Well, tonight would mark our last official club meeting time. We didn’t have a particular item planned nor have we heard from anyone about wanting to facilitate a particular type of session. However, our meeting place in Kinnoull House will be open at 7:15pm.

Francesca will be there and plan to use the time to record any creative pieces you or whoever would like to share as part of a MIISpoken podcast series for her Digital Media for Change class. If you want to remain anonymous for the podcast (when it is made public through our MIIS podcast channel) that’s perfectly fine. She would really appreciate if you could share some material to help her with her project. She would especially love to record poems you have written that somehow convey one of the interests that brought you to MIIS, whether that piece is about the environment, social justice, anti-trafficking, cultural identity, a particular region in the world, etc.

Also, if anyone would like to come by and see if we can put together a MIISpoken Poetry Night before the semester’s over, let’s chat!

Our group seems to have dwindled in size at the last creative session on April 7th. Two hardy club members did enjoy a pretty hilarious round of improv games, which I wish many of you could have seen! Maybe our April 21st creative session will draw a larger crowd.

It would be great to have a new club member volunteer to facilitate for tomorrow’s session. Please shout out if you are interested! Otherwise, perhaps we can use tomorrow as a way to plan a performance event to share our creative talents and make good use of the remaining money in our budget. Hope to see you tomorrow!

World Champion Public Speaker David Brooks of Toastmasters International will present the

Eight Essentials of Effective Speaking

Where: MIIS, Irvine Auditorium

When: 1-2:30pm

This coming Saturday, March 14, David Brooks (the 1990 World Champion of public speaking and mentor to 7 other World Champions) is presenting a free 90 minute program called Eight Essentials of Effective Speaking right here in Monterey. It will be held from 1:00-2:30 p.m. Saturday, March 14 in the McCone Building, 499 Pierce St, Monterey. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to hear from a world-class speaker, trainer, and coach.

To hear a short introduction from David Brooks click here

The event is free and open to the public, but you must RSVP with Arnie Busse at ahbuss2000@yahoo.com to reserve your spot.

This event is certain to make you a better speaker than you are right now.

Lots going on this week for the land of MIISpoken. We have our regular club meeting on Tuesday, March 3rd at 462 Van Buren ST from 7:15pm-8:30pm.

Also, if any MIIS students are interested in sharing their art, the MIIS Follies is holding auditions on Thursday, March 5 from 5:30-7:30pm, Tuesday March 10th at 7:30pm, and Wednesday March 18th at 5pm. All auditions are held in Irvine Auditorium.

Things you should know before auditioning:
Acts can be musical performances, special talents, comedy skits, cultural performances, monologues, etc… Performances should be no longer than 7 minutes. No one MIIS student can perform in more than two skits. Open to the entire MIIS community. Sign-up in student affairs for an audition time slot. Questions should be directed towards Chris Hucke (Christopher.Hucke@miis.edu).

Many MIIS students are planning for our VDay performance in April. If you want to speak out about violence against women and girls please attend the general interest meeting on-campus this Wednesday, March 4 from 7:30pm onward in A101.

On Friday, February 27, 2009 several MIISpoken members attended a “Poetry Out Loud” competition among local high school students at the Steinbeck Public Library in Salinas, California. One of our MIISpoken members works with the Arts Council for Monterey County and helped plan this Monterey County “Poetry Out Loud” competition that challenges high schoolers to explore the great poems of American literature through performance. By bringing these poems from the page to the stage young studenst are encouraged to pursue deeper analysis, forge personal connections to the literature, and develop confidence in public speaking.

Garland Thompson Jr., a local actor, poet, playwright, and all around cool dude looking out for the kids has been a driving force in producing this event annually. In addition to some fine sharing of works by Edgar Allen Poe and Langston Hughes, an open microphone session drew a wide variety of sharing. The evening ended with a powerful poem by Amir Sulaiman called “Danger” that was performed by the winning student from Pacific Grove high school.

Monterey Institute of International Studies will again be one of many universities worldwide hosting a performance of “V-Day: A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, A Prayer.” I encourage you to contemplate the realities of violence against women and girls and speak out against it with your poetry, your story, your heart. If you are on-campus and can commit to some rehearsals and the performance on April 4, 2009, please get involved!

“V-Day is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money and revitalize the pirit of existing anti-violence organizations. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation and sexual slavery.

Through V-Day campaigns, local volunteers and college students produce annual benefit performances of The Vagine Monologues, A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and a Prayer, and screenings of V-Day’s documentary Until The Violence Stops to raise awareness and funds for anti-violence gruops within their own communities. 2009 V-Day events have the option to introduce a new V-Day theatrical event, Any One of Us: Words From Prison, which reveals the connection between women in prison and the violence that often brings them there. This new event will bring forth raw voices of fierceness and honesty written by women from prisons across the nation and performed by local women.”

At this year’s V-Day event, we will stage monologues from Eve Ensler’s “A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, and A Prayer”, Writings to Stop Violence Against Women and Children on April 4, 2009. Proceeds of the event will benefit a local women’s rights group.