Coming attractions

The link on the left takes you to my upcoming events:

Esther J. Cepeda is deeply committed to opening minds and broadening horizons through aggressive thought leadership and the dissemination of positive, analytical ideas.

That means she gives speeches/Q&A, moderates roundtable discussions/panels, shows up ready to rumble or rumba, take your pick.

Esther can rattle off statistics on population and migration patterns, speak passionately on topics as diverse as sports, culture, education, news, politics, economics and business, and, yes, if pressed she'll give you her take on immigration/diversity/all that jazz (oh yeah, don't get her started on that, she can belt out every song from the musical Chicago...don't ask unless you reallllly want to hear it).

The fun part is that you never know what's gonna come out of her mouth!

These people feel reasonably comfortable:

• May 28, 2008 Perspectives  South Loop Middle school annual graduation  (not open to public)

• June 5-7, 2008 ColumbiaUniversity Next Generation Project American Assembly: U.S. GLobal Policy and the future of international relations @ the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (not open to public)

• June 10-11, 2008 Making Media Connections Conference "Ethnic Media & Beyond" According to recent reports, the ethnic news sector has audiences that are growing rather than shrinking. Learn how your organization can reach out to these audiences. Dee Daniels, Noir Woman News; Ray Hanania, Chicago Arab American Journalist Association; Glen Reedus, Chicago Daily Defender. Moderator: Esther Cepeda, 600words.com. (Register right this moment)

• June 18, 2008 "1,001 Afternoons in Chicago" - "an innovative collaboration between Accessible Contemporary Music and "The Moving Architects" based on the stories of legendary Chicago newspaperman Ben Hecht. During the 1920's Hecht, a writer at the time for the Daily News, challenged himself to write a short story each day and publish it in the paper. He succeeded and the result has been compiled and published as 1,001 Afternoons in Chicago. This collaborative piece explores 12 of the stories through music, motion and visual imagery. The Evanston performance will be preceded by a panel discussion featuring the Chicago Tribune's Rick Kogan and Neil Steinberg from the Chicago Sun-Times. The panel will be moderated by Esther J. Cepeda, "600 Words" columnist."

• July 26, 2008, UNITY 08 Journalism Convention "Bloggers of Color: The Top Five Reasons Why the Blogosphere is NOT Diverse and What You Can Do About It!" Bloggers have forced the mainstream media to investigate stories of interest to communities of color like the "Jena Six," "Genarlow Wilson" and "Shaquanda Cotton." Bloggers were instrumental to forcing retailer Abercrombie and Fitch to ditch their racial anti-Asian t-shirts. Bloggers helped the Latino community organize their pro-immigration rallies. Yet bloggers of color are woefully under-represented in the blogosphere. Bloggers are regularly invited onto radio and TV shows to provide an "alternative" voice on breaking news stories. However, many of these prominent bloggers are overwhelmingly white and male..." read more and register now.

Contact Esther if you want her to come spread her magic at your gig. Her rates are reasonable, but its extra if you DON'T want her to sing. (Not a wise choice...she's pretty darned good.)