Cheri Honkala and Son
Mark Webber Speak
Friday, March 19
7:00 PM
Tattered Cover Bookstore
(Historic Lodo)
1628 16th St, Denver
$10-$20 suggested donation

For the first time ever America’s leading organizer for the poor and homeless Cheri Honkala will be sharing the stage with her son, writer/director/actor Mark Webber speaking of their personal experiences living in poverty while often homeless, living in cars and abandoned buildings.

Cheri Honkala has been called the most endangered activist in America and has been arrested over 200 times for demonstrating, committing civil disobedience, and organizing for the human rights of America’s poor and homeless. For over 30 years she has been setting up tent cities, planning housing takeovers of vacant government buildings, leading marches and caravans, educating poor people about their rights, and giving talks on poverty in America. As a single formerly homeless mother she speaks with authenticity from her direct experience. She offers a vital perspective on the issues of poverty that you don’t hear from politicians, administrators, or even academics.

Mark Webber is Cheri’s son. He grew up in poverty in Minneapolis and the slums of North Philly. He learned to act while in school and pretending to his classmates and teachers that he wasn’t poor and homeless. As a teenager Mark began acting in movies and in 2000 he was cast in the film Snow Day starring Chevy Chase and Chris Elliot. Since then Mark has appeared in dozens of films with such notable actors as Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Peter Fonda, Bill Murray, and Woody Allen.

The Most Endangered
Activist in America
Cheri Honkala
Thursday, March 18
7:00 PM
Mercury Cafe
2199 California St, Denver
$10-$20 suggested donation
for the Poor People’s Economic
Human Rights Campaign’s
“March to fulfill the Dream”

She has been called the most endangered activist in America. Cheri Honkala has been arrested over 200 times while demonstrating, committing civil disobedience and organizing for the human rights of America’s poor and homeless.

Cheri has lived on the streets as a single mother and knows intimately the daily struggles to obtain the most basic of necessities when your poor and homeless. Cheri will be talking about her life as a frontline activist for the poor as well as the upcoming “March to Fulfill the Dream”, a multi-racial march and caravan led primarily by poor and homeless, which will begin on April 4th in New Orleans and end on July 22 in Detroit. The march will be a continuation of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s last dream of a world without poverty.

Heart of Time
(Corazón del tiempo)
followed by a Q&A with
author/activist John Ross
Saturday, March 6
7:00 PM
Mercury Cafe
2199 California St, Denver
$5-$10 suggested donation

In the picturesque Chiapas mountains, amidst a Zapatista village populated by free Indigenous Mayans, a beautiful young woman, Sonia, is coming of age. She is betrothed in the traditional manner to Miguel, a valuable young community leader she has known since childhood. Her future seems set until one day, as she meanders along a jungle path, she finds herself staring into the eyes of a handsome rebel fighter, Lieutenant Julio, and falls deeply in love. Sonia’s revolution of the heart threatens the wills and convictions of everyone around her and puts the security of her community, and the entire insurgent army, in danger.So begins director Alberto Cortés’s extraordinary film, Heart of Time, a rare and intimate look into the heart of the Zapatista revolution in Chiapas, Mexico. Cortes crafts a unique approach to storytelling—a confident mix of romantic drama, Greek chorus, and political intrigue—to relate a multifaceted tale of an epic liberation struggle that spans centuries, from the age of slavery to today’s era of digital media. As Cortés depicts, with striking authenticity, a community that is constantly reinventing the rules of tradition and revolution, he also reveals that the roots of struggle for political freedom are ultimately born out of the tangle of desires to live with a free heart.

Following the film will be a Q&A with activist, poet, and independent journalist John Ross.

John Ross broke the story of the Zapatista rebellion in oct 1993 weeks before the uprising was launched on jan 1st 1994 in the first hour of the north american free trade agreement - he has written four books on the Zapatistas. among them rebellion from the roots which won an american book award and has accompanied this unique movement for the past 16 years - ross is on a coast to coast book tour with his latest cult classic “El Monstruo - Dread and Redemption in Mexico City” (”pulsating and gritty” - New York Post)

Ruins from the Rust Belt
Detroit Images
by Ric Urrutia
Thursday, December 3
7:00 PM
Mercury Cafe
2199 California St, Denver
$5 suggested donation
or 1 hour volunteer

Denver photographer/musician/labor activist, Ric Urrutia will by sharing his photography work from within Detroit’s abandoned buildings.  Intriguing, beautiful, infuriating, and inspiring, Detroit’s abandoned buildings are fossils of a once thriving industrial metropolis.  Conveniently overlooked by even the mainstream media, Detroit begs questions of our approaches to social justice and the wisdom of the free market system.

The event will also include some live acoustic music by members of Debajo del Aqua, which Ric is a member.

After Ric’s presentation we will be joined by coordinators from Emergency USA, which provides free-of-charge, high quality medical and surgical treatment to the civilian victims of war, landmines and poverty. This will be your opportunity to learn about this amazing organization and how you can get involved.

ArgusFest 6th Annual
Fair Trade Holiday Bazaar
w/ Art, Music, & Culture to
Help End Poverty
Sunday, December 6
1:00 to 4:30 PM
Mercury Cafe
2199 California St, Denver

Do your holiday shopping with a clean conscience. Join ArgusFest at our 6th Annual Fair Trade Holiday Bazaar.

The event will feature vendors offering fair trade gifts, many of which whose sales help support organizations working to reduce conditions of poverty. Throughout the day we will feature live music, film, poetry, and education about poverty issues.

Vendors include:

- Cruelty Free World

- Emergency USA

- People of Hope Crafts

- Ladies Sewing Circle

- Bread and Roses Workers’ Cultural Center

- Bead for Life

- Pachyderm Power

- and more…

If you are interested in becoming a vendor please contact Jason Bosch at 303-669-7286.

More details coming soon…

Religion & Human Rights
Friday, October 16
6:00 PM
Flobots.org Community Collective
2705 Larimer St, Denver
$5 suggested donation or 1 hour volunteer

Religion has been used to justify countless crimes against humanity and yet it has also acted as a catalyst for incredible sacrifice by believers in the service of humanity. Tonight ArgusFest hosts a lively discussion between Robert Jensen (author of “All My Bone’s Shake“) and David Eller (Author of “Natural Atheism“) about the role religion has played in both the promotion of human rights as well as human rights abuse. This will not be a discussion about whether or not God exists but rather the outcomes resulting from people’s belief in God.

Art, Music, & Culture to
Help End Poverty
& 6th Annual Fair
Trade Holiday Bazaar
Sunday, December 6
1:00 PM
Mercury Cafe
2199 California St, Denver

Calling all artists, musicians & creative people who support economic justice!

In cooperation with the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, ArgusFest is helping to coordinate music and cultural support in Denver and Boulder around the upcoming “March to Fulfill the Dream”. This historic poor people’s march will travel from the Katrina-torn Gulf through the Mississippi Delta and on through the Rust Belt culminating in Detroit at the 2010 US Social Forum.

Today, America is facing unprecedented economic decline. Not since the Great Depression have so many people been facing poverty and homelessness. Cheri Honkala of the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign notes that many once middle class people have now lost their financial security and are only one paycheck away from living on the streets and the situation is expected to get worse. It is not hopeless though. People are educating themselves about how we got to this place and how we can move forward towards economic justice.

We are calling on artists, musicians, poets, and performers who wish to learn more about the fastest growing social movement in America today and get culturally involved.

Gilad Atzmon:
The Primacy of the Ear
The Road from Music Ethics
Thursday, June 4
7:00 PM
Mercury Cafe
2199 California St, Denver
Sliding scale donation
pay what you can
(no one turned away)

Cheri Honkala
Housing Takeover’s for Survival
Thursday, July 30
6PM Reception
7PM Talk
Flobots.org Community Collective
2705 Larimer St, Denver
Sliding scale donation
$5-$20 suggested
(no one turned away)

She has been called the most endagered activist in America.

ArgusFest is will host homeless rights activist Cheri Honkala giving a talk on the growing housing takeover movement in America.

Big hearted boldness comes to Denver through the voice of Cheri Honkala…

Robert Jensen
Understanding the Root of Priviledge - Beyond Race, Gender and Class
Boulder Public Library
Satruday, May 30
1:00 PM

Many corporate, governmental, and educational institutions in the contemporary United States articulate a commitment to diversity and multiculturalism. The discussion of race, gender, and class has been institutionalized in many of these institutional settings. Such changes signal progress, but do they indicate that U.S. society has made a serious commitment to a more just distribution of wealth and power? Has this multicultural moment led to an ongoing critique of the deeper systems of authority in the culture?

Using the concept of privilege in race, gender, and class, Jensen will raise questions about systems and structures of power that can allow us to go beyond polite “diversity talk” to discuss what would be needed to transform our society and promote justice and sustainability. Any serious effort toward those goals must confront the structures of power in the contemporary United States that produce such profound inequality.