“SHOOT CAMERAS NOT GUNS” PRESENTS “BEERS FOR BURMA” Dec. 7th
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Local arts project holds craft beer festival to support international photography workshops
DENVER, Colorado, November 25th, 2012 – The first annual “Beers for Burma” Colorado Craft Beer Festival will be held on December 7th at the ArtHaus Gallery in the RiNo arts district. This premier fundraising event will feature over a dozen craft beers from Great Divide, Oskar Blues, Dad & Dude’s Breweria, Strange Brewery, & more. Entertainment will include live music, including the Artful Dodgers and Molina Speaks, DJ Christopher Brian & DJ Milk, circus-style acrobatic dance performances, and original works by local artists. The event is a fundraiser for Shoot Cameras Not Guns’ upcoming photography workshops in Burma and Thailand. This locally-based project provides photography equipment, and teaches photography as a tool for social change and empowerment in the Denver area and internationally.
After partnering & teaching locally with Flobots.org, Diana Sabreen, Founder and Director of Shoot Cameras Not Guns is, “excited that we are returning to the place where the project was born. We hope to be an active part of the changing situation in Burma (Myanmar) by providing critical training and tools to the grassroots journalists who can ensure integrity and honesty in the movement for peace, stability and freedom.” The project will be travelling to exile and refugee communities on the Thai/ Burma border and inside Burma this spring to support the people in their non-violent struggle to emerge from decades of oppression at the hands of the ruling military junta.
Ms. Sabreen and her co-host, Ian Bates hope that the fundraising event will embody the call from Nobel Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, who has said, “Please use your liberty to promote ours.” Mr. Bates pointed out that, “we truly do have an amazing craft beer scene here in Denver, as well as a vibrant music scene & phenomenal visual arts and circus arts.” “With this event we hope to share these manifestations of our freedoms here in Colorado so that we can help some of the most oppressed people in the world find their voices through photography.”
This project and the “Beers for Burma” event is another connection between Burma (Myanmar) and Colorado. In recent years Colorado has become the new home for more refugees from Burma than any other country. (http://www.westword.com/2012-01-12/news/burmese-refugees-denver/) Once SCNG returns to Colorado, they will use their experiences and images to help increase awareness and start a dialogue locally about the issues still facing those in Burma, as well as those who have escaped.
The event will also promote the flourishing River North district by highlighting a host of RiNo businesses including the ArtHaus Gallery venue. The Great Divide Brewery, Ink Monster and Rebel Salon, are among the event sponsors located in the River North area. Aliki McCain, co-owner of the ArtHaus Gallery says, “This event will really match the new energy, creativity and strong social conscience that we see emerging and spreading in this neighborhood.” Shoot Cameras Not Guns is a project under the umbrella of a Denver-based non-profit, Technology Partnership, which provides information technology equipment and training to schools in Kenya. Technology Partnership is moving forward with plans to share space in Andrew Romanoff’s new Greenhouse Project (http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_18465809), just two blocks from ArtHaus, where the Beers for Burma event will take place.
Contact: Ian Bates
Cell: (303) 355-1357
www.ShootCamerasNotGuns.org
Category: What's Up?
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