PRESS RELEASE

BRIDGE Wins Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award

Oakland, CA – The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR) celebrates Eunice Hyunhye Cho, Francisco Arguelles Paz y Puente, Miriam Ching Yoon Louie, and Sasha Khokha, who were awarded the Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights and Bigotry for their book, BRIDGE: Building a Race and Immigration Dialogue in the Global Economy: A Popular Education Resource for Immigrant and Refugee Community Organizers.

BRIDGE is a collection of curriculum—developed with testing by over seventy community groups—for immigrant communities to build alliances and find common ground for action with others fighting for economic, social, and racial justice, and to envision alternatives and resistance in these times of global exclusion, racism, and human rights abuses. BRIDGE strives to place the current work of the immigrant and refugee rights movement in larger historic and global contexts, and to promote the human rights of all migrants and refugees. The book also provides tools for immigrant rights organizers who want to address challenging issues, including racism, sexism, homophobia, immigration issues, and globalization.

The Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights announced its annual list (20th list) of outstanding books and authors. Ten books and their authors are welcomed into the prestigious Myers Outstanding Book Awards Winners' Circle this year. The awards are made annually on December 10, International Human Rights Day.

The Center’s Director, Dr. Loretta J. Williams, noted that the Myers Center encourages greater use of what is known in academia, movement organizations, and the like about institutionalizing anti-oppression practices into all aspects of community and organizational life. "We chose authors and books that challenge ways of thinking and acting," said Williams, “that allow the many faces and facets of bigotry to replicate over and over again.”

The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR) is a national organization composed of local coalitions and immigrant, refugee, community, religious, civil rights and labor organizations and activists. It serves as a forum to share information and analysis, to educate communities and the general public, and to develop and coordinate plans of action on important immigrant and refugee issues.

The BRIDGE Project of NNIRR supports the work of community organizers and activists in using popular education and community dialogue to strengthen grassroots organizing and building alliances for immigrant and refugee rights. Building on the work of the award-winning BRIDGE curriculum, the BRIDGE Project provides opportunities for training, leadership development, and education to immigrant communities.

For more information about the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights, visit: www.myerscenter.org. For more information about the award-winning book or the BRIDGE Project, visit: www.nnirr.org/projects/bridge.html.

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