A brilliantly illuminating portrait of the twenty-first-century West -- as vast, diverse, and unexpected as the land and the people, from one of our foremost chroniclers of migration. The economic boom -- and the devastation left in its wake -- has been writ nowhere as large as on the West, the most iconic of American landscapes. Over the last decade the West has undergone a political and demographic upheaval comparable only to the opening of the frontier. In DESERT AMERICA, Emmy-winning journalist, Lannan Foundation fellowship recipient, and author of the famed Crossing Over, Rubén Martínez evokes a new world of extremes: outrageous wealth and devastating poverty, sublime beauty and ecological ruin. Martínez shows how the new West will drive America’s future, both demographically and economically.

The Portland Oregon Women’s Film Festival (a.k.a. POWFest) is now accepting entries for its sixth annual festival scheduled to take place March 7 - 10, 2013. The regular deadline for entries is Friday, August 17, 2012. POWFest showcases the art and cinematic contribution of women directors from around the world and seeks to present films that have been directed or co-directed by women; of any length, style, or genre.

When did you get your tattoo? Why? What do your tattoos mean to you? Stories will be video-recorded and if selected played back on the Placas website and in the theater beofre the upcoming performance of Placa starring Ric Salinas from Culture Clash.

The Art Beat Foundation presents a free all-ages monthly showcase of music and poetry amid a pop-up indie market of local artisans. Featuring music from Bang Data and Judith and Holofernes and a reading from Cori Crooks.

Canadian college students battling severe tuition hikes, plus what's next for the Durham López unmillionaire Presidential campaign are the featured reports at the Freedom Socialist Party monthly meeting

It's crunch time for the CA Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. Domestic workers are mothers, aunts, grandmothers and grandfathers that do the work that makes all other work possible. It's time they get the basic rights that other workers enjoy. Children, families, workers, employers and allies will rally in Sacramento for a statewide event calling on legislator to pass the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights - AB 889.

Free informational workshop for grantseekers for the California Documentary Project, a competitive grants program of Cal Humanities that supports documentary film, radio and new media productions that enhance undersanding of California and its cultures, peoples and histories.

In Jumped In, UCLA professor and gang expert Jorja Leap gives voice to the people who understand the gang problem best—the gang members and the people who try to arrest them, control them, and help them. A noted anthropologist, Leap offers one of the first genealogies of Los Angeles’s oldest and most powerful black and brown gangs, including the Bloods, Crips, Florencia, MS-13, and 18th Street, among others, and breaks down their territories street by street.

Celebrate the courage of the suffragists whose tenacity won US women the vote in 1920. Link this struggle to the new restrictive regulations targeting people of color that may rob many of the right to vote.

Training for Trainers builds on 15 years of SOUL curriculum and facilitation experience to develop the capacity of organizations to strengthen their own education work. Participants will be training in popular education theory and practice and workshop facilitation, utilizing SOUL's widely used political education curriculum. Training fees range from $200 to $690 on a sliding scale. Applications are due on 8-27.

One-day of intense panel discussions, keynote, workshops, break-out sessions and networking." Our conferences and chat events explore how business communications, content, social media engagement and strategic public relations can beyond the obvious to create impactful campaigns and meaningful results.

The prizewinning author of The Darker Nations and The Karma of Brown Folk, Vijay Prashad, will be doing a reading and discussion of his latest book, Uncle Swami: South Asians in America Today.

Featuring the distinct viewpoints of 10 women from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, Spaces Through Gender showcases an emerging generation of influential Latin American women in architecture. Presented through 3D models, photographs, videos, drawings, and installation, this unique exhibition introduces the significant role of Latin American women in contemporary design and architecture. The exhibition also celebrates Architecture and Latin American month.

Causes.com is hosting our Community Meetup at Causes HQ. Our special guest, StoryCorps, will walk us through the art of interviewing and personal storytelling. Connect supporters to your work in the community and increase your impact by sharing your story. Learn some storytelling best practices and get started with our list of great interview questions and brief workshop. This will be a great place for community organizers and nonprofit employees to network and learn from the storytelling and online campaign experts at StoryCorps and Causes. Snacks and refreshments served and friends welcome to join. Presentation begins at 6:45pm.

PFC Bradley Manning is a 24-year-old Army intelligence analyst accused of releasing embarrassing classified US diplomatic cables and a video showing US forces killing unarmed civilians and journalists in Iraq. Google “collateral murder” to view the video. Now the US Government seeks to lock Manning up for life though Manning’s chat logs show intent only to inform the public

Poets and Writers, the nation's largest nonprofit organization serving creative writers, invites California writers to apply for the 2013 California Writers Exchange Award.

As an act of conscience, on March 2, 2006 Ray returned the Intelligence Commendation Medallion given him at retirement for “especially meritorious service,” explaining, “I do not want to be associated, however remotely, with an agency engaged in torture.”

We invite you to join MCCLA as we host our 35th anniversary celebration. Aptly named, The Corazon del Barrio Awards of Excellence Benefit Gala, we'll dedicate the evening to honor the Latino arts community and celebrate the contributions of artists whose creative contributions shine brilliantly throughout the Bay Area. We sincerely hope you can join us.

Geoff Manaugh starts off a 2012-3 History and Theory of New Media Lecture Series with a discussion on burglary, tunneling and urban perforation. Ultimately asking if spatial crimes such as breaking and entering and burglary have anything to offer urban theory, Manaugh explores an alternative, even illicit view of how the city can be used and operated. From Gordon Matta-Clark to the tunneling crew of the Bank Job, from the Mole Man of Hackney to LA's notorious "hole in the Ground Gang", how does applied topology - the forced introduction of unplanned connections, perforations, holes, tunnels and cuts - transform the relationship with architectural space?

Jonathan Kozol is the National Book Award winning author of Savage Inequalities, Death at an Early Age, The Shame of the Nation, Amazing Grace, Letters to a Young Teacher, and Children of the Revolution. He has worked with children in inner-city schools for nearly 50 years.

Several UC Berkeley faculty and a visiting scholar-activist will be speaking this Friday, in Morgan Hall, about the importance of farm land and access to it, around the world. Please find attached the flyer and map for the first event entitled "Land Occupation in Global Context," the first in Occupy the Farm's Fall Speaker Series. It starts at 5pm this Friday in Morgan Hall at UC Berkeley. Speaking will be: Rita Zanotto, Via Campesina (Brazil) Prof. Miguel Altieri, Agroecology (Chile) Prof. Ignacio Chapela, Microbial Ecology (Mexico) Angelika Hilbeck, Geobotanics + Biosafety (Germany)

The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal is proud to present: Valerie Jones, author of Veronica and the Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, and Rachel Wolkenstein, lawyer for Mumia and long-time fighter for his freedom Public meetings and book signings.

“Visual music” is an umbrella term for all kinds of things: music with a colour organ or oscilloscope techniques, expanded cinema or animated films. This diversity has been further extended by developments in digital technology.

The Media, Culture, and Special Initiatives program is accepting proposals for documentary film projects between Monday, August 6, 2012 and Friday, September 7, 2012.

Seth Rosenfeld traces the FBI’s secret involvement with three iconic figures at Berkeley during the 1960s: the ambitious neophyte politician Ronald Reagan, the fierce but fragile radical Mario Savio, and the liberal university president Clark Kerr. Through these converging narratives, the award-winning investigative reporter tells a dramatic and disturbing story of FBI surveillance, illegal break-ins, infiltration, planted news stories, poison-pen letters, and secret detention lists. He reveals how the FBI’s covert operations -- led by Reagan’s friend J. Edgar Hoover -- helped ignite an era of protest, undermine the Democrats, and benefit Reagan personally and politically. At the same time, he vividly evokes the life of Berkeley in the early sixties -- and shows how the university community, a site of the forward-looking idealism of the period, became a battleground in an epic struggle between the government and free citizens.

We know intuitively that health is linked to stable, quality housing, but what are the exact connections? What affordable housing resources exist to improve health outcomes? Join us for a lunchtime discussion on how we can improve personal and public health through housing, and share tools and resources.

Set in the aftermath of Iran’s fraudulent elections of 2009, Zahra’s Paradise is the fictional story of the search for Mehdi, a young protestor who has disappeared in the Islamic Republic’s gulags. Mehdi has vanished in an extrajudicial twilight zone where habeas corpus is suspended. What stops his memory from being obliterated is not the law. It is the grit and guts of a mother who refuses to surrender her son to fate and the tenacity of a brother—a blogger—who fuses culture and technology to explore and explode absence: the void in which Mehdi has vanished.

In solidarity with the 200,000 people who demonstrate in Tokyo every Friday night to pressure Prime Minister Noda not to permit the re-start of more Japanese reactors, following the Fukushima disaster and not to make an end run against the Japanese parliament by appointing pro-nuclear nuclear plant commissioners without parliamentary approval.

At the Delta of the Niger River in Nigeria, where a vast proportion of the planet's oil is excavated, bomb attacks, abductions and murders form part of the daily routine.The documentary portrays the image of "development", as giant multinational petroleum companies would define it. Petroleum leaks in the River destroy the flora and fauna, poison the food chain and consequently wipe out the 27 million indigenous people of the area - the Ijaws, the Ogoni and the Itsekiris.

Nights and Days: A Decade of Lebanese Short Films Lamia Joreige in person. Introduced by Apsara DiQuinzio. All of the films in tonight's program are concerned with the act of recalling the past--a heavy burden given Lebanon's history. Films include Lamia Joreige's Replay (Bis) and Nights and Days, Jalal Toufic's Saving Face, and Akram Zaatari's Tomorrow Everything Will Be Alright and In This House. (71 mins)

Saturday Sept. 22 1 pm Shorts Program 3 pm Maestra (Cuba/USA) / La Linea Invisible (Mexico/France/ USA) 5 pm Justice for My Sister (Guatemala/USA) 7 pm Clubbing (Argentina) Sunday Sept. 23 3 pm Voices of Chile (Chile/Iran/US) / God Only Watches (Puerto Rico) 5 pm Children of Memory (El Salvador/USA) 7 pm Not So Modern Times (Argentina/Chile/Germany)

After 5 years of deepening crisis and failed solutions, millions see our current system no longer serving us. It's time to demand a cure big enough and bold enough to work. Join Richard Wolff to hear that cure explained, presented and justified. This is a lunch event for the new book: Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism.

Governor Brown has been invited by the Berkeley Center for Independent Living to speak at their 40th anniversary fund raising event on the evening of September 13, 2012. But many of us feel that he has not acted as our friend; in fact we feel betrayed and angryabout budget cuts that bring us so much misery.

Did you know that despite composing half of the population, only 23% of commercial films in the United States are produced by women? Only 7% are directed by women, and only 8% are written by women. The 3rd annual WAM!Boston (Women, Action, and the Media) Film Festival looks to challenge this status quo by showcasing the latest films by up-and-coming female filmmakers. We’re seeking both short and feature-length films in all genres for a film festival with a purpose: creating new audiences and new opportunities for films made by and about women. All subjects are welcome – drama, comedy, documentary, experimental – the sky’s the limit!

Alarmed by the pervasive health risks of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in the American diet, leading consumer GMO advocate Jeffrey Smith, and well-known author and environmentalist John Robbins have joined forces to present, Truth about GMOs. Highlights include: a sneak preview of Smith’s new movie (Genetic Roulette) and a Q & A with both presenters making a compelling case for voting YES on Prop 37 (Mandatory Labeling of GMOs).

This workshop offered by Movement Generation will: define the ecological dilemmas facing our planet identify the implications for working class communities & communities of color and identify strategies & solutions to resolve these dilemmas.

The author of Freytag's Triangle To The Rescue on writing tools and techniques.

Bay Area launch of the Les Figues Press anthology I’LL DROWN MY BOOK: CONCEPTUAL WRITING BY WOMEN edited by Caroline Bergvall, Laynie Browne, Teresa Carmody and Vanessa Place. The book features work by sixty-four women from ten countries. Contributors responded to the question: What is conceptual writing?

In honor of the one-year anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street Movement, and in solidarity with the mass convergence at 5:00 PM on September 17th at this same location, participants of Occupy Bay Area United (OBAU) are staging a 24-hour occupation of the “Banker’s Heart” Square at 555 California St. in San Francisco, starting with the OBAU General Assembly at 5 PM on Sunday, September 16th.

Former poet laureates, Robert Hass has received the National Book Critics Circle Award, the National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize. His new book of essays ranges from meditations on how we see and treat the earth, the relationship between literature and religion and explorations of writers like the Koream poet Ko Un, Wallace Stevens, Anton Chekhov and Cormac McCarthy.

Book Reading with Connie Rice: "Power Concedes Nothing: One Woman's Quest for Social Justice in America, from the Kill Zones to the Courtroom" Please join Prevention Institute on Tuesday, September 18th from 4:30 pm-6:30 pm for a book reading with Connie Rice, one of America's most influential civil rights attorneys. Connie Rice will discuss and sign her new book, "Power Concedes Nothing: One Woman's Quest for Social Justice in America, from the Kill Zones to the Courtroom," a hard-hitting memoir chronicling a fiercely dedicated woman's quest to win the first of all human rights: freedom from violence.

Alan Blueford was murdered by OPD officer Miguel Masson on May 6th. Alan's name has meen smeared in the press. His family has been lied to repeatedly by the OPD and denied the police report. The autopsy showed that Alan didn't fire a weapon and that he was shot while lying on the ground, his hands raised. Witnesses all report that Alan had no weapon. Please join us in demanding justice for Alan. The Blueford family will be speaking at the City Council meeting. Please complete a "speaker card" for the City Council meeting if you wish to speak to the council. We also want folks who do not want to talk to sign a speaker card so those minutes can be given to the family, to ensure they are able to say all the wish.

What influences change in the world of institutional philanthropy? This program will address various kinds of shifts that can serve to drive change within a foundation, including generational change on the board, key foundation staff transitions, strategic planning, and a sudden growth (or decline) in assets. Learn about steps you can take as a grantee or grantseeker to best navigate the transitions that occur in the ever-evolving ecosystem of foundation grantmaking. Panelists include: Ken Blum, consultant, Dean Witter Foundation Nancy Kami, executive director, Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund Peta Penson, program officer, May & Stanley Smith Charitable Trust

BlackPublicMedia.org features an interactive series every summer. The featured serial content is selected from an interactive/digital series open call (Digital Open Call). NBPC provides a grant for the winner of the competition to produce their interactive web series that will be featured during the summer. The deadline for this year’s Digital Open Call will be September 18th, 2012.

During the current economic crisis, cities everywhere are courting development to create jobs for their residents and to support struggling local economies. But at what cost is it acceptable to allow companies to move into our communities if they are not providing their fair share of local tax dollars, jobs to local residents, and affordable housing to their workers?

Larry Clark (U.S., 1973) New Print! A rediscovered masterpiece, director Larry Clark's portrayal of black insurgency imagines a post-Watts rebellion state of siege and an organized black underground plotting revolution. Preceded by three visionary films, Ben Caldwell's Medea and I & I: An African Allegory, and Don Amis' Ujamii Uhuru Schule Community Freedom School. Presented as part of our series L.A. Rebellion

Introduced by Dr. Hisham Ahmed Born in Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem, as a Fulbright scholar Dr. Ahmed wrote his book From Religious Salvation to Political Transformation: The Rise of Hamas in Palestinian Society. He is currently Professor of Politics at St. Mary’s College. In 1997, tragedy struck Miko Peled’s Israeli-American family, pushing him to re-examine many beliefs he grew up with, as the son and grandson of leading figures in Israel's political-military elite. The General’s Son provides an intimate window into the fears that haunt both Israelis and Palestinians, while also showing the courage of those who pursue a steadfast grassroots struggle for equality for all the residents of Palestine and Israel. There are few books on the Israel/Palestine issue that seem as hopeful to me as this one. —Alice Walker, from the Foreword

Please support the efforts of the Black Young Democrats of the East Bay as we host Mr. Bobby Seal this Wednesday, Sept 19th at Geoffrey's Inner Circle. BYDEB is commited to the youth in the community and a portion of the proceeds with benefit the K to College program in Oakland. This is our first annual fundraiser, as we are newly chartered club in the East Bay. We hope you will recognize the need for BYDEB is this community and show your support.

David Barsamian is founder and director of Alternative Radio and author of Targeting Iran. He is best known for his interview books with Noam Chomsky, including What We Say Goes. He will discuss his Interviews with Richard D. Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at U. Mass, and Visiting Professor at the New School University. Author of Capitalism Hits the Fan, Today’s economic crisis is capitalism’s worst since the Great Depression. Millions have lost their jobs, homes and healthcare while those who work watch their pensions, benefits, and job security decline. As more and more are impacted by the crisis, the system continues to make the very wealthy even richer. In eye-opening interviews with prominent economist Richard Wolff, David Barsamian probes the root causes of the current economic crisis, its unjust social consequences, and what can and should be done to turn things around. David’s new book Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism: Interviews with Richard Wolff will be available for sale.

Southern Exposure is now accepting applications for Round 6 of the Alternative Exposure grant program. Alternative Exposure grants provide direct support to visual arts projects in SF and Alameda counies that in turn provide frameworks of support for artists to create and continue their work. Grants of up to $5,000 are available to help fund the work of unincorporated groups. burgeoning art venues and gathering spaces, publications, collectives, events and more.

We hope this gathering will launch an active WAM! Bay Area chapter that will not only host regular small group events, but a wide variety of larger activities focused on media awareness in the Bay Area. As election season progresses, promoting gender justice for all will only become increasingly crucial. So bring your ideas and inspiration—the chapter will be what we make it! Attendance is not a commitment to anything more than discussion. So let's exchange our awesome ideas and see what comes of it!

“The End of Men,” Hanna Rosin’s 2010 cover story for The Atlantic, was one of those conversation-starting articles that come along once or twice a year, still surfacing in everything from the season’s sit-com lineup to online chatter more than a year after it appeared. The End of Men: And the Rise of Women is one of those thunderbolts of a book on gender relations that come along once or twice a decade; with it, Rosin joins Betty Friedan, Kate Millett, Simone de Beauvoir, Susan Faludi, Naomi Wolf, and others who have completely reset the conversation we have about men and women.

After the defeat of Japan in World War II, a new war began in Brazil. Japanese immigrants became divided between those who accepted Japan’s defeat and those who did not. Dirty Hearts is the true story of this conflict. Dir. Vicente Amorim, Brazil 2011 107 min, fiction.

La Peña HUB* and United States Artists invites you to a presentation about USA Projects, an online fundraising platform exclusively for artists, not for profit. We help you fund projects by connecting you with our established community of supporters, while simultaneously engaging your own. This presentation is to support the development of La Peña's networks of artists.

The first half features award-winning Berkeley-based political cartoonist and comedian Khalil Bendib, who will be launching his new Prez-in-the-Fez bid for the White House, just in time to beat Obama and Romney after giving them enough of a head start. Besides his stomp speech, Mr. Bendib will also be presenting his newest book of editorial cartoons, “Too Big To Fail.” The second half, by local graphic authors Amir and Khalil, will showcase the international hit graphic novel “Zahra’s Paradise,” which became an internet sensation when it was first serialized on the web in 2010 and has been published in 16 languages across the world so far. Zahra’s Paradise tells the story of a Tehran mother searching for her 19-year old son in a giant demonstration following the stolen Iranian election of June 2009, and is a tragicomic account of egregious human rights abuses under the religious dictatorship of Iran.

Tight budgets, cancelled programs and student publications, lack of understanding of free-speech protections: Journalism education is under assault, and it is time to talk about it across the high school, community college, university and industry platforms. That is why the California Journalism Education Coalition is sponsoring a pair of regional symposiums this fall to bring together teachers and others.

Explore the cutting edge work of Zeitguised, Android Jones, Max Hattler PES and Ben Ridgeway in this free presentation on how the boundaries of animation are being expanded in new directions.

Throwing Stones at the Moon: Narratives from Colombians Displaced by Violence was edited by Sibylla Brodzinsky and Max Schoening, with a foreword by Ingrid Betancourt. For nearly five decades, Colombia has been embroiled in internal armed conflict among guerrilla groups, paramilitary militias, and the country’s own military. The oral histories in Throwing Stones at the Moon—from Colombians from all walks of life, including farmers, union leaders and former guerillas—describe the most widespread of Colombia’s human rights crises: forced displacement.

Jill Stein will start her California trip with Kahlil Jacobs-Fantauzzi, Green Party Candidate for Mayor in Berkeley. Kahlil is a teacher, free speech and community activist who has worked to energize and empower youth in California.

The day - which runs from noon to 8 p.m. - will consist of community discussions and presentations on the history of People’s Self-Defense, Racial Profiling, Trayvon Martin, The Rising Tide Of Police Killings, Confronting Stop And Frisk in NY and The Bay Area and Racial Profiling: The Experience, The Resistance, Launching The People’s Self-Defense Organizing Campaign.

Angad Bhalla explores the injustice of solitary confinement and the transformative power of art in this must-see documentary that was an official selection of the Sundance Institute and the prestigious HotDocs festival. The film follows the unlikely friendship between a New York artist and one of America’s most famous inmates as they collaborate on an acclaimed art project. Panel discussion following film.

Palast describes his latest book: Billionaires and Ballot Bandits". In the 2008 election, no less than: 767,023_provisional ballots were cast and not counted; 1,451,116 ballots were_"spoiled," not counted; 488,136 absentee ballots were mailed in, but_not counted. Add it up: in the last presidential election, no less than_2,706,275 ballots were never counted.

Gina Neff is an associate professor of communication at the University of Washington. She studies the contemporary economics of media production by examining the relationship between work and technology in both high-tech and media industries.

Throughout the hemisphere alternative policies and institutions are springing up to create more people and planet centered economies to counter the negative impacts of traditional capitalism. Not only is this the case in the ALBA* countries, but other countries are experimenting as well. For the past 2 years Eric Leenson has traveled extensively in the region to better understand and promote the development of Social and Solidarity Economies. He will discuss the work in this field occurring in Brazil, Ecuador, and Canada. He will explain the emergence of Bcorporations in South America, especially in Chile. Highest priority will be placed on the profound changes taking place in Cuba where the economic model is being modified to include a much larger role for non state enterprises – cooperatives and the private sector. Eric has traveled to Cuba frequently since 2009.

Dr. Jill Stein offers a Green New Deal for America to address the issues the corporate candidates avoid – social justice, ending unemployment, forgiving student debt, ending poverty, stopping Wall Street bailouts, taxing the rich, ending the endless war for empire, legalizing cannabis, dealing seriously with global warming, making health care a human right – and more!

One of the great "unanswered questions" in nonprofit technology is "What tools, platforms, and processes should we use to manage our members/supporters/contacts/relationships?" While literally hundreds of software systems exist to meet such needs, it is challenging for many organizations to specify and select appropriate solutions, and harder still to know which solutions will age well and prove sustainable in the long run.

Please Join us for an evening of film/video celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Critical Mass. About Critical Mass: On the last Friday of September, 1992, a group of San Franciscan cyclists showed up on Market Street for the first ever Critical Mass. This leaderless ride became a monthly “organized coincidence”, and in the years that followed, spread around the world. Celebrating a shared sense of rediscovering urban spaces, Critical Mass riders cross borders and find common cause to have a good time on foot-powered wheels. These uplifting rides also challenge the use of city streets and the domination of cars and oil in our transportation system.

The Alliance for Community Media's 2nd annual Youth Media Summit West Coast.

You’re invited to join the San Francisco Online Community Meetup for a free event next week featuring Cara Jones, Founder of Storytellers for Good, and JD Lasica, Chief Strategist at SocialBrite. Jones and Lasica will showcase several video examples to discuss how to use storytelling principles to build online communities.

This talk proposes a history and theory of the drive to hide in plain sight. Camouflage developed in counterpoint to technological advances in photography, innovations in warfare, and as-yet-unsolved mysteries of biological evolution; its origins date to the turn of the last century. Today, camouflage is commonly thought of as a specific textile pattern of interlocking greens and browns, or alternatively its twenty-first century pixelated “digital” update. But it is in fact much more — a set of institutional structures, mixed-media art practices, and permutations of subjectivity.

Attorney and author Steven Druker exposes the FDA's Great GMO Scam – Why Genetically Engineered Foods Are Illegally on the Market. Druker discusses his lawsuit that forced the FDA to divulge its files on genetically engineered (GE) foods. Learn how the FDA scientists warned the FDA about the abnormal risks of GE food to human health.

At the CA Tech Fest, a 2-day event, you'll learn how to publish your own Wordpress site, free open alternatives to proprietary tools, what emerging tech leaders across CA are doing, and when and when not to trust the cloud with your data. Other topics include how to coordinate all of your online channels, how to establish your online brand, and how to build a website that meets your needs. Some scholarship assistance may be possible.

Opening Night!More than a movie about skateboarding, BONES BRIGADE documents a vital moment in American culture where four-wheeled outlaws practiced a theology of concrete and gravity that allowed them to become folk heroes while others pretended to be rock stars. Hawk. Guerrero. Welinder. Mullen. Caballero. Thiebaud. McGill. Mountain. These names (and their signature styles) are etched into the Mount Rushmore of skate culture. Their mission to reinvent skateboarding paralleled their collective quest to be utterly and completely true to themselves, whether or not that self was popular or accepted. This is a film about invention, self-expression, and utter somatic genius. Peralta masterfully brings to life the stories of these concrete pirates who created a physical language that people are still speaking and adding to decades later. These young masters took wood, wheels, imagination, and a careless attitude towards physics and gave the world something that was part circus, part religion, and all totally rad. BONES BRIGADE is their story.

TransForm is turning 15! For our birthday, we’d love nothing more than to celebrate with our fellow bikers, walkers and public transportation riders. Please join us for an inspiring and fun event to commemorate the last 15 years of winning literally billions of dollars and groundbreaking policies in support of public transportation, smart growth, affordable housing, and bicycle/pedestrian safety.

Show off your big brain and support the public interest journalism of the San Francisco Public Press.

What is the future of Social Security? How has the country's economic crisis affected ethnic older adults? Learn about the current state of Social Security from experts and personal stories.

A discussion and skill share about how doulas are using communication technologies to build their businesses and better serve their communities. Join us to learn hands-on technology tricks and tips while together envisioning how we can use technology to better serve our communities!

Celebrating 3 years at the forefront of environmental activism. Music, food, entertainment.

Social media has changed the landscape of American politics. Candidates are using more sophisticated social media strategies and voters are communicating more actively among themselves. By one measure, between April and August this year almost 600,000 videos mentioning Obama or Romney had been posted on YouTube, quadruple the number posted during the same period in the 2008 election. But does more information—and a Twitter-speed news cycle—contribute to more considered opinions or simply more noise? How does the model of crowd-sourced political dialogue shape campaign agendas and communication strategies? Do new technologies help us talk across party lines, or do they contribute to more polarization?

The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival accepts films, videos and digital and interactive projects that are made by or about Asian Americans and Asians of any nationality. All lengths and genres will be considered. Acceptable format for preview is DVD (NTSC, Region 0 or 1 only). Please include a press kit with your entry, including: * Still images (hard photos and/or high-resolution electronic images of at least 300dpi on a CD). Please provide captions for all images. * Synopsis * Director’s biography * Director’s filmography * Director’s statement * Cast and crew listing To be notified that your entry has been received, please include a self-addressed and stamped postcard. To have your preview tape returned after the festival, please include a self-addressed and stamped envelope with the appropriate postage. Preview copies of films selected for the SFIAAFF will be deposited into CAAM’s internal film library with the filmmaker’s permission.

New America Media is putting out the call to all our ethnic media partners for applications to our annual education fellowship program! This year's theme, "It's All About Teachers," hones in on some of the most pressing education issues currently confronting California communities. We are looking for eight passionate reporters from ethnic media outlets across the state to join in a two-day training in Sacramento, followed by the production of one education-related story to be jointly published by New America Media and fellows' respective outlets. Each participant will receive a $1,000 stipend upon publication of their story as part of the fellowship. NAM will also provide transportation and hotel accommodation for the training session. It is truly a great opportunity for fellows to both expand awareness of and sharpen reporting skills around education issues.

This historic poll of voters was conducted in six languages and dialects: English, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean and Vietnamese, and was funded in part by The Institute of Governmental Studies of UC Berkeley, and New America Media with a grant from the Blue Shield of California Foundation.

This programme in cultural journalism brings reporters from different parts of world to participate in a workshop to explore and recount the stories of Caribbean culture. It is offered from January 7 - 27, 2013, by the New Journalism Foundation (FNPI) and the Ministry of Culture of Colombia, in collaboration with the Secretary of Culture of Barranquilla, the Cartago Foundation, the Hay Festival, and the Cartagena International Music Festival, and with the support of the Organization Ardila Lülle (OAL) and the University Jorge Tadeo Lozano, Caribbean campus.

Sherman Alexie’s stature as a writer of stories, poetry, and novels has soared over the course of his twenty-book, twenty-year career. His wide-ranging, acclaimed fiction throughout the last two decades, from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven to his most recent PEN/Faulkner Award–winning War Dances, have established him as a star in contemporary American literature.

Untouched: Bay Area Student Film Festival 2012 (U.S., 2012). Student filmmakers in person. Introduced by student curators. Tonight's program--presenting the work of eleven gifted college student filmmakers--includes pieces that explore the less-traveled alleys and alcoves of the Bay Area, unearth fleeting images and sounds of memories long untouched, and employ innovative cinematic structures and forms. (c. 73 mins)

On October 3rd, Luz Rivera Martinez will speak about her 20 years of experience constructing autonomy, organizing outside the electoral system, and resisting free trade in Tlaxcala, Mexico.

In his new book, The MoveOn Effect: The Unexpected Transformation of American Political Advocacy (Oxford 2012), Karpf argues that changes in membership and fundraising practices have led to a substantial shift in the makeup of the interest group system. Far from "organizing without organizations" the Internet's major impact has come through organizing with different organizations.

Join this conversation with: Ignacio Chapela, Prof. of Microbial Ecology, National Center for Biosafety Andrew Kimbrell, Center for Food Safety, Paul Rabinow, Prof. of Anthropology, Book: Designing Human Practices: An Experiment with Synthetic Biology, Miguel Altieri, Prof. of Agroecology, Center for Study of Americas, Jaydee Hanson, International Center for Technology Assessment

Volunteers who support the California Right to Know will host a community-screening event at The Grand Lake Theater on Thursday, October 4th at 7pm to support the effort to educate the public on the global issue of genetically modified crops. Bitter Seeds is an internationally award-winning film that explores the future of how we grow things, weighing in on the worldwide debate over the changes created by industrial agriculture. Companies like the U.S.-based Monsanto claim that their genetically modified (GM) seeds offer the most effective solution to feeding the world’s growing population, but on the ground, many small-scale farmers are losing their land. Nowhere is the situation more desperate than in India, where an epidemic of farmer suicides has claimed over a quarter million lives. Every 30 minutes one farmer in India, deep in debt and unable to provide for his family, commits suicide.

Join the California League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, their partners, and local leaders for a provocative conversation about the results of our groundbreaking new poll researching the environmental values and opinions of California's Latino communities. Through a panelist/audience discussion, they will explore what the findings mean for California's future and what you can do to help protect our air, land and water in the Bay Area

On October 6th, the Day in Solidarity with African People is happening In Oakland. The Uhuru Solidarity Movement calls on white people to support the struggle for reparations and self determination led by the black community. Come hear Omali Yeshitela, dynamic organizer and theoretician, founder of the African Socialist International and leader of the Black is Back Coalition. Also speaking is Penny Hess, Chairwoman of the African People’s Solidarity Committee, a veteran organizer for justice and reparations to the African community.

inemasports is a race against the clock to make a film in a day. Anyone can participate, just arrive with your crew at 9:00 am equipped and ready to shoot and edit your own cinematic masterpiece by the same-day deadline. Everyone gets the same list of three mandatory “ingredients” (a hint: this year, the “in- gredients” will connect with Active Cinema) and must return with a completed short film (3.5 minutes or less) by 7:00 pm. Instant gratification comes one hour later at a public screening of entries submitted by the dead- line, when we witness the multifarious ways in which the same elements result in entirely different movies. MVFF and Cinemasports are pleased to once again co-present this fun opportunity for filmmakers and film enthusiasts alike. Come be a filmmaker for a day, or come to the screening to behold the results!

BeatShop is a first-of-its-kind affordable electronic music program for aspiring musicians/DJs in the Boston/San Francisco area who want to explore technology and music through the use of our brand new lab facility and studio. Beatshop is sponsored by Propellerheads Software which helps to keep the costs low. As Berklee College of Music grads, we are basically giving you all of the same information with the same gear and technology that we received as undergrads of the Electronic Production and Design major.

A diverse group of debut novelists and memoirists reveal their paths to becoming published authors. This forum is an excellent venue for would-be authors to ask questions about the publication process. A reception and book signing will follow from 4:30-5:00.

Join us for a special night of live bilingual radio, featuring stories from Latin America and the US moderated by Oscar Villalon, ZYZZYVA''s managing editor.

Ralph Nader is an internationally famous American political activist, author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of his particular concern and expertise include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government. In an era when the Occupy movement is sharpening critical consciousness, yet struggling to provide answers, Ralph Nader’s Seventeen Solutions is particularly welcome.

Colonel Ann Wright is a former United States Army colonel and a U.S. diplomat who resigned in opposition to the Iraq War; one of three State Department officials to publicly resign in protest of the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. She was on the May 2010 Freedom Flotilla I, attacked by the Israeli military, and was an organizer for the US Boat to Gaza in the 2011 Freedom Flotilla II. Gaza’s Ark is a new initiative to challenge the illegal and inhumane Israeli blockade of Gaza, the only Mediterranean port closed to shipping. The Canadian Boat to Gaza, in cooperation with internationals in the US, Australia and other countries, will build a boat in Gaza, using existing resources. A crew of internationals and Palestinians will sail it out of Gaza carrying Palestinian products to fulfil trade deals with international buyers. This event is a fund-raiser for Gaza’s Ark — http://gazaark.org/

Calling all San Francisco bay area artists who use materials found at SCRAP in your artwork! We are having our 4th creative reuse exhibition at Arc Gallery in San Francisco. Exhibition dates: December 1, 2012 to January 9, 2013. Deadline for submissions: Wednesday, October 10th.

Yuri Herrera and Heriberto Yépez are two distinguished representatives of a new generation of Mexican writers. Through their border characters, both authors explore the contemporary condition of the relationships between art and power, between rulers and ruled. Join us for this bilingual reading of two writers who use literature and the arts as a compass to help us navigate a complex social and political terrain.

On October 11, 2012, Social Media for Nonprofits will bring together nonprofit decision-makers and supporters in the San Francisco Bay Area to share practical tips and tools for fundraising, marketing, and advocacy. Speakers will address a variety of topics in a series of short TED-meets-Twitter style talks and interactive workshops.