Participants Sought for Study on Interracial Partnerships

Via SJTI listserv:

I am a doctoral student at Western Michigan University studying counseling psychology. I am conducting research for my dissertation about second generation Southeast Asian Americans’ experience of interracial partnerships with White European Americans. This is a new area of research in which I am eager to learn more about what it is like for second generation Southeast Asian Americans to be in a relationship with a partner of White European American background. 

I am also interested in how factors related to being a second generation Southeast Asian American influence one’s experience of the partnership.

I am looking for participants who meet the following criteria:

1.  Identify as Southeast Asian American of Cambodian, Vietnamese, and/or Hmong/Mien heritage.
2.  Both parents are Southeast Asian refugees of Cambodian, Vietnamese, and/or Hmong/Mien heritage. By refugee, I refer to individuals who left their home country due to dangerous and/or persecutory circumstances.
3.  Are at least 18 years of age.
4.  Were born in the United States.
5.  Are currently in a committed interracial partnership (dating, cohabitating, or married) with a White European American and have been in this partnership for at least one year.

 If you know any individuals who fit these criteria and who may be interested in participating in this research, please forward the attached recruitment document. It contains an invitation and information about how this study will be conducted. Also, feel free to post and/or forward this invitation to any relevant newsletters or websites, print the invitation and post it as a flyer, or to make copies for distribution.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me by email (sophia.k.rath@wmich.edu) or phone (269.870.0778).

Thank you for your time and support,

Sophia K. Rath-Targowski, M.S.

Doctoral Student Researcher

Western Michigan University

Department of Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology 

Iron Jawed Angels Showing - Sep 8th!

From Cincinnati World Cinema:

IRON JAWED ANGELS
Saturday, September 8
Carnegie Arts Center
Screenings at 4:00 & 7:30 pm

The League of Women Voters and Cincinnati World Cinema join forces to present the true story of the courageous struggle to gain the right to vote for American women.

Hilary Swank, Frances O’Connor, Julia Ormond and Anjelica Huston star in this excellent and compelling drama produced by HBO and never seen before on area movie screens.

The event will include food and drink, post-film discussion and exhibits by several area organizations. Save the date, September 8! Details will be posted on the CWCwebsite in the coming weeks.

Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine: A Missionary Position - Jul 19th & 20th!

From the Contemporary Arts Center:

Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine: A Missionary Position 

Thursday, July 19 & July 20, 2012 (two nights only)

A multimedia solo work for the stage written and performed by Ugandan American artist Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, A Missionary Position is a searing response to the rampant homophobia now gripping Uganda. The noted Los Angeles theater artist incorporates raw video footage and still photography—gathered over recent months on the front lines of the African nation’s LGBT movement—and layers this documentary material with his portrayal of riveting figures drawn from in-person interviews. A Missionary Position reveals Uganda's LGBT community as seen through the eyes of a Ugandan government official, a transgender sex worker, a gay priest, and a lesbian activist, and creates a complex investigation of the burgeoning resistance to state-supported oppression.

A Missionary Position is the follow-up to Mwine’s internationally heralded one-man show Biro, the "New York Times critics pick" about the eponymous HIV-positive Ugandan who illegally entered the United States to seek treatment. Additionally, he has contributed footage to “Call Me Kuchu”, a documenatry film on the life and death of David Kato, Uganda's first openly gay man, which won the Teddy Award for Best Documentary Film at 2012 Berlin Int’l Film Festival.

A Missionary Position premiered in June 2012 at the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater in Los Angeles.

Thursday, July 19, 2012  

Doors @ 7:00pm
Show @ 8:00pm
Tickets: $14 members, $18 advance, $20 starting Thursday, July 19th 
 

Tickets available at the CAC Store during normal business hours 513.345.8431
Online Tickets available through Wednesday, July 18th at 5pm
 Click below to purchase tickets for THURSDAY JULY 19th 

When

July 19th, 2012 7:00 PM

Event Fee(s)

Advance Ticket for Thursday, July 19th	$ 18.00
Member Ticket for Thursday, July 19th (Must show member ID card upon arrival)	$ 14.00

click here to get tickets

MYCincinnati: Music for Youth in Cincinnati

From Eddy Kwon, RAPP XXVI Alum:

Good morning!

I’m writing to you from Fort Worth, Texas.

Wait.... Texas?

It’s a little hard for me to believe too.

But, here I am in the rehearsal wings of Bass Performance Hall, one of the most elaborately beautiful venues in the country... drinking tea, tapping away on my computer, and listening to the sound of 50 young musicians giggling as they practice the zombie choreography to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” in the large rehearsal room next door.

Err... What?

I’m sorry, please let me give you a little more context.

(Disclaimer! This is a very long and involved letter, so feel free to come back when you have time, space, and attention enough)

This week I have had the very, very great pleasure of being a guest teaching artist for Fort Worth’s youth music program, B Sharp, and the dancing kids I mentioned above are taking a well-deserved break from their full day of orchestra and small ensemble rehearsals to practice the group dance piece that will open their concert program. In a few days, I will travel four hours to Austin to work as a guest clinician at Austin Soundwaves. Both are free, daily orchestral programs that engage underserved and low-income communities in their respective cities. Both offer young people the opportunity to learn an orchestral instrument at a very high level, a chance to play every day in a committed orchestra, and the promise of a safe and supportive community of peers and adults. I’ve been, and will continue to be, working with the string orchestras, teaching small group lessons, and leading improvisation workshops for string players.

B Sharp and Austin Soundwaves are modeled after El Sistema, Venezuela’s phenomenally successful network of national youth orchestra programs that has fundamentally changed the daily realities of over 3 million young people over a span of 35 years. The Orchestra is at the core of El Sistema -- it is the model for family and for community. It is an organism with one purpose: to agree. This is the source of El Sistema’s power and lasting social imprint.

El Sistema has produced classical music superstars Gustavo Dudamel (Conductor of the L.A. Philharmonic) and Edicson Ruiz (youngest double bassist in the Berlin Philharmonic), as well as the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, a professional ensemble that tours more than any other orchestra in the world. El Sistema has been called the future of classical music by Sir Simon Rattle, and its founder, Jose Antonio Abreu, was the winner of the 2009 TED Prize.

But El Sistema does not just develop musical geniuses. Far more importantly, El Sistema trains young people to be collaborators, accountable leaders, and responsible citizens. These are the future teachers, inventors, entrepreneurs, activists, scholars, doctors, mothers, and fathers.

To the many of you who play an instrument, this should come as no surprise. Playing any instrument very well, especially a stringed instrument, is hard. It takes a lot of patience. It develops attention, memory, discipline, self-control, planning, multi-tasking -- all invaluable skills that allow us increased agency in our lives and careers. Not to mention it stimulates so many mysterious parts of the brain, with equally mysterious consequences we will likely never fully understand.

Why am I going on and on about El Sistema and doctors and skills and mysterious consequences?

Because I’ve observed the results of intensive instrumental study in myself, and in the students of my own orchestra in my current home of Cincinnati, Ohio.

What I’ve waited to mention to you so far (thank you for reading all of this...) is that I am the assistant director of an El Sistema-inspired program that launched in October of this past year. The program is called Music for Youth in Cincinnati -- or as it is affectionately called, MYCincinnati.

From October to June, we met every weekday for two hours after school in an elementary library. That’s 2 hours a day, 10 hours a week, 40 hours a month, of intense instrumental (violin, viola, and cello) and ensemble training.

Our 20 young musicians are between the ages of 7 and 12, and they come from several different schools in the Price Hill neighborhood of Cincinnati, a west side community that has suffered from -- among many issues -- high unemployment, a child poverty rate above the national average, and a declining population. Despite being a neighborhood that has been historically ignored by the city, there is warmth and a real sense of possibility here. MYCincinnati is part of the growing network of folks that are investing in the community by engaging and challenging its young people.

Oh yeah, and our program is FREE! Absolutely 100% free for our students and their families.

The idea of MYCincinnati and El Sistema is that through musical training of the highest quality (I hold my students to a very, very high level -- thanks to the many teachers who did the same for me) and the strong sense of friendship and family that playing in an orchestra can foster, each individual life is uplifted in very real ways, and in turn, so are the lives of their family members and their communities. We are in the business of empowerment.

A very …. idealistic idea, right?

Free Webinar: Good Food and Good Jobs - Jul 12th!

From the Applied Research Center:



ARC continues to present groundbreaking research this summer! The upcoming “Good Food and Good Jobs for All” report highlights innovations at the intersection of the good food and good jobs movements. Find out more about building healthy communities with our free webinar next Thursday, July 12 at 10am PT/1pm ET.
Access to healthy and sustainable food is linked to jobs that pay living wages. Yet the movement for good food sometimes leaves out crucial factors for low-income communities of color, such as wages, immigration status, and enforcement of safe working and living conditions. Similarly, many labor advocates don't address how and why food security and land sovereignty relate to their struggles for workers.
Presenters include ARC's Senior Research Associate and report author Yvonne Liu, Liana Foxvog, Director of Organizing and Communications at International Labor Rights Forum, and Jose Oliva, Program Director at ROC United. ARC's Research Director Dom Apollon will moderate.

Good Food and Good Jobs Webinar on July 12 at 10am PT/1pm ET. This webinar will discuss the following report findings: People of color are most impacted by the inequities of our current food system Labor is more likely to be engaged in good food, but both labor and food face challenges in working at the intersection Building multiracial coalitions with a diverse set of stakeholders is key to winning both good food and good jobs We will also highlight public policy opportunities at the intersections of good food and good jobs We hope you’ll join us next week for this free webinar! For more information, visit arc.org/webinars.

Ambassador of India to the US Speaks on India-US Relations & Economic Development - Jul 12th!

From UC International:

On behalf of the Office of the President:  attached is a flyer regarding a presentation featuring Her Excellency Mrs. Nirupama Rao, the Ambassador of India to the United States, taking place on Thursday, July 12. The flyer contains the details. This event was organized by Dr. Ratee Apana of the Lindner College of Business.

Join iPALs - International Partners & Leaders

From UC International:

Join iPALs – International Partners and Leaders

UC International is looking for energetic UC students to assist, befriend, and introduce our incoming international students to their new life as a Bearcat. UC will be bringing students to Cincinnati from all over the world and our Partners and Leaders will be helping introduce them to UC and American culture.

This program is helpful for incoming international students because it provides friendly faces and a welcoming atmosphere when they arrive. The benefits for becoming an iPAL include having an intercultural experience, and being able to add this leadership opportunity to your resume. Any volunteer time with the iPAL program can also count towards service requirements.

Leaders will welcome new international students when they first arrive in Cincinnati, and volunteer at welcome events and other events throughout the year. Partners will be friendly faces to international students, and attend some events throughout the year. A 1-hour training session for those selected to be Leaders will be scheduled during the week of August 13-17.

There are no special requirements to participate—other than being interested in helping international students acclimate to their new surroundings! We would love for you to volunteer whether you’re from the US or an international student.

Please fill out the application at: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGlNMlhmaUZETHlmMk5oemM5X1J0cWc6MQ

We will contact you with further details after you’ve submitted an application.