“NLG Presents…” & Happy Hour: Think & Drink

by Judy Somberg and Bonnie Tenneriello

Bonnie Tenneriello (center) introduces speakers at the Occupy Boston “NLG Presents...” Happy Hour. Photo by Barbara Lee

Not everyone drinks, but those attending the bi-monthly speaker series, “NLG Presents…” have found that the bar setting fosters informal and engaged conversation.  Recently transplanted from Kennedy’s Midtown to the Red Hat on Bowdoin Street in Boston, the speaker series alternates months with the NLG Mentorship Happy Hour.  Socializing, exchanging ideas, and building connections are the common agenda.

This past year, speakers have transported us to the frontlines of international struggles and brought us inside Massachusetts political movements.   We had a riveting talk and slide show on the Egyptian uprising from NLG member Carol Gray, who spent 10 months in Cairo studying international human rights law and then bought her camera to the barricades as Hosni Mubarak was toppled.  Ben Evans, Judith Liben, and Judy Somberg, having just returned from a 10-day Guild trip to Cuba, led a lively discussion about the current, complex reality of life in Cuba.   And Puerto Rican rights activist Michael Rodriguez shared the history of Puerto Rican political prisoners in the United States and discussed the campaign to parole the last prisoner, Oscar Lopez Rivera, alongside Puerto Rican civil rights litigator Judith Berkan, who gave an update on events in Puerto Rico.

Occupy Boston presenters (l.-r.) Carl Williams (NLG), Erica Bushell and Kat Johnson of Occupy Boston, and Jeff Feuer of the NLG Mass Defense committee. Photo by Urszula Masny-Latos.

The struggle for economic justice here in Massachusetts was on the table in April, as Andrei Joseph, a high school teacher and Mass Teacher Association leader, and Attorneys Shelley Kroll and Ira Sills of the law firm Segal Roitman, talked about the state of the labor movement and the legal climate for union organizing.  In November, a panel on “Occupy Boston: Legal Support and Legal Frontiers” was held with Erica Bushell and Cat Johnson of the Occupy Boston Legal Working Group and Guild Attorneys Carl Williams and Jeff Feuer.

Teatotalers, tea partiers, members and non-members alike are welcome.  All you need is an active mind.  Keep an eye open for speaker announcements over the coming year and forward them to friends and colleagues.  And please contact us through the Guild office if you want to propose a speaker or a topic.

Judy Somberg (solo practitioner in Cambridge) and Bonnie Tenneriello (Prisoners’ Legal Services) coordinate the “NLG Presents…” program.  Both are on the Board of Directors.

The audience in the packed room at the Red Hat cafe. Photos by Urszula Masny-Latos.