Archive for the 'Culture' Category
I just returned to the US two weeks ago, after 2 1/2 years in Cameroon as a Peace Corps agroforestry volunteer. While I was there, I became friends a lot of the talented artists at the Garoua Alliance Franco-Camerounaise. One such group was Wam Kara, who was one of the best groups, music and performancewise, that I saw during my time in Cameroon. They are incredibly talented and popular, yet lack the funds to produce their album. Coming home, I decided to work on raising the money so that they can produce their album and become better known throughout Cameroon.
The project is on Kickstarter.com, and there are about 30 days left in the campaign to raise the money. Our goal is to raise about $1800. So far we have one tenth of that. People visit the site, look at the project, and if they are so moved, donate money online towards the project. It would be great if I could get it out to a larger audience of Cameroon friends!
Here is the address to the project: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1003034960/wam-karas-first-album-release?ref=live
Thank you so much!
Elizabeth Moore
I am a Niger RPCV (1995-1999) and now professional photographer, with one focus on West African countries and cultures.
Not sure who best at Friends of Cameroon to send this e-mail to, so I appreciate your help! I thought the Friends of Cameroon membership might be interested in this, even though it’s Burkina-related, since Cameroon also has many Fulani. If anyone is living in the DC area, they may be interested in attending a multimedia presentation of photographs and music of the Fulani from my recent November trip to Burkina Faso. The American Society of Media Photographers has asked me to do a presentation on January 11th at the American University in DC. Here is the information for the program:
For anyone who isn’t in the area or who can’t make it, I’ll also be posting my presentation online afterwards, and can send the link then.
Happy New Year, and it’s wonderful to “meet” you!
Irene Abdou Photography
http://www.ireneabdouphotography.com
The Pulaku Project is an initiative to document the changing lifestyles of the Fulani throughout West Africa. We are funding the project through photo print sales, but more importantly we want to reach an audience interested in the Fulani and West African culture. You can see more about it on our website: www.pulaku.com.
домейнBy Whitney Isenhower (RPCV Cameroon ’06-’08)
(pictures by Amber Byrne of Live It Out Photography, LLC)
Nearly 100 Washington, D.C.-area residents gathered in the Eighteenth Street Lounge’s warmly lit Gold Room on the evening of April 29 for a fundraiser supporting Education Fights AIDS (EFA) International, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that empowers African youth infected with and affected by HIV and AIDS in Cameroon and Rwanda.
Alim Ousmanou, EFA International’s Cameroon country representative, spoke at the fundraiser—one stop on a visit marking his first time in the U.S. Invited to participate in the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program from April 3-23, Ousmanou remained in the country for two weeks after the program to visit supporters of EFA International’s work carried out in Cameroon.
Alim Ousmanou
“It was wonderful to see how young Americans are helping the community of youth living with HIV and AIDS in Cameroon,” Ousmanou said of the Washington event.
EFA International’s efforts focus on creating associations for individuals infected with and affected by HIV and AIDS in Cameroon and supporting a center for orphans and vulnerable children in Rwanda. The organization began when Ousmanou and Andrew Koleros, then a Peace Corps Volunteer in Maroua, Cameroon, identified dozens of HIV-positive youth in the city who lacked the psychosocial, educational and financial support to live positively with the virus.
Along with Koleros, returned Peace Corps Volunteers Rachel Hoy, Michael Nilon, Erin Nilon and Nicole Sheldon-Desjardins officially incorporated the organization in 2006 to continue this work. Koleros, who currently sits on EFA International’s Board of Directors, said Ousmanou’s visit deepened members’ commitment to the organization, which advocates the Peace Corps’ Third Goal.
“It’s really motivated the board and volunteers,” Koleros said of Ousmanou’s presence at EFA International events in the U.S. “It reminded us of why we all got involved in this organization in the first place.”
For EFA International’s benefactors, Ousmanou’s presence at the fundraiser made the organization’s mission more resonant, clarifying what their involvement means for the youth the nonprofit enables to live positively.
“It was nice to hear somebody from the area where it’s being helped speak,” said Michael Causey, a Washington-based lawyer who attended the fundraiser. “It’s easy for Americans to say, ‘Look at the great work I’m doing.’”
(AJEPS photo taken by Caitlyn Bradburn (PCV Cameroon ’08-present)
EFA International currently supports eight independent groups in the Extreme North province of Cameroon. Income-generating activities to advance members in their communities and peer education programs to raise awareness about HIV transmission and prevention have empowered more than 120 young men and women.
Doumtigai Guibai, member of an EFA International-sponsored association in Mokolo, Cameroon, said her participation in peer education training motivated her to speak openly about HIV.
“People come up to me to congratulate me for my courage to speak about HIV in the community,” Guibai said in EFA International’s 2009 Annual Report. “At school, students call me the ‘mama’ for teaching them about HIV.”
During his visit, Ousmanou also attended fundraising events in Massachusetts and spoke at a Harvard Divinity School panel discussion on development and HIV in Africa. He said he was extremely affected by returned volunteers’ commitment to both EFA International and Cameroon.
“I saw so many people during my time in the U.S.,” Ousmanou said. “Seeing former Cameroon Peace Corps Volunteers was the most significant to me.”
To find out more about EFA’s work, go to http://efainternational.org/
by Tom Perkins
Ann Arbor.com
Freshmen biology students at Ypsilanti High School recently started a new lesson, and when they stepped through the door of room 114, they didn’t know what was in store. But one thing was certain – it was “Sowder time.”
For the hour of the day that’s known as such, students receive an education delivered by Hans Sowderевтини мебели, the 2010 recipient of the Michigan Science Teachers Association “Science Teacher of the Year” award.
“I was surprised that I won, but it really charged me for that two-day week,” said Sowder, who learned about the honor via e-mail on Nov. 23.
Among other reasons, the 10-year Ypsilanti High veteran was chosen for the award for exhibiting a passion for teaching, developing innovative teaching strategies and being an excellent role model for students.
When three of his ninth-grade biology students were asked what they liked best about Sowder’s class, all three replied in unison, “Labs!”
“We’re not in here just sitting around, we’re actually getting up and doing something,” Zachary Meyer said.
On a recent day, Sowder had his students learning about the respiratory system and carbon dioxide production in the body. Using a straw, they exhaled into a pink solution of sodium hydroxide and phenolphthalein. When the kids blew into the liquid, the carbon dioxide coming out of their bodies, which is a base, turned the acidic solution clear more quickly, depending on how much of the gas was exhaled.
By taking one another’s pulses and breaking out stethoscopes to track heart rates, his students could measure how much of the gas their bodies produced while in a normal state.
But that’s just one day. The next day, the students would run several laps around the indoor track in the gymnasium and take the same measurements. On the third day, Sowder dimmed the lights, sparked some incense, turned on relaxing music and had students take the same measurements.
By the end, the students had a data table exhibiting how much carbon dioxide their bodies produced under various conditions, demonstrating a connection between its production and heart rate and pulse. “When they’re able to see those connections, it’s powerful,” Sowder said. “They start to understand what’s going on inside their body.”
Influential to Sowder’s educational approach are his experiences in classrooms across the globe – from three years teaching in Cameroon with the Peace Corps to a year at an Alaskan school in a remote “fly-in” village with his wife, to Kettering High School in Detroit.
Sowder said his years at Kettering were particularly educational because he learned to wear many hats – that of a teacher, father figure and friend. “I loved developing much richer relationships there,” he said. “That was something that was exciting at the time.”
Sowder further credits his colleagues, especially at YHS, for inspiring him and setting an example on how to excel in education.
“I have learned so much from my other colleagues, and I wouldn’t be the teacher I am had I worked in a vacuum,” he said. “There have been a lot of teachers in my life trying new things and not being afraid to do so, and I’ve taken pieces from what I’ve seen of them.”
Sowder said it’s his obligation to provide the students with an education. “I’m going to expect excellence from them every single minute of the hour, but I’m going to give it to them as well,” he said.
Sowder said he considers himself “on stage’ while teaching, and his passion for science is no small part of what keeps students engaged. “Science is so excellent,” he said. “It’s the study of all that’s been created around us, and it’s a wonderful to understand intricacies and complexities of its laws.”
Sowder was nominated for the award by Richard Weigel, the district’s assistant superintendent for educational quality. He will receive an award at a ceremony in March in Lansing.
“Mr. Sowder represents the caliber of highly qualified educators that we have in our district,” Superintendent Dedrick Martin said. “We are very proud of his accomplishments and anticipate that more great things are on the horizon for him.”
Tom Perkins is a freelance writer for AnnArbor.com. Reach the news desk at news@annarbor.com or 734-623-2530.
by: JOHN STANCAVAGE
Tulsa World Business Editor
Sunday, August 23, 2009
When Cindy Cain steps up to the mike, temperatures rise.
The Tulsa singer’s stock in trade is the sensual side of jazz, whether wrapping her husky voice around standards such as “Make Love to Me,” “The Man I Love” and “Something Cool,” or leading a spirited call-and-response on the chorus of the jump-blues “Banana Tree.”
Even in that last tune, which Cain wrote, it doesn’t take long to grasp that the object of her desire has an appeal that’s far beyond agriculture.
Those four songs are among the standouts on Cain’s new album, “Rhythm & Romance,” recorded live last spring in the Primo Room at Brookside’s Ciao restaurant. Cain will hold a release party for the CD there Saturday night.
“I guess there can’t be any harm in being perceived as sexy or sultry,” Cain said with a chuckle during an interview. “But, really, the songs on this record are mainly those done by singers whose voices I’m attracted to.”
Cain quickly names Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Carmen McRae as three jazz legends at the top of her list.
Like those vocalists, Cain has an impressive range and power to spare. Another trait the local artist shares with them is she goes full-throttle only when it serves the song. Otherwise, she focuses on such increasingly rare skills as nuance and phrasing.
Cain, who was born in New Mexico but grew up in Pryor, has built an impressive resume. She has a roomful of awards, many earned during years spent performing professionally in Washington, D.C.
The singer decided to return to Tulsa in 2001 after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that involves the central nervous system.
“I didn’t know what trajectory it would take, so I decided to move back home,” she said.
Until now, she hasn’t spoken publicly about the MS. Apart from sapping her energy from time to time, however, the ailment has proved to be manageable. One only has to look at the 50-year-old Cain’s hectic schedule this year to see that’s true.
Along with four months of pre- and post-production on “Rhythm & Romance,” she gigged steadily with a blues band and had one of the lead roles in the SummerStage production “Onstage at the Midnight Social Club,” along with fellow jazz divas Pam Van Dyke Crosby, Rebecca Ungerman and Annie Ellicott.
And, like many musicians, Cain holds down a day job. She handles marketing and public relations for an area telecommunications firm.
Cain’s dual careers are the product of an adventurous streak that started after her graduation from Oklahoma State University in 1983.
She initially spent a few years as a newspaper reporter. Tiring of the crime beat, she volunteered for the Peace Corps and taught English in a government school in Cameroon. That’s when she began to dabble in music, performing in a restaurant for food and drinks.
“I had these cassette tapes that I had stolen from my mother,” Cain remembers. “‘Make Love to Me’ was on one of those tapes. That’s how long I’ve been singing that song.”
In 1989, Cain moved to Washington, D.C., to work as press secretary for U.S. Rep. Dave McCurdy. Her growing love for jazz and blues took her to the area’s many clubs, first to sing for fun and later full-time after McCurdy lost an election.
“From 1995 to 2000, I played about 140 shows a year,” she said. “It was hard work. I had to make about 20 phone calls to get each gig, and I needed 20 gigs a month to make a living.”
During that time, she put together a demo tape, which remains unreleased, and recorded her first album — a rhythm-and-blues-oriented collection called “Love Contest.” That 1998 CD still is for sale on Amazon.com.
After returning to Tulsa, her mother took her to Tulsa Jazz Society events, and Cain quickly found her niche on the local scene.
With a weekly shot keeping her MS in check, Cain hasn’t lost her restless nature. Over the past few years, she has maintained a calendar of steady jazz gigs and also can be heard playing cabaret, blues or country-roots as the mood strikes her.
She even recorded an album of original, Americana-flavored songs in 2006. The disk, “In Your Impala,” didn’t stray far from the Cain template, with the cover depicting the bare-shouldered singer canoodling with an admirer in a drop-top version of the title automobile.
For the next few months, however, Cain plans to focus on jazz. After all, she’s got a new record to promote.
“Eventually, I want to get the songs from ‘Rhythm & Romance’ on iTunes and (online retailer) CD Baby,” she said. “The record will be in some local stores as well.”
Until then, your best chance to grab a copy is at a live performance, such as Cain’s show Saturday at Ciao.
Be sure to get plenty of ice in your drink, however. The room is about to heat up.
