December News: What is Holy
Hello Good People!!
Is anyone else feeling anxious? I've noticed a certain distraction in myself lately, undoubtedly related to the fact that I spent over half of the month of November traveling far from home. When I sit down to spend quality time with my children, I immediately begin feeling anxiety: that I am not getting enough done, that I have forgotten something, that I need to reach out for affirmation that I am working hard enough. I find myself migrating towards the computer and my email account, even though I have finished whatever facilitative or consulting work I owe for the day.
Why is this? I am the first to say that every mother is a working mother, whether or not she works outside the home. I myself wear both hats, as both a full time mother and a consultant on projects that would qualify as part-time, and an organizer on political projects that take up what is left of my time (and some time that I do not have). Between my fellowship, my strategic planning contract with a local non-profit, my work with the Rock Dove Collective, the facilitation trainings I offer, and my writing, I should be feeling plenty accomplished at the end of the day. Not to mention the other work I am doing: breastfeeding my daughter, protecting my children from harm, and with the help of my amazing husband and family, feeding them, cleaning them, and getting them to bed at night. This is the work of life.
And yet I am always fighting that bitter sensation that I have not done enough to warrant a moment of peace. From what "lack" does this arise?
In my fellowship, I am working with four other artists and community developers to create a project that centers on the problem of our cultural disconnectedness from land. Alongside this work, I am just starting to read the late 90's tome, Triumph of the Mundane: The Unseen Trends That Shape Our Lives and Environment, by Hal Kane. The book is an effort to track the phenomenal but generally unreported changes to our society - such as speed, distance, and consumption - that have reinvented our culture and our values, to some degree without any intentional thinking or consent from us.
And it has me thinking...no wonder we are culturally un-moored! No wonder we are cynical and disenchanted, no wonder we laugh at the idea of holiness. No wonder I am filled with anxiety as soon as I sit down to rest! Yesterday, while walking down the snow-covered gravel road that runs alongside the woods behind our home, my husband Sam and I found the evidence of a four-wheeler having run repeatedly off the road, purposefully smashing down twenty year old sumac trees and many of our blackberry bushes. I found myself weepy and bewildered as to how someone could find reason to do this. Sam became angry and our son Finn, sensing our distress, began to cry. Siobhan, in her infant fortitude, promptly fell asleep. Trudging home, I could not help but see the connection between this disturbingly destructive act and a disconnection from holiness.
This may read as an angry missive from an anarchist in the woods, hardly befitting the joyful nature of holiday season. But in my mind it is all of a piece. We cannot have joy without living in our sorrow, and we cannot have justice without acknowledging the undercurrent of violence and distrust that flows through our daily lives. My anxiety moves me. It is pushing me to let go of all those behaviors and desires I do not value, but find myself living out. And it is pushing me to hold on to and lift up the things that are sacred to me: my children, my partner, my family, our home, our land, and our love.
In this edition of Iambrown:
- Death to Sambo Album Release
- Mother of Many Animation
- The America Project: Potluck of Ideas - December 14th
- Minneapolis Childcare Collective Training - December 16th
-----
Teo Blake's Debut Album, Death to Sambo
My dear friend from college days, Teo Blake recently released his debut hip hop album,
Death To Sambo
. It’s available on iTunes at the following link, where you can preview the music before purchasing:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/
Support new musicians!
-----
Madre De Muchos, Mother of Many
Check out this beautiful animation by Emma Lazenby. It tells the story of a hospital midwife, and it is a tribute to her mother who was a midwife from 1980-2008.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
-----
The America Project: Potluck of Ideas
Intermedia Arts & Kaotic Good Productions invite you to ...
The America Project: Potluck of Ideas
7PM Tuesday, December 14, 2010
at Intermedia Arts
2822 Lyndale Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN
Cost: $5 with potluck item or $10 without
RSVP: 612.871.4444
What do you bring to the table when it comes to your feelings about the state of America?
Share your food for thought! Bring a potluck item inspired by this question.
Join Intermedia Arts & Kaotic Good Productions for a Community Potluck in the spirit of Sekou Sundiata’s vision of a 51st Dream State. Feed & be fed. Cook up ideas together. Share your food & your food for thought.
Hosted by Robert Karimi, with special performances throughout the evening by:
Tou Saiko Lee & Band
Leah Nelson
BoyTron
Mero Cocinero
Kathy Maxwell
Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay
Plus a screening of Sekou Sundiata’s 51st Dream State film!
-----
Minneapolis Childcare Collective Training
Thursday, December 16 · 7:30pm - 9:00pm
Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association
821 E 35th St
Minneapolis, MN
This is the first of several trainings that we will be hosting for anyone interested in getting involved with the childcare collective next semester. The next training will be in February.
"The Minneapolis Childcare Collective is dedicated to providing high quality childcare in order to support parents' involvement in organizations of resistance and community building. We provide childcare as an act of solidarity with women, peop...le of color, and poor people, especially poor women of color, who are responsible for a disproportional amount of childcare, often excluding them from participating in projects of social change and resistance."
There are two way to get involved:
1. You can commit to providing weekly childcare to a Twin Cities Experimental College (EXCO) La Academia chapter class. La Academia is the EXCO chapter organized by and for the Latin@ community. Most classes are one to two hours and meet in the evening somewhere in South Minneapolis. There is usually between one and eight kids. Most of the parents speak Spanish and most of the kids speak Spanish and English. Classes begin in early February and will run until late spring.
2. You can commit to being a sub for La Academia classes or to providing childcare for one time events. These could range in time length and number of kids. This would be based on your availability.
Please send an email @
if you are interested so that they can get a sense of how many people to expect!
Hello Good People!!
Is anyone else feeling anxious? I've noticed a certain distraction in myself lately, undoubtedly related to the fact that I spent over half of the month of November traveling far from home. When I sit down to spend quality time with my children, I immediately begin feeling anxiety: that I am not getting enough done, that I have forgotten something, that I need to reach out for affirmation that I am working hard enough. I find myself migrating towards the computer and my email account, even though I have finished whatever facilitative or consulting work I owe for the day.
Why is this? I am the first to say that every mother is a working mother, whether or not she works outside the home. I myself wear both hats, as both a full time mother and a consultant on projects that would qualify as part-time, and an organizer on political projects that take up what is left of my time (and some time that I do not have). Between my fellowship, my strategic planning contract with a local non-profit, my work with the Rock Dove Collective, the facilitation trainings I offer, and my writing, I should be feeling plenty accomplished at the end of the day. Not to mention the other work I am doing: breastfeeding my daughter, protecting my children from harm, and with the help of my amazing husband and family, feeding them, cleaning them, and getting them to bed at night. This is the work of life.
And yet I am always fighting that bitter sensation that I have not done enough to warrant a moment of peace. From what "lack" does this arise?
In my fellowship, I am working with four other artists and community developers to create a project that centers on the problem of our cultural disconnectedness from land. Alongside this work, I am just starting to read the late 90's tome, Triumph of the Mundane: The Unseen Trends That Shape Our Lives and Environment, by Hal Kane. The book is an effort to track the phenomenal but generally unreported changes to our society - such as speed, distance, and consumption - that have reinvented our culture and our values, to some degree without any intentional thinking or consent from us.
And it has me thinking...no wonder we are culturally un-moored! No wonder we are cynical and disenchanted, no wonder we laugh at the idea of holiness. No wonder I am filled with anxiety as soon as I sit down to rest! Yesterday, while walking down the snow-covered gravel road that runs alongside the woods behind our home, my husband Sam and I found the evidence of a four-wheeler having run repeatedly off the road, purposefully smashing down twenty year old sumac trees and many of our blackberry bushes. I found myself weepy and bewildered as to how someone could find reason to do this. Sam became angry and our son Finn, sensing our distress, began to cry. Siobhan, in her infant fortitude, promptly fell asleep. Trudging home, I could not help but see the connection between this disturbingly destructive act and a disconnection from holiness.
This may read as an angry missive from an anarchist in the woods, hardly befitting the joyful nature of holiday season. But in my mind it is all of a piece. We cannot have joy without living in our sorrow, and we cannot have justice without acknowledging the undercurrent of violence and distrust that flows through our daily lives. My anxiety moves me. It is pushing me to let go of all those behaviors and desires I do not value, but find myself living out. And it is pushing me to hold on to and lift up the things that are sacred to me: my children, my partner, my family, our home, our land, and our love.
In this edition of Iambrown:
- Death to Sambo Album Release
- Mother of Many Animation
- The America Project: Potluck of Ideas - December 14th
- Minneapolis Childcare Collective Training - December 16th
-----
Teo Blake's Debut Album, Death to Sambo
My dear friend from college days, Teo Blake recently released his debut hip hop album,
Death To Sambo
. It’s available on iTunes at the following link, where you can preview the music before purchasing:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/
Support new musicians!
-----
Madre De Muchos, Mother of Many
Check out this beautiful animation by Emma Lazenby. It tells the story of a hospital midwife, and it is a tribute to her mother who was a midwife from 1980-2008.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
-----
The America Project: Potluck of Ideas
Intermedia Arts & Kaotic Good Productions invite you to ...
The America Project: Potluck of Ideas
7PM Tuesday, December 14, 2010
at Intermedia Arts
2822 Lyndale Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN
Cost: $5 with potluck item or $10 without
RSVP: 612.871.4444
What do you bring to the table when it comes to your feelings about the state of America?
Share your food for thought! Bring a potluck item inspired by this question.
Join Intermedia Arts & Kaotic Good Productions for a Community Potluck in the spirit of Sekou Sundiata’s vision of a 51st Dream State. Feed & be fed. Cook up ideas together. Share your food & your food for thought.
Hosted by Robert Karimi, with special performances throughout the evening by:
Tou Saiko Lee & Band
Leah Nelson
BoyTron
Mero Cocinero
Kathy Maxwell
Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay
Plus a screening of Sekou Sundiata’s 51st Dream State film!
-----
Minneapolis Childcare Collective Training
Thursday, December 16 · 7:30pm - 9:00pm
Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association
821 E 35th St
Minneapolis, MN
This is the first of several trainings that we will be hosting for anyone interested in getting involved with the childcare collective next semester. The next training will be in February.
"The Minneapolis Childcare Collective is dedicated to providing high quality childcare in order to support parents' involvement in organizations of resistance and community building. We provide childcare as an act of solidarity with women, peop...le of color, and poor people, especially poor women of color, who are responsible for a disproportional amount of childcare, often excluding them from participating in projects of social change and resistance."
There are two way to get involved:
1. You can commit to providing weekly childcare to a Twin Cities Experimental College (EXCO) La Academia chapter class. La Academia is the EXCO chapter organized by and for the Latin@ community. Most classes are one to two hours and meet in the evening somewhere in South Minneapolis. There is usually between one and eight kids. Most of the parents speak Spanish and most of the kids speak Spanish and English. Classes begin in early February and will run until late spring.
2. You can commit to being a sub for La Academia classes or to providing childcare for one time events. These could range in time length and number of kids. This would be based on your availability.
Please send an email @
if you are interested so that they can get a sense of how many people to expect!