Archive - Oct 14, 2007
Poets and Writers for Avery: Second Recap
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 10/14/2007 - 20:52Well, I’m home. I’m exhausted. I’m still fighting some virus and this was probably more of a day that I was up for. At the event, Avery gave me a button she had made which says “Blogger and Thinker at orient-lodge.com”. I was proud to wear it during the day. At one point, she was swarmed by the press and when they asked her about the T-shirt that had been banned at Lewis S Mills High school, she asked me to come over and model it for the press.
I took lots of photos and videos, both with my cellphone and my digital camera. The cellphone pictures and videos I sent as the event took place and you should be able to see them on Facebook, Flickr, Blip.TV and YouTube. The cellphone lasted until the last band was on. When I got home, I uploaded the pictures from my digital camera. They are available on Flickr. I have started uploading the videos I shot with my digital camera. They will be on Blip.TV, but may take a little longer to get processed.
Besides the pictures and videos, I have a lot of thoughts and impressions of my own to process. I hope to have a few more posts about the event, but they may have to wait until the morning.
I’m also cleaning up the stories on my front page, so most likely only the most recent story about the Doninger case will appear on the front page. Other stories can be found by checking the Recent Blog posts box on the upper left hand side of the page, or by going to the Connecticut section of the site.
Poets and Writers for Avery, first recap
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 10/14/2007 - 15:09After Young Vick started off the music, Andy Thibault got up and welcomed people and then introduced Avery. They both spoke briefly and Jon Schoenhorn talked a little bit about the current state of the trial. He encouraged us to come down to the arguments in the Second Circuit which are expected to be heard in December of January. I hope I will be able to attend.
Franz Douskey started off reading a great essay about using the word 'douchebag' on the playgrounds of his childhood. It is a word that was bound to start a fight. Franz was followed by Amy Ma, a great young poet who has been learning about blogs and is studying to become a teacher. She read one of her poems. Rand Cooper ended off this section talking more about our dynamic relationship with the words we create and how those words recreate us.
The band adrenaline followed this with an accoustic set. People milled about, drank drinks, ate Hors d'oeuvres and talked. Audrey Blondin showed up and spoke for a while with Jon Schoenhorn. The media mobbed Avery as we took pictures and others of us took pictures of the media photographing Avery. I thought, this is how you treat students that write derogatory criticisms of school administrators online.
Harnessing the power of youth and creativity
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 10/14/2007 - 13:35I'm sitting at a table at The Bistro East at the Litchfield Inn in Litchfield, CT. I am at Poets and Writers for Avery. The purpose of this gathering is to help raise funds for Avery Doninger's legal battle for her freedom of speech. But really, it feels like it is about so much more. Students are selling buttons they have made. Young Vic is the lead off band, young. Three young men exuding passionate, creative energy. Yesterday, I wrote about the National School Board Association (NSBA) online conference this coming week about trying to harness some of the energy students put into their online existence. Avery's case, with the help of some skillful organizing by Andy Thibault has brought together some of that raw energy to fight for our most basic rights.
My new cellphone sends video, so I've posted text, pictures, and videos to various sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Blip.TV, and Flickr. There is Wifi here, but the signal is week, so I will try to live blog as much of this as I can, reverting back to mobile blogging when the WiFi fades.
If you can make it up to Litchfield, please come.
