Raccoon Community Building Space Project, Queens, New York City: History of Events

prostor
718/575-4500 ext.4567
fax: 718/784-1858
a n n o u n c e m e n t s

December 2005

December 4 7:00-9:00 pm. Sreca Perunovic, Professor of sociology at John Jay College will present THE BREAKUP OF THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA AND THE ROAD TOWARD RECONCILIATION. The main focus of the talk will be the relationships among people of different ethnic backgrounds in the former Yugoslavia and the effect of those relationships on the breakup of the country and the possibilities for reconciliation. The event will include video clips from Videoletters and discussion about the presumption among some diplomats, scholars, journalists, and the general public that hatred was the central feeling among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia. Participants' personal stories are especially welcome.

December 5 Panel: Dayton Peace Accords and Bosnia Ten Years After From The Perspective of Foreign Journalists. Confirmed panelists: David Rohde of The New York Times; Stacy Sullivan; CANCELED!

December 6 Family Living with Illness - Multicultural Perspective: Panel is organzied by RACCOON, Inc and Saint Mark's Place Institute for Mental Health; Speakers: Malgorzata Witek, M.D.,Teresa Wandas, Ph.D., Krystina Breger, Ph.D. and other participants
When: Tuesday, December 06, 2005, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Where: 57 St.Mark’s Place, Manhattan, NY 10003
RSVP: 718 784 9121 or 646 236 6364

December 7 Raccoon travels back to the region

December 8 Anti-War Photography Exhibition Everyday Heroes, featuring women of Bosnia, by Lisa Kahane, closes.

November 2005

November 7, Monday, 6:30-8:30 PM: Housing Law in New York: Your Rights - Diane Brody, a housing law expert and lawyer, will outline the fundamentals of renting and interacting with landlords and various housing agencies. This is an opportunity to ask questions you have always wanted to ask about maneuvering the complicated world of what it means to be a tenant, or an owner in New York City.

November 10, Thursday, 7 PM: Crossroads: Films from ex-SFRJ

November 15 Health Care Workshop, 11 am - 1 pm

November 18, Friday, 6-8 PM: Anti-War Photography Exhibition Everyday Heroes, featuring women of Bosnia, by Lisa Kahane, opening reception. Exhibition is open at Raccoon Space from November 3 to December 8.

October 2005

October 13 Thursday, at 6pm, Raccoon Space showing of Human Rights award winning documentary VIDEOLETTERS. Click the 'news' icon for info on the on-going exhibit of 9 Sarajevo photographers in New York.

September 2005

September 10 at noon: "TRAUMA AND RECOVERY" September 11 Commemoration Forum
This Forum aims to create a space for experts to share their experiences and the challenges they face in addressing the needs of immigrants and exiles from the Western Balkans.
While this event is by invitation only, we ask you to please take the liberty of bringing a colleague, and let us know about other individuals who would benefit from this event.

September 25 Raccoon Sailboat

Raccoon (Reconciliation And Culture Cooperative Network, Inc.) invites you to join us for a Sailing Party At Capri Marina West Orchard Beach Blvd., Port Washington that Sunday at1:00 PM; Light snacks and beverages will be served. In case of rain, there is a Plan B! Minimum donation is $35. Seating is limited, please RSVP to make a reservation. We will e-mail you your conformation and directions to the Marina. To reserve seating, please e-mail iskraspark@yahoo.com, or call Iskra Sagi at 917-734-6309. Feel free to forward the invite to your friends.

September 30 We will show "Lora", a Croatian-Serbian co-production testifying about Croatian Abu Ghraib type scandal: alleged torture, breaches of Geneva Convention, at the military baracks in Split's harbour. And also an episode from the book "Good People in Evil Times" by Svetlana Broz produced by B92 - the one about the brave Sarajevo' Taxi driver's survival through the war.

August 2005

Raccoon is taking a vaccation during the month of August.

August 20-21 Raccoon board and staff strategy planning retreat at Long Trail Inn in Vermont.

July 2005

July 10 On tenth anniversary of Srebrenica massacres, Raccoon's Women Group will pay a visit to Srebrenica survivors in Queens. For more up to date information about Srebrenica, please visit domovina.net and Center for Balkan Development.
To view a video revealing that paramilitary troops from Serbia proper were indeed involved in Srebrenica massacres please click here. (This is a 5 hours testimony; the part where Scorpions execute men near Srebrenica is at 2:35:20). Also, please, click here to sign the petition to the world leaders to arrest those most responsib;e for Srebrenica's tragedy.

tba Exhibit of Bosnian photographer Tarik Samarah

July 28 Women Survivors of Srebrenica: Personal Accounts of The Healing Process. Video from our visit to Srebrenica survivors in Queens. Documentary film about womens' tragedy at Srebrenica, courtesy of Human Rights Watch. Discussion about Srebrenica survivors with Manuela Dobos, a 30 year veteran of Balkan History at the City University of NY, 5 - 7:30 pm.

ID Troubles - US Visit: Art exhibition by post-Yugoslav artists in Williamsburg, NY, May 20.

Opening of 9600 sqft Mario's Gallery at 35-11 36th Street in Queens as the new Croatian Cultural Center in New York city on July 12 at 6 pm

I MISS COMMUNISM, again in NY, July 12, July 13

Raccoon proudly co-presents two features at this year's Human Rights Watch International Film Festival:

Videoletters
by Katarina Rejger and Eric van den Broek, Bosnia and Herzegovina/Slovenia/Macedonia/ Croatia/Serbia and Montenegro (including Kosovo), 2004/2005, 75m, video, doc

Midwinter Night's Dream
Goran Paskaljevic, Serbia and Montenegro, 2004, 95m, 35mm, drama

June 2005

June 6 Health Care Workshop, Immigrants' Access to Health Benefits Workshop, 5 pm. For more information contact Ivana Begic at 718-784-9121.

June 8 Women's Workshop, 6:30 - 8 pm. Women's bodies, women's dance: The power to create change, Video, readings, discussion and ....DANCE!, conducted by Nada Khodlova; A special video showing of Thais Mazur dance company/a group dedicated to non-violence Dance Project will be presented.

June 14 Anniversary and Collaboration Fundraiser Tuesday, June 14, 2005, 4:30-7:30 p.m., at the beautiful Quaker House, 247 East 48th Street in Midtown Manhattan. This is RACCOON's opportunity to share in meze and drink with friends and collaborators to mark our 8th anniversary serving the emigre community from the Balkans (Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia) and to celebrate our 2004 Union Square Award. Please join us for this joyous "Happy Hour" as we review RACCOON's work and forge our future pathway. We promise you fun! RSVP RACCOON Space, 718-784-9121, or by email at Indira@balkansnet.org.

June 15 Health Care Workshop

May 2005

May 6 May 6-27, 2005, GROUP ART EXHIBITION: FO(U)R DIVERSITY by artists from Former Yugoslavia. Opening reception: Friday, May 6 2005 (6-9pm)
Participating artists:
Katerina Marcelja Ceman, .jpgs
Elena Fajt, .jpgs, cv, statement
Hristina Ivanoska and Yane Calovski
Vlatka Horvat

May 7 Food Memories, 6 pm

May 11 Health Care Workshop, 6 pm

May 12 Women's Group, with Ms. Belogi, 6-8 pm

May 14 What you need to know when buying a new home?, Saturday, May 14, 2005, 4 pm; by Lydia and Dejan Nikolic POSTPONED

May 14 Poetry Reading, 7 PM, by Ivo Skoric: Since his early teens poetry was a secret escape, a small windowless room, where Ivo would hide and scream in rage, when the reality would seem unbearable to him. As he grew into his twenties, his poems became increasingly political, to keep pace with his published journalistic work. Today, mellowed out by age, he mostly writes to his wife, perhaps, because it is cheaper than buying diamond rings, and just as effective. This will be the first reading in the U.S. Moved to June 14 Anniversary Fundraiser

May 18 Health Care Workshop, 1 pm

May 21 Lecture on nostalgia for socialism in post-socialist societies by Mitja Velikonja, sociologist from Ljubljana, 7 pm

May 26 Film Evening

April 2005

April 5 6 pm, Health Care Workshop

April 8 Friday, 6-9 pm, Opening Reception for April 8-29 , 2005 GROUP ART EXHIBITION "From the Close Circuit Files" by artists from Former Yugoslavia living in US of A, Serbia and Montenegro, France, and Croatia: Ivan Stojakovic, Milan Bosnic, Mihael Milunovic, Tanja Dabo.

April 15 ART FORUM, 7 pm; presentation of Tanja Dabo's video artwork

April 28 Third Forum of Psychiatrists, Psychologists and Social Workers to take place on Thursday, 5:30 to 8:30pm. This Forum aims to create a space for experts to share their experiences and the challenges they face in addressing the needs of immigrants and exiles from the Western Balkans. We'll talk about health needs among our communites. We'll also view a film on Rwandan war and present a guest speaker who worked in Africa.
Please contact us with any suggestions of other themes or topics you would like to discuss - 718.784.9121.
While this event is by invitation only, we ask you to please take the liberty of bringing a colleague, and let us know about other individuals who would benefit from this event.

March 2005

March 3 Book Reading, Thursday, at 7 PM: WAR HOSPITAL by Sheri Fink. This book is a young physician-reporter's chronicles of the experiences of doctors and nurses trapped in besieged Srebrenica, Bosnia, illuminating the passions, challenges, tragedies, and agonizing moral quandaries of practicing medicine in a war zone.

March 4 Art/Architecture Exhibition by Srdjan Normal; March 4-25, 2005. Opening Reception Friday, March 4 2005 (6-9 pm);
www.thenao.net, www.schoolofmissingstudies.net

March 6 , 1 pm: Real Estate Seminar by investment banker Fadil Avdicevic and real estate agent Selma Avdicevic. Learn how you too can become a home-owner as an immigrant in the "ownership society".

March 7 Women's Memory Forum. Rsvp to Indira Kajosevic.

February 2005

February 4 Feb. 4 - 25, 2005 Art Exhibition "Drawings and Sculptures" by: Srdjan Segan; Opening reception: Friday, Feb. 4, 2005 (6-9 pm)

February 12 Children Cross-Cultural Workshop, Valentine's Workshop, 11 am

February 26 Food Memories, Saturday, 6-9 PM

January 2005

January 7, 2005 is the deadline for THE 2006 DIVERSITY IMMIGRANT VISA PROGRAM (DV-2006)

January 7 7-30 January, 2004
Photo Exhibition "Aftermath: Bosnia's Long Road to Peace" by: Sara Terry Opening reception: Friday, January 7, 2004 (6-9 pm). Click here for the artist statement.

January 15 Children's Cross-Cultural Workshop: Puppet Workshop, 11 am

January 27 Second Annual Forum of Psychiatrists, Psychologists and Social Workers. Thursday, January 27th at 5:00 p.m. at the RACCOON Space.
This Forum aims to create a space for experts to share their experiences and the challenges they face in addressing the needs of immigrants and exiles from the Western Balkans. We would like this year's forum to center around the role of reconciliation in the healing process. Please contact us with any suggestions of other themes or topics you would like to discuss.
This event is by invitation only.

map and driving directions
Mailing address: RACCOON, Inc., PO Box 20554, New York, NY 10021 Subway directions - take to Kew Gardens