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Students Organize Haitian Relief Efforts
A US Navy helicopter lands in front of the damaged presidential palace in Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince.
WAYS TO HELP HAITI
Action Against Hunger
actionagainsthunger.org
American Red Cross
redcross.org
Doctors Without Borders
doctorswithoutborders.org
UNICEF
unicef.org
Yele Haiti
yele.org
For more organizations, please visit http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake
Continued from front page
His and Her Friday Night Chats, Courtney King &
Ethan Brisby
Spelman student Courtney King and her co-host
Ethan Brisby, a Morehouse student, dedicated their
Jan. 15 radio show, “His and Her Friday Night Chats,
to Haiti coverage. The show, which was broadcasted
in front of a live student audience from Kilgore Stu
dent Center on Morehouse’s campus, featured appear
ances from Jacques Pape, a Haitian Morehouse student
and Roosevelt Ducelus, a Haitian Morehouse alumni.
During the show King and Brisby led an informative
discussion about Haiti’s history and current events.
Audience members also enjoyed the sounds of Hai
tian music. Throughout the evening, many listeners
called in to share their sentiments on air. In addition,
the show also encouraged listeners to bring dona
tions, such as food, clothes and toiletries. “His and Her
Friday Night Chats” is streamed through www.blog-
talkradio.com every Friday from 9 to 10 pm.
Nakaiya Turk
Nakaiya Turk, a mathematics major at Spelman, was
deeply saddened by the tragic events that occurred in
Haiti. Though Turk is a member of various organiza
tions on campus, she was inspired to act quickly and
decided to respond independently. After soliciting the
support of some of her fellow Spelman sisters and
receiving approval from Dr. Lumpkin, Turk began to
implement her fund raising initiatives. Turk set up a
table in Upper Manley and used handmade signs to
advertise her relief efforts. Over a four-day period and
spending a total of 15 hours in Upper Manley Turk
raised over $1000. “I was amazed by the amount of
money I raised, considering many of us are struggling
to pay tuition and rent,” Turk said. The donation will
be sent to Yele Haiti. If you would like more informa
tion on how to get involved with Turk’s efforts, please
contact her at nturk@scmascmail.spelman.edu.
India Arie Uplifts Students
India Arie
shares her inspirational life story with Spelman students for Convocation in Sisters Chapel.
Continuedfrom frontpage
we are and how we falsely define ourselves based on
skin color and hair styles. Arie wishes to eliminate
these views through her music and instill self-confi
dence and self-acceptance in others.
India Arie advised Spelman students to reject the
thoughts of others and embrace individuality. She
said, “what others think about you is none of your
business.” She charged, strong black women to move
to the forefront and make a difference in their com
munities. When asked about her thoughts of black
women’s role in building stronger communities, Arie
responded by saying, “As humanity begins to move
more consciously in the spiritual realms, women will
lead the w'ay and hold that space.”
Females who wish to make a difference in their com
munities need not talk about it, but be about, said Arie.
Arie concluded her discussion by empowering women
to make a choice to redirect the pain in their lives else
where in a positive light. With a humble spirit India
Arie will continue to spread love, healing, peace and
joy through music.
Spelman & Bennett Colleges Host Women of Color Conference
By Alexandria Smith
Staff Writer
Women and men of all ethnicities
and backgrounds attended the highly
anticipated Women of Color Confer
ence this past semester. Spelman and
Bennett Colleges hosted the two-day
event in conjunction with Spelman’s
Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance
and the Feminist Majority Foundation.
The Third Annual Women of Color of
Conference was held on Oct. 8-9, 2009.
One of the main initiatives of the con
ference is to advocate and increase the
political activism towards the equality
movement for all women of color.
The Women of Color Conference
welcomed over 200 attendees from
area colleges and universities, such as
Agnes Scott, Clark Atlanta University,
University of Georgia, as well as the
University of North Carolina Chapel
Hill. With special appearances and per
formances from the renowned poet Al
ice Lovelace, Bennett alumna Maleeka
Freydburg, and noteworthy Spelman
faculty, including Dr. M. Bahati Kuumba
and Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall, the con
ference exceeded expectations for many
students. “Prior to going to the event,
I was looking forward to being exposed
to an array of scholarship and political
activism from phenomenal champions
of the movement,” comments Sade Ad-
eeyo, co-president of FMLA. In com
parison to her initial expectations, the
conference surpassed her vision for its
success.
With only two days for the confer
ence, event organizers said it became
impossible to incorporate the multitude
of events they had originally planned.
In order to compensate for the short
time span, both FMLA and FMF ar
ranged various activities ranging from
empowering lectures to outdoor jams;
incorporating diverse entertainment
mediums. Many students attended Fri
day’s event entitled “SpeakOUT,” an
outdoor jam that served both as a kick
off to the weekend’s events and an activ
ity to increase awareness of the confer
ence to students. “SpeakOut” became an
opportunity for students to both speak
up and out on relevant issues pertaining
to women of color.
In addition to “SpeakOUT,” FMLA
and FMF conducted a seminar on the
politics of black women’s bodies. For
many attendees, this session was a criti
cal aspect of the conference and its rel
evance to mainstream society. Rakhee
Devasthali, a senior at LTNC Chapel
Hill, who attended the session with her
school’s feminist organization, said, “In
our society, the burden of keeping ev
eryone safe is on women and women’s
bodies.”
During the session, participants dis
cussed the controversial issue of im
plementing Gardasil, a vaccination for
certain types of human papillomavius
(HPV), as a prerequisite for young wom
en attending public school in Washing
ton D.C. and for those seeking to obtain
refugee status. At the termination of
the session, Spelman’s lesbian, gay, bi
sexual, transgender, queer and ques
tioning group, led breakout discussions
to further reflect on the controversial
issues that arose.
First year student and FMLA mem
ber Maeghan Leonard found both the
seminars and the breakout sessions to
be culturally relevant and intellectually
stimulating. “I wanted to see what ev
eryone was talking about. I met a lot of
sisters from Bennett and Agnes Scott.”
Leonard evaluates her experience
from the conference as inspiring, yet
disappointing. “Everything was perfect
except for one thing, I didn’t see a lot
of Spelman sisters and it was kind of
disappointing. Just because it was held
there, it seemed like we didn’t take it se
riously,” comments Leonard.