Calendar

Please consider helping IRTF by volunteering for a shift on Waterloo Rd on Saturday, Sep 12. Click here for the volunteer shifts.

Saturday, SEP 12, 2026, 12-7pm

The annual Waterloo Arts Fest takes place in the artistically vibrant Waterloo Arts & Entertainment District in the lakeside neighborhood of Collinwood in Cleveland, OH. Over the past twenty four years the festival has grown but it has always remained grounded in community and fresh with local art. For seven hours each year, the Waterloo Arts Fest reminds residents and visitors of the many assets in the Waterloo Arts District, of the incredible potential still to be realized and how wonderful it is to live in a city neighborhood with a great mix of people.

90+ local maker booths and visit 10+ fine art galleries 

8 festival stages with 40+ local bands

craft tents, children's play areas, art demos and more!

Waterloo Arts Fest

source = The Dorothea Project-Cleveland

Lamentations and Light: Solidarity Witness for Justice for Immigrants

This vigil is offered in solidarity with The Dorothea Project, a  growing movement of women called to live their faith out loud, inspired by the faithful witness of Dorothy Day (whose cause for sainthood was endorsed by the US bishops in 2012) and Sister Thea Bowman (whose cause for sainthood was endorsed by the US bishops in 2018).

Our local witness is being organized to coincide with the “Our Lady of Sorrows” advocacy day that The Dorothea Project is holding on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. and its sojourn/lobby day in DC on Tuesday, September 15, 2026--"Our Lady of Sorrows".  The Dorothea Project was born out of the compassion young mothers throughout the US feel for immigrant mothers and families--knowing that ICE is ripping mothers away from their babies and children, and detaining pregnant women in deplorable and inhumane conditions.

On Saturday, Sep 12, we will vigil in solidarity with those participating in the national advocacy day.  After a brief meditative walk to Market Square (1979 West 25th Street at Lorain Ave), we will light candles to honor those suffering in immigration detention, calling by names those who have died this year in ICE custody. We will have postcards write messages to our congressional representatives that we will later deliver to local congressional district offices.

TIME

4:30 PM- to make signs before the vigil walk, meet at Evangeline's at 3228 Lorain Ave.   

5:30 -meditative walk from Evangeline's to Market Square.

5:45- Welcome and Statement of Purpose

6:00 -Ritual to set up and light candles and remember those who the US is detaining, those detained and tortured in other places, those incarcerated in the US, those on death row in the US and throughout the world, children criminalized for flying kites in Gaza, all who suffer injustice                            

6:15 - Songs

6:30 - Statement: Justice is the communal word for love.  We are commanded to love our neighbors; that means to do justice for them.

6:45 - Lamentations and Light ceremony

7:00 - Mediation read from Maha Ghosananda (Cambodian Buddhist monk). Building Courage to challenge injustice.

7:15 - Postcards to US representatives and other elected officials

7:30 - Closing--Song

Closing note:

Peace cannot exist without justice.  Peace is a byproduct of justice.  Justice is a byproduct of compassion.  Thus, Maha Ghosananda's mediation:

The suffering of [of our people] has been deep.

From this suffering comes Great Compassion.

Great Compassion makes a peaceful heart.

A peaceful heart makes a peaceful person.

A peaceful person makes a peaceful family.

A peaceful family makes a peaceful community.

A peaceful community makes a peaceful nation.

A peaceful nation makes a peaceful world.

May all beings live in Happiness and Peace

source = Repairers of the Breach CLE

Moral Monday March

Meet: Monday, Sep 14, 12noon in front of Old Stone Church, 91 Public Square, downtown Cleveland.

Organizer: Repairers of the Breach CLE.

Focus: Get out the vote.

Somewhere in your community, there are people who intend to vote and never quite make it. The line was too long last time. The date slipped their mind. No one reminded them, no one walked with them, no one made it feel like it belonged to them.  Our march hope to change that.

As a local chapter of the national Repairers of the Breach movement, we are part of the organizing of 1,000 Marches to the Polls, a nonpartisan mobilization across more than 35 states, timed to early voting. The plan is built. The materials are ready. Now we need you.

Join us to march.  We will gather in front of the Old Stone Church at 91 Public Square. Look for our signs, hear our voices. Together we will be seen and heard.

We will march from there to the Federal Building (Lakeside and E9th), where Sen. John Husted has his local office.  We will sing.  We will pray. Together. Be part of our voice as we continue our call to vote.  Nothing changes without the votes of all. Together.

Here is last month’s letter we delivered to Senator Moreno and Senator Husted

Dear Senators,

As you know, the President’s 2027 budget needs all hands on deck to be passed. Already, people have started to feel the pressure on their pocketbooks from the wars and cuts to food assistance and healthcare caused by the “Big, Beautiful Bill.” You may not see it, but there is pain and suffering for many Ohioans. It has been the largest single transfer of wealth from the poor to the wealthy in our country’s history.

To over half of the people in our state, the policy decisions made over the last year are not just an inconvenience. They are having tragic consequences. We are registering our complaints about:
· the immoral wars we are in,
· the hospital closures and loss of health insurance for over 250,000 in Ohio,
· the severe cuts to nutrition assistance for over 100,000 throughout Ohio,
· the extreme actions against immigrant communities,
· the ongoing efforts to dismantle voting rights,
· the undoing of critical housing supports for low-income Ohioans,
· the opposition to living wages, and
· the lack of equal protection under the law.
 

Many of us who are middle class and wealthy Northeast Ohioans feel a need to stand with those who are suffering and dying as a result of these policy decisions.
We will continue out protests every Second Monday of the Month…with a march that begins at Public Square in front of the Old Stone Church, and ends at Husted’s office in the Federal Building at E. 9 th and Lakeside.

As people of compassion, we do not feel we are over-reacting. We are not left-wing nuts or communists that you can easily write off and ignore.

Our continuous prayer has been that we can recognize the gravity of this moment and find common ground, and that this prayer will be paired with action, so that collective
energies can make a difference for all Ohioans.
 

In faith,

Rev. Doug Horner on behalf of 
CLE Repairers of the Breach (Rev. Dr. William J Barber II, Dr. Hanna R Broom)
Ohio Poor People’s Campaign
Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless

SOURCE and MORE INFORMATION: https://waronterror25.org/

Dear Friends,

I hope you have been taking care as we continue to grieve the violence and disregard for life by the state. In the face of this violence, MCL remains committed to organizing across local, national, and international struggles. We hold everyone who is grieving, resisting, and surviving close and we know that together we can strengthen our movements, and cultivate communities rooted in solidarity, care, and collective liberation.

As many of you may know, this year marks two anniversaries: 25 years on the Global War on Terror as well as 250 years of the American empire. We can never truly quantify or unearth all the levels of harm that have been inflicted. However, we know that memorializing and gathering as a collective is one way we can grapple with how this War on Terror apparatus has reshaped the lives of Muslims, Arabs and other targeted communities in the U.S. and across the globe

In response, Muslim Counterpublics Lab is marking this anniversary through our convening: “When Will This War End: Lessons and Legacies of the War on Terror,” on Thursday and Friday, September 17-18, 2026 in Washington D.C. The conference will be held at the Elliott School of International Affairs in partnership with 25+ organizations.

We invite all of our partners, allies, organizations and community members to join us for this conference that will feature 12 plenaries and workshops with over 35 speakers over two days. Details such as speakers, session descriptions, the overall schedule and registration can be found on our website: WarOnTerror25.org

The goal of this conference is to confront the quarter-century of structural violence that has operated under problematic, violent policies that claim to battle “terrorism” by bringing together scholars, organizers, advocates, survivors, journalists, and community members to examine lessons from the War on Terror, explore what resistance to this framework of state violence has looked like, and ask how we can imagine a future where infrastructure of the War on Terror is finally abolished. Finally, this conference will hold space to mourn and remember survivors and the millions of victims of the War on Terror, as we continue to demand accountability, justice and reparations.

If your organization is interested in sponsorship, please fill out this form.  Also, please be on the lookout on @MuslimCounterpublicsLab on socials and our website as we continue to share exciting updates and details of the conference! For any other questions or concerns, please reach out to gwotconference@muslimcounterpublicslab.org.

We would also greatly love your support in sharing this far and wide, with your listservs, social media team, partners, community members, staff and all that can benefit from this incredible space we are cultivating together!

Please consider volunteering with IRTF at our fair trade booth. Click here for the schedule. 

Saturday, SEP 19 2026, 12-7pm

The Tremont Arts & Cultural Festival celebrates its 27th year! in Cleveland's Lincoln Park.

Come and visit the five Festival Villages:

(1) Children's Village: hand-on arts, historical, and educational projects:

(2) Community Village: area non-profit organizations presenting material about their mission and services, along with local, independent merchants and vendors;

(3) Cultural Village: food sales by Tremont and Greater Cleveland restaurants , and fair trade merchants and non-profits reflecting the ethnic diversity of the neighborhood and region;

(4) Artists' Village: Applications for exhibiting visual artists are accepted online in 15 categories: 2D Mixed Media, 3D Mixed Media, Ceramics, Digital Art, Drawing, Fiber, Glass, Fine Jewelry, Leather, Metal (non-sculptural), Painting (Oil, Acrylic, & Watercolor), Photography & Digital Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture (Paper, Bronze, Clay, Metal, Stone) and Wood.

(5) Food Court: A dynamic area featuring a variety of food trucks and booths offering an eclectic mix of delicious eats from local vendors.

Free music and dance performances.

Tremont Arts & Cultural Festival

Join us for our Annual Celebration: Banned Book Bingo in partnership with Red Wine and Blue on Wednesday, September 23, 2026.

Banned Book Bingo features books by Women Authors, Authors of Color, LGBTQ+ Authors, with books about racism, sexuality, gender, and history. Walk away with the knowledge of how you can push back against book banners and stand up and support freedom, democracy, equality, and inclusion! 

Banned Book Bingo features books by Women Authors, Authors of Color, LGBTQ+ Authors, with books about racism, sexuality, gender, and history. Walk away with the knowledge of how you can push back against book banners and stand up and support freedom, democracy, equality, and inclusion!

to register click here

source: Community Peacemaker Teams CPT

Join us for an online gathering celebrating 40 years of peacemaking around the world!

This year CPT marks its 40th anniversary. To celebrate this milestone, we’re hosting a special webinar, bringing together stories spanning four decades of transforming violence and oppression.

What does it mean to walk alongside a community in its struggle against oppression? How have we disrupted systems of violence with creative nonviolent action? And what makes our approach to solidarity and accompaniment so unique?

Join CPTers past and present as they share stories that stand out from our journey. Together, we accompanied campesina communities in Colombia facing displacement, stood against state terror in the West Bank, and supported migrants navigating the jail cells and detention camps of the Aegean islands. We have demanded justice alongside Indigenous communities defending their land and resources, kept memory alive with the families of those killed by Turkish strikes in Iraqi Kurdistan, and held vigil for our neighbors whose lives were lost at the US-Mexico border.

Come with us to reflect on four decades of protective presence. Celebrate what we’ve built together, connect with our community, and rise with us into the next 40 years of undoing violence and oppression!

You’ll be able to support our work into the next 40 years through our fundraising auction! Your bid will raise funds that keep our programs going.

to sign up click here

source: Council on American Islamic Relations of Ohio

Asalaamu Alaikum,

We hope you are having a wonderful summer!

Election season is officially underway, and we have hit the ground running with our 3rd Annual Get Out the Vote (GOTV) Masjid Competition. For the past five weeks, our team has been visiting mosques across Northern Ohio to help community members register to vote, verify their voter registration, request absentee ballots, and answer election-related questions.

Finally, tickets for our annual banquet on Sunday, September 27 are now available for purchase! We are excited to bring you Dr. Suleiman Hani from Al Maghrib Institute, Dr. Altaf Husain from Yaqeen Institute, and our very own board member, Mohmmad Faraj! We can't wait to see you at our biggest event of the year and to celebrate another year of impact with you, insha'Allah.

Thank you for your continued support of our work. Together, we are building a stronger, more informed, and more engaged community.

With care,

The CAIR-Ohio Team

to register click here

Inspired by Pope Francis’ centering of Indigenous spirituality, Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers are hosting “Sacred Border Experience: Indigenous Spirituality and Mission.” This event will explore what it means to be a missionary disciple in a way that honors, rather than erases, Indigenous cultures. Focused on Indigenous wisdom, border reality, reflection, and missionary discipleship, this experience will be October 9-11 at the Columban Center in El Paso, Texas.
Featured presenters include Dr. Yolanda Chávez Leyva, a Chicana/fronteriza historian and writer of Rarámuri descent and Associate Professor of History at the University of Texas at El Paso, and Monsignor Arturo J. Bañuelas, the founder of the Tepeyac Institute and Hope Border Institute, both in El Paso.

Immediately after, Maryknoll is offering an immersion trip at the El Paso/Juarez Border from October 11-16. Spend a week on a transformative pilgrimage retreat to El Paso, Texas, and Juárez, Mexico, which will delve into the complex realities of life for migrants. Experience the human side of migration by engaging directly with immigrants seeking refuge —sharing meals, hearing their powerful stories, and witnessing their resilience. Learn from Church workers and advocates who navigate these critical issues daily.

Rooted in the principles of social justice and spirituality, this journey offers moments of prayer, liturgy, and faith-sharing. Reflect on the Gospel and your beliefs while exploring the impact of U.S. immigration policies, the intricacies of migration, and your role in responding with compassion and action. This is more than a trip—it’s a call to deepen your faith, broaden your understanding, and return home as an advocate for justice. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to witness, learn, and grow.

to register for the border uimmersion trip click here

source: World Beyond Wars 

This October 23-25, World BEYOND War's “#NoWar2026: Beyond Borders” Conference will unpack how the war system drives mass displacement and fuels the militarization of borders worldwide. Sliding-scale tickets start at $5 USD, which covers all 3 days of online sessions. Get your ticket.

Why "Beyond Borders" is this year's conference theme:

✱ Conflict & war fuel displacement. At the end of 2025, the number of people displaced by war and violence was estimated at 117.8 million.1

✱ The weapons industry profits twice...from arming conflict to militarizing borders, blocking the movement of people fleeing violence. Lockheed Martin — the world’s biggest weapons company — has received more than $1 billion in U.S. Customs & Border Protection contracts. RTX (formerly Raytheon) has deployed border surveillance & militarization in 24+ countries.2 

✱ Meanwhile, xenophobia and violent crackdowns on migrants are on the rise globally. Earlier this year, the UN Human Rights Chief decried the dehumanizing and unlawful immigration policies enacted by the Trump administration.3 And the EU is ramping up deportations under a new law that mirrors U.S. ICE-style brutal tactics.4

tor register click here