Saturday, November 14, 2009
At Stanford. I'm not surprised by some of the names on the sponsorship list of the performance, but the Red Cross and Amnesty International jumped out (and you thought it was only Amnesty UK).
The announcement on the Stanford site doesn't mention the Red Cross sponsorship, but a commenter at the Muqata posts the text of an email that's circulating on campus:
The Stanford Department of Drama and the Stanford Theatre Activist Mobilization Project (STAMP) are proud to announce a staged reading - the San Francisco Bay Area premiere - of the thought-provoking play, My Name is Rachel Corrie.
The performances feature an impressive line-up of post-show discussion speakers including Rabbi Michael Lerner, Professor Joel Beinin, and Professor Tom Sheehan.
This event is Free & Open to the public. Please email stanfordrachelcorrie@gmail.com to reserve tickets.
My Name is Rachel Corrie is Co-Sponsored by: American Red Cross, Amnesty International, Coalition for Justice in the Middle East, Emma Goldman Society for Queer Liberation, Jewish Voice for Peace, Muslim Student Awareness Network, Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, Physicians for Human Rights, Stanford Says No to War, Stanford University Students for UNICEF, and Students Confronting Apartheid by Israel.
I think the Red Cross in particular has some 'splaining to do.
For my review of the show when it was staged here in the Boston area, see: Earnest Ignorance: My Name is Rachel Corrie at the New Rep
[h/t: KerryH]
Update: The Red Cross has convincingly denied that they sponsored this event. See the comment below and the new post above.
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It didn't sound right in the first place (see previous: Amnesty International and the American Red Cross Sponsor My Name Is Rachel Corrie Reading). It sounded like perhaps a local student chapter had gone off the reservation and was likely... Read More
At Stanford. I'm not surprised by some of the names on the sponsorship list of the performance, but the Red Cross and Amnesty International jumped out (and you thought it was only Amnesty UK). The announcement on the Stanford site... Read More
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Leave a comment to: Amnesty International and the American Red Cross Sponsor My Name Is Rachel Corrie Reading (Important Update)
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, p.30
Here are the email addresses of the Theatre Dept., the national AI office, and the national ARC office. The national offices of AI and ARC may not know about this, and I am pretty sure that the ARC at least will not be happy about their name being used in this way.
At Stanford: hartung@stanford.edu, jtw@stanford.edu, podwyer@stanford.edu, sdbaker@standord.edu, sokuda@stanford.edu, stanford.amnesty@gmail.com, stanfordrachelcorrie@gmail.com
AI: aimember@aiusa.org, aiusasf@aiusa.org
ARC: ShawCy@usa.redcross.org, also through their website www.redcross.org
Thank you for your concern about the improper use of the American Red Cross name. The Red Cross Club at Stanford University was asked to sponsorship an event on human rights. When the Club said no, the organizers ask if they could list the Red Cross as an human rights organization in order to give the Red Cross Club some visibility on campus. The local Chapter upon becoming aware of the situation has already asked the producer to remove our name from all materials. We received this email confirmation:
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "Michael Vang" mvang@stanford.edu
Sent: Monday, November 9, 2009 11:28:10 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Re: My Name is Rachel Corrie: Bio deadline tonight!
Greetings,
For all promotional material henceforward, American Red Cross will not be included in the cosponsorship list. We have contacted the person who is creating our programs to remove your name before it goes to press and I have contacted the Drama Department's media contact who has access to the events.stanford.edu site to remove your name from the co-sponsorship list. Your name has been removed from the facebook event and the eflyer as well. I hope this is satsifactory and I'm sorry that we weren't able to make a cosponsorship work.
Best,
Michael Vang
Producer, My Name is Rachel Corrie
The department website has already remove our name from their listing. See: http://www.stanford.edu/dept/drama/0910_events/rachel-corrie.html We are working to get all the other departments and students clubs promoting the reading to update their listings as well.