The Phonemes - May 5th

Alas, but i am gonna miss this show as i will be out of town (way out of town; i wonder if they have blintzes in T'blisi). So, if you're in Toronto and wanna catch one of my fave indie bands, check 'em out and let me know how the show goes. Here's what Liz has e-mailed about the show:

there's something we've been meaning to do and we're doing it next saturday may 5th at the whippersnapper art gallery with bob wiseman and jason trachtenburg and also, we are doing this specifically with many friends like justin stayshyn, mez, katie crown, john tielli, paige gratland and cab williamson from hank, gentleman reg, james anderson and shayna stevenson from the singing saws and others. we will also be showing 2 videos. one is for the song "porcupines" (jeff woodrow made it) and one is for the song "oh sleep" (rose bianchini and richard made it). this thing we are doing is a celebration of our new cd so it's sort of important to us. you know? that's why the flyer is pink and grey.

Ethics for Activists - 14

Escape
Once there was a Sufi who was captured by the police and accused of theft. Despite his protests of innocence he was convicted and sentenced to three years in jail. He had a loving wife who visited him every day. One day she was allowed to bring him a carpet on which he could pray. Three times a day he would unroll the carpet and, kneeling and bowing down, would pray. Weeks and months passed in this manner. One day he the intricate pattern of the carpet’s weaving caught his notice. There was something unusual about it. Still, day after day, he prayed and gradually the intricate detail of the carpet began to make sense to him. As the days passed and he continued to pray the pattern resolved until one day it was clear to him. The pattern in the weaving was the design of the lock on his prison door. Using his knew knowledge he picked the lock and escaped.

Bill Moyers Journal

Okay, i'm a fan. The first two episode of this new PBS series are excellent. The Buying the War episode brings together quite nicely much of the criticism of the American mainstream mass media's complicity with the Bush administration's war on Iraq/terror. Not that the Canadian mass media should be lauded - i wonder what an analysis of the Canadian media would demonstrate in terms of US aggression, (especially given Linda McQuaig's new book Holding the Bully's Coat: Canada and the US Empire)? As much as i've been critical of mass media for the past 27 years, having started out at the McGill Daily in Montreal where we knew with that certainty (both a privilege and flaw of youth) that we could change things, still i was and am amazed at the american mainstream mass media's numerous failures in covering the elections of Bush, the bombing of the World Trade Centre, the "war on terror", the invasion of Iraq and more. Moyers show goes some way to exposing these failures, even if understanding them remains a more complex (and necessary) task than a one-hour TV show can be expected to do. One of the implicit themes of the Buying the War episode is the media's resistance (or inability?) to admit that they were wrong. The show is a good indictment. But, of course, this is only one aspect of addressing the problem. And, ironically, Moyers show itself acts as a kind of (hegemonic) mea culpa showing that however rare it might be, the media yet includes the capacity to be critical of itself, of not apologize.

The second episode includes a very good interview with John Stewart - one that increases, once again, my respect for Stewart. And there's also a good piece about the blog Talking Points Memo.

Their wesbite is impressive as well, with video of the full episodes available as well as transcripts, a blog of their own and a podcast. They're on the ball when it comes to taking advantage of internet capacity.

How Popular Education Works - 5

Or at least, the zen of it....

I've loved this zen story for a long time:

A student asked Soen Nakagawa during a meditation retreat, "I am very discouraged. What should I do?"

Soen replied, "Encourage others."

from Essential Zen edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi & Tensho Devis Schneider (Castle Books, NJ, 1996)

Ethics for Activists - 13

It is said that Tetsugen, a Zen monk in 17th Century Japan, wanted to publish the sutras which, at that time, existed only in Chinese. His plan was to publish 7000 copies from carved woodblocks. This would be very expensive and he set about collecting money from anyone who would donate to his project. Occasionally he would meet a rich patron who would give him a hundred gold coins, but mostly he would be given only a few small coins. In this way, after ten years, he had enough to set about publishing the sutras. But as it happened, at that time, the Uji River burst its banks, causing much havoc. There followed famine and much suffering. Tetsugen used the money he had collected to relieve people's suffering, to save people from starvation.

Again, Tetsugen set about collecting the money he needed. And after many more years he was once again able to begin his publishing project. But there was an epidemic that struck the land and once again, Tetsugen used the money he had collected to aid the people.

Once more Tetsugen began to collect funds and finally after twenty years he was able to realize his dream and to publish the sutras. The woodblocks can still be seen in Obaku monastery in Kyoto.

The Japanese tell their children that Tetsugen produced three sets of sutras and that the first two are invisible and surpass the third.

(based on a version found in Zen Flesh, Zen Bones compiled by Paul Reps)

I'm podcasting again

It's been a while, but i've finally untangled my technology enough to begin podcasting once again. I've just loaded up episode 7 of my Comeuppance podcast which is part of RPN, the Rabble Podcasting Network (which is worth checking out for a variety of other shows). Episode 7 is inspired by Earth Day which is ending even as i blog this.

This one always cracks me up

I just picked up a new copy of Essential Zen by Kazuaki Tanahashi and Tensho David Schneider (i know, i know... how shocking that i would buy a book - and this is my third copy of this one, having given away the other two). Well, it's full of real gems (and the "Essential" series is quite good, thought the notion of essential is questionable). Anyway, as i say, full of gems. And here's one that was an instant favourite:

One day Maurine Stuart was having tea with friends at her home in Cambridge when the telephone range.
"Do Buddhas wear toe-nail polish?" a seven-year-old caller wanted to know.
"Are you wearing toe-nail polish?" Roshi responded.
"YES!? shouted the little girl and hung up.

Glass Magic and Thanks

This remarkable glass lamp is the work of Brad Sherwood, a glass artist, who came to my attention, in part, through another remarkable thing he makes with glass: marionettes. You've got to see them to believe them. This lamp is a gift with which some very clever people surprised me and for which i am deeply grateful. You can see another view of the lamp here. Brad teaches at glassblowing at Sheridan (scroll down this Sheridan page and you'll catch a glimpse of one of his glass puppets).

The lamp images are photos that Brad took and sent me.

Popular Education Workshops and more - in Toronto

There's a number of popular education and related events coming up in the next few months. I've already mentioned the Freire conference on May 2nd in a previous post.

You can find a selection of events being offered at the Transformative Learning Centre 2007 Summer Institute. These include popular education events with Christine McKenzie (a past member of the Catalyst Centre): Introduction to Popular Education on June 23rd as well as a course called Popular Education: Power, Dialogue and Social Change that runs from June 16th to June 26th.

Margo Charlton and Tristan Whiston are offering a workshop on Arts and Social Change
on June 16th and June 17th: The workshop will examine the intersection of art-making and social change. Art-making can create waves that ripple out, changing individuals and communities. Participants will share their ideas about arts and social change and creatively examine the tensions that swirl around community arts: questions of process and product; insider and outsider dynamics; aesthetics and ethics; personal and social transformation. On the second day the group will visit community arts sites in Toronto or create an arts intervention in a community setting. (This workshop is organized by the Knowing through the Arts Program of
ISIS-Canada.) Fee: $80. To register: Please email margo.charlton@gmail.com or
tristanwhiston@hotmail.com

Other TLC events include Lang Maria Liu's Capoeira, Circle of Life: Philosophy and Practice of Brazilian Art Form; Chris Fraser's Bowl Full of Stories: Women, Words, and the Transformative Power of Storytelling; and Annahid Dashtgard's Finding Freedom: Breaking Free of Body-Judgment.

On May 3rd the Ontario Council for International Cooperation (OCIC) and facilitator Zahra Murad are presenting the workshop Anti-Oppression for Organizations Working for Change. It's $25 for OCIC members and $40 for non-members - a deal at either price. There's no website with the event info on it, so here's what i was e-mailed:

Thursday, May 3, 2007 - 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Friends House (60 Lowther Avenue, Toronto)

Join facilitator Zahra Murad in a one-day anti-oppression workshop for individuals and members of organizations working for change. Using popular education and Theatre of the Oppressed methodologies, this workshop will help participants reflect upon and better understand the functions of power and oppression from personal and organizational perspectives. Drawing from personal experience, ideas and research, participants will have opportunities to develop concrete ideas, suggestions and goals to take back to their organizations.

Central themes include:

• Debunking myths of racism and oppression
• Understanding ways in which the structures of power in which we live can govern the relationships we form and the methods with which we struggle against oppression

Participants will come away with a better understanding of:

• Accessible and co-operative event planning
• Programming for and about groups
• Who is being held accountable to whom
• The balance of power in partnership relationships

Who should attend? Individuals and members of organizations working for change
To register: Please return your completed registration form to Stephanie Lemelin at admin@ocic.on.ca or by fax to 416-972-6996 by Monday, April 30^th
Participation fees: OCIC Members $25 / Non-members $40 (includes breaks and lunch)

Please make your cheque payable to OCIC and mail to:

Ontario Council for International Cooperation
344 Bloor Street West, Suite 405
Toronto ON M5S 3A7
or indicate on your form that you will bring payment with you on May 3, 2007

Earth Day Rally in Toronto

Info here or here.

The Metaphor-off between Stephen Colbert and Sean Penn

Paper Spiders & Lucky Frogs

I'd like to tell you (and brag a little, on behalf of the 17 co-authors) about a new popular education manual. Paper Spiders and Lucky Frogs aka Re:Frame is a collection of 46 annotated descriptions (plus two 'zine inserts) of popular education methods. This was the assignment for the participants of the Popular Education for Social Change i teach at York University's Faculty of Environmental Studies. This was an experimental assignment that has worked better than i had hoped.

Having taught (and, at times, co-taught) this class since 2001 i have perpetually wondered about the contradictions inherent in "teaching" popular education in a university classroom. Not to suggest something simplistic such as one cannot (nor should not) teach popular education in the university classroom. Rather, i'm interested in how a university classroom engagement of popular education participates in the history of relationships - a history which has, for the most part, taken place outside of the university and, often, in resistance to the very power relations of knowledge-production that universities have been a large part of promoting. There are, of course, many dissident spaces within universities and FES is onesuch. And the Popular Education for Social Change class is yet another. There's much that could be said about this dissidence and i don't expect you to take my brief (and probably cryptic) statements at face value. I'm currently working on a manuscript for a book provisionally called Trickster Pedagogy in which i discuss some of the complexities of dissidence in our hegemonic, post-structural and rapidly warming world.

One objective of this manual assignment was to make a contribution to the popular education community. Of course, the individuals in the course may well go on to become popular educators or otherwise advocates and supporters of popular education. But the individualistic nature of university experience means that there's little if anything that can hold people to account for how they apply (or not) their learning. So, what people do with their learning has more to do with individual ethics than with collective ethics. And, while many individual ethics are just fine, they are also disorganized from the point of view of building community. So, it occurred to me that if we could collaborate on a material project such as a manual, it would enhance the community-building aspect of popular education for both the participants of the course and for the popular education community(ies) around the world.

Having been inspired by June Jordan's Poetry for the People class that she taught at Berkeley i got the idea of producing a book together as part of our experience of the popular education class. Each year that June did her class she would have the students produce a book of the poems that they had written and they would do a public performance/launch as well. I've loved June's writing for over 20 years and when i learned about Poetry for the People i immediately wanted to see something like it in Toronto. That dream persists though i've done little about it (and there are a number of writing projects in Toronto that are excellent - projects with immigrant women, with literacy and/or ESL learners, and more). Meanwhile, using June's work as a model i thought that it might work to have participants of the pop ed class research the methods of the work, try some of them out, write them up so that others could replicate and adapt them and annotate these descriptions with their own practitioner reflections as well as some critical discussion of how these methods fit in the theories of popular education. The result is remarkable. And good enough to brag about. As well as sell. I've proposed that we sell this manual for $20 (to be confirmed) and that the proceeds be donated to the dian marino fund. I'll keep y'all posted about this. And we'll probably do some kind of launch at the beginning of the Fall semestre at FES.

The beautiful cover artwork, which i've included with this post, is by Shuxia Tai, a student in the MES program who is, as you can see from her work, very talented. It was also Shuxia who proposed the title for the book which refers to some origami that was shared during the course and stories about frogs.

Ravens, Ravens, Ravens and Landscapes and more

Nicole Bauberger has a website now. Nicole is a painter, poet, singer, friend and more. And i'm a huge fan of all her work. One of her raven paintings graces my bookshelf now. Check it out.

Origami Enchantment

A friend just sent me a link to some of Robert Lang's origami wonder (thanks, Rebecca). Lang is one of the most gifted origami artists in the world and i've been challenging myself with his designs for years. The New York Times has a video of Lang's origami US flag. Check it out. And the New Yorker published an excellent piece on Lang's work as well a couple of months ago. The image above is a polar bear i made from one of Lang's designs.

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?"