Ian Garrett

Gulf Coast Fund Responds as Region Braces for Yet Another Disaster

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As Mississippi River Flooding Heads South, Gulf Coast Fund Launches Text-to-Donate Campaign to Raise Desperately Needed Resources

New Orleans, LA – The Gulf Coast Fund for Community Renewal and Ecological Health, (www.gulfcoastfund.org), a community-led philanthropy in the Gulf Coast, is mobilizing in anticipation of yet another disaster. As rising flood waters from the Mississippi River approach the region, the Fund is working with grassroots leaders to distribute emergency grants to underserved communities that will likely be severely affected, such as those along the Atchafalaya River in the Louisiana Bayou. Flood waters are expected to cover ten percent of Louisiana, impacting 2,500 people living in its immediate path and an additional 22,500 who are predicted to be affected by backwater flooding.

“We hope for the best but prepare for the worst,” states Marylee Orr, Executive Director, Louisiana Environmental Action Network (www.leanweb.org). “The challenge is waiting to see what the river will do. For now, we’re doing what we can–patrolling the River, distributing daily updates on flood conditions, keeping communities informed, and supplying clean-up kits for use after the water recedes, which is expected at the end of May at the very earliest,” Orr continues.

“Most evacuees have stored their belongings and are staying with friends or family, and more mandatory evacuations will likely be issued in the coming days,” explains LaTosha Brown, Director, Gulf Coast Fund for Community Renewal and Ecological Health. “Just as with the residents displaced by the recent tornadoes, permanent and lasting housing solutions need to be developed. Staying with friends and family can not be considered a long-term solution,” Brown states.

This latest emergency response by the Gulf Coast Fund is in addition to ongoing support for hard-hit, low-income and often isolated rural communities in Alabama and Mississippi, who are still reeling from the tornadoes that struck last month, as well as continued funding and aid to support residents impacted by health issues and loss of livelihood due to the BP drilling disaster.

“By establishing an extensive network of grassroots organizations, the Gulf Coast Fund has been able to move resources quickly to areas with urgent needs,” Brown declares. “But in the face of so many recent disasters occurring one after the other, the need for funds has increased. Our hope is that by launching a text-to-donate campaign, we can reach out to a broad audience, and fortify our ability to provide emergency grants to disenfranchised communities with crucial needs,” Brown states.

You can now donate to the Gulf Coast Fund with your cell phone:

TEXT “RESTORE” to ‘85944’ to donate $10 instantly

Make sure you Reply Yes to confirm your gift

Standard Messaging Rates Apply

The Gulf Coast Fund will also be launching the “One Gulf. One People. One Future. Restore America’s Gulf Coast” social media campaign on their Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages as part of the RESTORE text-to-donate effort to increase funds supporting Gulf Coast organizations.

www.Facebook.com/GulfCoastFund

www.YouTube.com/GulfCoastFund

@GulfCoastFund on Twitter

* Interviews with Marylee Orr and LaTosha Brown available upon request*

Call for participants/presenters in a panel presentation and round table discussion, with possible breakout sessions at Scenofest, PQ2011

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Roundtable Information

10am  21st June

Considering Sustainable Design: expanding the possible by rethinking the way we create

In their book, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, William McDonough and Michael Braungart argue that we will never sell sustainable practice by pitching cutting back, but rather through creating products that are beneficial to the earth. As Braungart points out, ants have a greater biomass than humans, and have been industrious for millions of years, yet unlike humans, their industry nourishes the planet. This panel will consider the benefits of sustainable design practice beyond the ‘it feels right’ motivation. By Rethinking the Way We Create Things, might we be opening up to a whole new and exciting world of design possibilities?

If you are planning to attend PQ2011, are interested in this aspect of design, and feel you would be interested/available to participate, please send your proposed presentation topic (abstract), and a short bio to William Mackwood:  mackwood@yorku.ca

2pm 21st June

Sites of Performance – Theatre out of frames

This years Scenofest sees two major performance projects happening outside of a theatre building, so what is it that this form of theatre achieves that cannot be achieved through other means ? Over the last ten years there has been a real surge in the interest in making work in unorthodox spaces from garages, botanical gardens, intimate apartments to massive industrial units.  Increasingly this work seeks out intersection with other collaborators, historians, cultural geographers, urban planners as the work seeks to map hidden histories. Street theatre performance too has developed in sophistication and scale and artists are employed as a catalysts to re-imagine their futures. Work by pioneering artists like Meredith Monk, Ariane Mnouchkine, Peter Brooks and companies like Dogtroep, Skewed Vision, Wilson+Wilson, La Machine all shaped the form, but what does the future hold ?

This roundtable considers the unique opportunities offered through this work and explore sites of performance potential for spectacle / community engagement / regeneration / as text / scenographic material.

If you are planning to attend PQ2011, are interested in this aspect of performance, and feel you would be interested/available to participate, please send your proposed presentation topic (abstract), and a short bio to Peter Reed at peter.scenofest@gmail.com

CONTEMPORARY SLAVERY

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Courtesy of Stefan Irvine

June 3 – August 5, 2011
Exhibition Opening Friday, June 3, 2011/ 7-9pm
One Day Symposium Saturday, June 11, 2011 / 10am-6pm
SEA Poetry Series, June 14, 2011 / 7-9pm
Preview of DIGIMOVIES, Thursdays starting June 16, 2011

NEW YORK – CONTEMPORARY SLAVERY, a project of SEA (Social Environmental Aesthetics) and the second annual ECOAESTHETIC exhibition, investigates various forms of contemporary slavery—from human trafficking and the sex trade; to the exploitation of farm and domestic workers, immigrants and prisoners; to sweatshop, bonded, and child labor—through a bombardment of images taken by leading photojournalists documenting this issue. A symposium will unite scholars, humanitarians and activists in dialogue in order to draw critical attention to this under-recognized local and international issue.

According to the United Nations, it is estimated that more than 27 million people are enslaved worldwide, “more than double the number of those who were deported in the 400-year history of the transatlantic slave trade to the Americas.” In his seminal text Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy, Kevin Bales, one of the world’s pre-eminent experts on modern slavery, defines contemporary slavery as distinguished by the low cost of slaves, high profits, surplus of potential slaves, and the disposable, short-term as well as hereditary relationships between slaves and slave holders/traders. From prison labor in America to sex trafficking in Southeast Asia, and child soldiers in Africa, CONTEMPORARY SLAVERY exposes the horrors of slavery that still exist today in all corners of the world.

Contemporary Slavery exhibition conceived by Papo Colo.

Exhibition organized by Herb Tam, Associate Curator, Lauren Rosati, Assistant Curator, Jeanette Ingberman, and Papo Colo.

CONTEMPORARY SLAVERY SYMPOSIUM at EXIT ART

SATURDAY, JUNE 11 / 10am-6pm
Reception / 6-8pm

EXIT ART, 475 Tenth Ave (between 36th and 37th Streets), New York, NY 10018, T. 212 966 7745
http://www.exitart.org/exhibition_programs/current_programs/slavery.html#prison
Tickets: $5 – Single Panel; $20 – Day pass with lunch at Exit Art
RSVP and to purchase tickets. http://www.exitart.org/support/rsvp.html

Schedule:

  • 10:00am – 10:30am – Coffee
  • 10:30am – 12:30pm – Panel 1: The Long Chain of Slavery from Plantation to Prison
  • 12:30pm – 1:30pm – Lunch
  • 1:30pm – 3:30pm – Panel 2: The Slave Next Door: Local and Global Labor
  • 3:30pm -4:00pm – Coffee
  • 4:00pm – 6:00pm – Panel 3: Trafficking, Sex Workers, Migration, and Slavery
  • 6:00pm – 8:00pm – Reception

The Long Chain of Slavery from Plantation to Prison

10:30am – 12:30pm
Moderator: Eddie Ellis
Panelists: Gloria Browne-Marshall, Scott Christianson, Joanna Weschler

The Slave Next Door: Local and Global Labor

1:30-3:30pm
Moderator: Ron Soodalter
Panelists: John Bowe, Benedetta Rossi, Barbara Young

Trafficking, Sex Workers, Migration, and Slavery

4:00-6:00pm
Moderator: Tiantian Zheng
Panelists: Dina Francesca Haynes, Jennifer MacFarlane, Norma Ramos

OVERVIEW

In the past thirty years, thanks to globalization, new media technologies, and shifts in social, financial, and political patterns, there has been a recognition and resurgence of a wide range of human rights abuses commonly known as “slaveries.” From traditional types of lifelong servitude to forced labor in the sex, prison, farming, and domestic workers industries, as well as debt bondage, slavery persists internationally both in ancient and modern forms. This symposium is intended to bring together diverse communities, controversies, and conversations to address these varied but related concerns.

  1. Not all slaveries were abolished in the US in 1865 with the thirteenth amendment. One type remains sanctioned by the state, which is as “punishment for crime.” The first panel, “The Long Chain of Slavery from Plantation to Prison,” will examine the legacy and contemporary guises of slavery in relation to prisons in the US and abroad.
  2. The second panel, The “Slave Next Door: Local and Global Labor,” will investigate what are more commonly understood as traditional types of slavery and their current forms. These can be hidden, as is often the case with domestic workers, or in plain sight, as seen in restaurant workers or in contexts where such servitude has been accepted as traditional custom and law.
  3. The third panel, “Trafficking, Sex Workers, Migration, and Slavery,” will deal with types of “slavery” that have perhaps received the most attention in the US and internationally: forced labor and trafficked persons in the sex industry. The increase in–and/or visibility of–these disparate forms of human suffering and exploitation are linked to some of the following often intertwined factors: a rise in migration; more powerful corporate globalization; conflicts within and among states; changes in criminal justice and prison labor policies; racial, gender-based, and other forms of discrimination; inequitable redistribution of wealth; and new media technologies. This symposium is intended to ignite and inspire new creative possibilities, ideas, and strategies for understanding and dealing with one of the distinguishing features of our time: “our slaveries.”

PANELISTS

The Long Chain of Slavery from Plantation to Prison

Eddie Ellis is the founder-director of the Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions, an independent criminal justice think tank formerly at Medgar Evers College, City University of New York, where he is a Research Fellow with the Dubois-Bunche Institute for Economic and Public Policy and was an adjunct instructor. In 2006, he was a member of the Transition Team for Criminal Justice for New York’s Governor–elect Eliot Spitzer. He has served as a consultant on justice policy issues to the Domestic Policy Advisor to President George W. Bush and for numerous organizations including the Council of State Governments, New York State Black and Puerto Rican Legislative Caucus, National Black Caucus of State Legislators, Soros Foundation’s Open Society Institute, and the Vera Institute of Justice. Ellis is the host and executive producer of the critically acclaimed weekly public affairs program, “On the Count: The Prison and Criminal Justice Report,” broadcast over WBAI-FM in New York City.

Gloria Browne-Marshall is a former Civil Rights attorney, teaches Constitutional Law as well as Race and the Law classes at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Professor Browne-Marshall is the Founder/Director of The Law and Policy Group, Inc. as well as a playwright of seven produced plays and the author of the books Race, Law, and American Society: 1607 to Present, The U.S. Constitution: An African-American Context, and The Constitution: Major Cases and Conflicts.

Scott Christianson is an award-winning author, investigative reporter, documentary filmmaker, curator, and human rights activist specializing in American criminal justice and slavery. He has published hundreds of articles in The Nation, the Village Voice, The New York Times, Washington Post, Mother Jones, the Journal of American History, and other newspapers, magazines and journals. Some of his books include With Liberty for Some: 500 Years of Imprisonment in America; Condemned: Inside the Sing Sing Death House; Freeing Charles: The Struggle to Free a Slave on the Eve of the Civil War; and The Last Gasp: The Rise and Fall of the American Gas Chamber. Christianson has helped several wrongfully-convicted prisoners gain their freedom and a film he directed with Egmont R. Koch made its debut this month on ARTE (France) and WDR (Germany).

Joanna Weschler is the Director of Research and Deputy Executive Director of the Security Council Report, an organization affiliated with Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, which she joined in 2005. From 1994 until 2005, Weschler was the United Nations representative for Human Rights Watch. As the first person appointed by Human Rights Watch to this position, Ms. Weschler developed and articulated HRW’s strategy toward the United Nations. Prior to her position at the U.N. and the Security Council, she was the Poland researcher for Helsinki Watch; Brazil researcher for Americas Watch; and Director of HRW’s Prison Project. She has conducted human rights investigations in countries on five continents and written numerous reports and articles on human rights.

The Slave Next Door: Local and Global Labor

Ron Soodalter has pursued a variety of careers. With degrees in American History, Education, and American Folk Culture, he has worked as a teacher, folklorist, museum curator, scrimshander, Flamenco guitarist, television producer, and author. In addition to his two current books, Hanging Captain Gordon and The Slave Next Door, Soodalter has recently written for several publications, including Smithsonian, The New York Times, Civil War Times, and New York Archives, and is a featured columnist for America’s Civil War. He is the recipient of the International Regional Magazine Association’s 2010 Gold Award. An acknowledged authority on both the historical and modern-day slave trade, Soodalter currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Abraham Lincoln Institute.

John Bowe has contributed to The New Yorker, GQ, The American Prospect, PRI’s “This American Life” and others. He is currently a contributing writer with The New York Times Magazine. He is also the author of Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy. He is a recipient of the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award; the Sydney Hillman Award for journalists, writers, and public figures who pursue social justice and public policy for the common good; the Richard J. Margolis Award, dedicated to journalism that combines social concern and humor; and the Harry Chapin Media Award for reportage of hunger- and poverty-related issues.

Benedetta Rossi is RCUK Fellow in International Slavery at the Department of History of the University of Liverpool (United Kingdom). She is Director of the MA Program in International Slavery Studies and exiting co-Director of the Centre for the Study of International Slavery (CSIS). She works on the history of government, labor, mobility, and slavery in West Africa. Her edited book Reconfiguring Slavery: West African Trajectories has recently been published (2009) and she is currently coordinating a publication project on slavery and migration in West Africa.

Barbara Young is the National Organizer for the National Domestic Workers Alliance. She was a domestic worker for 17 years, and is well acquainted with both the exploitation domestic workers face and the potential of domestic workers to organize for lasting change. She is an active member of Domestic Workers United (DWU), one of the NDWA’s founding affiliate organizations, and has provided consistent and inspiring leadership for the NDWA since its founding.

Trafficking, Sex Workers, Migration, and Slavery

Tiantian Zheng received her Ph.D. in Anthropology at Yale University in 2003, and currently teaches as Professor of Anthropology in the department of Sociology / Anthropology at SUNY Cortland. Her book Red Lights is the Winner of the 2010 Sara A. Whaley book prize from the National Women’s Studies Association for its significant contribution to the topic of women and labor. She is the author of four books on sex, gender, migration, HIV/AIDS, and the state: Red Lights: The Lives of Sex Workers in Postsocialist China (2009); Ethnographies of Prostitution in Contemporary China: Gender Relations, HIV/AIDS, and Nationalism (2009); HIV/AIDS Through an Anthropological Lens (2009); and Sex-Trafficking, Human Rights, and Social Justice (2010). She also edited an issue of the Journal of Transnational Women’s and Gender Studies titled “Anti-Trafficking, Human Rights, and Social Justice in Wagadu” (2008).

Jennifer MacFarlane is a Brooklyn-based humanitarian photographer. In 2006 Jennifer traveled to Cambodia to do a story with Marianne Pearl for Glamour magazine on the brothels in Cambodia and Somaly Mam, a heroic woman who has risked her own life to rescue these girls. Jennifer realized that their stories needed to be told and has used every opportunity to raise awareness about this subject (from exhibiting her photos in fashion boutiques in SoHo and spearheading innovative events) to bring attention to the beautiful young girls who stole her heart in Cambodia.

Norma Ramos is a longstanding public interest attorney and social justice activist. She is an eco-feminist, who links the worldwide inequality and destruction of women to the destruction of the environment. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW), which is the world’s first organization to fight against human trafficking internationally, now in its twenty-second year. She writes and speaks extensively about the commercial sexual exploitation of women and girls as a core global injustice, and has appeared on such shows as Charlie Rose, Larry King Live and Tavis Smiley.

Dina Francesca Haynes is a Professor of Law at New England Law, Boston, where she teaches courses related to immigration, international law, ethics, refugee and asylum law, international women’s issues, human trafficking and Constitutional law. She spent a decade practicing international law, in such positions as Director General of the Human Rights Department for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and as Human Rights Advisor to the OSCE in Serbia and Montenegro. She has also worked for the United Nations, serving as a Protection Officer with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (Croatia) and has been received positions with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (Rwanda and Afghanistan). Professor Haynes was also an attorney for the United States Department of Justice and clerked on the Constitutional Court of South Africa. She researches and writes in the areas of human trafficking, labor exploitation, immigration law, human rights law, post conflict reconstruction, international organizations, humanitarian law and migration. She has published one book on post conflict reconstruction in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and has another (co-authored) book with Oxford University Press, entitled On the Frontlines, on the topic of gender and postconflict reconstruction out in September 2011.

CONTEMPORARY SLAVERY SYMPOSIUM conceived and organized by Mary Anne Staniszewski, Associate Professor, Department of Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY. Symposium coordinated and organized by Herb Tam, Associate Curator, Lauren Rosati, Assistant Curator. Additional advice and support from Mark Looney.

SEA POETRY SERIES NO. 7

Tuesday, June 14, 2011 / 7-9pm
With Tonya Foster

The SEA Poetry Series emphasizes diverse ways in which poets address social and environmental issues in their work. Presented in connection with specific SEA exhibitions, the series aims to investigate and expand the exhibition theme through the lens of contemporary poetry. After each reading, an artist from the exhibition or a community member working within the exhibition theme briefly responds to the poet. Past poets in the series have included Jonathan Skinner, Marcella Durand, Laura Elrick, The Canary Project, James Sherry and Julie Ezelle Patton. Panelists TBA.

SEA Poetry Series conceived and organized by E.J. McAdams, poet and Associate Director of Philanthropy at The Nature Conservancy, New York City. $5. Cash bar. Q and A to follow.

Tonya Foster is the author of poetry, fiction, and essays that have been published in a variety of journals from Callaloo to The Hat to Western Humanities Review. She is the author of A Swarm of Bees in High Court (Belladonna Press) and co-editor of Third Mind: Creative Writing Through Visual Art. She is currently completing a cross-genre piece on New Orleans, and Monkey Talk, an inter-genre piece about race, paranoia, and surveillance. She is a Ph.D. candidate at the City University of New York Graduate Center. A recipient of a number of fellowships, notably from the Ford Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, and City University of New York, Foster teaches at Bard College. A native of New Orleans, she writes and resides in Harlem.

SEA Poetry Series support provided by Poets and Writers Inc.

DIGIMOVIES

Thursday evenings starting June 16, 2011
Additional dates and times TBA

DIGIMOVIES is a new movie theater at Exit Art exclusively devoted to presenting digitally-produced independent cinema. Outfitted for state-of-the-art presentation, the 70-seat DIGIMOVIES theater provides an intimate and lively setting for screenings and discussions.

DIGIMOVIES is conceived by Papo Colo. DIGIMOVIES screenings organized by Matthew Freundlich, Project Manager.

Film Screenings: DIGIMOVIES presents a selection of documentary and narrative films that examine various forms of modern-day slavery, including human trafficking, forced prostitution, child labor, debt bondage, and person-to-person ownership. Select screenings will include discussions with filmmakers, journalists and scholars. Films and screening dates TBA.

DigiMovies support provided by the Rockefeller Cultural Initiative Fund.

ABOUT EXIT ART

Exit Art is an independent vision of contemporary culture. We are prepared to react immediately to important issues that affect our lives. We do experimental, historical and unique presentations of aesthetic, social, political and environmental issues. We absorb cultural differences that become prototype exhibitions. We are a center for multiple disciplines. Exit Art is a 29-year-old cultural center in New York City founded by Directors Jeanette Ingberman and artist Papo Colo, that has grown from a pioneering alternative art space, into a model artistic center for the 21st century committed to supporting artists whose quality of work reflects the transformations of our culture. Exit Art is internationally recognized for its unmatched spirit of inventiveness and consistent ability to anticipate the newest trends in the culture. With a substantial reputation for curatorial innovation and depth of programming in diverse media, Exit Art is always changing.

ABOUT SEA (Social-Environmental Aesthetics)
SEA is a diverse multimedia exhibition program that addresses social and environmental concerns. It assembles artists, activists, scientists and scholars through presentations of visual art, performances, panels and lecture series that communicate international activities concerning environmental and social activism. It provides a vehicle through which the public can be made aware of socially- and environmentallyengaged work, and a forum for collaboration among artists, scientists, activists, scholars and the public. SEA functions as an initiative where individuals can join together in dialogue about issues that affect our daily lives. Conceived by Exit Art Co-Founder / Artistic Director Papo Colo.

EXHIBITION SUPPORT

This exhibition and symposium was supported by a major grant from the New York Council for the Humanities. Additional support provided by the Puffin Foundation. General exhibition support provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; Bloomberg LP; Jerome Foundation; Lambent Foundation; PollockKrasner Foundation; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn; and public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts.

EXIT ART 475 Tenth Ave at 36th St NYC / 212-966-7745 / www.exitart.org
Open Tu–Th, 10am–6pm; Fr, 10am–8pm; Sa, 12–6pm. $5 suggested donation

STARTING OFF ON THE RIGHT CARBON FOOTPRINT: Indie theatre project saves money and trees with paperless marketing at Planet Connections Theatre Festivity

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Imagine marketing a theatre event without printing a single postcard, flyer, or business card. Imagine a small, unknown group of theatre artist-activists reaching hundreds of people while saving trees, energy, and money.

This is exactly how playwright Shawn C. Harris and director Sara Lyons are taking green theatre one step further for their production of Tulpa, or Anne&Me for the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity.

Tulpa, or Anne&Me is the first piece developed through Crossroads Theatre Project and will have its world premiere at the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity. Tulpa, or Anne&Me tells the story of a web comic artist whose world gets turned upside down when Anne Hathaway crawls out of her television set, creating an intimate portrait of how race impacts their lives as women, friends, and human beings.

When the project was selected for New York’s premiere eco-friendly theatre festival, paperless marketing made perfect sense.

Says Harris, “As a fledgling project putting up our very first production, going with paperless marketing was an easy decision for us. With a shoestring budget, we only had enough money to pay for the essentials of staging our play. But Sara and I quickly discovered that our necessity gave us a powerful way to practice green theatre.”

Through a combination of e-mail, social media, and face-to-face, the production team of Tulpa, or Anne&Me has found a way to reach their audience without wasting paper, ink, or money.

“Because we can’t rely on a crowd of people showing up to our play because they like our postcard, we have to focus on making real connections with people. It’s time-consuming and exhausting, but the deeper connections we’re making with people is worth it. We’re reaching people who normally would not come to our show or see theatre at all, but they’re interested in what we’re doing and really want to support us.”

Planet Connections Theatre Festivity is New York’s premiere eco-friendly, socially conscious not-for-profit theatre festival.

Tulpa, or Anne&Me plays at the Robert Moss Theatre (440 Studios) on June 2 at 6pm, June 3 at 4pm, June 16 at 8pm, and June 19 at 8:15pm. Tickets are $18. For more information and to buy tickets, visit http://planetconnections.org/tulpaoranneme.

BIOGRAPHIES

SHAWN C. HARRIS (Playwright, founder of Crossroads Theatre Project) found playwriting through an unconventional path involving role-playing games, attempts at screenwriting, and a creative writing course during her sophomore year at Florida A&M University. Tulpa, or Anne&Me is her second full-length play.

Shawn is committed to using the arts – particularly theater and film – to challenge mainstream representations of women, people of color, and LGBTQ people. About a year ago, Shawn founded Crossroads Theatre Project to give unconventional Black playwrights a chance to develop their own work. She runs two blogs, Ars Marginal and Love’s Labors Lost, geared towards examining the arts and entertainment from marginalized perspectives.

Shawn doesn’t limit her activism to cyberspace. She is also a member of WOW Cafe Theatre, a theater venue collectively run by all kinds of women. Lately she has been working with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, where she’s learning more about anti-racist analysis and organizing.

Despite all this activity, Shawn is really just a shy, quirky Southern girl who’s more comfortable in her own little world than in the spotlight.

SARA LYONS (Director) is a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin- Madison with a degree in Theatre and Gender and Women’s Studies. She has experience as a director, teaching artist, and performer, and is committed to creating theatre that challenges the status quo and inspires its audience towards a more just and compassionate society.

Sara was introduced to the festival process as the Assistant Director on the premiere of Monica Bauer’s The Higher Education of Khalid Amir at the 2008 Midtown International Theatre Festival. She worked on several University productions at UW-Madison as a director and performer, and spent four years studying and performing long form improv with The Titanic Players. As a performance artist, she recently performed original work at P.S. 122 under the direction of Tim Miller.

As a teaching artist and applied theatre facilitator, Sara has worked internationally with children of all ages in impoverished communities, including rural Bocas, San Luis Potosi, Mexico as a member of the 2009 Savvy Theatre Works crew and in urban slums in the townships around Cape Town, South Africa as a 2010 summer teaching fellow with Teach With Africa. At home, she worked with patients and staff of the adolescent unit at South Beach Psychiatric Center and currently teaches drama in a Brooklyn elementary school.

Sara looks forward to continuing her journey as an artist-activist with Tulpa, or Anne&Me.

CROSSROADS THEATRE PROJECT empowers new African diaspora playwrights tell innovative stories from multiple axes of identity – including race, gender, sexuality, nationality, etc. – by providing developmental support at all stages of the creative process and facilitating the process of self-production.

The crossroads are rooted in African folklore, Vodou and Delta blues as a place where the strange and unexpected happen. You can speak with the dead, meet the spirits of your ancestors – even sell your soul to the Devil! There is no telling what can happen when you come to the crossroads. In a similar vein, Crossroads Theatre Project challenges assumptions about what African diaspora theatre is and what it can be.

THE PLANET CONNECTIONS THEATRE FESTIVITY is New York’s premiere eco- friendly/socially conscious not-for-profit theatre festival. Fostering a diverse cross-section of performances, the festival seeks to inspire artists and audiences both creatively and fundamentally, in a festive atmosphere forming a community of like-minded artists. At the heart of the festivity are individuals striving to create professional, meaningful theatre, while supporting organizations, which give back to the community at large.

Green Arts Festival on IndieGoGo

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Houston’s first Green Arts Festival will take place on July 9 2011 as the culminating day/presentation of the Flor Y Canto sustainable green theater camp. The kids and their families and all of H-town will be invited to participate in and attend the Green Arts Fest! Created in partnership with GreeniRecycling, Houston Green Scene and Planeta Verde Now, dozens of local GREEN artisans will flock to Talento Bilingue de Houston 333 Jensen blvd to sell, collaborate, free trade and educate the local community about ALL of the many green options in Houston! The day will end in a community theater performance of “The Last Paving Stone” a beautiful family friendly piece describing the dysfunction of a society removed from their own green space.

Green Arts Festival — IndieGoGo.

“Making It” by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen on bookshelves

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Roman Jaster of mammut magazine is  happy to share that a book he designed has just been published.

Making It, Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen’s follow up to their much celebrated The Urban Homestead, is now available.

The book is a project-based how-to manual for the urban homesteader. It’s a joyful read packed with tons of useful information to get off the grid and start making things.

His talented collaborator Teira Johnson created the beautiful illustrations, while he designed the book.

You can take a look at it here: http://www.amazon.com/Making-Radical-Home-Post-Consumer-World/dp/1605294624

Arcole Sustainable Solutions for a Fair Future series continues Thursday

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A brief reminder about the next event in the Sustainable Solutions for a Fair Future series.

Join us this Thursday from 6pm, as Charlotte Webster from Solar Century will be discussing the global potential of solar power, including macro and micro uses; barriers to uptake and new policies, and the UK story of solar power. We’ll discuss what’s happening on the ground and what individuals can do.

Founded in 1998, Solar Century is the UK’s largest independent solar energy company and has delivered a number of high profile projects including the Eden Project, the CIS Tower and the Big Brother House. Solar Century is working on the largest solar housing project with 650 homes in South Yorkshire powered by solar electricity by 2012.

Cycle Sunday organised in partnership with Artsadmin, will take place on 12 June. It will be a jam-packed day with events, discussions, workshops and artistic interventions all about bikes and cycling. Click HERE for more information

Benefit party for Green Wave’s newest project, The Electronic Music Alliance.

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Friday, June 3 at 9:00 PM to Saturday, June 4 at 3:30 AM

Belasco – 1050 S. Hill Street Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90015

It’s a bit last minute but we are being gifted for use the new multi-multi-million dollar club, The Belasco www.thebelasco.com in downtown LA for the night of June 3rd.  They club will open their doors to us with all staff for the evening for free. We get 100% of the door!

If you have ever wanted to contribute more to Green Wave, here’s your chance! Just show up & BRING EVERYONE YOU KNOW!  Reach out to people in your office that you have always thought of inviting.  Make it a pseudo work party for a great cause.  We can fit everyone -it’s a giant club!  Maybe we can create a competition -who can get the most people and help save the world ;)

Help us make this a special night!  If you have any ideas, I am open -just email or call.  Let’s party at a crazy awesome club and make a difference in the world!

Money from the door/ ticket sales and a portion of bottle service for the evening will go to EMA and our Million Acre Initiative.  Here is more info on the event.

On June 3rd, 2011 we come together in support of the Electronic Music Alliance (EMA Global) which is a project of Green Wave non-profit organization to celebrate leaders in our community, our DJ’s, Performers, Promoters, and all the People who create positive change in the world.

We are proud to be hosted on this evening by the world-class multi-purpose event and entertainment complex, The Belasco Theater (http://www.thebelasco.com/) which is also making its grand debut.  A relic of 1920’s Los Angeles, The Belasco recently underwent a $12 million dollar renovation and has the largest sound system in Southern California (which we can’t wait to hear!)

100% of the proceeds of the door will benefit EMA and with every ticket that is purchased, you will become a special member of our alliance.

Tickets are available through Groove Tickets at $10 for a limited time:

http://fla.vor.us/199667-EMA-Benefit-Show-tickets/EMA-Benefit-Show-Los-Angeles-The-Belasco-June-04-2011.html?afflky=X9SZQX

They will go up to $15 next week and $20 at the door.

Special Guests and Honorees:

  • Ken Jordan of The Crystal Method & DJ Rap (together for the first time)
  • Static Revenger

Duo Sets by:

  • DJ Eva & DJ Oscure
  • DJ Mike Teez & DJ Jim Carson
  • +More TBA!

The Electronic Music Alliance Official Launch event is put together by a handful of amazing individuals and companies that are donating their time and services to the cause and we’re really grateful for their support and services.  Thank you from EMA and Green Wave!

TRASH MASH-UP IS FEATURED AT SAN FRANCISCO CARNAVAL 2011 GRAND PARADE

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Trash Mash-Up’s (TMU) be featured in San Francisco Carnaval 2011 on Sunday, May 29 in the Streets of the Mission District.  Beginning at 9:30 a.m. at the corner of 24th and Bryant streets, the parade will proceed west to Mission Street. From there, the parade heads north on Mission down to 17th Street, where it will turn east and flow into the festival area.  TMU transforms the streets of San Francisco with a visual spectacle made of music, movement, and “Maskostumes”. Spectators enjoy works of art created from things disregarded by one person and then given new life through another’s imagination. With trash bag boas and bottle-cap chain mail, Trash Mash-Up builds creative connections and raises environmental awareness throughout our community as a new urban tradition is fostered.

One of the city’s most spectacular traditions, San Francisco Carnaval showcases the very best of Latin American and Caribbean cultures and traditions with a diverse array of food, music, dance and artistry. The event is free and the public is encouraged to attend.  Acting as this year’s Grand Marshal of the San Francisco Carnaval Grand Parade is famed actor, film director and political activist Danny Glover. The 2011 Grand Parade will feature a very special appearance of the San Francisco Giants’ 2010 World Series trophy accompanied by the Giants’ mascot Lou Seal.

Trash Mash-Up has partnered with community based organizations to create the colorful celebration mashing it up in the streets of the Mission District for San Francisco Carnaval.  They include the Whitney Young Performing Arts Dancers and the Abraham Lincoln High School Drama Club and Green Academy on SF Carnaval.  This is the second year that TMU, WYPA and ALHS have collaborated together with TMU for SF Carnaval.  Trash Mash-Up has also partnered with Recology for the third year on SF Carnaval. Recology is a private, 100% employee-owned resource recovery company based on the West Coast emphasizing recycling to reduce consumption of virgin materials who pioneered the first curbside compost program in the U.S.  TMU parades with Recology’s Drill Team and Artist In Residence Program.

Trash Mash-Up is a collaborative community art project. Using disposable materials, collected before they enter the waste stream, participants construct “Maskostumes” which are original pageant masks and costumes inspired by traditions from around the world. TMU enriches our community by developing creative connections amongst the participants in addition to raising awareness about cultural traditions and environmental issues. This project reduces waste and inspires people to see each other and our environment in a new way.

The founding members of Trash Mash-Up are a sister team, Bridget and Jessica McCracken, who both graduated from the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre and San Francisco State University. Drawing from their talent for creating original theatrical productions and their commitment to serving the larger community, TMU is a socially and environmentally conscious art project. TMU shares cultural traditions with diverse communities in public performances and workshops. Reducing waste by using trash to make art, TMU reminds all of San Francisco that one person’s trash could become an entire city’s treasure.

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Trash Mash-Up

Phone: 415-752-5537

Email: trashmashup@gmail.com

Website: http://www.trashmashup.org

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/trashmashup

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/TrashMashUp

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/trashmashup/

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/trashmashup

blog:  http://trashmashup.blogspot.com/

listerv: http://groups.google.com/group/trashmashup

the arctic is melting and everyone wants a piece of it « Mo`olelo Blog

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Two years ago, thanks to a grant from The James Irvine Foundation, Mo`olelo commissioned playwright Chantal Bilodeau to write a play that explores the intersection of race, class and climate change. Originally from Montreal, Ms. Bilodeau was already researching the impact of climate change on the Inuit communities of the Canadian Arctic. This commission supported that work. As she traveled to the arctic and did further research, she encountered the complexities and contradictions of climate change: ice versus maritime commerce, human rights and activism colliding with family obligations, sovereignty colliding with sustainability. The result was a new play, Sila. The title, Sila, is an Inuit word for the breath of life, the primary component of everything that exists.

Mo`olelo workshopped the first draft of this script last year; Ms. Bilodeau and Mo`olelo’s Artistic Director Seema Sueko journeyed to Montreal in January of this year to workshop the script at Playwrights Workshop Montreal with Inuit and Quebecois actors; and we will now host the third and final workshop reading of this script on May 24. We invite you to join us. For those who saw the reading in 2010, the script has gone through significant adjustments, with some characters “being fired,” and a tightening of the story.

Details

What: a reading of Sila by Chantal Bilodeau

When:   Tuesday, May 24, 2011 with 5:15 PM Potluck reception & mingle with the artistic team and 6:00 PM Reading

Where: The 10th Avenue Theatre, 930 10th Avenue, San Diego, CA 92101

Reservations: Space is limited. Email: tickets@moolelo.net or call 619-342-7395

Admission: Bring something to drink (bottle of wine, soda, whatever you fancy), food to share (cheese & crackers, hors d’oeuvre, or some other munchie), or make a $10 donation at the door.

www.moolelo.net

About the play:

The Arctic is melting and everyone wants a piece of it.

In the race to shape the future of the region, four characters – an ice scientist, an Inuit activist, an officer for the Marine Communications and Traffic Services and a polar bear – see their values challenged as their lives become intricately intertwined.