A Minority Report- Revisited

Above: Khaled Abu Toameh addresses room 325 of the Student Center which is filled out the door with students and members of the community listening to what he has to say about the Israel/Palestine conflict as an Arab-Israeli.

So last week I blogged about the journalist Khaled Abu Toameh coming on to campus to give a talk about his time writing and filming for different news organizations in the Middle East, more specifically Israel and Palestine.

While the speech was very interesting to me as someone who has invested interest in the Israel/Palestine conflict, I don't think that as a journalism student I gained much besides how lucky I am to be living in a place where freedom of the press is allowed unlike in Palestine.

Over all, I thoroughly enjoyed the event and want to thank DePaul's Hillel as well as the College of Communication for putting on such an informative dialogue!

Students at a Display Table in DePaul

L - R   Meaghan Kern and Allison Cunningham at the 11th floor of the Depaul central in the loop displaying tickets and information for the upcoming re-union. Both are members of DePaul Activities Board (DAB.)
Tickets for the re-union are still on sale, they say, but anyone interested in going has to get the ticket before the event scheduled for today, Saturday, February 28 at 8pm through Sunday, March 1 until 12am at the Chicago Union Station on 320 S. Canal. More information from DAB reads as follows:

"Tickets are $15 each and go on sale February 16th (Limit 2 per ID). Tickets are available on the first floor of the Lincoln Park Student Center and on the 11th Floor of the DePaul Center in the Loop daily from 10am-5pm. Please remember to bring 2 forms of Picture ID if you wish to purchase alcoholic beverages at the dance. (Limit 3 drinks per person) Trolleys will be departing from Cortelyou Commons and the Loop Campus to transport students to and from the dance."
L - R: Ran Torrenueva and Laurice Thomas of Pi Sigma Epsilon displaying the society's bake sale table on the 11th floor of the DePaul Central in the loop. 
The table was filled with candies, rice crisps sprinkled with m&m cholocate candies, brownies and candy sticks. Every item cost a dollar.

Race and Religion at DePaul

Race and religion were discussed at the Cortelyou Commons at DePaul's Lincoln Park campus on February 24, 2009.

The discussion began with a lecture by Michael Emerson, Professor of Sociology at Cline and Director of the Center on Race, Religion and Urban Life at Rice University.

Emerson touched on racial segregation amidst diversity and how religion can act as an avenue to transcend segregation.

Prof. Emerson has written several books on the issue, including People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States, Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America, and Against All Odds: The Struggle for Racial Integration in Religious Organizations.

After the lecture, the event continued with a Q & A between Prof. Emerson and students.

The event was part of the Religion and Society Lecture Series. It was cosponsored by the Political Science Department, the Religious Studies Department, the Center for Black Diaspora, and the Program in Catholic Studies.

A Minority Report

I just received an email from the Communications Department informing me that Khaled Abu Toameh, a former PLO journalist for Yasser Arafat will be giving a presentation on March 3 at 3PM at the Student Center room 325.

Toameh is an award-winning journalist and TV news reporter who has reported from the West Bank and Gaza Strip for more than twenty years. He now produces fro NBC and other major TV networks. He also is the Senior Palestinian Affairs writer fro the Jerusalem Post.

I think this would be a really great event for the future journalists of our class. Although it may not relate directly, it doesn't hurt to hear a professional talk about his time doing something that we all (on some sort of a scale) will be doing one day!

Journalists Panel

This event is titled "The Obama Factor: Covering Politicians of Color, Then and Now." The event is going to be based on political coverage by the media and the event is free. Read the details below:

DEPAUL HUMANITIES CENTER

The Obama Factor: Covering Politicians of Color, Then and Now

Media Roundtable Series with Laura S. Washington, Ida B. Wells-Barnett University Professor
and Fellow of the DePaul Humanities Center

Thursday
February 26, 2009
Program 6:00-7:30 p.m.
Reception 7:30-8:00 p.m.

DePaul Student Center
Room 314AB
Lincoln Park Campus
2250 N. Sheffield Avenue
Chicago, Illinois
Hear from prominent journalists who have covered Barack Obama on the road to the White House, and watched other politicians of color in the halls of power and at the grassroots. They will assess the media's coverage of politicians in the context of the Obama ascendancy.

Panelists include:
• Esther Cepeda, columnist and blogger, “600 Words”
• Craig Dellimore, political editor, WBBM Radio
• Tom McNamee, editorial page editor, Chicago Sun-Times
• Mary Mitchell, columnist and editorial board member, Chicago Sun-Times
• Charles Thomas, political reporter, ABC-7 Chicago
• Dorothy Tucker, reporter, CBS-2 Chicago Moderator:
• Laura Washington, DePaul University, Chicago Sun-Times A columnist for the
Chicago Sun-Times, Laura S. Washington is an expert on media coverage and issues, including journalistic ethics and investigative reporting. Other areas of specialization include African-American affairs, Illinois and national politics, diversity, race and racism, and social justice.
This event is free and open to the public.

For information, contact the Humanities Center
by phone at 773-325-4580, or by email at
aperson@depaul.edu. Please see our
website at www.depaul.edu/~humctr.

Go See The Music School's Guitar Ensemble...and Get Your Face Shreded and Your Ears Melted

The DePaul Music School's Guitar Ensemble will put on a performance at the DePaul Concert Hall on February 18, 2009 at 8:00pm. The event will not only feature DePaul's Guitar Ensemble but also those of Northwestern, Northeastern Illinois, and the Chicago Academy of the Arts.

With that type of a lineup, there is sure to be some face melting guitar action. Both Northwestern and DePaul are well known throughout the nation to have superior music programs.

The concert will feature performances of a wide range of music, including Vivaldi and Piazzolla. Those two names already say a lot. It will be very interesting to see how they move from classical Barouqe to Argentinian Tango.

The concert will end with all three guitar ensembles coming together for two large guitar orchestra pieces, including an arrangement of the Aragonesa and Habanera from Bizet's Carmen. The event is definitely a rare and unique experience so don’t miss the chance to listen to some good music.

Seniors! There Are Still Jobs Out There...In The Business World

DePaul's Winter Job Fair was today. But for those of you who didn't know or just didn't go and are thinking, "Oh damn! I missed my one and only opportunity of potentially securing a job!" don't freak out, we journalism students wouldn't have fared too well anyway. I hate to be a pessimist and the bringer of bad news, or for that matter the person who tells you for the millionth time that the economy is in a recession and the job market is weak. But I am and it most definitely is.

The Winter Job Fair, which was held from 11:00am-3:00pm today at the Student Center in room 120, was if anything, more of a reassurance for me that my job outlook is bleak and that i should seriously consider selling drugs. But all sarcasm aside, the job fair really made me think about what we have been talking about in class. It definitely is a bad time to want to be a journalist, unless perhaps you want to be a business or economics journalist. Even still, your chances are slim. You are better off going into finance, economics, or business because that was what the majority of employers at the job fair were looking for. It's ironic isn't it, that the current recession was in large part due to the irresponsibility of the business and finance sector, yet they are the ones that are hiring now in this weak job market. Figures. So where can i get a kilogram of cocaine? I want a real job.

Andean Art, with a Colonial Touch

The Art Galleries at DePaul's John T. Richardson Library almost always contain something worth seeing. At the beginning of the school year, there was an exhibition on the riots from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago entitled 1968: Art and Politics in Chicago.

This quarter however, one of the galleries is showcasing 40 art works from the 16th century and beyond. The art work, which come from South America, is heavily influenced by Spain's colonial invasion of South America and the advent of western religion, particularly Catholicism in the region.

What stands out in the exhibition are the frames that encase the very detailed and intricate paintings. The hand-crafted and delicately decorated frames really add to the magnificence of the art, not to mention that some of the frames are original. The exhibition is entitled Reverence Renewed: Colonial Andean Art from the Thoma Collection. It will be running through March 20, 2009.

Some Free Art! Check It Out!

The DePaul University Museum is displaying an exhibition of Latin American photography entitled Realism and Magic. The exhibition contains 20 images by Latin American photographers hailing from the likes of Guatemala, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, and the Caribbean. The photographs, the majority of which are black and white, feature portraits that contain very real images of emotions and landscapes that captivate the viewer. The portraits are emotional because some contain images of groups in a struggle against oppression, such as the Zapatistas, and the landscapes provide a poignant display of colonialism in Latin America. If you are interested, the exhibition is running from January 15 through May 4, 2009. It is completely free so don't be hesitant to come check it out! Yay for free art!