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Be the change, baby!
I have worked with MEND since 2010 and am on their Youth Advsiory Committee.They make a real difference in the neighborhood of Pacoima in the hand up not hand out kind of way. Check them out here!
The Greatest MEND Podcast
You have a voice, kid. Use it!
How do you volunteer voice over experience and skills? A podcast! I popped the idea to Andrea Lopez, Director of MEND Youth Services and she got me a bunch of ipads and an apogee mic. Every Tuesday of the school year since 2013, we work on a monthly show. It is now available on itunes and podbean. What started as a language and public speaking exercise turned into a boinified podcast! These smarty farties are now proficient in editing, producing, journalsim, public interviewing, and musical interstitial compostion. They've developed their own segments and became confident in their individual styles. This year saw them reach out to public figures in their community, like muralist Levi Ponce, the prime driver behind Mural Mile in Pacoima. In fact the pod beat KTLA to break the news of Mr. Ponce representing the US in Merida Museum of Modern art in Mexico . They also reported on and participated in Cornerstone Theatre's production of California: the Tempest and interviewed it's director, Johm Michael Garces. If you are an inspiring professional and would like to come and play in Pacoima or let the kids report on your world, contact me!
Reckoning with Torture
Memos and Testimonies from the War on Terror
I directed this event and produced it with playwright and author Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey, Henry Meiman , and Virginia Classick of Progressive Christians Uniting. It was moderated by ACLU's Steve Rohde.
Actors David Selby, Susan Clark, Andre Sogliuzzo, Jane Edith Wilson, Ed Cunningham, Arelene Binder generously gave their time and talents to read the unsettling real tesimonies of US torture vicitms from actual government transcripts. I read as well.
The presentation Reckoning With Torture: Memos and Testimonies From "The War on Terror," is a project of the ACLU and the PEN American Center, a New York-based group that advances literature and defends freedom of expression.
You can see a video of the reading and read more about it here.
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