Baby won’t you light my fire?

Oh so many sharings. Such precious time. Where to begin? Well: how about with one big blast of the way I feels after this crazy headlong week of productivity plus??

Ahhhhhhhh that’s better.

Yup, it was a hot one. 

Heated discussions led to a kickass reading list for white folks (**find it in the footer**).  Got all hot and bothered over the release of this great new Luke Wallace album, tunes designed to disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. Smokin’ hot new website up at beingpossiblecoaching.com. And a smoochy hot date atop Reginald Hill was a delicious way to celebrate this fine fellow: 

 

In Art & Design news:

Joyce J. Scott: Born to bead wild. Let’s celebrate women’s handwork being taken seriously, yeah? Keep an annotated notebook? That’s a Zibaldone ya know. Etched down to the bone: haunting images of refugee squats. Can we handle, on the same planet, in the same paragraph, this discussion of pastry as politics? 

Need a nudge to get your pencil flowing? Don’t know about you but I could write a novel about tenant-landlord situations. Most amusing use of 3-D printing so far. PS y’all know I love yoga but did you know about it’s not-so-ancient remix history with British army calisthenics? It’s all a mashup, baby. 

Murals, murals, murals. Mapping literature. When is an oil spill like the eye of Sauron? (When is it NOT? Never, according to Planet Money’s five-part series on oil) Frankly fucked up drawings that mesmer-ize. Dipping a lens down the well.  Hey: are you in Vancouver? Got shredded threads? Check out Repair Matters to get your holes filled. 

And… having just dived (dove?) headlong into Donna Tartt’s Dickensian masterpiece “The Goldfinch” AGAIN (like Fortress of Solitude, like White Teeth, this may just have to become an annual read), I thought this little quiz was apropos: What Bird Are You?  Honestly reading Tartt is like being consumed by a friendly whale who then swallows a cantankerous walrus. It’s fight and flight, cozy comfort and nail-biting exhilaration all at the same time. Hang on a minute… I have to go actually… 34 more delicious pages… 

This Month in Andrea Palframan:

Sometimes you take a crazy risk and it fails. Sometimes you take a crazy risk and it pays off, in unexpectedly delightful ways. 4,233 km, 21 semi-comfortable, too-short sleeps and 675 donuts later, the Justice for the Peace Caravan finished rolling its way across the country. The fundraising busload of Indigenous activists travelled from Fort St. John to Montreal to make their case against the Site-C Dam. I was vicariously rolling along, writing articles and makin’ websites in support. 

Hear the magnificent words of Helen Knott, who finds that ‘love can make you do crazy things.” Crazy, brilliant things like head from the Peace River to Montreal collecting stories and testimony from Indigenous Youth, to deliver to Parliament Hill on the anniversary of the signing of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. See the touching and fierce footage of warriors for the Peace, and stay tuned for more action from these grassroots activists. When it comes to protecting the Peace River, let’s hope cooler heads do NOT prevail.

Also. We’re doing yoga people and I want you there. Every week we focus on a different element — Earth, Air, Water & Fire — and move around to sweet playlists curated by me, DJ Hot n’ Bendy. Drop ins are most welcome so get your stretchy suit on and come on up to the Nest Tuesday nights at 7:30 pm. 

+ Don’t miss: Tech Cafe: Getting Social With WordPress

Wednesday, October 5, 2016, 7:00 PM, Salt Spring Island Public Library 129 MacPhillips Ave.

Learn how you can make your WordPress site work better with social media. If you have a website made by me then you need this session! Led by Phil Rees of Salt Spring Island Public Library. 

 

The skies are tumultuous but the lakes are still there for the swimming. If you see a tall pillar of steam rising up from the trees  and hear a loud hissing sound … that might be me, extinguishing the tumult of this week in one deep dive. 

Peace out. Bless up. Turn, and face the strange.

xo

Andrea

 

** Reading List for White People (in no particular order) **

 

Fran Leibowitz on race

 

“When You’re Accustomed to Privilege, Equality Feels Like Oppression”

 

White Supremacy Culture – From Dismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change Groups

 

White People: Stop Microvalidating Each Other

 

The Do’s and Don’ts of being a Good Ally

 

Converting Hidden Spiritual Racism into Sacred Activism: An Open Letter to Spiritual White Folks

 

Working While Black: 10 Racial Microagressions Experienced in the Workplace

 

Deconstructing White Privilege

 

The Frustrated White Person’s Guide to Discussing Racism

 

A Guide to Derailing Conversations

 

What I Said When My White Friend Asked for my Black Opinion on White Privilege

 

I Don’t Know a Damn Thing About Black Lives

 

The Next Time Someone Says All Live Matter Show Them These 5 Paragraphs

 

You’re Not the Indian I Had in Mind