SEDONA, AZ - Nov 20, 2008 - Celebrate diversity on Saturday, December 6, 2:00 pm and Sunday, December 7, 2:00 pm, at the Sedona Public Library in West Sedona. Join Cynthia Strom and friends in a celebration of Mexican, Filipino, African-American and Native American cultures, as well as Muslim, Jewish and Christian traditions.

These concerts will feature the gifted Phoenix resident Jean McCurdy, Ms. New York Senior America 1999, who will perform an African-American sacred dance and song.

Another special guest from Phoenix, Imran Hafiz, co-author of "The American Muslim Teenager's Handbook," will perform a djembe (tribal hand drum) jam session with his drum group, "Weapons of Mass Percussion." He and his mother, Dilara Hafiz, co-author, will read an excerpt from their book, which has been praised as a "must-read," for both Muslim and non-Muslim teenagers.

The Art Angels, a group of local women artists, will display their work and provide a fun pre-concert activity for early bird audience members.

Ginger Lindquist, a founding member of Toastmasters of Cottonwood, will introduce these and other talented performers including the Verde Valley Presbyterian Choir, and the St. Joseph School Chorus from Cottonwood singing Spanish, Navajo and Egyptian lullabies. Celi Lippman will perform a traditional Filipino dance and Judy Nelson will entertain the audience with her award-winning humorous speech, "Understanding Opera." Aubrial Harrington and Cynthia Strom will share songs from Jewish and Christian traditions.

These are the second in a series of concerts benefiting Women's Empowerment International. Thousands of poor rural women throughout the world have the knowledge and skills they need to start a business and earn enough money to feed their families and send their children to school. But they lack seed money to begin. WE gives a "hand-up," not a "hand-out" by providing tiny business loans or "micro-finance loans" to lift women out of poverty. Providing micro-finance loans (typically from $25 - $150 U.S. dollars) to poor women was the brainchild of economics professor Muhammad Yunus. He established the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh in the early 1980's to provide loans to people so destitute they were living on one dollar a day or less. Since then, 100 million families have benefited from this original model receiving loans around the world, with over 98% of these loans repaid in full. A group of women in a community vote to approve a worthy candidate and guarantee each other's loans. Most women do business in their homes. They produce food products, clothing, household goods, or raise, breed and sell livestock.

Cynthia Strom read about Muhammed Yunus when he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, and it moved her to learn more about his work. This past spring, she discovered WE, based in San Diego, CA. One of their funding programs specifically serves women in Sonora, Mexico, who receive micro-finance loans through the Grameen de la Frontera Bank in Sonora, modeled after the Grameen Bank. This program touched her heart, and she asked herself, "How can I help?" The answer came in a favorite quote from Katharine Graham: "To love what you do and feel that it matters-how could anything be more fun?" Producer and performer Cynthia contacted Winifred Cox, co-founder of WE, and suggested doing a series of musical arts celebrations to benefit the WE program for the women in Sonora. WE loved this idea and Cynthia began planning.

So come to the Sedona Public Library (turn on Dry Creek Road off 89A, West Sedona) on December 6 or December 7. Have fun and feel good about making a huge difference in alleviating poverty. For information, event details and tickets, or to volunteer your support, call Cynthia Strom at 928-282-2044.
 

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