Aminata Toure to speak at Champlain College, Tuesday, Sept. 30

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This is an invite to all our readers. Next week, Aminata Toure, our UN sponsor will be speaking at Champlain College, Burlington, VT in the Hauke Conference Room at 5pm September 30. 

Furthermore an exhibiton of photos we took while in South Africa is on display at the Emergent Media Center's new home in Winooski, VT—the Champlain Mill. Please stop in and visit during office hours. Below is the official news release:

BURLINGTON, Vt. (Sept. 26, 2008)  – Aminate Toure, an internationally-known leader in human rights, will spend two days meeting with Champlain College students and faculty to work on a United Nations’ funded project aimed at reducing gender violence in developing nations. 

The Emergent Media Center at Champlain College and Population Media Center were awarded a grant from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to carry out the project, which consists of creating an electronic game for young boys in developing nations aimed at preventing violence against women. The game will evolve into a global initiative, with an initial focus on South Africa.

Aminate Toure, chief of the Gender, Human Rights and Culture Branch of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), will speak about international women’s health challenges in a community lecture on Tuesday, Sept. 30 at 5 pm at Hauke Family Campus Center’s Conference Room at Champlain College. A question and answer session follow her talk. This event is free and open to the public.

You are invited!

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Robben Island, S.A.: site where ANC prisoners did hard labor and yet undermined the system. Referred to now as their "university" and place of triumph. 

Most of the blogging I have done recently is captured in our blog: EMC: Games Take On Violence Against Women . We returned from South Africa just three weeks ago. Exhausted, exhilarated, and needing time to readjust. Instead we jumped right into the midst of everything!

South End Art Hop: a mix of traditional and emergent—Champlain College and current EMC projects.

1. Classes for the students,
   
2. campus commitments for faculty and staff,
   
3. an exhibition at the Burlington South End Art Hop (thank you Sarah, EMC students and all the support of Champlainers such as Toni Lee Sangiastino and Richard Terricciano),
   
4. and most exhausting for Ray, Sarah and myself a huge move into a new space for the center. 

Renovation

It is 3700 beautiful, functional, funky, brick and sunlight bathed, cool square feet! Many thank you's due here but to start Michel George, Penny Miller, Mark Sammut and team. We are now located in the Champlain Mill in Winooski, Vermont. For the students we are directly across from the Spinner Place student residences. For the rest of campus, it is a short Champlain College bus ride down the hill and across the river. Students often walk it in 20 minutes.

Off and running, we are working on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Cystic Fibrosis game, completing the Information Literacy games, moving ahead on Burlington 3D, finishing for an Oct. 15 release date America's Army, and transcribing dialogue for the UN Violence Against Women project.

This in-spite of construction work, painting, wiring, and unpacking!

Heather Kelley, Ray McCarthy-Bergeron and Sarah Jerger getting work done despite building chaos

With all of this—or perhaps due to it, I want to issue two major invites: 

1. Come hear! Next Tuesday, September 30, we are honored that Aminata Toure, our UN sponsor is coming to Champlain!!!! She will be presenting to the community on her work for the UNFPA. I can promise that you will find her impressive. We are finalizing the time so if you are interested in attending, please contact me and I will send you the time and location. Did you know that this year 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, an international campaign runs from November 25 to December 10.  The campaign will run in conjunction with the 60^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is celebrated on December 10^th. 
   
2. Come see! The EMC is having a major grand opening celebration, Oct. 21st from 4:00-6:30 and all are invited! There will be a very official ribbon cutting, hands on demos of our projects, students will be on hand to discuss their work, free food, etc. Please contact us if you need info on parking, etc. I will try to post ahead of time.
   

Hopefully I will see you all soon!

View from our windows