The 5th Annual Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle To Take Place In
New York, Los Angeles, Honolulu, and Oakland

Oakland, CA – June 20, 2011 – The 5th Annual Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle, a nationwide urban art competition that honors and advances creativity in the Hip Hop arts, will travel to four cities this year bringing out the nation’s best graffiti artists to compete for the title of King/Queen in the U.S.A. The first battle will take place in New York in partnership with the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival on Saturday, July 16, 2011. The second battle follows in Los Angeles in partnership withCrewest Gallery on Saturday, August 13, 2011. The third battle will take place in Honolulu in partnership with the Honolulu Academy of Arts on Saturday, September 3, 2011. The final battle will be held in Oakland in partnership with Life is Living (Youth Speaks) on Saturday, October 8, 2011. The battles are a project of the Estria Foundation, a non-profit organization committed to creating public art advocating justice and peace in under-served communities worldwide.

“This year, we’re raising the bar and taking the competition to cities that have been influential to the progress of graffiti culture. It’s an exciting time for graffiti artists right now, and we are at the forefront of showcasing the best of the best in the nation. We will continue to expand our reach in the years to come, and change the negative stereotypes of graffiti that have historically dominated media to include images of youth empowerment and community-building.” – Estria Miyashiro, Co-Founder The Estria Foundation

In addition to the Graffiti Battle, a t-shirt stencil workshop will provide the opportunity for anyone to pick up a spray can and create art to wear and take home. There will also be a “Black Book Battle” component for youth to compete sponsored by Crescent’s “Graffiti Paper”.

Major sponsors this year include MTN Colors, the #1 paint company for graffiti artists in the world, Fatcap.com the leading online publication in graffiti culture, Cukui, and Crescent’s Graffiti Paper.

Artists and volunteers interested in participating can sign up at estriabattle.com. Interested sponsors and partners can contactpaloma@estria.org for more info.

About The Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle: The Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle is a national urban art competition that honors and advances creativity in the Hip Hop arts. The battle was founded in 2007 by graffiti art living legend Estria Miyashiro and arts educator Jason Mateo. Through this art form of messaging, the competition encourages graffiti writers to communicate social justice issues and empower communities with spirit and beauty. The graffiti battle is a project of the Estria Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Oakland, CA. www.estriabattle.com

About The Estria Foundation: The Estria Foundation was founded by Estria Miyashiro and Jeremy LaTrasse in 2010 and is a community-based organization dedicated to lasting systemic and social change. Through workshops, speaking engagements, projects, and events, the foundation is committed to creating public art advocating justice and peace in under-served communities worldwide. www.estria.org

About The Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival: Established in 2005, The Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival (BHF) is New York City’s largest Hip-Hop cultural event that showcases the positive aspects of Hip-Hop culture by highlighting Hip-Hop’s legacy as an agent of artistic progression, community building and social change. In addition to musical performances, the Festival offers a number of activities for its audience, including: panel discussions, exhibitions, parties, an award show and a family-friendly block party. The Festival is more than a concert or outdoor fair. It is a family reunion for lovers of this great culture. In 2010, the Festival expanded to a week-long format of programming and topped BHF history with a record breaking 20,000 in attendance.  www.bkhiphopfestival.com

About Crewest Gallery:
We promote only the most talented underground artists, known and unknown, from the West Coast and beyond. From graffiti to digital art, from paint to sculpture, our art exhibits are focused on what’s current, relevant, and happening now. Our purpose is to promote gifted artists who’s work may be too edgy and non-conventional for other elitist venues. We cater to art that speaks to the heart and soul as well as the mind. We believe in bringing raw and powerful artwork to the people of Los Angeles. www.crewest.com

About Honolulu Academy Of Art:
Founded in 1927, the Honolulu Academy of Arts is Hawai‘i’s largest private presenter of visual arts programs, with an internationally recognized collection of more than 50,000 works spanning 5,000 years. In addition, film and concert programs, lectures, art classes and workshops make the Honolulu Academy of Arts the city’s cultural hub. www.honoluluacademy.org

About Life Is Living:
LIFE is LIVING establishes a new model for partnerships between diverse and under-resourced communities, green action agencies, and the contemporary arts world. Since 2008, under the artistic direction of Marc Bamuthi Joseph, LIFE is LIVING has grown from a festival that uses art to foster environmental justice to a mobilized campaign much larger in scope. Highly successful LIFE is LIVING events have taken place in Harlem, Chicago, Houston, and Oakland, with further work proposed for Philadelphia, San Francisco, and the Twin Cities. The campaign includes a traveling environmental caucus & concert, an invitational Graffiti Battle, live action sports, sustainable materials construction projects, and a Speak Green youth poetry event. As we reflect the voices of an emerging cultural majority, we recognize that our arts practices must echo and sustain the lives of the communities we engage. www.lifeisliving.org

Social networking links to connect with:
www.facebook.com/EstriaInvitationalGraffitiBattle
www.twitter.com/estriabattle
*twitter mentions use: #estriabattle

###

How does team PapaLoDown keep track of everyone we meet, and all the details associated with a contact organized? It´s taken me several years to find a system that finally works, and no it´s not gmail, an address book, or a spreadsheet.

Enter Highrise, a web based service from the company 37 Signals. For a decent monthly fee, depending on your needs, Highrise does everything I´ve ever wanted and more when it comes to organzing my contacts. They even have a free iphone app that syncs to your account!

There´s so much I love about using this service, that it would be easier for you to check out their site (www.37signals.com) for yourself so I don´t forget anything. Investing in a contact management service is worth the added monthly expense, and in the long run it will make your business/career easier to maintain. That stack of business cards on your desk is begging to be organized!

Step 1 – Use Gmail!

Step 2 - Unsubscribe to all those list serve emails you waste time deleting everyday, this alone will make your inbox a breeze to work through.

Step 3 - Use gmail labels to organize your projects and tasks. Archive the message once you´ve responded or don´t need it in your inbox, but don´t want to delete it either. This will make searching for information easier when you group messages together by project or task.

Step 4 – Use gmail filters to automatically label messages recieved by people affiliated with a project/task.

Step 5 – Use gmail priority inbox to visually keep messages seperated by importance.

This is just a quick list to get you started, but there are many more options to implement in gmail that will keep your inbox organized, as well as help you respond to messages in a timely manner. For more information do a google search, or review your gmail settings for all the tips listed above.

Team PapaLoDown is also available for consultation, and can get your inbox set up for you, along with training and personalized tips for organization. Contact catherine@papalodown.com to set up your private consultation.

Your inbox should look like this closet… clean, simple and organized!

Ruby Veridiano is a writer, speaker, and media personality empowering young Asian women through the lens of art and fashion. With a strong commitment to social advocacy, Ruby redefines concepts of glamour and elegance to encompass themes of strength, passion, and social change.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Her current project, The Glamourbaby Diaries, is a writing empowerment workshop discussing the sociology of beauty and the politics of fashion with an angle on Asian Women’s history. This upcoming school year, 2011-2012, she is bringing The Glamourbaby Diaries workshop to tour college campuses worldwide!

To book Ruby at your campus or venue, please email rubyisill@gmail.com.

To learn more, visit her on her website at WWW.RUBYVERIDIANO.COM.

Blog: http://rubyveridiano.tumblr.com/
Twitter: @rubymsuniverse
facebook: www.facebook.com/rubyveridiano

I’ve been working on creating a public relations apprenticeship program for two years now, and I’m proud to say that the team is growing with Catherine Judge (the first graduate!), and Andria Bell (next up to complete the program!). Now it’s time for us to bring on the next apprentice… Who will it be?!

If you’re interested in applying please read the description below and send your resume and cover letter to paloma@papalodown.com

We look forward to sharing this workshop again, contact us if you’re interested in bringing PapaLoDown PR to your conference!

Ruby Veridiano Gives The Fashion Industry
A Lesson in Redefining Glamour and Social Change

New York, NY – March 9, 2011 — Writer, speaker, and media personality, Ruby Veridiano has given herself the ambitious challenge of redefining glamour, and how it can be used as a tool to empower young Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) women.  With the recent launch of her new website, www.rubyveridiano.com, it is clear that Veridiano’s mission as a “glamour girl off to change the world”, critiques the fashion industry’s role in shaping popular ideals of beauty that exclude women of color, and how she intends to use fashion as a tool for social change. With the New York Times, and the Council of Fashion Designers of America recognizing three Asian Americans, as reaching the “top tier of New York fashion”, Veridiano’s message is relevant, and an indication that tomorrow’s leaders and innovators will come from APIA communities.

“My work is motivated by a passion to carve out a space for intelligent, socially aware, and independent, go-getting (APIA) women, to redefine the way beauty is portrayed in popular media. Women are often fascinated with fashion, and become susceptible to the media’s standards of outer beauty defining who we are. I seek to represent that true beauty, true glamour, is birthed from self-discovery, and a life of purpose.”

With Veridiano’s background in arts education, social justice, and her more recent endeavors as a media personality, she is quickly emerging as the voice and face for APIA women in popular media. Her flagship project, a writing workshop series entitled, “Glamourbaby Diaries”, provides a space for participants to analyze the APIA image in society, as well as explore concepts of media literacy to think critically about the fashion industry’s role in social change. The project was funded by the Asian Women’s Giving Circle in New York this past fall, and is being brought to universities throughout the country.

Veridiano’s pledge to women’s empowerment is also reaching across the world to her homeland the Philippines, as she spearheads the first Girls Club for Literacy program in the country. The LitWorld Girls Club program supports leadership and literacy learning, and creates opportunities for young women to become empowered through words, (www.litworld.org). Other projects to look out for from Ruby Veridiano this year include her first published book of poetry “Miss Universe” (originally released in 2008), which will be re-issued with new content this summer. The Glamourbaby Diaries documentary film will be released Fall 2011.

In her quest to empower women, Veridiano knows that it will take more than her own passion and purpose to transform the current landscape, and is calling out to the fashion industry, media, and academia professionals alike to join her challenge of changing the status quo.

###

About Ruby Veridiano:
Ruby Veridiano is a glamour girl off to change the world. A writer, speaker, and media personality, she was born in Manila, Philippines, raised in Sacramento, and has spent time in Italy, France, Atlanta, and Oakland, shaping her global perspective as an advocate and voice for Asian American women. Ruby is passionate about creating media that bridges entertainment with messages of positive social change, and is currently based in New York launching a writing empowerment program called “The Glamourbaby Diaries”.

Since 2002, Ruby has traveled throughout the United States and Europe, presenting her writings, lectures, workshops, and media projects at over 400 venues including Cornell University, Morehouse College, the United Nations, and American University of Paris, France, inspiring tomorrow’s leaders and visionaries.  She has reached thousands of youth through her performance work with iLL-Literacy, and through  her involvement with non-profit organizations such as Youthspeaks, Urban Word, LitWorld, and Book-In-A-Day. In 2008, she became a VJ for international music channel, MYX TV North America. In the same year, she published her first book, Miss Universe. For more information visit www.rubyveridiano.com

Press Contact:
Paloma Belara, Publicist
PapaLoDown PR
paloma@papalodown.com
415-992-1428

Booking Contact:
rubyisill@gmail.com

This year has a great line up, and I’m looking forward to the performances, workshops, and seeing the community out in the daylight for a change. Check out the full schedule of workshops and performances and purchase your conference badge here > http://rocktheschoolbells.eventbrite.com/

The workshop  ”Weapons of Mass Promotion”, first launched in LA last year, and was featured in Fashionablymarketing.me. I developed the workshop as an over view of the methods and “weapons” needed to promote yourself or your business. From social media, to cross promotion, and defining your target market, participants will leave with a better sense of how to strategically position themselves for success as an independent hustler. I’m excited to present this year! Hope to see you there.

If you can’t make it to the conference, but still want to make a contribution to the future of arts education, come to the fundraiser this Friday at Mink Lounge in Daly City.

FRESH The Magazine @ Oakland High is a joint project between Beats, Rhymes & Life and the East Bay Asian Youth Center, funded by the Bechtal Foundation. Created in 2007 by students at Oakland High School, FRESH, stands for “For Real Expression Start Here”. It is a online magazine and youth development program that offers an outlet for youth to showcase their creative works, build community, become advocates for themselves, discuss critical issues, and learn more about local programs and resources. FRESH offers paid internships for youth interested in developing professional business and media skills.

www.freshthemagazine.com