University of New England

UNE hosts 'An Evening of Activism' and the Purple Starfish Awards Nov. 14th
 
PORTLAND, ME - University of New England will host “An Evening of Activism” on Nov. 14, 2007 in Ludcke Auditorium on UNE's Westbrook College Campus in Portland.

Horace Small, an activist and social and community organizer from Boston and Philadelphia, will deliver the keynote address at 6:00 p.m.  Small will also offer a free Union of Minority Neighborhoods workshop on community organizing and coalition building at 3:00 p.m., followed by a reception at 5:00 p.m. all in the same location.
 
Barney Frank, U.S. Representative from Massachusetts said of Small, "He's one of these guys organizing the community who also understands how politics work. He helps people connect the dots."
           
“An Evening of Activism” is the kick-off for Maine’s Perdita Huston Purple Starfish Society’s 3rd annual awards competition. The award recognizes a young Maine woman who, like Huston, works “outside the box,” and is committed to living multicultural values and empowers people to make their own lives, communities and the world better.

The 2007 3rd annual award recipient is Anais Tomezsko, executive director of Mano en Mano in Milbridge, Maine. Mano en Mano is a dynamic, community-built organization in the blueberry barrens of Downeast Maine, whose mission is to “build a strong and diverse community by serving the Latino population in the areas of education, health, and social advocacy.”
 
Sponsoring the event are, University of New England’s Maine Women Writers Collection and the Office of Multicultural Affairs at the University of New England library, and the Portland branch of the NAACP.
 
For more information, contact UNE’s Office of Multicultural Affairs at (207) 602-2461 or the NAACP at (207) 253-5074.
 
Horace Small
An appropriate speaker for an event honoring Perdita Huston, Horace Small is known for effectively collaborating with the grass roots and the political power brokers in Philadelphia where he began and now in Boston, to effect change. In Philadelphia he helped Ed Rendell get elected district attorney before Rendell became governor of Pennsylvania; and was the campaign manager for the city’s first Hispanic city councilor. 

He transplanted his Union for Minority Neighborhoods to Boston in 2001 and continues to bring the various minority constituencies together to affect policy and move policy brokers. When housing conditions for poor working people became atrocious, Small took the policymakers in Boston to the neighborhoods.

On the trip City Councilor Mike Ross called it the "tour through hell."  The outcome was an increase in the number of housing inspectors and a series of meetings with public housing officials. Ross said about Small, "He's the real deal. He's an activist, but he's strategic in his actions. He doesn't believe in wasting people's time."
 
Purple Starfish Award
The Purple Starfish Society honors the late Maine native Perdita Huston. She was an international journalist-activist, Peace Corps official, director of several international organizations, and writer of four books. But foremost, she traveled the world most of her adult life, working for women’s rights, sustainable development and families everywhere.
 
The Purple Starfish was awarded in 2006 and 2007 to two young Maine women.

The 2006 awardee was Yirgalem Madie of Portland, who as a candidate for the masters of arts in Intercultural Service Leadership Management at the School of International Training, spent a year working and completing a practicum at the Union of Minority Neighborhoods (UMN) in Boston, where Horace Small is executive director. After working at UMN, Madie says their work in training activists, organizing communities, and building coalitions throughout the greater Boston area has changed the region’s political landscape, something that meshes with Perdita Huston’s beliefs. “I assure you that the work Perdita Huston began,” said Madie, “will continue to live. She is truly inspirational and I admire her courage and perseverance.”

(Press release posted Nov. 5, 2007)