Highlander has an opening for a farm intern, to work on our 180-acre farm in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains in East Tennessee. The internship will run from August through November 2009.

The intern’s primary responsibilities will include helping with the following:

• Picking fruit in our 500-tree apple and peach orchard.
• Transporting apples and peaches to local farmers markets and staffing the Highlander table at these markets.
• Care of orchard after growing season, including pruning.
• Assisting in general maintenance of the Highlander farm.

Other activities will include greeting guests, helping to lead tours of Highlander’s farm, and participating in a Board/staff committee that is developing a long-term vision and plan for Highlander’s land and facilities.

For more information, visit www.highlandercenter.org/n-farm-internship.asp.

The New Freedom Schools
Literacy and Social Change

August 7-9, 2009
Highlander Research and Education Center
New Market, Tennessee

On August 7-9, Highlander will help host a gathering of people who want to talk about literacy work (broadly defined) and social change. This gathering will bring together people working in literacy, ESL and popular education from around the U.S. (and maybe from other countries) to share experiences from many geographic areas in teaching civic literacy for social change. This would include reports from regions of the United States, as well as international work in literacy campaigns and popular education. We want to also learn from campaigns in Brazil, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia and other countries that have symbolically and politically served to increase democratic participation and social change.

U.S. history, including the citizenship and freedom schools, offers rich history of educational experience in voting rights connected to literacy. Local efforts with immigrants in ESL/Civic Literacy classes and workshops, as well as many examples of adult student leadership development and basic rights education can provide the basis for a growing dialogue on literacy and social change.

This workshop could help to stir up a national discussion for a U.S. campaign to end illiteracy and to develop massive civic literacy programs. Many people have already expressed an interest in such a workshop and Highlander’s history could greatly aid this process.

The workshop will be held August 7-9 of 2009 at the Highlander Center in New Market, TN. We will start Friday Night to music and welcomes and the workshop will continue until Sunday at lunch. We want to have time to learn, time to analyze, share ideas and strategies and time to think about next steps.

The cost for this 2-1/2 day workshop is $350, which includes room and board. We will have limited scholarships available for people with limited means who are actively engaged in literacy for social change. Childcare can be provided.

A flyer and application form for the event are available here (PDF, 18kb).

For more information, contact: David Green, eagle3372 (at) msn.com, 718-964-8099 or Susan Williams swilliams (at) highlandercenter.org; 865-933-3443 ext. 229

Highlander is pleased to announce the publication of “Building Immigrant Leaders in the South: INDELI 2004-06,” the final report of our immigrant leadership institute.

From October 2004 to October 2006, Highlander implemented the Institute for Immigrant Leadership Development (Instituto para el Desarrollo del Liderazgo Inmigrante, or INDELI, in Spanish) to promote and support the effort of Latin@ immigrant organizing in the Southeast through leadership development, political education and strengthening immigrant-led grassroots organizations.

This report describes and evaluates INDELI, provides feedback from participants and offers some recommendations and best practices for those wishing to implement similar programs.

Among the most compelling parts of the report are the voices of the participants, testifying to the impact of INDELI on their lives and work.

[Through INDELI I got] confidence in myself and the ability to say yes, I can do it or I can work in an organization… and to be a good popular organizer because I remember that I used to say that I wasn’t a leader organizer but thanks to INDELI . . . I am.

My idea [was] that if people get organized it was because of a professional who knew how to do it . . . someone from above who is giving orders to someone else to do something. . . . But little by little my idea changed . . . [organizing] became very familiar . . . and I think we can do it.

I learned that in this you have to struggle, you have to struggle in this life . . . if you don’t struggle you don’t win. That you have to unite, being united is the most important . . . that’s what I learned from Highlander.

I learned to love myself, personally. I learned to respect myself and to respect the differences among others and to tolerate more things than I did before. I also learned that as human beings one has rights, which I didn’t know before. I thought that by being in this country… I didn’t deserve anything. Because that’s the way things were. But now I realize that it’s different.

The report is available for download on the Highlander website at here

On March 12, 2009, Highlander staff member Susan Williams travelled to Asheville, NC, to facilitate a class on globalization. The class, held in a multi-racial neighborhood, was the second in a series of gatherings to talk about the economy. Participants included Ukrainians, Latin Americans, and African Americans, requiring three-way interpretation in Russian, Spanish, and English.

The group talked about globalization by exploring examples from their own experiences. During the discussion for example, participants looked at the labels in their shirts and talked about how the textile and apparel plants used to be such an important industry in North Carolina. One woman had even worked at one of these plants years ago before it closed and moved. Participants also talked about what’s happening to people they know – lots of reduced hours, some lay-offs, a family who had moved to the apartment from a three-bedroom home because they couldn’t afford it – and connected this with what is happening in the economy.

Finally, the group talked about what could be done – including planting a potato garden in the neighborhood, developing more relationships so that people would smile and wave at one another, and sharing information about jobs. They also talked about socialism, and one woman mentioned that she had 1-1/2 years of support in Russia when she had her baby. “You know,” she said, “socialism wasn’t all bad!”

The class was organized by staff from two western North Carolina groups that have participated in Highlander programs: Just Econmics, which attended the Solidarity Economy meeting at Highlander in 2008, and Nuestro Centro, which is participating in the THREADS multi-racial organizing and leadership development institute. Altogether, it was an amazing experience – and a good reminder of how much a group of people know if you let them talk.

Highlander staff member Susan Williams – coordinator of our Education Team and our Library/Resource Center – was one of the keynote speakers at the eighth annual California Association of Freirean Educators (CAFE) conference in Los Angeles on May 9th.

In addition to the keynote address, Susan presented Highlander’s 75th anniversary DVD, talked about popular education, and facilitated our “living history” exercise, an interactive introduction to Highlander’s history. She also attended a number of interesting workshops, including a session with participants from the Instituto de Educcacion Popular del Sur de California, who are organizing day laborers. One interesting thing they are doing is using cell phones to document people’s stories at day laborer centers, on busses and at workplaces.

CAFÉ’s goal is to open up dialogue around the themes of education and social justice in and outside of our classrooms. The conference was sponsored by the Paulo Freire Institute at UCLA in collaboration with Los Angeles Trade-Technical College (LATTC) and held at the Los Angeles Trade-Technical College on May 9-10. It was attended by students and teachers from around California and representatives from community groups in L.A.