Lectures & Community Dialogue

One of our primary concerns at the Veterans of Hope Project has been to make the experience and wisdom of the Veterans available to the local Denver community. In addition to our on-camera interviews, most of our guests also present public autobiographical lectures. Many also offer presentations related to the nature of their current work -- poets like Sonia Sanchez and Julia Esquivel have done public readings of their work; musicians like Bernice Johnson Reagon offer mini-concerts; artists like Tom Feelings and Nuong Van Dinh Tran have given slide-presentations of their work; ministers and organizers like Archie Hargraves, Jim Lawson and Dorothy Cotton have given talks about their faith-journey and their activist work; and indigenous spiritual healers like Valdina Pinto and Valnizia Pereira Oliveira have offered consultations and healing rituals.

We have also sponsored community dialogues around issues such as Black/Brown relations in the 21st century and slavery and resistance in the Afro-Atlantic diaspora.

A brief selection of other public lectures and community gatherings we have organized since 1997 are listed below:

Michael Simmons, director of Eastern European programs for the American Friends Service Committee, lectured on his life as an activist in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Black Power Movement, the Peace Movement and his current work on behalf of the Roma (Gypsies) of Eastern Europe.

At a luncheon in his honor following his retirement as archbishop of the diocese of Chiapas in Mexico, Dom Samuel Ruiz discussed his life as a priest and his commitment to support the Zapatista movement.

Dorothy Cotton, master community organizer and former head of citizenship education for the Southern Christian Leadership Council, discussed her life and work as an activist and teacher.

Vine Deloria, Lakota historian and legal scholar, gave a lecture on the intertwining of Christianity and Lakota spiritual traditions in his own life and in the life of his family.

Thai Buddhist lay-leader and organizer, Achaan Sulak Sivaraksa, participated in a public dialogue with Guatemalan poet and activist Julia Esquivel on the subjects of exile, religion and international human rights.

Susannah Heschel, feminist theologian and daughter of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, discussed her own faith-journey, the role of women in Judaism and the need for a more honest and critical conversation about the policies of Israel toward the Palestinians.

Anne Braden discussed her life-long work as an anti-racist organizer and her understanding of the role of churches and faith-based activists in working for social justice.

Muralist, Leo Tanguma, presented a slide lecture on African American and Chicano visual arts traditions.