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VISUAL REPORTAGE WORKSHOPS
Gallery at the Piano Factory
October 6 – October 31
Opening Reception with the photographers October 14,
Beginning in 2007 our workshop mission grew from a belief that
the best of our work is an instrument for change, that images
have the power to give voice to the voiceless and more. Since
our first workshop widely diverse groups of accomplished
photographers have traveled to
have worked stories and grew as photographers and as people.
We are excited to present this exhibit presentation of work from
20 photographers who are committed to making a difference
through their work.
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SOMPATT 2010
Highlighting Educational and Cultural Trends
in the African Diaspora
Academic Forum
Theme
Challenges and Advances in Higher Education in
Keynote Speaker
Dr. Cheikh Tidiane Gadio,
Former Foreign Affairs Minister of
Saturday 23, October 2010 –
Room 101
Sponsored by
CONTACTS:
sompattfestival@gmail.com Tel:
BU
for the
Supplier Diversity Program
(formerly known as the Affirmative Market Program)
FY11
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
M/WBE Sellers—This is your best opportunity to meet and market your business to the Commonwealth
All State Buyers —Your time is important, don't miss this great networking opportunity to meet State Certified M/WBE Vendors. Special recognition will be given to Departments and their
Location:
The
415 Summer Street,
Email:
There is no cost to attend this event, but all attendees must preregister.
_______________________
Donna Fleser
Supplier Diversity Program
617-720-3103
SD
Save the date for Heart of the Hub
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1. Save the Date: BWA Annual Celebration and Fundraiser [10/22]
2. Join the Movement for Home Weatherization - http://tinyurl.com/weatherizationBWA
3. Green Justice Community Action Forum [9/22]
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1. *SAVE THE DATE*
BWA Annual Celebration and Fundraiser
Friday October, 22nd
6:30-11pm
SEIU 1199
150 Mt. Vernon St.
2 Blocks from JFK / U Mass T-Stop (Red Line)
Next to the Bayside Expo Center
Join the Boston Workers Alliance in celebrating our 5th year of successful grassroots organizing. We will be highlighting major victories, including the passage of CORI reform and the launching of the new CORI friendly temp agency, the Boston Staffing Alliance. Please join us for this exciting night of community, food, music and celebration!
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2. Join the Movement for Home Weatherization
BWA is launching a new initiative to weatherize hundreds of homes in the Boston area this year!
Weatherization means air sealing your homes and adding insulation to your walls. We are fighting for the triple bottom line: the people, the environment, the economy
1. People: weatherization will reduce your energy use, reduce your heating bills and make your homes more comfortable
2. Environment: weatherization will reduce energy use to help combat global warming
3. Economy: weatherization can help create new green jobs strong enough to lift our communities out of poverty
Sign up for an initial informational phone call by filling out your information at the following link: http://tinyurl.com/weatherizationBWA
Free Funds for Weatherization:
Did you know that there are funds available to get your home weatherized? If you are below 60% of medium income, you can access up to $10,000 of free work in your home. If you are between 60% and 120% of medium income, you can access up to $3,500 in free weatherization work. BWA can help you access these funds! Sign up today!
http://tinyurl.com/weatherizationBWA
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3. Green Justice Community Action Forum
Communities and Unions Say: We're Ready to Take Control of the Green Economy!
Tuesday, September 22, 2010
6:00pm to 8:00 pm
Our Lady of Lourdes, 45 Brookside Ave, Jamaica Plain (1 block from Stony Brook T-Stop)
Join BWA in promoting green solutions that can combat poverty and pollution at the same time. BWA is helping to provide free transportation from Grove Hall to Jamaica Plain.
Let us know that your coming:
http://tinyurl.com/greenjusticeRSVP
Green Justice:
• Because our homes are old and drafty
• Because we need healthy, safe jobs
• Because we want to fight global warming
• Because Winter's coming
• Because we are paying for others' prosperity with our dollars, health, and lives
• Because we are ready to weatherize our communities
Background
Utility companies administer MassSAVE, the state's energy efficiency program. According to Green Justice Coalition research, MassSAVE is underserving low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, and low- to moderate-income ratepayers are paying more into the system than they are getting out. As a result, neighborhoods like Roxbury and Dorchester are subsidizing wealthier suburbs' weatherization work.
The Green Justice Coalition has proposed three solutions to this problem:
1. Provide financial access for low- to moderate-income residents;
2. Mobilize low-income communities for climate action; and
3. Make sure "green" jobs are good jobs held by community residents.
Last October the utility companies promised to start implementing these solutions as part of their three-year, $1.4 billion energy efficiency plan. Progress has been very slow. The Green Justice Coalition is trying to strengthen the utilities' commitment when they file "midcourse corrections" to their three-year plan this October.
The Green Justice Coalition Steering Committee is: Alternatives for Community & Environment (ACE), Alliance to Develop Power (ADP), Boston Climate Action Network (BCAN), Boston Workers' Alliance (BWA), Chelsea Collaborative, Chinese Progressive Association, Clean Water Action, Coalition Against Poverty/Coalition for Social Justice (CAP/CSJ), Community Labor United (CLU), Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI), Greater Four Corners Action Coalition, MassCOSH, Laborers' New England Regional Organizing Fund, Massachusetts Energy Consumers Alliance, Neighbor to Neighbor, New England Council of Carpenters, New England United for Justice, Painters & Allied Trades District Council 35, Project RIGHT
We Are Ready and We Are Willing: Join us to Stand for Green Jobs and Weatherization in our communities. September 22 - Stand Up for Green Jobs Now!
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Aaron Tanaka
Boston Workers' Alliance
411 Blue Hill Ave.
Dorchester, MA 02121
p. 617.606.3580
c. 617.359.0336
f. 617. 606.3582
atanaka@bostonworkersalliance.org
www.BostonWorkersAlliance.org
 Tensions high at BU BioLab meeting by Emily Cataneo MySouthEnd.com Contributor Wednesday Oct 6, 2010 Citizens still displeased with risk assessment studies When community members at the Boston University BioLab Meeting on Tuesday, October 5 stepped up to the microphone, they were not happy. Some were barely civil. Commentator after commentator expressed confusion and suspicion about what the BioLab was planning to study in its facility; fear of what an accident in the BioLab could do to their community; and disgust for the risk assessment study presented at the meeting. The meeting, held at Roxbury Community College, is just the latest of in a series of BU BioLab meetings where tensions and tempers have run high. The BU BioLab, officially known as the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL), has generated controversy since it was first proposed in 2002. The building, located on Albany Street and partially funded by the National Institutes of Heatlth (NIH), will potentially be used to study 13 pathogens that are among the most dangerous known to humankind, including Ebola virus and Marburg virus. In 2003, incensed community members leveled a lawsuit against NIH, the Trustees of Boston University, and the Boston Medical Center Corporation. In 2008, as part of its efforts to determine whether the BioLab will in fact pose a threat to the community, NIH convened a Blue Ribbon Panel, comprised of independent scientists and experts. Adel Mahmoud, the panel chair, spoke for fifteen minutes at the beginning of Tuesday night's meeting, explaining what he and his colleagues were trying to do. "Tonight's meeting is a continuation of the Blue Ribbon Panels engagement with the citizens of Boston to make sure risk assessment is as transparent as possible," said Mahmoud. Mahmoud and his colleagues sat up on stage while Tetra Tech, the firm hired by NIH to complete the risk assessment, gave a half-hour PowerPoint presentation on their most recent findings. Presenter Adi Gundlapalli, an assistant professor at the University of Utah School of Medicine, listed the 13 pathogens slated to be at the BioLab, and ran through a variety of potential disasters and mishaps that could occur to release those pathogens to the public. Gundlapalli focused in on several pathogens--SARS-CoV and Rift Valley fever virus-and several possible release scenarios-a centrifuge mishap and an earthquake-when discussing the probability of public infections. According to Gundlapalli, for the two pathogens and the two scenarios discussed, the probability of one or more members of the public becoming infected was either low (it could happen once every 10,000 to 1 million years) or beyond reasonably foreseeable (it could happen once in more than one million years). But when Gundlapalli sat down at the end of his presentation, nobody applauded. During the subsequent two and a half hour public commentary portion of the meeting, every community member who spoke at the microphone received applause, if not standing ovations, whoops or cheers. Klare Allen, a Roxbury resident and one of the leaders of the opposition to the BioLab, went over the three minutes allotted to each commentator as she described her dissatisfaction with the risk assessment process. "I don't see transportation being addressed in this scenario. If something were to happen on the way from the airport, what would happen to the community-that's a worst case scenario," said Allen, her voice rising. Richard Orareo, who lives in the Fenway, said that the study had failed to consider the mental stability of the potential workers at the BioLab. He cited the Sept. 12 death of a Northeastern University lab technician, who allegedly brought cyanide out of the lab and to her home to commit suicide. "Did you come on the Orange Line? On the Green Line? Well, that's how she went back and forth to work. With her container of cyanide," said Orareo. "This will be part of the study and we will get back to you," replied George Friedman, a panel member. In her time at the microphone, Allen also said that the study should have looked at the neighborhood and its problems specifically, instead of studying abstract data. "We need to look at our community. Who's sick? What diseases do we already have? We need to do a full overlay," she said. Mel King, a South End community leader and member of the opposition, questioned whether the panel members had bothered to walk around the neighborhoods and get to know the people who live there-people who, King said, are already terrified of the potential BioLab. "Your risk analysis is too late. People in my neighborhood live in fear of what you're going to do," said King. "I'm infected with the fear that you've put in me." In the lobby outside the auditorium, Allen expressed her belief that the panel and the Tetra Tech representatives were talking down to her and her fellow civilians. Another fear aired by commentators was that the BU BioLab would be used to study biological weapons. "I would think we were living in an exciting science fiction novel if it weren't more like a nightmare," said Alice Kant, reading from a prepared statement. "This research exists to make biological agents to kill people." Allen and scientist Mark Pelletier explained that the fears about biological weapons originated from a letter sent from Klempner, in which he stated that the BioLab would work towards researching potential defenses against biological agents. At any rate, said Allen, she doesn't understand why the BioLab should study these pathogens in the heart of Boston, where nobody suffers from them and studying them cannot bring any benefit to Roxbury or the South End. "Our concern is that nobody we know in MA is suffering from these pathogens. Nobody from other states is suffering from these pathogens," said Allen. "So why are you bringing them to our community?" said Allen. In an email the day after the meeting, BUMC interim director of corporate communications Maria Pantages said they respected the process the Blue Ribbon Group and community members were participating in. "It is important to allow people who have concerns about the Lab to have the ability to express those concerns," she said. |
Thanks,
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REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS AND BIDS
Dudley Square Main Streets and Greater Grove Hall Main Streets are seeking a consultant and bids to provide strategic planning services for our organizations. Our goals are to refine our mission and vision, develop a sustainable fundraising strategy, as well as develop strategies for improving the quality of services we bring our businesses in the Dudley Square and Greater Grove Hall Commercial Districts.
About Main Streets: Dudley Square Main Streets and Greater Grove Hall Main Streets are commercial revitalization organizations dedicated to making our respective districts a unique destination point through marketing, storefront improvements, and collaborating with local developers and businesses. We provide networking, skills workshops and referrals for technical assistance and financing. Main Streets also works with the City and other public partners on district-wide planning issues. Further, we plan historic and community oriented events and programs to bring residents and visitors to the area.
Scope of Services:
Provide at least 2 individual planning sessions with each respective district
Provide at least 2 joint planning sessions with both districts
Facilitation of planning meetings
Recording and reporting on meeting results
Provide key strategies for improving the success of our commercial areas
Present final report detailing the how each organization can remain financially stable, grow and become more effective
Timeline:
Project must be completed between November 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010
Submission Requirements:
Please submit a résumé, company profile, and at least 2 references from individuals or organizations familiar with your work. Dudley Square and Greater Grove Hall Main Streets will follow up and schedule interviews with promising candidates. Submit 2 unbound copies of the requested information by Tuesday, October 12, 2010 at 4:00 p.m. to:
Dudley Square Main Streets | P. O. Box 190185 | Roxbury, MA 02119
For questions or additional information, contact:
Joyce Stanley at 617-541-4644 or joyce.stanley2@verizon.net ; or
Axel Starke at 617-427-2560 or greatergrovehall@verizon.net
Dudley Square and Greater Grove Hall Main Streets reserve the right to reject any and all proposals
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-- THE END --
OR, IS IT JUST THE BEGINNING? YOU DECIDE!
( Stay tuned, as the struggle continues. )
_______________________________________________________________
Occasionally we receive information from people regarding organizations
and businesses. While we share this information with you, it should not
be seen as an endorsement of their services.
_________________________________________________________________
Chuck Turner, District 7
City Hall Office--(617) 635-3510 / District Office--(617) 427-8100
Chuck.Turner@cityofboston.gov Angela.Yarde@cityofboston.gov Phillip.Reason@cityofboston.gov
Paulette.Tillery@cityofboston.gov Lorraine.Fowlkes@cityofboston.gov Edith.Monroe@cityofboston.gov
ROXBURY: WARD 8, Pcts 3-4, 7; WARD 9, Pcts 3-5; WARD 11, Pcts 1-3, 5; WARD 12, Pcts 1-9
SOUTH END: Ward 4, Pct 4; Ward 9, Pct 2
FENWAY: Ward 4, Pcts 5, 8-9