Reading List 2009

Another year, another list of what I have read over the course of the last twelve months!  Per usual, books are divided into the categories of fiction and non-fiction (with a poetry add-on), are listed in date order (the earlier the reading date, the nearer the top of the list), and in instances in which I wrote a review or made comments over at GoodReads, I’ve included the link.

Looking back at the list, it’s interesting for me to see patterns that emerge.  Nearly all of the non-fiction is foundation texts for my continuing thesis work.  (Notice any themes?  I notice lots of titles with colons in them -- a sure sign of fancy academic writing.)  And for the most part, items on the fiction list were my momentary retreats from the chaos of daily life, so of course there is a ton of YA lit and graphic novels, including a handful of rereads. 

Fiction

• 1.  Breaking Dawn (Twilight #4) by Stephenie Meyer
• 2.  Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel (graphic novel)
• 3.  The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games #1) by Suzanne Collins
• 4.  Blankets by Craig Thompson (semi-autobiographical graphic novel)
• 5.  Midnight Sun (unpublished Twilight #1.5) by Stephenie Meyer
• 6.  Peeps by Scott Westerfeld
• 7.  Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn
• 8.  Blue Pills: A Positive Love Story by Frederik Peeters (graphic novel)
• 9.  Ghost World by Daniel Clowes (graphic novel)
• 10.  The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
• 11.  Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
• 12.  Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware (graphic novel)
• 13.  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter #1) by J.K. Rowling (reread)
• 14.  Mexican WhiteBoy by Matt de la Pena
• 15.  Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
• 16.  Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter #2) by J.K. Rowling (reread)
• 17.  Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter #3) by J.K. Rowling (reread)
• 18.  Lamb:  The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
• 19.  American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (graphic novel)
• 20.  Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter #4) by J.K. Rowling (reread)
• 21.  The Gold Compass (His Dark Materials #1) by Philip Pullman

Non-fiction

• 1.  Pregnant Bodies, Fertile Minds: Gender, Race, and the Schooling of Pregnant Teens by Wendy Luttrell
• 2.  Being White: Stories of Race and Racism by Karyn McKinney
• 3.  White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son by Tim Wise
• 4.  Where We Stand: Class Matters by bell hooks
• 5.  White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness by Ruth Frankenberg
• 6.  The First R: How Children Learn Race and Racism by Debra Van Ausdale and Joe R. Feagin
• 7.  Everyday Acts Against Racism: Raising Children in a Multicultural World edited by Reddy Maureen
• 8.  Invisible Privilege by Paula Rothenberg
• 9.  Racism without Racists: Color-blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
• 10.  Race in the Schoolyard: Negotiating the Color Line in Classrooms and Communities by Amanda E. Lewis
• 11.  Speed Bumps: A Student Friendly Guide to Qualitative Research by Lois Weis and Michelle Fine
• 12.  Anti-Bias Curriculum: Tools for Empowering Young Children by Louise Derman-Sparks and the ABC Taskforce
• 13.  The Active Interview by James A. Holstein
• 14.  Let Me Stand Alone: The Journals of Rachel Corrie by Rachel Corrie
• 15.  Racing Research, Researching Race: Methodological Dilemmas in Critical Race Studies edited by France Winddance Twine and Jonathan W. Warren
• 16.  Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi (memoir, graphic novel)
• 17.  Pedro and Me by Judd Winick (graphic novel)
• 18.  White Lives: The Interplay of 'Race,' Class and Gender in Everyday Life by Bridget Byrne
• 19.  Waking Up American: Coming of Age Biculturally edited by Angela Jane Fountas
• 20.  Without a Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up Working Class edited by Michelle Tea
• 21.  The Girl with the Brown Crayon: How Children Use Stories to Shape Their Lives by Vivian Gussin Paley (reread)
• 22.  Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of Hearing Data by Irene Rubin

Poetry

• 1.  Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein (poetry) (reread)

(2012.06.15)

Wordle-ing my thesis...

I'm feeling stressed today.

In my procrastination efforts I wandered over to Wordle. (Have you been there? It's fun.) On the Wordle home page it explains that:

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes.

Wordle is the brain child of Jonathan Feinberg, a software engineer at IBM Research, and I can't figure out how old the site/software is. But, I've been seeing these 'word clouds' reappearing throughout different venues of my life lately -- blog signatures, school event advertisements, wedding invitations -- and I realized by accident that they were all being created here.

So, I thought I'd give it a whirl myself and see what came of it. I inserted the text from the most current four page summary of my thesis work. Then I limited the word-count to 50 (rather than the standard 150), removed all author names, and changed my colors to black and white (my research is about ideologies of race after all). And after a bit of fiddlin', voilà!

In all reality, I'm finding it helpful to have this visual tool. It's helping me see the language I am using most frequently and how those words correlate with themes and my areas of interest. I was surprised, for example, that 'social' is my most frequently used word. I would have thought it might have been 'race,' or 'white,' or 'privilege,' but it's helpful for me to see how really these are all relational terms in a social world. I could go on, but you get the point. What a helpful (and intellectually and aesthetically pleasing) software.

And now back to work...

Video Spotlight: 12 Days of Christmas

This post's goin' up because we all need a little light-hearted fabulousness once in a while. (Also, it's 12 days before Christmas.)

In case you didn't know, I have a warm fuzzy place in my heart for men's a capella groups. (Seriously, you have no idea.) These guys, Straight No Chaser, got their start at Indiana University back in 1996, took a 10 year hiatus after graduation, and then reached near immediate success when video from performances 10 years prior hit YouTube in 2006. Huge viral success. And then a major label record deal (with Atlantic). Kinda crazy. (Actually, a version of the song in this video is what caught the ears of the world.) Also, you may have heard them recently singing a holiday special/membership drive on PBS.


And if I'm gonna promo a capella, let's do it right. First, three of my favorite a capella groups: King's Singers, The Manhattan Transfer, and Toxic Audio. Second, (and this is for all you lovely Bostonians) check out Emerson's WERS 88.9FM program All A Capella every Saturday and Sunday afternoon from 2-5pm. (How many afternoons did BLP and I listen to that show while doin' crap around the house?... Many.)

(Plus, for "A Little Christmas Music" (quite literally) bonus, listen to/watch the King's Singers, Julie Andrews and John Denver together.)

Too Big for My Skin

Just wanted to bring a little attention to this spoken-word piece by Minneapolis based artist Desdamona. The beauty of women is deep and more than can be fit in any little box.


Desdamona says "Too Big for My Skin is not just a poem. It's a mind state. ... It's about positive body image, acceptance and strength. It's about finding your voice and speaking."

Reconsidering Columbus Day

I had today off from work. While it's the first time I've been in a job in 10 years where I get holidays other than Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day off, I can't say I'm particularly happy to spend the my first holiday 'celebrating' Christopher Columbus. (I actually spent the day working on my thesis, but...)

Nu Heightz Cinema put out an important PSA earlier this week trying to open and extend conversation about the serious problems surrounding Columbus Day.


To learn more, visit Reconsider Columbus Day or any of the partner organizations:
United Confederation of Taino People
International Indian Treaty Council
Rethinking Schools

And for educators, Rethinking Schools put out a book called Rethinking Columbus back in 1991 that compiles essays, poems, interviews, historical vignettes, and lesson plans to help readers reevaluate the myth of Columbus and issues of indigenous rights. Definitely worth checking out.

If you'd like to take action, consider signing the petition for a National Holiday for Native Americans.

Call to ACTION in Illinois! Stop the budget cuts!

We're in a sad, sick state of affairs in Illinois, and this is one of those situations where we CANNOT just sit on our hands and expect things to turn out well in the end. This is battle that needs champions fighting for our beliefs and our rights. Folks like you and me.

Here's the skinny:
On May 31, 2009 the Illinois General Assembly passed a partial year budget for FY 2010 that created a $9.2 billion funding gap, which is forcing drastic cuts in community- and state-provided fundamental social services ($5 billion in cuts for community-provided services and $4.2 billion in cuts for state-provided services, says Governor Quinn). (This issue is the "Current Focus" on the www.illinois.gov website.) We're looking at severe cuts in mental health services, addiction prevention and treatment programs, violence prevention programs, family planning services, child care and youth services, and education programs. The budget is set to go into effect July 1 (next Wednesday) and will be devastating to the people of Illinois unless we demand that our legislators return to Springfield and work out a budget for the full fiscal year that includes new revenue to support these critical programs in our communities (which can be achieved by a 2% tax increase).

When considering the breadth of the budget cuts, here are just a few of the numbers (and their sources) to give you an idea of how this budget vote could affect the every day lives of Illinois citizens. The budget cuts would result in:

• the lose of $271 million in child care assistance, thus eliminating care for over 142,000 children (who are members of over 80,000 low-income working families) (Governor's Office - Department of Human Services; Planned Parenthood of Illinois)
• the elimination of preschool for 100,000 children (Planned Parenthood of Illinois)
• the elimination of $251 million (a cut of 40% in rates) for providers who serve children and adults with developmental disabilities (Governor's Office - Department of Human Services)
• a $108 million reduction in funding for community mental health programs (Governor's Office - Department of Human Services)
• the closing of 6 of the 9 state-operated psychiatric hospitals (Governor's Office - Department of Human Services)
• a 50% cut to the stipend received by foster parents, meaning that many parents may no longer be able to afford to care for their foster children. Approximately 20,000 children could lose their foster families. (Planned Parenthood of Illinois; Governor's Office - Department of Children and Family Services)
• the tripling of DCFS staff workers' foster care caseloads from 15 children to 50 children and the doubling of active investigative caseloads from 11 to 20 cases per investigator (Governor's Office - Department of Children and Family Services)
• a 75% cut in community health programs (including teen, family, and domestic violence programs) (Governor's Office - Department of Human Services)
• the elimination of all community care program services for 20,000 lower-income seniors not eligible for Medicaid and reducing benefits for 55% of the remaining 35,000 Medicaid eligible community-care clients (Governor's Office - Department on Aging)
• the elimination of the Communities of Color Prostrate Cancer Initiative and Communities of Color HIV/AIDS Initiative, together providing services to over 375,000 people (Governor's Office - Illinois Department of Public Health)
• the cutting of $247 million in MAP undergraduate grants and college book stipends for 147,500 low-income students (Governor's Office - Illinois Student Assistance Commission)
• a 75% cut in state family planning funding, resulting in nearly 6,500 women not receiving their annual medical exam, pap smear, or supply of oral contraceptives. (Planned Parenthood of Illinois)
• a lose of $9 million in funding to the YWCA, which would lead to the closure of 1/3 of their facilities (Planned Parenthood of Illinois)
• the forced layoffs of more than 10,000 state workers (Governor's Office)
• the estimated lose of $2 billion in federal matching funds to the state of Illinois (Governor's Office)
  
• the endangerment of up to $3 billion in federal stimulus funds over the next two years (Governor's Office)
  

Brutal. And the potential to be utterly devastating. And, it can't go without noting the ways in which these budget cuts unproportionately affect folks already dealing with issues of systemic inequality: the poor and working-class, people of color, women, children, the elderly, and those will mental or physical disabilities. The budget would pile additional hardship and discrimination on those who already carry its heaviest weights.

And to make it a bit more real, if you need even more concrete evidence of the budget's destructive potential, every week for the past two and a half years I've hung out with three and four year olds at the St. Vincent DePaul Center, which provides (in addition to other things) NAEYC-accredited child care and early childhood education. We have 25 classrooms, serving infants through kids in full-day kindergarten, plus before- and after-school care for school age children. The proposed budget cuts would entirely eliminate the child care and youth programs, affecting more than 800 Chicago children and families at this one site alone. Plus, all of our education staff will be cut, contributing to the statewide increase in forced layoffs. Many families the Center serves will literally be forced into the position of choosing between buying food for their family, paying rent and utilities, or paying for child care.

The proposed budget cuts would destroy our Center, spit in the face of our 94 year history, and devastate the lives of families with whom we partner.

But such tragedy is not the only option. With the passing of an as small as 2% tax increase, the citizens of Illinois can save the programs that support our communities. A 2% tax increase would raise our taxes from 3% to 5%, which for the average Illinois family is roughly $14 a week. While $14 a week, and thus $56 a month, adds up, it is a worthy sacrifice to maintain the programs that support the health and well-being of all Illinois citizens. This budget cut stands to hurt all of us and together we must be willing to tell our elected officials that we won't stand for it, that we believe alternatives to the budget cut are possible, and that we rely on their leadership and ability to represent our views by funding education, health care, and human services across the state.

To take action, you have numerous choices. You can:

Call your state representatives and voice your opposition to the “General Assembly’s 50 Percent Budget Cut.”

To locate your state representative, visit here. (It's easiest, I think, to provide your zip+4.) You can also call the Illinois State Board of Elections Chicago Office at 312-814-6440. Let the operator know that you need contact information for your state representative. You will need to provide your home address.

Before calling your representative, consider visiting Illinois Action for Children for suggestions on what to say to your state representatives. You may also want to see how your representatives voted in the original budget vote, which you can do by looking at the "House Roll Call on the Tax Increase" (pdf). IMAN has also provided a nice telephone call protocol you could use. Here's their suggestion:

Call your representative and senator along with the governor and say:

"Hi, my name is ______ and I live in ______. I would like to speak to Representative ______/Senator ______/Governor Quinn."

You will probably be told that he/she is not available. If so, ask to leave a message:

"I am calling to ask Representative ______/Senator ______/Governor Quinn to work with others in Springfield to resolve the current budget crisis. I support an income tax increase from 3% to 5% and an expansion of the sales tax base in order to fund education, health care, and human services across the state. I am counting on your leadership in this important effort! Thank you for your consideration."

Please call your state representative (Illinois House) first and then call Gov. Quinn (217-782-0244) and your state senator all this week. Ask five other people to do the same.

You can also utilize a number of online email formats to voice your concern. Planned Parenthood of Illinois has an editable form letter that focuses on the budget cuts' consequences for women and children.

And the National Association of Social Workers Illinois chapter is sponsoring a more general but still editable email in which they use your address (or zip+4) to pull up all your elected officials' contact information. Then they allow you to choose to whom you would like to send your email. They also give you the option of sending a copy of your email to a large number of media organizations. It's a quick and easy way to go.

Please take action. Immediately. You can do it. It's important that you do it. It's makes a huge difference for the future of our communities.

(photo credits: These are some of my kids from the Center. These are the kids who stand to lose childcare if the budgets is implemented next week. The consequences to their families may be dire.)

Food Inc. - "You'll never look at dinner the same way again!"

So, in the last month or so I've been bombarded with info about the film Food, Inc. Whether I'm just hooked in to all the right info feeds or what, I don't know, but I'm pretty jazzed about seeing this film, which is now showing across the country. (To find out if/when it's playing near you, check the listings here.)

The film is described (on IMDB) as "An unflattering look inside America's corporate controlled food industry." And it seems to address the food industry from a number of angles: animal conditions, worker conditions, food safety/quality, human health consequences, legislation and national food policy, and the general workings of agribusiness. A broad scope, surely, but integrally connected.

I was first introduced to the film by a message on the packaging foil that seals my yogurt tub. I'd never seen Stonyfield (or any other yogurt company) advertise for a film, and while I was a bit suspicious, I also trust Stonyfield to make conscious choices about their packaging. (Maybe I'm delusional, but at least I'm hopeful.) With a little investigation I realized that Stonyfield Farm President and CE-Yo (you know, YO as in yogurt) Gary Hirshberg is featured in the film; thus the connection and cross-promotion. But, Stonyfield's website features some great stuff about the film, including the trailer and an exclusive (and really good) interview with the film's director Robert Kenner, in which he talks about the film's intention to promote informed consumer choices. He says,

"[The film is about the] freedom to know both what's in the food, what we're eating, where it's coming from, and what we're allowed to say about this food. I realized this is a film about our rights to know as Americans."

Then, I heard a story on NPR's Morning Edition by Steve Inskeep, in which he talked with Kenner and food advocate and author Michael Pollan (who is also featured in the film) about the film. (Web-info and a link to the audio is available here.) Inskeep takes them to task to explain in detail each phrase from an single line early in the film which says, "Our food is coming from enormous assembly lines where the animals and the workers are being abused and the food has become much more dangerous in ways that are being deliberately hidden from us."

And, talk of the film is making its way around the blogosphere (for example, this) and numerous news sites, including reviews on Variety and indieWIRE and interviews Kenner did with The Washington Post and The New York Times.

And the film's website itself is a wealth of good information. These folks have built bridges -- laying out the issues point for point, creating rich resource lists for information-seekers, offering suggestions for getting involved, particularly in the area of children's nutrition, and building alliances with important advocacy organizations. They even have their own blog called Hungry for Change which looks to be regularly updated and pretty informative.

But not everyone is happy about the film's release. Monsanto is so pissed they've go their own anti-Food Inc. webpage up and running, which I find hugely interesting because most of the time big agribusiness just ignores films and books that have the potential to discredit them. Perhaps we're getting near some point of critical mass and they're nervous... (Kenner talks about the film's efforts to work with Monsanto in The Washington Post article.) (Also, I'm not a fan of Monsanto, so I won't talk about them anymore, but Deborah Koons Garcia did a nice job making them look like asses in her 2004 film The Future of Food, another great documentary worth checking out.)

All that said, I'll stop talking about the film and hopefully see it soon. If you see it before me, let me know what you think! Here's the trailer:


(photo caption & credits: Polyface Farms' Joel Salatin is an organic farmer and an agribusiness critic featured in Food, Inc. Magnolia Pictures)

UPDATE:
I watched Food, Inc. last weekend at my local indy film theater and earlier this week a friend emailed asking what I thought of it and whether it was worth seeing. An edited version of my reply is below. (It may be of value to note that my friend is a farmer living and working on a very new, organic, family-owned farm in New England, so he knows way more about food than I do and has spent considerable time really thinking about the importance of food and our food industry.)

The film was decent. I didn't learn much that I didn't know before. Very little, actually. But I think the film would be a decent introduction for folks new to thinking about the role of corporations in U.S. food culture and food industry. The film hit on a number of issues – food labeling, foodborne illness, health consequences of our current food choices, factory farming, corporate influence on family farms, animal rights, worker rights, environmental impact, law and governmental policy, and so on. And I think the filmmakers made an effort to give voice to a number of viewpoints, though they didn't pretend to be entirely ‘objective’ in their response and analysis. (And why should they?) Interestingly, they made a point NOT to villainize big business, using interviews with Greg Hirshberg, CE-Yo of Stonyfield Farms, and Wal-Mart buyers (meaning product purchasers, not public consumers) to talk about the power of public opinion and consumer demand. Long and short, I think the film has the potential to rattle mainstream folks who haven't thought about where their food comes from.

Plus, the film spends a good chunk of time talking to Joel Salatin, a mighty spunky farmer for Polyface Farm in Virginia. The farm seems to deal mostly in meats – beef, pork, poultry – but in all the ways you wish meats came to market – organic, local, free range birds, grass fed cattle, and so forth. Joel serves as a powerful voice in the film, but I wonder if the audience 'got' it, because most of his talking was done while he was doing farm work, including slaughtering chickens and preparing them for market (as compared to most of the other interviewees, who have the backdrop of their kitchen or office). With the typical consumer/film-goer so removed from the origin of our food, folks watching the film with me seemed unsettled and/or shocked to see animals slaughtered. (There were numerous audible gasps and lots of uncomfortable squirming in the theater.) While I’m glad folks had this response, I’m also really afraid that they won't think about why they felt that way, but will rather push it to the corners of their mind, ignore it, or – worse – consider Joel and farmers like him 'heartless' – which is about as far from the truth as you can get, but that is a mental jump I can understand when folks have never seen an animal slaughtered before. Mind you, the film also shows animals in factory slaughterhouses, but not at the moment of death and often as animal parts rather than whole creatures, which makes it easier, I think, for folks to distance themselves. I wished there was a bit more explanation in the film about what was going on in both of these situations, such that film-goers would have guidance to better understand what they were seeing. (For example, for folks who’ve never seen or read anything on slaughtering poultry or beef, they wouldn’t recognize or understand what the most humane, painless way to go and why. They just see slitting throats and freak.)

I also went back to reread Monsanto’s retaliatory website after watching the film. Comparing their views and those in the film is one of those "nobody's lying, still the stories don't line up" situations (Ani lyrics). The film, I think, sought to question the ethics of Monsanto and their influence – on food policy, with GMOs, with patenting, on farmers, and so on. Monsanto doesn't address these ethical concerns, instead highlighting that they are obeying the law (which they helped frame and influence) and justifying litigation between themselves and farmers featured in the film as an effort to ensure that that others are following the law as well. Personally, I’m not convinced. This is a situation where I think it’s of importance to question laws that put the well-being of corporations ahead of the well-being of people, which is what I believe these laws do. For example, I believe in the importance of seed saving (Dr. Vandana Shiva is a great resource about this issue in India if you’re interested in reading more), and knowing the workings of Mother Nature and how seed spreads from field to field, I think Monsanto's patent infringement politics are shady. Monsanto's website also went out of its way to say that the film demonizes farmers, which I think is utterly untrue. I thought the film demonstrated how many farmers are trapped in an unworkable system under the thumb of corporations like Monsanto.

But that's just my two-cents. All in all, I was glad I saw it. It’s one more piece of media to add to the repertoire. But also nothing ground shattering. As to whether or not you should go watch it, that's your decision. In the meantime, that’s enough rambling from me for one day...

-7/3/09

the economics of poverty

DeNeen L. Brown over at The Washington Post wrote a really valuable article about the high cost of poverty. It is absolutely worth reading. Here's an excerpt:

You have to be rich to be poor.

That's what some people who have never lived below the poverty line don't understand.

Put it another way: The poorer you are, the more things cost. More in money, time, hassle, exhaustion, menace. This is a fact of life that reality television and magazines don't often explain.

So we'll explain it here. Consider this a primer on the economics of poverty.

And the above image was photographed by Lois Raimondo for The Washington Post. The caption read "Harrison Blakeney pays his phone bill through a check-cashing operation that charges 10 percent extra to send the payment. 'That's how they make their money,' he says."

I *heart* Ellen DeGeneres.

I think Ellen DeGeneres is an amazing woman and am often grateful for her voice amidst so many others that just try to make people feel bad. She spoke at the 2009 Tulane University commencement last week. Here's what she had to say:


(And, as an added bit of fun, here's one of my favorite Ellen moments.)

Green Festival 2009

Chicago's 2009 Green Festival was this weekend. This is the third year a Green Festival has been held in Chicago and the third year I've gone. I dig 'em (as you can see from my post about it last year). Organized as a collaborative project between Green America and Global Exchange,

Green Festival [is] a walk through a sustainable community. It begins with finding solutions to help make our lives healthier—socially, economically and environmentally. Individuals along with business and community leaders come together to discuss critical issues that impact us at home and abroad. Organizations and businesses showcase programs and products that restore the planet and all that inhabit it. Neighbor-to-neighbor connections are formed, and skills are shared to empower people to create positive change in the world.

I wanted to share a couple of my highlights from this year's festival with you. (And this is in addition to my joy at being able to eat a delicious organic, vegan lunch from Soul Vegetarian, a restaurant on 75th to which I was introduced a few years back in celebration of a friend's birthday. They make soul food like you wouldn't believe. Yummy!)

First, I had the privilege of hearing damali ayo speak. She's probably best known for her website/art piece Rent-A-Negro.com and the related book How to Rent a Negro. She's a multi-talented woman who uses art, comedy, and a "stand up/smack down" style (her words) to fight racism. Her talk was titled "Are you ready to fix racism? (Or are you too busy pretending it doesn't exist?)" and was based on her "I Can Fix It!" guide to improving race relations in the U.S. (Download the guidebook in PDF from the website to get the full presentation.) She's a bad-ass chick on the path to recruit any and everyone to the rebellion. I'm in.

Second, I went to a talk by Mark Kastel, co-founder of the Cornucopia Institute, a organization

Seeking economic justice for the family-scale farming community. Through research, advocacy, and economic development our goal is to empower farmers - partnered with consumers - in support of ecologically produced local, organic and authentic food.

They are doing amazing work on a number of fronts, but I was especially impressed with their efforts to make sure products marked as certified organic live up to the label. Their Organic Dairy Brand Ratings Scorecard is based on a

national survey of organic products in the dairy case [and serves to] showcase ethical family farm producers and expose factory farm producers and brands that threaten to take over organic dairying. With this Web-based rating tool, you can see which brands and dairy products found in your region are produced using the best organic farming practices and ethics. Based on a year’s research into the organic dairy business, the scorecard rates 68 different organic dairy brands and private-label products.

The benefit of such an effort is to inform consumers of organic providers who fail to honor the faith put in them by consumers. (For example, Aurora Farms, the brand that produces 'O' Organics for Safeway and Dominick's has been charged by the USDA with willful violation of 14 tenants of organic certification, which essentially means that products we purchase labeled "organic" might not be.) The Report helped me to see how some of the "organic" brands I've purchased in the recent past (including Horizons (Dean's), 'O' Organics (Safeway), Wild Harvest (Albertson's), and Trader Joe's) are not maintaining the organic standards I expect, while other available brands (including Organic Valley (CROPP), Stonyfield Farms, and Whole Foods Market - 365 Organics) do much, much better. Good to know. And, apparently, the Institute is launching a brand new scorecard on Monday rating soy products -- everything from edamame and tempeh to tofu and soy milk. Exciting stuff. I'll add a link as soon as the new report goes up.

Third, I went to a panel discussion that was supposed to feature Alice Waters, founder of The Edible Schoolyard, but, sadly, she was ill and unable to attend. However, I was able to hear a number of folks speak about the importance of edible education policy and practice. Filmmaker Chris Taylor screened portions of his film Food Fight: A Story of Culinary Revolt which features Alice, as well as Michael Pollan (who I'm hearing speak tomorrow at the Chicago Public Library!), Wolfgang Puck, and the amazing, amazing, amazing Will Allen and Erika Allen of Growing Power, an AMAZING organization committed to urban agriculture, environmental stewardship, and edible education grounded primarily in Milwaukee and Chicago. The whole point is how food practices are foundations for social activism! Here's the trailer (and for more clips, visit the film's YouTube channel):


On the whole, the Festival was a pleasure, as always. Each year I walk away having learned new things and with a renewed energy to continue diligently down a path of sustainability and justice -- both social and environmental. If you can't get to an upcoming Green Festival, you can always check out Green Festival TV and radio (make sure to check the archives too) for recorded talks, presentations, and podcasts.

UPDATE: The Organic Soy Report and Scorecard is posted over at Cornucopia Institute for your perusal. Also, very sadly, I wasn't able to hear Michael Pollan tonight because the venue sold out. It was a first come, first serve gig, and while I got there early, the poor woman trying to manage the masses said some folks started lining up at noon (for a 6pm talk). What's with those folks? And why didn't they save me a seat?! Maybe next time... Eat happy, y'all. - 5/18/09

Finding socially & environmentally responsible businesses just got easier!

I'm so excited about this:


Certified B Corporations already include Better World Books, Numi Organic Tea, Method, Seventh Generation, Care2, TS Designs, Free Range Studios, and MANY more. (These are just some of the names of companies I already know and totally dig.)

Along with Green America's National Green Pages, what a great guide to finding socially and environmentally just and responsible businesses!

May Day -- fighting injustices

On Friday we crossed from April into May (where is the time going?!) and with the coming of May 1st came two events worthy of note, even after the fact.

First, May Day has a long history, having been celebrated in many different ways in communities around the world. In contemporary times, May Day has become synonymous with the politically charged celebration and/or advocacy of workers' rights, and especially the rights of immigrant workers. Chris Mahin wrote a great piece over at Daily Kos discussing the rich history of May Day and its roots in Chicago. Rallies and marches took place in the past few days across the country, including events in L.A., Oakland, San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, D.C., Alberta (yes, Canada), and surely others.

Second, Friday was also Blogging Against Disablism Day (BADD) 2009. Organized by Diary of a Goldfish, the page links together nearly 200 bloggers who all took time to post about issues of disability and disability discrimination. Entries are organized into sets of categories that highlight the many intersections between issues of disability and other areas of life, including employment, education, accessibility, parenting, health care, relationships and sexuality, and so forth. I've only begun making my way through the many entries, but they offer a rich gathering of thoughts and advocacy within and for those with disabilities and their allies. Definitely worth checking out.

Happy May!

I'm Glad... to be assigned a gender role of subservience...

Wow. Totally made me gag.


















If you'd like to read the whole misogynistic, heteronormative, patriarchal book cover to cover, go here. Published in 1970, Whitney Darrow, Jr.'s I'm Glad I'm a Boy! I'm Glad I'm a Girl! was 'normal'. Today we still aren't far enough away from these messages about 'appropriate' gender roles to make me comfortable.

This is what I spend my time fighting against. (But the book itself can be used as a great tool of subversion and teaching critical literacy.)

Making space for the truth of family diversity.

I just read a lovely story penned by Jennifer Finney Boylan in The New York Times titled 'Maddy' Just Might Work After All. An excerpt:

[M]y two children and my wife and I were sitting around the kitchen table, eating dinner. I was mid-transition. My older son, Zach, gave me a look.
“What,” I said. He was 7.
“We can’t keep calling you ‘Daddy,’ ” he said. “If you’re going to be a girl. It’s too weird.” ...
“Well,” I said to my sons. “My new name is Jenny. You could call me Jenny.”
Zach laughed derisively. “Jenny? That’s the name you’d give a lady mule.”
I tried not to be hurt. “O.K., fine. What do you want to call me?”...
“I know,” he said. “Let’s call you Maddy. That’s like, half Mommy, and half Daddy. And anyhow, I know a girl at school named Maddy. She’s pretty nice.”
His younger brother, Sean, who was 5, said, “Or Dommy.’
We all laughed. Even Sean. Dommy! What a dumb name for a transsexual parent!
After the hilarity died down, I nodded. “Maddy might work,” I said.

I spend a lot of time with kids, and one thing I am frequently reminded of is the beautiful diversity of who makes up our families and the strength that we draw from those foundations.

A year or more ago I saw a wonderful traveling exhibit called Love Makes a Family: Portraits of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People and their Families. (On a side note, the exhibit was sponsored by a church - the Berry United Methodist Church in Chicago, a reconciling congregation and proud member and supporter of the Reconciling Ministries Network. Not all churches are exclusionary of our LGBTQ brothers and sisters.) The exhibit was put out by the great folks at Family Diversity Projects who currently have six traveling shows, including their newest project Pioneering Voices: Portraits of Transgender People. Family Diversity Projects works to use the images and stories of real families to create exhibitions that show and advocate for the true diversity of families, along lines of race, sexuality, gender identity, disability, mental illness, family composition, and so forth.

At the end of the day, it is truly heartening for me to see more and more voices speaking out in love of the community we can build in our differences.

Meatless Monday!

I was just reading about the Meatless Monday Campaign, a non-profit organization working in association with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and with the support of 28 other public health schools and all sorts of knowledgeable folk (including Michael Pollan).

Meatless Monday is a national public health campaign to help prevent heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer -- four of the leading causes of death in America. A simple way to prevent these diseases is to eat a diet lower in saturated fat, found mainly in meat and high-fat dairy products. If Americans cut out meat and high-fat dairy just one day a week, they would meet the government's dietary guidelines.

Our goal -- consistent with recommendations made by the US Dept. of Health and Human Services, the US Dept. of Agriculture, and the American Heart Association -- is to help Americans reduce consumption of saturated fat 15% by 2010. That works out to eliminating saturated fat one day a week.

The intent of Meatless Monday is not to turn folks vegetarian (though that's not necessarily a bad choice either), but to support Americans' efforts to live and eat healthier. The website offers all sorts of health research, vegetarian recipes (as suggestions for yummy, no-meat meals), info on CSAs and organic foods, and a weekly digest of news snippets about health and food issues.

Here's their newest offering, a video called "Meatless Monday - Inspiring a Movement":

Not Yet Rain

If you've got half an hour, watch Not Yet Rain, a short film by Lisa Russell, produced in association with Ipas. (Yes, you can watch it online.)

In their own words:

[The film] explores abortion in Ethiopia through the voices of women who have faced the challenge of finding safe care. Through their stories, we see the important role that safe abortion care plays in the overall health of women and their families.

Every year, millions of women around the world risk their lives to end unintended pregnancies. While a law enacted in 2006 marked great progress toward reproductive freedom in Ethiopia, Not Yet Rain shows that changing the law is just the first step; much more needs to be done as women continue to die from unsafe abortions. Training for health workers and increased availability of care could save the lives of women in Ethiopia and around the world.

You're beautiful just the way you are!

Hey folks. A quick hit to remind you/me/us/we that seeing is NOT always believing, especially if it's media trying to sell anything (music, tv, beauty, lifestyle, products, whatever).

I, for one, often forget how much I'm lied to by every advertisement, commercial, billboard, etc. that I see. It's like I become inoculated to the falsity of media surrounding me. Especially when it comes to beauty. We (men and women) are supposed to be flat here, curvy there, blemish free everywhere, toned, no wrinkles, no flab, god forbid we be freckled, blah, blah, blah. It's enough to make me barf.

But I get really scared when I begin to forget that it's messages outside of myself being delivered to me that are telling me these things (even when I remind myself all the time). Instead I begin to feel as if the messages come from within me. My own voice starts to say "You're chunky. Look at that patchy skin! Ooh, look at those wrinkles!" Yadda-yadda, on and on. It's bad for me. It's bad for all of us.

BUT, every once and a while I get a nice kick in the ass to remind me that, uh, nope, I'm just fine the way I am and the world of media is what's way, way, way sick. Case in point: I ran across this website today that reps a company that provides professional photo retouching services. The real mind blower is their portfolio. If you want to be reminded of all the lies we tell each other about what 'beauty' is (aka - attack of the Photoshopper), but also what 'reality' looks like, this is the place to go (but remember that this particular version of 'reality' is supported by entire crews of hair, make-up, costuming, set, and lighting teams in addition to lifestyles likely filled with expensive skin and body 'care' routines). Anyway, go to this website, click Portfolio, select any image, and as you roll your mouse back and forth over the image, you'll see the original and retouched photos. Holy crap. I think it's fair to say that we have some fucked up ideas about beauty. Do you agree?

As a preview, check out this two samples from the site:




























Because apparently even beautiful people need to be 'fixed' and/or 'perfected.' Sad.

To see other examples of media (primarily print, but also some video) that works to make us forget what real beauty looks like, Melissa McEwan over at Shakesville has a series called Impossibly Beautiful.

In the meantime, I feel like I need to continually chant to myself, "I'm beautiful just the way I am. You're beautiful just the way you are. We're beautiful just as we are." Whew... Breath. Repeat.

UPDATE:
I just watched a recent (March 10, 2009) Op-Ed piece in The New York Times video library entitled Sex, Lies and Photoshop. It was put together by the wonderful Jesse Epstein, a Brooklyn-based documentary filmmaker. (I was first introduced to Epstein when her piece 34x25x36 was featured in The YouTube Screening Room, and then I saw her work again as a featured film in this year's LunaFest film festival -- which is still touring, if you wanna go.) Anyway, Epstein's Op-Ed argues in support of possible legislation in France that would make it illegal to promote (through any media, including advertising) negative body image and eating disorders. One central measure would force magazines to disclose the extent to which their images have been retouched or altered. Can you imagine?! Wow-wee! We should keep our eyes on France and see what happens! - 4/6/09

Spring...

Greetings, friends!
Friday marked the calendar end of winter and beginning of a new season. Spring has technically (though perhaps not materially) sprung, and I, for one, welcome the change. Winter offers a stark beauty worthy of awed appreciation and perhaps reverence, but I was built with a temperamental body that struggles in the cold, sometimes making a love of the brisk air and heavy snow difficult. As such, spring is a welcome addition to my days.

I made it through another quarter of graduate school -- a space of mixed blessings. I'm on "Spring Break" which, for me, is a pseudonym for "Catching Up." It'll be a week of cleaning, laundry, bill paying, taxes, answering 3 months worth of email, that sorta stuff. I don't really mind. I feel free, which can be a fleeting feeling. I was reflecting on just that this past Saturday. I was on the sun porch reading, which I often do on Saturday mornings, but this time it was a book of MY choosing that can be begun and completed on MY schedule. And that freedom of choice makes all the difference. That sense of control, even if small, over my own life. In the larger picture, that's a silly sequence of logic. I chose to be a grad student; I chose my classes; I chose to approach my work with a commitment to doing the best I can. So, this 'absence of freedom' is self-subscribed. Even so, the immediate ability to structure my own time, and take pleasure in the small things that I so often choose to overlook because 'I have no time!' is a joy.

This past Saturday was in the mid-50s, a pleasant break from the chill we've been moving through the past five or six months. I decided to take a walk -- a pleasure I can rarely indulge when school's in session. I made my way the 3.5 miles to the Lincoln Park Conservatory, a favorite spot for forgetting the winter cold, swung through the Regenstein African Journey portion of the Lincoln Park Zoo (always free to the public!), made my way to the Lakeshore, and walked the 3 or so miles north along the lake before cutting back west towards home. It was a lovely afternoon and I was free to enjoy the weather and the city and my own space to reflect, to contemplate, and to be inspired but the vastness of beauty that exists in the everyday, but is too easily overlooked as I(we) rush from thing to thing.

For me, when I feel lost and out of control of my own day-to-day living, I'm drawn back to the natural world -- flora, fauna, landscapes -- places that bring me back to myself. I've lived in big cities for the past seven years, and perhaps the most difficult thing about it -- despite all the advantages I gain -- is the distance from nature. So I have to find places that let me reconnect. In Boston, I'd make my way out to the Arnold Arboretum - 265 acres of land where I would often lose myself in the pine forests, stop to sketch or read or take a nap in the sun, far from the sights and sounds of the city. Chicago's different. Similar spaces are far enough away that they're difficult to reach on public transportation. So, here I just look for green, and often find myself on the Lakefront Trail, an 18 mile trail that stretch along Lake Michigan from Hollywood Ave. on the northside to 71st St. on the southside. While I'm in easy sight of the city I can at least hear the birds, smell the lake, and see green. A girl's gotta take what she can get.

In my reflections over the weekend, I started organizing some of my digital photography, pulling out images of flora, enraptured by the rich variation in color, shape, texture, size. Everything of beauty being offered by nature itself. I started working on a number of large collages (roughly two feet square) that perhaps in time I'll see about framing, but I thought I might share one here. It is very much a work in progress, but you get the idea. Most of the images are from the Lincoln Park Conservatory or my mother's garden in northeast Ohio, but I'm working on another one that includes images from the Garfield Park Conservatory, rural Nebraska, Maine, Manhattan, Kyoto, Mexico City, my own neighborhood, and my own backyard. It's good to remember that there is natural beauty everywhere, when I remember to look.

Happy spring!


















(ps - Please don't use this image without permission. That's stealing and makes me sad.)

Border Crossing

I had a piece of creative nonfiction published recently in the Women's and Gender Studies Program newsletter at DePaul. I thought I'd post up a link here in case you wanted to give it a read. (Mine is the last article on the page, if you don't want to read through the whole newsletter. The title they've given it is "Crossing Borders.") My piece is a reflection on some time I spent on the El Paso/Juarez (US/Mexico) border probably eight years or so ago. I was working with a wonderful organization called Annunciation House trying to better understand the connections between my own life in the United States and the lives of those living and working in Mexico, particularly those on the border. Annunciation House has a really powerful slide show that offers some images and information for added context, if you're interested.
Peace.