Even I, with a bottomless reservoir of optimism, think this schedule is wishful thinking. As plans for the Road Trip to capture the video stories of creative folks around the country evolve, I am thinking I might interrupt this trek in the middle of July to fly home and touch base. Besides just needing to sleep in my own bed in my own home, I also have plans to fly to Kodiak on August 8th to visit my brother.
Planning, therefore, means finding a safe place to leave my car and equipment. Fortunately, I have friends along the route and at this moment I am thinking I’ll fly back from Minneapolis and then finish my journey end of August and through September. However, the operational word for the trip is flexibility so I will just see what happens.
It’s getting exciting, though! My first video story is taking place in New Orleans and I have heard back from the creative person that I am interviewing. She is excited and welcoming. Her project is just one of the amazing ones that I will be covering. Her community arts organization encourages the intermingling among local and transplant artists while building community. A sample of her approach is a traveling musical village that visits neighborhoods. It is such a unique use of the cultural arts to transform city culture and promote connection.
Fran Korten, publisher of YES! Magazine, has been very helpful with assisting me in connecting with the authors of articles in the magazine on the cooperative ownerships from alternative energy to education to the economy. I cannot wait to be talking to those folks who have made them a reality in their communities.
Other creative people and their projects have emerged from the relationships of my Cultural Innovation Agency board members and friends. They include the stunt director in Marina Del Rey, who works with the film industry to deliver food to people who can’t leave their homes. Sometimes he has to hop fences, climb walls, run up 20 flights of stairs and more to get to his list of people.
I also am looking forward to meeting the couple in New York City, who lost their son in the 9/11 World Trade Center attack, and have followed a path of compassion that includes working within the state penal system to promote restorative justice and the healing of perpetrators and victims.
In Tucson, Arizona, a high school’s evidence based Mexican American Studies program showed that ethnic studies actually eliminated the achievement gap and developed education leaders for social justice among many other outcomes. For reasons unclear to reasonable people, Arizona lawmakers abolished this successful class and other ethnic studies programs in 2011, partly out of the fear of anti-Americanism. However, the Mexican American Studies course lives on due to the inspirational leadership of an educator, who would not give up, and aided by the enthusiasm of teachers, students and parents, who support him. His story will also be one of our video series.
I will be uploading all these videos to www.operationbonappetit.org website in 7 minute and 15 minute formats this Fall as a resource to be used by dinner party hosts to inspire and enlighten their friends. Hopefully, they might even want to do the same projects in their own hometowns.
Now, for a blogging break with my 15 year old grand-daughter and a light and delicious dinner of Chicken Barossa.
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