Portraits of Hunger: Timely Reminder for the Upcoming Season

More than 100 people participated in the 4th annual Portraits of Hunger photography competition, which took a frank, fresh, and often endearing look at the faces of Central Florida’s hungry.

The winners were announced in at a Showcase Party at the Enzian Theater with top honors going to Cynthia B. Slaughter for her winning photo titled “First Fruit.”

"Fruit First"

Sponsored by the Second Harvest Food Bank, the judges included Dave Krepcho, President of Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, Henry Maldonado, President of Enzian Theater, and Josh Garrick, Fine Art and Culture Writer for a series of news and on-line venues.

Winner Cynthia B. Slaughter and the judges

While the photo competition has ended, the hunger many Central Floridians face has not. Perhaps as you go into the upcoming holiday season you might keep such unfortunates in mind… it is often just the wrong circumstances or bad luck that can mean whether or not a child has a meal to eat one day or the next. You can make a difference!

Showcase attendees Kelly Carline, Lauren Moskowitz, Mindy Moulton, JoJo Dey, Michael Dey, Dac Ung

9 Parts of Desire

If you haven’t been to the Mandell Theater at the John and Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center, now might be a good time to go. 9 Parts of Desire by Empty Spaces Theatre Co. is in its final weekend of performances, and it promises to be something worth seeing. Below are a few quotes of how powerful this play is…

“This brilliantly acted collection of stories changed me–a hallmark of any solid piece of art. I see the world a little differently now.”
– Margot Knight, Orlando Opinionators , Orlando Sentinel

“The arts allow us moments of greatness — those moments when an actor, painter or performer ‘raises the bar’ on what can be experienced and even expected from the art being presented to us. That ‘greatness’ is happening right now in the Empty Spaces Theatre production of Heather Raffo’s “9 Parts of Desire”. . . . and Central Florida is enriched by this exemplary production.” – Josh Garrick, WP/Maitland Observer

“From all of them, we hear the commonality: They are survivors of horrific crimes and incensed by the tyranny of Saddam Hussein and the explosive invasions by America. The truth is unspeakable, and yet we hear them and their pain, sometimes cloaked and sometimes in detail, but always disturbing – especially because many specifics are based on real-life events. …The aftershock felt by the audience was palpable on opening night; as the lights went up many sat in their seats, stunned” – Lindy Shepherd, Orlando Weekly

“These aren’t women in a far-off world, the message seems to be. These are women right here with you. . . .Playwright Raffo creates vivid images in her audience’s minds. An American character of Iraqi descent speaks of going to the gym to “work out to the war on three channels.” An Iraqi says of her tight-lipped society: “Iraqis don’t open their mouths, not even for the dentist.” – Matt Palm, Orlando Sentinel

“These are the stories of the women in 9 Parts of Desire, Heather Raffo’s extraordinary drama, which burrows into the hearts of nine Iraqi women as they try to carry on in a country ravaged by despots and mutilated by war . . . Raffo makes these women neither one thing nor another, but a mixture of all things – passionate, frightened, broken, proud. “When you love like an Iraqi woman,” one of them says, “you love like you cannot breathe.” – Elizabeth Maupin, Maupin on Theater