If you missed our Fair Trade and Conscious Gifts Holiday Bazaar last weekend because of the heavy rains, not to worry - you still have the chance to purchase our one-of-a-kind hand-made items from Afghanistan this Saturday at the Antimall!

WHAT: 8th Annual Antimall
WHEN: Saturday December 19th, 12 noon - 7 pm
WHERE: 3400 N. Figueroa Street. Cypress Park, CA 90065

Antimall is an annual alternative holiday market and festival. This year the event will be outdoors, with an entire street blocked off and filled with vendors. Look for the AWM table! We will be offering our purses (large and small), wallets, pillow covers, table cloths, wall hangings, jewelry, T-shirts, books, and DVDs.

There will be live music, DJs, surprise guests, Food, Toy giveaways, and Free Coffee. This is a family-friendly event!

For more information, email elpuente52@yahoo.com.

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Tired of submerging your conscience every holiday season?

Worried you won’t be able to afford gifts this year?

JOIN US for the 4th Annual Fair Trade and Conscious Gifts Holiday Bazaar!

WHEN: Saturday December 12th 2009, 11 am – 4 pm

WHERE: Immanuel Presbyterian Church, 3300 Wilshire Blvd, LA (Geneva Room - wheelchair accessible)

PARKING: Street parking near the church, church lot, or Athena Parking lot across Berendo.

Browse through a large selection of affordable, sweatshop-free arts and crafts made by artisans internationally and locally, including embroidered pillow-covers, wallets and purses from Afghanistan, locally made jewelry, blankets, scarves and tote-bags, soaps, candles, oils, conscious books, CDs, and much more!

Entrance is Free. Complementary tea, coffee and pastries.

All proceeds will directly benefit the artists and workers who made the items.

Buying gifts for your loved ones doesn’t have to violate your ethics or drain your bank account!

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Known as the "most famous woman in Afghanistan," dissident parliamentarian Malalai Joya returns to the US, this time to share her new political memoir, A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice, co-written with Derrick O'Keefe.

Listen to Malalai Joya on NPR's Talk of the Nation.

"Perhaps the most remarkable feature of this inspiring memoir is that despite the horrors she relates, Malalai Joya leaves us with hope that the tormented people of Afghanistan can take their fate into their own hands if they are released from the grip of foreign powers, and that they can reconstruct a decent society from the wreckage left by decades of intervention and the merciless rule of the Taliban and the warlords who the invaders have imposed upon them." - Noam Chomsky

"A chilling, vital memoir that reveals hidden truths about Afghanistan and directly addresses the misguided policies of the United States." - Kirkus Reviews

"One of the few women, and the youngest, to win a seat in Afghanistan's Parliament, Joya recounts in strong, uncompromising language her march to activism, from her humble origins to recognizing a burning need to bring the corrupted leaders to justice in her war-torn country." - Publishers Weekly

Ms. Joya's book tour will take her to New York, Washington DC, Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco from late October to early November 2009.

Click here for a calendar of events.

Pre-order the book.

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Malalai Joya, the young woman who the BBC has hailed as the "bravest in Afghanistan," has published her memoirs, A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Woman Who Dared to Speak Out.

Joya, now 31, was the youngest ever woman elected to the Afghan Parliament in 2005 and is an outspoken critic of the Karzai government and NATO occupation. She will be touring North America between Oct. 23 and Nov. 27 to speak about her new memoir, co-written with Canadian activist and writer Derrick O�Keefe.

Malalai Joya will be traveling through the US for a brief book tour at the following cities: New York, Boston, Cambridge, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Irvine, Berkeley, San Jose, Seattle, and Bellingham.

Check the calendar for details of the book tour. Read more

Los Angeles – President Obama’s anticipated deployment of additional troops to Afghanistan is being justified in part by the Taliban threat to Afghan women. To mark the 8th anniversary of the start of Operation Enduring Freedom, a member of a prominent Afghan women’s rights group will tour the United States this month, with a different message to Obama and Congress: “liberation can only come from within – end the US occupation.” Read more