Mia Kirshner attended the 31st Annual Genie Awards Gala at the National Arts Centre on March 10, 2011 in Ottawa, Canada. 7 gorgeous pictures of the event have been added to the gallery for your viewing pleasure!

I have also added a few more captures of The L Word to the gallery the other day. Expect more up soon!

Gallery Links:
Public Appearances > Appearances in 2011 > 31st Annual Genie Awards Gala – March 10, 2011
Television > The L Word > Season 3 > 3.04 Light My Fire

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:

* Friday night “Catwalk Party” at Club Worship hosted by Amanda Lepore featuring rapper Cazwell– 10pm – 4am — $30
* “Cabana Party” at The Pool, Saturday from 12pm-5pm — DJs, poolside cocktails, and pool toys — $10 cover charge (free to Harrah’s Resort hotel guests)
* “VIP Mix & Mingle” with cast members of Showtime’s The L Word on Saturday, in the Foundation Room at the House of Blues located at Showboat — 5pm-7pm — $50.
* Question and answer session with members of the cast of The L Word — Saturday at 9pm. Will feature cast members Pam Grier, Rose Rollins, Kate French, and Mia Kirshner — $25.
* “LaLaLadies Night” at Club Worship from 10pm-4am on Saturday night is hosted by producer, performer and recording artist Lori Michaels and the L Word Ladies. $30
* “Decadence at Caesars” on Saturday from 10pm-4am in the Palladium Ballroom. Hosted by Lance Bass and DJ Jai Rodriguez from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and featuring guests DJ Mark Picchioti and BeBe ZaharaBenet — $30.
* “The Sunday Rehab Brunch and Gay Bingo” at the Harrah’s Resort Ballroom featuring Miss Coco Peru and hosted by Jai Rodriguez to benefit the South Jersey AIDS Alliance will be held on Sunday from 11am-2pm. $50 includes either a bottomless glass of champagne or Bloody Mary while playing a classic game of bingo (with a twist). Jai will host a table with six VIP spots for $100 each

Weekend “OUT in AC” will help support the South Jersey AIDS Alliance with a portion of all ticket sales from the “Rehab Brunch” going to the organization.

Available packages include:

* The All Access Weekend OUT Pass: Includes entry into all of the “Weekend OUT” events — $160.
* SHEpass: Includes entry into all of the events held at the House of Blues at Showboat (“Catwalk Party”, “VIP Mix & Mingle”, “Pillow Talk”, “LaLaLadies Night”) as well as the Rehab Brunch at Caesars Atlantic City — $80.
* HEpass: Includes entry into the “Catwalk Party” at the House of Blues, the “Cabana Party” and “Rehab Brunch” at Harrah’s Resort, and “Decadence at Caesars” — $80.

Hotel packages and discounted rates are also available. All events are restricted to those 21 years of age and older.

Source

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…..

The Malawi Prison Project — In Kachere Juvenile Prison
Malawi is one of the world’s poorest countries and has an AIDS rate that is close to twenty percent. The disease touches every aspect of daily life in this African nation, introducing immense chaos, particularly in the case of the orphaned children. Our first program is the Kachere Juvenile Prison Project, which works at the Kachere juvenile prison, located in Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe where extreme overcrowding, severe food shortages, abysmal sanitation conditions have created a horrifying reality for incarcerated children, many of whom are orphans arrested for petty crimes. To address this event crisis, I Live Here through OpUSA will be implementing a health and education initiative at Kachere prison.

Rose Rollins (who was on The L Word with Mia) was there to support her good friend and helped out during the auction. Both of them are super nice and sweet. The event was hosted by Mia, I-live-here, Causecast, Code Pink, and Operation USA. You can purchase Mia’s book by clicking I-live-here or on Amazon.

If everyone pitched in I believe we can make the world a better place. This event has been very enlightening and inspiring for me. I was already inspired before by Mia and her work, but after attending I have become more inspired to make a difference.

Thank you to everyone who made this event happen.

If you would like to donate to I-live-here, you can join causecast and donate to The I Live Here Foundation. Or you can go to I-live-here and donate.

For a great interview with Mia Kirshner click here.

Also for more information on this talented and inspiring actress/activist check out mia-online.

Source: Examiner.com (written by Jennifer Lewis)

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.

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.

“Operation USA is delighted to welcome Mia and James, and their dynamic program into our organization. Relief can take many forms, and giving a voice to those without much more than that can effect great change,” said Richard Walden, President and CEO, Operation USA.

Conditions in youth prisons in Malawi can be compared to the world’s worst refugee camps. The situations of the incarcerated youth can be compared to the plight of child soldiers. The need to make positive changes in the Kachere Juvenile Prison is urgent and extreme. The youth prison in Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi, is typically home to some 100 prisoners between the ages of 11 and 18. The degraded state of prison conditions cannot be overstated; the children eat once a day, sleep in intensely crowded conditions, have no reasonable access to health care or legal assistance, and are extremely vulnerable to epidemic disease.

For more information about I LIVE HERE, visit http://www.opusa.org/whatwedo/ilivehere.html

I LIVE HERE is a project of Operation USA, an international relief agency that helps communities at home and abroad overcome the effects of disasters, disease and endemic poverty by providing privately-funded relief, reconstruction and development aid.

About Mia Kirshner and James (J.B.) MacKinnon

Mia Kirshner has worked as an actor in film and television; among her credits are Brian De Palma’s THE BLACK DAHLIA and THE L WORD. She began her acting career at the age of 17, playing a clairvoyant dominatrix in LOVE AND HUMAN REMAINS. Her performance earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination for a Genie Award (Canada’s Oscar). Kirshner starred in Atom Egoyan’s EXOTICA and co-starred with Kevin Bacon and Christian Slater in the Warner Bros. drama MURDER IN THE FIRST. Kirshner is also known to television audiences for her role on the popular Fox series 24, where she portrayed a mysterious would-be presidential assassin.

She recently traveled throughout the world compiling stories for I Live Here; a book that examines the lives of refugees and displaced people in four corners of the world. I Live Here is her first book.

J. B. MacKinnon is the award-winning author of Dead Man in Paradise and Plenty. A celebrated independent journalist, MacKinnon is a contributing editor to the magazines Adbusters, Explore and Vancouver. A two-time winner of the National Magazine Foundation Gold Award for travel writing, he splits his time between Vancouver and a cabin in northern British Columbia. MacKinnon’s latest book is The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating

About I Live Here, The Book

“Powerful. . . . A touching, gorgeously produced, and thoughtfully edited compilation of stories from the world’s trouble spots. . . . Combines reportage, photography, fiction, and comics to create a group portrait of the lives of refugees and displaced people worldwide.”

- New York Magazine

I Live Here is a visually stunning narrative – told through journals, stories, images and graphic novellas – in which the lives of refugees and displaced people become at once personal and global. Bearing witnesses to stories that are too often overlooked, it is a raw an intimate journey to crises in four corners of the world: war in Chechnya, ethnic cleansing in Burma, globalization in Mexico, and AIDS in Malawi.

About Operation USA

Operation USA is an international relief agency that helps communities at home and abroad overcome the effects of disasters, disease and endemic poverty by providing privately-funded relief, reconstruction and development aid. Working with grass-roots partners on the ground, Operation USA provides material and financial assistance necessary in the face of a disaster, as well as to combat the effects of systemic poverty. Dedicated to rebuilding with commitment and listening to communities’ voices to determine the best way to assist them, Operation USA stays in the field long after many others leave. Long-term projects are supported that promote education and health services, sustainable development, leadership building, income generating activities and advocacy on behalf of vulnerable people worldwide.

Since 1979, the Los Angeles-based Operation USA has worked in 99 countries, delivering over $300 million for relief and development projects. Operation USA is a co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize as part of “The International Campaign to Ban Landmines”; was named as one of Worth Magazine’s “100 Best Charities in America”; and, in addition to their Four Star rating, was recently named the “#1 Exclusively Privately Funded Charity” by watchdog group Charity Navigator.

Operation USA will celebrate 30 years of relief done right in 2009. Learn more and make secure donations at www.opusa.org.