Calendar Archive: 2019-20

The First Unitarian Universalist Church of Essex County will hold its October FAITH+WORKS on October 20, 2019. For this special occasion, we will travel to Riverside Church in New York City for “Stolen Hands, Stolen Lands: From 1619 to a Just Future.” This is an observance in honor of the 400th anniversary of the first Africans to arrive in North America and sold into bondage. Rev Dr William J. Barber II, leader of the Poor People’s Campaign, will give the homily on this occasion. The doors will open at 5 PM and the service will begin at 6 PM. Ministers are invited to come with their robes and participate in the procession and recession.

Please RSVP at this link. Members & friends who wish to carpool, please contact Mindy Fullilove.

Sincerely,

Mindy Fullilove, MD President of the Congregation

https://www.facebook.com/events/2450846451856660/

Monday, October 21st, Solidarity Potluck - 6-8pm in the Parish Hall at the HUUB

We have gotten together one Monday a month since the election of Donald Trump to share good food and great company, two important building blocks to a healthy community. Bring a dish and a friend!

Friday, October 25th, Black Maria Film Festival = 7pm in the Parish Hall at the HUUB

We're excited that as part of the HUUB's observation of the 400 Years of Inequality Remembrance, the Black Maria Film Festival will return to First UU of Essex with a selection of award-winning shorts including animation, narrative, and documentary films focusing on issues of social justice curated with input from the Thomasberger Fellows.

We will have refreshments and light snacks. The event is free but we are asking for a suggested donation of $5-10. Check out the Facebook event page for more info and to RSVP.

Monday, November 11th, Solidarity Potluck

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 16th — DANCE & DRUM WORKSHOPS

Doundoun Dance Workshop, 3-4:30pm Unique, fun style of African Dance from Guinea integrating stick drums and song. Djembe Drum Workshop, 5-6:30pm Technique, traditional rhythms for the djembe drum.

Adults and mature teens of all levels are welcome!

Find out more information and RSVP on their facebook page.

HUUB Member price: $15 (per person, per workshop) + $5 drum rental (per person, per workshop) * This special price is available with Pre-Payment by 11/15 * via Paypal or Venmo Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/laramarafanyi OR Venmo: Lara-Gonzalez-6 Email marafanyidrumdancesong@gmail.com or call 877-904-2362 with any questions.

Sunday, November 17th, 4PM: FAITH + WORKS — The Importance of Faith — Myrna Williams Smith

Myrna has a BS from Seton Hall University and an MS and Doctorate from LaSalle University, both in Education and Administration. A resident of Orange NJ and a proud parent of four successful sons, she has worked in Early Childhood Administration, taught History and English in an elementary school setting, and has also taught in middle and Adult school. Myrna holds certifications in Early Childhood, PreK – 8, Education and Business, as well as Health Education. In addition, she has been a curriculum writer, school administrator, a past PTA President, served of the Democratic committee, a member of the Oranges/Maplewood NAACP, and on various school committees. She volunteers at VA Hospital in Orange, the Orange Interfaith Council, Tuto, the Essex County Green Party, and various senior groups. Although retired from the public sector, Myrna currently works as Education and Business Consultant. She joined the First UU of Essex in 2018.

https://www.facebook.com/events/630650034131934/

Sewing Angels – Wednesdays, 4-6pm, October 9 – November 13

The Sewing Angels have been meeting at the HUUB since summer 2018 to teach the basics of sewing to members of the Orange community. Topics covered include threading, winding bobbins, stitch variety, fabric choices, and proper cutting techniques. The class is Free and sewing machines are provided, but space is limited. If you are interested in joining for the rest of this session, please contact Charlie at The HUUB and he will connect you with the organizers!

Sunday, December 8th, 4 PM: FAITH + WORKS: Faith in Forotten Places — Aubrey Murdock

About her presentation, Aubrey says.

"I grew up in a place people call the 'middle of nowhere.' They say 'there isn’t anything there.' When I graduated from high school and left, which I felt I was supposed to do, I started hearing this about other places, too – 'there's nothing there.' But when I’d meet people from these ‘nowheres’ I knew the stories weren’t true, just like they weren’t true about my home. When I started working with University of Orange as a graduate student, I learned about the power of place attachment. I learned more about the policies and practices that cast places as 'nowheres.' Through University of Orange I have had the extreme privledge of meeting dedicated people from all over the world, working hard for the places they live and love. Their work and care has become my faith. Honoring and contributing to this mighty constellation of hope is my work. "

Aubrey Murdock is an artist, filmmaker and educator from Wyoming and now New Jersey. In her work she looks at the stories that connect these places. Murdock has had the pleasure of working with the University of Orange, a free people’s school and community organization for six years. In that time she has been fortunate enough to meet dedicated people from all over the world, working hard for the places they live and love.

https://www.facebook.com/events/441579576725621/

Monday, December 16th, 6PM to 8 PM – Building Solidarity Potluck

We have gotten together one Monday a month since the election of Donald Trump to share good food and great company, two important building blocks to a healthy community. Bring a dish and a friend! Set up starts at 5:30pm if you want to help.

Friday, December 20th, 9-11am -- Community Census Meeting

We’re hosting a Census meeting at the HUUB to talk with our elected officials, community partners, and neighbors about how we can help get an accurate count in Orange and New Jersey. Join us there and help us spread the word about the importance of the 2020 Census!

Sunday, January 19th, 2020, 4 PM: FAITH + WORKS -  "Work With the Oranges: engaging and retreating to do what you LOVE!" - Dominic Moulden 

The Oranges are a community rich in history, culture, parks, and people. He will lead us to explore a reflective journey on how to engage our community in faithful work and at the same time balance our work with healthy living in the form of retreating for rest, relaxation, and wellness. We can work with the Oranges and experience a life of full engagement, and then retreat with nature in the Oranges. Dominic T. Moulden is a longtime resource organizer at Organizing Neighborhood Equity (ONE DC), a collectively-led organization that builds people power and economic and racial equity in Washington, DC. He is a frequent lecturer at various universities and conferences regarding equitable revitalization, cooperative economics, affordable housing, workplace democracy, community development, and public policy. As 2018 Urbanist in Residence at the University of Orange (UofO), Moulden incorporates ONE DC’s People’s Platform in his political and popular education sessions for UofO’s “400 Years of Inequality: Observing the Anniversary of Jamestown, Disrupting the Ecology of Inequality” project. At the Maryland Institute College of Art he recently co-teaches “Making Art in Community,” which focused on art-making, critical theory, and community organizing strategies. Moulden is also a community-accountable photographer and social justice documentarian. His work has been exhibited most recently in MICA Place’s “Portraits Of People We Love” exhibition curated by Sarah McCann. A native of east Baltimore, his images celebrate Black love and resilience while providing uncompromising witness to the ongoing displacement of Afrodiasporic people in Baltimore and elsewhere in the Americas. His creative practice and organizing work are both dedicated to fostering a culture of health that includes art, joy, and radical resource redistribution. .

Monday, January 13, 2020, at 6pm-- Building Solidarity Potluck

We’re planning to fire the Earth Oven that day, so come check out the bread and pizzas we're going to make!

Monday, January 20th, 11am-4pm  -- MLK Day of Service

Prompted by our friends at Montclair State University, we're organizing a Martin Luther King Day of Service at HUUB.  We've got a laundry list of projects that need to be done around the HUUB and we're asking as many friends and allies to help as possible. We'll have the Earth Oven up and running by then as well, so you'll get to enjoy pizzas and other refreshments to show our appreciation for your help! Let us know if you are coming so we can make sure to have enough supplies and food!

Sunday, February 9th, 4 pm — FAITH + WORKS – Jazz Service — Ray Johnston

With 55 years of music being the driving force of his life, Raymond Johnston is a consummate sideman, band leader, woodwind specialist, instrumental music teacher, and composer. He began playing clarinet and became infatuated with the saxophone. He started his first band at age 15. His training at Berklee College of Music, 31 years as a public school and private instrumental music teacher, and 27 years as an Army bandsman supports his specialty. A highly sought-after musician, Ray plays a wide variety of genres. His career boasts playing with Amiri Baraka, Alicia Keys, Ike Brown and the Jazz Prophets, Jay Black/Jay & the American, guitarist “King” Solomon Hicks, Al Green, Jerry Butler, Philadelphia Biblical University Orchestra, The Delfonics. Irene Reid, Ali Ryerson, Paterson Musicians’ Union Hall rehearsal bands, and Steve Turay to name a few. Ray has toured with the Count Basie Orchestra (Scotty Barnhart, Director). He has also played on Broadway in “Shuffle Along.” Moreover, he has had a 13-year, Monday night residency with the famous New York City Cotton Club All Stars band. Raymond Johnston is looking forward to expanding his musical playing and teaching nationally and internationally.

Monday, February 17th, 6 PM – Building Solidarity Potluck, Parish Hall

Friday, February 28th, 7:30-9:30pm – Soundscapes –Hale House Living Room

This music series is organized by HUUB Fellow Cesar Presa and curated to be diverse and inclusive of less mainstream musical styles.

Friday, March 6th, 2020, 6-8pm -  Don't Drop the Mic -

Thomasberger Fellow Ray Sykes is putting together another showcase of the best local talent in this forum for self-expression in the community.

Updates on March events at HUUB:

Gregory Giacobe Memorial (originally scheduled for March 15th): postponed to the fall

Building Solidarity Potluck (originally scheduled for March 16th): canceled

Healthy Orange Coalition Meeting (originally scheduled for March 19th): TBD

Census Information Day (originally scheduled for March 21st): TBD

Please join us for FAITH+WORKS with Dr. Bob Fullilove via Zoom on Sunday, March 22nd at 4pm as we continue to practice social distancing.

Dr. Bob Fullilove will speak on the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) and his 10 years of experience teaching college-level courses in three prisons that are part of BPI. BPI students demonstrate every day the manner in which education in a prison setting is both reformative and redemptive.

Dr Fullilove has authored numerous articles in the area of minority health. From 1995 to 2001, he served on the Board of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at the Institute of Medicine (IOM) at the National Academy of Sciences. Since 1996, he has served on five IOM study committees that have produced reports on a variety of topics including substance abuse and addiction, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and damp indoor spaces and health. In 2003 he was designated a National Associate of the National Academies of Science. In 1998 he was appointed to the Advisory Committee on HIV and STD Prevention (ACHSP) at the Centers for Disease Control, and in July, 2000, he became the committee's co-chair. Finally, between 2004-2007, he served on the National Advisory Council for the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health [NIH]. Since 2010, he has been teaching public health courses in six New York State prisons that are part of the Bard College Prison Initiative (BPI) and serves as the Senior Advisor to BPI's public health program.

Dr Fullilove serves on the editorial boards of the journals Sexually Transmitted Diseases, and the Journal of Public Health Policy. He has been awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award at the Mailman School of Public Health three times (in 1995, 2001, and 2013), and in May, 2002, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Bank Street College of Education.

Were moving our Building Solidarity Potlucks online! Join us for Tuesday Tea Time , March 31st at 5:30pm to check in with HUUB friends and neighbors.

SUNDAY APRIL 12th, 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm: FAITH + WORKS Online: Seder on Easter: Celebrating 130 Years of First UU

Join us online for this month’s FAITH + WORKS service, Seder on Easter, on Sunday, April 12th from 5:00-6:30pm. We will celebrate the 130th anniversary of First UU, springtime, and liberation. We invite you to dress up for the occasion and set your table beautifully for a feast! Please RSVP to office@essexuu.org for the Zoom link to join us, and let us know if you’d like to sign up to be a reader during the seder. For our updated Haggadah click here. We recommend having a few items on hand during the seder: Community Seder Haggadah (see link above)

RESCHEDULED: Tuesday, April 28th, 2020 7-8:30pm – Online Orange Mayoral Candidates Forum – on Facebook Live. With the upcoming Mayoral and City Council election just around the corner, in this time of sheltering in place we have decided to organize a digital forum for the Mayoral candidates. We have invited the six candidates to share their ideas and vision for the city with the electorate.We are planning this forum in collaboration with our allies at University of Orange and RADICAL: Orange. This forum will be streamed via Facebook Live from at least The HUUB’s account. More details on viewing will be shared closer to the date, but put it in your calendars!

Sunday, May 24th at 4pm — combined FAITH+WORKS and Flower Communion service with Lori Sutherland. This year we are not gathering to plant our front beds with annual flowers, but Lori will honor the tradition during this service. Lori will discuss communion as a new source of connection. Our connection to the beauty of flowers and how that provides us with a healing bond. A bond that protects our immunity and community with God and the divine source and spirit that is surrounding us to sense the sacred relationship to ourselves and to the world. Lori will share about the history of the flower communion, as well as a meditation garden meditation, the sacred language of flowers and how beauty, joy and hope can be found everyday in new unexpected paths.

Lori Sutherland is a Pleasure Visionary, speaker, writer, influencer, model, and facilitator of educational programming and bespoke events celebrating how beauty transforms the world. For nearly three decades, Lori has worked with companies, non-profits, and individuals as a teacher, soul stylist, coach and consultant. Her Sensual Soul Style program advances women into unparalleled creative visionary leadership. Lori was recently a Brand Ambassador for Gucci Timepieces & Jewelry and is a First UU Board Member.

Sunday, June 28th, 4 pm == FAITH + WORKS: "Observations of a Journey," with First UU member and HUUB Board President Frank Barszcz.

This month Frank Barszcz will talk about his experience as a Unitarian Universalist and the impact it has had on his life and his work.

Frank has been a Unitarian Universalist for 30 years. For the past 20 years he has been a member of First Unitarian Universalist Church of Essex County. He serves on the church board of trustees and is president of the board of The HUUB, an urban ministry outreach program in Orange, NJ. In 2012 Frank earned a Master’s degree in Social Work from Rutgers University. During school and after graduating, he worked for the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice and then for the Mental Health Association of Essex and Morris. Frank has served as Chairperson of the West Orange Juvenile Conference Committee and is on the board of the West Orange Scholarship Fund. Frank Lives in West Orange with his wife Karen Marlowe and their two cats.

This will be a hybrid Online and On-Site Faith+Works – so you can register above to Zoom in or join us in person for a socially distanced gathering at church.