Imagining America Conference Links

**New Programs I have learned about while at the Imagining America conference,  Convergence Zones: Public Cultures and Translocal Practices, in Seattle, WA

The Public Square  (Chicago) By building bridges between theory and practice, The Public Square encourages the use of ideas as tools to improve people’s lives. These programs promote participatory democracy and create space for public conversations. Knowledge is power, yet much crucial knowledge still circulates only in small, isolated communities. 

RW121 Emerson Medellín - a bi-lingual, bi-national project among 100 students working across 5 First-Year Research Writing classes at Emerson College and MIT in Boston and 5 library parks (Parques Bibliotecas) and the Universidad Nacional in Medellín, Colombia.

Make Art / Stop AIDS
part of Art and Global HealthCenter at UCLA
(nod to Douglas Crimp- In 1987  edited a special AIDS-issue of October, entitled AIDS: Cultural Analysis/Cultural Activism. In his introduction to the edition Crimp argued for "cultural practices actively participating in the struggle against AIDS and its cultural consequences.")
 

Through Positive Eyes throughpositiveeyes.org
Through Positive Eyes tells the story of HIV/AIDS at the end of the third decade of the epidemic, when potent antiretroviral medication has been devised, but when treatment access is far from universal. (Los Angeles, Mexico City, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro)t

 The Art of Regional Change  (UC DAVIS) brings together scholars, students, artists, and community groups to collaborate on media arts projects that strengthen communities, generate engaged scholarship and inform regional decision-making

Marga, Inc - A Firm, Founded by David Maurrasse, Committed to Developing Communication between Communities and Institutes
— Anchor Institutions Task Force  - network to promote the role of anchor institutions in community engagement

Children's Urban Geographies (Univ. of Buffalo)

Born into Brothels

from the BBC: Born into a brothel in the Indian city of Calcutta, Avijit Halder's life has undergone a dramatic transformation.

The 20-year-old is currently pursuing a degree at one of the top film schools in the US. It all started with the filming of an Oscar-winning documentary, Born into Brothels, which dealt with the lives of the children of Indian sex workers.
Avijit Halder was one of eight children of sex workers who featured in the 2004 documentary film, co-directed by Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman. read rest of article

Kids with Cameras foundation

HRW International Film Festival presented...

Sorry I didn't post this earlier! The Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, in association with Adobe, screened work produced by youth around the world (mostly NYC students though). Topics ranged from youth homelessness to water as a human right. Some of the work was really stunning, and I couldn't believe how sophisticated some of the films were. This is the Adobe website, and they seem to sponsor other programs as well. The HRWIFF link seems to be broken, but here's the link to the films that played in New York. (The YPC link is at the bottom.)

Hope your summers are all going well!

Girl empowerment programs

Girls Write Now NYC based program. Writer mentors with girls, college essay writing workshops, and more.

Girls Inc. - global

viBe Theater Experience (viBe) is a non-profit performing arts/ education organization that empowers teenage girls through the creation and production of original performances. more
Read an article by director Dana Edell at CAN: Ripples of the Fourth Wave: New York's viBePoetry

Soliya - global network between the "West" & "Arab/Muslim World"

Soliya is developing a global network of young adults and empowering them to bridge the divide between the "West" and the "Arab & Muslim World."

Soliya is a pioneering non-profit organization using new technologies to facilitate dialogue between students from diverse backgrounds across the globe. Our flagship program, the Connect Program, uses the latest web-conferencing technology to bridge the gap between university students in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and the United States. In a time when media plays an increasingly powerful role in shaping peoples’ viewpoints on political issues, Soliya provides students with the opportunity, skills, and tools to shape and articulate their own viewpoints on some of the most pressing global issues facing their generation. more

watch this for an overview

Contrast Project with Palestinian Youth

Contrast Project: Palestinian Youth Photo Project
The Contrast Project works with youth in using digital photography and video as tools for expression and advocacy. The project started in the summer of 2006 with photography trainings with two youth groups in the Bethlehem area of the Palestinian Territories.

Palestinian Children in Lebanon

I'm still searching for a website for the program, but here's an article I had found a while ago:

Lahza: Camp Life Seen Through Children's Eyes

Picturing Hope

This is another great kids and cameras organization with a sustainable model that exists in a few countries, including Romania and Tanzania, among others. I am in the process of potentially working with them in the Romanian Clinical Center of Excellence in Bucharest.

picturinghope.org