My ride showed up. Celebrate love, celebrate life.

John Trudell (Santee Dakota) walked on in December, 2015. His last words: My ride showed up. Celebrate love, celebrate life. I still haven’t come to terms with this entirely. John Trudell touched so many lives, he was the voice for so many people, a lot of them voiceless. He was a part of my life from childhood and the occupation of Alcatraz. I’ve listened to him throughout my life, heard his words, sang his words, read his words, his words have inhabited my heart. So, what to share? Once again, I’ve been listening to the words that have been part of my skin for many decades, how can I decide? Maybe you’ll go look for yourself, find those words that speak to you, that find their way to your heart. For me, I guess it will always come back to one of JT’s central messages, that human beings were losing their understanding of being human. So, Bone Days it is, specifically, Crazy Horse.

We Hear what you say
One Earth, one Mother
One does not sell the Earth
The people walk upon
We are the land
How do we sell our Mother ?
How do we sell the stars ?
How do we sell the air ?
Crazy Horse
We hear what you say

Too many people
Standing their ground
Standing the wrong ground
Predators face he possessed a race
Possession a war that doesn’t end
Children of God feed on children of Earth
Days people don’t care for people
These days are the hardest
Material fields, material harvest
decoration on chain that binds
Mirrors gold, the people lose their minds
Crazy Horse
We Hear what you say

One Earth, one Mother
One does not sell the Earth
The people walk upon
We are the land.

Today is now and then
Dream smokes touch the clouds
On a day when death didn’t die
Real world time tricks shadows lie
Red white perception deception
Predator tries civilising us
But the tribes will not go without return
Genetic light from the other side
A song from the heart our hearts to give
The wild days the glory days live

Crazy Horse
We Hear what you say
One Earth, one Mother
One does not sell the Earth
The people walk upon
We are the land
How do we sell our Mother
How do we sell the stars
How do we sell the air

Crazy Horse
We hear what you say
Crazy Horse
We hear what you say
We are the seventh generation
We are the seventh generation

John Trudell, Bone Days.

Elephant Art

If you find yourself in the market for something truly special, consider elephant art.  I’m in love with Aleena’s Garden Dance, and have been saving pennies, but I wouldn’t hold even the thought of a grudge if someone snapped it up. It all goes to help the artists, and to enable other artists to be rescued.

Garden Dance, © Aleena (May).

Garden Dance, © Aleena (May).

Aleena was born on May 6, 2004. Her father is Phra-may and her mother is Poomphaung, another Novica-featured elephant artist. Aleena’s nickname is May and she weighs 3,329 pounds. The young pachyderm is very friendly. She is practicing to play in the elephant orchestra, however she is already a skilled painter. To read more about Aleena, click the link and scroll down.

Music Lover, by Nammoey.

Music Lover, © Nammoey.

Born in 2009, Nammoey is a young female who survived elephant traffickers thanks to the forest officers who work to enforce the Wildlife Preservation and Protection Law. They found her near the Salween River in Sobmoey, Mae Hong Son, and placed her in the care of the Thai Elephant Conservation Center-TECC. To read more about Nammoey, click the link and scroll down.

Autumn Flower, by Bai-Tong.

Autumn Flower, © Bai-Tong.

Bai-tong enjoys painting so much that she sometimes takes a firm grip on the paintbrush and refuses to return it to the trainer. She is much loved by the TECC staff and every tourist who has seen her. To read more about Bai-Tong, click the link and scroll down.

REZILIENCE

rezilience

The REZILIENCE Indigenous Arts Experience will be an immersive, all-ages experience that focuses on modern Indigenous art processes. Artists include nationally and locally recognized entertainers, muralists, multimedia artists, poets and a contemporary Indigenous art market.

It is a grassroots effort tied into the airwaves of social media, and all generations of the entire community are welcome. Tickets can be bought for the on-campus events or just the music concert. This movement trends new generational events that compliment social gatherings like Pow Wows but are becoming their own thing in Indian Country.

The event takes place on April 30 at the National Hispanic Cultural Center near downtown Albuquerque.

Executive Director Warren Montoya said, “We aim to be inclusive, not exclusive, it is not a space for the most elite, but we are not aiming to provide all the answers either. We are building a community platform from which we can all have an opportunity to speak on the resilience of our peoples.”

“This event is a movement based in creativity. It is our creative practices that have facilitated cultural longevity, community building, knowledge growth and healing for generations. REZILIENCE will be the new model of unity for indigenous cultures worldwide.”

Full Story Here.

Earth Day

Makȟá. Earth. Makočé. Land. Kinship. Family. The interdependence and connectedness of all things. That there was a need to name a day Earth Day makes me hauntingly sad. Every day, life goes on, and people walk over thicknesses of concrete, asphalt, spend days inside more concrete, lock themselves in steel when they are outside. It can be easy to forget how much you are a part of the earth. It can be easy to want more, always more. More to make your life easier, convenient, what you think is better. Poverty can grind people down so much they see nothing but blackness and pain. And in it all, we are both the driving force and blind eyes that allow those who are powerful to destroy the earth which gives us life. To destroy all life which is not that of humans, and if some humans get caught up in that destruction, so what? This is a day of terrible sadness, all the more so because it’s just one of “those days” to most people. It doesn’t mean anything, just as the earth doesn’t mean anything.

Duane Yazzie, photo by Robert Esposito.

Duane Yazzie, photo by Robert Esposito.

“The life of the earth is waning,” warns Duane Yazzie, president of the Shiprock Chapter of the Navajo Nation.

Yes, it is. One piece at a time.

NBA: No All-Star Game for North Carolina

From left: NBA commissioner Adam Silver with Charlotte Hornets owner and retired NBA great Michael Jordan when they announced last year that the 2017 All-Star Game would be held in Charlotte.

From left: NBA commissioner Adam Silver with Charlotte Hornets owner and retired NBA great Michael Jordan when they announced last year that the 2017 All-Star Game would be held in Charlotte.

After having said last week that no decision had been made on pulling next year’s NBA All-Star Game from North Carolina, the league’s commissioner now says the game definitely will be moved if the state’s recently enacted anti-LGBT law isn’t changed.

“We’ve been, I think, crystal clear a change in the law is necessary for us to play in the kind of environment that we think is appropriate for a celebratory NBA event,” commissioner Adam Silver said today at the Associated Press Sports Editors’ commissioner meetings in New York City, The Charlotte Observer reports.

Full Story Here.

Cool Stuff Friday: Explosions and Weed

Cai Guo-Qiang’s Explosive Gunpowder Performance.

Cai Guo-Qiang igniting gunpowder drawing White Tone, in Brookhaven, New York, 2016. Photo: Wen-You Cai

Cai Guo-Qiang igniting gunpowder drawing White Tone, in Brookhaven, New York, 2016.
Photo: Wen-You Cai

Cai Guo-Qiang White Tone (2016). Photo: Photo: Wen-You Cai

Cai Guo-Qiang White Tone (2016).
Photo: Photo: Wen-You Cai

 

 

Museum Opens First Major Spliff Exhibition on National ‘Weed Day’.

A Lemon Kush cannabis plant. Photo: Flickr user eggrole, courtesy Oakland Museum of California.

A Lemon Kush cannabis plant.
Photo: Flickr user eggrole, courtesy Oakland Museum of California.

Both museums and graphic designers are jumping on the 4/20 bandwagon, taking a close look at marijuana on National Marijuana Day.

The Oakland Museum of California has opened the exhibition “Altered State: Marijuana in California,” which it claims is the first museum show to concentrate on the controversial plant. The show’s contents range from fine art to protest posters and multimedia displays exploring the scientific, recreational, medicinal, and even religious aspects of pot.

“The roles of museums in today’s world are shifting,” says museum director Lori Fogarty. “We are dedicated to being a place where people can come learn about complex topics and, more importantly, add their voices and stories to the dialogue.”

“Altered State: Marijuana in California” is on view at the Oakland Museum of California April 16–September 25, 2016.

Trump: Let Trans People Use Bathrooms That Match Their Identity

donald-trump-nbc-today-x750

Donald Trump says North Carolina made a mistake passing its anti-transgender bathroom law.

The Republican front-runner for president said the state self-inflicted “economic punishment” when it passed House Bill 2, which not only banned local governments from including sexual orientation and gender identity in anti-discrimination ordinances, but also required transgender people to use the public bathrooms and locker rooms that don’t match their identity.

When asked about the law during a town hall on the Today show, Trump said there was nothing wrong with the way things were working before HB 2 was passed. “Leave it the way it is,” he repeatedly said is the best policy.

Okay, Trump sounding reasonable? I’ll admit, that threw me. But the normal stupid got right back on track:

Going even further, Trump said he’d let Caitlyn Jenner use whichever bathroom she wanted when visiting one of his properties.

Apparently, Trump has all his bathrooms labeled on all his properties. *Insert eyeroll here*

Full Story Here.

Jesus Dartboard, Oh No!

Rutgers

An alleged “art display” at Rutgers University featuring a figure of Jesus Christ on a dartboard, with darts inserted where He was wounded on the Cross, is being held up as a contradiction of the school’s professed commitment to diversity.

Natalie Caruso, who describes herself as a former Rutgers student, posted a photo to a Facebook group for the Class of 2016 showing the display, which she claimed is currently hanging in the Art Library on College Ave.

…

The post quickly gained traction on social media, inspiring numerous Campus Reform readers to share their own (uniformly disapproving) reactions.

“As a Catholic this is not tolerable and very disgusting,” one reader opined, adding, “I thought Rutgers was about embracing diversity?”

“I am a potential Rutgers student but I am largely considering not even APPLYING … because of what I’ve seen on social media,” said another. “Christians on campus must be ashamed of the school they go to after seeing this.”

Full Story Here.