Downtown gallery visitors experienced all types of art, from multi media, to photography, to oil and water-color paintings during last weekend's Downtown Gallery Walk.

The nonprofit Thomas Gallery on College just north of Kirkwood, is a not-for profit gallery, where the artists put on their own shows and all proceeds go to the artists. Mary Connors and Kurt Larsen were the featured artists this weekend for Gallery Walk.

"Acrylic on canvas and water color on paper are Connors' favorite painting mediums," says Tom Gallagher, the owner of Thomas Gallery.

The staff at the Monroe County United Ministries (MCUM) not only help the local community, they are also environmentally conscious.

MCUM is a non-profit organization that provides social services for primarily low-income Monroe County residents. Since 2005, the agency has had a fund-raising drive through which citizens give them old cell phones, and MCUM raises money by recycling them.

"It's really a common thing to have cell phones sitting around (people's) houses," says Rebecca Stanze, MCUM development coordinator. "So this industry has sprung up where nonprofit organizations can collect those phones and then turn them around and give them to recycling and refurbishing organizations, and then the nonprofit gets paid per phone."

Indiana University Photography Students 10th Annual Alternative Show will feature a collection of portraits celebrating the people who make up the Bloomington community.

The show, which includes the work of the 14 BFA photography students, opens Nov. 30, 7-11 p.m., at Third and Lincoln.

"Everyone is taking 20 photographs of people in the community," says Christina Allegree, who is in her third semester of the B.F.A. program. "There will be around 300 portraits. Last year the show was a community project, but only two people did portraits, so this year we wanted to involve the community more."

itizens packed the Buskirk-Chumley Theater on Sept. 3 to hear journalist Lisa Ling's stories and perspectives on issues ranging from China's one-child policy, the drug war in Colombia and the state of Afghanistan.

The standing-room-only crowd -- some were turned away -- also heard tales of prison, North Korea and the situation of today's media.

"I'm telling you, it was crazy," she said of her experience in the level-four security prison in Sacramento, Calif. "We walk on, and 200 men accused of the worst offenses, and there's just silence on the yard. And all of a sudden, as we're walking in, a guy yells, 'Yo, I just saw you on Oprah! '"

Women today are apathetic to their rights and feel entitled to the privileges they have, a panel of young feminists agreed on April 18. But with that entitlement must come the realization of how recently everything has changed and that these rights are not guaranteed.

Titled “Feminism: What It Is and What It Should Be,” the discussion at the Indiana Memorial Union brought four student feminists and about 15 audience members together.

“Feminism is one of those great movements that dares to stand up to ‘the Man,’ with a capital M, to change social norms and to level the playing field for everyone,” said Anna Pointek, president of the campus Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance (FMLA).

With its friendly atmosphere and great food, the Bloomington Bagel Company (BBC) is a good place for anyone in Bloomington to get together and catch up with friends.

And that’s just what a group of local gays and lesbians do one Friday night each month.

Daniel Coleman, the program coordinator of IU Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) office at IU, said the BBC’s owner not only allows her place of business to be a gathering place for the monthly social hour, she provides free food and drink to anyone who comes.

As immigration has moved to the forefront of the American political scene, Bloomington's Hispanic population has simultaneously grown, according to Tim Gonzalez, Multicultural Minister at St. Paul's Catholic Center.

Also an active volunteer in organizations such as Centro Comunal Latino (CCL), Gonzalez estimates the Latino population in Monroe County at about 4,000.

The local Hispanic community is largely male, he said. The men often come to find work and then move on, after three to six months.

"Many of these young adult males are simply looking for a better job, and they pass through, he said. "Bloomington has very little to offer them."

Harold Sabbagh is an Arab-American whose father arrived in the United States in 1923. His family came from Zahle, Lebanon, which was a part of Syria.

"When my father was seven years old his mother and his father, my grandfather, came to Canada and then to the United States to seek his fortune," he said.

As there are today, quotas are placed upon immigrants arriving from each country to the United States then, limiting how many are allowed in each year.

Sabbagh's uncle wasn't able to immigrate on the Syrian quota, so he entered the states as an Egyptian. He was born in Zahle but lived in Tanta, Egypt. To make it to the United States with his brother, he said he was born in Egypt.

"The idea was to limit the immigration from less than desirable countries," said Sabbagh.