Provocate.org

Attend an important conference organized by the Latino coalition against Domestic and Sexual Violence. (more…)

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Mexico has been through enormous changes in the past two decades: democracy and the break of the hold of PRI, NAFTA, mass migration to the US, economic boom and crash, rural warfare … But judging form Rodrigo Plá’s fable about class warfare, nothing has changed. (more…)

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John Clark is of the belief that arts organizations, small businesses, and community groups will be the engines that redefine relations between Indianapolis and the world. As you eat your plate at an Ethiopian restaurant, see if he has any grounds for his opinion. (more…)

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Help kick off The Village Experience, a new organization in town that promotes glocal engagement through volun-tourism and economic development through fair trade. (more…)

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You don’t have to break the bank by going to the IMA’s summer film series - this film fest is free. View the projects that students from the first annual Campecine Youth Academy have been working on for the past six weeks. Documentaries and animations made in Indianapolis by Latino youth bear alternative names - varriomentaries and issuemations - to reflect the language blending that their bilingual makers experience.

Themes include current social issues, from race relations in Indianapolis to local and national immigration policy reforms to teen pregnancy, ICE Raids, and education.

From the press release:

The Campecine Youth Academy is a six-week program [of the Latino Youth Collective and FIRME Productions] that trains youth in “on-the-job” action research using new media technology. The program employed 27 youth for 20 hours a week and engaged students in a process called Youth Participatory Action Research, a process that engages young people in
(1) identifying a community issue of concern to them, and
(2) investigating its causes and potential solutions through the use of advanced media technology and inquiry methods. Youth then use the results for education and community action.

Sounds like one way to do a lot of good in the community, and the public gets to bear witness to it all. Added bonus: the event is bilingual! So practice your rusty Spanish - o alternativamente, ensaye un poquito el inglés.

At the IMA, in DeBoest Hall
Saturday from 1-4 pm
Free and open to the public.
http://campecine.com/

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View a documentary on the water rights preservation vs. privatization controversy. Saturday, July 12th at
View Larger Map“>Lockerbie Central UMC at the corner of New York & East, downtown. Come at 7:00 for the Water Fair, or at 8:00 for the premier. Learn about this critical global issue and (optionally) make a contribution toward making drinking water available to all.

here are some sites relevant to the issue at hand.

waterbank.com

a good general wikipedia article on water privatization

the Sierra Club’s perspective on water privatization

public citizen’s take

There’s plenty more out there to get you started. Begin with the FLOW film!

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We assume that immigrants coming to the US with and without proper authorization are blessings to their home countirs: after all, remittances are one of the main sources of foreign exchange for Mexico and most Central American countries. But a closer look at villages and towns that now have almost no one of working age, that have most of their kids growing up in families whose parents are working up North … the blessing is mixed. Learn how this affacts us in Indiana. (more…)

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No one makes movies like the Indianapolis-based Latino Youth Collective, which puts digital cameras and sophisticated editing software in the hands of kids so that they can show how they view their lives. See some examples of their work at the Indianapolis Museum of Art when this enormously creative group of high school and college students puts on Campecine 2008 (Campecine = campesino + cine). The varriomentaries (their word for documentaries) deal with gangs, the voicelessness of undocumented immigrant kids, and teen pregnancy. If you are lucky, they will show their wildly imaginative “Loz Invenzivlez,” all but guaranteed to make your head burst in flames.

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To hear critics of US health care reform talk, Canada is a hellhole of socialized medicine, with Canadians sneaking across the border to get treatment their government forbids. Most Canadians ask “You talking about us?” We should ask: “What can we learn from our neighbors? (more…)

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10 million people die each year from diseases with available cures, and nearly 1/3 of humanity does not have regular access to essential medicines. Find out about the challenges facing access to essential medicines in IU-affiliated countries, what IU is doing to address them, and what you can do to help (that doesn’t necessarily involve a $2,000.00 round trip!). (more…)

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