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Town Hall for THE MESSENGER – Cancelled

Saturday Town Hall Event with panelists is CANCELLED

Due to the recent spike in Salt Lake County infections and difficulty in securing COVID-19 tests for panelists, PTC has decided to cancel this Town Hall panel in order to keep our backstage free of possible COVID exposure.

Instead, watch a live-stream of playwright Jeff Talbott hold a discussion with the Saturday matinee audience. Live-stream will start Jan. 15 at approx. 3:45 p.m. on our PTC Facebook Event page

Jeff Talbott’s new play, “The Messenger” deftly addresses issues we are dealing with today, including public health and how our political and business leaders address its complications, what is the responsibility of media to keep us informed, and how we navigate our relationships with each other during crisis.

Jeff was originally scheduled to be joined on stage with Playwright (“Exposed) and Activist Mary Dickson, who will serve as moderator; Dr. Brian Moench, physician and founder of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment; and former SLC Mayor Rocky Anderson, an attorney, activist, and founder of the Justice Party.

Dr. Brian Moench is a physician recently retired from 40 years in private practice and a former junior faculty member of Harvard Medical School. His environmental expertise includes a former adjunct faculty position at the University of Utah Honors College teaching public health and the environment.  He is the president and co-founder of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment (UPHE). Since 2007, UPHE has become the largest civic organization of medical professionals in the Western U.S. who are actively engaged in many environmental battles throughout the country and Western Canada. He is the author two books focused on environmental contamination and corporate malfeasance, Death by Corporation, The Killing of Humankind on the Age of Monster Corporations, and The Great Brain Robbery/Why Women Have Become Smarter Than Men/Science With an Attitude.  He has had more than 125 op-eds published in newspapers throughout the country, appeared on national television, been quoted in national newspapers, and appears regularly on local television and radio programs in Utah discussing the health consequences of air pollution, and is well recognized by the Utah public as an expert on air pollution and health.

Award-winning writer/playwright Mary Dickson is a downwinder and thyroid cancer survivor from Salt Lake City, Utah who is an internationally recognized advocate for survivors of nuclear weapons testing.   She has written and spoken widely about the human toll of nuclear weapons at conferences, symposia, and forums in the U.S. as well as Japan. Exposed, her play combining  her experiences with powerful documentation, received critical acclaim when it premiered at Plan B Theatre. It has subsequently toured universities and venues nationwide as a staged reading. She was honored by the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability for her lifetime work on behalf of those harmed by nuclear testing and is currently working with other survivors abd NGOs to gain support for bills introduced in the U.S. House and Senate that would extend and expand compensation for survivors of nuclear weapons development and testing.
Rocky Anderson’s dedication to social, environmental, and economic justice is reflected in cases he pursued during a 26-year legal career, numerous published articles and columns he has authored, and his work with a human rights organization and as former Salt Lake City Mayor (2000-2008). As Mayor, Rocky successfully fought for mass transit, greater respect toward and legal protections for minority communities, and unprecedented youth programs. He successfully challenged Utah’s English-Only law and opposed Homeland Security campaigns against immigrants. Rocky received the first Profiles in Courage Award from the nation’s largest Latinx organization. He organized programs that reduced greenhouse gas emissions from city operations by 31% in three years, was named one of the world’s top climate protection activists, and received the World Leadership Award for his environmental programs and advocacy. In his lawsuit against the NSA for illegal surveillance of U.S. citizens, Rocky worked closely with Thomas Drake, who was viciously and unsuccessfully prosecuted by the federal government for his whistleblowing about NSA abuses. Rocky now serves as Executive Director of the Justice Party, founded to combat the corrupting influence of money in government and to expand our democracy.

The event will be live-streamed on our Facebook Event page.

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