Naked City

On Friday, Jan. 31, AFRO (African-Americans for Radical Organizing) will host a forum on affirmative action, including the Bush administration's position on the University of Michigan admissions policy and the role that UT will play in that controversy. The forum will be held at 6:30pm in Jester Auditorium, Speedway and 21st, on the UT campus. For more info, call 708-9640 or e-mail [email protected].

"Get Up, Stand Up, Rally for Our Rights" is Sunday, Feb. 2, 2-5pm, at the Toney Burger Center. Speakers will include Gonzalo Barrientos, Liz Carpenter, Molly Ivins, Austin Mayor Gus Garcia and his predecessor Kirk Watson, local NAACP head Nelson Linder, Rev. Joseph Parker, Rev. Rosie L. Johnson, Ahmad Zamer, Angela Valenzuela, Akwasi Evans, Will Harrell, UT professors Ray Marshall and Robert Jensen, and Doris "Granny D" Haddock. Activist photographer Alan Pogue (whose photos of life in Iraq were recently featured in the Chronicle) will present a photo exhibit. Music will be provided by Patrice Pike, Ruthie Foster, Los Lonely Boys, Albert & Gage, the South Austin Jug Band, and Guy Forsyth. Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 at the door; students and seniors are $8, and kids under 10 get in free. Tickets are available at Wheatsville Food Co-op, Eco-Wise, Cheapo Discs & DVDs, Waterloo Records, Curra's Grill, and Planet K. For more info, call 454-3109 or go to www.n2action.org. The event benefits the Gray Panthers of Austin and Hands On Housing.

Austin City Council Member Raul Alvarez will kick off his re-election campaign with his first fundraiser on Monday, Feb. 3, 5:30-7:30pm, at Nuevo Leon, 1501 E. Sixth.

Robert Fisk, Middle East correspondent for Britain's Independent newspaper and fierce critic of U.S. and British Middle East policy, lectures at UT on Monday, Feb. 3, 7pm, at the Will C. Hogg Building, Room 1.120 (just east of the tower). His lecture is titled, "Ask About 9/11 but for Heaven's Sake Don't Ask Why."

The Austin History Center Association, the Carver Museum, and the ACVB are among the sponsors of Black History Month events being held Feb. 8 at the LBJ Library auditorium. The program will include choirs from Huston-Tillotson College and Greater Mount Zion Baptist Church, plus a screening of the HBO documentary Unchained Memories: Readings From the Slave Narratives and the local companion piece The Blue Bellies Are in Austin: Readings From the Travis County Slave Narratives, produced by the Austin History Center. For more info, call 583-7226.