LIVE Magazine #230 March 11-March 25, 2016

Activist Dolores Huerta to Headline Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast -
Senator Mark Leno to be Honored
The Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast Committee announces that longtime
Union Activist Dolores Huerta will be the keynote speaker at the
Fifth Annual Coachella Valley Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast on Friday,
May 20, 2016 at the Palm Springs Convention Center. In addition,
it also announced that State Senator Mark Leno (D-11th District) will
be this year’s recipient of the Harvey B. Milk Leadership Award of the
Coachella Valley.
The breakfast honors the memory of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay
elected official in California and his legacy of groundbreaking inspiration in
the struggle to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. The
event is designed to strengthen coalitions among the many diverse community
organizations that work toward equality in the Coachella Valley.
Dolores Huerta is an activist and labor leader who co-founded what
would become the United Farm Workers. In the early 1950s, she completed
a teaching degree at Delta Community College, part of the
University of the Pacific. She briefly worked as an elementary school
teacher. Huerta saw that her students, many of them children of farm
workers, were living in poverty without enough food to eat or other basic
necessities. To help, she became one of the founders of the Stockton
chapter of the Community Services Organization (CSO). The CSO
worked to improve social and economic conditions for farm workers
and to fight discrimination.
To further her cause, Huerta created the Agricultural Workers Association
(AWA) in 1960. Through the AWA, she lobbied politicians on many issues,
including allowing migrant workers without U.S. citizenship to receive
public assistance and pensions and creating Spanish-language voting
ballots and driver's tests. In 1962, she co-founded a workers' union with
Cesar Chavez, which was later known as the United Farm Workers (UFW).
Huerta stepped down from her position at the UFW in 1999, but
continues her work to improve the lives of workers, immigrants and
women. She has received many honors for her activism, including
the Ellis Island Medal of Freedom Award (1993) and the Eleanor
Roosevelt Award (1998). Huerta, mother of 11 children, was inducted
to the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993.
This year’s recipient of the Harvey B. Milk Leadership Award of the
Coachella Valley, State Senator Mark Leno was elected to the California
Senate in 2008. He currently represents the 11th Senate District of California,
and chairs the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee.
From 2002-2008, Sen. Leno served in the California State Assembly,
representing the 13th District, which encompasses the eastern portion
of San Francisco. Prior to his election to the Assembly, he served
for four and a half years on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
‘The Arabian Nights’
and the transformative power of storytelling
to play at Indian Wells Theater
Cal State San Bernardino’s theatre arts department will present “The
Arabian Nights,” by Mary Zimmerman, adapted from “The Book of One
Thousand Nights and One,” on Saturday, April 9, at 7 p.m. and Sunday,
April 10, at 2 p.m.
This celebration of the transformative power of storytelling, directed by
Kathryn Ervin, CSUSB theatre arts professor, and music composed by
Allen Menton, assistant professor of music, will take place at the Indian
Wells Theater at Cal State San Bernardino’s Palm Desert Campus.
“The Arabian Nights” is not recommended for anyone under the age of 17.
This famous collection of stories spans many centuries and includes literature
and folklore from across Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. This spellbinding
adaptation offers a blend of lesser-known tales using improvisation and
movement to remind us all of the power of stories to soften our hearts.
The Sultan Shahryar is heartbroken by his unfaithful wife. In an infamous
act of revenge he marries, loves, then kills his brides – until the fateful day
he weds Scheherazade, a clever young woman who delays her death by
intriguing the mad king with tales of laughter, love, lust, sorrow and dreams.
For 1,001 nights Scheherazade concludes one tale, then begins a second
one, prolonging her life in an attempt to sway her husband’s cold heart.
Dolores Huerta
During his tenure in the Legislature, Senator Leno has fought for
better schools and access to higher education, foster youth, a
cleaner and sustainable environment, single-payer universal health
care, improved transportation, renewable energy, safer streets and
equal rights for all Californians. He authored Senate Bill 572 that
designates May 22 as Harvey Milk Day in California.
“Opportunities to celebrate those who have championed social
justice and equal rights with acclaimed civil rights activist Delores
Huerta and Senator Mark Leno are to be cherished. The Harvey Milk
Breakfast on May 20 is one of those not to be missed experiences.
We expect 650 individuals including 100 high school students from
throughout Coachella Valley to be a part of this inspirational community
event,” said Ron de Harte, Chairman of the Harvey Milk
Diversity Breakfast Coalition.
Sponsors for the event as of today include: Boyd & Lisette Haigler,
CCBC Resort, Desert AIDS Project, Desert Regional Medical Center,
Equality California, Gelson’s, Grace Helen Spearman Foundation,
Gray Public Relations & Marketing, Greater Palm Springs Pride, Hilton
Palm Springs, Morgan Stanley, Palm Springs Convention Center,
The LGBT Center of the Desert, and Transgender Community Coalition;
along with Media Sponsors, Coachella Valley Independent,
Desert Daily Guide, Gay Desert Guide, NicholasSnow.com, and The
Standard.
Proceeds benefit Coachella Valley youth through Gay-Straight Alliance
organizations and LGBT youth related programs. For more
information call 760-416-8711 or email milk@pspride.org.
Playwright Zimmerman is the renowned director and author behind plays
such as “Journey to the West,” “Metamorphoses,” “Notebooks of Leonardo
da Vinci,” “Secret in the Wings,” and “Argonautika.” She was the recipient
of the MacArthur Fellowship in 1998, and the winner of a Tony Award for
Best Direction in 2002 for her work on “Metamorphoses.” Her adaptation
of “The Arabian Nights” was completed in 1992, earning her a nomination
in 1994 for a Drama Desk Award (Outstanding Director of a Play).
Tickets can be purchased from the Indian Wells Theater box office by
calling (760) 341-6909 or online at www.IWTheater.com. Tickets are $6
for students; $12 for faculty, staff, senior citizens and military; $15 for
general admission. Parking is included in the ticket price.
Located in beautiful Palm Desert, the CSUSB Palm Desert Campus offers
bachelor and master’s degrees, a doctorate degree in educational leadership,
and teacher credentials and certificates. With more than 1,200 students,
it is the only four-year public university in the Coachella Valley and
plays a vital role in educating and training the region’s growing population.
For more information about the CSUSB Palm Desert Campus, contact
Mike Singer in the campus’s Office of Public Affairs at msinger@csusb.
edu or 760-341-2883, ext. 78107 or visit the campus website at
www.pdc.csusb.edu