Akua Allrich Headlines Fundraiser For First Generation College Students

Akua Allrich

Singer Akua Allrich is defining the title "fusion artist" with her debut disc A Peace of Mine, which features songs from every genre of soul music you can fathom. She will be performing songs from her new CD at an upcoming event on Sunday, Sept. 12 produced by Liberated Muse member Shonda Goward.
 
Shonda Goward is a renaissance woman who is a college instructor, an education administrator, a performance artist and writer. She is also the founder of First Generation, a nonprofit that provides resources to students who are the first in their family to attend college. Her desire to start her nonprofit was borne from her own experience as a first-generation college student at the University of North Carolina.

In a successful effort of giving back, Goward will be producing her second fundraiser this weekend for the Out of S.T.A.T.E. scholarship she created through First Generation.

Join First Generation University in it's second annual Hill to Hill Scholarship Fundraiser!
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Funds raised are donated to the Out of S.T.A.T.E. scholarship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which supports low income students of color.

To find out more about the fund please visit www.firstgenerationu.org.

Read more about Akua Allrich here.

Still Time to Register for the Re:Verse Literary Conference & Festival

You can still take part of this very relevant conference & festival. Liberated Muse co-founder Khadijah Ali-Coleman is one of the presenters. Kudos to author Felicia Pride and the Literary Freedom Project for hosting and creating this forum.

Visit http://reversefestival.com/08.htm
for more info.

Here are the conference workshops:

Conference Date: Saturday, October 25, 2008
Location: Hostos Community College
450 Grand Concourse at 149th St., Bronx, NY

The Re:Verse Literary Conference revitalizes the importance of books in the lives of young people.The conference presents creative ways for keeping literature and books valuable sources of knowledge and creativity.

This series of professional-development workshops will help educators incorporate literature into existing curricula to further explore course work that focuses on cultures, history, and social studies.The mission is to bring a love of literature back into the classroom in new, unique, and exciting ways.
Regular registration: $15, October 1 through October 25All conference attendees will receive a complimentary one-year subscription to Mosaic Literary Magazine ($24 value) and lunch.http://reverse.eventbrite.com

Session I: 12:00n-1:15pm
Conscious Women Rock the Page: Using Hip Hop Fiction to Incite Social Change
Conscious Women Rock the Page to support educators who wish to use hip-hop fiction in their classrooms to explore social issues and promote activism among their students.

Instructors: Jennifer Calderon, Elisha Miranda, Sofia Quintero, and Marcella Runell Hall

Puerto Rican and Dominican Poetry in the Classroom
This workshop will explore the work of poets from the rich cultural communities Puerto Rican and Dominican and ways to use their work in the classroom.

Instructor: Rich Villar

Session II: 1:30-2:45pm
Revisiting the Role of Literature & Culture in the Classroom through Art & the Written Word
Revisiting the Role of Literature will explore the fusion of culture, literature, and visual arts in new ways; global community building through literature; and the role played by literature, art and the new media in the creation of a heritage and cultural identity

Instructors: Gabrielle David and Nikita Hunter

The Bridge is Over: Connecting Young Adults with Engaging, Age-Appropriate Literature
The Bridge is Over will provide educators and youth providers with strategies to identify and work with engaging multicultural young adult literature.

Instructor: Felicia Pride/BackList

Lunch: 2:45-3:30pm

Session III: 3:45-5:00pm
Learning About Ourselves and Each Other: How Reading Diverse Text Promotes Tolerance and Boundary-Stretching
This workshop will engage participants in discussion and activity that identifies ways to engage urban youth in literary pursuits that include reading about and discussing literary texts by authors who are culturally different or write about characters who are different culturally in any way ranging from ethnicity and religion to nationality and gender.

Instructor: Khadijah Ali-Coleman

Poems as Speech Acts and Accommodating Forms
Workshop participants will read aloud and analyze three to four contemporary poems by different poets and discuss how our attitudes, beliefs, and our understanding of diction, tone, and context influence us to arrive at the poet's intended meaning.

Instructor: Charles H. Lynch