Poetry Animation, Part 5, "Epilogue," in SubZERO Festival

In June 2012, artist Michele Guieu and I collaborated on the themes of species extinction and biodiversity. Michele is an amazing animator and painter. Our poetry animation was shown on a giant brick wall, the side of a building in downtown San Jose, as part of the SubZERO festival. Here is the fifth and last part of the poem collaboration, video "Epilogue." This last video shows off Michele's amazing skills in drawing. Here we see an amazing bestiary of animals both real and from Michele's imagination. Watch the video here.

Poetry Animation, Part 1, "You Bear the Scar at the Base of Your Spine" in SubZERO Festival

In June 2012, artist Michele Guieu and I collaborated on the themes of species extinction and biodiversity. Michele is an amazing animator and painter. Our poetry animation was shown on a giant brick wall, the side of a building in downtown San Jose, as part of the SubZERO festival. Here is the intro to the poem, video "You Bear the Scar at the Base of Your Spine, Where Lies the Shadow of the Moon." The video introduces Michele's bestiary of single celled beings that first began us, way back in the beginning. Watch the video here.

Eletrosfera

A video poem by Marcio-Andre, a Brazilian performer and sound artist. The first part is a bit repetitive, but if you can hold tight, the middle and end are more active, with the words "versa" (with various meanings in Portuguese, including that of poetic verse) and "materia" (matter, subject) seeming to war with one another, in sound and space. Finally, the whole thing dissolves in a cacophony of memes. View Marcio Andre's video here.

In My Galactic Muumuu I Murmur My Mumbo Jumbo

In My Galactic Muumuu I Murmur My Mumbo Jumbo

The myna bird is singing in its far off room.
The mustang still is roaming on the plains.

I lay my head beneath the mushroom,
Looking up at the dome of the mycelium,
A maze of filaments, of positive fungus.

Once upon a time, you and I
Were unicellular; identity was easy. (And not.)

This morning, I woke and adorned myself
In my galactic muumuu.

Like a deck of cards spread
Upon a lap upon a lawn
Upon a lawn upon a marsh
Upon a water table

I lay out my mumbo jumbo
For the congregations, which hum.

They call me multipara, woman
Who has given birth two
Or more times, or to more than one
Offspring at one time.

They burst through my organs—
One from the kidney, one from
The liver, one from the spleen.

If it is anything, this life,
It is mutual;
So mutual it hurts.

I asked you—I begged you—to return
Me to the desert

So I could sing the opening again,
You know, the opening of creation.



Somehow a scratch on stone,
Accidental glyph,
Somehow a rock’s cross hatch
(Divine incision)

Into wolf morphs.
Into coyote shifts.

I sit cross legged at the base of the cliffs.
And the ancestors hover
Above my shoulder
Like waiting thunder.

And to any who can listen—
To those who can hear—

And when I hear it myself
Descend
I mutter, I murmur
This mumbo jumbo.
___________________

I took the photos above in the desert near Las Vegas, Nevada.

Our Budding World: Yoga With Inner City Kids

In the capoeira class I attended today, I met a woman named Emily who teaches yoga to high school students at Emiliano Zapato Street Academy in downtown Oakland. According to Emily, the students carry some emotional challenges, and she teaches them techniques to deal with these through yoga. How beautiful! Another bright spot of hope in Oakland, and in our budding world.

Emily's work at the academy is organized by the Niroga Institute, which is a nonprofit local organization teaching what they call "Transformative Life Skills to students, vulnerable youth, cancer survivors, seniors and people battling addiction." By Transformative Life Skills they mean yoga, breathing techniques, and meditation. They cite research that teaching these techniques helps increase self-control and resilience. The Niroga Institute has an interesting "pay-it-forward" model, in which they invest in training yoga teachers with the idea that they will then offer their skills through community service to communities in need of it.

What a breath of fresh air. As someone who has attended yoga classes for years, I love the idea of that yoga is not a skill for the elite only, but is meant to be shared with all in need.

According to the Institute:

Niroga has trained over 200 Yoga Teachers, including many of color, to serve vulnerable populations with cultural congruence and linguistic sensitivity. We have also trained over 100 adult providers, such as educators and mental health professionals, who work with youth in structured settings such as schools and juvenile halls. In a few hours, we can train anyone in these transformative skills, which can be used for personal stress management and self-care, as well in professional settings with students and clients.

Our programs are part of a cost-effective front-line prevention and intervention strategy for violence reduction, education and mental health, and positive youth development. Niroga also trains minority young adults to become Certified Yoga teachers, prepared to serve their own communities with cultural competence and linguistic sensitivity.

See a video on Niroga's amazing work with inner city kids (I cried!)

If Walmart Were A Country: Playing Monopoly

Here is some accidental poetry from Christopher Petrella in Nation of Change (comparisons via Business Insider's June 2011 report):

If Wal-Mart were a country
Its revenues would exceed the GDP of Norway,
World's 25th largest economy.
Yahoo is bigger than Mongolia,
Visa is bigger than Zimbabwe,
Nike is bigger than Paraguay,
McDonalds is bigger than Latvia,
Amazon.com is bigger than Kenya,
Apple is bigger than Ecuador,
Ford is bigger than Morocco,
Bank of America is bigger than Vietnam,
General Electric is bigger than New Zealand,
Exxon- Mobil is bigger than Thailand,
Chevron is bigger than the Czech Republic.

Though capitalism seems to be based on a foundation of free competition, Petrella argues that it quickly leads to monopoly, which has negative effects on democratic functioning. And how quickly monopoly has risen in the financial section just in the past twenty years! He states, "In 1990, the ten largest domestic financial institutions held only 10% of total financial assets. Today they own 70%. The largest five U.S. banks now hold $11 trillion in assets."

His suggestion? We ought to divide up big banks, taking as our model the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, which divided up the railroad companies not only to diminish their economic might, but also to prevent companies from "becoming so large that their political power would undermine the democratic process."
Read Christopher's article here

Protest at Belo Monte Dam Site in Brazil

On Nov. 1, a collaboration of 500 indigenous leaders, fishermen, and residents gathered to protest at the site of the Belo Monte Dam, where machinery is continuing to arrive to construct the world's largest proposed dam. The group had vowed to sit on the site permanently, but officials from the building corporation presented legal papers which effectively cleared the group off. Nonetheless, this unprecedented alliance of indigenous leaders and fishermen sat in together for 15 hours. Read more here