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CHINA MILLENNIUM COUNCIL Events Calendar Year 2010
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LANDMARK PROCLAMATION GREATER ROCHESTER ASIAN AMERICAN LEADERSHIP DAY
The Office of the Mayor of Greater Rochester marks the official and landmark proclamation of May 14, 2010 as The Greater Rochester Asian American Leadership Day. The United Way of Greater Rochester in conjunction with China Millennium Council's newly launched Rochester Asian American Leadership Program RAALP, proudly announce the inaugural leadership training program at United Way of Greater Rochester headquarters. In addition, the China Millennium Council celebrates their tenth year anniversary honoring U.S. Congressman Frank Horton and making tribute to Rochester's distinguished Asian American leaders of industry including Dr. Paul N. Yu, renowned pioneering cardiologist and President of the American Heart Association; Dr. Edward Lu, former NASA astronaut and first American to lead the Soyuz mission to the International Space Station; Iris and Felicia Zimmermann, U.S. Olympic Fencing Team; the Grammy award winning Ying Quartet music ensemble; Dr. Steven Chu, Physsics Nobel Laureate and U.S. Secretary of Energy; and Dr. Ching Tang, inventor of the modern OLED billion dollar technology (organic light emitting diode), solar cell technology and photovoltaics.
Rochester's legacy holds critical significance when President Bush signed into legislative law, the month of May be officially and nationally designated as National Asian Pacific American Heritage month, attributed directly to U.S. Congressman Frank Horton (R-NY), whose jurisdiction in Rochester helped many of his Asian American constituents. Horton diligently gathered hundreds of Congressional signatures each year for over thirty years. His perseverance along with representative Norman Mineta's help (D-CA) was approved unanimously by the House of Representatives and the Senate during the 102nd Congress. Ho was acquainted with Horton during her childhood and remembers fondly being introduced to President Ford during his visit to Rochester and also to Ms. Ruby Moy who was Horton's chief of staff in Washington, D.C. Ms. Moy, who is of Chinese heritage, encouraged Ho to visit Horton's office in DC and participate in youth leadership programs. The Honorable Ruby G. Moy was consequently appointed by the President as Dierctor of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in 1997. Moy was responsible for managing Horton's Washington and district offices, overseeing the Commission on Civil Rights' budget of $8.9 million, developing legislation, and serving as liaison to constituents. Peter Carpino, CEO and President of United Way of Greater Rochester, and Mary Ho, former board director of United Way, and President of the China Millennium Council discussed how the Asian Americans in the Greater Rochester community can be fully engaged within the community and actively participate in leadership roles, enriching the diversity and sustainability of the overall communities. The Greater Rochester Asian American Leadership Program's mission is to establish a leadership training program for the Greater Rochester Asian Americans and advocate capacity building, to fully participate and be engaged visibly in community service and community nonprofit board representation, reflecting the response and needs of the growing Asian American ethnic communities.
BUTABU: ADOBE ARCHITECTURE OF WEST AFRICA PHOTO EXHIBITION BY JAMES MORRIS
BUTABU: Adobe Architecture of West Africa, photographs by James Morris, chronicles a typological record of regional adobe structures and rendition of West African architecture. Uniquely organic contours and dazzling patterns are highlighted in a survey of spaces made of this historically and culturally rooted building material. Constructed only of the earthen elements forming their foundation, the structure in James Morris's sculptural landscapes are deeply tactile and surreal, and artistic in their texture, pattern and design. In a stunning array of architectural portraits, Morris succinctly displays the organic relationship between man and nature. Ingenious adobe forms of sub-Saharan West Africa detailed with exceptional depth and tactility, Morris' images record the earthen mud structures erected in the Sahal region Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Ghana, and Burkina Faso and laboriously maintained to serve as humble dwellings or impressive mosques.
"Too often, when people in the West think of African architecture, they perceive nothing more than a mud hut- a primitive vernacular. The buildings share many qualities including sustainability, sculptural form and community participation in their conception – now valued in western architectural thinking. Though part of long traditions and ancient cultures, they are at the same time contemporary structures serving a current purpose. The mud from which these buildings are made is itself a controversial substance that tests our conventional views of architecture. It is one of the most commonly used building materials in the world, and yet in our urban dominated society it seen simply as dirt. Buildings subtly alter in appearance each time they are re-rendered, which can be as often as once a year. Yet the maintaining and resurfacing of buildings is part of the rhythm of life.; there is an on-going and active participation in their continuing existence. If they lost their relevance and were neglected, they would collapse. This is not museum culture. The future of these buildings are hard to predict, due to both the vulnerability of mud as a material and the enthusiasm in Africa for building in concrete. Mud is an impermanent material. Adobe buildings will collapse in a matter of a few years if they are not maintained, and thus come and go with regularity. As a mass, these buildings have a fluidness, a viscosity, that is unexpected. Slowly they change. As a result these photographs are a reflection of this architecture at a specific moment in time. They are a permanent record, but are not a record of permanence", preface by James Morris, Bwlchlian, 2003. Opening and welcome reception held Wed April 7, 2010 at 6:00PM at the Barnes & Noble, Pittsford Plaza. Percentage of the proceeds during the Barnes & Noble Book Fair will support The Baobab Cultural Center. The exhibition will run April 3-30 in the Community Room. Online the Book Fair will be available from April 7-12 www.bn.com, pls use Bookfair ID 10169662 for payment processing. The Baobab tree is culturally sacred in Africa and people gather to promote community, and to honor and respect for the ancestors. For more info contact Barnes & Noble tel no 585-586-6020.
URSULA BURNS XEROX CEO HAILED AT YWCA EMPOWERING WOMEN LUNCHEON Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox Corporation was honored at the Greater Rochester YWCA 2009 Empowering Women Luncheon, heralded by Fortune and Forbes Magazines as one of the most powerful women in America. Burns’ extraordinary journey began as a mechanical engineering summer intern at Xerox Corporation in 1980 and was recently named the company’s CEO in July 2009. Unprecedented, Ms. Burns became the first African American woman in U.S. modern history to lead a Fortune 500 company and also the first woman to succeed another woman as CEO of a major multinational business enterprise. Burns began her illustrious career from 1992 through 2000, leading business teams including the office color and fax business and office network printing business. Soon after Burns became senior vice president, Corporate Strategic Services, in charge of manufacturing and supply chain operations. Burns also led Xerox's global research including product development, marketing and delivery. In 2007, Burns was named president of Xerox, expanding her leadership into Xerox Corp’s IT organization, corporate strategy, human resources, corporate marketing and global clients. Ursula Burns earned a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Polytechnic Institute of NYU and a master of science degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University. She serves on numerous professional and community boards including American Express, FIRST - (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), National Academy Foundation, MIT, the U.S. Olympic Committee and the University of Rochester. A mechanical engineer by training, Burns has a strong understanding of the business and the dynamic challenges. Like Mulcahy, she's a Xerox veteran. Another factor in Burns' stellar rise has been the strength and depth of Xerox's commitment to diversity. One third of Xerox's 3,819 executives are women and 22% are minorities. Xerox has long been a strong proponent of leadership programs, and demonstrated rigorously to recruit, mentor, and promote underrepresented groups. Ursula Burns fondly recounts her mother’s rhetoric, “Where you are is not who you are”, one is not defined by the circumstances, one can change the circumstances. Who you strive to become is more important.
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 Dr. Anne Kress, President of Monroe Community College, Dr. Kenneth Goode, Chairman of the Board of Trustees at MCC, and Mary Ho, China Millennium Council President Discuss the Emerging and Importance of Asian Americans' Presence in the Greater Rochester Community.
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