push me pull you

Anna Hepler: PUSH ME PULL YOU from Visual Arts Center of Richmond on Vimeo.

"A LETTER TO MY TEENAGE SELF" by SOLANGE KNOWLES

"there will be fear. a lot of it. there will be triumph. a lot of it. there will be constellations you want to reach for but can’t put your finger on. you will trace them like the scars on your body you got from trouble and the times of your life. you will take the long way to get to these Orions. the long way will become a theme in your life, but a journey you learn to love...."

this letter reads like song lyrics..read it in full here.

'i teach self-care'

"I teach self-care. I create environments for people to investigate themselves. I give them permission to touch their wounds, their blindness and numbness. I believe that deep self-knowledge is the path to healing and repairing the places where we've turned our backs on ourselves, where we were ignorant of our own body biases within our tissues and therefore our heart and soul. I help people find where they have unknowingly been at battle in their bodies. I teach this across fractured party lines. I teach people to empower themselves through body sensing and body-relating practices. And I believe that embodied self knowledge fosters compassion, understanding and better inter-relating to other humans. I want to know my neighbor, even if we disagree. I am prepared to do my part in repairing this country. I chose to not be at war with my own body a long time ago.

To my movement educator friends, let's continue to hold space for people of all ages and stages, let's honor them by hosting environments where they can find ease and peace. May we unify inside ourselves in order transform the anxiety and fear within society."

-- Jill Miller of Yoga Tune-Up

carfully tended

My desire
is always the same; 
wherever life deposits me:
I want to stick my toe
& soon my whole body
into the water.
I want to shake out a fat broom
& sweep dried leaves
bruised blossoms
dead insects
& dust.
I want to grow
something.
It seems impossible that desire
can sometimes transform into devotion;
but this has happened.
And that is how I've survived:
how the hole
I carefully tended
in the garden of my heart
grew a heart
to fill it

-Alice Walker

what makes us human

I could post these all day! You can check out the film in full on youtube (all 3 hours!) but I recommend going to see a version on the big screen. It's incredible and you can see it for free. The sheer indivisible weight of experience in the stories told by people from across the world have left me feeling connected and inspired to do more in my little corner of this planet. It's also interspersed with some breathtaking landscapes to remind us, If we've forgotten, about the importance of the land. And, in my interpretation, how much peoples freedom is tied to it.
Oohhh and the movement! Movement most definitely matters.

Giovanni Salani - Battito d'ali

anna bu kliewer

constance stuart larrabee

jj

sarah scampton

images found here

Untitled, David Horvitz, 2016

grays anatomy

Georgia O'Keeffe

Feldenkrais Method in action

Cy Twombly

Pierre Verger - Capoeira, Salvador, Brasil, 1946-1948

Nancy Spero

Haris Epaminonda

www.harisepaminonda.com

Sitting with Snake, Kiki Smith

Mountain Crest, The Alps (1933), Marsden Hartley 

Mural Murals, 1981 documentary film by Agnes Varda.

Ann-Marie Rayney, Silkscreen

Lyn Marshall

Giacometti

Dave Hardy

Grand Canyon

Eventide fan - sheila hicks

Mostly inspired by yellow things, eavesdropping on the Ocean, 'your body is your soul' with Jaap van der Val and this....

"The validity of an answer often depends on perspective. Looking at things up close often reduces the number of components you're considering. When you perform cost/benefit analysis, or figure the efficiency of something, scale matters tremendously. What's the impact of your choices on the world?" --Katy Bowman

stories have shapes

 

“The fundamental idea is that stories have shapes which can be drawn on graph paper, and that the shape of a given society’s stories is at least as interesting as the shape of its pots or spearheads.” Kurt Vonnegut on the shape of stories.

(via The Paris Review Tumblr)

blessed unrest

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. ... No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others”

― Martha Graham

rressponssible ppeoplle

The Medium lost the delighted smile she had worn till then. "Oh, why must you make me look at unpleasant things when there are so many delightful ones to see?" 

Again Mrs. Which's voice reverberated through the cave. "Therre will nno llonggerr bee sso many pplleasanntt thinggss too llookk att iff rressponssible ppeoplle ddo nnott ddoo ssomethingg abboutt thee unnppleasanntt oness."

Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time.

(found via evencleveland)

how to talk to your daughter

How to talk to your daughter about her body, step one: don’t talk to your daughter about her body, except to teach her how it works.

Don’t say anything if she’s lost weight. Don’t say anything if she’s gained weight.
If you think your daughter’s body looks amazing, don’t say that. Here are some things you can say instead:

“You look so healthy!” is a great one.

Or how about, “You’re looking so strong.”

“I can see how happy you are – you’re glowing.”

Better yet, compliment her on something that has nothing to do with her body.

Don’t comment on other women’s bodies either. Nope. Not a single comment, not a nice one or a mean one.

Teach her about kindness towards others, but also kindness towards yourself.

Don’t you dare talk about how much you hate your body in front of your daughter, or talk about your new diet. In fact, don’t go on a diet in front of your daughter. Buy healthy food. Cook healthy meals. But don’t say “I’m not eating carbs right now.” Your daughter should never think that carbs are evil, because shame over what you eat only leads to shame about yourself.

Encourage your daughter to run because it makes her feel less stressed. Encourage your daughter to climb mountains because there is nowhere better to explore your spirituality than the peak of the universe. Encourage your daughter to surf, or rock climb, or mountain bike because it scares her and that’s a good thing sometimes.

Help your daughter love soccer or rowing or hockey because sports make her a better leader and a more confident woman. Explain that no matter how old you get, you’ll never stop needing good teamwork. Never make her play a sport she isn’t absolutely in love with.
Prove to your daughter that women don’t need men to move their furniture.
Teach your daughter how to cook kale.

Teach your daughter how to bake chocolate cake made with six sticks of butter.
Pass on your own mom’s recipe for Christmas morning coffee cake. Pass on your love of being outside.

Maybe you and your daughter both have thick thighs or wide ribcages. It’s easy to hate these non-size zero body parts. Don’t. Tell your daughter that with her legs she can run a marathon if she wants to, and her ribcage is nothing but a carrying case for strong lungs. She can scream and she can sing and she can lift up the world, if she wants.

Remind your daughter that the best thing she can do with her body is to use it to mobilize her beautiful soul.

-  wordpress

how things spread

week 2...

Since you already have you feet out...you do don't you? Then why not make them do a little extra work for the good of your legs, pelvis, spine, shoulder, brain and SOUL.

Please note, the following can be done at any time, in any place and as many times as you deem fit and you DO NOT have to consult your doctor before wriggling your toes, but you might want to show him or her what great feats of sole-fullness (get it? hehehe) your feet can accomplish next time you are in....

1. Roll through your ankle joins and feet and just generally explore the ranges you have.

2. Can you press the big toes down whilst lifting every other toe up? Try one foot at a time and then both together and notice any other parts of the body that try and get involved unnecessarily.

3. Can you lift the big toes up whilst pressing down every other toe?

4. Lace your fingers inbetween your toes and alternate between squeezing your fingers with your toes and your toes with your fingers. When you are done with this non-sense then see if you can take you toes off your fingers rather then just removing your hand.

5. Wrap a plastic band/hair tie or resistance band around your toes and see if you can spread your toes evenly. This is nice alternated with number 4.

6. See what you can pick up with your feet!

Inspiration taken from Jules Mitchell, Katy Bowman and Dr Andreo Spina.

 

Black Mountain Collage

The story of Black Mountain College begins in 1933 and comprises a fascinating chapter in the history of education and the arts. Conceived by John A. Rice, a brilliant and mercurial scholar who left Rollins College in a storm of controversy, Black Mountain College was born out of a desire to create a new type of college based on John Dewey’s principles of progressive education. The events that precipitated the College’s founding occurred simultaneously with the rise of Adolf Hitler, the closing of the Bauhaus by the Nazis, and the beginning of the persecution of artists and intellectuals on the European continent. Some of these people found their way to Black Mountain, either as students or faculty. Meanwhile, the United States was mired in the Great Depression, and Franklin Roosevelt, committed to putting people back to work, established the Public Works Arts Project (a precursor of the WPA).

The founders of the College believed that the study and practice of art were indispensable aspects of a student’s general liberal arts education, and they hired Josef Albers to be the first art teacher. Speaking not a word of English, he and his wife Anni left the turmoil in Hitler’s Germany and crossed the Atlantic Ocean by boat to teach art at this small, rebellious college in the mountains of North Carolina.

Black Mountain College was fundamentally different from other colleges and universities of the time. It was owned and operated by the faculty and was committed to democratic governance and to the idea that the arts are central to the experience of learning. All members of the College community participated in its operation, including farm work, construction projects and kitchen duty. Located in the midst of the beautiful North Carolina mountains near Asheville, the secluded environment fostered a strong sense of individuality and creative intensity within the small College community.

Legendary even in its own time, Black Mountain College attracted and created maverick spirits, some of whom went on to become well-known and extremely influential individuals in the latter half of the 20th century. A partial list includes people such as Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, Josef and Anni Albers, Jacob Lawrence, Merce Cunningham, John Cage, Cy Twombly, Kenneth Noland, Vera B. Williams, Ben Shahn, Franz Kline, Arthur Penn, Buckminster Fuller, M.C. Richards, Francine du Plessix Gray, Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, Dorothea Rockburne and many others, famous and not-so-famous, who have impacted the world in a significant way. Even now, decades after its closing in 1957, the powerful influence of Black Mountain College continues to reverberate

-- Black Mountain Collage History 

 I went to see the Black Mountain Collage Leap Before You Look  exhibition at the Boston ICA this weekend and was blown away by it.  I highly recommend taking a look (if you are in that neck of the woods). It is a wonderful exploration of the legendary school and of the work of the artists who spent time there...and it has inspired the theme for this weeks blog posts...

Rewilding

George Monbiot imagines a wilder world in which humans work to restore the complex, lost natural food chains that once surrounded us. If you like this the I highly recommend getting hold of a copy of his book Feral.
There are certainly links to be made with 'rewilding' and the way we move and experience our own bodies too...time to start learning from our mistakes.

There is always hope.

Life is precious! Dance dance dance!

This is Alice Barker, aged 102.

In the 1930s and 1940s she was a chorus-line dancer during the Harlem Renaissance, dancing alongside luminaries such as Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly.
But despite starring in films, commercials and TV shows, Alice had never seen herself dance on film, so Mark Cantor of Jazz Film and David Shuff helped to remedy that, and it's a beautiful thing...

“making me wish I could get out of this bed and do it all over again”. -- Alice Barker