Recently, I spoke with Ian Kim, policy director for the Oakland-based Ella Baker Center about his organization’s aspirations of building opportunities for disadvantaged communities in the “new green economy.” With an affinity for creating memorable names like “Silence the Violence” and “Books not Bars,” I was immediately struck by the campaign called “Reclaim the Future” and its “Apollo Challenge.”

Simply put, they are urging supporters to sign on, challenging Oakland to create sustainable jobs and energy independence within 10 years, the same amount of time President Kennedy gave the nation for “landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” In 1969, Apollo 11 met the lunar challenge after 192 hours. In the Winter 2007 issue of Yes! Magazine, the Center’s executive director Van Jones and communications director Ben Wyskida wrote about their ideas for creating high quality jobs for Oakland residents while cleaning up the environment, improving public health and helping the region achieve energy independence through the promotion of alternative energy technologies.

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Since 9/11, generations of individuals and families from Afghan Diaspora communities in the United States have traveled to Afghanistan. Older generations have gone with hopes of rebuilding their war-torn homeland, and American-born Afghans have also made the long journey to explore their cultural heritage and find family members.

Several works from Afghan American writers and artists have emerged, telling the stories of Afghans who straddle two worlds and identities between life in the United States and ties to Afghanistan and the post Taliban reconstruction. Books like Tamim Ansary’s memoir “West of Kabul, East of New York” and Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner” have become vastly popular. Based on radio documentaries aired on This American Life, “Come Back to Afghanistan: A California Teenager’s Story” was recently authored by Said Hyder Akbar and Susan Burton. Other intimate stories illustrate the struggles of Afghan women and girls including, “The Story of My Life: An Afghan Girl on the Other Side of the Sky” by Farah Ahmedi and “Kabul in Winter: Life Without Peace in Afghanistan” by Ann Jones.

Filmmakers have also been active shooting stories in Afghanistan - and in China.

Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner” has been adapted for film and should hit theaters later this year. The filming ended in December, and the New York Times published an interesting story about making the film in: “Where to Shoot an Epic About Afghanistan? China, Where Else?”

This month in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Asian American Film Festival and Fremont-based nonprofit Afghan Coalition are presenting two screenings of the recent film “Kabul Transit.” One screening is on March 20, 2007 at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, and the second is on March 21 at 7 PM at the AMC 1000 Van Ness theater in San Francisco.

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How do you engage people in your organization’s mission?
Tell an engaging story. And tell that story many times, in many places, and to many people.

Your story - or idea - must be “concrete, credible, and emotional,” says Chip Heath, a professor of organizational behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and presenter of “What Makes Ideas Stick” on The Conversations Network.

One “concrete, credible, and emotional” story, a documentary film about the global coffee industry, might make you think differently about your next latte.

This Wednesday, March 7th, the Oakland Museum of California is hosting a free screening and panel discussion about BLACK GOLD - a documentary film about the global coffee industry, an $80 billion dollar industry, which makes “coffee the most valuable trading commodity in the world after oil,” according to the filmmakers. Last month I viewed it at the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco, and I have not forgotten about it.

Wednesday | March 7th | 2007
6:00 pm Reception | 6:30 pm Screening
Oakland Museum of California
10th and Oak Streets / One block from
Lake Merritt Bart Station Oakland, California 94607
Panel Discussion Following the Film
Flyer

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