As I scanned my mental files for folks who would add something amazing to Ventura College’s Diversity in Culture Festival April 11 and 12, in addition to Alice Bag, it should be no surprise that I’d think of women who go to Burning Man like:

• Rasika Mathur, actor
• Deniz Nicole, artist
• Lynne Okun, artist

I know how attending Burning  Man affected me as an artist and writer and so I asked them via email a series of questions about how attending Burning Man influenced them as artists. Here are their answers. Read more…

“You don’t have to be anything,” reminds Tsoknyi Rinpoche. “You don’t have to teach anything. You just have to be who you are: a bright flame shining in the darkness of despair, a shining example of a person able to cross bridges by opening your heart and soul.”

How can we do this? How can we be who we are, a shining example? And can that bring more social and environmental justice to the world?

To increase justice in the world, Judy Lee Dunn suggests we practice the “3Es”: Empathy, Education, Empowerment:

Empathy is the ability to walk in the shoes of another: without empathy, we don’t know what injustice feels like and we don’t care about the injustice in the world.

Once we care, we want to learn more through Education about injustice so we understand it — the causes, the solutions and the actions people take.

Education leads to Empowerment — taking action.  If we only learn about problems, and don’t see how we can be part of the solution, we feel helpless. Taking action leads to a sense of empowerment.

Empathy. Education. Empowerment. I wrote about this a few years ago but it bears repeating.

One way to to become empathetic and to educate yourself and empower yourself is by attending events like Ventura College’s Diversity in Culture Festival and Earth Day events going on all over the world this month.

Read more…

• When black and brown men killed black and brown men, we did nothing…
• When husbands killed their wives and children, we did nothing…
• When white men killed families in sacred spaces, we did nothing…
• When police officers killed unarmed people, we did nothing…

• When CHILDREN killed other CHILDREN, THE CHILDREN SAID ENOUGH.

JOIN US! WEAR ORANGE! MARCH FOR OUR LIVES TODAY! In Ventura at 10am we meet at Plaza Park in downtown Ventura. Another school walkout is planned for Friday April 20, the anniversary of the Columbine shooting.

THANK YOU TO MB HARRAHAN FOR ENOUGH ARTWORK. I printed out a bunch to pin on to shirts.

Here are a few ideas about gun reform.

Paul Lindhard, center, in Art City’s new gallery which is exhibiting a show of his work and the paintings of John White through March 20.

Simply put, Art City is why I am in Ventura today — and why I am the person I am today. Read more…

I’ve been on a rant for a few years now about technology and it’s impact on our souls.

First I read Richard Louv’s book about nature deficit disorder, Last Child in the Woods, and more recently, Florence William’s The Nature Fix. I’ve written repeatedly about the topic, and shared significant recent research in blog posts like this one from October 2017.

In particular, I am concerned that we need to disconnect with technology in order to connect with nature, other species, and with each other, in order to care about and save our planet from climate change and pollution.

Connecting to place, I would argue, is part and parcel to being human, and is as important to us and our survival as a species as is our connection to each other.

As an avid reader, I am drawn to texts that explore our world and our connection with it. When I can, I bring a few of these texts into the classroom, for example these beautifully written essays:

• George Orwell: “Shooting an Elephant” where he writes about an experience in India — a place where he question whether and where he belongs
• N. Scott Momaday: “Way to Rainy Mountain” where he writes about the place of his ancestors, the Kiowa; I love the entire book and have taught it in the past — this is a link to the prologue
• Charles Simic “A Reunion With Boredom” where he writes about what happens when the power goes out
• Alice Walker: “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Creativity of Black Women in the South” (1974) — this essay was published in MS Magazine and is the title essay of her collection.
• E.B. White: “Once More to the Lake” where he explores both time and place

What are some of your favorite essays about people and place? What do they teach or offer to you?

THREE separate events have been announced to demand gun violence end in America.
March 14th: #NationalSchoolWalkout @womensmarch
March 24th: #MarchForOurLives @AMarch4OurLives
April 20th: #NationalSchoolWalkout @schoolwalkoutUS

The first one is this Wednesday, March 14. #ENOUGH – National School Walkout takes place at 10am and continues for 17 minutes across every time zone in remembrance of the 17 people who were murdered in Parkland, Florida on Valentine’s Day. Read more…

March is Women’s History Month and tomorrow, Thursday March 8, 2018 is International Women’s Day. with a theme of #PressforProgress.

According to organizers, International Women’s Day each year on March 8 “is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. International Women’s Day (IWD) has occurred for well over a century, with the first​ ​March 8​ ​IWD gathering supported by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. Prior to this the​ Socialist Party of America, United Kingdom’s Suffragists and Suffragettes, and further groups campaigned for women equality. Today, IWD belongs to all groups collectively everywhere. IWD is not country, group or organisation specific.​ Make IWD your day! – everyday!”

While women have made progress, there is still a ways to go — not just elsewhere in the world but here in the United States where women make 77 cents to every $1 that men make. For women of color that is even less. Punk icon Alice Bag (who will be featured at Ventura College’s Diversity in Culture event Weds April 11 from 330-5pm in ASC 150) has a new cd coming out with a single that addresses this very point:

Here are the lyrics: Read more…