Refugiados. Acrylic on canvas by Carlos Lowry.
Date: Saturday-Sunday, Nov. 21-22, 2015
Time: Saturday, 10-6 p.m.; Sunday, 1-6 p.m.
Where: Howsen Hall, First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin
Address: 4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78741
Admission: Free, and everyone is welcome!
AUSTIN — The twelfth annual Women and Fair Trade Festival, hosted by Austin Tan Cerca de la Frontera, takes place Saturday and Sunday, November 21-22, 2015, at the First Unitarian Universalist Church, 4700 Grover Avenue in Austin. The festival is an annual Austin marketplace that hosts artisan producers from women’s cooperatives around the world.
The event will also include live music and on Saturday from 3-4:15 p.m., Austin poets Sarah Rafael Garcia, Chloe Chon, Loyce Gayo, and Kimberly Alidio will read from their work.
Among the many items that can be purchased to benefit this worthwhile endeavor and gift your friends and family during the holiday season, tamales from the women of Posada Esperanza will be making their debut.
This community event celebrates cultural diversity and represents an alternative to corporate globalization.
Posada Esperanza, a program of Casa Marianella, is a shelter for child refugees and their mothers in East Austin. Women from Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras have joined together to craft tamales in their various styles — for vegetarian and non-vegetarian alike.
Women from Ethiopia will also be offering coffee prepared in the traditional Ethiopian way.
Currently women from Posada are developing a plan to form a cooperative within the laws of Texas and in compliance with federal immigration regulations. Donations from the public will be used to start the legal process and to purchase the materials needed to prepare tamales for all the fiestas and celebrations of the coming holiday season.
The organizers welcome the support of those who attend the Women and Fair Trade Festival and who share the vision of dignity and self-sufficiency that the women of Posada Esperanza hold for themselves and their children.
Austin Tan Cerca de la Frontera is an organization that “seeks to address conditions of social and economic injustice along the Texas/Mexico border, particularly as they affect women and communities of color, and to find community-driven alternatives through transnational solidarity and fair trade.”
Learn more at the Women and Fair Trade Festival’s Facebook page.
Provecho! Enjoy!
