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Archives for September 2014

Eco-Artists, Swoon & Aylon, Resist Climate Chaos

September 19, 2014 By Pam

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAm I in love? Maybe. I’ve never met her, but she’s a 30-something street artist/ social justice activist who goes by the tag Swoon, although her birth name is also pretty fabulous — Caledonia “Callie” Curry. For years, her powerful portraits could be found illegally wheat-pasted on the sides of neglected buildings in gritty Brooklyn’s back alleys.

13-Swoon-Gazebo“Submerged Motherlands”

For much of 2014, the Brooklyn Museum devoted its 5th-floor rotunda to Swoon’s Hurricane Sandy-inspired installation. I was lucky enough to see this fantastical landscape — rafts made of salvaged junk (wood scraps, old pipes, bicycle and car parts, rope), larger-than-life portraits including one of Swoon’s ailing mother who recently died of cancer, and a meditation-gazebo topped with a depiction of a breastfeeding woman.

13-Swoon-Tree-MuseumFrom the clutter representing our fragile, dislocated lives with their alarming cycles of growth and decay, rose a magnificent fabric tree (akin to the sacred but endangered Mapou in Haiti). It drew our gaze, repeatedly, to the rotunda skylight, as if we might find relief from our environmental anxieties up there with the delicate cut paper foliage. Swoon believes “we can create little cracks in the façade of impossibility and inevitability.” Standing at the foot of that tree, I, too, believed.

A Tree Grows at the People’s Climate March

Swoon’s “Tree of Life” will rise again, Sunday, September 21, on Manhattan’s 11th Avenue at 35th Street. As we reach the end of the People’s Climate March, we will be invited to inscribe on a ribbon what we fear losing to climate chaos and tie the message to the tree. It will be a visual representation of MLK’s assertion, “We are all tied together in a single garment of destiny.” 

13-Earth-Ambulance-Color“Earth Ambulance” 

An ambulance driven by two women pulled away from the Lawrence Lab in Berkeley on May 2, 1982. But, while other ambulances raced to rescue sick or injured people that day, this one raced to rescue planet Earth. It was an emergency.

The Earth Ambulance was the vision of Helène Aylon. For years, she worked alone, isolated in her studio, until she heard a lecture by Dr. Helen Caldicott, the famous antinuclear activist from Australia. Aylon vowed then to use her art to bring people together to heal the Earth.

After urging activists not to “cringe from the visionary, the utopian,” Aylon led a women’s caravan on a ceremonial journey across the U.S., stopping at 12 Strategic Air Command (S.A.C.) nuclear bases to collect samples of earth. The soil was put into pillowcases decorated with women’s Earth dreams and nightmares.

13-Aylon-Earth-PaintingsThe caravan arrived in New York City in time for the historic June 12th March for Disarmament. The women unloaded the full pillowcases from the ambulance and poured the soil onto old army stretchers from Korea and Vietnam.

In solemn procession, they carried the stretchers through a crowd of one million, to a park near the U.N. and poured the ailing earth into 12 grave-length transparent boxes, each box neatly labeled for the soil it held. There was sandy soil from Vandenberg S.A.C. in southern California; clay-colored earth from Los Alamos; dark red earth from the atomic lab near Pittsburgh. Passersby stopped to look at the planet’s soil, moved by its beauty.

13-Aylon-at-Anchorage-COLORMonths later, pillowcases from the Earth Ambulance were hung like laundry on clotheslines in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza. For two weeks, people stopped to read Earth dreams and nightmares. At night, women camped out there, the dream-laden “sacks” hanging over them, waving in the breeze. Plaza police looked on, mistakenly assuming that official permission had been granted.

I got to see the pillowcases in the Plaza and again at the Seneca Women’s Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice, where I added one to the collection.

In 1992, I saw the Earth Ambulance, sans rescued soil. Aylon had filled it to the top with seeds from Native American lands and parked it in the Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage. Pillowcases were hung on clotheslines above the ambulance, while a video played, showing the caravan’s 1982 trip.

I still have the handful of seeds viewers were invited to take as a memento of hope for the planet’s future.

To Go Deeper       

13-Swoon-WomanSWOON

 “Life of Wonderment: Swoon Blurs the Line Between Art and Activism” by Melena Ryzik, The New York Times, August 6, 2014,

“Brooklyn Museum Features Swoon: ‘Submerged Motherlands‘” by Richard Friswell, Artes Magazine, July 2, 2014

Website: The Climate Ribbon


“Walrus TV Artist Feature: Swoon Interview from The Run Up” (10 minutes)


“Submerged Motherlands” environmental art at the Brooklyn Museum, 2014 (3 minutes)

13-Aylon-BookHELENE AYLON

“The S.A.C./ SAC Voyage of the Earth Ambulance” by Helène Aylon, WEAD (Women Environmental Artists Directory) Issue #5

“A Woman on a Mission” by Leslie Knowlton, Los Angeles Times, February 24, 1995

Website:  http://www.heleneaylon.com/

Book: Whatever Is Contained Must Be Released: My Jewish Orthodox Girlhood, My Life as a Feminist Artist, by Helène Aylon, The Feminist Press, 2012 (Also available on Kindle)


“Bridge of Knots” Helene Aylon’s pillowcase performance art (2 minutes)

 

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: “Submerged Motherlands”, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Caledonia “Callie” Curry, Earth Ambulance, environmental art, Helen Caldicott, Helène Aylon, People’s Climate March, Swoon

From Seven Seedlings, a Canopy of Hope

September 11, 2014 By Pam

12-Women-plantingSomething was very wrong, and Wangari Maathai knew it. She saw that women in Kenya had to walk farther each day for water and wood and realized that the cause was a policy of rapid deforestation which had left big swaths of the nation bare and dusty. The authorities didn’t seem to care.

Educated in the U.S., Africa, and Europe, Wangari was the first woman in East Africa to earn a doctorate. Fortunately, her advanced degrees did not separate her from the community, but deepened her roots.

12-Wangari-blue-tree

On World Environment Day, 1977, Dr. Maathai planted seven seedlings in honor of seven female environmentalists of Africa and, with that, launched the Green Belt Movement. This was her answer, her prayer, her way of reclaiming the power to heal the earth. She told her sisters that, “like a seedling, with sun, good soil, and abundant rain, the roots of our future will bury themselves in the ground and a canopy of hope will reach into the sky.” (from Unbowed)

Authorities went from not caring to caring a lot. At first they laughed when they saw women in village after village planting trees. The women lacked proper training, they said.

In an interview with Marianne Schnall at Feminist.com, Wangari remembered:

I started with ordinary women from the countryside expressing their very basic needs for water, for food, for firewood, and for income, and then realizing that what the women were describing was an environment — they were coming from an environment that was failing to sustain them.

The authorities stopped laughing when Dr. Maathai got women thinking about how much better it would be for their families if they helped promote sustainable agriculture, food-security, and environmentally appropriate crops benefiting the many in place of export commodities profiting the few.


The Highs and Lows of a Celebrity-Activist

12-Wangari-Obama

Because of her clear vision, deep insight, and vibrant, hands-on leadership style, Wangari was in great demand. She spoke about women’s empowerment and environmental issues around the world, worked for democracy and against government corruption, went on a hunger strike for the release of political prisoners, was elected to Parliament, gained international fame, won many awards, and got men involved in the Green Belt cause, including then-Senator Barack Obama. In 2004, she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Through all the years of her remarkable success, she was harassed, lied about, scorned, and threatened. Accused of being “too strong-minded for a woman,” her husband divorced her. Unable to support her children, she saw them leave to live with their father. She was beaten unconscious by the police, tear-gassed, jailed, bullied, and publicly mocked. There was international outrage when Wangari and several other environmentalists were attacked and injured while trying to plant a tree on public land that had been privatized and cleared for a golf course.

12-treeWhen Wangari Maaathai died of cancer in September, 2011 at age 71, the whole world mourned. The executive director of the United Nations’ environmental program remembered her as a force of nature and compared her to the acacia trees, “strong in character and able to survive sometimes the harshest of conditions.”

By the time she died, 900,000 women had helped plant 45 million trees which provided a lush canopy of green over their heads, a canopy of hope. And it all began with Wangari’s seven little seedlings.

 

To Go Deeper

Articles:

12-Wangari-kid-book“Wangari Maathai’s Canopy of Hope: remembering a warrior woman for the planet and role model for us all” by Jennifer Browdy at Transition Times, Sept. 26, 2011

“Conversation with Wangari Maathai” by Marianne Schnall at Feminist.com 12/9/08

“The Legacy of Wangari Maathai: Women as Green Agents of Change” by Wanjira Maathai and Jamie Bechtel, Huffington Post, 10/16/12

 

Books:

12-Mama-MitiWangari’s Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa by Jeanette Winter, 2008 (children’s book)

Seeds of Change: Planting a Path to Peace by Jen Cullerton Johnson, 2010 (children’s book)

Mama Miti: Wangari Maathai and the Trees of Kenya by Donna Jo Napoli, 2012 (children’s book with amazing African print illustrations)

Unbowed: A Memoir by Wangari Maathai, 2008 (Dr. Maathai recounts the brutal repression by the Kenyan government and how she started the Green Belt Movement)

Replenishing the Earth: Spiritual Values for Healing Ourselves and the World, 2010  — Maathai draws inspiration from the teachings of the world’s religious traditions, including “tikkun olam” (the Jewish mandate to repair the world”).

Video:


“Wangari Maathai ‘The Tree Lady’ by Will Levitt” — Excellent overview of Maathai’s life, success, challenges, the power of the nonviolent grassroots Green Belt Movement and the empowerment of women. (10 mins)


“The Hummingbird and the Forest Fire” — Wangari Maathai narrates this animated story about doing the best we can, no mater how small, for the environment, from Dirt! The Movie. (2 mins)


“Wangari Maathai Tribute Film” — World leaders, including Al Gore and Bill Clinton, honor the courage of Dr. Maathai. (7 mins)

Photo credit:

Wangari Maathai, photo by Micheline Pelletier

Image of Serengeti tree by Nell for Mahlatini (https://www.mahlatini.com/honeymoons/)

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Green Belt Movement, Kenya, Nobel Peace Prize, Seeds of Change, The Hummingbird and the Forest Fire, Unbowed, Wangari Maathai, Wangari’s Trees of Peace

Honoring Women Who Hugged the Trees

September 5, 2014 By Pam

11-AmritaDeviSquareAs we prepare for the People’s Climate March on September 21 here in NYC, I am thinking about some of the brave women who have fought valiantly for the Earth, like the heroines of the Chipko (“tree-hugging”) movement in India.

In 1730, Amrita Devi watched men with axes enter her village with an order from the Maharajah — to cut down trees needed to build his new palace.

The trees were the villagers’ source of life, the only green in an otherwise barren landscape. The forest shielded the people from the desert, protected their fragile water supply, provided fodder for the cows and twigs for the fire. What’s more, the trees and animals were sacred and not to be harmed, according to the rules of their Hindu sect.

11-AmritaDeviBeheadedAmrita Devi tried to reason with the men, but they had their orders. They entered the forest with axes raised. Amrita Devi boldly walked past the bewildered men and stretched her thin arms around a tree saying, “If a tree is saved, even at the cost of one’s head, it is worth it.”

What is the life of a peasant woman to men who are bound to obey the orders of a Maharajah? Amrita Devi was beheaded protecting the trees. When her three daughters stepped up to take her place, they, too, were beheaded. It is said that 363 villagers were killed that day, trying to save the sacred trees that were essential to their lives.

When the Maharajah heard about the massacre, he was appalled at the loss of life. As the story is told, he declared a permanent injunction against felling the trees or killing the wildlife in the area of the massacre and exempted the villages of that region from land taxes. Today, the Bishnoi villages of Jodhpur are a tourist attraction, green and beautiful, filled with animals and birds, in an otherwise desolate region. Amrita Devi is honored as one of the world’s first eco-warriors.

Chipko Movement Reborn in the 1970s

11-GauraDeviIn modern times, developers descended on the forests of the Himalayas seeking short-term profit. Deforestation led to environmental disasters. In monsoon season, landslides and floods devastated the regions where trees once secured the land.

11-ChipkoWomenOne day in March, 1974, when the men of Reni were away, laborers with axes and guns showed up with government permits to fell the trees. A little girl saw them and raced to get Gaura Devi (photo) who quickly alerted 27 other women. Together, they marched to the forest and confronted the men.

Gaura Devi (1925-1991) was unschooled, but wise. She said, “Brothers, this forest is like our mother. You will have to shoot me before you can cut it down.” The men laughed.

Dodging obscenities and threats, the women stood between the men and the trees until the workers, frustrated and exhausted, backed down. It took months of vigilance and protest, but, using Gandhian nonviolence, the people, with women in the lead, saved their trees.

11-ChipkoArtThe rural Chipko movement has been an inspiration to ecology activists around the globe. In 2008, twig sculptures of the tree-hugging women created by Klub Gaja, a Polish environmentalist group, greeted delegates at the entrance to the UN’s climate change conference in Poznan, Poland.

How can I, a woman living in 21st century NYC, understand this story? If I’m thirsty, I turn the tap, and clear, drinkable water comes out. If I want to cook my dinner, I turn another knob and a small, controllable ring of fire appears on my stovetop. I can’t imagine using 85% of my time walking to get water or firewood.

But then, I remember what is happening to the water in Detroit, the rainforest in Brazil, the mountaintops in West Virginia. I’d better understand. See you at the People’s Climate March on the 21st!

To Go Deeper

Articles:

“The Original Tree Huggers: Let Us Not Forget Their Sacrifice on Earth Day” by Rucha Chitnis, April 22, 2013, from Women’s Earth Alliance (An excellent article, with information from Amrita Devi’s day to current history)

“Lessons from the Mountains” by C.S. Lakshmi in The Hindu, May 21, 2000

ChipkoBookBooks:

Aani and the Tree Huggers by Jeannine Atkins (award-winning children’s book about the 1970s Chipko movement)

The Legend of Gaura Devi: The Eco-Warrior of India by Aditya Pundir, Parth Joshi, and Bhavna Pundir (available only on Kindle)

Anand, Anita. “Saving Trees, Saving Lives: Third World Women and the Issue of Survival” in Reclaim the Earth: Women Speak Out for Life on Earth, Leonie Caldecott and Stephanie Leland, Eds. London: The Women’s Press, 1983

Videos:


The Original Conservationists: Bishnois of Rajasthan (5:30 mins.)

 


Chipko Movement (1:30 cartoon for children)

 


A Day in History, Chipko Movement (of 1974) 2 mins.

The Oldest Tree Huggers (5:47 mins.)

 

Credits:

Photo: Student members of the National Green Corps commemorate the Chipko movement on the UN’s International Biological Diversity Day in June, 2012

Illustration of Amrita Devi by Jillian Gilliland.

 

 

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Aani and the Tree Huggers, Amrita Devi, Biological Diversity Day, Bishnoi, Bishnoi villages, Chipko movement, deforestation, Gaura Devi, People’s Climate March, tree huggers

Pam McAllister

In 1982, I edited the anthology Reweaving the Web of Life: Feminism and Nonviolence and then wrote two books about women’s use of resistance and action: You Can't Kill the Spirit and This River of Courage.

I've spent a lifetime compiling stories of courageous, creative actions, categorizing them (a la Gene Sharp), writing books and articles, speaking at university forums, church retreats, feminist conferences. I’ve also joined in the action -- antiwar protests in the '70s, Take Back the Night marches in the '80s, prison reform rallies in the '90s, and Occupy Wall Street actions in recent years.

I am currently researching more examples of nonviolent action for peace and justice around the world for two new books -- one for/about children and another about women (whose actions are still so often left out or overlooked).

Here I am with Barbara Deming, my mentor and friend, in Sugarloaf Key in the early ‘80s. The photo has faded, but the memories and love have not.

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