18th Annual First Night Against the Wars

• Time: 12-5 PM, Saturday January 31st
• Place: Copley Square, directly across the street from Community Church of Boston.
• What: Rally, Demonstration, March, Food and Entertainment.
• Everyone Welcome!
• Bring: Free Food, Banners, Literature, Fliers, Stickers, Buttons

The 18th Annual First Night Against the Wars is upon us! An all-day event that boasts multiple music concerts, puppets, an ice skating show, and two fireworks displays one at 7PM and another at 12:30 AM. Activist Groups for the past 18 years have gathered around multiple issues and many times march from Copley to Boston Common at the end of the parade.

Groups are setting up at Copley Plaza at 11:30 AM and things get going at 12 noon. There is an Assange Defense Rally at 2 PM, and activist marching band BaBam will perform as well. Jill Stein and XR Solidarity will be marching from Copley Plaza to Boston Common at the end of the parade at 5 PM.

Groups participating or sponsoring the event include:

• July 26th Coalition of Boston
• Assange Defense
• Workers World Party Boston
• Boston Mayday Coalition
• Food for Activists
• Activate Media
• United Against Wars and Militarism
• Chelsea United Against The War
• Veterans For Peace
• Jill Stein
• BaBam (Boston Area Brigade of Activist Musicians)
• XR Solidarity

Message from the Event Page:

Living today in a country perpetually at war, it is only fitting that this December 31 will mark the 18th annual celebration of First Night Against the Wars.

Every year folks seeking an end to our permanent war culture gather in Copley Square to bring free food, banners, literature, fliers, stickers, buttons, and the antiwar holiday spirit to many thousands of First Night revelers who may long for peace.

Your participation would contribute greatly to that spirit. Bring what you wish and join in the spectacle. So often the holiday festivities fail to celebrate the resistance coming from working people and the oppressed to the wars against women, oppressed nationalities, LGBT folks, the climate, the poor, and other countries.

We will be setting up near the corner of Boylston and Dartmouth Streets. Look for our signs and banners. Please join us.

Note: We may be in a slightly different location this year. They are moving the performance stage to the Old Library Entrance. We might have to set up directly across the street from the Community Church of Boston at 565 Boylston Street.

For info: 857-272-6743

Arlington Event Featuring the Documentary:
“Dying To Know: Ram Dass & Timothy Leary”

By Hope O’Shaughnessy

This Wednesday, October 19 at 7:30 p.m. the award-winning film: “Dying To Know: Ram Dass & Timothy
Leary” will be shown at The Regent Theatre in Arlington, MA. The documentary’s filmmaker Gay
Dillingham will be on hand as well as Mirabai Bush, co-author of “Walking Each Other Home:
Conversations on Loving & Dying”, co-authored by Ram Dass. Ram Dass, who passed on December
22, 2019, was a North American spiritual teacher as well as an author and psychologist who hailed
from Newton, MA.

After the film concludes, attendees will be treated to a panel discussion featuring Dillingham and
Bush, moderated by Boston Magazine’s Jonathan Soroff. Chuck White of the David Bieber Archives
designed the Ram Dass Memorabilia Exhibit that will be on display. Tickets are general admission
and available at: https://regenttheatre.com/details/an_evening_with_ram_dass_friends. For more
information about the film: https://dyingtoknowmovie.com/

Ram Dass’s niece Kathy Alpert, who organized the event along with White, shared her connection
with the spiritual leader. “To most people, Ram Dass was a spiritual teacher who taught others how
to cultivate loving awareness. To me, for many years, he was simply my eccentric Uncle Richard,
who gave me advice on how to survive high school. I’m so happy to be able to celebrate his life here
in his hometown of Boston.”

Alpert said she feels a quote from Peggy Hitchcock about the psychedelic scene today sums up the
significance of Alpert and Leary’s work at Harvard. Hitchcock is included in the interviews for the
“Dying to Know” documentary. Hitchcock shared, “Nearly sixty years after Tim’s and Richard’s
experimental work administering psilocybin mushrooms to prisoners, the Andrew Weil Center for
Integrative Medicine is hosting a Global Summit on “Psychedelic Assisted Therapy” (here) in Tucson,
AZ. Better late than never. I guess timing is everything!”

“An Evening with Ram Dass & Friends” was designed to honor his legacy. According to the Ram
Dass official website (www.ramdass.org), the Love Serve Remember Foundation serves to carry on
the spirit of Ram Dass’s wishes to continue programs and content with the message of “unconditional
love and deep wisdom.”

Another non-profit benefiting from the event is Hanuman Maui Loving Awareness Sanctuary, Ram
Dass’s residence in Hawaii, which preserves his home and the surrounding property as a spiritual
sanctuary. Hanuman Maui continues to share Ram Dass’s energy through kirtan, meditation,
educational programs, and retreats. www.hanumanmaui.org