More to come……
I wanted a climate anthem to unite us – Look what musician/activist Dan Green did with my few words!
Here’s the link to another sung by children. https://youtu.be/k3yL_1L85Mk
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Downtown Dallas Tx has a new look and a dream of what it could be. Directed a crew of activists and students to bring the vision of a high school student into the world. (fourteen feet long and a block away from Dallas Farmers Market.)
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- Grateful to have drawings included in the young persons book, “Yu, The Rare Bear” by AJ Falconer. Now on Amazon.
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- A one-person art show
made in response to plastics in the streams, in our water and our bodies (74,000 microplatics per person per year aargh!) was held for 6 weeks in Watauga, Tx vegan restaurant, Healthy Hippie Cafe. Hope it didn’t spoil people’s appetites (see gallery page here)
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- An essay called “A Proper Mother” won a place in a competition (my first!) and has been published by Ageless Authors in their latest anthology <<www.agelessauthors.com>> .This organization is staffed by a few dedicated volunteers assisting founder, Larry Upshaw. He wants to share the talents of older writers. Look it up and write!
- Received an Artist-in-Residence grant from the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. The project is called
- “Our Untold Stories are Yours” (see blog)
- Participated in an exciting evening of multilingual poetry (Korean, Spanish and English) hosted by Tanya Ho Kong, in the Gallery at Korea Daily newspaper. Honored to read the English translation of one of the beautiful poems. Poetry has a wonderful way of reaching right into the heart – of the matter being described – and of the reader/listener.
………………….Did I light my lips
on fire? Did my words- do they still- burn? (A. Matuchniak)
That night, poets of mixed race described the confusion of belonging, immigrants spoke of long lineage interrupted by leaving home; and poems of childhood, of marriage, of family relationships, of wounding, of dreaming, wrapped themselves around us.
I saw a plane flying along writing with smoke in the sky.
In the flowerbed depicting a map of the world
In the school’s backyard, I hopped from one nation to another.
(excerpt from Family History by Duk Kyu Park)
Some of the poets read their own work and some read the translation of other poets with great feeling. I was honored to join Mike Sonksen, Peggy Dobreer, Hiram Sims and Don Kingfisher Campbell in reading English translations.The seasoned writers also included Luis Javier Rodriguez -2014 Los Angeles Poet Laureate; Professor Duk Kyu Park from Dankook University; Alyssa Matuchniak and Tanya Ho Kong. Our host,Tanya, writes movingly, and with great courage, about the Comfort Women and their life-long experience of shame. “There are only a few of them alive and I don’t want them to be voiceless anymore” she said.
- Attended Climate Reality Leadership Corps training in Los Angeles in 2018. Founded by Al Gore, it was a powerful experience. I was impressed by the sincerity and dedication of the speakers – and Mr Gore no less. The fellow participants I talked to were inspiring. The organization of the 3 days was meticulous and “walked its talk”. It was held appropriately in the LA Convention Center – a LEED Platinum certified building. Few things are as important and urgent to me as adding my efforts in the Climate Change struggle. Doing something – no matter how small – is so much easier than feeling overwhelmed and helpless. As one of my teachers (Joanna Macy) asked long ago, “how will you feel when future generations ask what you did to stop global warming?” I’d rather say that I fought to stop it and failed, than pretended it wasn’t happening and ignored the signs. More trainings in different places every year – check out www.climaterealityproject.org.
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