The Eastern Shore Sanctuary & Education Center is pleased to announce
the publication of sanctuary cofounder pattrice jones' new book:
Aftershock
Confronting Trauma in a Violent World
A Guide for Activists and their Allies
Lantern Books
(ISBN1590561031, January 2007, 264 pages)
http://www.lanternbooks.com/detail.html?id=1590561031
Aftershock is about the real war against terror—the struggle for a
world in which nobody lives in fear of atrocities perpetrated by human
beings. Every day, people who push against violence and injustice or
pull for peace and freedom must face their own fears. Many activists
also must struggle with "aftershock," the physical and emotional
reverberations of frightening, horrifying, or otherwise traumatizing
experiences endured in the course of their activism.
This book is for aftershocked activists and their allies, as well as
for people and organizations that practice high-risk activism. It
includes practical tips for individuals, organizations, and
communities, as well as information about how traumatic events affect
our bodies and abilities.
Aftershock explores the culture of trauma that people have created
through our violent exploitation of the Earth, other animals, and one
another. As long as we continue to perpetrate such violations, we will
never fully heal our own traumatic injuries. This book, therefore, is
for survivors of all kinds of trauma, for therapists who treat trauma,
and for anyone who hopes to reduce the amount of terror in the world.
Imprisoned eco-activist Jeff "Free" Luers calls Aftershock "a light in
the dark for those of us who have dared to challenge the status quo."
We hope that you will agree with him that this is a useful book for
activists. If so, then we hope you will help to ensure that as many
activists as possible have access to it. Here are some things you can
do:
• Ask your local public or university library to carry it or, even
better, donate a copy to them.
• Ask your local independent bookstore(s) to carry it.
• Write a review for your local alternative newspaper or the newsletter
of any organization
• If you have a blog, mention and link to Aftershock.
• If you read and like the book, send a little blurb to
aftershock(at)pattricejones.info for use on the website for the book.
This will be particularly useful if there is an activist or university
affiliation by which you can be identified.
And, of course, please do share the book with any of the activists you
know who might want (or need) to read it!
More about Aftershock:
Contents:
Part I: Geography
Preface
Chapter 1: Our Animal Emotions
Our Bodies, Our Selves
Atmospheric Pressure
Talking Animals
Chapter 2: High-Risk Activists
Who We Are
What Has Been Done to Us
What We Have Seen
What We Need
Part II: Geology
Chapter 3: Aftershock
Post-traumatic Stress
Depression
Special Features of Aftershock
Chapter 4: Rescue
Sanctuary
Memory and Mourning
Connection
Making Peace
Chapter 5: Action against Fracture
Tips for Activists
Tips for Allies
Tips for Organizations
Tips for Movements
Tips for Counselors and Therapists
Tips for Communities
Part III: Ecology
Chapter 6: Trauma Culture
Overview
Causes and Consequences
Rescue
Chapter 7: Truth Against Terror
Animals Are Us
We Are in and of the World
We Are Not Alone
Afterword
(ISBN1590561031, January 2007, 264 pages)
http://www.lanternbooks.com/detail.html?id=1590561031
About the Author... In 1976, at the age of 15, pattrice jones quit
eating meat and flung herself into the young movement for gay
liberation. As an activist in a variety of movements since then, she
has organized rent strikes, kiss-ins, and an assortment of unlikely
coalitions. As a psychotherapist, she studied and worked to repair the
repercussions of many kinds of trauma, including sexual and domestic
violence. As a college instructor she has taught courses in psychology,
public speaking, and social change. She speaks and writes about the
links among racism, sexism, speciesism, class exploitation, and
environmental despoilation from an ecofeminist perspective. She lives
in rural Maryland, where she coordinates the Eastern Shore Sanctuary
and Education Center and teaches at the University of Maryland Eastern
Shore.
Aftershock
The Eastern Shore Sanctuary is pleased to announce the publication of
Aftershock: Confronting Trauma in a Violent World: A Guide for
Activists and Their Allies by sanctuary cofounder pattrice jones.
The book is a practical guide for activists who encounter unsettling
experiences in the course of their work. The book also explores the
culture of trauma that people have created through our violent
exploitation of the earth and other animals. It includes practical tips
for activists, friends and relatives of activists, organizations,
communities, and therapists as well as several thought-provoking
chapters that show how problems like war and global warming are rooted
in the traumatic rupture between people and the rest of the natural
world.
To learn more about the book, visit:
http://aftershock.pattricejones.info
The book is rooted in pattrice's experiences as an activist, including
the years that she has spent working with the birds at the Eastern
Shore Sanctuary. She asks sanctuary supporters to help her spread the
word about the book to other activists and also to ask their local
libraries and bookstores to carry it.
Strange Bird
Traffic's been pretty heavy here on Reading Ferry Road in rural
Maryland because a tropical kingbird was spotted nesting in a nearby
field. From what we hear, this is only the second time this bird has
been seen nesting this far north. It's interesting to watch the
bird-watchers riding slowly up the road, evidently unaware that the
fumes from their SUVs are responsible for the global warming
Not that we dislike bird-watchers. Most try to avoid disturbing birds
and many participate in conservation activities. And, their kind of
"hunting" is certainly preferable to the murderous rampages
But, still, we can't help but wonder how many of these bird watchers go
home and eat the wings of birds for dinner, never asking themselves
what -- exactly -- makes one kind of bird more worthy of respect than
another. Is it really so different than considering one race of person
inherently more valuable than another? Isn't the habit of venerating
"wild" birds while denigrating "domesticated" birds similar to the
mentality that led colonial Americans to assign negative stereotypes to
enslaved Africans and to have romantic ideas about Native Americans,
even as they displaced and destroyed the communities of the original
inhabitants of these lands?
Upcoming Events
Such questions will be asked at the upcoming United Poultry Concerns
Forum entitled "Inadmissible Comparisons," at which sanctuary cofounder
pattrice jones will be speaking. The annual UPC conferences are always
extremely thought-provoking and this year's event promises to be even
more so, with speakers from both within and without the animal advocacy
movement address the controversial question of comparisons between
human and animal exploitation and liberation. Other speakers include
UPC President Karen Davis, Anarchist Panther Ashanti Alston, feminist
and antiracist activist Andrea Smith, and authors Carol Adams, Charles
Patterson, and Roberta Kalechofsky.
The conference will be held in New York City on 24-25 March. For more
information, visit:
http://www.upc-online.org/Forums/120306forum.html
Crazy Days
It feels like spring almost every day, which is nice for the "broiler"
chickens but unsettling for the people who worry about climate change.
Last year at this time, we announced that our New Year's Resolution was
to do more about global warming. This year, our New Year's Resolution
is exactly the same.
We hope that all of our supporters also will vow to do more about
climate change in 2007.
For ideas, check out our web page on the subject:
http://www.bravebirds.org/heat.html
Sanctuary Update
There have been some changes at the sanctuary lately. Cofounder
pattrice jones still lives here all the time and takes care of the
birds most days. Cofounder Miriam Jones lives here for part of every
week and takes care of the birds on those days. She also covers the
sanctuary whenever pattrice goes away for speaking engagements,
sanctuary business or just to get "off the farm" for a few days.
(Miriam doesn't get nearly enough credit for her behind-the-scenes
work, by the way, or for the money that she pitches in whenever the
sanctuary bank account dips too low.) Helper Christopher Wood comes on
Saturdays to help out with heavy labor. We're hoping to raise the funds
to pay him to come more often because he's great with the birds and
very creative at solving maintenance problems. The birds are doing well
but the grounds look like they always do at this time of year: Too
muddy! We are all looking forward to real spring, when we can get the
foraging yards reseeded and make some other improvements to the
grounds.
Eastern Shore Sanctuary & Education Center
13981 Reading Ferry
Princess Anne, MD 21853 USA
410-651-4934
http://www.bravebirds.org
