Legislative Advocacy Forum

Do you ever wonder how bills become law? Do you ever wonder how you can influence the legislation that is proposed? Well, if so, this event is for you!

Legislative Advocacy Forum
January 26, 6:30-8:00 p.m.
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church
140 S. Green Bay Road, Neenah

The event is sponsored by ESTHER, a Fox Valley Interfaith Justice Organization, Citizen Action Wisconsin and the Association of Retired Americans. Forbes McIntosh, with Government Policy Solutions in Madison, will be our guest speaker and he will describe the legislative process. That will be followed by a panel of four area legislators who will talk about how we should contact them and how we can get to know them. They will then answer questions about legislation.

The Forum is free and open to the public.

Question? Email esther.foxvalley@gmail.com or call Connie Raether at 920-832-8990.

Yearly Report of Toward Community 2008

Submitted on November 16th

Regular Executive committee and General meetings-

• January 15th M L K Celebration
• February 28th – General Membership Meeting
• June 17th - Executive Board Meeting
• Annual Diversity Picnic - July 20th
• August 16th - Booth at Farmer’s Market and General Membership Meeting
• November 20th – General Membership Meeting
• December – Holiday Party

Participation in Community Activities -

• Healthy Day- YMCA
• Meeting with Kaukauna School Superintendent
• Participating in Planning of Hmong Association Conference of 2009
• Participating in planning of Seed folks Project with area schools and Appleton Library
• Participated in Multicultural Center’s program - Foods of All Nations

Financial Support to Different Organizations -

• Donation to NEWCA (Northeast Wisconsin Chinese Association) $100
• Donation to FCRMC towards their loan payment - $500
• Donation to Harmony Café - $250

2009 UW-Fox Valley Ethnic Reading Seminar

This seminar is a unique opportunity to discuss experiences and thoughts on issues of ethnicity, identity, citizenship and society, by coming together in a shared reading experience.

This year's seminar will focus on "Lan Samantha Chang and the Immigrant Experience." Her stories set in the past and the present, in China and the US, depict intimate portrayals of individuals who long for so much, but above all, for connection, in an environment that is at once alienating and enticing. Hunger includes a novella and five short stories that explore the vulnerabilities of individuals and their relationships as they navigate the dislocations brought by immigration. Her novel Inheritance illustrates the complexity of the interaction between identity and heritage, memory and history.

"Sometimes I wonder if I would have become a writer if I had been raised in a larger, more diverse community ... My childhood in Appleton [WI] prepared me for writing -- for observing and recording -- because I grew up feeling like an outsider ... I can not remember a time when I was not conscious of being different from the majority of people around me."

Lan Samantha Chang has published short stories in Atlantic Monthly and Best American Short Stories Collection. She has been awarded numerous fellowships awards, including the PEN Beyond Margins Award in 2005 for Inheritance and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008. She currently directs the Iowa Writer’s Workshop at the University of Iowa. She will be speaking at UW-Fox Valley April 17^th.

The seminar is open to at no charge to members of the Fox Valley community. Sessions will take place from noon until 1:00 p.m. at the UW-Fox Valley campus on February 17, February 24, March 10, April 14 and April 21. The sessions will be in a discussion format.

There is no cost to participate. Participants may keep the books as part of their involvement in the seminar.

If you are interested in participating please contact: Jeff Kuepper: jeff.kuepper@uwc.edu . If possible, please try to respond by Thursday, November 6^th.

Current Community Conversation: Energy Challenges

The Fox Cities Rotary Multicultural Center is having its second Current Community Conversation...

Topic: Energy Challenges at home and abroad

Panelists:

• Paul Linzmeyer, General Partner, Innovative Sustainability for Organizations, Inc.
• Leslie Taylor, Coordinator for Sustainable Fox Valley Initiative
  

Wednesday, October 15th
5:00 to 6:30 PM
Fox Cities Rotary Multicultural Center
128 N. Oneida St., Appleton

For more information:
Kamal Varma 920.731.0834

Immigration issues - film & discussion

Crossing Arizona - Documentary about the influx of migrants and issues of human rights, culture, labor, and national security. Facilitated by Nicole Lemke, Intercultural Relations Coordinator, City of Appleton - Thu, Sep 11, 6:30 - 8:30 pm at the Appleton Public Library

NEW World Cinema in the Post Crescent

Foreign film series brings the world to Menasha theater | Postcrescent.com | Appleton Post-Crescent

Source: www.postcrescent.com

NEW World Cinema, the Fox Cities' foreign language film series, celebrates two years on screen this summer.

Multicultural Center sponsors China conversation

From Fox Cities Rotary Multicultural Center:

Our first Current Community Conversation event will be held on Thursday, July 10, 2008 at 5:00 PM at Fox Cities Rotary Multicultural Center.

The topic is China: A Developing Country or an Emerging Power?

Our featured Panelists are

• NEWCA (Northeast Wisconsin China Association) --Dr. Xie is a professor and Co-Chair of the Department of Chemistry at University of Wisconsin Oshkosh will be representing NEWCA.
• Appleton Boychoir - Shana Shallue, Executive Director of Appleton Boychoir and the families, who visited China would share first hand details about the preparation for 2008 Olympics.
  

There will be time for Q&A.

This event is open to the public and is free. Please share this information with your family, friends, and colleagues.

If you have any questions, e-mail Kamal Varma, Education & Outreach Committee at kvarma@new.rr.com

Mark your calendar: MLK service

The 18th Annual MLK Celebration will be held at the Lawrence University Chapel on Monday evening, January 19, 2009 -- theme & speaker to be announced

The service will feature children's essays, a choir presentation, and the singing of "Lift Every Voice and Sing."

Mark your calendar and watch for details!

NEW World Cinema announces summer film series

NEW World Cinema
Fox Cinema Café, 400 Third Street, Menasha (map)
Show times: 8:00 PM Ticket: $5
Each showing will be followed by discussion
All movies have English subtitles

June 29 & 30, 2008
Adam’s Apples (Denmark, 2005)
Rated R Dir: Anders Thomas Jensen
Sentenced to community service at a small, countryside church, Adam, a middle-aged neo-Nazi, is warmly welcomed by the cheerful vicar, Ivan. Although Adam is crude, full of hostility, and beyond redemption, Ivan encourages him to choose a goal that will occupy his time there. When Adam dismissively tells the vicar that he will bake an apple pie, Ivan assigns him the task of nurturing the church's lone apple tree.

July 27 & 28, 2008
Persepolis (France, 2007)
Rated NR Dir: Vincent Paronnaud & Marjane Satrapi
Marji Statrapi and her family are happy with Shah's defeat in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. While growing up, she discovers how the new Iran has become a repressive tyranny on its own. Marji refusing to remain silent at this injustice is sent to Vienna to study for a better life. However, this change proves equally difficult with the young woman finding herself in a different culture. When she returns home, Marji finds that both she and homeland have changed too much and she must decide where she truly belongs.

August 24 & 25, 2008
The Band’s Visit (Israel, 2006)
Rated NR Dir: Eran Kolirin
When the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra arrives in Israel from Egypt for a cultural event there is no one to meet them and take them to their destination of Petah Tiqva. They find their own ride and arrive instead at the remote town of Beit Hatikva. Stuck there until the next morning, the band gets help from Dina,who offers to put them up for the night. As the band settles in as best it can, eachof the members attempts to get along with the natives in their own way.

For more information contact the Fox Cities Rotary Multicultural Center at 920.882.4056 or contact@foxcitiesmulticultural.org

Foods of All Nations - mark your calendar!

This year's Foods of All Nations, a multicultural feast and festival to benefit the Fox Cities Rotary Multicultural Center, will be held Saturday, August 23rd, 3:00-6:00 PM.

This event features food and entertainment from the numerous diverse cultures represented in the Fox Cities.

Watch for details!

NEW World Cinema - May 25/26

NEW World Cinema Spring 2008 Series 4-panel brochure
Each film will have a brief introduction and be followed by a group discusssion.
Next movie:
May 25 & 26, 7:00 PM Fox Cinema Cafe, 400 Third Street, Menasha

The Man Without a Past
Finland/2002 Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Drama/Comedy Rated PG-13

a story of poor people on the fringes of society. A man, who arrives in Helsinki in search of work, gets mugged and is beaten up so severely that he loses his memory. He rises up from the ashes, in a tight little community of homeless people and starts his life completely anew, from scratch, discovers love, and the values with which man will not be ashamed to live. A small story about people who still know how to be gentle.

17th Annual Fox Valley Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration

Monday, January 21 at 6:30 p.m. at Lawrence Memorial Chapel on College Avenue.

The theme of this year’s celebration is: Dr. King’s Legacy: What is our Responsibility? and the keynote speaker is Nancy Giles. Also:

• The Jane LaChapelle McCarty Unity in Diversity Award
  
• Tribute to the late Dr. Thomas Scullen
• Youth will read winning essays
• "Lift Every Voice and Sing"
• Appleton North Choir
  

For more information, see the Toward Community website or call Kathy Flores at (920) 955-9127.

NEW World Cinema's winter-spring series

Fox Cities Rotary Multicultural Center Presents:

NEW World Cinema Spring 2008 Series / 4-panel brochure
Each film will have a brief introduction and be followed by a group discusssion.

All films at 7:00 PM
Fox Cinema Cafe, 400 Third Street, Menasha

January 27 & 28
The Lives of Others (2007 Oscar, Best Foreign Film)
Germany, 2006, Rated R
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

February 24 & 25
Monsoon Wedding
India, 2001, Rated R
Director:Mira Nair

March 23 & 24
Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
U.K., 2005, Rated NR
Director:Dan Ireland

April 27 & 28
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter …Spring
South Korea, 2003, Rated R
Director:Ki-dukKim

May 25 & 26
The Man without a Past
Finland, 2002, Rated PG-13
Director:Aki Kaurismäki

NEW World Cinema kicks off summer series

The Fox Cities Rotary Multicultural Center, with support from UW-Fox and Wisconsin Public Radio, presents the summer NEW World Cinema series (poster here):

Kitchen Stories
Norway/ 2003/English Subtitles Director: Bent Hamer
Comedy/Drama Rated NR
June 10 & 11, 2007 - 7:00 PM
UW-Fox Valley, Menasha - Lecture Hall 1229
Ticket $5

In the fifties Swedish scientists set out to study the ‘kitchen habits' of men who live alone in the Norwegian wilderness to learn how to build a more efficient living space. The researchers were on twenty-four-hour call, and sat in special strategically placed chairs in each kitchen. The absurd premise sets up as a comedy, but what viewers come out with is the great appreciation and the bonds the characters create.

In memoriam: Tom Scullen

Going back to the early years of Toward Community (mid-1990s), Tom Scullen has been a passionate advocate for diversity issues. I remember sitting on a committee with him to try to get the Appleton Public Schools to do more to honor Martin Luther King's legacy on the King Holiday. He coordinated a plan that year (I believe it was 1996), to have each school in the district play an excerpt from one of King's speeches.

He has championed the district's position that diversity is an asset and he has worked hard to put systems in place to produce a high rate of minority student achievement in the district.

Tom Scullen was a great man and he will truly be missed.

--Scott Peeples

from the Post-Crescent, June 2 by Kathy Walsh Nufer:
Scullen's work for diversity ran deep: School leader had firm passion for social issues

(above: Post Crescent photo by Mike De Sisti)

Valley Transit discussion

Deborah Wetter, the new General Manager of Valley Transit, will make a presentation at the Toward Community general membership meeting on June 28. The meeting, to be held at the Fox Cities Rotary Multicultural Center is open to the public. There will be a business meeting at 6:00 and the presentation will be at 6:30 PM.

Hip Hop discussion

Nineteen people gathered at the Appleton Public Library on May 31 to view and discuss the video Hip-hop: beyond beats and rhymes. This documentary by independent filmmaker Byron Hurt, formerly shown on public television, explores issues including:

• history of hip-hop
• images of masculinity
• violence
• misogyny
• homophobia
• media and industry manipulation

After the video, there was an excellent discussion of concerns, led by Ron Dunlap & Scott Peeples. The official PBS page for the video has more information.

This program was co-sponsored by Toward Community, African Heritage Inc., the Fox Cities Rotary Multicultural Center, and the Appleton Public Library.