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Author: Mitchell Orriss

Albion’s awareness bauballs for testicular cancer

Posted on by Mitchell Orriss

London based creative group Albion has launched a cheeky charity fundraiser to raise awareness of testicular cancer.

Testicular Cancer Campaign

The campaign, affectionately named ‘bauballs’ to raise awareness of cancer is selling a range of festive decorated testicle-shaped Christmas decorations.

Each festive sack is available online for £6 ranging from Santa’s sack, Elf, snowman and Rudolph. Those who prefer to make their own impressive set can purchase a ‘make your own’ kit retailing for £4.

The campaign is also offering the chance for one lucky participant to be presented with a sack load of prizes from Firefox, Yplan, Broquet, Drumond Park and Vitage. All they need to do is feel their bought bauball for any irregularities and share the video of themselves with the winning set.

Laura Muse, brainchild behind the campaign and creative at Albion, said: “Last year’s campaign was a great success, so we wanted to res-erect the project again and make it bigger and better than ever before.

“Our range of ‘Bauballs’really make a fun tongue-in-cheek addition to any Christmas tree, with all proceeds going to a fantastic new charity that provides valuable awareness, education and support to those living with testicular cancer and their families.”

The Testicular Cancer Awareness Group is a worldwide partnership of testicular cancer charities working together to raise awareness and save lives.

 Patrick Cox, CEO of the Testicular Cancer Awareness Group, said: “We’re excited to be working with Albion on this creative campaign which will benefit multiple charities around the world. Early detection and early treatment is vital in the fight against testicular cancer. Education and awareness are key. This unique worldwide collaboration will see your donations support testicular cancer awareness charities all over the world.”

For more information, and to get your own set of festive ‘bauballs’ CLICK HERE: www.bauballs.co.uk

And follow on twitter at: Twitter: @bauballs

 

 

 

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Trust Women Conference 2013

Posted on by Mitchell Orriss

The Trust Women conference in London last week brought together women’s right organisations and global leaders in law, finance, business and government.

Trust in women conference

Distinguished from other women’s rights events, Trust Women requires speakers to present a specific action that addresses a problem facing women in the world. The focus then is for each ‘action group’ delegate to offer concrete help and solutions.

Several commitments to action have been explored in this year’s conference. It’s two key actions included a global human trafficking hotline network which will connect all current hotlines involved; this will be supported by one of the largest social enterprises in India Dasra and Tau Investment management. Second key action being a focused upon a global network to end coerced and forced sterilisation assessing the scale of the issue worldwide, and develop laws to pertain it. These two areas will be the focus of the group coming into 2014.

Other areas to be explored included: Slave labour, and work conditions for migrants. Support in research for the draft Mental health bill in Bangladesh. The Syrian conflict, HIV epidemic in Africa, and contraception rights and access.

“Trust Women has proven once again that the connections generated by key women’s rights leaders and leading corporations can produce tangible results that help empower women globally”, said Thomson Reuters Foundation CEO Monique Villa. “These concrete initiatives will be acted upon throughout the year, and we will report on their progress at Trust Women 2014”, she added.

“We are proud to participate in the organization of Trust Women. This conference stands out in its powerful commitment to social change”, said Stephen Dunbar Johnson, President, International, The New York Times Company.

For more information on the conference agenda, and full list of speakers involved CLICK HERE:

National Museums Liverpool programme of free exhibitions in 2014

Posted on by Mitchell Orriss

National museums Liverpool has unveiled a busy programme of free exhibitions to take place across its eight museums and galleries in 2014.

Grayson Perry, The Adoration of the Cage Fighters, 2012. Courtesy of the artist and Victoria Miro. Copyright Grayson Perry, Photography by Stephen White.
Grayson Perry, The Adoration of the Cage Fighters, 2012. Courtesy of the artist and Victoria Miro. Copyright Grayson Perry, Photography by Stephen White.

The exhibitions are to feature some of the biggest names in the art world, including a brand new showcase at the Museum of Liverpool to show the cities role in the first world war.

The Walker and Lady Lever art galleries are to display a schedule of classical and contemporary exhibitions from JMW Turner to Grayson Perry.

Considered one of Britain’s greatest landscape painters, JMW Turner will present Turner: travels, light and landscape February 14 showing a variety of works on paper rarely displayed due to their light sensitivity.

This will be followed By Rossetti’s Obsession: Images of Jane Morris June 20 at the Lady Lever. Serving as a favoured model to Pre-Raphaelie painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the showcase will reveal a contrasting image of Jane as herself reflecting upon her actual life and interests beyond modelling.

Coinciding with Liverpool Biennial The Walker will host two exhibitions starting with Grayson Perry’s The Vanity of Small differences May 17 displaying six tapestries exploring taste, class, aspiration, and identity in a British context.

The John Moores painting prize will open on July 5 breaking away from tradition – first being held in 1957.

Director of Art Galleries, Sandra Penketh said: “This will be another strong year for our art galleries. We have lined up several fantastic exhibitions of both classical and contemporary work at the Walker Art Gallery and Lady Lever.

“Turner continues to be one of Britain’s most popular and important artists. So it will be a real treat to be able to show some of his rarely seen masterpieces. We are extremely excited that the John Moores Painting Prize will be a summer exhibition and we hope this will expose the prize to an ever bigger audience.”

In the first half of the year the International Slavery Museum will host three major exhibitions.

Brutal Exposure: the congo January 24 an exhibition of photographs taken by missionary Alice Seeley Harris which document the exploitation and brutality in the Congo Free State in the early 1900s.

Their spirits January 31 is a stunning exhibition by internationally acclaimed Jamaican artist Laura Facey. The central installation is a 12 metre slave ship canoe which contains more than 1,300 resin miniature figurines. The slave canoe conjures up images of Antony Gormley’s clay figures or the Chinese Terracotta Army.

And the third exhibition Between slavery and freedom on St Helena April 4 explores finds from the ‘liberated’ African cemetery on the remote south Atlantic island.

Dr Richard Benjamin, Head of the International Slavery Museum, added: “It is a major coup to be able to show Laura Facey’s work which will have a strong impact on our visitors. It’s also significant that this work is going on show in Liverpool – a city central to the transatlantic slave trade.

“We are also sure our visitors will be moved by our photographic exhibition on the Congo which has a number of fascinating Liverpool links. St Helena – a tiny island in the South Atlantic played an important – but often forgotten – role in the annals of the transatlantic slave trade. This is the first exhibition looking in detail at a fascinating and disturbing part of its history.”

Merseyside Maritime Museum will continue its Titanic and Liverpool: the untold story which has attracted more than one million visitors sincing opening in March 2012.

Included this year an exhibition of shipping posters May 16 consisting of 25 posters used to promote transatlantic travel.

Word Musuem will also bring back it hugely popular Magic Worlds March 2. An exhibition exploring the ethereal realms of fairies, folklore, wizards and witches.

Continuing into 2014 will be By Jove! It’s Ken Dodd! Photographs by Stephen Shakeshaft and April Ashley: Portrait of a lady.

For more information and complete listings from all the galleries CLICK HERE:

Reverend launches campaign for LGBT inclusion in the church.

Posted on by Mitchell Orriss

After losing his congregation in support of same-sex marriage in 2012 Reverend Oliver White has come back fighting at his new Church in St. Paul Minnesota on a mission to spread equality.

Rev Oliver White
Rev Oliver White

In a passionate video message – viewable on Reverend White’s website and youtube – White tells his story. How he lost his congregation, church, and home in support of equal marriage. He then explains the aims of his cause and asks for the global community to support him in his plans for a new program aimed to support LGBT communities.

Starting locally, his church aims to help youth in relation to employment, poverty, seniors and the LGBT community through Churches for Safe Spaces, a network of churches and LGBT organisations working towards inclusion of the LGBT community within the church.

Reverend White says: “Love each other. That’s the only way this world can truly be free. That we love each other as we love ourselves. That means we love gays. We love lesbians. We love blacks. We love whites. We love old. We love young. And that’s an ongoing message.”

So far, Reverend White has raised over 20,000 dollars with a target of 120,000.

For more information, and to help raise awareness and support the cause CLICK HERE:  or CLICK HERE:

To hear Reverend White tell his story in he’s own words, CLICK HERE:

 

Leicester University Lecture: Ten Things I hate about you

Posted on by Mitchell Orriss

Stories of prejudice, bigotry and violence in Leicester. Lecture to be held by University of Leicester on November 27.

University of Leicester

A free public lecture held by the University of Leicester looking at new perspectives on ‘hard to reach’ communities in largest ever study of hate crime victimisation is to take place on Wednesday November 27 between 1:00 pm and 2:00 pm at the Bennett Lecture Theatre 2.

For those who cannot make the lecture – entitled – “‘Ten Things I Hate About You’ Stories of Prejudice, Bigotry and Targeted Violence in Leicester” can keep up with their progress by following @HateCrime_Leics on Twitter.

Hundreds of participants came forward in the study throughout Leicester to share their experiences through surveys, interviews and focus groups.

The research suggests that acts of hate and prejudice can be directed towards a wide variety of minority groups, whose voices can often go unheard, including the homeless, asylum seekers, people with mental health problems, people with learning difficulties and many others.

One victim said: “I was in Tesco and a man said: ‘I bet you’re ugly under that Burqa.’”

Another commented: “Buses are the worst. I get told that wheelchairs just get in the way and we shouldn’t use public transport.”

These stories, amongst others are to be explored and discussed by Dr Neil Chakraborti from the University of Leicester’s Department of Criminology who will outline ten of the most significant themes to have emerged in the project.

Dr Chakraborti said: “Our findings will be released next September but already we have heard from over 1,000 victims, making this the largest study of hate crime victimisation ever to have been conducted.

“We have found that grassroots engagement – for instance, speaking to people from all kinds of different backgrounds and walks of life, whether at community events, leisure sites, places of worship or neighbourhood centres – has been key to our success, rather than relying solely on community leaders, gatekeepers and representatives to give us access to particular communities.

“Many of those from so-called ‘hard to reach’ communities have welcomed the opportunity to share their experiences with us, and this suggests that they are not so much ‘hard to reach’ in research terms as ‘easy to ignore’.

“We can use our findings to help criminal justice agencies and other key service providers provide effective answers to the challenges posed by hate and prejudice.”

The lecture draws from research conducted as part of the Leicester Hate Crime Project, a two-year ESRC-funded study exploring people’s experiences of hate, prejudice and bigotry.

For more information, or to share your experiences with the research team, CLICK HERE:

 

LGBTicons.com: Social media campaign celebrates LGBT lives on November 29

Posted on by Mitchell Orriss

Blogsite LGBTicons.com, which celebrates the achievements and lives of the LGBT community, is reaching out for people to take part in the social media campaign LGBTearth on Friday, November 29 to capture a day in the life of LGBT people and the people who love them.

LGBTearth

Anyone can take part, whether they are a member of the LGBT community, a friend, family member or associate. All they need to do is take a picture throughout the day: Whether it be a gym selfie, family portrait, or a shot of the landscape around them, and use the #LGBTearth to tag the snapshot through Twitter or Facebook.

Barry Church-WoodsFounder Barry Church-Woods, said: “We’ve been profiling LGBT people of significant achievement, and sharing news about LGBT communities globally, for over a year now and the more we research and write, the more depressing it gets.

“Coming from a position of privilege as an out gay man in the UK, it struck me that so many people are still being oppressed across the world. You need only look at the situations in Uganda, Russia and Malaysia today to realise how far behind we are, as a planet, in realising basic human rights.

“As such, I’m hoping that LGBTearth will offer a great showcase of exceptional people all over the world. A digital pride so to speak.

“Over the past two years I’ve been really impressed with The Advocate’s ‘A day in LGBT America’ campaign, though it’s definitely missing the global reach. That’s what I hope LGBTearth will achieve.”

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