Ishmael Beah in Toronto Next Week

Some of you may have heard about Ishmael Beah who, as a boy of 10, was recruited as a child soldier. He's written about his journey in A Long Way Home: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. I've yet to read it though i've followed the media coverage of it for some time. And there's no question that it is a moving and important account that should be read widely. The horrors of war and our inhumanity to each other are numerous. Stories of survival and the winning back of stolen humanity are, sadly, more rare. Beah was interviewed on the Daily Show a few months ago - worth watching. Here's the info about next week's event:

ISHMAEL BEAH, Author of A Long Way Gone
Wednesday, April 18th, 2007 at 7:30 PM
St. Barnabas Anglican Church
361 Danforth Avenue (see map of location)
Closest TTC station: Chester Station (Bloor-Danforth line)
Tickets are $5, available at the U of T Bookstore
214 College St (http://www.uoftbookstore.com/online/store_info.ihtml)
Further information: 416-640-5836

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. 1922-2007

Such a great writer! I know he's a huge favourite of a number of friends. He was on the Daily Show earlier this year and it's worth watching this brief appearance. Slaughterhouse Five was the first novel i read by him i was 16 and believed the bombing of Dresden was merely part of the science fiction of it all until years later i met soldiers who, like Vonnegut, had survived that horrific event and were part of the aftermath. The Sirens of Titan is a long-time favourite of mine. And i've many still to go. He will be missed.

I have also loved, for a long time, Vonnegut's advice to writers. In Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons 1999), 9-10, Vonnegut writes:

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

The greatest American short story writer of my generation was Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964). She broke practically every one of my rules but the first. Great writers tend to do that.

My Favourite Curmudgeon Environmentalist

I feel both lucky and privileged to have been able to study with and learn from John Livingston. He was in his last years of teaching when i was a student in the Faculty of Environmental Studies. And we hit it off quickly. I'm not sure why. He had a somewhat fierce demeanor - of the "not suffer fools gladly" type. But i know that i instantly appreciated and loved his passion and clarity of feeling about the problematic relationship between the human built world and the natural world. His work challenged the common sense about environmentalism in ways that i feel we (both society at large and the environmental movement specifically) have yet to embrace.

An article in this week's Toronto Star by a graduate of FES is aptly titles The Greatest Environmentalist You've Never Heard Of. Louise Fabiani writes:

While Livingston was no Luddite – he benefited from hi-tech medicine and central heating as much as the next person – he hated the human sense of entitlement that enables us to perform the most unspeakable acts of cruelty and waste. Sport hunting, vivisection and habitat destruction filled him with a despair that dogged him for most of his life.

But despair is not nearly as sustainable (or, sad to say, acceptable) as rage – not for the average male, anyway. Initially, I joined many fellow students in tiptoeing around John's temper. His oratory style alternated between measured and combative. He snapped at unsupportable statements. He interrupted himself in mid-lecture to sputter indignation at some memory that assaulted him out of nowhere. He did not suffer fools gladly – though, to listen to him, fools got whatever they deserved.

I recommend John's writing as essential reading for all those of us who would fancy calling ourselves environmentalists. Check out The John Livingston Reader. Worth it.

Storytexts on the Internet

The internet amazes me more and more. There are now numerous texts available from various on-line libraries. For those of you who grew up with the "coloured" fairy books, almost ALL the texts are on-line. You can find them here.

And Joseph Jacobs collections are on-line as well. These are excellent sources for beginning and seasoned storytellers. Two of my favourites are: English Fairy Tales and More English Fairy Tales.

The very first story i told at the 1,001 Friday Nights of Storytelling was Tamlane from Jacobs' collection and it remains a favourite of mine still. I recall the night i dared to get up on that wonderful "stage" way back in 1990. Alice Kane was there that evening and i sat beside her. Joan Bodger was there as well. Bright lights of storytelling both of 'em (both gone now though they live on in their stories, may they both rest well). I was a wee bit nervous and was following someone whom i thought to be both a very good teller and much much better than i. So when i sat down again after telling my modest version of Tamlane i was overwhelmed when Alice leaned over to me to say that she didn't much like the telling that had preceded mine, but that she very much liked my telling. It's a moment i will never forget.

Comics have come a long way

Coincidental with refreshing my love of Corita Kent's abundant creativity, is my reading of Bryan Talbot's newest comic book Alice in Sunderland. And what a comic book it is. Hard to classify, for sure. While it is an exploration of the roots of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland; it is also a discussion about art, imagination and creativity; it is a meditation about context and meaning; it is a wild collage of images sketched, painted, colored, photoshopped; a playful linking of relationships in a six-degrees-of-separation kinda way.

It is both a truism and good advice to writers to say that we write what we know. And Talbot is making a most excellent case for the truth of this in Carroll's case. I've read both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass a number of times, but i've never bothered to look very deeply into Carroll's inspirations for the figures and ideas that permeate our modern world (our euro-american one, at least) so thoroughly. I am startled to note how influential are these two fantasy adventure books. (This happens to me all the time with Shakespeare as well.) Talbot does a remarkable job of drawing links - some speculative if persuasive - between the geography of Sunderland and that of Wonderland. And he creates a very ricj and thick description of a world long gone of which Lewis Carroll was a product, participant and, ultimately, a legacy.

The best works of art, i think, are those that fill you with the urge to create your own. Kundera's Unbearable Lightness of Being is like that. As are Corita's serigraphs, dian marino's earthblankets, Ursula LeGuin novels, Raymond Carver's short stories, Mary Oliver's poems, Nick Bantock's collages, and more. And now i add Alice in Sunderland to that list.

The Beguiling (my local favourite comic book shop) is co-sponsoring a talk with Bryan Talbot on April 16th at 7:00 pm at the Merrill Collection of the Toronto Public Library. Can't wait.

Ethics for Activists - 12

Nature
Once there was an old man who meditated every morning under a large tree on the bank of the Ganges. One morning the old man opened his eyes after his meditation to see a scorpion floating helplessly in the water. As the scorpion passed the man under the tree it grabbed hold of a thin strand of root that floated in the water. The scorpion struggled to pull itself along the root but the river current was too strong and the old man could see that the scorpion would soon be pulled back into the water. The old man reached for the scorpion. But as soon as his hand was within reach, the scorpion’s tale whipped over its body and stung him. The man jerked back his hand, balanced himself, and again reached out for the scorpion. But every time he came within reach, the scorpion stung him. His hands swelled up and his face distorted with pain. Just then, a woman walking by saw the old man trying to rescue the scorpion and she shouted, "Hey, old man, only a fool risks his life for the sake of such a useless and thankless creature. And it looks like it’s doing it’s best to kill you?" The old man looked calmly at the woman and said, "Friend, because it is the nature of the scorpion to sting, should I give up my own nature to save?"

Cheap Art Manifesto

I remember the small of straw the most. There was also a summer mix of dust, sun-heated asphalt, car exhaust, pine, freshly cut (and trampled) grass. And the press of hundreds, if not thousands of bodies, as we milled about the Vermont countryside to watch the many puppet shows that made up Bread & Puppets Annual Domestic Resurrection Circus - something i had been attending religiously since 1982. It was probably 1986 or 1987 when i discovered the cheap art bus for the first time. I don't know if i'd simply missed it previously amidst the over-stimulation of this annual puppet carnival. But i'll always remember squeezing into that old school bus for the first time and seeing the "cheap" art. I'm sure i bought an armload. There were posters painted on cardboard and 'zines and more. But more than the items i took away, i walked out of that bus a different person, for i had seen the truth of the manifesto that you can read here (click on the image to see it bigger). That i am a huge fan of Bread & Puppet is not news to those that know me. But as i think back on my journeys of the 1980s it seems more and more to me like my own odyssey across a mythic landscape. From the dimly remembered land of my childhood in Acadia and Montreal (which seems more mythical than real) to the voyage to the edge of the world to see a land held by the tyrant Baby Doc, to the catacombs of the McGill Daily newspaper where i toiled not unlike Theseus trying to find his way out of Daedalus' treacherous labyrinth, to the magical land of Peter Schumann who, like Circe, transformed humans into all manner of beasts (i was a unicorn once), to the presence of all manner of goddesses who gave me many gifts. Hmmm. Rich years that live in me still. Odysseus took ten years to travel home - i wonder where i'm headed. Regardless, it is a great trip and this manifesto has been one of the steady guides to my imagination for over 20 years now. I like manifestos. They are a special kind fo poetry. And this one is as fresh now as when it was written and i share it with the growing world of art activism.

Rules? for Art

Yep, art needs rules. Play needs rules. Or, put another way, art and play needs structure. Producing meaning is, ultimately, a crafty alchemy of wildness, play, inclusion and exclusion, limits and, hopefully, passion. And there are ways to go about this that we call rules. Some of which are best respected, some stretched and negotiated and, of course, some broken. I learned of Corita Kent's rules from dian marino and found them listed in Learning By Heart (p176). And i think they're pretty cool. They're actually titled "Immaculate Heart College Art Department Rules." And, since learning them, i have always combined them in my mind and heart with Bread & Puppet's Cheap Art manifesto (see next post).

Rule I: Find a place you trust and then try trusting it for a while.

Rule 2: General duties of a student: pull everything out of your teacher. Pull everything out of your fellow students.

Rule 3: General duties of a teacher: pull everything out of your students.

Rule 4: Consider everything an experiment.

Rule 5: Be self disciplined. This means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be disciplined is to follow in a better way.

Rule 6: Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail. There’s only make.

Rule 7: The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all the time who eventually catch on to things.

Rule 8: Don’t try to create and analyze at the same time. They’re different processes.

Rule 9: Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It’s lighter than you think.

Rule 10: “We’re breaking all of the rules. Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for x quantities.” John cage

Helpful hints: always be around. Come or go to every- thing. Always go to classes. Read anything you can get your hands on. Look at movies carefully, often. Save everything it might come in handy later. There should be new rules next week.

From David Mekelburg. Corita Kent’s Rules & Hints for Students and Teachers.

A New Book about Corita Kent

I had a wonderful art teacher who had a wonderful art teacher. I never met Corita Kent, though, through my friendship with dian marino, one of Corita's students, i feel as though i know her. So, when i found out a few weeks ago that a new book about Corita's life and art was published i called the Corita Art Center in California and ordered a copy immediately. What a thrill to find it stuffed in my mailbox this week.

The book includes an essay by Julie Ault and a fine selection of Corita's many serigraphs (silkscreens) large enough to appreciate (24.5 cm 28.5 cm). Corita's work is an iconic part of the 60s with her bright, hopeful, word-filled posters. Combining word and image is something i learned from dian. And seeing where dian obviously got some of her inspiration gives me a comforting feeling of having deep roots in creative traditions of which i will never know the full extent. Something that i loved about making art with dian was the playful spirit with which dian would create. I took little urging to embrace this disposition. When i met dian i was, in part, looking for someone who could simply give me permission to play, break rules, be wild. And i owe a debt to dian, and Corita, for showing me the way to connect with that wild fire of creativity that i think is available to all of us.

Come Alive! also includes a very moving essay by poet and peace activist Daniel Berrigan.

I urge you to check out Corita's work. Especially if you're interested in community art. One of my favourite art books of all time is Learning By Heart: Teachings to Free the Creative Spirit by Jan Steward and Corita Kent (sadly, out of print). If you can find a copy it's something you should grab and hang on to. Filled with wise words and exercises and techniques for making art, it is a treasure trove. It was in this book that i came across Corita's "rules" for making art.

And, finally, i must recommend dian's book Wild Garden: Art, Education and the Culture of Resistance which also includes some exercises and techniques as well as some wonderful essays that dian wrote about art and popular and environmental education.

Ethics for Activists - 11

The Star

There was an old man who lived in a village beneath a tall mountain. The man was an ascetic whose daily devotion was to go without food and water from dawn until sunset. This he did for many years and, for as long as any of the villagers could remember, he had always been amongst them. He was loved and respected for his wisdom and kindness. One morning a villager arose early and was amazed to see that there was a star from the heavens that had come down to sit atop their mountain. That villager knew immediately, as did everyone else who saw it, that it must be a gift from the heavens to the old man who everyone loved so well. When the old man awoke and opened his door he was startled to see the entire village population standing before him. They pointed to the star and insisted that he go up the mountain to receive this gift. He said that it was enough that it was there and he had no need to climb the mountain. But the villagers insisted and, perhaps only to please them, he agreed. He fetched a small bottle of water from which he intended to drink when the sun had set, for it would be a full-day’s journey to go up and down that mountain. As he set off up the slope a young girl joined him saying she wanted to go, too. Together they traveled. After some time the girl said she was thirsty. The old man passed her his bottle of water. She said, “I’ll drink only if you drink.” Now the old man had a problem. How could he let the girl suffer? But if he drank and broke his devotion, the gift of the star would surely be gone and the villagers disappointed. He drank. And he gave the girl the bottle. She drank. Slowly the old man raised his head, for he was sure that the gift of the star would be gone. But when he looked up, there on the top of the mountain, were two stars.

The Wonder of Memory

I just came across this lovely wee rhyme below that my dad shared with me last year. Just before he went in for heart surgery which proved to be quite the ordeal, and from which he was recovering at this time last year. It was a hard passage with many scary moments. And he had recovered well enough to spend a few weeks in England and Scotland last summer. Amazing. More amazing still is the way memory works and that he should recall this charming ditty from his childhood.

Three little ponies
Didn’t like their hay.
Said to one another,
”Let’s run away.”

The first one said, “I’ll cantor.”
The second one said, “I’ll trot.”
The third one said, “I’ll run,
If it’s not too hot.”

So they all ran away
With their tails in the air.
But they couldn’t jump the fence,
So they’re all still there.

Popular Education Around the World

For some time now, i've been wanting to survey popular education around the world. No small task. Especially if you consider that there are many groups out there that are practicing various forms of emancipatory, anti-authoritarian, participatory, democratic educations (and pedagogies) that are popular education in all but name. While jargon helps us make connections and delimits a field in helpful ways, it can also exclude and cause us to overlook things. So... today i'm starting a new section on my blog called "The World of Popular Education" (see the right hand column of this blog) listing groups that are committed to popular education praxis. I'm gonna start with those groups that use the term "popular education" and consider how to include others in time. I also include Theatre of the Oppressed in the popular education world. I plan to profile these groups, given what i already know and what i learn. And my dream is that sometime in the next couple of years we might find the financial and material resources to bring us all together to meet, compare notes, celebrate.

Here's a beginning:

• Catalyst Centre - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  
• Highlander Research and Education Centre - New Market, Tennessee, USA
  
• The Freire Centre - Sao Paulo, Brasil
  
• Centre of Theatre of the Oppressed - Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
  
• Popular Education for People's Empowerment - Quezon City, The Philippines
  
• Trapese - UK
  
• Escanda - Spain
• Centre for Adult and Continuing Education - Cape Town, South Africa
• Umtapo - Durban, South Africa
  

And now, a story

For the show i wrote about the Stop the Spadina Expressway struggle i wove in a number of relevant wisdom tales. Here's one:

I love the story of the dining hall at Oxford. The ceiling of the hall had been made from great oak beams that after 400 years were falling apart. Oxford wanted to preserve the architecture and so sought for oak beams that would replace the aging ones. But they were told that there were no oak trees large enough – due to logging – from which to make the needed beams. It was then that one of the carpenters noticed the stand of ancient oaks right beside the dining hall. They were huge and could provide the beams that were needed. And then they realized that the builders of the dining hall 400 years earlier knew that one day the hall would need repaired. And thus had planted the oaks that they knew would one day be used to maintain their work.

The Pedagogy of the Short Tale

I'm often asked where i get all the short tales i tell and i'm always happy to refer people to my favourite sources (see below). But i always experience a bit of a twinge when asked. Looking at this twinge i can see that it is made up of a combination of curiosity and concern. I'm always curious about what people got/get from the stories i tell. I'm also curious to understand their desire behind asking for sources. I know that part of people's response is one of pleasure and delight and they want more of that, thinking that it can be found in the sources from which i draw inspiration. And that's cool. I also know that part of the response when it comes from educators, fellow storytellers and other professionals who present publicly is that they need some short pieces that they can use in the many situations that arise (segueing from item to item, opening comments, closing comments, etc.). And it is this latter circumstance that i want both to examine and to understand more.

I use the term "wisdom stories" to name the many short stories i tell. It's a common enough term that i see used more and more to categorize the many parables, fables and teaching stories used by the many faith traditions (buddhist, hindu, sufi, christian, jewish, etc.) around the world. "Wisdom stories" has both a secular and an ecumenical feel to it. And it's general enough to affirm the genealogical roots (and routes) that stories share. These wisdom tales have been swapped back and forth amongst earth's peoples for millennia. So does that make them all common property? In a sense it does. Apart from copyright (which legally protects the specific property of a creator - in this case a particular text and/or unique spin on an otherwise traditional story), there's no storytelling regulatory authority that can either assign permission to tell something or hold to account someone who is deemed inappropriate. We are left with the messy world of politics, culture and the very, very complicated relations of inequality, oppression, struggle and so on.

What is most true to me about telling stories is that there is always a context from which the stories came, in which they were learned and in which they are being told. And it's really that context that concerns me most. Nor is that context something i control. Though i do think we have influence over the contexts in which we act - even if it is merely the act of abstaining from certain contexts. I guess as much as i respect the very human need simply to laugh at a joke, i'm reluctant to facilitate people using wisdom stories as cosmetics. In these wisdom stories is condensed incredible lessons learned over the ages. And the story is a storage device, a medium to preserve and transport that learning across time, space and culture. But who am i to judge? We need our wisdom tales as much as we need our jokes and, while i'm pretty good at telling wisdom stories, i'm not such a great joke-teller (for that you should listen to my brother - he knows how to tell a joke).

My advice for people who ask me about the sources of the short stories that they see me tell is two-fold. First, from Eduardo Galeano i learned something i have not forgotten in since he told it to me over 15 years ago. My friends Clara and Ruby and i were having drinks with Galeano after a reading he'd done at Harbourfront in Toronto. And between his roguish flirting with my friends (which seemed harmless enough) i trotted out the most prosaic of questions (a tiny bit dressed up, at least) authors get asked: "How is that you find such magical things to write about?" Galeano looked me straight in the eye and with a well-practiced grin he said, "You don't understand. You see, two or three magical things happen to me every day." And i knew immediately the truth he was sharing. It was a moment of startling clarity and i knew all i had to do from then on was to keep my eyes open. Galeano's simple response is one of the great gifts in my life. I have honored every day since.

My second piece of advice regarding wisdom stories is this: once you've found a story that strikes you (whether with pleasure or with pain or, more likely, something between) sit with it, reflect on it, repeat it to yourself many times, meditate. Wisdom stories are like songs without apparent music. And as you come to know the story and some of its onion layers of meanings, you may begin to hear the secret music of that story. Some stories i have told dozens if not hundreds of times and every now and again i worry that the story will get stale if i carry on repeating it so. But if repeating is what i was doing then it probably would get stale. The challenge of telling is to tell it new every time. And the stories that i tell over and over again are always new to me, they always hold something new for me to learn, their music refreshes my soul. And i love to share that refreshment with others.

So, after all that preamble, here's a few of my favourite sources:

De Mello, Anthony
1988 Taking Flight: A Book of Story Meditations. NY: Image Books-Doubleday.
1989 The Heart of the Enlightened: A Book of Story Meditations. NY: Image Books-Doubleday.

Feldman, Christina & Jack Kornfield (eds.)
1996 Soul Food: Stories to Nourish the Spirit and the Heart. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco.

Fumoleau, René
2004 Here I Sit. Ottawa: Novalis.

Galeano, Eduardo
1991 The Book of Embraces. New York: W.W.Norton & Co.
1993 Walking Words. New York: W.W.Norton & Co.

It's the Season of Conferences

Or, at least, it feels like a season, there are so many in the next couple of months - and i'd like to go to all of 'em. Conferences are where we get to do some important collective thinking, some community building, some celebrating. It is always my hope and ideal that conferences committed to social justice, popular education, resisting oppression and so on will also imagine-embody-enact the very worlds we are trying to bringing into existence - walk the talk, as it were. Alas. Ideal's are, as ever, hard to realize. As Carl Schurz said: "Ideals are like the stars. We never reach them, but we chart our course by them."

• Apr. 13-14 - Toronto
  Building Power: Social and Political Transformations in Latin America
  
• Apr. 20-22 - Toronto
  Spirit Matters 2007: One Earth Community - Sharing Our Stories
  
• May 2 - Toronto
  Remembering Freire - Reinventing Freire (you gotta scr0ll down a bit)
  
• May 31 - June 3 - Minneapolis
  Pedagogy & Theatre of the Oppressed
  
• May 24-28 - Hollyhock, BC
  Social Change Institute
• May 25-27 - Calgary
  Puppet Power 2007: Puppets as Agents of Social Change

My "fifteen minutes" are counting down

I had three calls from family today and a few e-mails from friends all pleased to see the article in today's Toronto Star that quotes me about the storytelling show The Spadina Expressway Affair that i'm doing this Saturday. There's a lovely photo of me in the print edition as well.

I Met the Walrus

I Met the Walrus is a fun thing from the annals of rock 'n roll history. I love the animation and can't wait to see the whole thing. The trailer alone is outstanding.

Joyce Little's designs are a hit

Well, as some of you know, my sweety J'net was in Toronto last week representing the work of her friend, Tseshaht designer Joyce Little. It was a very successful event and some big name buyers have expressed interest in Joyce's work. I know little about the world of fashion, as many of you can guess. And it's probably hard for you to imagine me sitting along a fashion runway watching models strut and pose. But that's what i was doing last week as J'net and Fashion Nation introduced Joyce's stuff to the wide world of fashion during L'Oreal's International Fashion Week. You can see the pieces that were featured on Fashion Nation's website here. And J'net was in the news as well and did a very good interview with Fashion Television and you can watch that video here. The piece on Fashion Nation starts at about one minute twelve seconds into the piece and includes a number of Joyce's pieces as well as the interview with J'net. The image with this blog post is J'net modelling one of Joyce's pieces.

Public Space

Once two neighbours fell to arguing over which owned a particular piece of land. Their argument threatened to grow into a bitter quarrel as each was convinced that he owned the land over which they fought. Another neighbour suggested that they go and ask their rabbi for advice. This they did and each man presented to the rabbi his case and his proof for ownership of the land. The rabbi listened to each man and said, “you both have good cases, good proof and you are both correct. I cannot decide. Let us go to the land you are arguing over.” Once they arrived on the disputed land the rabbi got down on his hands and knees and put his ear to the ground. He stayed in this position for some time and then he stood up. “Gentlemen, I have listened to the land. And the land says that it belongs to neither of you. Rather it says that you belong to the land.”

I’m doing a show this Saturday as part of Fabled City (part of the 29th Annual Toronto Festival of Storytelling) about the Stop the Spadina Expressway struggle of the 1960s. I was an odd beneficiary of this struggle as I lived in wonderful house on Spadina Rd. in the early 90s that would have been destroyed by the grandiose dreams of those techno-besotted urban planners of the 1950s and 60s who seemed to take the Jetsons a little too literally. And this has me thinking about public and private space and some of the contemporary activism in Toronto and around the world that is advocating for the common good and against the corporatization/privatization of the whole bloody world.

Four of the newest institutions in this ancient struggle include:

• Planning Action
• The Toronto Public Space Committee (TPSC)
• Spacing Magazine and
• Newmindspace
  
• These are only a few of many that deserve mention – see TPSC’s links page for more.

The current issue of The Eye Weekly poses the question Is The Movement For Sale? featuring Newmindspace’s playgroundification of urban spaces (you may remember something about the pillow fight in Yonge-Dundas Square). While the Eye Weekly piece skirts too quickly over what the "public space movement" is and just what it is that might be "up for sale" (as well as some misrepresenting some things - see their letters column sometime this week), it does foreground the relationship between public space activism and capitalist culture.

I am ambivalent about things like public pillow fights, urban capture the flag, flash mobs, raves and even le parkour (though this last one is pretty bloody cool - ahhh, the adolescent in me still lives a bit). I am simultaneously appreciative and skeptical about the carnivalesque nature of such things. On the plus side they disrupt our unquestioned common sense about how to use both public and private space; and insurgent, performative, playful occupying of the physical and imagined landscapes just might lead to a richer citizen participation in the daily life of a city. However, my skeptical, malcontent self knows that carnivalesque tactics - or call 'em trickster strategies - are, by their nature (or is it design) hard to control. There is no way to guarantee that the spaces (or political moments) that they open up will be used for good and not for evil (okay... sometimes i talk like a comic book - blame it on my mis-spent, if geeky, youth).

The Eye Weekly article sets up some volatile, and ultimately unhelpful, dichotomies: public space activism as principled and pure (i.e. free from the taint of crass commercialism) vs selling out to the ubiquitous marketing machine; and political activism vs having fun. But, while there's always a bit of truth in such simplistic contrasts, the world is way messier than these common equations. Focusing on one institution's choices (and, in this case, it's actually the individuals who co-founded the institution who are being singled out) Whether Newmindspace co-founders Lori Kufner and Kevin Bracken are "selling out"is hardly an indicator of movement trends. With capitalism as the dominant economy, it's inevitable that the experience that individuals accrue in social movement work will eventually be bank-able. And what are individuals to do in an economy that is so unforgiving (i just got word of the demise of another non-profit IMPACS, who are declaring bankruptcy).

Planning Action members Deb Cowen and Sue Bunce name the issues well in a response letter that should be printed in Eye Weekly by now:

But more important than a moral debate about what kind of fun we engage in and how ?diverse? that sense of fun isn?t, public space activists might revisit their own assumptions about what constitutes a ?public space? problem to begin with. Public space has never been about comfort and joy except for the chosen few. Tightly tethered to social norms, public space has historically been a site of exclusion as much as inclusion. If we think city space through the experiences of different social subjects, we might see efforts to fight racialized police violence, to provide sanctuary for undocumented people, or to fund daycare spaces as struggles for public space par excellence. It is not surprising that many of these efforts emerge out of communities of colour, organized by working people. This is not a critique of fun.

The Eye Weekly article ends on a quote from Newmindspace co-founder Lori Kufner who says, "Our events aren't about anything except for having fun and reclaiming public space and meeting new people." And it is this that i have the hardest time with. Not to read too much into Lori's understanding from one quote, but it is this type of sentiment, common enough, that gives me the most grief. For in a world of such vast inequalities (even in our relatively gentler welfare economy country) i don't think that such fun can be had except based on privilege and oftentimes at someone's (with less privilege) expense.

Nor is it the case that i don't believe in fun. But, for the sake of argument, i would contrast fun with pleasure. If , for a moment, we say that "fun" names the adolescent, naive characteristic of life (something we are all entitled to live through for a time), then "pleasure" could name something more, the kind of fun that can be had when one's experience of life, depth/breadth of character and one's increased mindfullness of one's inter-relation with all things has expanded one's capacity for containing joy. I am clumsily referring to what Barbara Ehrenreich calls a "politics of pleasure" in an article she wrote titled Was it Good For You (The Progressive, 1999) and in which she writes:

Oppression is not the sole factor pushing people into activism, and even the most egregiously oppressed people have often expressed their rebellion in a way that looked, to their oppressors, like mindless hedonism. European peasants looted bakeries and manor houses, eating and drinking as they went. Caribbean slaves and French villagers used carnivals, with their masks and public processions, as occasions for revolt. In this country, slaves sometimes warmed up for uprisings with song and "ring shouts." Considering this venerable tradition of combining pleasure and politics, only the most pinched Puritanical soul could insist that political activism be an exercise in deferred gratification.

It's not just "the sixties" raising its impish head here. Yes, that decade was famously fun: Abbie Hoffman wrote (and largely lived) Revolution for the Hell of It. French radicals ran in the streets shouting, "All Power to the Imagination!" American campus activists made love, not war, and probably did as much recruiting at all-night dance parties as at teach-ins--not just opportunistically, but because we truly believed that the id could be a reliable guide to social change. But the sixties weren't all sex-drugs-and-rock-'n'-roll. Most of the time, we were doing the same kinds of hard work activists have always done: Going patiently from door to door, bickering over the wording of leaflets, organizing teach-ins and rallies. In fact, most of the reputed political fun of the sixties was the same kind of "fun" no doubt experienced by activists in the thirties or teens: The thrill of solidarity, of marching and chanting together, of being caught up in a great transcendent cause, "larger than ourselves."

And i agree with her conclusion:

But on the whole, we have barely begun to explore the politics of pleasure. For all the time spent on "principles of unity" and structures of leadership, we know hardly anything about how to make the struggle something that people might, in large numbers, actually want to join.

I do believe in working together and think that there is much to be learned by combining the playfulness that Newmindspace represents with the community organizing and intellectual smarts of groups like TPSC and Planning Action and others. Ahhh, but that is tricky, of course. As it means tolerating if not accepting big differences. As dian marino, a dear friend, used to say, the necessary working in coalition that we must do in social change work is about "keeping difficult company".

I am worth 4, the other 3 are in bed

Here's an image that Clara just sent me from the struggle for the rights of CFS sufferers in Spain. The sign says "I am worth 4, the other 3 are in bed."

A Victory for Popular Struggle

My friend Clara, as some of you know, is both a sufferer of and an activist on chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) which is a pernicious disease that affects many bodily systems, especially the immune system. Diagnosing it and treating it does not fit easily into contemporary medical practice and ideology and thus goes ignored, misunderstood and/or stigmatized rather than treated. Clara is one of the leaders in a Spanish popular movement that has been struggling for the rights of people who live with CFS and the related disease fibromyalgia. As you can see from Clara's letter below, the Catalan parliament has responded to popular pressure and approved a process that will result in legislative change.

Dear friends and colleagues far and near,

Yesterday, the Catalan Parlament accepted the Popular Legislative Initiative on Chronic FAtigue Syndrome/ME and Fibromialgia (FM), presented by representatives from 80% of the people with CFS/ME or FM who are in associations in Catalonia. This acceptance is the first step towards a world-first: a law that would ensure proper servicies for people with CFS/ME and FM and a fair treatment by medical inspectors. Here is the news item in the Catalan Parlament's home page

No one thought that a group of ill people like us, in a not so user-friendly country would be able to pull this off. So we are all very happy and it is a big boost for the CFS/ME and FM community here.

Now that it has been accepted, the signature gathering can begin. We need 50,000 signatures and we have a team of 150 signature-collection coordinators ("fedetarios") ready to roll.

Once the signatures are gathered, the law will be discussed in parlament and voted. This will probably take place in the fall.

Up to now, it has been a lot of work for us sick folks: writing the law and the document to justify each article of the law (thank you to all of you who sent me the necessary bibliography!), working with all the associations to create unity and the much needed empowerment, meeting with all political groups and sub groups (we have the support of all the political parties, except, of course, the party that runs the Health Ministry), campaigning to recruit signature coordinators, meetings with unions, women's groups others.

It has not been easy as we are presenting a proposed law that puts totally into question the goverment's plan to keep CFS/ME and FM solely in Primary Health Care (where most doctors do not believe these illnesses exist or do not want to work with them and are not allowed to do any relevant tests), while our law, amongst other things, demands CFS-FM units. So we have had (and continue) to deal with pressures, intimidations, etc, from goverment and goverment-related organizations. We are also having to deal with the two foundations (one run by the goverment party, the other run by businessmen) who, up to now, had managed to control and manipulate the CFS and FM associations in CAtalonia and create division. Encouraging the associations to be independent and to create unity has been hard but the most rewarding work.

The documents (the law, the justification document and other documents) are avaliable in Catalan and some in Spanish. If anyone is interested in receiving them, let us know.

Clara Valverde

for the Promoting Commission of the
CFS/ME-FM Popular Legislative Initiative
Catalonia, Spain

Reminding Myself Why i Love to Make Art

Making murals in the popular education class these past couple of weeks i am reminded of my work with dian marino in the early nineties. She had a teacher who was a wonderful fount of wisdom about creativity and art. Here's some words from Corita Kent:

When you are not separate from the creative process, time ceases to exist. You might start to feel tired and suddenly realize that much time has passed. It isn't necessarily a happy time - and may be very difficult to start if it is a job or an obligation. But if' you start with all the concrete needs and proceed in a thorough way - the creative process will take over and you will forget whether it is work or play. Working in the here and now is one of the most uncontaminated ways to work.

Fierce Light - Video Diary 4 (Nairobi, Kenya)

This is one of a number of Velcrow Ripper's video diaries of the World Social Forum held this past January in Nairobi, Kenya. As some of you know i was in Nairobi in December though i could could not stay on to take part in the WSF. Alas. Energetic, wonderful, contradictory, festive, problematic - it sounds like it was the usual "carnival" of high-spirited resistance to the global corporate monoculture. Check out Velcrow's other diaries and more of his work here on YouTube.

conspiracy 911

A friend just sent me this very clever video by a friend of hers (thanks, Sushil). I'm not much into conspiracy theories (except for their strange power as compelling stories.) And I'm not sure if Apeman888 (the director) is for or against conspiracies. He writes:

I made this film as a rejoinder to all the crazy 911 theories floating around the Internet. My plan is to fight madness with madness. It's a battle the conspiracy nuts cannot hope to win. For I am the Moscow of madness, whereas they are merely the provincial weather stations.

Is he saying that his conspiracy theorizing is better than all the "nuts"? Regardless, I love the cleverness of the juxtapositions that Apeman888 has made. And the warning about Iran as the next target of US aggression is timely. See my previous post with the slide show scored to Cat Stevens music.

Ethics for Activists - 10

The Stream & The Desert

Once there was a stream that began high in a mountain range where it was a mere trickle. As it travelled down the mountain it grew and grew until it was a lovely cascade which coursed on down into a valley to become a rushing river. It widened as it crossed the land and it flowed strongly until it reached a vast expanse of sand. The stream that had become a river tried to cross this desert but as fast as the waters poured forth so equally as fast the waters disappeared into the sand. The river was discouraged. It could see no way to continue its journey.

Just then a voice on the wind said, “you must let go. The harder you try the more water you’ll lose to the sands.”

“But if I let go,” said the river, “how will I know where I am to go, what I am to become?”

“Let go and see,” said the voice on the wind.

The stream that had become a river let go. It gave itself up to the sun and sky and wind where it became clouds. The clouds were carried high over the desert by the winds. Now, having crossed the desert, the stream poured down from the sky, with the power of storms.

Now that i have to learn more about parenting:

Not exactly something you wanna show the kids (for a variety of reasons)but this is rather falling-down-funny. Thanks to my sister for telling me about this one.

Ever wonder about the "runcible spoon"?

Some friends gave me and J'net a gift of the Owl & The Pussycat (by Edward Lear) along with a hearty rendition of the song. Which got me to wondering about that good 'ole runcible spoon. And i'm glad to say that i've learned all about runcibility at last. Here's what the Straight Dope has to say about the runcible spoon. I just know you were wanting to know this.

Cadboro Bay, Victoria in February - hard to believe this is winter

Spent the afternoon on the beach yesterday, with kids making driftwood & sand houses. A beautiful February day in Victoria, BC.

The View from Port Alberni's Harbour Quay

The sun was out yesterday in this Pacific Coast land of trees and water. My heart goes out to all my Ontarian family and neighbours currently in the arctic deep freeze. I'll be with you soon.

Popular Education, Puppetry and….

Meeting with a friend and some young students interested in popular education I was asked about the relationship between popular education and Bread & Puppet which my friend knows me to have been involved with for over 25 years. Coincidentally, I’ve been thinking a great deal about the history of popular education in Canada and the world and I am currently working on a manuscript provisionally titled Trickster Pedagogy that puts some of my ideas out there as well as scrutinizes my experience with popular education these couple of decades past. When asked about Bread & Puppet in the context of popular education it crystallized for me some thoughts about the uniqueness of Canadian popular education history, practice and theory or, in a word, praxis. As with all things human, there are contradictions (some widely-recognized and some not so) in the history and praxis of popular education in Canada – something I am exploring even as we speak. That said, I am also confident in saying that there are some wonderful contributions that deserve attention including The Naming the Moment Project (inspired by the practice of conjunctural analysis in Latin America), The Doris Marshall Institute for Education and Action (a group of over 20 educators who worked together in Toronto between 1986 and 1997), The Centre de Formation Populaire in Montreal, The Tatamagouche Centre in Nova Scotia and Kairos (an ecumenical social justice umbrella group), and the Catalyst Centre of which I am a co-founder. There are countless events that have been part of this history including popular theatre workshops, social justice conferences, the Popular Education weeks that happened on Grindstone Island in 1987 and 1988. And Canadian popular education has integrated anti-racist theory and practice as well as made some serious headway in influencing trade union pedagogy. And, to return to the inspiration for this post, it has always incorporated a healthy dose of the arts – whether this is the use of mural production and other forms of visual art, the training and use of Theatre of the Oppressed (including forum theatre), song, ‘zines and puppets. As part of the Naming the Moment workshops of 1991-1992 in Toronto, we both produced a performance of Bread and Puppet as well as our own production of the Ojibway Prophecy of the Seven Fires (performed at the Native Canadian Centre in October of 1992 as part of the reframing of the much-vaunted Columbus quincentenary). I plan to write a more detailed history of that event which was a remarkable moment of coalition and collaboration. More recently, with respect to popular education and the arts, Deborah Barndt edited a collection of essays about community art that is well-worth checking out: Wild Fire: Art as Activism. And, apropos of my friend’s question about popular education and Bread & Puppet I continue to research this wonderful link and will share more of this in future. Meanwhile you could always check out these local (Toronto) groups for which I hold enormous respect:

• Shadowlands
• Clay & Paper
• Jumblies

Toronto Social Forum has new website

This new website is a good place to check regularly for many social justice and social movement activities. The World Social Forum began in Port Alegre Brazil in 2001 in response to the annual capitalist love-fest (aka the World Economic Forum) that happens in Davos, Switzerland. The most recent happened in Nairobi, Kenya last month. Here's an excellent report from Judy Rebick.

Bread & Puppet Website - YAY!

Bread and Puppet has a website - joy-oh-joy. As some of you know, i have been attending Bread & Puppet events since 1980 - they've been a big part of my life, as you can imagine. They are one of world greats of theatre - not just puppet theatre. And for all you budding community artists and activists you might want to check out their APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM. Throughout the 80s i longed to apply to work with them but instead found myself in Nicaragua working for the Sandinistas instead. Their website also includes an interview with Peter Schumann and a link to a "academic" article on Bread & Puppet. (The above photo is one i took in November 2006 when i co-produced a performance at York University. This is the face of an Iraqi woman puppet. You can see more images from that performance in this old blog post.)

I miss the snow... no, really, i do ....

I understand the snow is a-falling in Toronto right now. And i love a good snowfall. For my part, i' enjoying some west coast winter weather as you can see from this picture. This is hard for me to call winter. Pretty though. And warm.

Peace Train by Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens)

It’s funny how memories of growing up can suddenly sweep back into view with all the richness of the emotion of those moments lived, for some of us, long ago. Seeing the video by Lucas Gray about Iran scored to Peace Train by Yusuf Islam (aka Cat Stevens) my memory of long-forgotten teenage days was rekindled. Partly because my closest friend from the age of 17 until I was well-into my twenties was a Persian student, Majid, who became a refugee after the revolution in Iran and who continues to live and work in Montreal to this day. And the other memory rekindled was my almost-complete collection of Cat Stevens records. His music was one of a set of things (which also included the Rocky Horror Picture Show, lentils and Harold & Maude) that ushered me from the suburban hinterland in which I had been raised into the urban (inner-city, really) world in which I have lived ever since. So it was with dismay that I learned (now long ago as well) of his conversion to Islam (ironically not a couple of years after I had discovered his music). Despite having muslim friends, I can see now that I was suspicious and even a bit resentful of this conversion. And while I am somewhat critical-minded about all religious conversion experiences I can see from this vantage of three-decades distance that my feelings about Cat Stevens’ conversion were certainly fuelled by both ignorance and fear of Islam. So, when the headlines that alleged Cat Stevens’ support of the fatwa issued against Salman Rushdie by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989, I was, sadly, inclined to grant them credence without the scepticism I usually apply to all media coverage. I was not inclined to look more closely at what the truth of the matter might be. I allowed my suspicions that Cat Stevens had become a fundamentalist, doctrinaire muslim to be confirmed. I can see now that this passive acceptance of this media-sense and “common-sense” opinion was, in part, due to my own suspicions (which are most accurately called racist) of islam.

I still don’t know the whole truth of the matter and this wikipedia info at least suggests that further research and reflection is necessary. I can see now that I was practicing a common strategy of oppression, commonly called the double-standard (though triple, quadruple and so on is probably more accurate). And, like many people, I tolerate contradictions in people and institutions I otherwise approve of while expecting people and institutions of which I am suspicious or fearful to prove themselves contradiction-free. Just one of the many tactics of racism/white-supremacy, sexism/patriarchy, classism and so on.

So learning of Lucas Gray’s piece about Iran, and quite moved by it (see previous post), I checked out YouTube to see what might be there and found this rendition of Peace Train that brought tears (both sad and bitter) to my eyes and that has caused me to regret cutting out of my life some music that I once loved dearly. Fear and ignorance, especially of the racist variety, are insidious things that seep into all our lives.

Cataloguing Books on-line

Hey fellow campers, i've just discovered Library Thing - an on-line book-cataloguing site. You get to catalogue 200 books for free after which you have to pay $10 a year or $25 for life - given the price of many softwares, it's a pretty good deal. And many of you know what a book geek i am. The thing about this site is that you can view other people's libraries. In theory it's a way of sharing libraries, swapping books and such. Though i'm pretty protective of my collection - again, as many of you know. Nonetheless i like sharing and a couple of dozen of my books are abroad in the world at any one time.

Popular Education News - Jan 2007

I'm catching up on posting and here's one things i have been delinquent about: The Popular Education News which has been published devotedly by Larry Olds for these past few years. Some great links, resources, meeting announcements and more.

Peace Train memories and new inspiration

Here's a slide show that's worth a couple of minutes of your time : http://www.lucasgray.com/video/peacetrain.html (thanks, Kim).

Community Arts University

Well, i've quite loved the Community Arts Network website for some time and now i love it even more as they have created a virtual university (actually a collection of articles and syllabi) about community arts. Despite some syllabi about global perspectives, it's a tad U.S-centric - which is small detriment to using this wonderful collection of stuff. You could say i'm a bit of a syllabi junky.

U.N. OKs Bill to Protect Disabled Rights

Another one of those weird coincidences. While here doing this human rights training there's this piece of good news about the UN approving the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Sadly and frustratingly, the same can't be said for the much delayed UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People which Canada has thus far refused to support. And it's been 23-years-in-the-making. And, what's more, is that those 23 years included the UN's "Decade of Indigenous People" which ended two years ago. An earlier post of mine is worth following for some wonderful speeches by indigenous people.

Culture Collective

I just received an email from some friends at Living Folklore. They're promoting an arts group that i certainly want to learn more about: Culture Collective. It was founded by the family of Dan Eldon, a young photojournalist and artist (he kept remarkable journals and my friends and family know how important journal writing/book-making is to me), who was killed in Somalia while covering the conflict there in 1993. I'm struck by some odd coincidences. Dan Eldon spent many years right here in Nairobi where i have just received my friend's email about this and from where i am currently writing this post. Also, it was only seven week ago that another young journalist, Brad Will, was killed by assassins while he was covering the teachers' strike in Oaxaca, Mexico. Who knows what coincidences signify? And i don't really believe in coincidences. This year, as some of you know, has been a remarkable one for strange and wonderful happenings in my life.

Kalahari Bushmen Victory

How remarkable that while we're meeting here learning together about human rights education that in Botswana there should be such a remarkable victory for the Kalahari Bushmen - a hunter-gatherer society that have been forcibly relocated from their ancestral lands by the Botswana government. This is a remarkable victory for indigenous peoples. You can read a couple of excellent articles about it in The Guardian: Kalahari Bushmen win land battle and Bushmen win rights over ancestral lands.

A week of workshopping

Well, things are wrapping up and winding down and the 20 human rights educators are finalizing their program plans even as i write this. We'll all be heading home tomorrow, me to Toronto and the participants to all points African. It has been a remarkable week of learning together, sharing stories, laughing, getting to know each other. this is a unique experience for me, never having facilitated a workshop made up exclusively of African participants. What a privilege it is to be able to work for such a group. And moving to consider the context of their work and the courage it takes to commit oneself to being a human rights educator. What is an choice that can be made with relative security in a north american context is anything but in these countries.

The Maasai Market and the Art of the Hard Sell

Circulating around Nairobi is he Maasai Market - a street market that moves from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. On Tuesday's it s found across the street from the Meridian Hotel where i've been staying this week. Tomorrow it will be near the Hilton Hotel and i hope to find it. I know many people will be coming to Nariobi from around the world in January for the World Social Forum and the Maasai Market will be something many will want to check out. Prepare to bargain - those of us raised in economies where virtually all prices are fixed might want to bone up on some principles of haggling. Not that i have any particular skill. The market is crowded, noisy, fascinating. There are numerous vendors and at least as many brokers - men who spot likely customers and are remarkably aggressive about selling you things. Its all pretty good natured. But it is also overwhelming. At one point i had at least five guys competing simultaneously for my attention, each pushing various goods in my arms and face. If you're white then you stand out pretty obviously as a mark for everyone's attention. I'm not sure how the brokers work, though i imagine they "represent" vendors and get a cut. But it's clearly pretty fast and loose. One fellow tried to persuade me that the young Maasai woman from whom i wanted to buy a necklace was his sister. I thought it unlikely and wished deeply that i spoke ki-Swahili so i could understand what looked, from the body language, to be a fascinating negotiation in which the broker was trying to convince the young vendor that he could get los of money out of me. The young woman was beautifully tough and clearly not giving the fellow an inch. So, to those of you coming to Nairobi in January, best of luck at he Maasai Market. The above-images are the street the day before the market and the morning of.

Downtown Nairobi

Yup, Nairobi is a big, noisy, crowded city. Fascinating, as usual. It's been a beautiful day here as well: sunny, dry and 26. Other parts of Kenya (to the north) including southern Somalia are experiencing torrential flooding and tens of thousands of people have been displaced. Nairobi is 1600 metres high, though, and generally has pretty good weather. I'm told that Nairobi has always been too high and too cool for the malaria mosquito to survive, but global warming is changing that (though i've heard of no danger at the moment). We're staying in a modest hotel on the edge of the downtown core and all the participants of the human rights workshop are arriving this evening and tomorrow from Nigeria, The Gambia, Somalia, Uganda and elsewhere from around the continent. The curriculum i'll be facilitating is one that i've facilitated a couple of times for the annual human rights school organized by Equitas in Montreal. For you educator types, i recommend looking at the Equitas manuals which are on their website. They have a unique approach to human rights education in that they are heavily influenced by popular education, Frierian thinking and such. While much human rights education is rather document-driven (i.e. everything you wanted to know about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), Equitas has a participatory approach that balances well the sharing of people's unique experience with the need to learn about the history and documents of human rights work.

The Mighty Nile - That Storied River

I saw the Nile yesterday as i flew from Paris to Nairobi. Such a storied river - the longest in the world and beside which can be found the Great Pyramids, Thebes, Karnak, Abu Simbel, Khartoum and so much more. From the Mediterranean to Lake Victoria, the Nile courses across Africa just as the Milky Way courses across our night sky - or so the ancient pyramid-builders thought.

18th Annual Kensington Market Festival of Lights

It's a rainy day in Paris as i wait for my flight to Nairobi. Whatta world. As some of you know, i'm Kenya-bound to facilitate a five-day human rights education curriculum workshop for Equitas. Meanwhile, i just checked my e-mail and saw a workshop announcement from Red Pepper Spectacle for preparations for the 18^th Annual Kensington Market Festival of Lights. I'll be posting photos from Nairobi so check back here over the next week.

The Snow Queen - Dec 17th

One of the most powerful stories i read as a kid was The Snow Queen by Hands Christian Anderson. Something about it touched me deeply and alternately gave me nightmares and inspired fantastic visions. Now my friend Alon Nashman is starring in a production of Snow Queen in a few weeks. I've followed Alon's work for many years and think him (and know him) to be one of Toronto's (and Canada's) finest actors. I highly recommend taking in this show. (Thanks to Elizabeth for, as always, keeping me in the loop). You can click on the picture of the poster to get a bigger version or go to the JCC site here: http://www.milesnadaljcc.ca/441.html

I'm gonna try and make it, if i'm not sleeping after arriving home that afternoon from Nairobi (that's right, i'm going to Kenya - details to follow).

Guilty seasonal pleasure

Quite some years ago now, Matt and i found this game Snowcraft. Since then, the first snow has always reminded me of this silly, if strangely rewarding, waste of time. What makes it memorable is the sound effects. You'll see/hear what i mean.

Okay - this you gotta see

If you haven't heard of Têtes à claque, you must check it out. You need to speak french to appreciate it fully. It's real Québec humour. This halloween scene is one of the funniest things i've seen in a long while (Thanks, Sean, for letting me know about this). Le Pilote is also side-splitting. And check out Le Willi Waller, if you've got the time.

Indigenous Peoples' Resistance to Economic Globalization

Indigenous Peoples' Resistance to Economic Globalization: A Celebration of Victories, Rights and Cultures is a must-listen-to-it episode of Democracy Now (one of the best news shows coming out of the US).

A Postcapitalist Politics

This new book- A Postcapitalist Politics by J.K. Gibson-Graham is a must read for anyone doing popular education and/or popular economics education.

Activist Training in the Academy

I've recently learned about a new Master’s Program in Environmental Advocacy and Organizing at Antioch University New England. Worth checking out. Steve Chase who has both written a dissertation and designed the program and argues that popular education is the most suitable pedagogy for this program. Here's what he writes in his abstract:

In the last part of this section, the study identifies 5 core curriculum content areas that are key to teaching environmental advocacy and organizing and then discusses the tradition of popular education as the most appropriate educational methodology for activist training programs.

You can get Steve's dissertation on this page. He's got a blog, too: The Well-Trained Activist.

Popular Education for Social Change 2006

A belated posting of the syllabus for the popular education course i'm teaching at the Faculty of Environmental Studies (York University). Feedback is always appreciated. Especially if you make use of this syllabus in some way.

Amapola y los aviones

For those of you who speak spanish, i recommend watching this trailer for a Spanish film being made by my friend Clara about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Most of what i've learned about this pernicious and invisible disability I’ve learned from Clara. Check it out! And here's more info here (Documental Sobre el SFC) and here (Conferencia del Profesor Dr James Baranjuk de la Georgetown University)

Rabbit

Thanks to Matt for passing this on. A bizarre little morality tale. Very, very creepy.

Vivienne Jones work

This is a belated post to introduce you to Vivienne Jones' work which i learned about from a mutual friend. I just went to Vivienne's exhibit (a collaboration with Ken Nicol) that closed today (my bad - in terms of spreading the word in more timely fashion). Vivienne's work has an organic elegance and roughness that i am very fond of, reminding a good deal of Nick Bantock's work of which i am a big fan. I learned of Vivienne's work while looking for an engagement ring (more on that in a later post). Her rings are enchanting and seem to me like they have been carved out of the earth itself as much as cast. This most recent exhibit of works (quite different from her jewelry) includes resin-encased collages of buttons, iron filings and other found items and the whimsical ephemera of plumb-bobs and fawcetts. Again it reminded e of Bantock's work as well as the work of Dave McKean who did the covers to the Sandman comics. Here's one of the first covers that he did that has inspired my own collage work for many years.

Eagleton on Dawkins

English evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins has just published The God Delusion in which he applies his scientific reductionism to religion. The certainty of atheists such as Dawkins has always struck me ironically to be most similar to that of fundamentalists. Weird. Terry Eagleton, one of my favourite writers (whom i yet disagree with about postmodernism), has written a blistering critique of Dawkins that is well-worth the read - more than a few laugh-out-loud lines. I wanna write like Eagelton when i grow up - though i'll never be as wicked smart as he is. Here's a taste:

Dawkins speaks scoffingly of a personal God, as though it were entirely obvious exactly what this might mean. He seems to imagine God, if not exactly with a white beard, then at least as some kind of chap, however supersized. He asks how this chap can speak to billions of people simultaneously, which is rather like wondering why, if Tony Blair is an octopus, he has only two arms. For Judeo-Christianity, God is not a person in the sense that Al Gore arguably is. Nor is he a principle, an entity, or ‘existent’: in one sense of that word it would be perfectly coherent for religious types to claim that God does not in fact exist. He is, rather, the condition of possibility of any entity whatsoever, including ourselves. He is the answer to why there is something rather than nothing. God and the universe do not add up to two, any more than my envy and my left foot constitute a pair of objects.

Thanks to Corvin for the link!

What journalism should be doing

You may have heard about Clinton's interview with Fox News. Well, check this video out that Matt put me onto:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcYSHuGDqrU

And then treat yourself to the Daily Show's take on things:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS8v94M4DCc

My ongoing thinking about love

I've rewritten an essay about love that i first wrote about 3 or 4 years ago. I'm interested in elaborating a theory of praxis that pushes the traditional definition to include love, humility and more.

On Broken Hearts - MSWord

On Broken Hearts - PDF