Agenda
Posterboard 
Stream 
Month February – May 2013
In Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures, science writer Virginia Morell takes us on a dazzling odyssey into the inner worlds of animals. With 30 years of experience covering the sciences, Morell uses her formidable gifts as a storyteller to transport us to field sites and laboratories around the world, introducing us to pioneering animal-cognition researchers and their surprisingly intelligent and sensitive subjects. She probes the moral and ethical dilemmas of recognizing that even “lesser animals” have cognitive abilities such as memory, feelings, personality, and self-awareness — traits that many in the 20th century felt were unique to human beings.
Virginia Morell is a prolific contributor to National Geographic, Science, and Smithsonian, among other publications. She is also the author of Ancestral Passions, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; Blue Nile; and coauthor with Richard Leakey of Wildlife Wars. After the discussion, Virgina Morell will be available to sign copies of the book for anyone in attendance.
You can join our meetup for this event here. See you there! Win a copy of Animal Wise!
Every stand-up comedian in the business knows you can always get an instant laugh: make a vegan the butt of your joke. Every vegan kid knows he or she is not likely to get a good meat-free and dairy-free meal in the school lunchroom and faces ridicule just for asking. All too many vegans who live in remote areas have to buy their food by mail order or travel to other towns just to eat. And ask any vegan about what he or she must go through to convey a simple food order in a non-veg restaurant. It isn’t fun.
All this even though we know meat is cruel, unhealthy, and catastrophic for the environment. And why are meat, dairy, and fish so heavily subsidized by governments around the world, particularly in the United States and Europe? None of it makes a bit of sense. Nor is it fair or right.
Enter the 6th annual NYC Veggie Pride Parade, which will take place in Greenwich Village/Union Square, on Sunday, March 24, 2013. For vegetarians, the day’s festivities are sure to give their meatless way of living a much needed boost.
Parade participants are encouraged to dress up in costumes and wear sign boards announcing their pride in their vegan lifestyle. Local restaurants, veg groups, and veg everything will be represented with banners and chants. The parade will include animal-rights activists, environmentalists, and people simply concerned with their health. But on March 24, 2013, all will come together with one voice, one expression, of veggie pride.
The procession will begin at 12 Noon, sharp, in the Old Meat Packing District (where 9th Ave. & Gansevoort St. intersect). It will culminate in a festival for all to enjoy at the north end of Union Square Park. There, revelers of all persuasions will hear well-known vegan speakers and music by vegan artists. They’ll all partake in free vegan food and explore a wide variety of exhibitor presentations. At 2 p.m., a costume contest will take place.
Throughout the day, individuals will be encouraged to speak their mind at the Soapbox Testimonial Station. Other activists will beckon passersby to receive a dollar in return for watching a pro-veg video.
Organizer Pamela Rice feels confident that this year’s parade will be the best ever. Ms. Rice said, “I’m hoping that at this event people will see vegans and vegetarians come out of the shadows, once and for all.”
Visit Veggie Pride Parade for more information about every aspect of the event.
The aim of the Veggie Pride march is to bring veg*ans together to demonstrate publicly in order that everyone of them become a spokeperson of the animals’ cause instead of remaining unnoticed.
In order to do this we encourage them to express their pride in being veg*an, to join the fight against prejudice against veg*ans and to defend their rights as citizens. In effect, the oppression of non-human animals is also a violation of the rights of human beings. Amongst these are the following:
- The right to eat correctly in works canteens, in hospitals, in prison and in any other location of communal eating
- The right to impartial medical advice and information
- The right to raise our children in accordance with our convictions and that they are not marginalised as a result
- The right to refuse work that goes against our ethical convictions
- The right to respond in the media to all those who choose to criticise our way of life.