Today, May 29^th,  is what nerdfighters worldwide are celebrating as Margo Roth Spiegelman Day.

           If you are not familiar with the writings of John Green or with nerdfighter culture, you may not know what this is. In the novel Paper Towns by John Green, the main character, Quentin, goes looking for his mysterious, enigmatic, and enticing sort-of-friend Margo Roth Spiegelman.  May 29^th marks the day that Quentin and his friends finally find Margo’s physical location; in a “paper town” in upstate New York. However, the physical finding of Margo is not the important event. On that day, Quentin finally stops imagining Margo as a symbol, or an adventure, or a mystery to be solved, or as a manic-pixie-dream-girl. He finally can push back the curtain he had been painting for himself and see Margo as a whole and complex being with feelings and wants and desires and embarrassments and insecurities.

      Especially when we are young, it is easy to idolize people; to see everything they do as perfect and interesting; to want to wear what they wear just because they wear it. Sometimes even the most self-assured of people can succumb to misimaginings. Today, I am asking you to think more complexly about the people you know and everyone you meet. Don’t let first impressions make a permanent mark on you. Give people the benefit of the doubt, and the room to change. Most people wrote Luna Lovegood off as “Loony,” upon first meeting her. Even Harry, Ron and Hermione were guilty of misimagining her before they became her friends. If the trio hadn’t gotten to know the full spectrum of Luna’s irreplaceable personality, they may have missed out on a valuable friend.

      So today, in honor of Margo and of Luna and of all those who have misimagined and been misimagined, let’s try to see other people as who they are, rather than who we want them to be. Sometimes just caring enough to find what is underneath someone’s façade can lead you to a whole other person. Along with challenging our misimaginings, let’s challenge our first impressions that are based in stereotypes. Too often, we create stereotyped views of someone just because of the things that are hard-wired into our brains; such as assumptions based on race, gender, class and sexual orientation. Think about these things today, and try to think about them everyday. It is the first step in a long journey for fairness and equality in all human relationships.         

Today is Kate’s Birthday!

As our  staff coordinator, Kate, in essence, Makes Things Happen. She’s the one who’s behind-the-scenes  working with all of our staff, hiring new staff, helps design and coordinating campaigns, keeping us all sane at the same time.

She’s also the one responsible for making us laugh, play with slinkies, becomes culturally knowledgeable (Star Wars date, anyone?), and enjoy marching bands and Hawaiian birds during staff meetings.

Happy Birthday, Klooby!!! We love you, and wish you the best day ever.

In honor of our current campaign What Would Dumbledore Do? and the upcoming movie release, our next book club choice is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling.  The reading period will start on June 1st and end on June 21st.

What makes the HPA Book Club different from other reading groups, is that we try to look for the parallels between the books we read and our own lives.  Join us in our discussion of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on our forums, check out of chapter questions section, and post book reviews!

This weekend, the Harry Potter Alliance had an incredible presence at Leakycon. Between programs, selling merch, and our numerous staffers wandering around, we had something going on almost every minute of the convention.

We also had an incredible online presence this weekend through the launch of our new internship program, Not in Harry’s Name, and What Would Dumbledore Do.

None of this would have been possible without the incredible work of our HPA staff, who put in countless hours of work as we prepared for this weeekend. You all were incredible

And none of this would have happened without each and every one of you. To those who were at Leakycon - thank you so much for your presence all weekend long. I really enjoyed getting to meet so many of you and I look forward to working with you in the future (either on staff, as a chapter, or in our Common Room). For those of you who couldn’t make it to Leakycon, I have loved coming home and reading your comments and discussions here on the blog and in the Common Room.

You all are the ones that make this organization what it is, and you are the ones that inspire me to be here and keep working towards so many goals. I can’t thank you enough for that.

(have your own reflections? Post a blog or vlog in the Common Room!)

It was a huge week for the HP Alliance! We’ll start this Weekly Wrap-Up with the LeakyCon news!

• Darfur Petition: conference goers filled out postcards to President Obama asking to do whatever it takes to end genocide. You too can sign this petition online. Check here for more info: http://www.thehpalliance.org/darfur/darfur-petition/

• Do you want to work for the HP Alliance and get class credit? Then the HP Alliance Internship is for you! You can see more about it here: http://www.thehpalliance.org/harry-potter-alliance/announcing-the-harry-potter-internship-program/

• Where does the chocolate in a chocolate frog come from? Not in Harry’s Name is our new project pushing for Frankford Candy Company who produces the Harry Potter franchise’s candy to be Fair Trade: http://www.thehpalliance.org/harry-potter-alliance/not-in-harrys-name/

• What Would Dumbledore Do? is our other new project remembering the great Albus Dumbledore. You can participate by posting lessons that he has taught you on the Common Room: http://www.thehpalliance.org/fandom/what-would-dumbledore-do/

BLOGS:

• Tina Olson posted a blog about her and Swish and Flick’s upcoming pre-LeakyCon shows: http://thehpalliance.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bethlehem-pa-tuesday-preleaky

• Sophia talks about starting a new chapter as her Graduation Challenge!: http://thehpalliance.ning.com/profiles/blogs/hello-1

• In her blog, Malory posts a video and explains that Ted Talks described “how our educational systems today educate our children out of their creativity.” http://thehpalliance.ning.com/profiles/blogs/creativity-and-education

• Vanessa shares a heartfelt story about how she dealt with her mother having cancer: http://thehpalliance.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-journey-of-cancer

• Veganwrocker shares with us a Write Naked surprise: http://thehpalliance.ning.com/profiles/blogs/write-naked-2

• Tita Pizarro-Lopez tells us in her own words how Harry Potter saved her life: http://thehpalliance.ning.com/profiles/blogs/harry-potter-saved-my-life

• Kannel expresses her nervous feelings as she prepares to take college entrance exams: http://thehpalliance.ning.com/profiles/blogs/im-very-nervous

VIDEOS:

• Karen asks Verizon Wireless to Come Clean for the ENOUGH project.

• Malory posts videos for both pre-LeakyCon and during the convention.

• No New Stuff participants posted their weekly updates

• Hope explains the launch of WWDD

• All videos can be found at either http://thehpalliance.ning.com/video or http://www.youtube.com/thehpalliance

UPCOMING EVENTS:

• The Book Club is having a Live Ustream Chat about Write Naked on May 27th from 8pm to 9:30pm http://www.ustream.tv/channel/pottercast .

PHOTOS:

• Make sure you check out the new WWDD photo album and comment as work comes in! http://thehpalliance.ning.com/photo/albums/2883994:Album:16864

Hello fellow Wizard Activists! Ready for another amazing project? Us too! At LeakyCon, the HPA is going to be launching a new project: “What Would Dumbledore Do?”

We’re starting something awesome, something of epic proportions. As you all know (SPOILER WARNING), our favorite headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, dies at the end of Half Blood Prince. With the film version of the book coming up to premier its debut on July 15th, we thought it would be an amazing opportunity to reflect on everything Albus Dumbledore has taught us over the years. This project will be one to commemorate a man that has taught us countless lessons in life and beyond.

In the honor of Dumbledore, we’re asking people to create artwork expressing how Dumbledore has affected their lives and the lessons that he has taught them (either hand drawn or computer drawn would be fine!).

During LeakyCon, people will be able to decorate 3 x 5 index cards with the lessons that Dumbledore has taught them We’re then going to put all of the artwork online in a photo gallery on the Ning.

If you’re at home this weekend, you can help us get the gallery started right now by creating your own artwork about Dumbledore! Here’s what to do:

1) Create a piece of visual art that tells us what Dumbledore has taught you.

2) Upload your artwork (or a scanned copy of your artwork) to the Common Room

3) Your artwork will be added to the “What Would Dumbledore Do?” photo gallery. Take a look at other peoples’ artwork and comment!

There will be a lot more information coming soon! So stay tuned and spread the word! Please remember fellow wizards activists, be creative! Through this amazing project we can keep Dumbledore’s memory alive. We can’t wait to see the outstanding artwork that everyone will create!

This weekend at Leakycon, the Harry Potter Alliance is launching our new campaign “Not in Harry’s Name.” Are you unable to meet up with your fellow wizards and witches in Boston? Don’t fret. You can be part of our online D.A. meeting right here, by reading some of the same information presented at the conference. Here we’ll explain just what “Not in Harry’s Name” is all about.

What’s in a name?

Shakespeare once wrote: “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” But would any other name evoke the same image? The soft petals contrasted with the sharp thorns? Names are important, and as Harry Potter readers we know that there are certain associations we make with names. The name Dolores Umbridge, for example, might bring to mind the color pink, or the image of a frog, or the sound of an annoying hem hem. It might also bring to mind attributes such as manipulation, censorship, and sadism. It might understandably make you shudder.

Names hold weight.

We here at the Harry Potter Alliance know this as much as anyone. Why else would we have chosen to act as an organization under the banner of Harry’s name? The name Harry Potter holds many meanings: the Boy Who Lived, the boy in the cupboard under the stairs who grew up to fight basilisks and dragons, to stand against corruption and the abuse of power, the boy who chose what was right instead of what was easy in his quest to bring down the Dark Lord Voldemort.

It becomes a problem, then, when something comes along that could potentially tarnish the name of our favorite bespectacled boy wizard. In this particular case, that something is chocolate.

Where does it come from?

Up to a certain point at Hogwarts, it seemed to Harry and his friends that the food at feasts just “magically appeared” on golden plates at their tables. It was only when Hermione decided to investigate the source that she discovered it was actually made by house elves toiling away in the castle kitchens.

It was one simple question—where does it come from?—that led Hermione to form S.P.E.W. in an attempt to stand up for elves laboring under unfair conditions. It is this same question that the Harry Potter Alliance is now choosing to ask about the chocolate manufactured as part of the Harry Potter franchise by Frankford Candy Company, in partnership with Warner Brothers and its parent company Time Warner.

So, where does the chocolate in a chocolate frog come from?

Nearly two thirds of the world’s chocolate comes from West Africa, with about 43% coming from Cote d’Ivoire (The Ivory Coast) alone. The problem? Just as Hermione discovered elves like Winky and Dobby to be working away in the Hogwarts kitchen without any pay or rights, so the world has begun to discover that injustices like child labor, slavery, and the exploitation of workers and farmers are a large part of what goes into making our favorite chocolate bars.

Frankford Candy Company, who produces the chocolate frogs, fudge flies, and cockroach clusters associated with the Harry Potter franchise, is a part of something called the World Cocoa Foundation, a large organization whose mission statement claims it “promotes a sustainable cocoa economy through economic and social development and environmental conservation in cocoa growing communities.” This sounds like a good thing, right?

However, among the WCF’s members are cocoa giants such as Nestle and Archer Daniel Midlands, both of which have lawsuits pending regarding child labor abuses. Also, the WCF’s strategy to help increase farmer income is simply to help farmers produce even more cocoa—which, again, sounds good, until you take into account the law of supply and demand, in which having less of something available makes it more valuable. By helping farmers put more chocolate on the market, they’re making it easier for big transnational corporations to buy huge amounts of chocolate for a pittance.

So, when Frankford Candy Company claims that its membership in the WCF can ensure that injustices aren’t going on in the making of the chocolate they use, it isn’t enough. Something more needs to be done.

Fair Trade vs. Free Trade

Chocolate is supposed to be a good thing. Not only does it taste heavenly, but it’s also used to ward off the after-effects of a run-in with soul-sucking dementors. That’s got to be some powerful stuff! Chocolate isn’t bad, and the companies involved in making these chocolate candies aren’t necessarily “villains” either. But they should be taking more steps to make sure that the production of the chocolate they use doesn’t involve injustice and cruelty. One way of doing this is for the companies involved to work toward chocolate frogs becoming a Fair Trade product.

You may have heard these words bandied about before: Fair Trade and Free Trade. These terms are rather like Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley… one word off makes a whole world of difference.

Free Trade refers to a general freedom in the exchange of goods and information among and between nations. The tendency in a Free Trade system is for things to center around money. Fair Trade, on the other hand, is a system in which the production of goods is seen as whole process, and not just a price.

In order for a product to be considered Fair Trade, both the producers and traders of that product (in this case, chocolate frogs) must meet a set of specific guidelines that work to promote justice and prosperity in three different areas of life: social, economic, and environmental. These guidelines call for fair prices, fair labor conditions, direct trade, transparency in organizations, community development, environmental sustainability, and more. A Fair Trade mindset says that the quality of life of the people making the chocolate is at least as important as the quality of the chocolate itself, if not more so. This is the kind of thinking that would make Dobby proud.

What Can We Do?

We at the Harry Potter Alliance firmly believe that the injustices that may be going on in the name of Harry Potter should be stopped. As a result, we have already put into motion a plan to start a dialogue about Fair Trade with Frankford Candy Company and Time Warner. This is just the beginning, but we may be calling upon Harry Potter fans like you to help us in the near future, so keep an eye out to see how things unfold.

In the meantime, here are some things you can do to get involved:

~Learn more about Fair Trade at the following sites:

http://www.transfairusa.org/content/about/overview.php

http://www.fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/sp/i/2733/pid/2733

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_trade

~If you haven’t already, come join the discussion about “Not in Harry’s Name” by becoming a member of our Common Room: http://thehpalliance.ning.com/

~Be sure to check out the “Not in Harry’s Name” video, and post your own response

~Keep an eye out on the HPA website for updates in the near future

The Harry Potter Alliance is exited to announce the HPA Internship Program! We know how hard it is to find the time to volunteer when you are a student, and we want to help. Being an intern at the Harry Potter Alliance will give you the opportunity to gain work experience and school credit at the same time. Some educational programs require that you complete an internship to graduate. As an intern, you will be in charge of important projects or campaigns and get a “behind-the-scenes” look at how the Harry Potter Alliance runs.

What internship positions will the HPA offer?
1. Project/Campaign Leader.
2. Grant Writer.
3. Technical Help/Designer.

If you are interested in an internship or have any questions, please email Kayla at kayla@thehpalliance.org. We will guide you through all the steps needed to set up an internship.

We will be accepting a limited number of applicants to begin as soon as Fall ’09! More details coming soon!

*All schools are unique and each department has different requirements. The Harry Potter Alliance cannot guarantee that you are eligible for an internship for school credit, however we will work with you and your school every step of the way. Talk to your school’s department or internship coordinator to see if you qualify!

At Leakycon this weekend, the Harry Potter Alliance is asking conference-goers to sign postcards that ask President Obama to keep Darfur a priority and do whatever it takes to end the genocide. All of these postcards will then be sent to the White House. We hope to get 300 postcards signed this weekend.

However, we also need you all to participate by signing postcards online.

The Save Darfur Coalition, ENOUGH Project, and GI-NET, the three leading anti-genocide organizations in the US, have written an open letter detailing what it would take to end the genocide - and you can add your name to this letter very easily.

As the rainy season approaches in Darfur, and aid organizations have not yet been let back in, estimates suggest that as many as 1 million people are at risk in Darfur. It’s not just about letting those aid organizations back in - it’s about making a strong statement that we want to end the genocide now.

You can read and sign the full letter asking Obama to take action here:
http://action.savedarfur.org/campaign/jointletter

You can also call 1-800-Genocide and ask your representative to keep Darfur a priority in the coming months.

For the past few weeks, the Harry Potter Alliance staff has been hard at work getting ready for Leakycon.

We’re getting ready to launch new campaigns and involve the entire conference in the Harry Potter Alliance. As many of you have commented on from this blog post, it’s going to be amazing.

But it is with incredible excitement that we present to you the other side of our conference planning:  we’ve been working to make sure that anything we do at Leakycon, you have the opportunity to do this weekend, online, with us.

When we launch new campaigns like “Not in Harry’s Name” and “What Would Dumbledore Do” live at Leakycon, we will also be launching them online through this blog and in the Common Room.

Any action or activity  that is happening at Leakycon also has a component that we need you all here at home to be working on.

And just like everyone at Leakycon will be meeting each other in our conference “Room of Requirement”, we’ve got tons of ways for you to interact with other Harry Potter Alliance members over at the Common Room.

So whether or not you can make it to Leakycon, you can be part of the Harry Potter Alliance this weekend - and we can’t wait to share with you what we’ve been working on!

Keep checking back over the weekend to see what we’re up to at Leakycon - and we can’t wait for everyone to get home next week and share what we did!

See you in the Room of Requirement (either online or in person!),

The HP Alliance Staff