The City of Yarra have generously funded yarraReporter to create a projection and art installation at Atherton Gardens for the 2011 Gertrude Street Projection Festival, which will run in July next year.

yarraReporter has again contributed to Bespoken for the 2nd issue, a bi-monthly local publication that has come to fruition by collaborations between The Social Studio, yR, Culturalista and The Yarra Nile Cultural organisation.

The Collingwood Harvest Festival is an annual community art, food and music music festival, which is held on the grounds of the Collingwood Housing Estate. The festival celebrates the harvest of vegetables grown in the Community Gardens on the estate. Cultures come together through traditional displays of song, food and dance. 

When: Saturday 17th April

Back in October, 2009, yarraReporter met with journalists and editors of The Age to discuss the project and even published a story (Check the Media section). They were impressed by the yR concept and have offered work placements for budding writers in 2010.

yarraReporters have been roving the streets of Fitzroy asking people about their favourite movies and what they think should be screened at the inaugural Fitzroy Outdoor Cinema, happening on the 20th March on the oval at Atherton Gardens (weather permitting).

Some suggestions have included Indigenous films such as Bran Nue Dae and Samson and Delilah, Pixar's Up, a Will Smith film, Slumdog Millionaire and even David Lynch's Blue Velvet.

The Harmony Day steering committee is well underway to organising this year's event, happening on Thursday, 18th March from 2pm onwards at the Carlton Estate, 510 Lygon Street, with weekly meetings being held on Tuesday afternoons.

Slowly but surely the committee has organised food (20 kilos of Halal sausages are being donated from a number of butchers!) games for the kids, entertainment (African drumming courses and live performances) and other logistical requirements to make Harmony Day a fun filled event for residents and the public alike.

yarraReporter are getting involved with the Gertrude Street Projection Festival and its artists, with Yandell Walton coming on board. Yandell was the feature artist in last year's festival. The Atherton Gardens site was one of the only dark spaces in the festival in the past two years, which runs in July along the Gertrude Street strip.

yarraReporter are seeking new participants to undertake journalism and multimedia training in the coming weeks.

If you are a public housing resident in the City of Yarra and have an interest in doing something creative and expanding your mind, please contact Anya ASAP.

anya@infoxchange.net.au

yR out

The partnership between yarraReporter and The Social Studio has strengthened and is expanding with the release of Bespoken, a bi-monthly four page lift-out section within The Migrant Newspaper, that has a print-off of 3000 copies and is distributed nationally.