On Saturday, March 8, 2014 at 5pm,\u00a0CRS (Center for Remembering & Sharing) and\u00a0Think Act Change NYC\u00a0invite you to an NYC premiere film screening and panel discussion\u00a0spotlighting a number of amazing artists who have found ways to use their creative talents to work with the people of Haiti in ways that sustainably enrich the lives of everyone involved.
\nThe Canadian documentary\u00a0HAITI UNTOLD\u00a0(76′, English), directed by Isabelle Depelteau and Dan Shannon, chronicles\u00a0the personal journeys of actor\u00a0Sean Penn\u00a0(founder of\u00a0J\/P Haitian Relief Organization), designers\u00a0Donna Karan\u00a0(DKNY,\u00a0Haiti Artisan Project) and\u00a0Joey Adler\u00a0(Diesel Canada) and others\u00a0who have put their heads and hearts to the task of affecting radical change in Haiti\u00a0following the devastating earthquake of 2010.
\nFollowing the screenings, we’ll circle up with\u00a0Architects\u00a0Magali Regis and\u00a0Burtland Granvil of\u00a0HIBISCUS(Haiti\u00a0Initiative for Building Innovative and Sustainable Communities), and with\u00a0Anna Zastrow\u00a0who has worked in Haiti with\u00a0Clowns Without Borders, Bond Street Theatre, and\u00a0FAVILEK\u00a0(Famn Viktim Leve Kanpe\/Women Victims Get Up Stand Up) to learn how they have put their own creative talents to work in partnership with the people of Haiti.
\nThey will respond\u00a0to\u00a0the film, take questions, update us on current conditions, and discuss some of the organizations working for the betterment of Haiti.
\nThe screening is $10. Tickets are available online.\u00a0Seating is limited and first come, first serve.
\nHAITI UNTOLD\u00a0provides an unusual counter point-of-view on what is really happening in the country, looking beyond the ethos of fast-food journalism, which seems at times to feed exclusively on tragedies to scandals while skipping over the stories of hope and re-building. Many of us who were moved to give generously in response to the quake, now wonder if all the donations made any difference at all.\u00a0In fact,\u00a0while many contributions have failed to find bear fruit, many caring individuals and communities are making a positive\u00a0impact.\u00a0
\nAt Think Act Change NYC events, we focus on how we can change OUR OWN thinking so that we can realize our own limitless capacity to affect change and inspire others to do the same. We bring together individuals who are already creating social change and people looking for ways to get more involved, sparking vital\u00a0conversations about how to translate passions into projects.
\n\u00a0This film makes it abundantly clear that in order to solve Haiti’s humanitarian crisis, its causes\u00a0must first be truly understood. As the saying goes, we won’t solve the problem with the same thinking that created it. For solutions to be effective, we have to commit\u00a0to working together with the Haitian people\u00a0to create the\u00a0infrastructure necessary to implement those solutions and sustain them.
\nABOUT OUR PANELISTS
\nAnna Zastrow\u00a0is a longtime professional clown and teaching artist and a graduate of the famed\u00a0Ecole Jacques Lecoq\u00a0in Paris. She has worked with street children, trafficking victims and the economically challenged in Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, Afghanistan and Sudan. She first went to Haiti in Sept 2010 with\u00a0Clowns Without Borders, training local volunteers to provide psychosocial relief through theatrical play to children in the tent camps, and creating a performance together that they presented in several of the camps.
\nShe then launched a project with\u00a0Bond Street Theatre\u00a0that returned her to Haiti in Feb 2011 and Feb 2012. They worked with several local community groups, but specifically with the women’s rights group\u00a0FAVILEK\u00a0(Famn Viktim Leve Kanpe\/Women Victims Get Up Stand Up) to train them in theater techniques for psychosocial support and to create a performance about rape in the camps as a way to raise awareness and mobilize the community against gender-based violence. \u00a0They are planning to continue their engagement in Haiti in 2014-2015.
\nhttp:\/\/lokahumana.blogspot.com
\nMagali R\u00e9gis, AIA, Leed AP, president of HIBISCUS, is a New York-based architect who was born and attended primary school in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, middle and high school in Rome, Italy, followed by a move to New York where she studied architecture at Pratt Institute. As a world traveler, the cosmopolitan character of New York suited her and she decided to make it her home. She has been practicing architecture for the past 25 years, working at a variety of firms, both large and small, including JGArchitects, Karl Fisher Architects, Beyer Blinder Belle Architects, Kohn Pedersen Fox Interior Architects & Meridian Design to name a few, as well as holding her own private practice, e_space design. Her experience includes historic preservation, adaptive reuse, civic buildings, public schools and colleges, high-end residential, retail, hotels and corporate interiors. Magali is also a community gardener and green space activist, working for the past 15 years to preserve New York\u2019s communal green spaces from looming development.
\nBurtland Granvil\u00a0is a registered architect of Haitian heritage with over 15 years professional experience both in New York and Haiti.\u00a0 After the Haiti earthquake of 2010, he immediately flew down to participate in an ATC-20 Assessment Program, going door to door, inspecting buildings to determine their safety. A year later, he relocated to Port-au-Prince to work with Architecture for Humanity, focusing both on new construction and rehabilitating existing structures (mainly schools and clinics). He later joined a local construction company in Haiti as a construction manager.\u00a0Burt recently returned to New York and currently works at an architectural firm in downtown Manhattan specializing in Educational Projects, who aspire to bring their expertise to Haiti.
\nNGO SPOTLIGHT
\nBond Street Theatre
\nBond Street Theatre\u2019s mission is to promote peace and mutual understanding through the arts. \u00a0The company initiates creative programming for conflict resolution and peace-building that reach women, youth, children, educators, refugees, those in prisons and shelters, and other populations in need. Bond Street Theatre creates performances that illustrate important social issues, and uses the arts to educate, inspire, and heal in areas of conflict, poverty and post-war rehabilitation. The company collaborates with local artists to enjoy the benefits of artistic exchange — to learn, to share, and to explore commonalities and differences, and promote mutual understanding and the value of the arts in shaping a peaceful global future. \u00a0
\nThe company has initiated innovative theatre and theatre-based programs in over 40 countries worldwide that improve leadership skills, build self-confidence, stimulate the imagination, and illustrate health and civic issues to audiences of all ages and genders. 90% of all funds go directly to our programs.\u00a0Bond Street Theatre was voted a Top-Rated Non-Profit in 2012, and receives kudos from publications around the world, including the New York Times, India Times, CNN, Washington Post, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and other media.
\nhttp:\/\/www.bondst.org
\nClowns Without Borders
\nClowns Without Borders offers laughter to relieve the suffering of all persons, especially children, who live in areas of crisis including refugee camps, conflict zones and territories in situations of emergency. We bring levity, contemporary clown\/circus oriented performances and workshops into communities so that they can celebrate together and forget for a moment the tensions that darken their daily lives.\u00a0 We also seek to raise our society\u2019s awareness of affected populations and to promote a spirit of solidarity.
\nCWB recognizes that our work is made up of small moments. Although small and purely emotional, these moments build upon each other staying with children as they grow and support their incredible resilience. CWB works with relief organizations addressing psycho-social needs of those who suffer from traumatic situations. We are not doctors, psychologists or social-workers, but together with these professionals and community participation we create joyful experiences from which children and their communities thrive.<\/p>\n