UM groups promote events for Sexual Awareness Month

ORONO – To mark Sexual Awareness Month in April, several University of Maine organizations and Penobscot Job Corps in Bangor have teamed up to host a visit from Tony Porter, co-founder of the national organization A Call to Men.

The aim of Porter’s organization is to address issues of violence and encourage men to become involved in ending violence and sexism.

His visit is being made possible by The Safe Campus Project and the Women’s Resource Center at UM, along with other departments on campus and the Penobscot Job Corps in Bangor.

Much of Porter’s work addresses the role of what he calls “well-meaning men,” who neither commit nor condone violence, but fail to do all they can to serve as women’s allies.

Leading up to Porter’s visit, three films that analyze some of the messaging the public receives through the media will be showed at UM. The film series is titled “Oh Baby, Baby: How the Media Teaches Us to be Men and Women.” The film presentations are being organized by Hardy Girls, Healthy Women advocacy organization in Waterville. The shows are sponsored by the Safe Campus Project, Women’s Resource Center and Penobscot Job Corps, the Boys to Men of Portland, UM’s Male Athletes Against Violence, Students for a Safe Campus and the Student Women’s Association.

The films will be presented at the following times at 7 p.m. at UM’s Neville Hall, Room 101:

. March 19, “Slim Hopes” and “What a Girl Wants”

. March 25, “Tough Guise: Violence, Media & the Crisis in Masculinity”

. April 2, “Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes.”

The Safe Campus Project also is sponsoring a Readers’ Theater performance of “It’s Not That Simple” at 7:30 p.m. March 26, at UM’s Minsky Recital Hall in the Class of 1944 building.

The performance is made up of mixed genre built around the subject of abuse with dance, poetry and dramatic scenes. Donations will be accepted to benefit Rape Response Services and Spruce Run in Bangor.

The schedule for Porter’s visit is as follows:

Thursday, April 10

. 8:30-11:30 a.m. at the Penobscot Job Corps Center, 1375 Union St., Bangor where he will make a free, open community presentation and meet for an hour with a leadership group.

. In the afternoon, he will meet with invited campus and community leaders at UM.

. 7 p.m. UM’s D.P Corbett building, room 100 Porter will deliver a free public lecture.

Maine Attorney General Steven Rowe will join program organizers for the day’s events.

Saturday, April 12

. 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. UM’s Neville Hall, Room 101. Porter will work with high school and college students during the “A Call to Young Men Conference.”

The conference is sponsored by the Maine Attorney General’s Office, the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault and the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence. Attorney General Rowe also will speak at the conference.

To register or for information about the conference, call Nicky Blanchard at the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence at 941-1194, or e-mail at nicky@mcedv.org.

For information about any of the programs listed above, call the Safe Campus Project at 581-2515.