The Brooklyn Forum for Ethics & Justice is an initiative of the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture.  Through film series, book talks, and symposiums featuring authors, grassroots community based activists, religious scholars, and leading public intellectuals, it's aim is to create an arena where intellectual debate can take place while facilitating change on many levels. 

Events

ALL EVENTS ARE @ BSEC beginning at 6:30pm

Wednesday, November 18, 2009
A Screening of Examined Life and Book Talk with Astra Taylor  

In Examined Life, filmmaker Astra Taylor accompanies some of today’s most influential thinkers on a series of unique excursions through places and spaces that hold particular resonance for them and their ideas.

Peter Singer’s thoughts on the ethics of consumption are amplified against the backdrop of Fifth Avenue’s posh boutiques. Slavoj Zizek questions current beliefs about the environment while sifting through a garbage dump. Michael Hardt ponders the nature of revolution while surrounded by symbols of wealth and leisure. Judith Butler and a friend stroll through San Francisco’s Mission District questioning our culture’s fixation on individualism. And while driving through Manhattan, Cornel West—perhaps America’s best-known public intellectual—compares philosophy to jazz and blues, reminding us how intense and invigorating a life of the mind can be. Offering privileged moments with great thinkers from fields ranging from moral philosophy to cultural theory, Examined Life reveals philosophy’s power to transform the way we see the world around us and imagine our place in it.
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Thursday, January 7, 2010-CANCELLED
A Screening of Invisible:  The Diaries of New York's Homeless Youth

This show was co-written, co-produced, and partially shot by 7 of Reciprocity's formaerly homeless teens themselves.  Told mostly from a first person perspective, the program explores and demystifies some causes of youth homelessness: being orphaned, fleeing chronic physical and sexual abuse, or simply trying to escape overwhelming economic dilemmas.  It examines the issues that perpetuate youth homelessness and details the Reciprocity Foundation's unique formula for lifting kids out of crisis and into successful careers.
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February 4, 2010-CANCELLED
The Accidental American --Conversation with Rinku Sen and Fekkak Mamdoch

The Accidental American vividly illustrates the challenges and contradictions of U. S. immigration policy, and argues that, just as there is a free flow of capital in the world economy, there should be a free flow of labor. Author Rinku Sen alternates chapters telling the story of one "accidental American"--coauthor Fekkak Mamdouh, a Morrocan-born waiter at a restaurant in the World Trade Center whose life was thrown into turmoil on 9/11--with a thorough critique of current immigration policy. Sen and Mamdouh describe how members of the largely immigrant food industry workforce managed to overcome divisions in the aftermath of 9/11 and form the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York (ROC-NY) to fight for jobs and more equitable treatment. This extraordinary story serves to illuminate the racial, cultural, and economic conflicts embedded in the current immigration debate and helps frame the argument for a more humane immigration and global labor system.

Rinku Sen
Rinku Sen is president and executive director of the Applied Research Center (ARC) and the publisher of ColorLines magazine. She is the author of Stir It Up: Lessons in Community Organizing and Advocacy.

Fekkak Mamdouh
Fekkak Mamdouh is cofounder of the Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC) of New York and codirector of the Restaurants Opportunities Center United, the country's first national restaurant worker organization.

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March 4, 2010 CANCELLED  Heavy Metal Baghdad with film producer, Monica Hampton and Moniza Khokhar.  Co-sponsored with Elan Magazine

HEAVY METAL IN BAGHDAD is a feature film documentary that follows the Iraqi heavy metal band Acrassicauda from the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 to the present day. Playing heavy metal in a Muslim country has always been a difficult (if not impossible) proposition but after Saddam’s regime was toppled, there was a brief moment for the band in which real freedom seemed possible. That hope was quickly dashed as their country fell into a bloody insurgency. From 2003-2006, Iraq disintegrated around them while Acrassicauda struggled to stay together and stay alive, always refusing to let their heavy metal dreams die. Their story echoes the unspoken hopes of an entire generation of young Iraqis.
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April 1, 2010 - CANCELLED Writing on the Wall-Conversation with director, Angad Bhalla followed by danceparty wit DJ Rekha

With infectious optimism, three young men eke out a living in India's largest cities using public art to express their hopes and dreams. In Delhi, Azad paints film billboards as an escape from the destruction of his home and personal art by government bulldozers. In Bombay, Ashok paints traditional images to keep alive his Warli tribal heritage even though he's abandoned his rural life for the opportunities of the city. Throughout Madras, G Mani puts his name on posters idolizing a film star, gaining power and prestige at odds with his job selling peanuts. For some the public walls hold the most private hopes.