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Today’s painting is a little different from the usual. It’s not for building up my portfolio, or for a promo piece. It’s not to practice improving my craft, to try some new technique, or to impress anyone. It is to remember and honor a friend in the only way that I know how.

(click for larger version)

Dear Makana,

Just over a year ago, you went hiking on a Colorado mountain and never came home. Last weekend, a group of us made the climb in your honor. We had a small memorial service, and while we were spreading some of your ashes there was a little Gray Jay hanging out nearby, who just never left us. You know, you always reminded me of a bird–light and carefree, flitting from place to place. A jay is perfect; they’re silly and always causing trouble, kind of like you.

Maybe that little jay was with you, Makana, when I couldn’t be. I’m sorry I couldn’t help you. I miss you. I’m glad you spent your last day in such a beautiful place.

Thank you for being my friend.

Image via Wikipedia

When was the last time math was your friend?

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We believe that a lot of movies - particularly the more violent ones - are not for little kids. Just a personal feeling that they are not really appropriate - ie. the ratings. Today, Mo came home talking about how he was playing at recess with the boys and they were playing Batman and Star Wars and he had no idea what they were. He played along for awhile, but the jig was soon up. Then, once again - he played by himself. Let me preface this and say - he JUST turned five.

Are we hampering his social development by making him the 'different' kid on the playground? Is his childhood going to be like mine? Amazing at home and terrible in the school yard? What are we to do? We read Roahl Dahl books (dark indeed), do not filter information about death and sickness, but explain it when asked. He watches the news with us, and we tell him the truth. He knows where his food comes from and where babies come from... and yet I feel like maybe, maybe we SHOULD let him watch these movies.

Then, this past weekend, we were at a beautiful wedding at Camp Wanakita. My Tent Sisters were there - fellow wild women of the woods (one was getting married), and my friends little guy - well - he is JUST LIKE mine. They played non-stop, in the sand, in the creek, in the trees. Not one mention of movies or superheroes, they talked bird calls and cool rocks. Too bad he lives all the way in Nelson, BC. They performed their made-up songs on the stage and ran themselves ragged at the party. SO neat to see, Mo has great friends - better than great friends, but this connection is was a rare jewel.

This is the new book I've nearly finish with Daryl K. Cobb



Contact him if you wantInteractive Educational Assemblies
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Perfect for children ages 2-8

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Booking 2010-11 Season Now!         
                                            Contact Me Today!

Each year I inspire thousands of students to read, write and be creative.  
I hope that you will join me this season and celebrate the adventure of creativity.

Join the adventure and read!
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To offer you a quick look at the greeting card designs that were delivered just yesterday (woohoo!), I’m posting a few pages from my catalog, so you can see the kind of stuff I’ve been up to! I’m currently working on a new design for this site, complete with an online store, so soon you will be able to see all the designs in living color! Click the images below to see them larger. Note: the colors won’t be quite as neon in print. Enjoy!

Color visuals line - 1

Cartoons - 1

Sprout line - 1

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Teatro Luna is so excited to share with you the projects we have coming up! We hope you can come and share in the excitement with us! We are performing a new short play from Co-Founder/Co-Artistic Director of Teatro Luna, Tanya Saracho, SURFACE DAY, commissioned by the Chicago Humanities Festival, in collaboration with Steppenwolf Theatre on Saturday October 27th.

We are also performing S-E-X-OH! at the University of Chicago on Friday October 26th at 6:00pm. MACHOS, our newest ensemble built show opens in just under weeks, with previews beginning 5 November 2007, and Opening Night taking place on Thursday 8 November 2007. Read on to see how you can get involved and support Teatro Luna on these and other artistic endeavors. Happy Halloween!

SURFACE DAY. A new short play by Tanya Saracho. Commissioned by the Chicago Humanities Festival. A collaboration between Steppenwolf Theatre and Teatro Luna Theatre Company Saturday, October 27th @ Steppenwolf Theatre. Saracho is the Co-Founder of Teatro Luna and a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists. She is the author of QUITA MITOS, OUR LADY OF THE UNDERPASS, and KITA Y FERNANDA. Performances will be followed by discussion among the playwrights, creative team members, and other special guests.

Teatro Luna...Anda performs S-E-X-OH! at the University of Chicago, Friday October 26th 2007!
MACHOS... Teatro Luna's newest ensemble built show opens in November @ Chicago Dramatists!

CONTINUING IN NOVEMBER: OYE-LISTEN and PROYECTO LATINA

Want to get involved? Here are some ways:

-Come to Proyecto Latina or OYE-LISTEN, two free events we offer every month/every other month.
-Are you proactive, enthusiastic, and love Teatro Luna? If yes, then talk to us about joining our Board! With your support we can continue to grow and produce new work.
-Join our Myspace and Facebook

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Six writers were commissioned by the Chicago Humanities Festival, in collaboration with Steppenwolf Theatre to write about climate change. SURFACE DAY is what Tanya Saracho A. came up with.The Lovely and Talented Coya Paz co-directs the piece.

Come and see Teatro Luna ensemble members Belinda Cervantes and Gina Cornejo, with new LUNA friend, Carlo Garcia, as they play post apocalyptic citizens of a new territory called AMEXICA...where "Caucos" (whites) are the minority, Spanglish is the national tongue and NOTHING grows.

Saturday, October 27 | 3pm and 7:30 pm
Upstairs Studio @ Steppenwolf Theatre Company
1650 N. Halsted St.
Tickets $5
.

Marion Woodman is a Jungian analyst—and is one of the most inspiring voices in the global movement for peace. Here she joins forces with Elinor Dickson, Director of Psychological Services at St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto to produce an informed and penetrating investigation of a source of spiritual and creative power, not popular in Western circles. In Dancing in the Flames, they point to a constellation of archetypal ideas which they hope will be a source to inspire and inform: the mythical complex of the Dark Goddess. Their book operates on two levels, as a guide for individual transformation and ultimately transforming society.

The core of the book is a cluster of chapters using psychoanalytic material that draws on the mythology of the Dark Goddess. Mind you, the frame of reference is European, but Woodman does attempt to bring in a non-Western perspective, honoring as best she can the thousand years of Hindi veneration to Kali, the root source for this archetype.

At a broad-brush level, this initially involved the matriarchal phase, a belief in a living world where everything in nature held spirit-life flowing from source, the Great Mother. This was followed by the emergence of a separate. individual 'self', then the formation patriarchal and hierarchical power structures.

Throughout the early part of this history, the archetype of this Goddess progressively is split off more and more from that of the Great Mother, emerging as a her polar opposite---killer, and scourge. In reality, it's the cleansing aspect of the Good/Bountiful/Great Mother. The split of the Great Mother vs. Dark Mother mirrors that schism between matriarchy and patriarchy, the body and the spirit.

The authors make the case that in the period that followed, both the Great Mother and the Goddess are repressed, and driven into the "murky depths of our unconscious." Yet the culture of the Goddess lives on, underground, in succeeding centuries. It eventually finds expression, despite repression, in the form of the Black Virgin from the twelfth century onwards. And I would argue, our own veneration of La Virgen, of Tonatzin, who survived colonization, a remains a vital life force in the Chicano/Mejicano soul and psyche.

The authors make an impassioned case that society as a whole must reclaim the Dark Goddess. To underscore, they turn to personal analytic material, allowing the reader to make their own contact with the goddess archetype. The mythological aspects of Virgin, Mother and Crone, making up the European triple goddess, are followed through their appearance in the therapies of both men and women, these images used as tools in the process of personal evolution. In my experience of Eurocentric, new-age feminism, its subtle racism links creativity/goodness with the idea of light and so I found it powerful and liberating to be reminded of the imagery of the holy darkness, its power to cleanse, nourish and renew.

This idea of darkness, again, is no stranger to indigenous ideas of the Mother--She Who Is. I have a personal source of connection to the Santeria/Yoruba deity of Oya Yansa. Oya is also also Dark Goddess, keeper of the whirlwind, sweeping clean all that is decayed, corrupt. It was important for me to reframe my own ideas of Mother, particularly in contrast to the long-suffering Virgin of my youth. This book was a thought-provoking resource, stirring up a fleshy, full-bodied, powerful female deity, one with deep hunger, deep ability to consume, transmute and transform.

The authors give a picture of integration inspired by the qualities of the Dark Goddess, a process in which fear of death, fear of nature, and fear of our own femininity (whether we are men or women) are reconciled in the dark. They stress the dangers of yearning for a world of "pure" spirit and "light," a state where in our yearning for perfection, we confuse a certain kind of "perfection" with wholeness.

I would further challenge the notion of light equaling perfection---light without the regenerative power of darkness is half of what is and only half. And under the harshness of unending, unshrinking light, all fades and withers away, spent beyond resources, starving for rest, for the dream world, for losing oneself and finding the body made anew.

One of the most interesting parts in the book subdivides the process according to the traditional chakra system, while still basing the account firmly on the actual material of analysis. From this viewpoint, integration is seen as a process of “building the subtle body,” of embodying spirit in a complete and integrated way.

The key step in this process, for the individual, involves the recognition of our own autonomy, the acceptance of ourselves, and the finding of our own voice. For this to happen, "it takes great resolve to enter the darkness of our own chaos, to give up the familiar path and begin to trust in our own experience. The recognition and unconditional love of oneself is never a selfish journey."

It's a journey of seeking awareness, increasing confluence between those things we normally separate as "physical" and "spiritual." At the end, the book returns to the societal level, where the authors’ believe the protests of the Sixties "were the seeds, at a culturally recognized level, of a movement based on hope for a more meaningful existence.... What began as a protest has become a challenge, a challenge that will involve not only technology, but a new understanding of human mythology."

Depending on how we choose to phrase it, either ideas of ' science' must be revamped to include experiencing this relatively unused 'female' approach, or needs to be blended into a larger view that gives equal status to this view. The authors’ account at the end gives us a start -- some tools that may enable us to do this. They give us immense hope, and also a profound challenge. This new vision is not one that we can dream up intellectually: it can be reached only by transformation, only if we "throw ourselves into the flames and dance in the refining fire..."

Our traditional ideas of 'science' stresses the intellect, the rational—in archetypal terms, a 'masculine' construct. It operates with ideas of impersonal, 'objective' discovery and 'absolute' truth. While it's an important way of knowing, it has limits as a basis for a new world view. There are deep questions that emerge. How do we construct gender and identity? How are those concepts linked to to behaviors like violence and passivity? How can we integrate complicated, contradictory ideas of male/female that include ‘dark’ and healing forces in both?

This book kept me up at night. It was another piece of encouragement to let go, to delve deep, and look at what's revealed without flinching. I'm always on the lookout for things that will strengthen me, as well as shake me up. The themes of violence, sexualized violence in particular, are shot through the fabric of this American life, and to ignore them is one darkness I find unacceptable. Dancing in the Flames provides a kind of comfort, as well as a challenge.

ISBN-10: 1570623139
ISBN-13: 978-1570623134

Presented by CHICAGO FOUNDATION FOR WOMEN'S Latina Leadership Council An Evening with "MACHOS" BY TEATRO LUNA 6:30 p.m. wine and cheese reception 8-9:30 p.m. performance Friday, Nov. 9 Chicago Dramatists 1105 W. Chicago Ave. Chicago Call (312) 577-2801 ext. 229. Tickets are $45. Proceeds from this event benefit the Unidas Fund of the Latina Leadership Council. No refunds or exchanges. A world premiere production, "MACHOS" is an interview-based play about contemporary masculinities. As always, Teatro Luna asks hard-hitting questions, such as: Exactly how did you learn to use the urinal? "MACHOS" presents a range of true-life stories with Teatro Luna’s trademark humor and unique Latina point-of-view. "MACHOS" follows Teatro Luna's critically-acclaimed shows "S-E-X-OH" and "LUNATIC(A)S." It moves beyond the everyday stereotypes of gender, offering a complex look at how 50 men (and eight Latina women) learned how to be men. Performances are drawn from interviews with 50 men nationwideand performed by an all-Latina cast in drag. After the performancethere will be a reception with director Coya Paz and the actors. Featuring Belinda Cervantes, Maritza Cervantes, Yadira Correa, Gina Cornejo, Ilana Faust, Stephanie Gentry-Fernandez and Wendy Vargas. Learn more about the Latina Leadership Council of Chicago Foundation for Women. Chicago Dramatists is wheelchair-accessible. If you have other accesibility needs or questions, please contact Marisol Ybarra by Nov. 6 at (312) 577-2836 / TTY (312) 577-2803 or [email protected]. AND The 17th Annual Gwendolyn Brooks Conference on Black Literature and Creative Writing Fine Fury: Celebrating Gwendolyn Brooks at 90 October 17-20 2007 Chicago State University As for that other kind of kindness, if there is milk it must be mindful. The milkofhumankindness must be mindful as wily wines. Must be fine fury. Must be mega, must be main. -- from Young Afrikans (of the furious) by Gwendolyn Brooks Featuring: Sonia Sanchez Martin Espada Ed Roberson Tayari Jones Donda West Cheryl Clarke Julius E. Thompson Haki R. Madhubuti Sterling Plumpp Angela Jackson Sandra Jackson-Opoku Margo Crawford Camille Dungy Jacqueline Jones LaMon Evie Shockley Adrian Matejka Gregory Pardlo Randall Horton Kelly Norman Ellis Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu Bayo Ojikutu Kalisha Buchanon Workshops by Martin Espada and others. For registration information visit www.csu.edu/gwendolynbrooks or call 773-995-3750. Lisa Alvarado