Apr
30
to May 7

Sex, Power, & Leadership Conference

Imagine a place where loads of interesting people give free talks about everything from consent and birth justice to fauxpowerment and sex work. Well, that place exists and it’s called Sex, Power & Leadership Online Conference.

Sex, Power & Leadership Online Conference is a week-long online speaker series featuring intimate interviews with experts from around the world talking about healing, transformative justice, matriarchy, gynecology, sexual harassment, #MeToo and self-care.

All of the talks will air, for free, on their designated day. And trust me...these talks are challenging and fascinating. I should know, I’m one of the speakers.

If you register for the conference before April 30th, you'll also get a free mini workbook emailed to you each morning during the conference with all kinds of prompts and questions that build on the talks.

You can check it out and sign-up here! And, tell your friends.#SexPower2018

Dr. Willie Twitter Quote 02.png
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Apr
19
to Apr 20

Out From Under The Rug: True Life Tales Of Abortion

Like true stories? Care about social justice? You don’t want to miss this rare theatrical event! Acclaimed live storytelling show Oral Fixation (An Obsession with True Life Tales) premieres its first shows in Houston at the MATCH Theatre on Thursday April 19th and Friday, April 20th at 8pm. "Out From Under The Rug: True Life Tales Of Abortion," will feature seven brave, trailblazing men and women sharing their true, personal stories to sweep the shame we have been told to feel about abortion out from under the rug. I am honored to be among them, sharing my come-to-Jesus story about how I went from being against abortion to providing them.


The other storytellers include Sherry Merfish, a longtime women’s rights advocate and political fundraiser, will share her story of having an abortion before Roe v. WadeMandy Trichell was a 14 year-old girl living in an unstable household when she got pregnant by her mother’s 18 year-old friend. Erika Settles, a hispanic mother of four, experiences religious conflict when she gets pregnant accidentally during a turbulent time. Monte Jones, an oncologist and professor, finds out his wife's much wanted pregnancy is doomed but must take her to another city for the abortion. Shiloh Modisett felt deep shame about her college abortion then finds strength first in coming out as queer and now in sharing her abortion story. Nicole Stewart, a newlywed with a much-wanted pregnancy, faces an abortion at 22 weeks on the same day as Senator Wendy Davis’ filibuster.


$25 TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW! Choose from TWO SHOWINGS, Thursday, April 19th & Friday, April 20th from 8:00-9:30pm. 

PURCHASE HERE: https://matchouston.org/events/out-under-rug-true-life-tales-abortion or www.outfromundertherug.com

 

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Oct
5
6:30 PM18:30

Book signing & discussion in New Orleans

Join the New Orleans Abortion Fund, Catholics for Choice, and the Newcomb College Institute for a book signing and discussion with Dr. Parker.  The event is in the evening on Thursday, October 5th in New Orleans.  The $40 admission includes the cost of a book, and exact details of the event will be sent upon registration.  Visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dr-willie-parker-presents-his-lifes-work-a-moral-argument-for-choice-tickets-38090885865 to purchase a ticket!

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Sep
19
7:00 PM19:00

Dr. Willie Parker and Women's Health Services

Join us for an evening with Dr. Willie J. Parker for a discussion and reading from his book, Life's Work A Moral Argument for Choice.

Pre-event reception begins at 6:00 PM Pre-event reception tickets are $250.00, you must be 21+ to receive reception drink tickets.

Gather at 6:00 pm with a small group for a pre-event reception with Dr. Parker prior to his reading. The reception will include drinks, hors d'oeurves and an opportunity to speak with Dr. Parker. Reception attendees will have reserved seating for the reading.

General Admission begins at 6:45 PM $75.00 Early Bird General Admission tickets are available until midnight on 8/14. Beginning 8/15, General Admission tickets will be $100.00.

Brookline Booksmith will be selling copies of Dr. Parker's book for $25.00 at the event and Dr. Parker will be signing books following the event.

Dr. Willie J. Parker is an OB/GYN specializing in abortions and a reproductive justice advocate. He is a graduate of Berea College in Kentucky, and holds degrees from the University of Iowa College of Medicine, the Harvard School of Public Health, the University of Cincinnati, and the University of Michigan. Board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology and trained in preventive medicine and epidemiology through the Centers for Disease Control, Dr. Parker currently provides abortion care for women in AL, MS, PA, GA, and IL, and is the former Medical Director of Planned Parenthood Metropolitan Washington, DC.

He is the physician plaintiff in the federal lawsuit preventing the closure of Mississippi's only abortion clinic, a case currently in request for hearing by the U.S. Supreme Court.

His work includes a focus on violence against women, sexual assault prevention, and reproductive health rights through advocacy, provision of contraceptive and abortion services, and men's reproductive health.

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Sep
12
7:30 PM19:30

A Conversation on Faith and Reproductive Justice with Dr. Willie Parker, All Souls Church Unitarian (Washington, DC)

Physicians for Reproductive Health and the Reproductive Justice Initiative at All Souls Church Unitarian are hosting a conversation on faith and reproductive justice with Dr. Willie Parker and Rev. Rob Keithan on Tuesday, September 12, 2017, in Washington, DC.

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https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-conversation-on-faith-and-reproductive-justice-with-dr-willie-parker-tickets-36937613396

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Aug
5
to Aug 6

Martha's Vineyard Book Festival

  • Martha's Vineyard United States (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

The Martha’s Vineyard Book Festival returns to the island this summer featuring a stellar line up of some of the country’s leading authors as well as rising stars. Considered one of the summer’s "essential arts events you won’t want to miss," by the Boston Globe (March 2, 2017), the festival brings together a carefully selected group of authors for two days of readings, panel discussions, author interviews, and book signings.

The festival takes place in two locations on the island with Saturday held “down island” in Edgartown and on Sunday, “up island” in Chilmark. 
On Saturday, August 5, at the Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown, the festival features authors talking together in topical panel discussions.
On Sunday, August 6, in tents on the grounds of the Chilmark Community Center "up island" in Chilmark, each author will have an individual discussion, often in an interview format, about his/her work.
Hours each day will be 9:00 am to 4:00 pm
The festival is free and open to all.
The festival promotes dialogue on the leading issues of the day and highlights great writing.  

Some of the authors:

  • Fiction:  Julia Buntin (Marlena), Min Jin Lee (Pachinko), Ann Patchett (Commonwealth), Richard Russo (Trajectory), Danzy Senna (New People), and Amor Towles (A Gentleman of Moscow).  
  • Non-fiction: Jenny Allen ( Would Everybody Please Stop), Carol Anderson (White Rage), Sidney Blumenthal (Wrestling with His Angel), Peter Brannen (The Ends of the World), Erica Armstrong Dunbar (Never Caught), David R. Foster (A Meeting of Land and Sea), Jessica Harris (My Soul Looks Back), Michael Holley (Bellichick and Brady), Ann Hood (Morningstar), Beth Macy (Truevine), Alyssa Mastromonaco (Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?), Dr. Willie Parker (Life’s Work: A Moral Argument for Choice), Richard North Patterson (Fever Swamp), Gillian Thomas (Because of Sex), and Sharon Weinberger (The Imagineers of War). 
  • Culinary Arts/Food: Susie Middleton (Simple Green Suppers), Joan Nathan (King Solomon’s Table), Sarah Waldman (Feeding a Family), Michael Ruhlman (Grocery).

The complete list of authors will be released shortly.  Many, but not all authors, will be speaking on both days.  The author speaking schedule for each day will be announced in the coming weeks. Books for all featured titles will be available for sale at the festival by Bunch of Grapes Bookstore, and authors will be signing their books following their speaking times.

The Martha's Vineyard Book Festival and Author Series are held in alternating years.  In the summer of 2017, we will hold the seventh Martha's Vineyard Book Festival.  In the summer of 2016, we held the Martha's Vineyard Author Series.   The Martha’s Vineyard Book Festival and Author Lecture Series are presented under the auspices of the Chilmark Town Affairs Council, a 501(c)3 organization. The Vineyard Gazette and WBUR Cape & Islands are the festival’s media sponsors.  Cape Cod Five Charitable Foundation Trust, Harbor View Hotel, Cape Air, Vineyard Vines, Cronig's Market, Martha’s Vineyard Productions, and others generously provide additional support.

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Jul
31
6:30 PM18:30

Pregnant Pause: How to Have (or Not Have) a Baby on TV

Panel featuring OB/GYN and reproductive justice advocate Dr. Willie Parker, who recently appeared on The Daily Show, NBC News and more. Dr. Parker's renowned book "Life's Work: A Moral Argument for Choice" will be available for purchase and signing.

Additional speakers include Jane The Virgin co-star Justin Baldoni, UCLA nurse-midwife Shadman Habibi, OB/GYN and medical director for reproductive health Dr. Diana Ramos and ANSIRH research sociologist Gretchen Sisson. 

RSVP at the ticket link. Check in at 6:30, panel begins at 7:00. Reception featuring "Across the Line," a virtual reality experience, to follow.

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Jul
22
7:30 PM19:30

Vagical Mystery Tour with Lizz Winstead, Louisville, KY

Hosted by Lizz Winstead (co-creator, The Daily Show) plus special guests Holly Miranda & Ambrosia Parsley, Dr. Willie Parker, Joyelle Johnson (Night Train with Wyatt Cenac), Leah Bonnema (VH1's '100 Greatest' Series & IFC's 'Comedy Crib') Buzz Off, Lucille (Upright Citizens Brigade) AND musical guest Jill Sobule

$20 GA standing / $25 Reserved seated

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Jun
27
7:30 PM19:30

Vagical Mystery Tour with Lizz Winstead, Chicago, IL

The Lady Parts Justice League Vagical Mystery Tour Hosted By Lizz Winstead (co-creator, The Daily Show) * Alonzo Bodden (Last Comic Standing) * Joyelle Johnson (Night Train with Wyatt Cenac) * Leah Bonnema (VH1’s ‘100 Greatest’ Series & IFC’s ‘Comedy Crib’) * Dr. Willie Parker * K'Valentine. 


Special accommodations: Customers who need special accommodations for handicapped seating or other assistance, please purchase your tickets now, and then contact [email protected] to make arrangements at least two weeks prior to the show. 

We strongly encourage our customers to purchase tickets directly through Metro’s website. The validity of tickets purchased through a third-party seller is not guaranteed. Please use discretion when purchasing outside of Etix. Entrance into Metro is only guaranteed with a valid ticket.

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Jun
22
5:30 PM17:30

Spotlight Health, Aspen, CO

Presented by the Aspen Institute in partnership with The Atlantic, the Aspen Ideas Festival is the nation's premier, public gathering place for leaders from around the globe and across many disciplines to present and discuss the ideas and issues that both shape our lives and challenge our times.

Spotlight Health returns to Aspen, Colorado, June 22-25, 2017, as the opening segment of the annual Aspen Ideas Festival. The tradition of deep dives along the cutting edge of health and medicine continues for its fourth year, presented as always through a global lens. Stimulating and often provocative, Spotlight Health features some of the world’s leading doers and thinkers – the icons and the up-and-comers of our time.

A mix of formats, including keynotes, one-on-one interviews, interactive sessions, and panel discussions foster learning and encourage informal conversations with speakers. There are lessons from innovators working around the world, art displays that echo the themes of the conference, and exercise breaks to keep the body and mind sharp. Set in a verdant mountain valley, cosmopolitan Aspen, Colorado, is a spectacular gathering place in which health can be seen from all its many angles.

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Jun
21
6:30 PM18:30

Busboys and Poets, Washington, D.C.

  • Busboys and Poets (5th & K), Washington, D.C. (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Politics And Prose at Busboys and Poets 5th & K welcomes a conversation on Reproductive Justice with Dr. Willie Parker, Ilyse Hogue, Reverend Dr. Christine Wiley and Reverend Dr. Dennis Wiley moderated by Jamila Taylor.

As access to legal abortion becomes more restricted and organizations providing the service face cuts in federal funding, the fate of Roe v. Wade is in peril. To understand what the Trump era means for reproductive rights, join us for a discussion of the issues with a panel of distinguished writers and public figures headed by Dr. Willie Parker, winner of the 2015 Planned Parenthood Margaret Sanger Award, and whose Pink House is the last remaining abortion clinic in Mississippi. Parker will be in conversation with Ilyse Hogue, President of NARAL Pro-Choice America and Reverend Dr. Christine Wiley and Reverend Dr. Dennis Wiley, co-pastors of the Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ. The discussion will be moderated by Jamila Taylor, a senior fellow at American Progress who specializes in domestic and international women’s health, reproductive rights, and reproductive justice.

Please be sure to arrive early to pick up your free event ticket the day of the event as space is limited.

http://www.busboysandpoets.com/events/event/dr.-willie-parker-panel

 

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Jun
14
7:30 PM19:30

Red Emma's Bookstore, Baltimore, MD

Please join Red Emma's and the Baltimore Abortion Fund as we welcome Dr. Willie Parker to speak about his new book Life's Work. In Life’s Work, Dr. Willie Parker tells a deeply personal and thought-provoking narrative that illuminates the complex societal, political, religious, and personal realities of abortion in the United States from the unique perspective of someone who performs them and defends the right to do so every day. He also looks at how a new wave of anti-abortion activism, aimed at making incremental changes in laws and regulations state by state, are slowly chipping away at the rights of women to control their own lives. In revealing his daily battle against mandatory waiting periods and bogus rules governing the width of hallways, Dr. Parker uncovers the growing number of strings attached to the right to choose and makes a powerful Christian case for championing reproductive rights.

Dr. Willie Parker grew up in the Deep South, lived in a Christian household, and converted to an even more fundamentalist form of Christianity as a young man. But upon reading an interpretation of the Good Samaritan in a sermon by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he realized that in order to be a true Christian, he must show compassion for all women regardless of their needs. In 2009, he stopped practicing obstetrics to focus entirely on providing safe abortions for the women who need help the most—often women in poverty and women of color—and in the hot bed of the pro-choice debate: the South. He soon thereafter traded in his private practice and his penthouse apartment in Hawaii for the life of an itinerant abortion provider, focusing most recently on women in the Deep South.


https://www.facebook.com/events/432746950436943/

 

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Jun
6
7:00 PM19:00

#ShoutYourAbortion presents Dr. Willie Parker with Martha Plimpton

#ShoutYourAbortion (SYA) is thrilled to present a discussion with abortion provider Dr. Willie Parker and actress/activist Martha Plimpton, with an introduction by Seattle bestselling author Lindy West, SYA’s Amelia Bonow, and Surge Northwest. Dr. Parker will read from and speak about his new book, Life’s Work: A Moral Argument for Choice, his Christian faith, and his life of personal and professional experience in abortion care. After speaking, he will be joined in conversation by actress Martha Plimpton, well-known for her work as a film and theater actress (Goonies, Parenthood) as well as her staunch activism on abortion and reproductive rights in our country.

Tickets available here.

Doors open at 6:00 PM - Event begins at 7:00 PM

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Jun
4
4:00 PM16:00

Revolution Books, Harlem, NY

Abortion doctor Willie Parker in conversation at Revolution Books in Harlem with Sunsara Taylor, about Dr. Parker's new memoir. 

"No one on earth expects a large, bald black man in sweats and a baseball cap to be a doctor at all, let alone one of the last abortion doctors in the south," Parker writes in his memoir Life's Work: a Moral Argument for Choice. 

The Trump-Pence fascist regime is committed to outlawing women's right to abortion across the U.S. And it is wielding its control over financial aid to international health organizations to deny women access to abortion and family planning around the world.

Willie Parker is a staunch advocate of women's right to abortion. He is putting his life on the line to perform abortions in several states in the south-- where abortion providers are facing daily threats of violence and murder from the Christian fascists that Mike Pence is now politically leading. . 

Dr. Parker grew up in the Jim Crow south in an unheated shack in Wylam, Alabama-- a company town for a defunct coal mining company. The first in his family to go to college, he was an obstetrician living well in Hawaii when his experiences, and his Christian views, drove him to return to the south to help women routinely shamed for and denied the life-saving procedure of abortion.

This is a timely and important program. Willie Parker debunks the reactionary myths around abortion with scientific clarity and moral conviction. His life journey is remarkable, his example inspiring. He writes: "I could live with the awareness that someone might harm me. I am not so sure that I am brave enough to live with the awareness that I was too afraid to do what I knew to be right."

"...a vivid and companionable memoir of a remarkable life." (The New Yorker)

$5-10 suggested donation to support Revolution Books

https://www.facebook.com/events/703207703192546/
http://www.revolutionbooksnyc.org/

 

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May
21
11:00 AM11:00

Stand By Me: Celebrating 50 Years of the Clergy Consultation Service

Dr. Willie Parker will be preaching at the Judson Memorial Church on Sunday, May 21st, at 11:00 AM as part of their celebration of their celebration marking 50 Years of People of Faith
Helping Women Find Safe Abortions. 
More information about the celebration can be found here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/stand-by-me-celebrating-50-years-of-the-clergy-consultation-service-tickets-33546452342

Seating is first come, first served; morning worship is OPEN to all and not reserved seating. We apologize in advance to anyone turned away when we reach our room maximum safety number.

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May
20
8:00 PM20:00

SPARE RIB - the play - by Winter Miller, a staged reading

  • Judson Memorial Church Meeting Room (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

 A keynote of its 50th Anniversary celebration of the clergy consultative service, Judson Memorial Church presents a full reading of the play Spare Rib by Winter Miller (In Darfur).

            Writing in the The New Yorker, Rebecca Mead describes the play as a “non-Aristotelian, nonlinear, quasi-comic drama.” With characters ranging from talking fetuses, abortion providers and historical and mythical figures, Spare Rib is disarmingly funny in its novel look at life, legacy and personhood.

            Directed by Mikhael Tara Garver (Empire Travel Agency), the reading will feature Tony nominee Pascale Armand (Eclipsed), Drama Desk nominee Kellie Overbey (Sleeping Rough), Kate Rigg (Family Guy), Pulitzer Prize nominee Taylor Mac (The 24-decade History of Popular Music), and more to be announced.

            The evening will raise funds for the National Network of Abortion Funders Dr. Willie Parker Fund, which provides financial assistance to help patients from Mississippi and Alabama access safe and compassionate abortion care and for a production of Spare Rib.

            Dr. Willie Parker, feminist Christian abortion provider will be on hand to sign copies of his book, Life’s Work: A Moral Argument for Choice. Dr. Willie Parker’s own writing about his work and philosophy can be found in a recent New York Times op-ed here. Playwright and organizer Winter Miller’s writing and background can be found here.

            Spare Rib at Judson has additional support from piece by piece productions, New Georges and MTG Experiences.

Doors open at 7:30 - Reading begins at 8:00

Suggested donation $20
*This is a fundraiser for abortion access; no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

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