Workshops for Women's Month
by Joe Cooper

Besides March being the month where spring arrives, it is also Women's History Month.  At Kingsborough Community College there are events planned from March 4 till March 31.  I had the pleasure of attending two of the events on March 10.  Professor Adeline Apena conducted a presentation in the MAC on the environmental destruction of the Nigerian Delta. 

Through a video presentation, lecture and q&a period she explained how parts of the country of Nigeria were being destroyed and people's health put a great danger, Most of the environmental destruction being caused by the American  oil industry and with help of the Nigerian government.  Professor Apena pointed out that a dictatorship is the easiest form of government for the oil companies to do what they want at the expense of its own population.

The second lecture later in the day was titled Urban Gardening and the Sustainable Table,  The guest speakers were Ms. Jennifer Mitchell and Dawn Brighid.  The benefits of eating natural and unprocessed food were discussed.  The speakers explained not only why one should be more careful of what we put into our body as food but also where such food can be obtained in New York City proper.  They mentioned that there is even an organic farm right here in Brooklyn. 

I was pleasantly surprised with the interest of the students who attended, Their comments and question added much to the presentation in both substance and form.   An event such as this can become boring when only the presenter talks. But there was a give and take between the speakers and the audience that made the lecture much more enjoyable.

The criticisms of the events were in form not substance.  You take an interesting topic and make it less so by poor planning.  In the first presentation there were several things that could have been done to make it more enjoyable.  There was no mike for the speaker in a large room with high ceilings, and acoustical mediocre at best.  This made hearing Professor Apean difficult and the understanding of the q&a almost impossible,  

The video was shown on a  small television up against  three large windows,  The glare from the sun, even though the curtains were drawn made viewing difficult.  The second presentation had a mike that failed (it has been my experience that you always must have two mikes because their failure are common).  Also the inviting professor had a tendency to question the audience as if she was conducting class and continued to talk at the expense of the guest speakers.

But fortunately both topics were of such importance that the minor problems were overshadowed by the content of the material.