Join Healing Racism in Anchorage (HRA) in welcoming renowned anti-bullying/anti-violence speaker and youth violent expert Brent Scarpo for his award-winning film Journey to a Hate-Free Millenium, a one-day workshop, and other events aimed at addressing bullying, violence,and racism. HRA is also offering a five-week course on building alliances to end racism in Anchorage.

Healing Racism in Anchorage steering committee member Steve Aufrecht wrote about Brent Scarpo recently on his blog What Do I Know? —

Brent was the casting director of The Shawshank Redemption (and other movies like That Thing You Do, Air Force One, and Matilda).  Then he decided he wanted to make his own films and work on eradicating hate….

Brent has taken this so seriously, he dropped out of his successful Hollywood career so that he could concentrate on doing his part to help free people from hate and fear.

See Steve’s second post about Scarpo too: it includes a video of a Skype conversation the two held, in which Scarpo described a chance phone call from a college student that changed the direction of his life.

Scarpo’s focus now is on transforming people so they can deal with and de-fuse hate — particularly in the form of bullying, whether motivated by racism, sexism, homophobia, or other reasons.

Journey to a Hate Free Millenium is an award-winning documentary film which looks at the subject of hate and bullying as seen through the stories of the Columbine High School student shootings, the dragging death of African-American, James Byrd Jr from Jasper, Texas, and the murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard.

Scarpo’s presentation of the film kicks off a series of events sponsored by Healing Racism in Anchorage during Scarpo’s visit and continuing through December.  On Tuesday, November 8, Scarpo will conduct a “Train the Trainers” workshop on addressing racism and hate, and he’ll also be speaking at a number of local community organizations, schools and businesses, discussing the origins of interpersonal hatred and how individuals can affect change in our community.

Healing Racism in Anchorage is also offering a five-week course, Building Alliances to End Racism, which is available for credit.  The course begins Thursday, November 10 at and runs every Thursday through December 15 (except for Thanksgiving).

Journey to a Hate Free Millennium (film)

This  documentary looks at the subject of hate and bullying as seen through the stories of the Columbine High School student shootings, the dragging death of African-American James Byrd Jr of Jasper, Texas and gay college student, Matthew Shepard of Laramie, Wyoming.  The film has won over 25 film festival awards.

• Date/time: Monday, November 7, 7:00-9:00 PM
• Location: East Anchorage High School Auditorium, 4025 East Northern Lights Blvd, Anchorage, AK (see map)
• Cost of admission: Free
• Further info: see Facebook events page

“Train the Trainers” workshop

In this single-evening workshop, participants will:

1. Gain at least one important insight into how racism works in the US;
2. Understand the overlap between racism and bullying;
3. Gain at least one practical tool that will help them deal with racist/bullying
   incidents at work or in private life;
4. Leave with a plan for increasing their knowledge about racism/ bullying and for having an impact on decreasing racism/bullying in the next year; and
5. Understand workplace violence and how to spot the signs of a possible incident.

Brent will engage participants interactively to help them meet their most pressing concerns. There is a limit of 30 participants.

Please contact Healing Racism in Anchorage at healingracism@gmail.com or (907) 561-3238 for information on the workshop and registration.

• Date/time: Tuesday, November 8, 5:30 to 9:00 PM
• Location: Credit Union One in Mountain View, 115 N. Bragaw St., Anchorage, AK (see map)
• Cost of admission:$50 in advance. Contact us at
  healingracism@gmail.com for information and registration.
• Further info: see Facebook events page

Building Alliances to End Racism (5-week course)

As part of Healing Racism in Anchorage‘s Fall 2011 event, join us for our credit course, Building Alliances to End Racism. This 5-week workshop will deepen your awareness of how racism affects you and what you can do to improve our society. You’ll learn how to be more sensitive to the experiences of others, how to unlearn racist patterns and how to move from awareness into action. This course will look closely at the topics of bullying and hate crimes and how they can be eliminated. This is a chance to build supportive relationships with other people who also care about racial justice.

Classes meet at the Anchorage School District building every Thursday between November 10 to December 15 (except for Thanksgiving!) Academic credit available.

• Date/time: Every Thursday between November 10 to December 15 (except for Thanksgiving!), 5:30 to 8:00 PM
• Location: Anchorage School District, 5530 E Northern Lights Blvd, Anchorage (see map)
• Further info: see Facebook events page