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Skyeview: A Sistah”s View of the World

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Who: His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama
What: “Peace Through Compassion” lecture
When: April 25, 2009 – 2:00 pm
Where: Greek Theatre, University of California, Berkeley
Cost: $15 (lawn), $50 reserved
Beginning at noon March 23, $15 lawn seating and $50 reserved
seating tickets will be available to the general public by phone
(510-642-9988) or online (http://tickets.berkeley.edu/) through the
Cal Performances box office. All tickets sold online will be held for
pickup at Will Call on the day of the event. Will Call will open 2
hours prior to the event.
URL: http://www.berkeley.edu/dl/index.html

February 27 – March 1, 2009
Dance Brigade presents
The Great Liberation Upon Hearing
a new work based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead

Friday, February 27, 8pm
Saturday, February 28, 8pm
Sunday, March 1, 2pm 6pm
- Healing Circle w/ Vicki Noble, Linda Tillery, and Carolyn Brandy following the performance
Sunday, March 1, 2pm 6pm
- (show benefits Quan Yin Healing & Arts Center)

The Great Liberation Upon Hearing
Once again the Dance Brigade takes us on an incredible journey presenting a new work, The Great Liberation Upon Hearing, a multi-media dance drama based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Working closely with critically acclaimed choreographer Sara Shelton Mann, Artistic Director Krissy Keefer creates a moving and compelling piece of theater engaging the audience emotionally and intellectually capturing the density and profound meaning of the enlightened manuscript. A translucent visual component depicts luminous images transforming the tangible and revealing the intangible. In these dark and trying times the passage to hope is in our rebirth and what better way to convey this than through this amazing multi dimensional work infused with genuine community spirit. A show not to be missed!!

Script, Libretto, & Direction: Krissy Keefer
Choreographic Direction: Sara Shelton Mann
Taiko Composition: Bruce Ghent
Video Design: Joe Williams
Lighting & Set: Matthew De Gumbia
Film: Ellen Bruno
Musical Director: Floor Van Herreweghe
Collaborating Dancers and Musicians: Ramon Ramos Alayo, Tina Banchero, Elaine Buckholtz, Sarah Bush, Richelle Donigan, Karen Elliot, Lena Gatchalian, Krissy Keefer, Kira Maria Kirsch, Jose Navarrete, Folawole Oyinlola, Rajendra Serber, and Sonya Smith

I am a big fan of the UC Berkeley J-School photojournalism department. The department organizes excellent and compelling exhibits.
——————————

ERNESTO BAZAN
Photographs-CUBA
You are cordially invited to an opening reception and book signing followed by a public lecture with the photographer U.C. Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
February 20th

Ernesto Bazan has been photographing the changing lives of Cubans since the collapse of the Soviet Union. He has been awarded many photographic prizes including among others; a grant from the Mother Jones Fund for International Photography(1995);two fellowships, one from the Alicia Patterson Foundation (1997) and the Guggenheim Foundation (2000); the Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize (1997); the W. Eugene Smith grant (1998); and a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism (2000).

Reception and Book Signing 6:00-7:00 J-school Library
Public Lecture 7:00-8:30 Room 105
U.C. Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
(corner of Hearst & Euclid)

&

A Master Workshop with Ernesto Bazan
February 21st & 22nd early enrollment suggested
Organized by Fotovision

This will be a very intense workshop where we will explore the many aspects of bringing a group of coherent and consistent photographs together. We will learn more about the photographer’s approach, his or her framing, his or her intentions, his or her ability to discern from the flow of life in the attempt, often vain, to extract its essence. We will critically analyze several important photographic books pointing out what makes them special and also underscoring the causes of the lowering of tension within the book created by many factors among which the inclusion of less powerful images, the wrong pairing of images and bad graphic choices.

Announcement

4th Women in Africa and the African Diaspora (WAAD) International Conference on Education, Gender & Sustainable Development in the Age of Globalization

Abuja, Nigeria (August 3-8, 2009)
Professor Obioma Nnaemeka, Convener
E-mail: waadconf@iupui.edu; website: http://www.waadconf.org

CALL FOR PAPERS

BACKGROUND
For over a decade, the WAAD conferences have provided the space for researchers, students, policy makers, activists, women and men of different races, religious persuasions and ideological leanings to engage in vigorous and fruitful debates on issues relating to women in Africa and the African Diaspora. The first WAAD conference held in Nsukka, a small university town in rural Nigeria, gathered over
700 researchers, activists, policy makers, and students from five continents. The conference generated ten-volume proceedings of over 200 original papers and saw the beginning of the Association of African Women Scholars (AAWS). The second WAAD conference, held in Indianapolis (USA) in 1998, gathered hundreds of participants from 35 countries and 48 national and international organizations. The third conference in Madagascar was equally very well attended. The WAAD conference has succeeded in putting in place forward-looking strategies for continuing its work—it maintains a global network and has published three volumes of selected papers.

THEME (Education, Gender & Sustainable Development in the Age of Globalization)

The 4th WAAD interdisciplinary conference will provide opportunities for constituencies inside and outside the academy—researchers, academicians, practitioners, policy makers, professionals, and students from various disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, pure and applied sciences, professional schools, etc.—to discuss the education of women and girls in Africa and the African Diaspora and explore its relationship to sustainable development in a rapidly globalizing, complex world. How can the acquisition of different forms of knowledge guarantee women’s participation in ensuring that today’s growth does not jeopardize the growth and possibilities of future generations and that “development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”? What role would indigenous knowledge play in women’s participation? In disciplinary terms, the conference will examine the central role the arts and humanities can and must play in the global knowledge economy and their relevance to development discourses and practice. How can humanistic studies dialogue with scientific studies in addressing global issues such as social and environmental justice, gender/social inequality and knowledge gap,20and education for 21st century
global citizenship?

SUBTHEMES
Autobiographies and Biographies
Capacity-building and Leadership
Civil Society, NGOs and Transnational Activism
Creativity (Oral & Written Traditions), Artistic Expressions and Development
Curricular Development and Reform
Democratization and Women’s Participation
Educating against War and Militarization
Volunteerism, Civic Engagement and Global Citizenship
Education Policy, Teacher Education, and National Development
Energy, Mineral Wealth and National Security
Engendering the Disciplines
Entrepreneurship and Small/Medium-size Businesses
Feminist/Womanist Interventions
Gendered Inequalities and Access to Education
Gendered Spaces and the Diaspora Question
Global Financial Institutions and Women in Developing Countries
Health, Medical Sciences and Health Education
Gendered Violence, Human Rights and Social Justice
Libraries and Archives
Mobilization and Transnational Social Movements
Peace and Conflict Resolution
Poverty Alleviation, Agriculture, and Food Security
Preserving the Environment, Saving Our Planet
Religion, Culture, and Indigenous Knowledge
Skills-Training and Economic Independence
Communications, Technology and the Digital Divide
The Economy and Global Capital
The Humanities, Development, and Globalization
Understanding Gender and Global Africa
Women in Higher Education: Research, Teaching and Administration
Youth Engaging Development Strategies

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION
Forms for paper, panel, roundtable and workshop proposals are available on the conference website: www.waadconf.org. Click on “Proposals.” Send as e-mail attachments the completed proposal form, abstract and curriculum vitae (as Word documents) by MARCH 15, 2009 to the Convener at waadconf@iupui.edu. Selected papers will be published.

REGISTRATION
Registration form and fee schedule are available at the conference website: www.waadconf.org. Click on “Registration.” All presenters whose proposals have been accepted must pre-register by APRIL 15, 2009 for their names to appear on the conference program.

CONTACT
Professor Obioma Nnaemeka, Convener
2009 WAAD Conference
Department of World Languages & Cultures
Indiana University
425 University Boulevard
Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA
Phone: 317-278-2038; Fax: 317-278-7375
E-mail: waadconf@iupui.edu; Website: www.waadconf.org

About The Contributer
Liz Hendrickson is a San Francisco bay area resident, grandmother, lawyer, and founding member of Women Drummers International. (All photographs (c) Francis Eatherington.)

1/11/09

It’s hard to believe, but a week ago today I was in Havana, hanging out along the waterfront, in the open air market and in the old town tourist district. Bus loads of European tourists clogged the streets and reminded me of Fisherman’s wharf. Today I’m home doing my laundry; it’s a little shocking.

In case you’re interested, a couple tidbits from my trip:

Transportation
With the embargo, and general economic distress, there are few private autos, which isn’t a bad thing if you ask me. The result is that traffic (except a few places in Havana) is not bad and neither is pollution. The private cars are vintage and worth millions: 1940s Chevys, Fords, etc in beautiful condition. The airport parking lot looked like a classic car convention. There are buses in the cities. In the rural provinces there are not. There are lots of bicycles, horses, horse drawn wagons, bici-taxis (seat two people behind someone pedaling), and flat bed trucks made into local buses by putting benches, a ladder and a kind of giant camper shell for protection. The cities also have coco taxies which are vespas with a fiberglass shell attached which seat two people plus the driver on the vespa. I tried every one of these except the flat bed trucks, which seemed for locals. I liked the bici-taxies the best, although they are a little extra thrilling coming down hills. They have a brake pedal which activates not our high tech disk brakes but a metal on metal brake of questionable effectiveness. I came home at midnight in one after beginning new years in a local club and had quite an entertaining ride.

Food
The hurricanes destroyed a lot of the crops. We ate just fine and drove through some undamaged areas and got coconuts, bananas, mandarin oranges, and balls of pure chocolate from roadside stands. Cubans don’t eat spicy food or much fish! They eat lots of pork. They drink LOTS of rum. It’s served like ice tea. Every time we came to a new hotel, we were served a tray of mojitos; at lunch the mojitos would come out. 3 yr old rum, 7 yr old rum, very smooth and EVERYWHERE. The US does not allow travelers to bring things back, so I couldn’t bring rum or cigars, which are also everywhere. I did pick up some chocolate…… 

Pages: 1 2 3 4

On the eve of my departure from Turkey, I sit here transfixed in front of the television. I watch endless loops of CNN Turk footage depicting the carnage that is raining down on Palestinian children–neigh on Palestinian babies…babies…babies. I can’t breath.

The images of Israeli soldiers and civilians jumping up and down in jubilation and celebration makes my head hurt. My breath is caught in my throat.

The CNN Turk news anchor is doing a valiant job of not breaking down in tears as he holds a mobile phone while broadcasting the wailing and plaintive cries of a Palestinian father who gave a first person and live report immediately after an Israeli attack. The man’s child is dead. I am stunned into silence even though I sit here alone.

I turn off the t.v.

————-

Protests in Turkey

Ankara	Ankara
Istanbul	Erzurum

Yesterday’s protest against the Gaza attacks continued today and has occurred in all the major cities in Turkey.

The world is watching to see how the Obama administration will address this travesty.
“None of us are free, if one of us is chained”.

Ankara, Turkey

Bonus Links:
Heaven Help Us All (Song, Lyrics)
UN chief pays ‘heartbreak’ visit to Gaza as truce holds
Gaza schools open but young minds closed to peace