Click below to get to the news link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/9682226.stm

Kate Russell’s weekly review of new and interesting sites and apps.

For news on this, check the below link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16467291

The theme of her show is to have people (including oneself) laugh about whatever it is they don’t like about themselves, and become happier and be more free because of it.

She has launched a fund raising campaign in Kickstarter to support her travel and food for the comedy show tour.

Join hands for this enterprising fundraising by pledging for the project in the below kickstarter link.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1154778045/love-yourself-laugh-about-it

Please join this great mission of recognizing the emotions of the incarcerated mothers and their children outside by pledging the project on Kickstarter using the below link.    http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/130957112/if-walls-could-talk

Katie Yamasaki, an artist based in Brooklyn-New York, works primarily as a muralist, teaching artist and children’s book author/illustrator.

View her bio here : http://www.kickstarter.com/profiles/130957112/bio

Her upcoming project If walls could Talk is waiting for its funding on Kickstarter. With just 11 days to raise her funds, which is short of $2520, we bring to you the details on her project:

Katie Yamasaki : “ I am an artist based in Brooklyn. In my work, I’ve been really lucky to witness the transformative effect that art can have on an individual and on a community, especially when that individual and community have the chance to utilize art as a platform for expression- for expression of something essential, something they wish to communicate about themselves, about their experience.

I’ve planned a project here in New York City. I’ll be working with two populations; incarcerated mothers at Rikers Island and the children of incarcerated mothers in East Harlem. I’ll workshop with each group separately, the workshops resulting in imagery and messages that each group wants to communicate with the other. Most simply, it’ll be an image that answers this question of What is something you, as mothers, would like to tell your children- about yourselves, your relationship, your past, your hopes for the future. Maybe something that you find difficult to say to them in person when they come for a visit. We‘ll put this message into an image and send it to the children on the outside who will paint it as a large-scale outdoor mural in their community of East Harlem. For the children, similarly they’ll be creating an image that addresses the question What are some things that you want to say or show your mother that you don’t get to because she’s in jail? What are feelings you want her to know that you have? What are some things she needs to know about you that she may be missing out on because she isn’t here? The children will develop a mural image that the mothers will then paint inside of Rikers.

My hope is that by sending these images back and forth, an unusual dialogue will happen. A dialogue not only between mothers and children, but also with the greater communities that exist both inside of the jail where one mural will be painted and in the neighborhood where the other mural will be painted.

The idea is that this experience will not only be empowering, it will also help these mothers heal from some of the guilt and pain they feel from being separated from their children- encouraging them to do everything in their power to manifest changes that will positively impact their families. I also hope that while the youth work in the community, we will be able to address the stigma that children often carry when they have an incarcerated parent.

In 2009, I did a project at a women’s prison in Chiapas, Mexico. I worked with about 40 women and their children, under 4 years old, who lived with them. There were so many things that struck me during that week, about the lives of these women. But what affected me most about that project were the conversations I had with them about their children on the outside- the children who were too old to join them in the prison and were in the Mexican foster care system, staying with family, or, as one woman described her 11 year old son, just living by himself. The complexity of feelings the women described about their relationships with their estranged children moved something inside of me.

And when I finished the project, I just left. That’s what happens. You leave, they hug you and then they just stay. And you have no idea what will become of them, their children inside of the prison, the 11 year old son living on his own. You leave and they stay. So, I still don’t know what will become of them, but at least we can do this.

There is something that happens when you paint a wall- when you create the imagery that surrounds you and the images are of you, your people, your community, your family, your mother or your child. There is something that happens to both the people who paint it and the people who see it happen- something I’m not sure I could measure. But what I do know, from doing this for awhile, is that this identification, this creation, this visual dialogue can change the way people feel. About themselves, about their families, about their community- about their place in the world. And what I believe is that people are motivated by feelings. People are motivated by love, and that is really the founding principle of this project.

I hope you can support it. I hope you can help make this happen. Most simply, It can only happen with your support. Please donate and please distribute this message to everyone you know.  ”

Additional Photo Credits:
Queens, NY mural collaboration with Brazilian graffiti artist, Ise

www.calebneelon.com (Waltham, MA mural image)

To fund this project through this Kickstarter link   :          http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/130957112/if-walls-could-talk

About the artist/project owner  :  http://www.kickstarter.com/profile/130957112

www.katieyamasaki.com

News link - http://www.sagoodnews.co.za/social_development/a_brief_encounter_with_kindness_changes_lives_at_protea_heights.html

News link – http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/dec/11/sahara-solar-panels-green-electricity

It is the first time that a Tanzanian government has formally recognized a minority tribe’s land rights.

The Hadza are a small tribe of about 1,500 hunter gatherers living in north-west Tanzania. They speak a click language.

For news on this, go to the link below :
http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7859

Siblings Kassidy and Ryan Brown created Journey of Action, an independent production company that produces short documentaries on Generation Y Change-Makers.

The project is based on the belief that this generation is aware of our social and environmental challenges we face on a local and global level, but they lack daily tools for action. At the same time, there are so many members of this generation who are changing the traditional systems of business, non-profits, and education for the better, but they receive little to no media attention.

Reference Link
http://www.journeyofaction.com/

Courtesy
Journey Of Action

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/dec/08/pacific-micro-state-renewable-energy

Courtesy

The Guardian