The Click Heard Round the World

African Arts Parade & Festival in Brooklyn (pics, video)

I happened to hear the sounds of a marching band from my apartment and rushed down to see a parade for the International African Arts Festival rolling past my building up Fulton Avenue.  Those dancers are so cute!

African Arts Festival goers will discover live music, dance, spoken word performances, African marketplace, showcase performances, fashion, and hair shows.  Children of all ages will enjoy an exciting children’s program featuring storytelling,  clowns, and a youth talent search. This year’s theme is “Mashariki” which means "The East" in the language of Swahili.

The African Arts Festival runs this weekend until Sunday July 5 at Commodore Barry Park (Google Map.)

The Hair Fair in Second Life: virtual hair raises real dollars for Locks of Love this weekend!

This is the last weekend of the "Hair Fair" in Second Life, an innovative fundraiser for the "Locks of Love" charity.  Locks of Love, for those that don't know, is a nonprofit that provides hair for kids who have undergone chemotherapy or other medical procedure that causes them to lose their hair. For the last couple of years, a bunch of Second Life residents have been organizing the Hair Fair fundraiser to provide thousands of real world dollars to Locks of Love. Last year they raised nearly $10,000!

You can teleport directly to Hair Fair at this link.

Thoughts on Four Decades of Being Rik

Today marks my 40th year on this planet.

I wish I had some grand epiphany to share at this point in my life.  But being a Quaker, I know that revelations don’t necessarily work on a schedule.

People have been asking me what it feels like to turn 40.

On the one hand, not much has changed. I feel as young, energetic and creative as I ever have.  I can do things with my body now that I couldn’t do at 25.  I am just as frenetic and busy as I have ever been.  And I am still making big life changes while others my age are starting to “settle down.”

On the other hand,  I feel like I am just starting to feel comfortable in my own skin, to feel integrated within own multi-layered identity.  I feel more at ease being the Filipino-American / Quaker / lindy hopper  / b-boy / geek / activist / virtual world explorer / blogger / Brooklynite. For once, I feel like I can be all those things, all the time, and have that make sense.

Teen-created machinima dramatizes child sex trafficking

Today our 15 teen machinimatographers in Global Kids' Virtual Video Project publicly premiered their film "Discovered" before an audience of their peers, parents, teachers, and supporters at the Sony Wonder Theater in Manhattan.  It was great seeing their work on the big screen and then watching them explain to the audience their process from conception to final cut.

When I heard that our teens had selected child sex trafficking as the subject of their short film, I frankly was worried.  How would they explore such a serious and sensitive subject using the still rather crude tools of Second Life machinima?  I shouldn't have been worried.  Our teen filmmakers did an amazing job treating the subject matter respectfully and maturely, while also creating an engaging story.

I hope their work moves and inspires you as much as it has effected me.

Knoshing tour of Chinatown and the Lower Eastside

Tomorrow the gang in the Online Leadership Program at Global Kids is holding our annual retreat, and Barry and I are in charge of the foodie tour of Chinatown and the Lower Eastside.  Our entire staff is almost to a person major foodies, so it's kind of a daunting task. 

Here's a Google map of some of the places I'm thinking of guiding our group to. C-town and LES has so many foodie treasures, it's hard to pick just a few!  But here are some of my faves.

View Chinatown / LES Knoshing Tour in a larger map

My Metaplace World: Now embeddable!

Here's my first world I created in Metaplace that I can now embed here (or anywhere on the web)!  This is a pretty revolutionary way to move virtual worlds from "walled gardens" to places situated in the wider social web.  Embedding can increase traffic to your world, let you more easily hang out with friends, or even host your own web-based virtual concerts, like Grace McDunnough has been doing in her Live Music Lounge.

I stopped in at Grace's place tonight and found 40+ avatars hanging out and listening to her play live (pic)!

You can read more about embedded virtual worlds on the Metaplace site.

Reminder: Global Kids Teens Premiering SL Machinima "Discovered" Tomorrow in NYC!

Just a reminder that tomorrow, July 1st, fifteen New York City public high school students will premiere their film Discovered --a digital "machinima" film produced in Second Life that explores the powerful issue of child sex trafficking through the fictional story of one Mexican teenager.

Discovered is the final product of a year-long, intensive digital filmmaking program called the Virtual Video Project (VVP), an after-school program conducted by Global Kids, Inc in NYC. The students gathered regularly during the past year to learn about film production, human rights, and virtual worlds, culminating in a serious issue machinima film produced entirely by the youth filmmakers.

Come to the premiere of Discovered to meet the youth filmmakers and discover how digital film can be used for global issue awareness and civic engagement.

Event Details:
When: Wednesday, July 1st, 6pm-8pm
Where: Sony Wonder Technology Lab [550 Madison Avenue at 56th St.]
What: Meet & Greet Filmmakers, Premiere of Discovered, and Q & A with students

For more information, see http://www.DiscoveredMovie.com or please contact Shawna at 212-226-0130 x 143 or email: shawna@globalkids.org.

The full text of the News Release follows....

My first visit to the High Line today (pics)

Today I got a chance to visit the recently-opened the High Line in lower Manhattan, which was a nice treat.  Running for about 20 blocks from Gansevort Street in the West Village up the westside of Manhattan, the High Line park rises a couple of stories above the city streets, built upon elevated train tracks constructed in 1934.  Now a modernist greenspace, the High Line designers James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro kept some of the original rail tracks and indigenous plants, adding minimalist benches, railings and concrete pathways.

I found it a bit cold and controlled for my tastes. Although there are plenty of signs that say "Keep It Wild," there isn't much that is wild about the High Line.  No bikes, dogs, performers, vendors, skaters, or ugly people are allowed on the High Line.  (Okay, maybe not that last part.)

Still, the High Line adds a lot to the neighborhood, and certainly looks like a great spot to meet friends for lunch, read a book or just contemplate the ever-changing city around us.  I'll definitely be back.

More of my pics in my Flickr set.

My "Funky 40th" birthday jam last night! (video)

Here's a video of my birthday jam during my "Funky 40th Soul Party" last night at Club 412.   So much fun dancing and partying with some of my closest friends from swing, hip-hop, Quaker and Global Kids communities.

Yes, I really am 40.  I don't really believe it myself sometimes.

Thanks for taking this video, Will!

Teens show off their digital media chops at first NYC Youth Tech Fest at New School

Congrats to the 100-some teens from all over New York City who participated in the first NYC Youth Digital Media & Technology Festival at the New School. The daylong festival spotlighted the growing movement among teenagers in New York and nationally to design video games, films and other digital tools to advance social causes in a youthful and technologically literate language. 

I was super proud of our Global Kids' teens for presenting themselves and their projects so well, including showing of their serious issue machinima "Discovered" to an outside audience for the first time! Teens involved in our Media Masters and Expressions programs also got to present about their work to other teens and adults in a tech fair like atmosphere.

One of the coolest parts of the program was the "Playing for Keeps" Challenge. Three different teams of teens from NY public libraries in Staten Island, the Bronx and Manhattan presented their social issue game designs in front of a "jury" of game experts and the audience.  Then we all got to vote for our favorite game design.  I was happy to see that the media-control game "UI" won for best game, which would fit really nicely into Global Kids programs if it ever got produced.  

I also was super-impressed by the animation program at the Parsons Pre-College Academy, which allows budding teen artists to create really entertaining and hilarious animated shorts using Flash.  It got my creative juices flowing, envisioning a social issue animation program at Global Kids.

All-in-all a really fun afternoon with some great New York teens and programs.  Big ups to MOUSE, the NY Public Library, PetLab, and Parsons New School, who partnered with Global Kids to throw this successful event.