Justice for Israel-Palestine with Rabbi Arik Ascherman

First Unitarian Universalist Church 5200 Fannin St., Houston, TX, United States

Arik Ascherman has dedicated his life to upholding the Jewish tradition of universal human rights, fighting alongside Palestinians and Israelis alike. After leading “Rabbis For Human Rights” for 21 years, Rabbi Ascherman recently founded “Torat Tzedek-Torah of Justice.”

Rabbi Ascherman will introduce Torat Tzedek and speak about his work to prevent the destruction of Negev Bedouin villages and the villages of Khan Al Akhar and Susya in the West Bank. He will also reflect more broadly on the structure of power in Israel and whether Israel can still be called a democracy.

Free

Community Bike Safety Course

Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church 2353 Rice Blvd., Houston

Nervous about biking in Houston? Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church and Bike Houston invite you to a free Community Bike Safety Course where you’ll gain the confidence to cycle safely around town.

Free

Care Van at Grace United Church of Christ

Grace United Church of Christ 8515 Brookwulf, Houston

Grace United Church of Christ is hosting a Care Van, providing free immunizations for children up to 18 years of age.  Please bring shot records!

Free

Houston Zen Center’s Walk to Feed the Hungry

Houston Zen Center 1605 Heights Blvd, Houston, TX, United States

This year the walk will again be along the Heights Esplanade Trail on Heights Boulevard, a beautiful setting for a walk of compassion with friends! We invite everyone to participate by registering to walk, making a donation, or volunteering. Your efforts and generosity will help with programs that provide direct relief, promote sustainable agriculture, and provide education and right livelihood opportunities for women.

The 3.1 mile walk will begin at the Houston Zen Center, located at 1605 Heights Blvd, Houston, TX 77008. We will then walk south down Heights Boulevard towards I-10 and turn around to end the walk at the Zen Center. Participants may turn around at any point to return to the Zen Center as needed.

Peacemaker Reception

Redbud Gallery 303 East 11th Street, Houston, TX, United States

In Conjunction with HPJC's 2018 Peacemaker Awards Dinner, here's your chance to meet the 2018 Peacemaker Awardees!

$75.00

Owned: A Tale of Two Americas movie screening – Houston Cinema Arts Festival

Rice Media Center Rice University Entrance #8 University and Stockton, Houston

The United States’ postwar housing policy created the world’s largest middle class. It also set America on two divergent paths—one of imagined wealth, propped up by speculations and endless booms and busts, and the other in systematically defunded, segregated communities, where “the American dream” feels hopelessly out of reach. Some ten years after the last housing collapse and well into a perceived upswing, the election of Donald Trump and urban uprisings in places like Baltimore suggest that there’s a far more fundamental problem with housing policy in America. And we haven’t even begun to ‘recover.’This documentary is a fever dream vision into the dark history behind the US housing economy. Tracking its overtly racist beginnings to its unbridled commoditization, the film exposes a foundational story few Americans understand as their own.

$12.00

This Changes Everything movie screening – Houston Cinema Arts Film Festival

Rice Media Center Rice University Entrance #8 University and Stockton, Houston

In this timely follow-up to his documentary Casting By (HCAF 2012), Tom Donahue explores the insidious and systematic sexism in Hollywood through the voices of leading actors and directors, including Geena Davis, Meryl Streep, Sandra Oh, Jessica Chastain, Shonda Rhimes, Reese Witherspoon and many other ambassadors of the #TimesUp movement. Filmmaker Maria Geise will be in attendance.

$12.00

Guidance for the Health Care Perplexed

Boomtown Coffee Downtown 300 S. Main St., Houston, TX, United States

We all know what a huge rip off our health care system is.  But aside from just the extortion level pricing, the system is rigged so well it is nearly impossible for even a prudent and well informed consumer to navigate and avoid nasty billing surprises.  Just a few examples: You make an effort to go to an in-network hospital and receive one or more out-of-network bills from doctors or other hospital staff, often for astronomical sums of money, and were given no warning of such.  You receive over a dozen different bills from one hospital stay in our fragmented system, and they keep you in limbo for months, sometimes even a year or longer, after your procedure/discharge, not knowing if you will receive another unexpected bill.  It is rare that any medical provider will disclose prices for a procedure, etc. beforehand, and often will not make clear whether or not it is covered by insurance.   Come to our gathering, vent your frustrations, and tell your horror stories, or those of a family member or friend, in dealing with the shenanigans of our health care system, and then lets discuss how we can fight back.

Free

Invisible City movie screening – Houston Cinema Arts Society

Rice Media Center Rice University Entrance #8 University and Stockton, Houston

Arguably, James Blue’s most ambitious project, this complex documentary was originally made in five one-hour episodes as an interactive public television series. The sixth episode, which summarized the series, will be screened. Blue and renowned architect Adele Santos take us on a tour of 1970s Houston, a divided city, growing in the midst of an oil boom. Skyscrapers going up, unemployment going down. One thousand new residents were arriving per week. But the filmmakers see two cities. Visible Houston is populated by well-educated citizens earning high wages with no state or income taxes. Invisible Houston, for whom the most basic city services did not exist, was inhabited by poorly educated citizens earning low wages. Blue was founder of Rice University Media Center and a leader in the movement to democratize media access and production across America, including Houston’s Southwest Alternate Media Project (SWAMP), a media arts organization founded in 1977. 

$12.00

2018 HPJC Peacemaker Awards Dinner & Auction

Crowne Plaza River Oaks 2712 Southwest Freeway, Houston, TX, United States

Please join us as we celebrate our National and Local Peacemaker Award Recipients!

Our National Peacemaker Award will be awarded to Chuck Collins, author and co-founder of Wealth for Common Good. Our Local Peacemaker Award recipients are Dr. Gerald Horne, Children's Prison Arts Project, and the Houston chapter of United We Dream.

$100

Film Screening of the Documentary “True Conviction”

University of Houston Downtown One Main Street, Houston, TX, United States

On behalf of the European Union, the German Consulate General Houston, and TCADP, you are cordially invited to attend a special screening of the documentary film, “True Conviction,” followed by a panel discussion featuring Dallas County exonerees, Christopher Scott and Steven Phillips.

Free

SOA Watch Border 2018 Encuentro

Ambos Nogales tbd, Nogales

Join indigenous communities, migrants, human rights activists, torture survivors, union workers, veterans, community organizers, faith communities, students and educators from across the Americas.  More info coming soon.  Keep an eye on http://www.soaw.org/border/

Free

2018 Houston Gaza 5K + Dabke Party

Cullen Park 19008 Saums Road, Houston

In light of the UNRWA funding crisis and the deteriorating humanitarian conditions, we're fundraising to provide emergency assistance, including employing 25 UNRWA counselors -- refugees themselves -- to provide psychosocial support to Palestine refugee children and families in the Gaza Strip who suffer from trauma due to repeated Israeli military assaults and the continued blockade.

Varies

Cracking the Codes: The System of Inequity

Dominican Sisters of Houston Spirituality Center Meeting Room 6501 Almeda Rd, Houston

The Dominican Sisters of Houston invite you to join us as we continue and deepen the conversation around race.

Free

Fall 2018 Interfaith Environmental Stewardship Event

Japhet Creek Park 4600 Clinton at Emile, Houston

Calling people of all faiths, or no faith at all, to care for our shared environment! We will perform hands-on stewardship at Japhet Creek Park in Houston. This is a great activity for youth, but all ages are welcome. Tools/supplies will be provided.

Free

Quaker Barter Fair

Live Oak Friends Meeting House 1318 W. 26th, Houston, TX, United States

Black Friday offers the challenge to BUY NOTHING!  The Quaker testimonies of Simplicity, Community and Stewardship encourage Friends to find creative ways to care for the earth and each other, and we want to extend this opportunity to others in the community.  Creating a space to practice thinking together in a new way about how we place value on objects and services within our community seems like a worthwhile way to observe the day after Thanksgiving.

Free

International Conference on Obesity and Diet Imbalance

Fairfield by Marriott Bali Legian Jl. Sri Rama No.8C Legian, Kuta, Kabupaten Badung Bali 80361, Indonesia, Bali, Indonesia

Obesity Diet 2018 is a worldwide stage to examine and find out about Weight Management, Childhood Obesity, Anti-obesity drugs, Obesity & Cancer, Genetical Obesity, Obesity and Diabetes, Advanced medications for Obesity, Health Behavior and Environment, Basic nourishment and diet, Bariatric treatment, Scientific gatherings and meetings and the field of Obesity.

$175
Event Series “Waking (Let’s Talk) News!”

“Waking (Let’s Talk) News!”

Center for the Healing of Racism 3412 Crawford Street, Houston, TX, United States

Come to the Center for the Healing of Racism and share an article with us!  Bring a bag lunch and your articles clipped from newspapers, magazines, journals or online sources - anything relating to discrimination, oppression and all forms of racism.  Join us in a lively discussion and contribute your ideas and materials to the Center’s toolkit.  We meet on the last Wednesday of each month from 12:00 to 2:00 pm.  3412 Crawford Street (corner of Holman), Houston, TX 77004.  Free parking across the street at HCC Lot 9.  RSVP: 713-520-8226 or [email protected]. Website: http://www.centerhealingracism.org/

Free. Donations encouraged. RSVP required.

All Earth is Waiting – An Advent Retreat

Cramer Retreat Center 1800 Meadow Edge Lane, Spring, TX, United States

Escape from the frenzy of the start of the “Christmas shopping season” on an intimate, 24-hour retreat in the beauty of God’s good creation at the Cramer Retreat Center in Spring.  This retreat invites you to get ready for the coming of Christ by exploring familiar Advent themes: hope, preparation, joy and peace, with the reconciliation of heaven and earth in mind. Consider how all creation longs for the coming of Christ, and how we are called to witness the Incarnation in our care of all God’s created world and all God’s creatures.  Enjoy a time of renewal, reflection, recreation, and restoration on this retreat.  The retreat is open to adults, and to youth 10+, when accompanied by an adult.

$60