Presentation Title
Degree Name
Master of Interdisciplinary Studies (MA)
Department
Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences
Location
Tioga Library Building
Start Date
26-5-2014 5:15 PM
End Date
26-3-2014 5:20 PM
Abstract
I came to UW Tacoma with an interest in studying social justice groups and organizations. As I looked into local social justice projects I kept running into the same name – Bill Bicshel, also known as Father Bix. Father Bix was born in Tacoma in 1928. Since the ‘60s he has been an activist for non-violence, and an advocate for the poor, the homeless, and the mentally ill. He has helped create many social justice organizations, including the Martin Luther King Center, the G Street community, Guadalupe House, the Gallucci gardens, soup kitchens, and Pierce County’s first food bank. He currently leads anti-nuclear protests, for which he has been arrested and imprisoned several times, most recently in 2011. All of these projects stem from his core value that it’s not enough to believe something, you have to act on your beliefs.
Father Bix has a special ability to rope people into things. He will have an idea about turning an unused plot of land into a garden that can produce food to supply a soup kitchen for the homeless, and he will find all of the people that will make that plan happen. And it will happen. His charisma, enthusiasm, drive and faith in community are unstoppable. If Father Bix asks you for your help you can’t say no.
I am currently doing an oral history project about Father Bix, and I would like to share what I am learning about his work in Tacoma and the ways he has both created and leveraged community in service of social justice.
COinS
You Can't Say "No" to Father Bix
Tioga Library Building
I came to UW Tacoma with an interest in studying social justice groups and organizations. As I looked into local social justice projects I kept running into the same name – Bill Bicshel, also known as Father Bix. Father Bix was born in Tacoma in 1928. Since the ‘60s he has been an activist for non-violence, and an advocate for the poor, the homeless, and the mentally ill. He has helped create many social justice organizations, including the Martin Luther King Center, the G Street community, Guadalupe House, the Gallucci gardens, soup kitchens, and Pierce County’s first food bank. He currently leads anti-nuclear protests, for which he has been arrested and imprisoned several times, most recently in 2011. All of these projects stem from his core value that it’s not enough to believe something, you have to act on your beliefs.
Father Bix has a special ability to rope people into things. He will have an idea about turning an unused plot of land into a garden that can produce food to supply a soup kitchen for the homeless, and he will find all of the people that will make that plan happen. And it will happen. His charisma, enthusiasm, drive and faith in community are unstoppable. If Father Bix asks you for your help you can’t say no.
I am currently doing an oral history project about Father Bix, and I would like to share what I am learning about his work in Tacoma and the ways he has both created and leveraged community in service of social justice.