Green Festival: Project Onward (artists)

The only thing I purchased at the Green Festival were some notecards. One, I will send to my mother. The other two are mine for keeping. 

I was very impressed by this artist: Blake Lenoir. He is with Project Onward, which "supports the creative growth of visual artists with mental and developmental disabilities. Project Onward provides studio space, art supplies, and professional guidance to emerging artists in a communal workshop environment."

His beautiful flower picture was on the cover of the program. I wish I could cut/paste it here, but will have to be satisfied with the link. I like this group, they make me happy. What a bunch of good people.

http://projectonward.org/blakelenoir/

Green Festival: presentations I attended

I got to see a few speakers at the Green Festival. Each one was inspirational and reminded me that there ARE people out in the world striving to change how we, as a country, consume goods and power.


The general feel of the conference was that we are on the edge of revolution which will change the focus of our economy to be more sustainable and less toxic for all.

Folks I saw:


Reverend Lennox Yearwood, Jr.
http://www.greenfestivals.org/speaker-directory/reverend-lennox-yearwood-jr/
Opening speaker. He's a former Office in the Air Force reserves, peace activist, Katrina survivor. He is also the founder of the Hip Hop Caucus, which strives to get inner city kids involved in clean energy and greening their cities. Strong speaker, and pretty darn inspirational.  An excellent way to start the day!


I wonder if I'm too old and pale to join the Hip Hop Caucus? Hmmm. I suspect I am simply not hip enough.


DJ Spooky
http://www.greenfestivals.org/speaker-directory/chicago-2010/2140-spooky/view-details/


You may think he's just a good DJ with some excellent mixing, but he's also concerned with the environment. (WHAT, you mean you don't know of him? oh dear! Luckily I have a link below! Check him out.)


He travelled to Antarctica with a mobile studio to "capture the acoustic qualities of Antarctic ice forms, reflect a changing and even vanishing environment under duress."  He wrote a multi-media symphony. (yes, folks a SYMPHONY) Pretty deep stuff, combining politics, policy and art. Cool.
http://www.djspooky.com/art/terra_nova.php


My favorite part of his talk was at the end, when Sister Maureen (Moe) came in for the next presentation and sat down next to me. DJ Spooky was still talking, and when he finished Moe said to me "Oh, well he's not what I expected at all! I wish I'd seen the rest of that". 
You GO DJ Spooky, bust down those stereotypes! 

Dr. Kevin Danaher

http://www.greenfestivals.org/speaker-directory/dr.-kevin-danaher/

Author, educator, and one of the founders of the Green Festivals. This talk was focused on finding employment in the new Green Economy. It was more inspirational and useful than I thought it would be. 


My favorite quotes:
"To save the ECO-system we need to transcend the EGO-system"
" Life values need to rule over money values"

Days 28-30: Green Festival in Chicago (no alpaca spit there....)

Last weekend I got to go with 3 other people to staff the White Violet Center booth at the Green Festival in Chicago. I was fairly excited, because I've not been to Chicago in a number of years. Even though I had no money, just being in a big city excites me.  I love the energy of a city; all those people doing all those different things!

The drive up to Chicago is about 4-5 hours, but we lost an hour (sort of) since we switched time zones from Eastern to Central.  The most exciting thing about the drive up was passing through a wind farm in one of the towns. Which town? I have no idea. Crawfordsville? Danville? Not sure, but it was really cool, especially since we were headed to the GREEN FESTIVAL, with all those alternative energy people trying to save the world from ourselves.

We all stayed at Jenny's fiance's condo, which made a huge difference in the bill, and was very lovely. Since the Center covered my meals while I was there, I spent less than $20. Luckily, I've really killed the 'shopping bug' in me the past several years. I feel no real need to acquire more junk. It's just more stuff I would be responsible for housing and keeping clean. I already have stuff scattered across the country.....no need for more. :)

The festival was Saturday and Sunday, and we worked in two hour shifts so nobody got worn out and we all got to see some speakers or presentations or films.

Against my better judgement, I share with you here the first time I wore a PURPLE shirt, and a fanny pack. For real. Firsts on both. My sister will be so happy about the purple. It's the White Violet Center shirt. I look official, or something.

 

I look at this and can only see how much weight I need to lose....but there ya go. Purple & fanny pack. The world's coming to an end, this is a sure sign of the apocalypse.

These are two of my companions, Jenny and Cheryl. Jenny (sweater) is in the Provident Volunteer Ministry, and Cheryl is the Marketing guru. I did not get a picture of the Director, Sister Maureen. Oops. I am a bad photojournalist.

Day 19, alpacas: still no spit, and I get to go to Chicago!!!

The White Violet Center has a booth at the Green Festival in Chicago, May 22 & 23. They needed an extra person, so of course my hand was in the air right away. You mean I get to go to a convention and TALK to people for two days?? Sign me up, baby. I will spend my evenings reading the materials, making certain I know enough to not sound like an idiot.

If you're in the area, you should come check it out!!

http://www.greenfestivals.org/