In this issue of GSA Network News, you'll find:
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1. GSA Activist Camp 2002! (Northern & Southern California)
The Activist Camp is FREE, youth-planned and youth-led event that features intensive community building, skill-building, political education, and leadership training for GSA members. Last year's participants had a great experience, and we hope to make this year even better! All youth who will be involved in a GSA next year and who want to develop leadership skills, network with other youth activists, learn a lot, and have a fabulous time are encouraged to apply.
Northern California Camp:August 6-8 in Oakland
Southern California Camp:August 9-11 in Santa Monica
Submit your completed GSA Activist Camp applications to GSA Network by Monday, July 8th.
Apply online at http://www.gsanetwork.org/camp (will be up and running by the end of the day today). Applications can also be sent via e-mail (copy and paste the application into an e-mail) or by snail mail (print out application and postmark by 7/8) to GSA Network -->
Northern California Camp:
(e-mail) emilie@gsanetwork.org
(snail mail) 160 14th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
Southern California Camp:
(e-mail) cc@gsanetwork.org
(snail mail) 4477 Hollywood Blvd. Suite 202, Los Angeles, CA 90027
GSA Activist Camp Application:
Name:_________________________________________
Address:_______________________________________
City:__________________________________________
State:_____
Zip:___________
Phone:_________________________________________
E-mail:_________________________________________
Do we need to be discreet when contacting you? (yes or no)
Name of school you attend:__________________________________________
Name of GSA or LGBTQ-related organization:___________________________________
Current Age:________
Year in School (for 2002-2003 year):__________________
GSA Network strives for diversity in all aspects of its programs. The following information is optional but very important to us:
Gender:__________________________________________
Sexual orientation:__________________________________________
Race/Ethnicity:__________________________________________
Please answer the following questions:
art for change:youth art auction and benefit for GSA Network
art for change will benefit GSA Network's Make It Real Project, a youth-led effort to ensure implementation of AB 537, the California Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act of 2000, a ground-breaking law protecting students from harassment and discrimination on the basis of actual and perceived sexual orientation and gender identity in California public schools.
$100 - Champion
$50 - Supporter
$35 - Individual Ticket
$10 - Limited income
Free - Youth 18 and under
San Francisco Event:
Saturday, June 8, 7-9 p.m.
Z Center, 2211 Mission St. at 18th St., San Francisco
Program will include youth speakers and performances to be announced.
Sacramento Event:
Monday, June 24, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Club 21, 1119 21st Street, Sacramento
Program will feature the author of AB 537, Senator Sheila Kuehl, and Amador High School student Brianna Pulskamp-Lockhart
For more information, call 415.552.4229 or email artforchange@gsanetwork.org
GSA Network is still accepting donations of artwork for both of these events. To submit your work, please contact Jill at 415.552.4229 or email jill@gsanetwork.org
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3. Free Zone 2002 Applications Now Available (Bay Area)
Summer 2002:Make Art. Make Change.
Come out and play!
We are planning an amazing summer of fun, skill sharing, creative expression, and powerful activism. Free Zone 2002 is a collaborative program of GSA Network, LYRIC, and Mission Grafíca. The summer will include training in graphic design and screen printing as well as political education workshops. The program culminates in the creation of a series of political posters expressing the hopes and issues important to the group. In addition to being shown in community venues, the posters will be used in schools by Gay-Straight Alliance clubs and teachers to fight homophobia and other oppressions.
Classes will be held at the Mission Cultural Center, 2868 Mission St (right off 24th St. Bart) in San Francisco every Tuesday and Thursday, June 18 - August 22, from 3-6:30 pm. No previous experience necessary.
Apply now:http://www.gsanetwork.org/freezone/application.html
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Free Zone is an arts for social change collaborative project of the Gay-Straight Alliance Network and LYRIC (Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center). Through arts training and education about social issues, Free Zone inspires LGBTQQ and straight ally youth to use art as a means of self-expression, activism, learning, and community-building. The artistic product created through Free Zone is used as an organizing and curriculum tool to fight homophobia and injustice in schools. GSAs build youth leadership capacity as they host the Free Zone product and educate their peers about homophobia and other injustices. For more info about the Free Zone project, visit:http://www.gsanetwork.org/freezone/.
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4. Upcoming GSA Leadership Training:SF/East Bay
Wanna meet other people fighting homophobia?
Wanna learn how to improve your GSA?
Wanna become a leader?
*** Join us for our upcoming GSA Leadership Training! ***
Learn how to facilitate a meeting, make your GSA more inclusive, and build coalitions with other students.
All GSA Leadership Trainings are FREE. Breakfast and lunch are provided.
SF/East Bay:
Sunday, June 2 -- 9:30am - 4:00pm
Youth Empowerment Center
1357 5th St., Oakland CA (next to West Oakland BART station)
Co-sponsored by GSA Network and Youth Force Coalition.
For more information about the East Bay Leadership Training, contact Emilie at 415.552.4229 or email emilie@gsanetwork.org.
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5. LYRIC Champions Awards Event (SF)
LYRIC's annual Champion Awards Event
May 30th (tomorrow)
6:00pm to 9:00pm
SF LGBT Community Center
FREE for youth, $75 for adults, $25 for Alumni
Awards will be presented to Vanessa Duran, Jordan Green, and The Center for Young Women's Development.
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6. Queer Camp 2002 (Santa Cruz)
is the camp we always dreamed of!
Singing around the Campfire * Roasting Marshmallows * Starlight Dance * No-Talent Show * Volleyball * Heart Circles * Fun Playshops * Hiking * Mask-Making * Art in the Woods * And whatever else we all dream up!
Save the dates!
Register by June 7th, 2002
Camp happens June 17-21, 2002
(arrive Mon 4-6 pm, leave Fri at 3 pm)
Please plan on attending the entire event!
For More Info:call (831) 335-5861
This event is sponsored by STRANGE, Santa Cruz Area Radical Faeries, Q-Kids of the Billy de Frank Center (San José), UCSC LGBTI Resource Center, the Santa Cruz Diversity Center, & the ADAM Foundation.
Application
Name _____________________________________
Home Phone_________________________
Address_________________________________________________________
Email Address ________________________
Gender ______ Age ____ T-Shirt Size ______
Parent's Name(s) ______________________
Parent's Work Phone(s)___________________
Assistance
____ Physical Considerations (specify)
______________________________________________
____ Diet Restrictions (specify; meals will be vegetarian)
______________________________________________
____ I need transportation to the event.
____ I need transportation home from the event.
____ I take the following prescription medications:
______________________________________________
Lodging (We will do our best to meet your request)
____ I want to sleep in a cabin/room ____ I want to pitch my own tent
____ My friends and I want to room together. My friends' full names are:_____________________________________________________________
Helping Out
____ I want to help out with the camp. Please let me know what I can do.
____ I would like to present an activity or playshop and am attaching a
proposal.
____ I can provide transportation to and from the camp for ____ people.
Parent/Guardian Permission
All participants under 18 years of age will need written permission to
attend.
I, ________________________, am the legal guardian/parent of
_____________________ and I give permission for her/him to attend Queer Camp 2002 from June 17-21, 2002. In case of an emergency, I authorize camp organizers to consent to any medical care advised by medical professionals, and I can be contacted at ____________________.
Parent/Guardian Signature________________________
Date__________
Registration Fees **
The registration fee includes four night's lodging, all meals, and all
activities at the camp! We have a wide fee range because we want everyone
who wants to come to be able to attend. Pay what you can. We want you there!
If you need a scholarship please call (831) 335-5861 and leave a message
asking for one.
Registration Fee $40-$60 _______
T-Shirt $10 _______
Donation for scholarships _______
Total Fee Enclosed _______
** If you live in Santa Clara County, the Billy DeFrank Center in San Jose will pay your registration fee! Contact Rick at 408-293-3040 x 111 for more info.
Please make your check payable to "The Diversity Center", and mail to Camp 2002, c/o Dan Driessche, 301 Elm St., Santa Cruz CA 95060 by June 7th, 2002. A map and a fun list of things to pack will be sent to you when we receive your completed registration.
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7. Anti-Racist Action Network (Peninsula)
Calling all activists on the Peninsula!!
The Anti-Racist Action Network is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to fighting racism, sexism, anti-gay bigotry, anti-Semitism, and the unfairness which is often suffered by the disabled, the youngest, the oldest, and the poorest of our people. Since 1987, ARA has pushed fascists out of music scenes, communities, and cities across the country.
Due to an uprising of racist skinheads, we have started an ARA chapter in San Mateo County/Mid-Peninsula. We need your support!!
Come to our first meeting!
Saturday, June 15, 2002
in Central Park, San Mateo
We'll begin at 12 noon.
For info, directions, etc. email us at: ara_pen@hotmail.com
The four principles of the Anti-Racist Action Network are:
Friday, May 24, 2002 (SF Chronicle)
MOMA highlights teen filmmakers
Dave Ford, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tons of teens this summer will sit in darkened theaters watching Spiderman leap across the New York skyline or Anakin Skywalker making eyes at Padme Amidala in what only seems like the 957th installment of "Star Wars."
But some young people would rather do than watch. Among them are the middle and high school students who created film and video projects for "Keeping It Reel," screening today at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
In addition to the films, the festival will feature spoken-word, singing and dance performances. Tana Johnson, the museum's coordinator of school and teacher programs, said she hopes the festival will help make SFMOMA "a much more community-oriented space, where teens can feel welcomed and honored."
Johnson helped organize the first such festival four years ago. Two years later, she founded the museum's after-school Teen Visionaries program, in which high-school students pair with mentor artists.
"Keeping It Reel" was organized by Teen Visionaries members, along with teens from the nonprofit Youth Leadership Institute.
The organizing committee of teens auditioned performers and whittled 45 film entries to 11. Those included "H.P. on Fire," about environmental challenges facing the Hunters Point neighborhood. It was made by young people from the San Francisco Conservation Corps' Youth in Action Program.
Another is "As If It Matters," a film highlighting issues affecting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth.
The film, which received a certificate of merit in the Youth Works category at the recent San Francisco International Film Festival, traces the lives of six characters, one of whom is Jen, a girl with two lesbian moms.
She is played by Eleanor Gerber-Shiff, 16, who actually has two lesbian moms. She said telling her story in the film -- even a fictionalized version -- proved more difficult than she'd anticipated.
"It was kind of like being naked, because I had to put things out there that I wouldn't ordinarily put out there," says Gerber-Shiff, a sophomore at San Francisco's Leadership High School who wove her own body-image concerns into Jen's story.
"Talking about how I feel about my body isn't something I normally talk about to other people," she said. "Putting it on film was even harder."
The film was made by young people from the Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center, a gay-youth services provider in San Francisco, and from the Gay-Straight Alliance Network, an organization led by young people that connects school-based gay-straight alliances to each other and to community resources.
They were helped by Teaching Intermedia Literacy Tools, a group that pairs established video artists with schools or groups.
Robyn Richardson, the LYRIC arts and media coordinator, says such projects can provide young people with an outlet for their anxieties.
"What's really important is visibility for youths in general as artists and specifically queer youths," she said. "What's also important is the impact that young queer artists can have on other people as educators and leaders."
Indeed, making an impact is what "Keeping it Reel" is all about, said Eddie Kaufman, the director of prevention at the Youth Leadership Institute.
"Having a festival, sponsored with MOMA, gives young people an opportunity to know that their form of expression is valid and that their voices need to be heard," he said.
E-mail Dave Ford at dford@sfchronicle.com.
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If this message has been forwarded to you and you would like to sign up to receive it yourself, please visit:http://www.gsanetwork.org/news/signup.html.
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empowering youth activists to fight homophobia in schools
Carolyn Laub
Executive Director
Gay-Straight Alliance Network
160 14th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
ph:415.552.4229
fax:415.552.4729
carolyn@gsanetwork.org
http://www.gsanetwork.org/
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Last updated 5/29/2002 by Jean Richter, richter@eecs.Berkeley.EDU