Monthly Archives: March, 2013

Black on Grey

Mary Wilkinson Rothko’s Black on Grey painting is visible from my back porch at six a.m. on a Wednesday morning. The sky to the north looks ominous but nonetheless beautiful. I remember seeing his painting in the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. I remember it well because the tiny voice from the tiny tape I carried …

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I Shall be Released

Music Saves I Shall be Released by Bob Dylan.  Another performance by the VAMS Music Saves Project.  The Vancouver Adapted Music Society (VAMS) supports and promotes musicians with physical disabilities. See the previous VAMS post on Healing Hamlet. To learn more about VAMS visit vams.org. Post by SSDFoundation.

Author Naomi Benaron

An Interview with the author of Running the Rift     The best advice I can give is to never let your rational mind get in your way. If you move forward one step at a time you will likely get where you want to go, and even if you don’t, the journey will teach …

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Their Eyes Were Watching God

Zora Neale Hurston One of the most important works of twentieth-century American literature, Zora Neale Hurston’s beloved 1937 classic, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is an enduring Southern love story sparkling with wit, beauty, and heartfelt wisdom. Told in the captivating voice of a woman who refuses to live in sorrow, bitterness, fear, or foolish …

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Red Cow in the Yellow Sky

Marc Chagall Born in the Russian city of Vitebsk in the late 19th century, Marc Chagall and his family endured the severe restrictions imposed upon Jews.  Despite the odds against him, he left Vitebsk to pursue art school in St. Petersburg.   Regarding the city of his youth, Chagall said, “I didn’t have one single painting that didn’t breathe with your …

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Wild Geese

Mary Oliver Photo by Tim Ellis You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you …

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Louisiana 1927

Randy Newman Randy Newman wrote this song to commemorate the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the most devastating river flood in the history of the United States.  It was performed by both Newman and Aaron Neville in 2005 as part of the Hurricane Katrina Relief effort. More music by Randy Newman Youtube post by WestHam720

Author Lauren Roedy Vaughn

An Interview with the author of OCD, The Dude and Me     For all of us to heal, for the world to heal, for new ideas to emerge, we each need to be who we are. Being who we truly are is an act of bravery that flies in the face of our commodified …

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Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party

Ying Chang Compestine Nine-year-old Ling is very comfortable in her life; her parents are both dedicated surgeons in the best hospital in Wuhan. But when Comrade Li, one of Mao’s political officers, moves into a room in their apartment, Ling begins to witness the gradual disintegration of her world. In an atmosphere of increasing mistrust, …

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Dancers of the Sun

Collin Sekajugo Born in Uganda, Collin Sekajugo established The Ivuka Arts Center in Kigali, Rwanda.  “Ivuka” means “rebirth”, a fitting name for the first art center in a country that is still healing from the genocide of nearly twenty years ago.  The artists of Ivuka, many who have returned with families that were forced to flee …

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