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| Contact: | Beverly Singer, 277-3027 Michael Padilla, 277-1816 |
August 28, 2001
Ortiz Center receives grant to create documentary about
homelessness in Albuquerque
The Alfonso Ortiz Center for Intercultural Studies at the University of New
Mexico has received a $3,000 grant from the Albuquerque Community Foundation
to create a feature length documentary about Albuquerque's homelessness.
Beverly Singer, director of the center, said the documentary, Waking
Up On Central, will be used as a dialogue tool in Albuquerque and on campus
that seeks to examine the transient world of homelessness in Albuquerque. Paul
Smyth, director of the New Mexico Chapter of National AIDS Brigade, is co-producer
of the documentary.
Many of the youth that we are working with are from the war zone
(in Albuquerque) and they feel a need to speak about ways to prevent falling
trap to what a certain segment of Central represents, Singer said. This
project brings conscience to many of the social questions concerning this part
of Central.
Fourteen individuals from the AIDS Brigade will be given training in ethnographic
video production skills who will then create their own five-minute piece to
be incorporated into the production. In addition, the youth will kick off the
project and will be presenting their AIDS awareness work publicly at the Maxwell
Museum on Thursday, Sept. 13 from 7-9 p.m. The event will feature music, poetry,
and straight talk about AIDS.
Singer said that Waking Up On Central will document, comment and
help stir community efforts by focusing attention upon and on east Central.
This area of Central is characterized by seedy residential motels, drug
dealing, prostitution and transients. Alienated diverse cultural people have
washed up on Central where they are drunk, hung-over and emptied of their humanity.
Singer said the collaboration between UNM and the AIDS Brigade integrates two
types of community resources to create a formal alliance and outlet for discussions
about AIDS and community awareness that do not yet exist in Albuquerque.
The AIDS Brigade began in 1983 and focuses its resources on the prevention
and education of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases. It is committed to
working in the community to develop peer education programs, media workshops,
and direct outreach services to teenagers, drug users, veterans, and other people
exposed to or living with HIV/AIDS.
Singer said she has applied for a grant from PACT (Partnerships Affirming Community Transformation) grant from the Rockefeller Founation for the project.
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