2011 Community Impact Awards to recognize local Black Philanthropists

San Francisco, CA (BlackNews.com) — Nonprofit, business and philanthropy leaders will gather on October 12, 2011, for the Bay Area Blacks in Philanthropy’s “State of the Race” conference and awards reception, celebrating local black philanthropists and spotlighting solutions that can fuel employment, entrepreneurship and innovation for African Americans in the region.

“We benefit from living in one of the world’s hotspots for innovation, and we aim to bring some of that energy to bear to collectively tackle issues facing Black communities,” said Cedric Brown, Chair of Bay Area Blacks in Philanthropy (BABIP). “We are also eager to honor the generous contributions of individuals and organizations who strengthen this region by investing their time and resources in important causes.”

The theme of this year’s conference is “Beyond the Neighborhood: African Americans Competing in the Regional Economy.” It will take place 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation Conference Center in San Mateo. The one-day conference will highlight major trends in the Bay Area’s Black populations from the 2010 Census; how regional markets and governance structures impact economic opportunities for Black communities; promising models for employment and entrepreneurship; and tools for using technology, policy advocacy and leadership development to advance social change.

Invited presenters at the conference include: Angela Benton, CEO of BlackWeb20.com and Co-Founder of NewMe Accelerator; Allen Fernandez-Smith, President and CEO of Urban Habitat; Ted Howard, Steven A. Minter Fellow at the Cleveland Foundation; Mary Lee, Associate Director at PolicyLink; Dr. Steven Pitts, Labor Policy Specialist at UC Berkeley Labor Center; Jason Trimiew, Director of Business Development at REDF; and Junious Williams Jr., CEO of Urban Strategies Council. The conference is co-sponsored by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Northern California Grantmakers, and Urban Strategies Council.

Following the conference, the “Celebrating Black Philanthropy” Gala Reception will recognize leading Black philanthropists in the Bay Area with the 2011 Community Impact Awards.

This year’s honorees are: Gloria Rhodes Brown, retired former Director of the University of California Cooperative Extension Service for San Mateo and San Francisco counties; Michael C. Bush, Founder of The MattMar Group Inc.; James Lowell Gibbs, Stanford University’s Martin Luther King Jr. Centennial Professor of Anthropology Emeritus, and Dr. Jewelle Taylor Gibbs, author and retired Zellerbach Family Fund Professor of Social Policy, Community Change and Practice at UC Berkeley; Valerie Coleman Morris, leading financial literacy journalist and author; Keena Turner, Vice President of Football Affairs for the San Francisco 49ers; and Verizon Wireless.

KTVU’s Morning News Anchor Dave Clark will serve as Master of Ceremonies for the gala reception, taking place 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Stanford University’s Black Community Services Center.

Both the conference and the gala reception are open to the public. Tickets are $50 for the conference, $50 for the reception. Tickets for both the conference and reception are $75 for BABIP members, $90 for non-BABIP members. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit http://babip2011.eventbrite.com.
About Bay Area Blacks in Philanthropy (BABIP):
BABIP is a regional, nonprofit membership organization that works to advance the interests of African Americans in philanthropy, and to address the impact of racial disparity within philanthropic institutions and African American communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. For more details, visit www.BABIP.org.

Hollywood, CA  – In honor of what would have been the late Jim Henson’s 75^th birthday, award-winning publisher Archaia Entertainment will debut the first 20 pages of the upcoming original graphic novel Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand, which is based on an unproduced screenplay written by Henson and longtime collaborator Jerry Juhl and visualized and illustrated by acclaimed artist Ramón Pérez, it was announced by Editor-in-Chief Stephen Christy today.

“We are so pleased to be able to share with Henson fans a glimpse inside this groundbreaking project,” said Christy. “Ramón Peréz has created a stunning visual translation of Jim Henson’s only unproduced feature-length screenplay, and we are honored to debut this exclusive preview of the forthcoming graphic novel in partnership with The Jim Henson Company and Google’s celebration of Jim’s birthday.”

Tale of Sand, a dark, existential feature-length screenplay that built off of ideas Jim Henson had been developing since he produced his Academy Award-nominated short film “Timepiece,” tells the story of a man who is kicked out of a dusty town in the middle of the desert, with no memory of who he is or where he came from. Relentlessly pursued by an unknown assailant, and with only a rucksack of odds-and-ends to his name, he embarks on a desperate race across an increasingly bizarre landscape with only one thing in mind: survival.

Archaia and The Jim Henson Company entered into a multi-year publishing partnership in 2009 for Archaia to publish comics and graphic novels based on classic franchises like Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, as well as new, co-branded original properties.

Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand (hardcover, 152pp, $29.95, ISBN: 978-1-936393-09-1) is scheduled to debut in comic book shops and wherever books are sold in November 2011.

Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand: http://www.archaia.com/archaia-titles/jim-hensons-tale-of-sand/

About Archaia

Archaia Entertainment, LLC is a multi-award-winning graphic novel publisher with more than 50 renowned publishing brands, including such domestic and international hits as Mouse Guard, Return of the Dapper Men, Gunnerkrigg Court, Awakening, The Killer, Days Missing, Tumor, Syndrome, Artesia, Engineer, and an entire line of The Jim Henson Company graphic novels. Archaia has built an unparalleled reputation for producing meaningful content that perpetually transforms minds, building one of the industry’s most visually stunning and eclectic slates of graphic novels.  Archaia was named Graphic Novel Publisher of the Year according to Ain’t it Cool News, Graphic Policy and Comic Related, and was honored with nine 2011 Eisner Awards nominations. Archaia has also successfully emerged as a prolific storyteller in all facets of the entertainment industry, extending their popular brands into film, television, gaming, and branded digital media.