabric into which they must now incorporate? With bodies and minds completely attuned to the violence and exigencies of war, what is the psychic space these young veterans inhabit after their tours? What happens when battle-bred virtues, such as a heroic disregard for one’s life and pain, become a liability or even contemptible in their new home? Exit Wounds looks at some of the trials of reintegration for this generation of invisible warriors and asks whether they do in fact get to ‘come home.’

More information on the exhibit.

Saturday Night: Voices of Resistance 

Voices of Resistance is an evening of positive resistance—veteran's poetry & photography and musical performances by Good Sista/Bad Sista and David Rovics following the Winter Soldier hearings. Several veterans will read their own poetry, while veterans' photographs will be displayed on the walls and via projection.

Good Sista/Bad Sista, Walidah and Turiya, are locally-based performance poets, a dynamic duo that has traveled throughout the country sharing their voice and vision.

David Rovics brings us songs of social significance. He has been dubbed the "peace poet and troubadour of our time" by Cindy Sheehan and the "musical version of Democracy Now" by Amy Goodman.

Our community has to SPEAK, SING, SNAP, and SLAM against the outrages of war. Come enjoy a more creative variety of struggle. Let's break the violence by breaking the silence.

Where: First Unitarian Church 1011 SW 12th Street (at Main), Portland Oregon
When: Saturday, October 18. Doors open at 6:30
Cost: Free to Winter Soldier attendees! Sliding scale $10-15, no one turned away. Go to flyer downloads

The Winter Soldier Speaker Line-Up just keeps getting better. Here is the updated speakers list.

Panel 1: Voices of Veterans From Iraq & Afghanistan

• Chris Arendt,  was a member of c 1-119th field artillery from 2001-2007. He deployed with charlie battery from 2004-2005 to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba where he was a block guard and the escort control for 11 months. While deployed Christopher co-founded the short lived radical G.I. resistance group Motorcycle Awesome. He is a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) Chicago.
• Jan Critchfield, a specialist with the Army National Guard who served as an army “journalist” while attached to the 1st Cavalry in Baghdad during 2004. His unspoken job in Iraq was to "counter the liberal media bias" about the occupation.  He is a member of IVAW Seattle.
• Joseph Holness, from Gresham, Oregon served eight years in the US Army in Iraq and nine years with the US Air Force Reserves supporting Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
• Evan Knappenberger, served one year in Iraq with the Army 4th Infantry Division working as an intelligence analyst; held one week long “Tower Guard Vigils” in Bellingham, WA and Washington, DC to call attention to the STOP-LOSS policy.
• David Mann, was an Army Specialist  whose Army occupation was mainly working on the Army radios.  He was deployed to Nasiriyah, Iraq in 2003 and stop lossed for a second deployment to Balad, Iraq in 2005. He is a member of IVAW Denver.
• Seth Manzel, an Army sergeant who served as a vehicle commander and machine gunner in Iraq.  Member of IVAW Seattle.   
• Camilo Mejia, a National Guard staff sergeant who after fighting for five months in Iraq, became the first combat soldier to refuse to go back to Iraq. He now serves as Chair of the Board of Iraq Veterans Against the War and is the author of Road from ar Ramadi.
• Josh Simpson,spent six years in the US Army as a counterintelligence agent including a one year tour in Mosul, Iraq.  He is now involved with the GI voice project, Port Militarization Resistance, and making Olympia a sanctuary city for war resisters and undocumented immigrants.  He is a member of IVAW Olympia.
• Chanan Suarezdiaz, a Navy hospital corpsman and purple heart recipient who served in Ramadi from September 2004 to February 2005 with a weapons company. He is now the Seattle Chapter president of IVAW.
• and more local veterans to be announced.
  

 Panel 2: The Human Costs of War 

• Ahmed Abed, father of Mustafa Abed, an Iraqi child who was injured by an American air raid and is currently receiving medical care in Portland through the No More Victims project.
• Dr. Baher Butti, formerly the chief psychiatrist at a mental health clinic Baghdad, now an Iraqi refugee and faculty member at the OHSU School of Medicine.
• Mary Geddry, member of Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) Oregon and mother of a Marine son who served two tours of duty in Iraq.
• Dahr Jamail, an independent journalist who spent a total of 8 months as an unembedded reporter in occupied Iraq.  He has written for Mother Jones and The Nation, among other publications, and has provided radio reports on Democracy Now! and the BBC. Author of Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq.
• Dr. Mark Kaplan, Professor in the Department of Community Health - Urban & Public Affairs at Portland State University who has conducted research on suicide rates among male veterans.
• Adele Kubein, Military Families Speak Out Oregon chapter president, mother of an Iraq war veteran.
• Sara Rich, M.S.W., anti-war activist and spokesperson for Courage to Resist; mother of Eugene Iraq war vet & war resister Suzanne Swift.
• Dr. Zaher Wahab, Professor of Education at Lewis & Clark College; serves as a senior advisor to the Minister of Higher Education in Afghanistan, and has been spending about five months annually in that country since 2002.
  

Panel 3: Building Resistance to War

• Leah Bolger, Veterans for Peace Chapter 132 from Corvallis, on the statewide effort to keep Oregon's National Guard in Oregon.
• Gerry Condon, refused orders to Vietnam and deserted from the Army in 1969.   He lived in Sweden and Canada for six years before returning to the U.S. to organize for amnesty for all war resisters.  For the last five years he has been working with Iraq War resisters in Canada.  He directs Project Safe Haven and works with the War Resister Support Action Team of VFP Ch. 92 in Seattle.
• Adriana Moyola, is a Mexican born female who came to the United States in search of a better life.  She joined the Army Reserve in 2000 right after high school.  In 2006 she resisted deployment to Iraq.  She will speak on her experience as a war resister and on building an Oregon IVAW Chapter.
• Daniel Shea, Veterans for Peace Chapter 72 on the PDX Peace campaign to make Portland a Sanctuary City for War Resisters.
• Michael William, Army National Guardsmen who went AWOL, IVAW Northwest Regional Coordinator.
• and more discussion of local actions we can take to support veterans, refugees and end the war.
  

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Flyers are available. You can donwload them here, or pick them up day or night at the American Friends Service Committee, 2249 E. Burnside in Portland. 

Download flyers and quarter sheets for Winter Soldier (pdf):

Download flyers and quarter sheets for "Voices of Resistance":

Please donate to help build Winter Soldier.

We are bringing in speakers from around the Northwest and around the country, and that costs money. Please donate now to PDX Peace and make this event possible. Thank you!

When:                         Every Sunday, 1:00 PM           

            Where:                       At the totem pole on Hwy 30 in Scappose

    Contact: julane@opusnet.com 

Every Sunday.

Location: SE Taylor and SE 35th, East side of Sunnyside School

Organization: Peace Activists and Concerned Youth