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April Smith of AHA MEDIA is very honored to be a Keynote Speaker at Northern Voice conference 11 at UBC
April Smith and AHA MEDIA will be presenting a Keynote Speech at Northern Voice Conference on Friday May 13, 2011
April Smith, Hendrik Beune and Peter Davies make the letters AHA with their fingers while at Woodwards Housing in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES)
April is a citizen journalist and co-founder of AHA MEDIA.
“I’m a citizen journalist and co-founder of AHA MEDIA. I have also been involved with W2’s Fearless City Mobile Project – which has presented here at Northern Voice in previous years – and I facilitate social media literacy classes at LifeSkills Centre and Oppenheimer Park. In my teaching work, I encourage and promote peer training to support education in technology.
I believe, if my neighbors in the Downtown Eastside are able to access communication and technology – as people do in other neighborhoods – I feel it will help create positive change. I know this because it’s helped me create a better life for myself.
I work with W2, which is active in this area of breaking the digital divide and believes access to technology and communication is a human right. For those who have been following, W2 is finally opening a 10,000 square foot community media centre at the Woodward’s Atrium. From this fabulous new space, W2 will help people with their digital storytelling, with a crossmedia lab that broadcasts on CJSF and Coop Radieo, and Novus and Shaw Cable, and the internet.
Programs like Fearless City Mobile and this new media centre put technology in the hands of people and will help more people overcome marginalization by connecting people with society and supporting their self-representation. I know this work is important for transforming people’s lives because it’s where I began. This is my story.
I am cheerleader for positive community building and outreach. Through art, music, and community promotion, I am a self-taught advocate for social justice and positive neighborhood unity. This is really important given that the voices of our marginalized groups are usually mediated by others, rarely do we represent ourselves. Out of W2’s Fearless project was born our social enterprise ” AHA MEDIA.”
AHA MEDIA is a small business that supports social justice by creating spaces for people to represent themselves.
My interests are documentation of daily life in the Downtown Eastside, highlighting the positive, while bringing to light the injustices that occur in the neighborhood.
I have filmed observations, both subversive and situational, over the last 3 years.
Using social media, new media, mobile technology, photos, videos and blogs, I concentrate on sharing the stories and voices of the otherwise-silenced inner city community. Through our website AHAMedia.ca we reach our neighbors, reach Vancouverites from other neighborhoods, plus a global audience
April Smith, Hendrik Beune and Richard Czaban make the letters AHA with their fingers while at Woodwards Housing in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES)
I hope to inspire everyone at Northern Voice!
AHA MEDIA is very proud to be part of W2 Community Media Arts in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES)
AHA MEDIA excitedly looks forward to the grand opening of W2 Community Media Arts centre which has been in development since 2004 in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES)
Below is Peter Davies, Richard Czaban of AHA MEDIA with Miraj Khaled
W2 Community Media Art Society is an artist-run centre in Vancouver’s inner-city that works for cross-cultural dialogue, social inclusion, and breaking the digital divide. W2 provides marginalized communities with access to gear, training, multi-platform production and distribution. W2 is committed to community cultural and economic development in the Downtown Eastside – without displacement of low-income residents.
W2 operates W2 Storyeum as a festival, conference and exhibition venue for the benefit of the citizens of Vancouver. The 31,000 sq ft complex features a large exhibition space, Community Media Lab, W2 Cafe catering, Sound Lab, Woodward’s Heritage Letterpress, W2 and community offices, and W2 storage. W2 Storyeum, 151 West Cordova, Vancouver, BC, V6B 1E1
W2 is opening a community media centre in March 2011 – which has been in development since 2004. With construction nearing completion in the Woodward’s heritage building, we are preparing to occupy 8,800 sq ft of space for W2 Cafe, a community radio and TV station, community meeting rooms, Open Web Lab, Fearless City Mobile, Creative Technology Incubator, Woodward’s Heritage Letterpress Studio, and a community lounge.
Our W2 administration is located in the Woodward’s Atrium at 250 – 111 W Hastings, Vancouver BC V6B 1H4. Phone 604-689-9896
In the realm of reform: Drugs, Laws & Social Change fundraising event at W2 on Thursday March 31, 2011
Join best selling author and physician, Gabor Mate for a special fundraising event in support of Pivot, co-sponsored by W2 Storyeum, VANDU and the Portland Hotel Society.
Gabor will be joined by Pivot Legal Society Litigation Director, Katrina Pacey and Lorna Bird of the Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society and Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users for an evening of discussion on the multi-layered issues of addiction, mental health, law enforcement and justice.
March 31· 6:30 p.m.
W2 Storyeum, 151 E. Cordova Street, Vancouver, B.C.
April Smith of AHA MEDIA is very honored to be 2011 Northern Voice Keynote Speaker for Social Media Conference at UBC on May 13-14, 2011
The Northern Voice personal blogging and social media conference is happy to announce that our Keynote Speaker #1 is none other than April Smith, a well-known Vancouver-based Freelance New Media and Social Media Maker for AHA Media, Citizen Journalist, Project Leader and Trainer for @FearlessCity with W2Woodwards – W2 Community Media Arts. Read more here
I am very honored to be the Keynote Speaker at the 2011 Northern Voice Conference at UBC on May 13 -14 ♥
I look forward to sharing with you, some of my experiences in making Vancouver media that matters!
- Through art, music, and community promotion, I am a self-taught advocate for social justice and outreach and positive neighborhood unity.
- Using social media, new media, mobile technology, photos and videos, I concentrate on sharing the stories and voices of the otherwise-silenced inner city community of the Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES) with a global audience.
- As a freelancer, I blog, take photos, videos and Livestream through my Nokia N97 mini cameraphone extensively to give MAXIMUM coverage
I believe in promoting and empowering people of the DTES as much as possible!
I am truly thankful to everyone who has helped me along the way! I would not be here if not for them! ♥
Let’s connect ♥
http://www.AHAMEDIA.ca/
http://www.facebook.com/AHAMEDIA
http://www.facebook.com/AprilSmithFilms
http://www.facebook.com/AprilFilms
http://www.twitter.com/AprilFilms
http://www.twitter.com/AHAMEDIA
http://www.twitter.com/April
http://www.youtube.com/AHAFilm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/AHAMEDIA/sets
http://www.qik.com/AHAMEDIA
http://www.vimeo.com/AHAMEDIA
http://www.linkedin.com/in/AprSmith
Utopia Festival: Women in Digital Culture Celebrating women in music on March 5, 2011 at Vancouver’s creative hub W2 Storyeum!
Utopia Festival: Women in Digital Culture
Celebrating women in music on March 5, 2011 at Vancouver’s creative hub W2 Storyeum!
Showcase | Concert | Mobile Dance Party | Unconference | Music Maker Workshops
Showcase features 25 artists + 3 rooms | Electro | hiphop | bass |
Showcase and unconference featuring: Peaches, Tanya Tagaq, Isis Salam, Betti Forde, B-Traits, Librarian, Lynx, Zenobia Salik, She, Blondtron, Lady Lane, Tank Girl, Miss M, Just Sheila, Bles-sed, The Square Root of Evil, JNL, Miss Innocent, Tapes + more TBA. Media artists include VJ Electrabelle, Julie Gendron, Sebnem Ozpeta, Claudia Medina, and Krista Lomax.
Follow along on Twitter: @W2Utopia
Tickets available now at Beatstreet, Little Sister’s, Puff, Zulu, People’s Coop Bookstore, The Fall, W2 and online http://utopiafestival.eventbrite.com
The evening concert and showcase program is open to men and women, while the daytime is women-only. Note program subject to change.
For women interested in electronic music and media, Utopia Unconference wristbands provide all-access and 3 meals: Breakfast, Music Maker Workshops, Lunch, Mobile Dance Party, Unconference, Dinner Reception, Concert, and Showcase. We are anticipating 150 women participating in five creative streams: electro, hip hop, bass, electro-acoustic and live cinema.
Check out this background article on Granville Online. Produced by W2, and curated by Betti Forde, Irwin Oostindie, Librarian, and Nina Mendoza.
The Festival coincides with the 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day and its theme: 100 Women, 100 Artworks. Proceeds support W2’s Second Annual Girls Creative Tech Summer Camps (8-14 years).
Call for workshop proposals: DJs and live PA; media art performers & installations for this showcase of electronic leaders and emerging artists. Inquiries:irwin@creativetechnology.org or call W2 office: 604.689.9896
SCHEDULE
Saturday, March 5, 2011
• Purchase a Festival wristband if you wish to participate! Workshop details will be coming soon.
• Unconference registration table opens 9am
• Youth delegates welcome 9am-9pm
• Childcare provided on-site 9am-9pm
• While the unconference and workshops are open to women only, for everything else men are welcome.
10am-12noon Morning Music-Making Workshops Hands-on creative technology workshops electronic music production, turntabling, video production, music journalism. All levels of experience welcome including youth (15-19 year olds)
12 – 1pm Lunch
12:30 – 2:00 Mobile Dance Party
Public, free. Meet at Broadway skytrain 12:30pm for a live pirate radio broadcast and dance party down Commercial Drive in celebration of the 100th anniversary International Women’s Day Parade.
2-8pm Unconference
2:00 – registration opens
2:30 conference welcome
2:45 opening keynote
3:00 opening panel
3:45 open space intro
3:45 coffee break provided by W2 media cafe
4:00 open space sessions I + II – (5 concurrent)
6:00 production workshops (5 parallel streams: electro; bass; hip hop; electro-acoustic, live cinema)
7:00-8:00pm dinner reception
8pm Evening Program
Keynote address: Peaches (Berlin) and music by Tanya Tagaq (NWT) with guests, plus Women Writers – readings in association with W2 Real Vancouver Writer’s Series.
10:30pm Showcase!
Electro, Bass, Hip Hop starring Peaches, Isis Salam, Betti Forde, Librarian, Lynx, Tanya Tagaq, Zenobia, B-Traits, DJ She, Tank Girl, plus more! Media artists include VJ Electrabelle, Julie Gendron, Sebnem Ozpeta, Claudia Medina, and Krista Lomax.
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