2012 Past Events
2012 Baltimore Secular Humanist events
Not a BSH event, but this concert may be interesting to our members:
Friday, January 6th: MARK ERELLI and Seven Curses with JEFFREY FOUCAULT
Time: 8 pm
Location: Cellar Stage, at Faith Community United Methodist Church of Hamilton, 5315 Harford Road * Baltimore, MD 21214
Discovered at an impromptu 3 am hotel room jam at a music conference when just 23 years old, Mark Erelli finished up a graduate degree in evolutionary biology shortly after his self-titled debut was released in 1999. In 2009, he was one of eight artists invited to the UK to take part in the Darwin Song Project, a collaborative release featuring songs inspired by the life and work of Charles Darwin. In 2010 Mark released two new CD’s, (Little Vigils) and Seven Curses with Jeffrey Foucault. He and Jeffrey are featuring the songs from this CD here tonight.
January Meeting Topic: ABC-TV “Square Off” debate/Hitchens audiobook
Sunday, January 8th at 1:30 pm
Location: East Columbia Library, 6600 Cradlerock Way, Columbia, MD
In October, the Baltimore ABC2 TV station ran a local debate on the existence of God. Humanists were represented by Catherine Blackwell, president of the UMBC SSA. We will play a recording the debate and discuss it. Then, in memory of the late Christopher Hitchens, we will play selections from his audiobook, God is not Great, read by the author in his inimitable delivery. Location: Howard County library, East Columbia Branch.
First Unitarian Church of Baltimore event:
Topic: Reverend Mark Kiyimba, founder of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Kampala, Uganda, speaking on “The Struggle for GLBT Rights in Uganda”
Location: First Unitarian Church, Baltimore
Rev. Kiyimba has led the opposition against the anti-homosexual laws being advocated in Uganda by U. S. Evangelicals that have been adopted by the Ugandan Parliament. In early 2011, a warrant was issued for his arrest, and Rev. Kiyimba fled Uganda and has been living in sanctuary in the U.S. Location: First Unitarian Church of Baltimore, 12 W. Franklin St. (Corner of Charles and Franklin).
Not a BSH event, but this concert may be interesting to our members:
Friday, January 13th: CHRISTINE LAVIN (CHATHAM STREET opens)
Time: 8 pm
Location: Cellar Stage, at Faith Community United Methodist Church of Hamilton, 5315 Harford Road * Baltimore, MD 21214
Christine Lavin is a singer/songwriter/guitarist/recording artist living in Geneva, New York. She has recorded 20 solo albums produced nine compilation CD’s showcasing the work of dozens of songwriters. The book THE PLUTO FILES: THE RISE AND FALL OF AMERICA’S FAVORITE PLANET, written by Neil deGrasse Tyson, head of the Hayden Planetarium in NYC, includes the complete lyrics to Christine’s song “Planet X,” which details Pluto’s history and planetary status debate in rhyme. (www.christinelavin.com) To say a Christine Lavin concert is eclectic is putting it mildly. Christine Lavin will have you rolling with laughter.
Harford County Area Special Interest Group
Time: Thursday, January 26 at 7 p.m. (see bsh.wash.org)
Location: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Harford County
Topic: DVD of Christopher Hitchens debate, “Collision.”
February Meeting Topic: Darwin Day Speaker: Mike Reid on “Foundations of Evolution”
Sunday, February 12th at 10:30 am
Location: Joint meeting with Baltimore Ethical Society
Mike Reid will speak on “Foundations of Evolution”. Like all accomplished scientists, Charles Darwin built on the work of his predecessors. With a slide presentation, Mike will discuss the amazing ideas of Erasmus Darwin (Charles’ grandfather who speculated on organisms originating from primitive ancestors), James Hutton (the 18th century geologist who discovered the antiquity of the Earth and speculated on natural selection), Sir Charles Lyell (the geologist who inspired Darwin and later became his close friend), Alfred Russel Wallace (the naturalist who independently discovered organic evolution and natural selection) and others who are less well-known, but also made essential contributions. Mike will argue that Charles Darwin was the greatest of the evolutionists, but that he was not the first or only one. He will also make the case that precursory scientific discoveries had to have been made and that society had to have reached a certain level of social, political, economic and technological development before evolutionary theory could be formulated. Mike Reid is the president of the Washington Area Secular Humanists (WASH), the parent organization of the Baltimore Secular Humanists. He holds degrees in geology and computer systems. He formerly taught geology and astronomy at a community college in California and works in the aerospace field and the space program. He has a long standing interest in the history of science and in the 19th century.
Harford County Area Special Interest Group
Time: February 23 at 7 pm
Location: Member’s home
We are having regular meetings for secular humanists in Harford County. The meeting topic was the movie, “Worlds Apart,” the story of a young Swedish girl who was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness, but looses her faith and is ostracized by her family.
March Meeting Topic: Video of Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Sunday, March 11th at 1:30 pm
Location: East Columbia Library, Columbia, MD
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is the best-selling author of Infidel and Nomad. She spoke in Baltimore last April. She grew up in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya, and has had personal experience with women’s rights in Muslim countries. As a result, she has become a freethinker who is one of the leading critics of Islam, and some of her ideas seem very conservative and some seem liberal. We will play a video of her short film, “Submission,” and some other video including an Australian interview.
Harford County Area Special Interest Group
Time: Thursday, March 22 at 7 p.m.
Location: Member’s house
Topic: DVD of the movie “Black Robe,” a story of a French Jesuit priest who tries to travel on a mission to convert the native Americans in the 1600′s, or here is a review.
Reason Rally
Saturday, March 24, 10 am to 4 pm
National Mall, 14th and Independence SW, Washington, D.C.
The Reason Rally is expected to be the largest gathering of non-theists in American history. There will be a blockbuster lineup of talent including, Richard Dawkins, PZ Meyers, James Randi, and many, many more. There will be music from notable performers such as Bad Religion. For more information, go to Reason Rally
March 29, 2012 8:00 PM
Lecture you may like: David Brooks on “What is an American”
Kraushaar Auditorium, Goucher College
David Brooks — New York Times op-ed columnist, political and social analyst, and author — will present a talk titled “What Is an American?” on Thursday, March 29, at 8 p.m. in Goucher College’s Kraushaar Auditorium. Brooks, the Spring 2012 Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Visiting Professor, will discuss the cultural traits that unify Americans and how U.S. culture is under threat.
Brooks’s book “The Social Animal” was reviewed in the March issue of WASHline.
April Special Meeting with BaltimoreCOR
Concert by Roy Zimmerman, “Starving Ear”
Wednesday, April 4 at 7 pm
Location: “2640”, 2640 St. Paul St., Baltimore
ROY ZIMMERMAN, satirical songwriter, will give his third concert in the Baltimore area, called “Live From the Starving Ear” to Baltimore Wednesday, April 4 at 7 pm for a performance at 2640, 2640 St. Paul St. Admission for the show is on a sliding scale from $10 – $25. “Live From the Starving Ear” is 90 minutes of Zimmerman’s wickedly inventive satirical songs. The Occupy Movement, the Tea Party, same-sex marriage, Socialism, Creationism, guns, taxes, abstinence and yes, presidential politics all come under tuneful scrutiny. “There’s a whole new political landscape,” he says, “painted by Jackson Pollock.” The Starving Ear is Zimmerman’s homage to San Francisco’s legendary nightclub the hungry i. In the late 50‘s and early 60‘s the hungry i was a breeding ground for such talents as Mort Sahl, Lenny Bruce, Phyllis Diller, Maya Angelou, the Kingston Trio, a melting pot of music, comedy and social message.
In twelve albums over twenty years, Zimmerman has brought the sting of satire to the struggle for Peace and Social Justice. His songs have been heard on HBO and Showtime. He has recorded for Warner/Reprise Records. He’s been profiled on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” and he’s a featured blogger for the Huffington Post. Roy’s YouTube videos have garnered over six million views and tens of thousands of comments, many of them coherent. And yes, he has a website: http://royzimmerman.com/. Roy’s lyrics have a decidedly Lefty slant. His song “Vote Republican” is a mesmerizing mockery of GOP nonsense in the run-up to the 2012 election (already a hit on YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ege_RBhh37A). “Citizens United” is a sensuous slow-jam sneer at corporate personhood. “The Unions Are to Blame” lampoons the Big Business lunacy that has spurred thousands to Occupy Wall Street. There’s a theme song for “The Wedding of Church and State” and the hallelujah blow-out of “I Want a Marriage Like They Had in the Bible.”
The San Francisco Bay Guardian says, “Remember that old picture of Woody Guthrie with the sign on his guitar reading ‘this machine kills fascists’? Cross that image with Tom Lehrer, a dash of John Denver, Doctor Demento, and maybe a Mormon missionary, and you get something approximating the sight and sound of Roy Zimmerman, the clean-cut take-no-prisoners political satirist.”
April 5, 2012 8:00 PM
Lecture you may like: Ayaan Hirsi Ali on “Clash of Civilizations”
Location: Goucher College
Ayaan Hirsi Ali — a former member of the Dutch Parliament, women’s rights advocate, and Islamic reformist — will give the Spring 2012 President’s Forum talk titled “Clash of Civilizations: Islam and the West” on Thursday, April 5, at 8 p.m. in Hyman Forum of the Athenaeum.
Hirsi Ali was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1969. The daughter of a political opponent of the Somali dictatorship, she grew up in exile, moving from Saudi Arabia to Ethiopia then Kenya. Hirsi Ali has been a subject of several BSH meetings. She spoke last year at Johns Hopkins. She has been one of the leading critics of the religion and culture of Islam.
Harford County Area Special Interest Group
Time: Thursday, April 26 at 7 p.m.
Location: Member’s house.
Topic: DVD or video was chosen at the meeting. The movie “Watchmen” was viewed and discussed, and here is a review.
Harford County Area Special Interest Group
Time: Thursday, May 17th at 7 p.m.
Location: Member’s house.
Topic: DVD or video was chosen at the meeting. The movie “The Life of Brian” was viewed.
May Meeting Topic: Videos of Cristina Rad
Sunday, May 20th at 1:30 pm
Location: East Columbia Library, Columbia, MD
Cristina Rad is one of the rising stars of the atheist/humanist movement. This witty young Romanian woman spoke at the Reason Rally immediately after Richard Dawkins to an audience standing in the rain, and she got them to stay, listen, and laugh at her jokes. We will play a video of her Reason Rally speech, and some of her youtube videos.
Special BaltimoreCOR joint meeting
Meeting Topic: World Humanist Day
Thursday, June 21th at 7:00 pm
Location: Baltimore Ethical Society
To celebrate World Humanist Day on June 21st, we plan to host a screening of “Waiting for Armageddon,” a documentary about the ideas of religion fundamentalists to the end of the world. A trailer for the movie can be seen at:
http://www.waitingforarmageddon.com/
To contrast this negative vision that sees humankind’s destiny as ending in war, we will follow this with a positive vision of humanity’s future by airing part of a BookTV interview with Neal DeGrasse-Tyson on space exploration:
http://www.booktv.org/Program/13308/Space+Chronicles+Facing+the+Ultimate+Frontier.aspx
Harford County Area Special Interest Group
Time: Thursday, June 28th at 6:30 p.m.
Location: Member’s house.
Topic: DVD or video was chosen at the meeting. The video “The Invention of Lying” with Ricky Gervais was viewed.
Regular Meeting: No BSH meetings are scheduled for the summer. Watch the BSH or Harford County meetup.com lists (two separate groups) for special events.
Harford County Area Special Interest Group Movie Night
Time: Thursday, July 26th at 6:30 p.m.
Location: Member’s house.
Topic: DVD or video was chosen at the meeting. The video “The Genius of Charles Darwin,” with Richard Dawkins, episode 2: “The Fifth Ape,” was viewed.
Harford County Area Special Interest Group Movie Night
Time: Thursday, August 23 at 6:30 p.m.
Location: Member’s house.
Topic: DVD or video was chosen at the meeting. Bill Creasy presented slides of his recent trip to Iceland.
September Meeting Topic: Iceland’s Geology and Culture
Sunday, September 9th at 1:30 pm
Location: East Columbia Library, Columbia, MD
Bill Creasy will show photos and make observations from his recent trip to Iceland. The trip was part of a project sponsored by Earthwatch. For information about the project, this is the project briefing. Location: Howard County library, East Columbia Branch.
Harford County Area Special Interest Group Movie Night
Time: Thursday, September 27th at 6:30 p.m.
Location: Member’s house.
Topic: The YouTube video “Innocence of Muslims” trailer was shown. This trailer has been the source of considerable violence in Middle Eastern countries. As we saw at the screening, this is really a terrible movie. It is very poor quality. It is hard to imagine anyone being killed because of it. However, it is critical of Mohammed, who is depicted as a human being with many faults. It raises the question that some Muslims seem unable to deal with: If Mohammed was a normal human being, he probably made mistakes and had faults. Yet Muslims seem incapable of tolerating any criticism of him. Doesn’t this elevate Mohammed to a god-like status that the Islamic religion claims he doesn’t have, since he is a prophet rather than a god? Are they claiming that he is infallible, or not?
We also watched videos of lectures by Alain de Botton and Barbara Ehrenreich. Alain de Botton is a British atheist who started the “School of Life.” He wrote a book “Religion for Atheists.” He talks about naturalistic aspects of religion that atheists should steal, and all atheists who think that religion should be eliminated should listen to his talk.
WASH EVENT in Virginia: Sex Positivity with Jill McDevitt, PhD.
Time: Sunday, October 14, 2012, 2:00 PM
Location: Zikrayet Restaurant & Lounge, 2006 Eisenhower Ave, Alexandria, VA (map)
** Make reservation and see full details and updates at the WASH meetup **
Jill McDevitt, PhD, http://www.thesexologist.org, wrote “Fighting the Crusade Against Sex”, has a reality show, and runs a shop, Feminique. Her book and items from the shop will be on sale. Jill will talk about being sex-positive in a sex-negative world, and will also add special story about her trip to the Dominican Republic to educate young girls on how to protect themselves from rampant sexual exploitation that they experience.
This is a general-interest discussion about sex policy, sex in culture, and womens’ issues. This should be relevant as womens’ issues heat up the election debate and her trip to the Dominican Republic will help to highlight the true, tragic legacy of Columbus in the New World. This will be an all-WASH event and open to the general public, so there should be sure to invite non-humanists, potential new members, and WASH members from outside Alexandria. RSVP today to secure your seat and meetup up with everyone.
The Northern Virginia Chapter will be hosting an all-area event for WASH on Oct 14th at Zikrayet, a Lebanese-run restaurant in Alexandria. This is a short walk from both the Eisenhower (Y) and King Street (B/Y) Metro and right off the highway with plenty of parking.
Harford County Area Special Interest Group Movie Night
Time: Thursday, October 18 at 6:30 p.m.
Location: Member’s house.
Topic: DVD of the movie “The Time Machine” from 1960 was viewed. We enjoyed the special effects that were pre-CGI but that won an Oscar Award. The movie, based on the H. G. Wells book, has a distopian view of the future of humankind, with the species splitting into the passive Eloi and cannibalistic Morlocks.
Special Baltimore COR November Meeting with Herb Silverman
Sunday, November 11th at 10:30 am
Location: Baltimore Ethical Society, Baltimore, MD
Herb Silverman will be in Baltimore to speak about his new book, Candidate without a Prayer. He will be at the Baltimore Ethical Society. Silverman is the founder and president of the Secular Coalition For America.
Special Baltimore COR November Meeting with Herb Silverman
Sunday, November 11th, 3 pm.
Location: Prologue, Inc., 3 Milford Mill Road, Pikesville, MD
At 3:00 pm, Herb Silverman speaks again on “Candidate Without a Prayer” at Prologue, Inc., 3 Milford Mill Road, Baltimore, MD 21208. Lecture will be followed by book signing. Silverman is the founder and president of the Secular Coalition For America. At 1:30 PM, there will be a brunch/lunch at the Suburban House Restaurant, 1700 Reisterstown Road, Pikesville, MD 21208 (http://www.suburbanhousedeli.com/).
November Meeting by Charles Catania, speaking on “The Power of Words.”
Sunday, November 18th at 1:30 pm
Location: Columbia, MD, East Columbia Library.
Prof. A. Charles Catania is emeritus professor of psychology at UMBC. He has recently finished a new edition of his textbook, Learning.
Harford County Area Special Interest Group Movie Night
Time: Thursday, November 29 at 6:30 p.m.
Location: Member’s house.
We watched a DVD of the movie Prometheus. This 2012 science fiction movie raised questions about the origin of the human race in a vaguely religious way, but it didn’t provide any serious answers. The special effects were good. Here are some other links, for anyone interested in reading more about it:
The movie was an attempted quasi-prequel to 'Alien' which was made by the same director: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus_%28film%29) (http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/07/17/sigourney-weaver-interview-aliens-25th-anniversary-sequel/) Some questions are raised/answered at http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/jun/08/prometheus-ten-key-questions. Better is http://io9.com/5919306/another-theory-about-the-meaning-of-prometheus. Came across (http://www.prometheus-movie.com/) mentions that original/working title was 'Alien: Engineer'. Certainly couldn't have been 'Alien Biologist' or 'Alien Theist'! (:-})
December Baltimore COR event: Human Light celebration
Sunday, December 23 at 7 pm.
Location: Joint meeting with Baltimore Ethical Society
Please join us this Sunday December 23rd at 7:00 pm to celebrate HumanLight at BES with our friends from the Baltimore Coalition of Reason. HumanLight is a celebration of the winter season conceived by the New Jersey Humanist Network as a humanist or secular alternative to traditional religious celebrations. HumanLight features music and the lighting of three candles celebrating Reason, Compassion, and Hope. HumanLight was first celebrated in 2001 in New Jersey and has since spread throughout the country. This year is the third celebration of HumanLight by the Baltimore Coalition of Reason. To learn more, visit the HumanLight website at http://www.HumanLight.org/ . This year BES is hosting the celebration of HumanLight. We will have a pot-luck dinner and desserts, music, and the candle lighting. This is a family-friendly event, and children are welcome. Schedule 7:00 pm doors open, meet and greet 7:30 pm Candle lighting: 3 candles for Reason, Compassion, Hope Music: “These Three Flames” (a HumanLight song) Potluck dinner after the candle lighting. 8:45 pm Address by Hugh Taft-Morales Musical entertainment will be provided by the Organic Family Band of Judith Geller and Michael Raitzyk!
Directions: The Baltimore Ethical Society is located at 306 West Franklin Street. (Rt. 40 west) in the heart of Baltimore between Howard and Eutaw Streets. Take I-95 north, merge onto I-395 north via exit #53 toward Downtown, Inner Harbor. Take Martin Luther King Blvd. exit. Turn right onto W. Mulberry St. (US 40 East). Turn left onto Park Avenue. Turn left onto West Franklin Street (Rt. 40 West), and proceed one block.
Meeting topics from previous years: