Harry Potter fans have joined with members of fandoms from other popular books, movies, and tv series (including Heroes, Lost, True Blood, The Wire and Firefly) to create Helping Haiti Heal, a home-grown effort to contribute to the growing humanitarian aid and charitable relief activities in Haiti.

This Saturday, January 23rd, at 2 P.M. EST, HPA’s Potterwatch, PotterCast, MuggleCast, Hogwarts Radio, and FictionAlley will come together for a live fundraising webcast here on Livestream to benefit Partners in Health.  This four hour live event will feature a donation drive where donors have the opportunity to win prizes, live performances from many wizard rockers; leaders in fan communities; personal interviews with Haitian-Americans about the importance of giving to Partners In Health; human rights activists; a representative from MIT’s Media Lab discussing ways that we can donate our time using new media; and much more.

Help spread the word by Tweeting the following:

We’re Helping Haiti Heal - learn about a huge fandom event happening Sat. from 2pm to 6pm ET! http://bit.ly/5603s6 #hhh

A major part of this event will be raising funds to help those in Haiti through Partners In Health.  Countless fan sites, wizard rockers, authors, entertainers, and organizations have donated to this donation drive. A full list of items can be found on the Helping Haiti Heal website.

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!

Eager to meet your fellow Dumbledore’s Army members face to face? It’s not too late to sign up for LeakyCon, the fan conference happening May 21-24 at the Park Plaza hotel in Boston. Registration is still available at www.leakycon.com/registration.

What’s so special about LeakyCon? The conference will feature awesome programming including keynotes with the likes of Nerdfighter brothers Hank and John Green and Order of the Phoenix screenwriter Michael Goldenberg, concerts starring your favorite wrock bands, workshops for fan art, music, and crafts, live podcasts, academic presentations, and more. Best of all, the proceeds from the event will go to benefit two incredible charities: Book Aid International, and our very own Harry Potter Alliance.

If that’s not enough, check out some of the cool programming Harry Potter Alliance staff members will be presenting at the conference:

Not in Harry’s Name: Ever think about where the chocolate in that chocolate frog comes from? Following the footsteps of Hermione, who chose to take action when she realized that food at Hogwarts was produced by slave labor, the HP Alliance is starting a campaign to get Warner Brothers and Frankford Candy Company, creators of the candy associated with the Harry Potter trademark, to make sure that their chocolate falls under the designation of Fair Trade.

What Would Dumbledore Do?: In the months leading up to the Half Blood Prince movie, the HP Alliance encourages you to consider the example of Dumbledore. What has Dumbledore taught you, or what example do you think he can set for the world today? Join Andrew Slack as he discusses the WWDD project and ways you can get involved.

Darfur and Human Rights: You may have been involved in past HP Alliance efforts to “help the Lily Potters of Darfur.” Recently, the situation in Sudan has changed drastically for the worse, and as a result many lives hang in the balance yet again. Just like Harry tried to warn the wizarding world of the Dark Lord’s return, we have a chance to take action for the people of Darfur. Learn more about what’s happening. Join the discussion. See what you can do to promote human rights in Darfur.

In addition to these topics, you can begin “Imagining a New World” with Andrew Slack, Peter Gould, and a special mystery guest. Let a certain toad-faced Ministry official teach you a little something about freedom or the lack thereof in a talk about “Umbridge and Civil Liberties.” There’s also the chance to meet up with fellow Chapter Organizers, or learn how to start a chapter of your own.

All this and much, much more is happening in just over a week at LeakyCon. Sound exciting? It’s not too late… Register for LeakyCon today!

In Aug. 2000, a graphic designer from San Francisco known as SomeGuy decided that he wanted to connect the world with creativity. So he got together 1000 blank journals and launched them into the world. He left some in random places around the city, mailed some to people and had a website where people could sign up to get one.

The idea was that these journals would be filled by people all around the world. You could write, draw, create, whatever you wanted, on the pages of these journals. These journals travelled all over the world - Asia, Europe, Australia, seriously all over. Some made it back to SomeGuy, some got lost, some are still with certain people around the world. The connections, in many cases led to friendships, business partnerships and even marriage.

The point of this experiment was that people were connected and were able to in some way, creatively express themselves. The project got so big that a documentary was made and now many of the journals are on display in San Francisco museums. The project became so popular that journals were filled in no time and the project actually expanded to 1001 Journals.

There are over 3000 journals in the world today that are connecting people all over. In the expanded project, 1001 Journals, people can actually add their own personal journal. There are then two options - they can keep it amongst their social/community group or can send it out into the world as a travelling journal and see how many people they can connect to. Once the journal is filled, it would come back to the orignal journal owner (hopefully) and would be scanned into a computer so the creations can be shared with everyone.

I think the members of HPA could really get into this. This would be a great way for people to connect with other HPA people as well as fans and strangers alike across the country or even the world. It would really help spread the message that the Harry Potter Alliance is trying to convey as well as bring all the Harry Potter fans and even non HP fans closer together.

 You can gather more info and check out the scanned pictures of the journals at www.1000journals.com and http://www.1001journals.com/.
Feel free to leave any comments you may have or email me at emeline@thehpalliance.org.

As far as I know, Barty Crouch Sr, Barty Crouch Jr, and Mrs. Crouch don’t have any Wizard Rock bands named after them. The story of their family is tragic and I think that Mrs. Crouch’s story: dying alone in Azkaban to allow her Death Eater son who her husband sentenced to life imprisonment is one of the saddest stories in the books. But it also makes for some incredibly rich thoughts about her character and the character of her husband and son. Stuff that I think most of us have done little talking about. Is it because it’s just so sad and disturbing? What gives?

I was at a hockey game a couple of years ago with my girl friend. As someone who doesn’t attend many sporting events I was overwhelmed by the size of the crowd and the game itself wasn’t easy for me to follow or even take much interest in. But then my girl friend started explaining the whole thing to me as if it were Quidditch and suddenly I loved hockey. But I love actual Quidditch even more so I’m excited that there is real world Quidditch and want to participate!