Ráday Salon

An anniversary of principle and conscience

Michael Simmons delivering a speech at a rally of the Citizens Against the Far Right Movement in Hungary, protesting against planned neo-nazi demonstrations on August 15, 2009.  Credit for the beautiful photo goes to our good friend JD.

Today, September 4, 2009, marks a 40 year anniversary in a life devoted to fighting for human rights.  On September 4, 1969, Michael Simmons began a 30-month prison sentence for his conscientious objection to the Vietnam War. As a Black American, Michael faced a longer prison sentence than white conscientious objectors, because not only did he express a personal opposition to the war in Vietnam, he also fought hard against the oppression of Black Americans in the United States, and actively organized African American opposition against the war.

On this important anniversary, I invite Ráday Salon friends and fans to join me in commemorating Michael's commitment and courage

-- Linda

• Read an interview with Michael about his conscientious objection: "A Black Man Fights the Draft", Objector Magazine, published by the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors, 2003.

Whoopi Goldberg's message to Hungary in support of Budapest Pride 2009

This week is Pride week in Budapest. The festival hosts film screenings and discussions during the week and will culminate in a march this Saturday. For more information on events, check out the Budapest Pride 2009 website. (Link goes to English version, but a Hungarian version is also available - just look for the Hungarian flag.)

Although the Budapest Pride march was once a fun-filled event, in the last two years it has become the focus of violent extremists, and will be carried on this year (as last year) under heavy police protection. To learn more about the history of the Pride march, and to see videos of attacks on last year's pride march, click the "continue reading" link below.

Citizens Against the Far Right in Budapest

This year, a number of neo-Nazi organizations had planned a demonstration in Budapest for August 15, to mark the death of Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess. In response, a large coalition of groups planned a "Day of Peaceful Protest against the Far Right". With a week to go, the Budapest police officially banned the neo-Nazi demonstrations, but the Peaceful Protest events still went on.

The Peaceful Protest events were organized by a group called the "Civelek a Szélsőjobb Ellen" Mozgalom (or the Citizens Against the Far Right Movement). The movement is an umbrella group of over 50 civil society organization including anti-Fascists, Jewish organizations, Roma organizations, gay rights groups, green organizations and humanists. The day included music, information tents, and short speeches -- including the one above by Michael.

You can read more (in Hungarian and English) about the day's events on the website linked above or here in PDF (English text near the end).  Also, our friend JD, as usual, is on the case:  You can find audio (Hungarian) and photos of more of the day's speeches on his blog at http://lmv.hu/redjade.

UPDATE - 3 Sept 09:

After we updated the video above to our blog, Michael's daughter Aishah posted it on her own facebook page. Later, Aishah wrote to Michael to share a comment she had received on the video from a friend on facebook:

Very cool to make the connections between history & contemporary issues, but odd to speak out against Neo-Nazis in Eastern Europe without once mentioning Jews or antisemitism ("Roma, lesbian, gay man, African Muslim..." "racism, sexism, xenophobia Romaphobia"), especially since the far right he speaks against continue to include Jews as targets alongside the ethnic, racial and religious groups listed.

Aishah's friend was not the first to raise this point. Michael sent the following response to Aishah, who posted it it for her friend.

(Aishah), she is absolutely right. Most of the speech was done while I was speaking and I only had a couple of notes. In fact, I significantly changed my speech right before I spoke because I did not want to just repeat what others had been saying. However, as soon as I left the stage I realized my error--and it was an error.

This is not an excuse but I may have been the only speaker, out of at least 10, who did not mention antisemitism but also the only speaker who mentioned Muslims, LGBT, and Black and Asian folks. This does not excuse my personal omission but please assure your friend that antisemitism was well addressed at the rally.

-- Dad

For those who may be interested, here is some further reading on the attempted neo-Nazi demonstrations:

• A rendőrség megtiltotta a neonáci emlékmenetet. Index.hu 12 Aug 2009 (Hungarian)
• Hungary police ban neo-Nazi marches. UPI.com 12 Aug 2009 (English)
• Neo-Nazis banned from marching in Budapest. Expatica.com 13 Aug 2009 (English)

Soul School International Women's Day 2009 episode

As we mentioned at our most recent Salon, Michael dedicated the March 8th episode of Soul School to International Women's Day, and featured a specially selected playlist in honor of the occasion.

We've uploaded the audio files of that show for those who would like to listen.  The episode is available in two parts, which you can find by clicking the links below.

Enjoy!

• Soul School International Women's Day Show - part 1
• Soul School International Women's Day Show - part 2

Human Rights Workshop and Screening of NO!

On Friday, March 27, Michael will be presenting a series of events as part of the Saluting Women's History Month program at the new American Corner at Corvinus University. The program includes a workshop on human rights, as well as a screening of Aishah Shahidah Simmons' groundbreaking documentary NO!. Our long-time guests will be well familiar with NO!, but if you are new to us and would like to know more about the film, you can find a wealth of information both on our website, and on the film website at http://notherapedocumentary.org/. The Saluting Women's History Month events at the American Corner are free and open to the public, but as space is limited, registration is required. For more information, including instructions on how to register, visit the American Corner events page.

NO! The Rape Documentary screening at Central European University this Tuesday

This Tuesday, as part of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, the Human Rights Initiative at Central European University will be screening the award-winning documentary, NO! The Rape Documentary by Michael's daughter, Aishah Shahidah Simmons.

Eleven years in the making, NO! explores the international reality of rape and other forms of sexual assault through the first person testimonies, scholarship, spirituality, activism and cultural work of African Americans. Since its official release in 2006, NO! has been screened and distributed to racially and ethnically diverse audiences at film festivals, community centers, colleges/universities, high schools, correctional facilities, rape crisis centers, battered women shelters and conferences throughout the United States, France, Spain, Rwanda, Kenya, Nepal, South Africa, Jordan, Burkina Faso, Peru and Mexico.

The screening will be followed by a discussion/question-and-answer period hosted by our own Michael Simmons, who served as Creative Adviser on the film.

**Please remember, the location for this event is NOT our Salon, but rather Central European University.**

Join us Tuesday, December 9, for the screening of NO! at Central European Unversity:
Time: 6:15pm
Location: Bp. V., Nador utca 9

For much more on the film, you can read posts on our blog related to previous screenings at the Raday Salon or visit the film website at http://notherapedocumentary.org/ .

Facebook users:  join the NO! screening on Facebook here!

As for our next official Salon event, it will be held Thursday, December 18th,so save the date!  More details coming soon....

Expat Interview with Michael on Funzine

Earlier this month, Michael was profiled in the "Living in Budapest" section of the Budapest Funzine. His interview appeared in the Nov. 6 - 19, 2008 issue of the magazine, but if you missed it, it's also available on the Funzine website.  Click below to read the whole interview.

Michael on Swedish Radio for Martin Luther King commemoration

This year marked the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, 1968.  On April 4 of this year, Michael was interviewed for Swedish radio on a program to commemorate the anniversary.  In the brief (approx. 4 min) program, Michael discusses racism in the US and shares his impression of the situation of Afroswedes in Sweden.

Click the player below to listen to the audio. (The show can also be accessed directly online, as well, for those willing and/or able to navigate the Swedish pages. Michael's interview is about halfway down the page.) 

Although the announcer discusses Michael's remarks in Swedish, his comments are left audible in English.

Summer 2008 update - lots of activities

Greetings to our Salon friends, old and new.

As many of you already know, the Raday Salon went into an unofficial, unexpected state of hibernation for many months last year, when Linda's brother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  This was the beginning of quite a difficult year for us. Sadly, Linda's brother passed away in October of 2007. Linda and Michael spent most of 2007 and part of 2008 in the US, where our main focus was spending time with our families.

Since we returned to Budapest this spring, we have gradually been getting back into our activities here and in the region.  Michael hosted two Salons when he first returned to Budapest, and we are looking forward to starting things up again once the summer holiday season is past. In the meantime have been fairly busy with various human rights related projects. Since it has been a while since we've posted, we thought it might be nice to give you all a quick update of what we've been up to lately. 

We have lots of exciting things to share with you all, even before we get to our next Salon.  We'll be posting items and photos about all these activities and more on the blog in the days and weeks to come.  But just to give you all the quick overview, so far this year:

• The Salon had two showings in March and April of the movie NO! to mark International Women's Day/Women's History Month, with about 75 people attending altogether.
• In March, Michael was one of the two facilitators of a training workshop on organizing human rights campaigns, hosted by the Human Rights Students Initiative (HRSI) at the Central European University (CEU).
• Also in March, Michael traveled to Sweden under the auspices of the Swedish Ombudsman office and gave a training for Afroswedes on developing anti-racism programs.
• Michael also did an interview for Swedish public radio on Martin Luther King.
• In April, Michael participated in another event hosted by HRSI, commemorating the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., 40 years ago. Michael showed an episode of the excellent American Civil Rights Movement documentary Eyes on the Prize, followed with presentation and discussion.
• In May, we had a visit from a filmmaker friend of ours, Gail Lloyd, who shared an excerpt of a film project she worked on with a group of US soldiers returned from the war in Iraq who are now protesting the war.
• Also for the third year, Linda served as a coach for HRSI's annual Moot Court activity for CEU students.
• In June, we were guests of the Budapest radio show Legal Alien, which airs on Radiocafe 98.6, where we discussed our Salon, our human rights work, and Roma rights issues.

• 
  Roma Summer Workshop participants

  In July, we hosted a vibrant group of young Romani activists from around the region for a special screening of an episode of Eyes on the Prize. The activity was a part of the European Roma Rights Centre Summer Workshop for Romani Activists, led by ERRC Director for Human Rights Education, Larry Oloomofe
  
• That same weekend, we also participated in the Budapest Gay Pride parade. As most of you know, the parade was only able to go on with police escort, and was attacked by violent extremists -- the Pride marchers were under seige for several hours.
  

• 
  Michael & Linda leading workshop

  And we recently returned from Transylvania, where we served as facilitators for an 8-day youth training on minority rights, diversity, and tolerance, hosted by the Civic Engagement Movement, a Marosvasarhely/Tirgu Mures NGO. We also gave presentations to two other groups (members of a Mures County Community Development Training Course, and the Magyar Erdelyi Ifjak group) on youth activism and community organizing.
• Lastly, just this week, Michael participated in a special roundtable discussion on the crisis in Darfur, held at the Sziget music festival here in Budapest.

And, the big news is that we'll have two special guests on hand in September. For those of you long-time friends of the Salon, you'll be familiar with the documentary film NO!, which we have screened on several occasions over the years. It is our great pleasure to share with you that the filmmaker herself, Aishah Shahidah Simmons (Michael's daughter) will be paying us a visit in September, so we will plan to have a special screening, complete with Director Q-&-A, while she is here. Also coming with Aishah is her partner Monica Dillon, a jazz pianist, vocalist, composer and performer. We are currently trying to arrange performance opportunities for Monica as well. (If any of you have any relevant contacts or ideas on that score, please do contact us.)

One more piece of news we have for you, not directly related to the Salon, is that there will soon be an new voice on the Budapest radio scene. In a project that grew out of our appearance on the Legal Alien radio show, Michael will soon be hosting a new soul music show on Radiocafe 98.6. The station aired a preview of the show on August 5th, and the response has been extremely positive. The new hour-long show, which is expected to begin in September, is currently titled "Soul School" and will air once a week on Radiocafe. Once we have all the details, we, of course, will let you all know when you can listen in.

We will be having our first events of the new "season" in September, and will send out detailed invitations as we get closer to the date. In the meantime, we hope everyone's doing well and enjoying the summer.

To keep up to date on Salon events ensure you get all our invitations, don't forget to join the Raday Salon mailing list.

Welcome Radio Cafe listeners!

On Tuesday, June 3, Michael and Linda were guests on the Legal Alien program of Radiocafé 98.6 here in Budapest. Legal Alien is a weekly English language show that focuses on expat life and features interviews with English-speaking expats about their lives here, their work, and their impressions of their host country. We hope to have audio of the interview soon, so that if you missed it, you can listen on the web right here on the Salon blog. :o)

If you've just learned about us from Legal Alien, welcome! We invite you to browse through our website to learn more about the Ráday Salon. On the left hand menu you will find general information about the Salon and its hosts, and on the right hand side, you can click the links to read more about some of the topics we have addressed in our Salon evenings over the years. Or, you can just read down the front page to see what we've been up to recently. To be notified of upcoming events, you can join our mailing list.

At the end of the Legal Alien program this Tuesday, we played a favorite song of ours: Ella's Song, by the African-American acappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock. It was written by Bernice Johnson Reagon, the foremost singing voice of the African American Civil Rights movement. The lyrics are based on the life and writings of Ella Jo Baker, the intellectual and spiritual mentor of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The song, which speaks of the need to keep struggling against injustice, is  rooted in the fight against racism in the US, but it could just as well be addressing the oppression of Roma in Europe. If you'd like to hear the song again, you can use the player below. (Lyrics available here.) The song itself can be downloaded in mp3 format (for $0.99 USD) at Amazon.com.

More information on the Legal Alien show can be found on the Radiocafé 98.6 website here (top half of page in Hungarian; scroll down for English). Legal Alien airs every Tuesday night from 8-9pm -- tune in!  If you would like to listen online, instructions are here (scroll down for English).