Kimber Heinz

Kimber Heinz is a past national organizer for the War Resisters League. She lives in Durham, North Carolina, and is a member-leader with SONG, an organization working towards queer liberation in five states across the U.S. South. She is also a board member of Under the Hood Cafe, an outpost of GI rights and resistance based outside of Ft. Hood, Texas.

Mandy Carter and Joanne Sheehan: A Conversation Between Women Leaders in the War Resisters League

Joanne Sheehan and Mandy Carter at WRL’s 90th Anniversary conference. Photo by Linda Thurston.

Kimber Heinz (KH): How did the two of you first get involved with WRL?

Mandy Carter (MC): It came about for me because of learning about the Institute for the Study of Nonviolence, which was started by Joan Baez and Ira Sandperl in 1965. Joan had met Ira and she was interested in studying more about Gandhian nonviolence. Because of her dedication to that issue, they set up the Institute for the Study of Nonviolence down in Carmel Valley, California.

Field Report

 

On May 5, Field Organizer Ali Issa gave a brief presentation to about 50 people at the American Friends Service Committee Friend’s Center in Philadelphia entitled “Iraq’s Tahrir Square” about the pro-democracy movement there. Ali also got the chance to connect with delegates that had recently visited Afghanistan with Voices for Creative Nonviolence and strategize how to amplify the voices of Afghan-driven alternatives to U.S. military strategy there.

WRL News

 

National Committee Renews Direction

This summer’s National Committee (NC) meeting was held in August rather than July to accommodate a strategic planning session with consultant Suzanne Pharr. Together with Mandy Carter, Suzanne founded Southerners on New Ground (SONG), a Southern regional organization made up of working class, people of color, immigrants, and rural LGBTQ people. She has many years of experience as a community organizer, was the director of Highlander Center for four years, and has a history of helping organizations develop strategically.