FACES & VOICES

FACES & VOICES. Faces & Voices Cultural Celebrations is Dubuque's volunteer organization to create a more inclusive, integrated, and welcoming community. (1) Cultural celebrations developed in cooperation with other organizations like the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE (N.A.A.C.P.) include the Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Celebration, Diversity Conference, and CommUNITY Awards for Diversity Initiatives. (1)

In 1998 Faces and Voices hosted a two-week human relations conference at CLARKE UNIVERSITY. Cammie DEAN director of Multicultural Student Services at Clarke, used the ideas generated at the conference to form a networking forum, "United Voices; United Future," at Clarke. Faces and Voices organizers used the forum to find that nearly 6,400 people attended some portion of their conference. The forum also fit into Faces and Voices priorities of continuing the momentum to get citizens involved in their community, bridge the gaps created by Dubuque's class structure and involving a broader range of people in planning future diversity events. (2)

Often Faces & Voices presented a series of activities. An example would be found in November, 2000 when on Monday night Evelyne Villines and a panel discussion was held at [[CLARKE COLLEGE)), Tuesday featured a program "Explore the State of Poverty from 9:00 am--noon and 6-9 p.m. at WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH as well as a presentation of a play "Underground Railroad" at the Northeast Iowa Community Center in Peosta. The same day Faces & Voices presented the Dubuque Dispute Resolution Center Mediation in the CARNEGIE-STOUT PUBLIC LIBRARY and the music of Makoto Nakura, a Japanese marimbist. (3)

Among the groups brought to Dubuque to perform was Doreen's Jazz New Orleans, a Dixieland jazz trio. Sponsored by the DUBUQUE ARTS COUNCIL and Faces and Voices, the group's leader Doreen Ketches, celebrated clarinetist and vocalist, had earned the title, "the female Louis Armstrong." (4)

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Sources:

1. "Partners and Initiatives," The City of Dubuque, Online: http://www.cityofdubuque.org/1978/Initiatives-and-Partnerships

2. Hogstrom, Erik, "Conference Forum Asks,"What Next?" Telegraph Herald, November 20, 1998, p. 1

3. "What's Happening?" Telegraph Herald, November 13, 2000, p. 10

4. Gloss, Megan, "Red Hot New Orleans Jazz," Telegraph Herald, January 11, 2006, p. 86