Spring Critical Issues Series – March 5 and 12, 2024 Hybrid: In person and on Zoom

Spring Critical Issues Series – March 5 and 12, 2024

Hybrid: In person and on Zoom

Hollander 240

Zoom: Meeting ID: 996 5542 5805, Passcode: 615246

 

Co sponsored by the Chaplain’s Office’s Protestant Chaplaincy and Interfaith Council Steering Committee. For more information please contact Rev. Valerie at vb7 or 413-517-5364. The program for February 27 has been postponed and will occur March 12.

 

March 5

A Conversation about learning how to talk across differences: with Peter Pierson, ‘73 7:00 – 9 p.m. Hollander 240.

Braver Angels is a civic renewal initiative founded in the aftermath of the 2016 election cycle. Our aim is to provide a healthy context for rigorous and respectful engagement across our national landscape. Our interactive workshop will have three goals: examine our personal places of polarization, learn and practice critical depolarizing skills, and explore ways to become personally engaged with Braver Angels type efforts. Peter Pierson, who lives in nearby Grafton, NY,  is a 1973 graduate, and father of a 2000 graduate, of Williams. Peter is actively involved with Braver Angels locally and nationally as a Moderator, Ambassador and member of a local Alliance.

March 12, (previously schedule for February 27)

“Hear Me” A documentary on gun violence in Berkshire County. Speaker with filmmaker Jenny Herzog: 7-9 p.m. Hollander 240.

The tragedies of the school shootings of Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland and Ulvalde have captured our attention and grief over gun violence. Hear Me challenges us to redirect our attention to how gun violence is a daily threat to youth in Berkshire Country.

Hear Me is a new documentary featuring seven young people (ages 10-23) from Berkshire County who have been impacted by gun violence. We explore underlying root causes, health disparities, stories of impact, and a way forward–through the stories of experts. 

The cast of Hear Me has been impacted by community violence: street affiliation/gang violence, intergenerational trauma, and the criminal justice system. In our film they are the experts–on their lives, and on the root causes of gun violence. In the news, we see reports on mass shootings, urban street violence, and political debates on the proliferation of firearms in America; and yet gun violence often feels like it happens elsewhere. Our cast reminds us that gun violence is happening in every community–even Berkshire County. Directed by Dave Simonds, Produced by Jenny Herzog