YP4 fellows are taking their impact on the road! Share your stories!

From the Philippines to Israel, from South Africa and Ghana to Peru and Mexico and from NYC to DC to LA and cities and towns in between...fellows are traveling the world this summer. Where are you and what are you doing?

From the When not in Africa. . . blog.

I have been away from writing for a while and this is my attempt to convince myself that is it still important to share what I think. I have been doing a load of thinking since my summer travels. Upon returning from Ghana I started work back at my blue collar job full of racist, sexist, mostly ignorant co-workers, using the term 'rednecks' would be too clique, but I just did. At any rate they started off the extreme of the comments that I knew I would receive. Why would I go to Africa? Did I get a number of different diseases? Did I get AIDS? Many co-workers noted that they wouldn't have even stepped foot off of the plane onto the African soil and I must be either very brave or stupid.

Women Center Stage, a production of Culture Project SoHo starts today! It's a great showcase of strong women in academia, arts and culture. Check it.

All events take place (every night) at 55 Mercer Street (SoHo)from June 18 through July 17th. There looks like there's going to be some really awesome stuff; Revolution '67 (about the black urban rebellions of the 1960s) and Kamp Katrina (documentary about a New Orleans native who converts her backyard into a tent city where 14 displaced people live for 6 months following Hurricane Katrina), a conversation with Pulitzer Prize winner Samantha Power and Azar Nafisi (Reading Lolita in Tehran), and some great women musicians at the Knitting Factory (Alix Olson is my fav) are just the beginning.

Plus, there are discount passes if you go to 10 events. Big smile.

The weather`s hot already meaning that it`s summer time! You woke up late and your hand's permanently glued to the remote control. It works for a couple of days, but now that's over....and you're bored. What are you going to do between now and that amazing vacation of yours? How do you stay active in the progressive movement when the summer sun is just telling you to go out there and have fun? These are the questions that I have asked myself as well. No worries though, here's a couple of things you can do to stay in the game:

1. Think small. - Do you have an overwhelmingly big vision that you want to get started but don't know how to? Do you want to have results by the end of the year or the start of next but simply don't know where to begin? Think small and start now. Make a few phone calls to organizations or people that you think share your dream. Make a list of groups you can collaborate with so that once the summer is over and everybody else is ready to work, you'll have people that are ready to work with you. A couple of phone calls or letters a day can really make all the difference.