Vote Smart: 2018 Facts Matter Tour

First Congregational Church of Houston 10840 Beinhorn Road, Houston, TX, United States

The Vote Smart: 2018 Facts Matter Tour will be hosted on September 9th at First Congregational Church in Houston.  This is the only Houston presentation on the national tour of this voter education program.

The Facts Matter Tour will address Voter Self-Defense strategies that help us
·       Learn how to view entertaining but dangerous political commercials that manipulate us instead of informing us
·       Take actions to defend our right to the facts, the truth, and the reality that our democracy depends on

Free

HARC People & Nature Speaker Series: Innovative Resilience Financing

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston 1001 Bissonnet, Houston

“Will we be Ready for the Next Harvey? Innovative Funding Strategies and Opportunities for Community Resilience”

On Wednesday, September 12, HARC will continue its People & Nature Speaker Series hosting an evening conversation with six national thought leaders on the topic of innovative resilience financing and the role that the public and private sectors can play to develop new community partnerships and diversified resilience funding mechanisms in Greater Houston.

Free

Special Presentation: Run Like the Devil

Museum of Fine Arts Houston 1001 Bissonnet St, , Houston

The MFAH hosts the Houston stop on the state-wide tour of this new documentary. Run Like the Devil chronicles the energetic and impassioned 2018 race for the U.S. Senate between Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas). Filmmaker Steve Mims takes a nonpartisan look at the candidates and their tireless efforts to communicate with voters across the Lone Star State. Campaign-trail interviews with Cruz and O’Rourke—interwoven with stories from political insiders including Mark McKinnon and Evan Smith—create a vivid, timely, and exhausting account of a uniquely Texan campaign.

$7 – $9

An Evening with Doug Blackmon

Memorial Drive United Methodist Church 12955 Memorial Drive, Houston

Dinner and conversation with Douglas Blackmon, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II."

$15

Houston Youth Voters Conference

Rice University 6100 Main St., Houston

The first ever Houston Youth Voters Conference will take place on Saturday, September 15th at Rice University from 9am-4pm! We will be bringing together 5 Houston-area universities: Rice, UH, UHD, TSU, and Lone Star College to talk about the importance of voting, how to vote, how to get other students on our campuses to vote, and how to mobilize around specific policy issues that we care about. You will get to hear from some awesome guest speakers about youth voting and empowerment and meet with other passionate students from all over Houston!

Free
Event Series Voter Registration Events

Voter Registration Events

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

If you are not registered to vote, or if you have moved & need to update your registration, you can do so at Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church in Houston on Sept. 9 & 16. To check if you are registered, and at what address, see https://www.hctax.net/Voter/Search. Bring your TX driver’s license, or state-issued i.d. to register. Or, if you don’t have these forms of identification, you can register using the last 4 digits of your social security number. Get ready to vote in September! Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church is located at 2353 Rice Blvd. Metro buses 41 and 27 stop nearby. For more information, contact Lisa Brenskelle at [email protected].

Free

Climate Change and Health Care

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

Come to our discussion group on how the crisis of poor health and costly health care is exacerbated by inaction on climate change, climate denial, poor air quality, fossil fuel dependence and forced car dominance, especially in low income areas and communities of color.

Free

TCEQ and Valero Public Meeting on Hydrogen Cyanide

Hartman Park 9311 E Avenue P, Houston, United States

Valero has asked the TCEQ(Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) for an increase in the level of HYDROGEN CYANIDE emissions they can release, specifically 512 tons. Valero also wants to stop tracking its BENZENE emissions reductions, makes no sense right? 

So then let's show up in solidarity with Manchester residents and tell TCEQ and Valero that we're sick(literally) of disgustingly rich corporations killing everything on the planet in their pursuit of more wealth and power. 

Children’s Art Project for the International Day of Peace 2018

For the fourth year, the Peace and Justice Network of Montgomery County, Inc. is organizing a children’s art project for the International Day of Peace. Groups of children from various organizations and churches in the county are making art pieces with peace as the theme.

The art will be displayed in several community locations including the South County, Mitchell, and Conroe public libraries, the Conroe Chamber of Commerce office, the South County Community Center, and the South County and Conroe YMCAs. Additionally, art will be exhibited in the churches and other facilities where children created it including the Oscar Johnson Community Center, the Congregation Beth Shalom in the Woodlands, the Al-Ansaar Mosque, Trinity Episcopal Church, and Children’s Books on Wheels.

Free

SAYHU First Southern Regional Summit 2018

Art League Houston 1953 Montrose Blvd, Houston

SAYHU is inviting all Southern folks interested in change, social justice, local activism and those who want to build a community.

Free

Dialogue: Racism

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

The Center for the Healing of Racism will presentDialogue: Racism, a two-day intensive workshop that educates participants about racism and facilitates the process by which they can begin to counter the effects of racism on their lives, empowering them to interrupt the cycle of racist attitudes. The workshop provides a safe, respectful and loving atmosphere for a diverse group of people to learn new information, share experiences, dispel fears and guilt, and get to know each another.

Dialogue: Racismwill be on two consecutive Saturdays, September 22 & 29 from 9 AM to 4:30 PM at 3412 Crawford Street, Houston, TX 77004.

Free. Donations appreciated. RSVP required.

Benefit Concert for Climate Change

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

The Climate Action Team of First Unitarian Universalist Church will host Traveler in a concert on Saturday, September 22, 7:30pm at the Church at 5200 Fannin.  Proceeds will be donated to Clinic Access and the Malala Fund, both of which combat climate change by helping to stabilize the population.  Traveler is a well-known three member group of local folk/rock/blues singer songwriters.

$20

Arjun Singh Sethi – AMERICAN HATE: SURVIVORS SPEAK OUT

Brazos Bookstore 2421 Bissonnet Street, Houston, TX, United States

In American Hate: Survivors Speak Out, Arjun Singh Sethi, a community activist and civil rights lawyer, chronicles the stories of individuals affected by hate. In a series of powerful, unfiltered testimonials, survivors tell their stories in their own words and describe how the bigoted rhetoric and policies of the Trump administration have intensified bullying, discrimination, and even violence toward them and their communities.

Free

EcoSocialist Neighborhood Meeting

carnegie neighborhood library 1050 Quitman, Houston

For months we've discussed a variety of campaigns that our working group could potentially take on and at last month's meeting we finally decided that our focus should be on targeting a source of carcinogens being emitted by a local company. 

No Nuclear Waste in Our Community!

True Love Baptist Church 4029 Falls St, Houston

Texas is at risk. Communities across the state are coming together, concerned about an issue that will affect our communities, our future generations, and the wonderful state we call home. We are concerned about high-level nuclear reactor waste that could come through our communities and be dumped on Texas for decades to come.

Deadly radioactive waste could come through our cities and rural lands, headed to two proposed sites. The Consolidated Interim Storage project of Waste Control Specialists (WCS) and ORANO seeks to store 40,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste in Andrews, Texas. Holtec proposes a similar high-level radioactive waste storage project for 173,000 tons of spent fuel just a short distance from Texas, across the New Mexico border.

The public comment period ends October 19th. Learn more and discuss options for action at a community meeting

Free

Climate Resilience, Civil Society and Disruptive Change

Green Building Resource Center

Learn how your spending and environmental impacts are connected, so you can save money. Develop strategies to build your personal resilience and preparedness for the future. Participants report saving an average of $2,700 per year and up to $20,000 per year. The average participant drops their electricity use by 15% and 5 tons of carbon dioxide each year.

Free

The Green Book: African-American Travel in the Jim Crow Era

The DeLuxe Theater 3303 Lyons Avenue, Houston

Under Jim Crow segregation laws, African-Americans were often met with discrimination and intimidation as they traveled across the United States. Victor Green, a black postal worker in New York, published the first Negro Motorist Green Book in 1936 as a guide to businesses that would serve African-American travelers; over the next 28 years, the annual publication helped scores of motorists find hotels, tourist homes, restaurants, barber shops, beauty parlors, service stations and taverns across the country.

Green wrote that the Green Book would not be necessary “when we as a race will have equal opportunities and privileges.” He died in 1960 and the last edition of the guide was published in 1966. By that time, the development of the national highway system had decreased the chances of discrimination against African-American motorists. The passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act made the Green Book and similar publications obsolete, just as Green had predicted.

Houstonians Toya and Reuben Levi organized the Green Book Project to document African-Americans’ experiences traveling across the U.S. under Jim Crow through photos, interviews and documentation of existing sites listed in the Green Book. The Levis will discuss the history and legacy of the Green Book, as well as some of the Houston locations listed in the guide through the years, in this illustrated lecture.

Free

Triumph of the Human Spirit: Works from Houston’s Refugee and Immigrant Artists

St. John's School Campus 2401 Claremont Lane, Houston

This event will feature artwork from local refugee and immigrant artists at the YMCA's third annual art show and auction.

Proceeds from the sale of all artwork will be shared equally between the artists and YMCA International Services, where the funds will be used to support programming.

$25

Migrant Children in Crisis – Dehumanization and Deprivation in Immigration Detention

Willow Meadows Baptist Church 4300 W Bellfort Blvd, Houston

This is an interactive community event that begins with a conversation between physicians and faith leaders. The conversation will focus on the dehumanization and deprivations of children in immigration detention, that compounds the trauma from the conditions from which they flee and the harrowing journey towards the specter of freedom that follows.

Migrant Children in Crisis – National Public Witness Event at the Border

Ursula Detention Center 3700 W Ursula Ave,, McAllen

in people of good conscience, physicians and faith leaders bringing visibility to the human rights violations of the 134,000 children detained in 2017 by immigration (we have already exceeded this number for 2018). Come as a volunteer in a caravan of cars filled with relief supplies, including bottled water (no sparkling or flavored), easy open and individual sized fruit, peanut butter, veggies, protein snacks, cereals, crackers, natural juices, bags of dry rice, canned beans/soup, and blankets. We are heading to Ursula CBP detention facility in McAllen, Texas to bear witness to a system that has for too long ignored the basic needs of migrant children in immigration detention.