Live music, folk dancing performances, cultural events, fortune telling, and more. Enjoy authentic Turkish cuisine. Join us on October 3rd from 11am-7pm on District Pier for the free Turkish Festival at The Wharf. This year’s festival theme is Turkaegean: Coast of Happiness.
Organized by American Turkish Association of Washington DC – ATADC.
Turkish-American Television is a proud media sponsor of the Turkish Festival at The Wharf!
TATV Staff Picked 2020 Teens Dream Young Producers
Fairfax, Va., April 24, 2021 — Turkish American TV (TATV) staff selected fresh video productions from Teens Dream Collaborative 2020 Annual Video Competition, which provided teens a forum to share their solutions to problems facing humanity. Teens shared their dreams of change in areas ranging from plastic pollution to responsible consumption.
Over 150 teens globally submitted short videos related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The Global Co Lab Network and its collaborator this year, the Smithsonian Institution, selected 10 videos and awarded $500 grants to each teen changemaker. The Global Co Lab Network and Smithsonian honored additional 10 videos with certificates of recognition.
TATV staff selected videos with outstanding production quality and positive universal messages. The young producers were among the finalists and semi-finalists of the 2020 Teens Dream Video Competition.
Outstanding video productions are:
“Food Equity Through Kindness” by José Pablo Álvarez Preinfalk, Costa Rica
“Clean Water and Sanitation” by Dilara Nur Kahraman, Antalya, Turkey
“Quality Education” by Ecem Bahar, Izmir, Turkey
“Clean Schools for a Clean Planet” by Isabella Shady, Madelyn Stochaj, Haley Jansons, Mass., U.S.
“Reducing Plastic Pollution in Oceans” by Sumya Abida, N.Y., U.S.
‘Gender Equality – We Will Not Be Tamed” by Jibeh Fatty, N.Y., U.S.
Talking to the young producers in a meet and greet session, Özge Övün-Sert, TATV program host, said, “I am impressed with your visions for the future of the world we live in… You have the opinion about the issues and offer solutions to overcome these problems. This gives me a big hope for the future.”
Madelyn Stochaj from Massachusetts expressed her Teens Dream Challenge experience as “an amazing opportunity.” She was happy for being recognized for the work she has been doing.
“It has been super educational. It is definitely something new but it is really cool,” she said.
Turkish American TV (TATV), the award winning voice of the Turkish-American community, was founded in September 2005 with the mission of delivering educational, engaging, and entertaining programs on art, culture, lifestyles, music, dance, health, wellbeing, science, and technology.
Sit back for a few minutes and enjoy the great music played by our young musicians, Alptuğ H. Kaynar, piano and Andrew Kıvrak, viola.
Coached by Dr. Osman Kıvrak, musician in residence at the American University in Washington D.C., the young musicians have been meeting to practice via Zoom meetings since November 2019.
This is the first of the series “Young Musicians” produced by the dedicated volunteers of the Turkish-American Television (TATV), which is the longest running community television platform of the Turkish-American community in the U.S.
Find below what our young musicians said about their online experience.
Alptuğ H. Kaynar, Piano (Pittsburgh, Philadelphia)
“I really enjoyed the two months I spent working with Dr. Kıvrak. Every piece and practice session brought some new joy and difficulty with it. The process was one that I was wholly unfamiliar with, namely the concept of making recordings that would end up being synced on a computer, but the end product is something that I am proud of. I am glad I participated, as the whole process was a very fun and informative one, in which I learned a lot about the more technological side of music and recording. Finally, I would like to extend my thanks to everyone involved in this production for making this possible.”
Andrew Kıvrak, Viola (Maryland)
“The experience I had with Turkish American TV was exciting and enjoyable. One of the difficulties rehearsing on Zoom was that I had to use a metronome to sync up with my partner. The recording took a lot of tries to get both parts exactly in sync but it was satisfying when it finally worked. Being able to play music with another person, especially during the pandemic, was very rewarding. Thank you to everyone who made this happen.”
As the red fox sculpture reached its first anniversary in Middleburg, revisiting the adventure of its creation with its sculptor Gökşin Carey shows how clay came to life and became the six-foot bronze mascot of the town.
Long-time TATV personality and sculptor Carey had presented the red fox to the town of historic Middleburg, a charming Southern Virginia town.
The artists in Middleburg had unveiled the sculpture in front of the Middleburg Community Center on Dec. 7, 2019, during its annual Christmas festival.
Carey enjoyed working on the red fox with artists, and said: “Teamwork makes it a dream work.”
Watch now to revisit the journey, and find Carey’s online sculpting classes at sculptinghorses.com.
Registered nurse Gül Ok gets first dose of COVID-19 vaccination, shares thoughts
by Yonca Poyraz-Doğan
Gül Ok, a registered nurse (RN), BSN, from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, chose to receive the COVID-19 vaccine after she read the studies. She has had no side effects and told us about her frontline experience.
“This is a new world. After the vaccine, hopefully, we won’t be scared to go out anymore,” she said adding that reading the studies helped her to make a decision.
“I want to get protected, so I can protect others”
“First of all, I want to get protected, so I can protect others. I didn’t want to catch COVID and give it to my patients, my family or friends,” she said adding a piece of advice. “Keep wearing your mask on. Keep your social distance.”
A busy health care professional, she is also a mother of a 4-year-old boy. How does she handle it all?
“I don’t think about work at home. We stay mostly indoors. Watch TV and listen to music. Trying to stay positive and hope for the best.”
Ok told us about her life changing experience about 17 years ago in Turkey when she had a major surgery. Having a really caring nurse by her bedside in the hospital, she decided to do something rewarding: “I want to be that nurse!” she said.
Want to win a $500 grant to help create a more sustainable future? Enter in Teens Dream Video Contest by January 25, 2021 for a chance to be one of ten winners and be matched with a professional mentor to aid you on your project idea! For more information visit https://teensdreamcolab.org
We interviewed Equine sculptor Ms. Goksin Carey’s students during her Annual Sculpture Workshop at National Sporting Library & Museum, Middleburg (NSLM) in July 2019. Participants of the weeklong workshop sculpted horse busts and full horses.
Valerie Peacock, the Clarice & Robert H. Smith Educator at NSLM, explained that the museum is dedicated to preserving, promoting, and sharing the literature, art, and culture of equestrian, angling, and field sports.
For more information about Goksin’s equine sculpting workshops: http://www.sculptinghorses.com
Turkish-American pianist-composer-arranger Fahir Atakoğlu told us that all the singers in this album wrote beautiful lyrics and “all felt love in my melody”.
Turkish-American pianist, composer and arranger Fahir Atakoğlu says the singers in the album wrote the lyrics to his compositions and “all felt love in my melody.”
A collaboration of international artists, the remarkable vocalists in the album included Buika (Spain), Luciana Souza (Brazil), Letizia Gambi (Italy) and Aimee Allen (United States). Musicians include Cuban drummer Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez, Canadian bass player Alain Caron, American Bob Franceschini on saxophone, Brazilian Guitarist Romero Lubambo, Turkish Mustafa Boztüy on percussion and Fahir Atakoğlu on piano.
“For Love” has secured seven first round ballots for Grammys.
Album Of The Year – For Love Song Of The Year – “Por Amor ” feat. Buika Best Jazz Instrumental Album Best Arrangement , Instruments and Vocals – “Land and Sea” feat. Aimee Allen Best Engineered Album- Non Classical Album Notes Recording Package
The grand prize winner, Laia Martinoy Batlle from Catalonia, Spain, joined the competition with her “Save Food, Save People” titled animation which emphasizes that 25,000 people die of hunger each day, meaning 34 people by the time you finish watching her video.
She envisions creating an app that would help local businesses to announce the food that they are bound to waste, so people would be able to see the announcements and purchase that food for a reduced price.
Her short video story supports the “Responsible Consumption and Production” goal of the sustainable development goals adopted in 2015.
Eight additional winners out of the 130 submissions from all over the world have had dreams ranging from stopping climate change and poverty to promoting gender equality and quality education.
Judges from the Teens Dream Co Lab, which is a collaborative of teens and adults who encourage teens globally to be change agents in their communities and the world, evaluated the videos based on six categories: creativity, message clarity and relevance, motivation and inspiration, articulation of how the dream can be achieved, relevance to the SDGs, and earth optimism.
The winners were announced in March 2020. Their videos were screened during the Annual October 3rd 2020 Teens Dream Virtual Celebration that brought together participants – teens and mentors – around the world as part of the Global Co Lab Network that focuses on connecting youth locally, nationally and globally with established networks and expertise, utilizing small gatherings called Co Labs and virtual rooms.
“This is our sixth year celebrating teen changemakers but this is our first virtual celebration,” said Linda Staheli, founding director of the Global Co Lab Network, a non-governmental organization based in Arlington, Virginia in the U.S. “Let me call out our teens, because they are why we are here. I am so proud of them — our leaders, winners, submitters and most importantly our members — they blow me away every day with their passion, intelligence, kindness, and hard work.” The Celebration also highlighted the ten virtual SDG Hubs led by teens with adult mentors that meet weekly to implement action on the SDGs.
A virtual reception followed the meeting where participants went to either or all of the four virtual reality rooms: the main hall, a room with teens dream winners videos, a room highlighting our partners, and a Co Lab Cafe with food and drinks.Teens Dream Co Lab invites all teens to do their part and enter the next video competition. This year, ten winners will be encouraged to implement their visions with a grant of $500 and they will showcase the work they have accomplished to implement their dream at the next virtual Celebration in Fall 2021. Check out the Teens Dream website for details and apply.