La Plaza Central

Just a quick note to promote our friends over at Community CROPS whose farmer’s market begins tomorrow,  Thursday, from 4:30 to 7:30 in Pentzer Park on North 27th Street.  It’s not quite as large as the one in the Haymarket or the one on Old Cheney, but it’s cool because they generally have more ethnic vegetables and foods.  And Cycle Works will be there tomorrow to perform free bike checkups.

Journal Star article here.

Check out CROPS’ website, if you get a chance.  They’re doing some cool things.

Hoy is the first day of our family literacy pilot program in coordination with LPS.  Blog readers are probably familiar with our family literacy program with UNL at Everett Elementary School, but this is a little different.  Tonight’s class is part of a pilot project from LPS in coordination with all of the ethnic centers in town whereby 10 families, parents and children, at each cultural center will receive basic computer instruction and family literacy.  The idea is similar to our program at Everett, with the goals being increasing computer skills for the parents and family literacy activities for the students.  There is a wealth of research out there that alludes to these two components as essential for academic success.  So hopefully the pilot program goes well and LPS can find a grant to continue it throughout the school year.  We will certainly try to do our part.

Last night I saw one of those existential flicks at the Mary Riepma Ross theater downtown. It positioned nine philosophers in urban environments, ambling around while giving their 10-minute spiels on the meaning of meaning and so forth, each tackling a unique theme, e.g. ecology, affluency and ethics, democracy, etc. Handily starting the discussion was Cornel West, which en mi opinion is a great way to start anything. The thread I enjoyed was ordering the interviews in a way where one unique theme would mutate into commentary on the next philosopher’s theme, most notably Peter Singer’s bit on ethical affluency and charity being followed by Kwarne Anthony Appiah positing that there are too many people in the world, though I have no idea who those two guys are.

Now I’ll be the first to say philosophy is something I was interesting in while coming of age and have since been handling less esoteric thoughts,  but I will say I can dissect a movie. One of my favorite tools the  filmmakers used and deftly executed was what we’ll call the Active Interview. As mentioned, the subjects were walking the streets, mobile camera unit at arm’s-length, passersby either obliquely interacting with the lens or passing by nonplussed (it’s set in New York City of all places). What this method did was provide secondary footage (b-roll) in the primary footage, in other words the b-roll existed within  and during the interviews, which was its own silent commentary of, you know, banality within the heavy doses of philosophy—especially when a passerby had a slight scoff or furrowed brow which he most likely shared with the theater audience.

So what’s this have to do with us? Well, I rarely amble the streets with any more conviction than issued by a point B, but leaving the theater I felt like the next point B should hold some importance. In short, it reminded me why we do what we do here at El Centro and that urge of assistance—both needing it and giving it. The welcome break came in sitting in a theater thinking about the philosophy of assistance, rather than behind a desk figuring out how to do it.

Check out the link to the movie:  The Examined Life

Or go see it here.

I’m so sorry that it has taken me this long to mention something, but El Centro recently welcomed back one of it’s own, Diana Castillo, to the office.  Diana has recovered from her bout with leukemia, and is back at work as a domestic violence case manager for ElCentro.  Bienvenida, Diana, and we’re glad to have to back.

On another happy note, Staci Bell has offered to become El Centro’s volunteer coordinator.  Working in coordination with El Centro staff, she will be developing a volunteer database in order to better serve El Centro’s volunteer needs as well as provide potential volunteers with multiple opportunities that best serve their needs and interests.

It’s like our own little “Business Achievements” section from the Journal Star, but free and viewed by far fewer people.