The Buffalo Infringement Festival 2011: July 28th - August 7th

11 Days of Art Under the Radar

1200 performances!
52 venues
50 visual artists
190 musical acts
24 films/videos
90 performance projects including:
20 dances troupes/performers
35 theater groups/performers
27 poetry/ spoken word

The Buffalo Infringement Festival is an 11 day celebration of art of all kinds. It takes place in over 50 venues centered in Allentown and spans across the whole city of Buffalo.  


Artists perform in the usual venues and take over the streets of Allentown and the Elmwood Village.

There are 1200 performances and events scheduled in dance, theater, music, poetry, film, and visual installations.

In its 7th year, Infringement has grown tremendously from under 50 proposals in 2005, to 350 this year. Just about every artist in Buffalo takes part in the festival somehow and this year has 30 out- of - town acts coming to perform. 

 
The majority are musical acts but the festival’s roots come from theater. It has expanded to include every artist genre from the extremely edgy art performances to family friendly shows.

There are many group shows planned including the 9th Annual College Street Block Party, Infringement Circus at Merge, and the Broadway Market Extravaganza. 

Squeeky Wheel is hosting a film fest, Subversive Theater presents at Manny Fried, Volume at the Vault, Burlesque at Nietzsches, Bike In Movie Night, Brownman Electryc Trio Summit, Filigrees Art Night, Party at the Pearl, Welcome to Slyboots, Zombie Party and more!

Infringement is the focal point of the summer for many Buffalonians. Its just as easy to find a comfortable performance as to see things you never thought possible. 

Take the week off and consume yourself in Buffalo's largest art festival!

The schedule is available at www.infringebuffalo.org and will be in print as an insert in the Artvoice on July 28th.

INFRINGE EVERYDAY!

www.infringebuffalo.org

Israeli Navy Takes Dignite/Al Karama in International Waters

Earlier today [July 19, 2011], the Israeli navy took control of the one boat from Freedom Flotilla II that had made it into international waters on their way to Gaza. The French-flagged boat - Dignite/Al Karama - carried 16 people from France, Canada, Greece, Sweden and Tunisia. They were stopped about 40 miles away from Gaza and after several hours the Israelis took control of the boat, bringing it to the Israeli port of Ashdod.
 

There are no reports of any injuries and we have heard the passengers were being arrested. We do not yet know how long they will be detained or what will happen to the boat.

We urge you to contact the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC to call for the immediate release of these people.  

Most important, we must call on the Israeli government to end the siege and blockade of Gaza, and to treat the people of Palestine in compliance with international law!
 

Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC

• Ph: 202-364-5500
• F:   202-364-5423

 

Contact: 

• Dignite, Huwaida Arraf 
• 202-294-8813
• U.S. Boat to Gaza, Felice Gelman 
• 917-912-2597

Pillay opens UN Human Rights Office in Tunisia: OHCHR-Geneva

French, Arabic version: http://www.ohchr.org

It is a great pleasure and honour to be opening a UN human rights office for the first time in history in Tunisia.  

It is the first UN human rights office in any of the five North African countries bordering the Mediterranean. 

I would therefore like to thank the people and government of Tunisia for pioneering human rights in this region.

High Commissioners for Human Rights have been trying to set up an office in this region for years. Most countries were careful not to say an outright “No.” But none of them was remotely close to an outright “Yes,” until the people of Tunisia decided to radically alter the priorities.

All that changed in December and January, when the people of Tunisia said, in effect: “Enough. We deserve our rights, we want our rights and we are going to have our rights.”
 

The whole world watched with amazement and growing respect as Tunisians kept demanding your rights, refusing to be cowed by the repression, the arrests, the torture and all the injuries and tragic loss of life that occurred as Ben Ali’s regime fought unsuccessfully for its survival.


In the past three weeks, Tunisia has ratified no fewer than four extremely important treaties, including three in a single day: 

The Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, which make those two key human rights treaties much easier to monitor and enforce; and the UN Convention on Enforced Disappearances. All three of these were ratified on 29 June.

A week earlier, on 24 June, Tunisia became the 116th state to ratify the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court, and the first in North Africa. 

This represents a powerful commitment by the new authorities that no future serious violations of human rights will take place with impunity. Ratifying the Rome Statute is one of the best deterrents to serious crimes.

Tunisia is the first country in the Arab world to legally enshrine gender parity in the electoral rolls for the upcoming election.

Tunisia has become a common reference for all human rights defenders, as human dignity and human rights form the heart of the lesson delivered through Tunisia’s revolution. No clearer expression of that can be found than in the essential message of the Tunisian poet, Abū al-Qāsim al-Shābi:

“If, one day, a people desires to live, surely fate shall heed their call.  And their night will then begin to fade, and their chains break and fall.”

Olive trees are a potent symbol in all Mediterranean countries. They symbolize peace, and are renowned for their endurance. They can take as many as 20 years to bear fruit, but once established, they thrive in both fertile and stony ground. 

They survive hot summers and cold winters. Like human rights, they are virtually indestructible. Even when they are cut down, or burned, new shoots sprout from the roots. They can live for thousands of years. 

I therefore hope that the olive tree I am going to plant here today will reflect the advent of a new era of human rights and democracy in Tunisia. And that, 2,000 years from now both this tree and Tunisia can look back on 2011 as the magical year when it all began.
 

Thank you.


UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Navi Pillay

 

• Media requests, Rupert Colville
• +41 22 917 9767  rcolville@ohchr.org
•  
• Press officers Ravina Shamdasani 
• + 41 22 917 9310  
• rshamdasani@ohchr.org
•  
• Xabier Celaya  
• + 41 22 917 9383  
•  xcelaya@ohchr.org
   

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