OutCast Archive - March 8, 2009

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Tonight on OutCast: Mark Erwin (StandardAnswer), Marianne DeLeon (Soulforce), and Madge Darlington (GRRL Action, a program of Rude Mechanicals).


Mark Erwin is with us in the studio today. Mark is the founder and creator of StandardAnswer, a conversationally-based social network that asks people to explore themselves and others through a series of questions and answers. The more questions you answer, the more people learn...and the more interesting you become.

StandardAnswer search is completely unique in the social networking space and is an extraordinarily powerful tool for locating specific types of people. Once people answer the questions about themselves that they consider important to defining who they are (passionately held information), that information becomes searchable. What's especially unique about StandardAnswer is that these pieces of information can be combined logically into a more specific search. So, if you were looking for people who enjoyed Golf AND owned a 57 Chevy OR a 75 Cadillac, you could do that search. The possibilities are truly endless.

StandardAnswer is holding its official launch party during the 2009 SXSW Interactive Festival. The party is Saturday, March 14th at 8pm at Red Eyed Fly. RSVP here.


Marianne DeLeon is the development director for Soulforce, and she joins us today in the OutCast studio. The purpose of Soulforce is freedom for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people from religious and political oppression through the practice of relentless nonviolent resistance.

Marianne is with us today to tell us about The Power of Art & Action, a cocktail party bringing the LGBT community together for art. The event is Tuesday, March 10th from 6:30pm to 8:30pm at the Austin Museum of Art-Downtown, located at 823 Congress Avenue. More information on The Power of Art & Action is available here.


Next in studio, we are joined by Madge Darlington, co-managing program director for GRRL Action. GRRL Action began in 1999 as a summer workshop in creative writing and performance designed to empower girls between the ages of 13 and 16 to find their public voices and build confidence while collaborating with young women from diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.

In fall 2007, after eight years of success, Grrl Action expanded its mission, and added a year-round performance-based artistic education program. Grrl Action now enables young women from 13 to 18 to plan and execute individual, long-term artistic projects, working across the disciplines, alongside professional female artists as their mentors.

GRRL Action Summer Class is July 6-26 at The Off Center. The Summer Workshop is a three-week intensive workshop run by Rude Mechanicals, Austin’s award winning theatre collective, in which girls envision, create, publish, and perform original works for the stage based on their own life experiences. Girls work with professional writers, performers, and designers to put their stories on stage for two free public performances. The summer workshop kicks off the Grrl Action program-year, and graduates of the summer program are invited to participate in the year-round artistic mentorship program. No former experience with creative writing or performance is required. For more information, and to obtain an application, please visit here.


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