October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month!
Myra Toomey
FEARS… TEARS… CHEERS
Crisis Center North is celebrating with a special internationally known speaker – Dora E. McQuaid. Dora is an award winning poet, activist, speaker and teacher whose work embodies the intersections of arts and activism, service and empowerment. “An Evening with Dora E. McQuaid, Poet. Activist. Speaker. Teacher.” is being sponsored by Verizon. This highlight of Domestic Violence Awareness Month will be held on Wednesday, October 28th beginning at 6 PM at the historic Andrew Carnegie Library and Music Hall in Carnegie, PA.
Dora performs, speaks and teaches internationally, works collaboratively with a wide array of artists and activists and publishes widely. She will be discussing her groundbreaking book, the scorched earth, as well as having a book signing after her presentation. the scorched earth is a collection of poems about Dora’s journey from victimization to survivorship, through healing from a history of both sexual and domestic violence into empowerment and advocacy.
Domestic violence is everyone’s business. Crisis Center North empowers victims of domestic violence to make choices for positive living. Crisis Center North is committed to assisting victims of domestic violence in our community through a variety of resources and confidential services. The Center provides free empowerment counseling and advocacy to adult, teen, and child victims of domestic violence in the northern and western communities of Allegheny County. Crisis Center North also provides educational programming to community and school programs. Services are provided to individuals regardless of race, age, gender, disability, economic status, or sexual orientation.
Tickets for this event are available at www.crisiscenternorth.org. VIP tickets are $75 and limited to the first 30 individuals. Doors for the VIP event open at 6 PM. This gives individuals an opportunity to interact with Ms. McQuaid, in addition they receive reserved parking, a pre-event reception and a special one of a kind gift to remember the evening. General attendance is $50 and includes the Keynote presentation, refreshments afterward and a book signing. The doors will open at 6:45 for General admission tickets. North Allegheny High School String Quartet will be providing background music during the book signing. Food is being catered by Stephen’s Kitchen.
This exciting presentation is underwritten by a sponsorship from Hopeline® from Verizon. Through Hopeline, Verizon collects no-longer-used wireless phones, batteries, chargers and accessories in any condition, from any service provider and turn them into financial support for domestic violence awareness and prevention initiatives. Verizon also donates wireless phones through the HopeLine program, complete with service and data, to domestic violence shelters and non-profit organizations for use by victims and survivors.
Since 2001, HopeLine has collected more than 11.4 million phones, donated more than $29 million in cash grants, and provided more than 190,000 phones with wireless service and data to domestic violence organizations nationwide. Crisis Center North encourages all attendees to bring along any unused wireless phones that they may have to be collected at this event.
Additional Domestic Violence Awareness Month activities through Crisis Center North include:
Purple River Project on Saturday, October 3rd
Hearing the Whispers and Roars, October 9th
Witch’s Ball, October 29th
For additional information please visit www.crisiscenternorth.org/events or contact Myra at 412.364.6728 x15. Tickets are available for both VIP and general admission.
