I’ve added a couple of links to “Natural Heritage”, two films I saw recently and highly recommend. The first is Milking the Rhino which is a documentary about the “community conservation” practiced by the Massai and Himba communities in Kenya and Namibia. This film is tremendously thought-provoking. When I was doing research in Cebu a [...]
One of the things I love about being on assignment and covering conservation in Chicago is that I get to learn more about the prairies, savannas, riverways, and the conservationists working to save and restore them. These are often humble, tenacious people. They can be thorny, usually full of humor, ready to lobby local politicians, [...]
Home, prairie-muck dried
onto the seams of my field pants,
hiking boots splattered with mud,
hair in pleasant disarray.
The scent of freedom
still clings to me.
Just an hour before,
by watch-time,
by two-legged time,
by analog hands or digital face,
I stood in a place
14,000 years in-the-making,
a glacier’s passing,
strewn with dolomite and limestone
crumbling, soft-edged rocks,
and the whimsy of a universe
where lands stretch, wrinkle,
move [...]
A new link on my site today: Greater Good Magazine.
Check it out under “Com.passion”.
I feel beyond fortunate to have friends who are interesting and insightful and dear, like my friend Elaine, who introduced me to this magazine, Greater Good. It’s published by UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center which (according to its own copy) [...]
For my birthday, I recently received a beautiful book I’d been longing for called THE WOMEN. It is filled with the haunting and evocative sepia photos of 19th century photographer Edward Curtis. Curtis spent 30 years of his life traveling North America photographing and recording the Native nations he met, documenting traditions, cermonies, languages, and [...]
I had a great discussion with my friend Anna last weekend, one of those rambling conversations about creativity and life, cultural politics and the way we struggle to remain real and compassionate. The thing I’m realizing about creativity lately is that it requires Time. Time to slow down. Time to observe. Time to get down [...]
Mabuhay.
It’s been a long, good week, very productive — and I’m here again parked in the rain at a bend in the Des Plaines River. The ice on the riverbend is a soft, translucent white. The thawed parts of the riverbend are a flat brown tinged with green, gray on the surface. The bare-limbed trees [...]
I just found a new mag online, “Hyphen Magazine” — paging through it, I was caught by the high quality of art, sweeping brushstrokes, and bold photos. Article titles, hed & dek, even the subscriptions categories had me rollin’. It’s a magazine devoted to taking a fresh look at Asian America (yes, including the Midwest). [...]
New to check out:
A new category of links, “Bayanhihan Spirit, Cooperative Spirit”. These are links devoted to people and orgs engaged in collaborative work and community-building.
Anti-Gravity Surprise - collaborative arts for social change.
Pinoy+Proud - celebrates Filipino heritage, history, and arts; helps cultural centers; all welcome. (Yes, my cousins and I run this site.)
Tanikgalang Ginto - [...]
Just out a page of poetry on my site for kids -
“Advice for Visiting Relatives” is my in-progress poetry collection for children based on my first trip to Manila when I was thirteen. Enjoy!
MGB