Fwd: The Upcoming Events I Mentioned

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Faith Adiele" <fadiele@cca.edu>
Date: Nov 8, 2012 7:35 PM
Subject: The Upcoming Events I Mentioned
To: "Zane Hawley" <zhawley@cca.edu>, "Jennifer Goldsmith" <jgoldsmith@cca.edu>, "Jayo Miko Macasaquit" <noypi1@gmail.com>, "Kristin Adochio" <adochio.k@gmail.com>, "Samiat Salami" <ssalami@cca.edu>, "Felicia Hayes" <fhayes@cca.edu>
Cc: "Faith Adiele" <faith.adiele@gmail.com>

FRIDAY 11/8 - CCA Seminar Series 

Carol Edgarian, Editor of Narrative Magazine

Writers Studio, 195 DeHaro, SF

5:30 - 7:00 PM

MONDAY 11/12 - Weekday Wanderlust 

Travel Writing Reading Series featuring Laura Fraser, Andy Isaacson & Mary Jo McConahay 

Free snacks and cash bar

Hotel Rex, 562 Sutter St, SF

6:00 - 8:00 PM

TUESDAY 11/13 - Mills College Reading Series

Erin Mouré (Montreal poet and translator has published 17 books of poetry and a volume of essays)

5000 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland

5:30 - 6:30 PM Reading

6:45 - 9:00 PM African Food Reception, Faith's House, Faculty Village #5

THURSDAY 11/14 - Workshop and Read for Peace Benefit Reading 

SF Public Library, SF, Civic Center BART

4:00 - 5:30 PM Workshop

5:30 - 7:30 PM Reading

FRIDAY 11/15 - CCA Seminar Series 

Me!

Writers Studio, 195 DeHaro, SF

3:30 - 5:00 PM

--
Faith Adiele

Associate Professor

MFA Program in Writing 

BA Writing & Literature Program

California College of the Arts

1111 - 8th Street

San Francisco, CA 94107

fadiele@cca.edu

http://www.cca.edu/academics/faculty/fadiele

Buddha in the West: Even Bill Clinton Turns Toward Meditation - NAM EthnoBlog

My pal and fellow PBS documentary subject Andrew Lam analyzes the spread of Buddhism in a globalizing world:

...For if Americanization is a large part of globalization, the Easternization of the West, too, is the other side of the phenomenon.

I take it as some cosmic law of exchange that if Disneyland pops up in Hong Kong and Tokyo, Buddhist temples can sprout up in Los Angeles, home of the magic kingdom.

Buddha in the West: Even Bill Clinton Turns Toward Meditation - NAM EthnoBlog

My Igbo Sisters Initiate Interesting Model/Partnership

Umu-AdaIgbo, a social cultural organisation, has concluded plans to establish a specialist hospital in the South-eastern part of the country.

The group's Coordinator, Philomena Nnamani, stated this during the August home-coming meeting in Abia State.

The home-coming event is a biennial meeting of Igbo women at home and in the Diaspora...

She said that Umu-AdaIgbo was an initiative that would serve as a rallying point for all black women across the globe, who could trace their roots to the Southeast of Nigeria.

"We encourage all blacks in the Diaspora to establish links with their people at home..." 

Women plan mega hospital in the south-east | Daily Times Nigeria

The Many Forms of Exile

The Anglo-looking check-out clerk at Trader Joe's just said to me, "I grew up in Indiana, where they fed me instant rice! Can you imagine if I had stayed with my birth mom in Korea?"

For every answer you get right, the UN's World Food Programme donates 10 grains of rice to end world hunger

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Words & Pizza: Watch Faith Be Humiliated

Words & Pizza: Watch Faith Be Humiliated

If you're in San Francisco, come to Haight Street Tuesday to see me get trounced (pizza and beer extra)! I am famous for drawing a blank whenever asked the title of a book, any book, even my own.

WORDS & PIZZA: Game Night at The Booksmith!

1644 Haight St.

San Francisco, California

94117-2816

Tuesday, August 14 at 7:00 PM

African Lives: An Anthology of Memoirs and Autobiographies

This is the first crowd-funding project I've ever championed, because (1) I've been dying to have such a book published, and (2) funders get chocolate!

African Lives: An Anthology of Memoirs and Autobiographies: African Lives is the first anthology to showcase memoirs from across Africa. Your help with permission fees will make this the best book possible.

The first book of its kind

As far as I know, no one has ever before published an anthology that brings
together a collection of African authors — men and women of all ethnic groups,
born and raised on the continent — telling the stories of their own lives in
their own words.

It’s not because there’s any lack of material. Some African memoirs are famous, like Aké: The Years of Childhood by Wole Soyinka, The Dark Child by Camara Laye, and No Easy Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela. Many more are just as dramatic and well-written, yet hardy known.

Why hasn’t a book like this appeared before?

One reason is permission fees. Some works are out of copyright and can be
reprinted for free, but the rights to many others are held by publishers,
agents, or the authors themselves. In some cases it’s necessary to pay three
separate fees for the US, the Commonwealth, and the rest of the world.

It’s a lot of work to chase down permissions. In one case I followed a trail
from Heinemann (the original publisher) to Pearson to Allison & Busby to
W.H. Allen to Virgin Books to Random House. And it’s expensive. I would also
like to translate sections of three memoirs that have never appeared in
English.

My publisher has generously offered a grant toward the cost of permissions,
and I am adding my entire advance for the book. But that still leaves an
estimated $3,000 for me to raise.

If you're interested in Africa...

If you’re interested in Africa, or in memoir, or if you’re just an
adventurous reader, I hope you’ll want to support this project — and I hope
you’ll want to read the book for yourself.

Whether or not I reach my goal, you will get a modest reward for your
generosity. And you will know that you’re doing your part to bring the voices
of some amazing African writers to light.

On the radio Monday

Elmaz Abinader and I will be on The Women's Magazine on Public Radio in the Bay, Monday between 1 and 2 pm.

Tara Dorabji sits down with faculty of the Voices of Our Nations writing workshop, the only multigenre workshop for writers of color in the U.S.

June 25, 2012 - 1:00pm on KPFA, 94.1 FM and online at www.kpfa.org
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Star-studded VONA Faculty Reading Thu 6/28!

This annual event is always SRO, always tight, always hilarious & heartbreaking, always free!
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Opening night Mixed Roots Fest

Opening night Mixed Roots Film & Literary Fest: L.A. City Hall declares today Loving Day in honor of Loving v. The State of Virginia.
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2012 Mixed Roots Film & Literary Fest this weekend!

This weekend I will be appearing with my people at the 2012 Mixed Roots Film & Literary Fest in L.A.!

Look for me on Sunday 12:30 – 1:30 PM. The readings will be held in the Tateuchi Democracy Forum at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM), 369 East 1st Street, in downtown Los Angeles

Be there, or be mono-ethnic!

The 1968 Exhibit | Oakland Museum of California

The 1968 Exhibit | Oakland Museum of California

This interactive, detailed exhibit does all the research I need for my book - for me! Every month has something heartbreaking or awe-inspiring. The way it's designed is like standing in my grandparents' living room, watching Walter Chronkite reporting on Vietnam, then going into my bedroom to play with my Julia doll, while Mom arranged smorgasbord on stackable plastic plates. My favorite is the Bobby Kennedy exhibit - the viewer is placed at the window of the train taking his casket to Arlington Cemetery, listening to the train chug along and gazing out at all the varied folks gathered along the tracks to say good-bye.    

 

The 1968 Exhibit

March 31, 2012 - August 19, 2012

Experience one of the most powerful years in recent history in this unforgettable exhibition exploring the social, political, and economic events of 1968. A turning point for a generation coming of age and a nation engaged in war, 1968 saw the peak of the Vietnam War, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, riots at the Democratic National Convention, Black Power demonstrations at the Summer Olympics, Feminist demonstrations at the Miss America pageant, and much more. Throughout it all, the Bay Area was at the forefront with an emerging California counterculture. Presented as an ongoing collective of historical and personal stories, the exhibition is for those who lived through it, those who’ve heard about it, and those who wonder why it matters. For more information about The 1968 Exhibit, visit www.1968exhibit.org.


OMCA In-the-Mix Series 
Dive deeper into the issues raised by The 1968 Exhibit. Join special intergenerational guests in the 1968 Lounge for thought-provoking conversation. Included with Museum admission.

Protest: Left and Right, or Progressive and Conservative 
Saturday, June 9
1 – 2 pm
1968 Lounge, Great Hall

The Political Scene 
Saturday, July 14
1 – 2 pm
1968 Lounge, Great Hall

Women and the Military 
Aug 11
1 – 2 pm

1968 Lounge, Great Hall
.

Multiculti Anthology Release this Friday!

I was recently asked to blurb The Chalk Circle: Intercultural Prizewinning Essays, a new anthology that's already racking up awards and sales records. One of my previous VONA students is in it, and the Introduction is by VONA faculty member David Mura. A great teaching tool!

The launch party is this Friday (May 4) in San Francisco at Books Inc. in Opera Plaza, 601 Van Ness Avenue, at 7 PM.  The book’s release arrives just in time for the annual World Day for Cultural Diversity Dialogue and Development on May 21st, as proclaimed by the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Editor Tara L. Masih will open the program, and authors will sign books after the reading. Refreshments will be served. 

The Chalk Circle has already garnered several accolades:

Featured title, NewPages’ “New & Noteworthy Books” list

Winner, 2012 Skipping Stones Honor Award in the Multicultural/International category

Featured title, Amazon’s “Hot New Releases” list

Tara L. Masih has assembled a stunning collection. Disregard the textbook-sounding title and gaze upon the mosaic-like cover. The range of cultural diversity and personal complexity packed into this slim, beautiful volume is staggering and far outstrips any other collection out there. These now-American writers and travelers experience the intercultural encounter at home, overseas, within their own communities, families, and selves. The voices range from adult journalists and Peace Corps volunteers to the children of Nazis and refugees. For some, like Third Culture Kids and the children of survivors, their histories and true identities are hidden, and it is through engaging with food and spirituality, photographs and music, family stories and private letters, global and personal history, that they are able to recover and share the nuances of life on our globalizing planet. Each story is a polished, multi-faceted gem of unprecedented color and clarity, which together form a glittering necklace that redefines what it is to be intercultural—that is, human—in the world today. This is a book I will be teaching and recommending to friends and strangers again and again.

--Faith Adiele, Coming of Age Around the World: A Multicultural Anthology; Meeting Faith: The Thai Forest Journals of a Black Buddhist Nun

SFIFF: When in doubt, Go Native

Yesterday was a full day at the San Francisco International Film Fest. It began with a bang, detoured for a fire alarm and full-theatre evacuation, and ended with a whimper.

First up was The Orator, ostensibly the first Samoan-language feature film, written, directed and starring all Samoans. More later (once I can do some research) on this quiet powerhouse of a tale about an outcast dwarf and his banished wife that had the 3 of us weeping. And laughing. And thinking about the intersections between Pacific and African cultures, between the living and the dead.

Second was The Double Steps, an over-the-top Spanish production set Mali's stunning landscape (the ancient city of Djenne and the Dogon escarpment - 2 of my favorites - make stunning cameos). There appeared to be 3 storylines happening in 3 different temporal spaces, based on a true-life mystery about a French painter who died in 1971. Suffice to say there are same-sex relationships, treatises on art, a breathtaking nighttime scene with albinos in hiding, a rooftop dance scene evocative of the Malian dandy culture of the 60s, and an Easy Rider/Zapatista/Mad Max-like gang of thieves on motorbikes bedecked with cow skulls, themselves sporting Tuareg turbans, artillery shells, mudcloth ponchos, and bushwacker caps.

Last and most certainly least was Sleeping Sickness, a German feature that started out as a possible medical thriller (albeit a very slow one), possible trenchant critique of post-coloniality/aid work in present-day Cameroon and then without explanation jumped 3 years ahead and into Heart of Darkness. Yep, Mr. Kurtz, he dead, alright. And I need a shower.
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Finding Faith | Harvard Magazine Nov-Dec 2004

Finding Faith | Harvard Magazine Nov-Dec 2004

One of my students discovered this old profile. I can't bear to read it, but I suppose I should archive it in some way for posterity (and future biographers!) :-)

Study at Berkeley

So I'm teaching this summer at Berkeley with my old friend Camille Dungy, my old classmate Tony Swofford, my old friend & classmate Shane Book, and my new BFFs (though they don't know it), Daniel Alarcón and Justin Torres! Fun!

6-Week Creative Nonfiction Workshop with Faith

Berkeley Summer Creative Writing Program

May 21-June 28, 2012, University of California, Berkeley

Apply here

Our unique 6-week program offers aspiring, practicing and experienced writers a sustained community in which to create, network and live the writing life. Make lifelong connections while enjoying master classes with renowned authors, meeting with agents, and attending and participating in panels. Specialized intensives such as novel writing and preparing the MFA application portfolio will also be offered. Classes meet Monday through Thursday morning.

Submit to VONA Anthology 3/30!

Have you heard? Thread Makes Blanket Press, in conjunction with VONA, will publish a perfect-bound anthology of writing from past VONA (Voices of Our Nations) participants. Work can be previously published as long as author can obtain permissions. Proceeds will go to support VONA's summer workshops for writers of color. Deadline is March 30th. Get on it! http://threadmakesblanket.submishmash.com/submit

Submit to Colors of Nature Teaching Guide

The editors of the groundbreaking anthology on people of color and nature, The Colors of Nature: Culture, Identity, and the Natural World (Milkweed Editions, 2011), are looking for contributions for a higher education online teaching guide with lesson ideas, questions, prompts, and resources that teachers of literature, environmental studies, multicultural studies, American Studies, geography, and other pertinent fields would find valuable for teaching the book.

The provocative writings in The Colors of Nature exist at the intersection of cultural identity and ecological awareness, featuring work from more than 30 contributors of widely diverse backgrounds—including Jamaica Kincaid, Joseph Bruchac, Yusef Komunyakaa, Kimiko Hahn, Nikky Finney, bell hooks, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Francisco X. Alarcón and me, Faith.  This anthology explores the relationships between culture, place, “race,” and identity, which historically have been overlooked in traditional environmental writing.

Timetable and Submission Guidelines: Please let us know of your interest as soon as possible.  The deadline has been extended for receipt of lessons or class ideas, plus resources, to May 30, 2012.  Read the call for more detail on the next page of this blog.

Lauret Savoy lsavoy @ mtholyoke . edu Alison Deming  aldeming @ aol . com

"A Lot Like You" film is a lot like me

Talk about a coincidink! This documentary film by a Seattle-based woman with a Tanzanian father and Korean mother was playing at the San Francisco Asian American Film Festival last week. So I loaded up about 10 Africans and their friends and checked it out. They kept leaning over and telling me, “This ‘A Lot Like You’ is a lot like you!” Indeed, with filmmaker Eliaichi Kimaro‘s situating of her parents within African independence movements, it felt like a longer a version of My Journey Home. Perhaps even some of the same B&W Civil Rights footage appears.

But hers has an added surprise twist of domestic abuse. I was gratified that the African men in our group thought the film was fantastic. And they also noted that her parents were together – still – and make a lovely presence on screen. I’ve never seen my parents together. My favorite artistic bit happens around 0:26-0:28, where the filmmaker’s further mixed daughter staggers out of the grandparents’ traditional thatched hut, into a sunlight doorway, and disappears.

Afterwards, I introduced myself to Kimaro and told her my hope – that we could be a double feature at the Mixed Roots Fest this summer in Los Angeles. Wouldn’t that be cool?!

http://vimeo.com/alotlikeyoumovie/trailer

Filmmaker Eliaichi Kimaro and her Tanzanian father and Korean mother