Happy interdependence day

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"We are all connected. When you touch one thing, you are touching everything. Whatever we do has an effect on others. Therefore, we must learn to live mindfully to touch the peace inside each of us. Peace in the world starts with peace in oneself. If everyone lives mindfully, everyone will be more healthy, feel more fulfilled in their daily lives and there will be more peace. This collective mindfulness can bring positive change to our families, organizations, communities, nations and future generations." - Thich Nhat Hanh

A notebook about how we work, learn, love and live.

What a week. On the eve of our annual celebration of independence from a monarchy our highest court ruled that we'd be better off living under a king after all. That feels really shitty.

But while feeling shitty compromises our creative energy, we do still have creative energy. In this week's lede story, Rob Brezsny cites Howard Zinn: "What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction."

Let's not let the bastards wear us down.

Happy Friday

Civics, Social Imagination
"This devastating moment in history has the redemptive effect of calling forth our deepest longings to care for each other."

Rob Brezsny with his wife, Ro Loughran

I often turn to Rob Brezsny for a spiritual perspective on this experiment we've named humanity. Last week he voiced a question I am asking:

"Do we dare celebrate anything at all in the face of the teeming mobs that proudly proclaim their support for the ever-more bloated malfeasance of misogynistic patriarchy and plutocracy and militarism and racism and bigotry?"

His answer to himself was very reassuring.

"After much meditation, here's what I concluded: No matter what the state of the world might be, it's my pragmatic job and my soul task to perpetrate regeneration and awakening and inspiration and liberation."

This article comes in two parts, a poem that declares that "overthrowing the psychopathic leaders is not enough. Protesting the well-dressed planet-rapers is not enough. We cannot afford to be consumed with our anger; cannot be obsessed and possessed by their danger."

The second is an essay, Subversive, Transformative, Liberational Hope, that articulates why it makes "logical or soulful sense to embrace crafty optimism and radical hope now."

Article: This is Perfect Moment

Culture, Dance
"Hard times require furious dancing. Each of us is the proof."

Image by Shiloh McCloud

Rob used the image above to illustrate his article. It is the cover of Alice Walker's book of poems: "Hard Times Require Furious Dancing". This passage is from the preface of that book:

"I am the youngest of eight siblings. Five of us have died. I share losses, health concerns, and other challenges common to the human condition, especially in these times of war, poverty, environmental devastation, and greed that are quite beyond the most creative imagination. Sometimes it all feels a bit too much to bear. Once a person of periodic deep depressions, a sign of mental suffering in my family that affected each sibling differently, I have matured into someone I never dreamed I would become: an unbridled optimist who sees the glass as always full of something. It may be half full of water, precious in itself, but in the other half there’s a rainbow that could exist only in the vacant space.

"I have learned to dance.

"It isn’t that I didn’t know how to dance before; everyone in my community knew how to dance, even those with several left feet. I just didn’t know how basic it is for maintaining balance. That Africans are always dancing (in their ceremonies and rituals) shows an awareness of this. It struck me one day, while dancing, that the marvelous moves African Americans are famous for on the dance floor came about because the dancers, especially in the old days, were contorting away various knots of stress. Some of the lower-back movements handed down to us that have seemed merely sensual were no doubt created after a day’s work bending over a plow or hoe on a slave driver’s plantation.

"Wishing to honor the role of dance in the healing of families, communities, and nations, I hired a local hall and a local band and invited friends and family from near and far to come together, on Thanksgiving, to dance our sorrows away, or at least to integrate them more smoothly into our daily existence. The next generation of my family, mourning the recent death of a mother, my sister-in-law, created a spirited line dance that assured me that, though we have all encountered our share of grief and troubles, we can still hold the line of beauty, form, and beat — no small accomplishment in a world as challenging as this one." - Alice Walker

Excerpt: Hard Times Require Furious Dancing

Civics, Common Good
"By ourselves we are outside the human definition, outside our identity."

"It is not simply that we are here, made of the same matter, sharing the same improbable planet; it is that the sharing makes us what we are, each of us a fractal of this immense and indivisible ecosystem of relationship, a golden strand in a tapestry whose only meaning is in the interweaving of its threads.

"That despite this elemental interdependence we remain riven by conflict and division is the great paradox and the great tragedy and great opportunity for redemption.

"In his agrarian essay collection The Art of the Commonplace, poet, farmer, and philosopher Wendell Berry dismantles the paradox to the building blocks of the tragedy and reconfigures them into a cathedral of redemption." - Maria Popova

Article: The Sunflower and the Soul: Wendell Berry on the Collaborative Nature of the Universe and the Cure for Conflict

Civics, Conflict Resolution
An approach to bullying that eschews punishment and focuses on empathy, tolerance, and respect is working really well.

Bettina Dénervaud, co-founder of the Swiss initiative Hilfe bei Mobbing. Their approach addresses not just the victims and perpetrators of bullying, but also the broader school community.

A Swiss initiative is uncovering a measurably effective means of uncovering and addressing bullying in schools. "Instead of being punished, the bullies are invited to help the bullied student. In a 2008 study that looked at 220 bullying cases, the No-Blame Approach, as this method is known, was successful in 192, or 87%, of the cases. In most evaluated schools, it only took two or three weeks for the bullying to stop."

Article: Swiss Schools’ Surprising Solution to Bullying

Teaching & Learning, Libraries
In 1935 Kentucky mountaineers "grasped and clung to the Pack Horse Library idea with all the tenacity of one starved for learning".

Eight of the women who worked as Pack Horse Librarians in Kentucky during the 1930s. Photo courtesy of the University of Kentucky Digital Library’s Goodman-Paxton Collection

"The Pack Horse Library initiative, which sent librarians deep into Appalachia, was one of the New Deal’s most unique plans. The project, as implemented by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), distributed reading material to the people who lived in the craggy, 10,000-square-mile portion of eastern Kentucky. The state already trailed its neighbors in electricity and highways. And during the Depression, food, education and economic opportunity were even scarcer for Appalachians.

"They also lacked books: In 1930, up to 31 percent of people in eastern Kentucky couldn’t read. Residents wanted to learn, notes historian Donald C. Boyd. Coal and railroads, poised to industrialize eastern Kentucky, loomed large in the minds of many Appalachians who were ready to take part in the hoped prosperity that would bring. 'Workers viewed the sudden economic changes as a threat to their survival and literacy as a means of escape from a vicious economic trap,' writes Boyd.

"This presented a challenge: In 1935, Kentucky only circulated one book per capita compared to the American Library Association standard of five to ten, writes historian Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer. It was 'a distressing picture of library conditions and needs in Kentucky', wrote Lena Nofcier, who chaired library services for the Kentucky Congress of Parents and Teachers at the time." - Eliza McGraw

In 1934 the first WPA-sponsored packhorse library was formed in Leslie County.

Article: Women Delivered Library Books on Horses in 1938

Article: These Kentucky Librarians Traveled Miles on Horseback to Deliver Books During the Great Depression

"In this inspiring picture book by best-selling author Jane Yolen, Anna Mary stands in for all the real-life horseback librarians who helped keep the love of books alive in Appalachia during the Great Depression. This is a lovely peek at a chapter of U.S. history that helped instill a love of reading in a generation of Appalachian kids."

Book: The Horseback Librarians

Teaching & Learning, Museums
How active, interactive, immersive, even messy spaces for kids capture the attention of a generation characterized as terminally online

A wall of textures on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new 81st Street Studio, a discovery and play center for children. The goal of the interactive experience is to introduce children to making art before inviting them to experience art. Photographer: Carrington Spires, courtesy of the Met

"Call it the return to socialization. Call it museums growing their future audiences. Call it getting the kids (and their adults) off their phones. Whatever the cause — and it’s likely a mix of the three — the past year has seen a handful of high-profile children’s spaces open their doors, designed to edify and entertain, offer lessons in creativity and give kids a chance to write themselves into the story.

"What sets them apart from more passive commercial immersive environments (think the Vincent Van Gogh rooms) is their insistence on three-dimensionality, with activities that engage the body, from the scale of an individual art project to an entire room.

"In looking at how these active, interactive, immersive, even messy spaces for kids captured the attention of a generation characterized as terminally online, I didn’t find a lack of technology. Instead, I found lessons from natural history museums, from amusement parks, and from graffiti artists — lessons in what it takes to put technology in its place. (Hint: Make it bigger.)" - Alexandra Lange

Article: Immersive Museum Exhibits for Kids Know How to Compete With Screens

Communications, Visual Identity
A visual identity systems designed to empower the client team "with the confidence and flexibility to educate and engage both the public and policymakers".

Project Restore aspires to "be amongst the first, globally, to move beyond habitat-by-habitat restoration, to provide an example of how multi-habitat restoration can be conducted at seascape scale to not only maximize ecological but also socio-economic benefits."

Christopher Doyle & Co. supported this effort with a strong visual identity system. "At the heart of the new Project Restore identity is a simple but bold logomark. Combining P and R letterforms as well as a subtly embedded fish icon, the logomark serves as a symbol of restoration, regeneration, and renewal.

"Inspired by the silhouettes of marine life, we crafted a bespoke collection of textural icons to add depth and character to the identity. Whether appearing in various configurations, locked up with the logomark or standing alone, each icon references the diverse ecosystems that span the harbour and underscores Project Restore’s commitment to the holistic rejuvenation of urban waterways."

Case Study: Project Restore

One-liners

Abstract: Pinterest searches for 'quiet life' increased by 530% between February 2023 and February 2024.

Link: When we connect and collaborate, age-diverse work teams have big advantages.

Article: Librarian Amanda Jones got death threats for speaking out against censorship. She sued her attackers and won.

Article: Japanese researchers have learned how to repurpose apple waste into a translucent, washable and scratch-resistant fabric that can be used to produce apparel, accessories and indoor furniture.

Article: A San Francisco bookstore is shipping queer books to conservative states — for free

Playlist

Video: The Como Mamas "Count Your Blessings"

"The Como Mamas were 'accidentally' discovered in 2005 by American documentary maker Michael Reilly, who had embarked on a journey down south with the intention to create a film about local musicians. Through a series of unexpected, yet fortunate, events Reilly was led to Como, Mississippi, and ultimately to the table of Angela Taylor where she, her sister Della Daniels, and long-time friend Ester Mae Smith performed an a cappella rendition of Peace of Mind. It was this moment that inspired Michael to return to Como with proper recording equipment, and much like what Alan Lomax had done decades before, document some of the most honest, soulful music to ever be tracked to tape." - The Kennedy Center

Press Release: The Como Mamas

"Daptone Records have clearly come upon another revelatory vocal force in The Como Mamas. As label founder Gabriel Roth explains, 'Whether you're talking about hip-hop, country & western, blues or Mozart, all music tries to do the same basic thing: put feeling into sound. The Como Mamas do that just about as close to perfect as you can.'"

Bandcamp Page: The Como Mamas

Weekly Mixtape
Music that "puts feeling into sound".

Playlist: Count your Blessings

Image of the Week

Picnic, 1934. Archibald J. Motley, Jr. Oil on canvas. Howard University Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. © Estate of Archibald John Motley, Jr.

"The Harlem Renaissance was a period of rich cultural and intellectual activity among African Americans that emerged at the close of World War I with a deliberate burst of expression by Black artists in literature, art, and popular culture. As the Great Migration began and Black people relocated from the rural South to metropolises in the urban North, cities like New York buzzed with anti-Victorian sensibilities, and the 'New Negro' (a term popularized to define Black self-possession and modernity) emerged as whole and separate from stereotypes that were prevalent at the time." - Natasha H. Arora

The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through July 28.

Article: The Met’s Harlem Renaissance Show Is Outstandingly Joyful

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