Raleighwood, NC: Fighting Resegregation

Bowerbirds: In Our Talons [Music Video]

Bowerbirds: In Our Talons

MySpace: Bowerbirds

Press Release: Triangle Game Initiative Partners with C.H.A.T. Festival to Spotlight Triangle Region Collaborations in Digital Arts and Humanities

Festival to be held February 16-20 on UNC-Chapel Hill Campus

www.chatfestival2010.com

RALEIGH, N.C., Feb. 15, 2010 - The Triangle Game Initiative (TGI), a non-profit trade association for the Raleigh-Durham, N.C. interactive entertainment industry, has announced a partnership with C.H.A.T. (Collaborations: Humanities, Arts & Technology), a digital arts and humanities festival scheduled for February 16-20, 2010 on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The festival will explore the ways digital technologies are transforming the practices of the arts and humanities, including how we learn, think, know, teach and express ourselves both as individuals and as communities.

Through discussions, performances, interactive exhibitions and hands-on workshops, festival attendees will explore entrepreneurship, gaming, art, literary mashup, pedagogy and more as leaders in industry and academics discuss the challenges and opportunities of technology in arts and humanities. For the full schedule and to register, visit www.chatfestival2010.com.

"It was a great realization in planning the C.H.A.T. festival that there was an industry trade association right here in the Triangle with goals so closely aligned to our own: promoting the Triangle region in terms of our gaming and academic resources, and inspiring collaboration between research and industry," said Megan R. Granda, Ph.D., Executive Director, Institute for the Arts and Humanities, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "Triangle Game Initiative has been a true partner in this initiative, and we look forward to future opportunities to work together."

"Games are a cornerstone of the digital arts, so when we were invited to support the C.H.A.T. festival we knew it would be a fruitful collaboration," said Alexander Macris, president of the Triangle Game Initiative. "It's been inspiring to work closely with our colleagues in academia, and the success of C.H.A.T. is further proof of the Triangle area's emergence as a hub for entertainment and technology."

The festival will feature TGI member speakers from industry-leading companies in the Triangle, including Insomniac Games, Ubisoft, Red Storm Entertainment, Vicious Cycle and Themis Media. Thought leaders from three leading research institutions - the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University and North Carolina State University; the supercomputing institute RENCI (Renaissance Computing Institute; and top technology firms IBM and Cisco will also participate in panels, discussions and workshops.

Game-related panel topics will include:

-           User Driven: Does Size Matter?

-           The Ubiquity of Games

-           Games & Storytelling

-           Serious Teaching and Learning in Serious Games

-           Game as Medium

CHAT will also feature a "Festival Art Walk" of interactive exhibitions to provide participants special access to the artists and scholars behind the festival, who will be on hand to discuss their work. The "Art of Gaming" exhibit will showcase the artistic work of video game artists, developers and designers. A "Virtual Performance Factory" will present a performance environment using both real and virtual space where participants will explore a virtual world.

Jesper Juul, international game theorist and New York University Game Center visiting professor, will present a Keynote titled "Gaming and the Future of the Arts and Humanities." Juul will argue that the meaning of a video game comes not just from its theme, but from the way it fits into social situations and the way it lets players experience personal development, failure and success.

For more information about the C.H.A.T. Festival, visit www.chatfestival2010.com.

About Triangle Game Initiative

Triangle Game Initiative is the trade association for the Raleigh-Durham, N.C. interactive entertainment industry. Its members are market-leading companies and prominent industry figures who have gathered in the Research Triangle area to master the arts and sciences of gaming. The Triangle Game Initiative's mission is to build a thriving community of companies and professionals dedicated to the advancement of the interactive entertainment industry in the Triangle region. For more information and to register to become a member, visit www.trianglegameinitiative.org.

About the Institute for the Arts and Humanities

The Institute for the Arts and Humanities (IAH), a faculty enrichment center in the College of Arts and Sciences at UNC-Chapel Hill, is coordinating the C.H.A.T. The IAH offers programs and activities that support UNC faculty at every stage of their careers. The IAH funds individual and collaborative research, showcases faculty work, develops faculty leaders and teachers, and facilitates the formation of collaborative, interdisciplinary communities that promote intellectual exchange. Visit www.iah.unc.edu for more information.

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For more information, contact Christine Hall at 919-882-1998 or chall@capstrat.com.

Resources for Fighting Resegregation & the Resegregationist 5

I'm developing some resources here related to the Wake County School Board and the Resegregationist 5 that I will feature in the Resources for Fighting Resegregation category and, for the moment, in the navigation bar at the top of the page.

Currently they consist of three core news sources for keeping up with School Board developments:

N&O WakeEd Blog: T. Keung Hui

IndyWeek: Bob Geary

NC Policy Watch: Chris Fitzsimon & Rob Schofield

NC Policy Watch: Diversity, Public Schools & The Gang of Five

NC Policy Watch has been posting quite a bit on the Wake County School Board and what they call The Gang of Five.

Below are links to a series of pieces by Chris Fitzsimon in the Fitzsimon File and pieces by Rob Schofield from Radical Right Reality Check and their Weekly Briefing.

From NC Policy Watch in 2010:

Fitzsimon File: Rigid ideology meets more reality

Weekly Briefing: Why you should march this Saturday

Fitzsimon File: The Follies

Fitzsimon File: Missteps in the march to resegregation

Weekly Briefing: From Massachusetts to Wake County

Fitzsimon File: Six weeks of backing up

Fitzsimon File: Race to the Right

From NC Policy Watch in 2009:

Radical Right Reality Check: How to fight the right

Fitzsimon File: Monday numbers

Radical Right Reality Check: An embarrassment to themselves

Fitzsimon File: The dismantling begins

Radical Right Reality Check: Talk about your “social experiments”

Fitzsimon File: The real agenda of the resegregationists

Fitzsimon File: The importance of public school integration and diversity

Weekly Briefing: Will Wake turn back the clock?

Weekly Briefing: Honoring Vernon Malone

Fitzsimon File: Flailing against diversity

Bob Geary on Wake County School Board

Bob Geary writes for the Independent Weekly, a publication with which I've had a love/hate relationship since their launch in Durham back in '82 or '83. That was also my first year out of college and I had an amazing time in Durham getting to know a progressive/radical community with a very deep bench.

Bob does some nice work and I'll try to update this post as regularly as I can. You can check IndyWeek for his regional news coverage and his Citizen blog for posts about the big town of Raleighwood.

Bob Geary on Wake County School Board Issues

From IndyWeek News in 2010:

Wake County politics: It's complicated

Diversity takes a backseat in Wake schools: Rich kid, poor kid

Why did the new majority hire its own attorney, Tom Farr?

Wake schools fight escalates

From the Citizen blog in 2010:

HK on J is coming Feb. 13 — it's not a march, it's a movement worth joining

NAACP calls Sunday forum on threat to Wake schools; WakeUP sets coalition

Wake school board votes 5-4 to end year-round assignments — somehow

It's Tuesday, 5:40 pm — do you know where your school board is?

From IndyWeek News in 2009:

Conservative Wake school board members discover change is tougher
than it looks: A reality check

The Wake school board's conservative bloc grabs power:
Doesn't play well with others

Tedesco: No Wake schools coup planned—yet

From the Citizen blog in 2009:

Students launch online petition to preserve magnet schools in Wake

Tedesco wins, conservative majority now in control of Wake schools

Truitt drops out, warns against resegregation of schools in Wake

Truitt will drop out of District 2 race tomorrow, cementing
"neighborhood schools" majority

Truitt versus Tedesco: It matters.

Now that the rabid-right Republicans run the Wake schools,
will they wreck them?

Wake schools to come apart? Will the new school board fire Del Burns?

N&O Blog: WakeEd by T. Keung Hui

WakeEd Blog: Home Page

Built using the WakeEd Blog RSS Feed powered by Feed2JS
with hosting by Modevia Web Services. Thanks, y'all!

Independent Weekly's Gift of Love Promotion 2010 Featuring More White People!

It's not that I have anything against white people, partly because I'm as obviously white as it gets, but there's something creepy about a left/lib paper that does a music issue featuring white people on the cover and follows soon after with a Valentine's Day related print promotion featuring white people. Does this represent the Triangle's diversity or do people of other colors not make music or fall in love?

Maybe it all comes down to the fact that the Independent's writers hate hip hop that doesn't follow their guidelines and perhaps the advertisers in the print supplement requested only white or white-looking couples. I don't know. It puzzles me.

So I'd encourage you to check out the February 3rd print edition of the Independent Weekly, go to page 31, leaf through "The Gift of Love" ad/content section and you tell me how it looks. And then check out the February 10th print edition, go to page 31, leaf through that "Gift of Love" ad/content section and tell me how that looks.

Admittedly, there are stories without pictures. And, in the Feb. 10th edition, there is a Greek guy and, historically speaking, they weren't always considered white and there is a guy who looks like he's covered his face in some kind of bronzing cream or something (bronzeface, anyone?). Plus, they've got some apparently lesbian couples in the mix so you can't say they're only representing straight and/or bisexual couples, though the absence of gay white male couples is a bit surprising. That said, I find this all rather disturbing.

Nevertheless, they do have a traditional out that white people tend to use in such situations. They can claim that they just picked from what was submitted and they did the best they could given the circumstances.

Sorry, but even I know that what is submitted represents who you're reaching and how comfortable they feel having themselves represented in one's publication. If you want to represent diversity, I've always found that you have to reach out to those you claim to represent or you need to STFU about your supposed left/lib values.

Of course, it could be that African, African-American, Latin, Asian, Native American, mixed-race looking people and similar genres of humans as well as gay white men don't photograph well or maybe they can't write good stories or maybe, just maybe, they don't give a f*ck about the Independent Weekly.

If you've been reading Raleighwood, NC, you know which theory I'm going with!

Related Raleighwood, NC Coverage:
NC Independent's All White Year in Music Cover!
NC Independent Asks 15 Men & 3 Women for their Movie Faves of the Decade

Planned Parenthood: Say NO to Wake Co. Abortion Coverage Ban

Say NO to Wake Co. Abortion Coverage Ban:

"On Monday, February 15, the Wake County Board of Commissioners will vote on whether to eliminate insurance coverage for abortion from all county employees' benefit plans. We need you to add your voice to growing public outcry about this politically-motivated attack on women's healthcare."

"THE FACT REMAINS: Abortion care is part of a comprehensive a health insurance plan, which is why more than 80 percent of private insurance plans already cover abortion."

"The politicization of women's personal reproductive lives definitely didn't stop with the Stupak amendment – which would limit abortion coverage at the federal level – and now we have found it at our own back door."

Raleigh Downtowner Magazine Steps Up Its Game!

I don't actually have a big problem with Raleigh Downtowner Magazine. They serve a specific niche that just happens to mostly be about white people with some cash, so I've tended to lump them in with Raleigh's ongoing campaign to "Get White People Downtown," which seems to be going pretty well.

But it's not like they don't care about people of color or poor people per se. In fact, a recent print issue that is also available in .pdf form is a pleasant surprise with a cover story focused on "9 for the Needy" plus stories about some of the cooler businesses around the area.

Oh, snap, it's the return of Peter Eichenberger (as RD's "Senior Writer") who provides the intro to an article by Chris Moutos focused on the following local service organizations:

Alliance Medical Ministry

Pretty in Pink Foundation

Wee Care Children's Enrichment Program

Loaves and Fishes Ministry, Inc.

SAFEchild

Haven House

Raleigh Rescue Mission

Meals on Wheels of Wake County

Warmth for Wake

They also have an additional list of worthy organizations at the end of the article. If you think that's a good thing, as do I, I'd encourage you to contact them in support of creating a dedicated directory page on their website:

Telephone: 919.821.9000
Email: office@raleighdowntowner.com

In addition to 9 for the Needy, this issue promoted a number of businesses which make Raleigh cooler than not, from NoFo Cafe to a Hillsborough assortment to Five Star.

Since I'm focusing quite a bit on racial issues in my writing at Raleighwood, NC, I'd like to make a special note that, beyond what may well be a great restaurant, Five Star has a great nightclub at which I've spent my last two New Year's Eve celebrations. Both times Five Star had the most interesting and comfortable mix of races and ethnicities that I've experienced in Raleigh.

In the past, Five Star has hosted Blacklisted every First Friday with no cover and no dress code. I haven't been on those nights but I imagine it's quite a bit of fun and I've been very impressed by their dj's in the past. Blacklisted's various web points of presence are currently outdated but I imagine the party continues.

Credit where credit's due:
Publisher Crash Gregg interviews Robert Weiss, Artistic Director for the Carolina Ballet. I'm not the biggest fan of ballet but you can't have a real city without a real ballet and they've done pretty darn well for themselves.

Surprise find:
Melissa Santos profiles Krav Maga Raleigh. I don't know Ken Richstad and I never assume a teacher is good based on their own abilities since teaching is an art of it's own but, if he's good, it's well worth a look.  Krav Maga is the real deal, i.e., it's not about the belts, it's about the abilities.

I've been looking for a martial arts teacher and I'll let you know if I take the free intro class. Check his site's links page for some other solid looking local schools. It's always a good sign when people link out.

Cool.  I did not realize Peter had returned to the fray but I'm thinking this might work. RD's approach has the potential to rein in Peter's wilding out tendencies while they get a good writer who has something to say and gives a damn.  Plus, Peter's love of Raleigh and the people of Raleigh is sincere, in case you've wondered in the past.

That might be a surprisingly nice fit and this would be a fine issue even without Peter's contributions. Guess I'll have to break down and go check out some more recent issues of Raleigh Downtowner Magazine since I'm now at least a couple behind!

Kooley High Joins Tanya Morgan for The High Fidelity Tour

High Fidelity Tour with Tanya Morgan & Kooley High

MySpace: Kooley High