Quote of the Week - De Antonis

"Honesty is an expensive gift, do not expect from cheap people."  

– Carlos De Antonis

I love this quote from the lovely Carlos De Antonis.  It reminds me of two things to surround myself with people who have access to their highest selves and to keep my expectations real!

Thanks, Carlos, for letting me post this!  (Sometimes I copy my friend's quotable FB stasuses - statusi? - for later use.)

He's also a lovely singer!

Funeral Parade

So excited to be featured in the Winter Issue of the gorgeous Funeral Parade!

Thanks to Sheeluv for including me!

Please check it out - profiles on artists, great images, lots of inspiration!


After doing the whole interview and process for the mag, I just now realized that I have my own connection to the concept of funeral parade.

Quote of the Week - McCarthy

Jack McCarthy 1939 - 2013

"…so forgive me, Dylan,
I will go gentle into that good night,
or afternoon as the case may be,
there is no rage in me, not anymore
the years have been too kind
allow the light the right to die…"

- Jack McCarthy (excerpt from Victory)

We lost a great one this week.  Great human, great writer, wonderful storyteller, poet.  Most emphasis on the human.  It's hard not to be informed by Jack as soon as you are exposed to him and his work -- informed - not influenced - something about the who he was pre-empted that.  He seems to carry a standard of humility, honesty and integrity inside him that is unwavering.  Seemed. Carried.  If you haven't met him, then, now you won't.  You can still see him.

What made Jack great - so many things - but the things that come up for me and keep coming up in tributes - the (apparent) simplicity, the honesty, the complete lack of pretension, and the listening.  He was a consummate listener.  You felt him listening to you and to others.  Even while he was speaking.  Such a clear connection to self and to others.  This is the gift he shared tirelessly.  Exhaustively.

Jack McCarthy - stand up poet.  Stand up human.  Thank you for the listening.  Thank you for the speaking.  Yes, take that nap.

Quote of the Week - Holzer

"Money creates taste." 

- Jenny Holzer

One of my favorite artists.  This slogan popped into my head this morning.  Holzer was completely ahead of the curve as an artist, activist, feminist, and social deconstructionist (yeah - I just made that up right now, I think.  Hopefully you get what I mean; hope I didn't steal it.)

Totally worth looking into her work.  It is the pithiest social commentary you can find.  It is life-affirming and supportive.  It lets you let go and just be.  At least, it does me.

It's even freeing as a consumer - it tells you that your money has as much power as their money, if you use it in line with your core.

It's also a great reminder of how simple art and activism and putting your energy towards social progression can be when you are clear in your purpose.

Happy Monday!

Day of Restoration!

Online Ticketing for A Day of Restoration and Vision for Body and Soul powered by Eventbrite

Quote of the Week - Remen

‎"The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention... A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well-intentioned words." 

- Rachel Naomi Remen

This is it.  The big IT.

Listening is something you do with way more than your ears - it not just receiving - it is a form of giving.

(And try not interrupting -- I know it's hard.  I do.)


I've no idea where I got this...I hope credit returns to the person who posted it or the site I found it on - I just have forgotten.  Post in comments if it came from you!  Or if you  have thoughts.

Practivist of the Week - Lennie Varvarides - DYSPLA

Practivism = Proactive, pragmatic, promotable activism!

How old are you, if you don’t mind?

28

What is the main focus of your practivism at this time and how does that manifest?

Since 2007, DYS(the)LEXI has been on a mission to revolutionize how people see and understand dyslexia. The festival is the first of its kind to challenge and celebrate the term “dyslexic,” proving that not only can we write, but that our dyslexia makes us better story practitioners!

I had this crazy idea that London needed yet another new writing festival. I had recently graduated from Central School of Speech and Drama where I finished with an MA in writing for performance and was full of this stuff called optimism. An opportunity came up for a cheap hire at Barons Court Theater and with the help of my friend Rachel Barnett, we set up DYSTHELEXI, the first festival to exclusively produced the work of dyslexic storymakers. It has been optimism, luckily, that has gotten me through the last five years.

This year marks five years of pushing and persuading. Five years of recruiting poets and performers and playwrights, five years of displaying what dyslexic creativity is and looks like. In a way, each festival is a research project and represents a live account of where the creative dyslexic community is and who our dyslexic contemporaries are.

The festival has proven to be a powerful network of shared energy; all involved are eager to raise awareness and celebrate art. This art, this literature this theater, this poetry, this music all made by dyslexic artists, dyslexic writers, dyslexic theater makers, dyslexic poets and dyslexic musicians.

There is a vibrant dyslexic community in London and every year this community attracts new and old dyslexics, who are eager to either come out of the closet, or are able to enjoy bathing in this new attitude of acceptance, bought about through all of our efforts to raise awareness.

In short: DYSPLA: CELEBRATING DYSLEXIC STORY MAKERS!

What route did you take to get here?

I was never very good with directions; can't follow any route or set of rules, so I made my own up, one idea at a time. I don't take no for an answer and believe that whatever I do, I will find the right people to help me make it better. 

School was always a battle and I never quite found my feet until art school - there I found the freedom to imagine and realized that I had something most people have to work at - ideas - lots of them. Head so full of daydreams and fantasies that I never had much time for anything else. 

Don't knock the day dreamer, they are busy planning tomorrow!

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(This is one in a series -- feel free to search this blog for "practivist" to find others!)