In light of the pandemic, and the lack of group activities or events, here are some links that we hope will be helpful to you as we struggle through this most unusual summer.
If you missed our last list, see here.
Stay safe. Stay healthy!
1) Voting. Well, if you did not expect me to add early voting to my list of October News and Events, you don’t know me too well. It is too late for you to register to vote for the election if you did not do so by midnight on October 5th. But, if you have, put these date in ink on your calendar. Also, have a look at my analysis of the facts and fictions around voting fraud.
2) Affordable Loans. My friend and former chairman of the Phoenix Black Chamber of Commerce, Kerwin Brown, has built a new model to help people with low-dollar loans, without the predatory loan-sharking of the payday loan and auto title loan industry. Further still, he has designed a system through with the borrower will likely come out the other end of the process with a better understanding of personal finance than when they came in. The UPI Loan Fund matches borrowers with mentors in order to get a loan. That personal touch helps create the foundation for successful lending.
3) Sustainability Business Education. Local First Arizona does a better job of representing the local businesses of Arizona than any chamber of commerce I’ve ever seen. Here’s another way they do. They created the Scale Up business education program, which teaches small business owners about sustainability topics in the context of Arizona, specific sustainable actions they can take, and how to make these efforts cost-effective. They are taking applications now for their second cohort. Don’t miss the opportunity.
4) Wild Rising. Desert Botanical Garden’s current art exhibition, “Wild Rising” by Cracking Art, traveled all the way from Milan. This installation of more than 1,000 animal sculptures made from colorful and recyclable plastic is on display throughout the garden through Nov. 8, 2020. General admission is $25, with youth ticket prices available. They are open from 7am to 8pm.
5) Maria Hupfield at the Heard Museum. This solo exhibition of Canadian / Anishinaabek artist Maria Hupfield will feature more than 40 works by the conceptual performance artist. The exhibition, curated by Heard Museum Fine Arts Curator Erin Joyce, will take place over several exhibition spaces and range in content from performance, sculptural installation, video, and document.
6) Cruising the Horizon presents work from several visionary U.S. based artists who explore the theme of futurity, a reference to future imaginings, beings, and ways of existing. Futurity is explored through intersecting elements of space and time with an emphasis on body and materiality. These elements formulate visions of the future where black, brown, immigrant, queer, and Trans realities are at the center.
7) Haunted Phoenix Ghost Tour. Join Marshall Shore, Arizona’s Hip Historian, for a walking tour of historic and ghostly haunts in downtown Phoenix. This tour will be cohosting by Debe Branning, director of Arizona’s “MVD Ghostchasers”, author of several ghost books on Arizona’s haunts, and has appeared on the Travel Channel on an episode of “Ghost Stories.”
