Bioregionalism

University of Le Havre symposium deconstructs legacy of Woodstock

design@aumcomputers.net · September 30, 2010 ·

For two days, 20 speakers are gathering at this scholarly symposium in France to “recontextualize” the historic and wild counter-cultural event that was Woodstock!

The English translation at the conference website reads:

In August 1969, Max Yasgur organized a festival of music and peace on his farm near the small town of Woodstock in upstate New York. His “Woodstock Music and Art Fair” was a great moment in popular music but also – and perhaps more importantly – Woodstock became a symbol of a whole generation of young people who face an America that was reactionary and warlike, adopted a particular way of being and living, culture, freedom of thought and political vision of the United States and the world.

As part of this conference, author Destiny Kinal is presentating a paper on the Diggers [Read more…] about University of Le Havre symposium deconstructs legacy of Woodstock

Mountain lion shot in Berkeley, tragedy of time and place

design@aumcomputers.net · September 24, 2010 ·

street memorial to lion — People mourn death of lion in North Berkeley

Mountain Lions in Berkeley? Mike Davis once wrote a book called Ecology of Fear where he took on the bad rap mountain lions have gotten. Through no fault of their own, they must struggle to survive as humans invade their habitat. He described the voracious and amoebic development of Los Angeles with its negative unintended consequences as it sprawled over the former wild and wetlands, wiping out predators and spreading disease.

It was horrifying enough to read about this happening in LA — but — is the same thing occurring in Berkeley of all places? [Read more…]

“Many native American cultures have unraveled in the presence of the lethal cocktail of Christianity and capitalism.”

design@aumcomputers.net · September 18, 2010 ·

What is a matrilineal way of life? What does it mean to be a matrilineal people? Destiny Kinal, author of a new historical fiction novel about the men and women who strove to preserve matrilineality titled Burning Silk, recently gave a talk in Pennsylvania which noted that history shows, “Many native American cultures have unraveled in the presence of the lethal cocktail of Christianity and capitalism.” She asks the question, “how would we unravel our European histories of conquest, first by Romans then by Christians, to return to a sense of what our own clans might have been like, to puzzle out what it might have been like to be a matrilineal people. And why would we undertake that exercise? Is it too late for that kind of speculation?” [Read more…] about “Many native American cultures have unraveled in the presence of the lethal cocktail of Christianity and capitalism.”