Harrah’s Entertainment is inviting the GLBT community to visit Atlantic city, NJ, Sept. 25-27 for “OUT in Atlantic City.”

The event, the city’s first weekend long celebration specifically for the LGBT community, will include celebrity appearances byLance Bass, Amanda Lepore, Lori Michaels, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’s Jai Rodriguez, and select cast of Showtime’s The L Word.

Scheduled events weekend include:
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I had the pleasure of meeting Mia Kirshner on Saturday, Aug 22. She was hosting a fundraiser for her charity, I-live-here.

It was a wonderful event for a great cause.

Mia Kirshner is an actress who starred in Showtime’s, “The L Word” for six years. She has been in numerous films and TV movies. Not only is she a brilliant actress, but a devoted humanitarian as well. She is very passionate about the work she is doing, which I find very admirable.

I-live-here is a book that she started about eight years ago. It’s a paper documentary about heart wrenching stories from four areas in the world that are having big problems. Chechnya, (is in midst of a war) Burma (ethnic cleansing), Mexico (globalization) and Malawi (AIDS). The book (which is four books inside a hard cover book that folds up) is told from the people in these countries. It’s their stories, and Mia and her team are bringing this to our attention. The things that are going on over there, shouldn’t be.

Right now there is a Humanitarian Emergency situation in Malawi. Conditions have worsened since Mia was last there a few years ago. Most people probably don’t even know this is going on…..
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I received an email from Erica Solomon, the Director of Education of the I Live Here foundation, and she asked that I post the following information about the upcoming fundraiser being held on August 22nd. If you live in California and are able attend, please do so and feel free and send in photos from the event. I would love to attend if I could, but I live in Georgia and won’t be able to make it.

I Live Here – Fundraiser Cocktail Party
Saturday, August 22, 7:00-11:30 PM

This event hosted by actress and I Live Here Founder: Mia Kirshner, Operation USA, Causecast and CODEPINK benefits the launch of our literacy program in Malawi, Africa.

We will have a silent auction, music, KCRW DJing the event, food and drinks! Come out and support a great cause.

Saturday, August 22, 7:00-11:30 PM
969 Colorado Blvd. Santa Monica, CA 90401
$25 minimum cover.

Tickets on sale at: https://donate.opusa.org/ilivehere

You may email info@i-live-here.com with any questions.

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This event was originally scheduled for tomorrow (April 22), but it’s been postponed until June 11, so now there’s time for you guys to make some plans if you’d like to attend. Thanks to Susan for the info.

Press Release from opusa.org:

Actress/author Mia Kirshner (THE L WORD, THE BLACK DAHLIA) and author James MacKinnon have joined forces with international relief agency Operation USA to bring creative writing field projects inspired by their acclaimed book, I Live Here to communities in need around the world. The program will launch in Malawi, Africa, with Kirshner and MacKinnon returning to work in the Kachere Juvenile Centre in Lilongwe, the boys prison documented in the 2008 book.

Malawi is one of the world’s poorest countries, with an HIV/AIDS rate of nearly twenty percent. I LIVE HERE is a creative writing, literacy and livelihood program that will work inside the Kachere Juvenile Centre – working to bring hope to children that have little reason to think their lives can improve.

“When visiting the youth prison in Lilongwe, I saw the extreme conditions that these kids live in. I saw that they are rapidly slipping through the cracks. What I saw is a cruel reality and gruesome future. One inmate wrote, “My goodness is my wisdom, is my strength is my future.” The impact of this leaves me no option but to do everything I can to help change the extremities that these children live under,” said Mia Kirshner.
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I updated the gallery this weekend with photos of Mia at the final season wrap party on March 3rd. Thanks to Lori and Mariana for their contributions.

I’ll be updating with lots of new (older) event photos and some new scans as soon as I have a little free time, which will hopefully be within the next couple of weeks. I’ve just had so much going on lately that it’s hard to catch up.

My apologies for the recent lack of updates. I’ve had a ton of things going on in my personal life lately and I just haven’t had much time for online things. I’m sure you all understand how that goes. Now to play catch up even though you probably already know about it…

Enter for a chance to win a piece of Jenny Schecter’s wardrobe in the Jenny Schecter Memorial Sweepstakes.

Mia will be attending Starfury: L6 this year. The convention runs September 18-20. The gold tickets are sold out, but they still have full weekend and day passes available. Click here to for full information. Thanks to Jo for the heads up!

Miss Conception dvd screencaps and featurette screencaps are now available in the gallery.

Actress puts MIT class behind the camera

Nishima Chudasama held open the shop door for the man with the haunted eyes and bird’s nest beard and wondered about his life. Then she stopped wondering and started finding out.

Chudasama, a resource analyst in the Industrial Liaison Program, approached the man near the T station in Central Square and asked permission to interview him on camera for a short film project. He agreed.

Chudasama’s initiative was the result of the IAP class, “I Live Here (A Human Rights Multimedia Project),” led by actress and author Mia Kirshner. The class encouraged participants to seek out untold stories in the Boston area and turn them into two-minute films.
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I’m a few days late in posting this, but Mia is teaching at 2 week IAP course at MIT on the following dates: January 20, 22, 27 and 29. How exciting! Unfortunately I live no where near MIT so I won’t be able to attend, but I hope some of you will be able to make it. Click here for full details, directions and more. Thanks goes out to Larissa for contacting me about this.

Mirroring the multimedia approach of the book, this two-week course will ask you to create your own short video based on hidden stories that need to be heard within your own greater Boston community. The results will be featured on the I Live Here website, which links to Amnesty International’s homepage and the MIT Center for International Studies website. They will also be shown at a MIT public event with Mia Kirshner at the end of January.

October 22, 2008 – Mia Kirshner joined fellow contributors Paul Shoebridge and Michael Simmons to share their powerful “paper documentary” I Live Here at our Tribeca store.

Thanks to Larissa for the link.

Mia will be appearing on Tavis Smiley tomorrow, December 16, 2008. Please check your local listings for the appropriate time. Please note that I will add a link to the video once it’s online and available for viewing.

EDIT: The video is now up and can be viewed here. I will upload a copy to our video archive very soon as well.