[he drew a circle...]

He drew a circle that shut me out -

Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.

But love and I had the wit to win:

We drew a circle and took him in.

Edwin Markham1852-1940, "Outwitted"

(emphasis added)

See other posts about moral circles

march for peace

Winnipeg in the early 80's was a radical kind of place, and that's where I lived for the high school and two years of post secondary education. 

It was the time of pro-disarmament marches, as seen in this poster which I found while cleaning out the garage this weekend:

I also found the following, which I'd made in 1982 and wore (note the holes for attaching strings - I wore these like a "sandwich billboard") when I went on the Walk for Peace

     

[celebrating Indigenous picture books]

I want to let you know about this amazing resource put out by International Board on Books for Young People (Canada) (IBBY) in 2018 - a catalogue of the 100 best of Indigenous picture books! 

Plus, issued in June 2021, an additional catalogue of the best new 25 books!

From board books to picture books for older readers, this collection is a selection of 100 of the best books by Indigenous authors, many illustrated by Indigenous artists, published in Canada and currently in print. The titles reflect the diverse First Nations, Métis, and Inuit cultures, languages, perspectives, and experiences from sea to sea to sea. Attention was given to including picture books that promote and support Indigenous languages. All titles reflect authentic First Nations, Métis, and Inuit voices and offer insight into their distinct histories and current realities of these communities. (from IBBY website newsletter)

IBBY Introduction to the Catalogue

The Original "From Sea to Sea to Sea: Celebrating Indigenous Picture Books" Catalogue (PDF)

The 2021 "From Sea to Sea to Sea (2021 edition)" Catalogue (PDF)

IBBY Canada Special Edition Newsletter: From Sea to Sea to Sea: Celebrating Indigenous Picture Books

in memoriam: my dad, Richard Goetze

In memory of Richard Goetze

December 16, 1938 - April 26, 2020

Like me, many people have been positively influenced by Richard's ministry as a pastor over the years, and have missed his good teaching and preaching.

Here's one more opportunity to learn and grow:

No, it's not a never heard before sermon, found tucked away in the back of a filing cabinet. It was a conversation...

But before that, some background, some remembering about my dad:

Richard wanted to know more about grace and mercy, about the love of God for us. He wasn’t into petty rules and gatekeeping and the many other things that keep people out of the church. He hoped everyone would end up with our heavenly father; he wanted to open wide the gates of heaven. He was not content to believe that a God of love would let millions of beloved children end up in eternal torment.

That was my dad. Hoping and believing that God is so much bigger than we are and better than our theology. Believing in a God who would find wonderful amazing ways to bring all their beautiful children home in the end, so that when we all find ourselves in heaven there will be far more people than we expect to see there.

This was my dad. This was Richard, believing in grace and love and mercy for everyone. Believing that God’s arms are open wider than the church imagines, wider than you and I can imagine.

[LGBTQ2S artists from the north featured at Qaumajuq]

"A commitment to showcase diversity is at the heart of the Winnipeg Art Gallery's new addition, Qaumajuq, the world's largest public collection of Inuit art — and that includes highlighting a range of works by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and two-spirit creators from the north."

From https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/qaumajuq-lgbtq2-artists-winnipeg-art-gallery-inuit-art-inua-1.5963732, written by Bryce Hoye.

Along with works of art by queer artists, two of the four Inuk co-curators of the inaugural exhibit are queer. You can read more and see pictures here.

What I'd like to focus on here, is some key quotes:

"I think it's a moment in time where we're ready for a push for the broader communities and every small town and everywhere to have more space and understanding for diversity and gender expression and peoples' sexual attractions." (Asinnijaq)

"The effects of colonialism and capitalism — of homophobic, anti-trans sentiments — still run deep in many communities, northern or not. It's important that we raise up these community members who are unafraid to be themselves, and I also understand that it's a privilege to be able to come out and live openly as queer." (Kablusiak)

"It's really important because I am thinking of all the young LGBTQ Inuit living all across the north, and throughout southern Canada and all around the world, and I want them to see this." (Heather Igloliorte). 

This is about representation -- seeing others like you in the world around you.

This is about returning to traditional values -- where everyone belonged and had a role in the community.

Read more about the INUA exhibit here.

Read more about Qaumaju, the amazing new gallery, here.

Read more articles and see many photos of artwork, at the Inuit Art Quarterly website.

The Inuit Art Foundation, in conjunction with the Smithsonian, held a webinar on Conversations: Queer Inuit Art, which can be viewed at https://youtu.be/_SlEIkTCJ8M.

[Qaumajuq - "it is bright, it is lit"]

Qaumajuq "is an innovative new museum, home of the largest public collection of contemporary Inuit art in the world. This first-of-its-kind centre connects to the Winnipeg Art Gallery on all levels, creating a 185,000-square-foot cultural campus in the heart of downtown Winnipeg."

The new Qaumajuq (on the left) connects to the existing Winnipeg Art Gallery building (in the right). Image and new gallery design by Michael Maltzan Architecture.

The two Virtual Opening events include a tour of Qaumajuq and its art, interviews with curators, performances and more:

Relive the two-part virtual celebration of Qaumajuq, the new Inuit art centre at the WAG.

 https://www.wag.ca/qaumajuq/opening/ 

On a personal note, I grew up in Winnipeg and loved going to the Winnipeg Art Gallery. The building has a solid timeless feel to it, without the showiness of more recent museums being built around the world. I particularly remember visiting the exhibit of works by Jacques Lipchitz which included some of his Mother and Child sculptures. Gorgeous stuff!

Now, having just watched the virtual opening of Qaumajuq, going there again in person to revisit the old and discover the new is definitely on my bucket list!

Read more at: https://www.wag.ca/qaumajuq/

For pictures of the interior and exterior of the space, scroll down to the "From Old Space to New" section on the Inuit Art Foundation website.

tastawiyiniwak

Edmonton has recreated its electoral ward boundaries, and at the same time, named the new wards based on names gifted by the Committee of Indigenous Matriarchs. 

I’d like to highlight one new ward in particular:

tastawiyiniwak - ᑕᐢᑕᐃᐧᔨᓂᐊᐧᐠ

You may have heard of the term “Two Spirit”, used to refer to Indigenous people who do not fit a Western gender binary and who had specific roles and responsibilities in their nations. The term is a cross-nation umbrella term for use only by Indigenous peoples, coined in contrast to Western labels and because many original Indigenous words have been lost due to the impact of colonization. 

Tastawiyiniwak – pronounced TASS-TAW-WIN-EE-WOK – is the Cree-specific word for those who are Two Spirit. It means “the in-between people”, and “was only used when referring to all of the iskwêhkânak ekwah nâpêhkânak. Each was free to move between gender roles”. 

To clarify, iskwêhkânak is the Cree word for “fake woman” (but without the negative connotations) and nâpêhkânak is the Cree word for “fake man”. Depending on the Cree nations, there were up to five additional words for gender beyond the “traditional Western” words male and female. Tastawiyiniwak is a word that refers to all Cree people whose gender roles are other than male or female. 

So why was this name gifted to that particular new ward?

Terri Suntjens, Director of Indigenous Initiatives at MacEwan University, explains:

“We have grandmothers within our spiritual realm, within our ceremonies, that sit in different directions. We have the east, the west, the south, the north, the southeast. They each have different responsibilities. They look after different people and have different … responsibilities. And so, the grandmother that sits in the north direction, when the pipe is gifted and held up to the north, is the grandmother that takes care of our LGBTQ2S+ community” (shared at Edmonton Council meeting, Sept. 21, 2020)

---

For more information:

Introduction to Two Spirit People

Edmonton's Ward Naming

not "two sides of the same coin"

 A little rant:

A common saying that I hear in organizations and companies is, "Diversity and Inclusion are two sides of the same coin". 

Here's an example, from an article at the Alberta CPA website (but they aren't the only ones saying this):

Rubbish!

It is true that a coin has two sides and it's not possible to have one side of a coin without the other, but it is certainly possible to have diversity without inclusion. 

Think of pre-apartheid South Africa -- there were white people and Black people (= diversity), but the Blacks were not included and the whites, though in the minority, held all the power (no inclusion).

Think of Canada - there is great diversity, but many minoritized people are excluded, some even from basic human needs like clean drinking water. 

Think of your company or organization. There is probably much diversity among the employees overall, but most likely, the higher in the organizational structure you go, the more white, male and cisgender it gets. So clearly, there is not inclusion at those levels.

[electoral wards in Edmonton given new names by Committee of Indigenous Matriarchs]

Edmonton has revised its electoral boundaries, and at the same time, renamed all the wards with Indigenous names selected by the Committee of Indigenous Matriarchs. 

My new ward is #5, named O-day'min, meaning strawberry or heart berry. 

The city's page about the new wards includes explanations of the new names, pronunciation guides, and information about how the name was chosen for that ward.

If you live in Edmonton, check out your new ward using the links at the bottom of this post.

How did this come about?

creating a diversity and inclusion icon

Recently I had the opportunity to be involved in the design of a logo to be used for internal, diversity and inclusion-related events where I work. 

Now, here are some of the constraints. The design will be of an icon - size 550 x 330 pixels - that will appear in a webpage and in an email newsletter. We don't have masses of space nor the option of fine detail and lines of text that would be available on a poster design or a billboard. This clearly will influence the design.

Now, a common rule when designing logos is that you first design in black and white, so that the design's effectiveness is not dependent on colour. This is because often, things created in colour get photocopied in black and white and you don't want to end up with a meaningless or unreadable image. However, in this case, as the design will only appear on computer screens and almost never printed black and white, this rule is not particularly applicable.

My first idea was the provincial outline turned into a six-piece puzzle, with each piece a different pattern or shading. Here's my sketch:

I kind of liked this, though it is rather impersonal, as it shows interconnectedness and can indicate diversity abstractly. This is one of the difficulties of a logo or icon for diversity and inclusion in general. It would be much easier to design something for one specific group, such as for disability-related events or Indigenous events. In this case, we either need to show D&I abstractly or in a way that includes a wide variety of specific diversities.

So realizing that the above was too detailed for the size requirement, I contemplated a four piece puzzle but that seemed to lose too much.

[explore the many worlds of contemporary Indigenous music]

Looking to broaden your musical horizons and increase your cultural exposure? Here's just the thing for you:

Reclaimed is a weekly series on CBC Radio that explores the many worlds of contemporary Indigenous music from traditional songs and acoustic sounds to Native hip-hop, R&B, and the dancefloor-filling beats of electric powwow.

Listen free online at:

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-184-reclaimed

Featuring over 80 episodes, each 53 minutes in length.

introduction to two spirit people

In the fall of 2018, my colleague and I met with Jeff Chalifoux, then one of the co-chairs of the Edmonton 2 Spirit Society. Our conversation led to two "Two Spirit Ceremony and Workshop" days being held at my place of work. 

I attended both sessions and they were amazing and enlightening. Over the months that followed, I read many, many articles about Two Spirit people, mostly by Indigenous academics, of whom many were themselves Two Spirit. I also attended another Two Spirit ceremony at MacEwan University in March 2020, led by Elder Leonard Saddleback.

One of the outcomes of this learning focus is that I wrote a crisp, two page article titled "Introduction to Two Spirit People", which I'd like to share with you. I'd also like to thank Jeff for giving the final draft a helpful once-over!

Read: Introduction to Two Spirit People

I welcome your thoughts and feedback using the Comments section below.

[illustrations and photos of people from minoritized groups]

Minoritized groups are often under-represented in images, whether advertising, magazine articles, or generic images used in reports and brochures.

BlackIllustrations.com is one site that offers illustrations of Black people in different contexts, including office, medical, STEM, education and more. Some sets are free; others have a cost.

https://www.BlackIllustrations.com

(Above: some education-related images from BlackIllustrations.com)

nappy.co is a site that has excellent photos of Black and Brown people, free, for commercial and personal use. 

Collections include Tiny Humans, "Breathe, Stretch, Shake, All Hands, Black in Green Spaces, Food for the Soul, Women at Work, The Perfect Holiday, All Black Lives Matter, I's Married Now, and Good Hair.

https://nappy.co

The Gender Spectrum Collection

Vice Gender Photos Collection
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

"The Gender Spectrum Collection is a stock photo library featuring images of trans and non-binary models that go beyond the clichés. This collection aims to help media better represent members of these communities as people not necessarily defined by their gender identities—people with careers, relationships, talents, passions, and home lives."

https://genderphotos.vice.com/

[a kids book about racism]

 A Kids Book About is a company creating a new kind of kids' books -- ones that focus on the content and ideas. Here's what they say about their approach:

The first thing you’ll notice about our books is that they’re different. We wanted to create books that treated kids like they were smart and spoke to them straightforwardly and honestly. Our books emphasize color, layout, and type to help kids apply the stories to their lives instead of only thinking of the characters in the book. Our books are twice as long as most children books, enabling a deeper dive on each subject. Our books are honest and don’t shy away from the most difficult aspects of each topic.

We bought a copy of "a kids book about racism" and love it! It is very well written and laid out, and I recommend it.

They have similar books on about 20 topics, including bullying, empathy, failure, belonging, and cancer. If you buy one on a different topic, I'd love to hear how you like it -- use Comments below.

Check them out and order directly from them at:

https://akidsbookabout.com/collections/kids-books/products/a-kids-book-about-racism

[bibi - film]

Learning for Justice’s new streaming classroom film, Bibi, tells the story of a Latinx father and son who can talk about anything—but only in writing, in the letters they pass back and forth when conversation seems too much. 

And after Ben, affectionately called “Bibi” by his father, hands his father a letter that reads “I’m gay,” the two don’t talk at all.

Based on the experiences of the filmmakers behind the project, the 18-minute film explores intersectionality in a powerful way, illustrating the beauty and conflict that can arise as we move between languages, places and societal expectations.

Ultimately, however, it’s not just the story Bibi tells that makes the film a strong addition to any classroom library. It’s also the questions it poses: How do we come to be who we are? How do we communicate that to others? How do we respond when others share themselves with us?

For those who work to help young people honor their own and others’ complex and unique identities, Bibi and the lessons for grades 6-12 that accompany it are remarkable resources. The story sparks critical conversations about identity, culture, family and belonging.

A film by Victor Dueñas, Bibi stars J.M. Longoria, Omar Leyva and Oscar nominee Adriana Barraza.    (source)

Find out more:

https://www.learningforjustice.org/classroom-resources/film-kits/bibi/streaming

This page includes lessons for grades 6 - 12 for this film and a link to watch the film for free.

[beck on the gospel & COVID]

"Basically, in the Bible and throughout most of church history, the Christian ethic of love has been one of approach and contact, even in the face of disease and plague. Jesus touches lepers, Christians rush toward plague victims. Love embraces. That's how Christians are taught and morally formed, we love by moving toward each other."

From Richard Beck's post "The Gospel & COVID-19: Part 3, Love as Distance" at
http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-gospel-covid-19-part-3-love-as.html

polywhat?

Hmm, now that's a question, isn't it?

[webinars from the center for artistic activism]

Looking for some good learning opportunities? The Center for Artistic Activism has a great set of webinars related to the arts and activism. They are online and free; some include handouts.

Here's how they describe them:

C4AA Fundamentals is a free webinar series is designed to cover the core concepts of artistic activism for people motivated post-election. We don’t have answers, but we can provide some structure to your thinking and planning around how to creatively, and effectively, respond in the weeks to come.

Here's the first one, embedded from YouTube:

Click here if video does not appear above.

The full list of 25+ sessions can be seen at https://c4aa.org/webinars

Note that some videos are more interesting and challenging than others which can be slow and average. So do not judge the whole series by the one you watched! For example, the first two are average (though the first one is a good intro); the next three videos (3 - 5) are more interesting.

[my brother is a mermaid - movie]

My Brother is a Mermaid is a social realist fairy tale about a transfeminine teenager, as seen through the eyes of their 7 year old brother. Set in a desolate and prejudiced coastal town, the film examines how a child's unconditional love can be an empowering and disruptive force for good. (from movie website)

This movie is doing the festival rounds during 2020 and is expected to be publicly available after that. Having seen the trailer, I look forward to watching this award-winning movie.

Here is the trailer (followed by a link to the full film):

[allegories on race and racism]

Camara Jones in this video does an amazing job of explaining the dimensions of racism, and presents four helpful allegories:



Direct link to video

neither male nor female

[a fifth direction]

If you are familiar with Indigenous teachings, you will know that the four directions feature prominently in many of them. 

For example, a Prayer in the Four Directions by Francis Whiskeyjack refers to east as the physical dimension, south the mental dimension, west the emotional, and north the spiritual. 

Other teachings refer to the relationship between the four directions, the four races, the four seasons, and so on. Often these are mapped onto a medicine wheel such as the one shown to the right.

The poet Eduardo C. Corral wrote a poem which had an interesting line in it. After speaking about someone burning sage and facing the four directions, he writes:

Some Mesoamerican elders

believed there’s a fifth direction.

Not the sky or the ground

but the person right next to you.

The fifth direction as the person right next to us... 

Who has been that fifth direction for you? Who has been there in difficult times and in good times? And for whom can you be that fifth direction, that person to turn to?

This idea also reminds me of the movie The Five Elements. Four of the elements are the traditional elements: fire, water, earth and air. The fifth element is -- well, I won't spoil the movie for you, but it is also an unexpected twist. Watch the movie if you enjoy futuristic films that have interesting characters, a good storyline, an amazing opera singer and more -- all without being dystopian. 

Back to Corral's poem: this concept of the fifth direction really moves the directions from the conceptual and abstract (seasons, four aspects of a person, colours, races) and sacred medicines and people and animals in general, to a very real person - the person next to me. That's where, to use one of my late father's phrases, "the rubber hits the road". 

Poem excerpt from "To Francisco X. Alarcón (1954–2016)" by Eduardo C. Corral. 

Read the whole poem https://poets.org/print/poem/8bae9876-e503-4f9c-8835-28bbe26e24ff

[when god made stones]

Here is the first stanza of a stunning poem by Kaitlin Hardy Shetler:

when god made stones

did he decide ahead of time

which ones were made for throwing

did he weigh each one for maximum impact

a stone for the whores

a stone for the gays

 

Read the rest of this poem on Kaitlin's Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/tufftaffy/posts/10101705545695261

One of a set of poems by her and others with the tag #poemsfortheresistance

the invisibilizer

The Invisibilizer

While the Invisibilizer is a machine in the cartoon above, it is still is a reality for many marginalized people. The racist, cisheteropatriarchal systems that we live in tend to highlight their own while rendering invisible those who are minoritized. 

Verb

invisiblize (third-person singular simple present invisiblizes, present participle invisiblizing, simple past and past participle invisiblized)

(transitive, chiefly sociology) To make invisible; to marginalize so as to erase the presence or contributions of. Wiktionary.org

[brilliant critique of Vogue's whitewashed covers]

"Oslo-based student Salma Noor posted her own version of a Vogue cover on June 2, with the cover line “Being black is not a crime” in support of Black Lives Matter. Noor modeled for the alternative cover herself, with the help of photographer @calvin. Little did she know that the trend would go insanely viral days later—thanks in part to a June 6 internal memo from Vogue‘s editor-in-chief herself, Anna Wintour." (source)

Salma's action started a trend where people of colour did the same, tagging their images with #VogueChallenge. 

[social justice books]

Social Justice Books calls itself "the best selection of multicultural and social justice books for children, YA and educators," and looking at their site makes it obvious that their claim is true.

The site includes curated booklists, an excellent Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias Children’s Books, and more! The booklists (the above picture 14 of the over 60 booklists available) include almost every culture imaginable as well as broader topics like culture/language, hair, holidays, etc.

https://socialjusticebooks.org/

trinity not binity

what does it mean to celebrate all people?

Sometimes organizations make bold statements in their mission, vision and value statements (and the like). But what do such statements mean? How are they realized (real-alized; made real)? 

I offer this as one example of how one can respectfully ask about such statements, in a way that promotes accountability, provokes thinking, and encourages movement forward.

Last summer I wrote to our parish priest about a statement that was sent out in a key document. Here's my side of the email:

---

Hi P,

I have a question for the leadership regarding the following value from the mission action plan document that was sent out:

Welcoming and Open to All
We will live Christ’s words: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” We will be a welcoming parish family. We love and celebrate all people regardless of age, culture, sexuality, or socio-economic status.

I’m wondering in particular what the last sentence means. Does it mean that we at our church generally celebrate all people without regard or attention to any of these things, even those things like race, culture or sexuality which are unique and something to be specifically celebrated? Kind of like being “colour-blind” where we celebrate all people regardless of their colour but in fact we ignore their colour and their ethnic / racial uniqueness and what they bring to the table and how the community is enriched by them?

Or will we actually celebrate people for who they specifically are, including race, culture and sexuality? Kinda like the way the LGBTQ2S+ community is acknowledged and celebrated particularly in June here in Edmonton, or the way we in our church region are beginning to recognize and celebrate indigenous peoples?

Related to this: two Sundays ago two women were sitting in the row in front of us. Based on their affection and physical contact, I would assume they are a couple and I wondered, how did they know this would be a safe place to be themselves? It's not a reasonable assumption to make about churches, and the public face of our church does not indicate that LGBTQ2S+ people would be welcome. Did they speak to one of the clergy in advance? Do they know someone who attends here? Were they just taking a chance on us and lucked out? I don't know.

Further related to this: P, you preached about a prophetic imagination. How might we imagine a church where all people are truly embraced and seen as an integral and needed part of the body? A church where none are shamed? A church which makes it obvious that people walking in will be loved and embraced? A church that shines its light on a hill instead of hiding it under a bushel?

Warm regards,

Rob

---

Note: I received a very positive response from our priest, who said that the leadership was discussing this and moving forward to look at specific ways of implementing.

[free unconscious bias microlearning lessons]

Addressing Unconscious
Bias with
Modern Learning

Grovo has made all 20 of its Unconscious Bias Microlearning lessons available for free.

These mini lessons are 3 minutes or less, and give a quick and easy to understand introduction to the topic:

https://www.grovo.com/addressing-unconscious-bias


And while you're at it, check out the new "Learning Snippets" from Aaron Barth. The first three are free to try -- these short 5 minute lessons get you thinking about bias in the workplace and how to respond to it.

https://www.learningsnippets.ca/try3free

another haiku for our time

solace

    clouds trump sun and moon

    warm rain like tears streaming down

    dog-god comforts me

                                              written by rob goetze for rachel,

                             for poem in your pocket day, april 30, 2020

[revision and resistance - kent monkman]

My birthday present just arrived in the mail, and I'm super excited about it:

In collaboration with Kent Monkman and his studio, the Art Canada Institute is publishing a book on the commission and creation of his diptych unveiled at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art this week. Revision & Resistance: mistikôsiwak at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which will be available for sale in March 2020, celebrates Monkman’s groundbreaking paintings with essays by today’s most prominent voices on Indigenous art and Canadian painting. (source: the Art Institute of Canada webpage)

Kent Monkman is a  Cree two-spirited artist living in the Toronto area whose work I've been following for a few years. He combines traditional European painting techniques with Indigenous imagery with critiques of colonization and Eurocentric views of history.

Here is one of the two pieces that he created for the Met:

Read more about the book:
https://aci-iac.ca/news/art-canada-institute-in-collaboration-with-kent-monkman

View my post about Monkman's exhibit, "The Rise and Fall of Civilization", at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary last year.

[rise and fall of civilization - exhibit]

In the late summer of 2019, I visited the Glenbow Museum with one specific goal in mind: to see the exhibit "The Rise and Fall of Civilization" by Kent Monkman, a Cree two-spirit artist based in Toronto.

From the museum's website:

Kent Monkman’s The Rise and Fall of Civilization references the near extinction of the American bison in the 1800s when unsustainable hunting practices, used primarily by white settlers, reduced the number of bison from over 30 million to just a few hundred by the 1880s. During this time, bison or buffalo were hunted for their durable hides and their bones were used for fertilizer and in the manufacture of bone china. The buffalo meat was left to rot, decimating a food source that had sustained Indigenous peoples for generations.

(source) 

Read more at the Glenbow Site: https://www.glenbow.org/exhibitions/kent-monkman-the-rise-and-fall-of-civilization/

The exhibit is long-term at the Glenbow, so be sure to check it out once the pandemic is over.


For a video about one of Monkman's other works, The Deluge, visit:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OqbhG4BX6oU

All photos by rob goetze. (c) 2019.

holy egg!

And now for my contribution to Easter:

[inclusion lens - event management tool]

York University has a great "inclusion lens" event management tool which is very helpful for ensuring that events are as inclusive and accessible to all as possible. And even better, this tool is available to the public!

Each of the four main categories - Planning, Advertising, Implementing and Evaluating - offers a list of questions. Click on any question and it expands to show specific considerations. Click on any consideration and a tip pops up with an explanation or more information.

Here's an example from the Planning section, showing the considerations for the question: "Is your event location accessible?"

Go have a look and try it out for your next event:
https://inclusionlens.yorku.ca/

[god as a black woman]

"Harmonia Rosales is a 33-year-old artist based Chicago who’s doing something really powerful. She’s recreating some classical paintings, but portraying God as a black woman instead."

Here's one example of her work:

Read more:

This Artist Reimagines Classic Paintings With God As A Black Woman And They're Beautiful

Harmonia Rosales' website:  https://www.harmoniarosales.com

Harmonia Rosales' Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/honeiee/

a haiku for our time

[good minds books]

Looking for good books? Here's a lot of them - all First Nations, Metis and Inuit - on one website.

www.goodminds.com

[christ our black mother speaks]

An 84-page, full color collection of art, essays, questions and practices to deepen our connection to the Dark Divine Feminine.

Our conditioning has taught us to automatically perceive femininity as untrustworthy and blackness as dirty. So, black femininity is perceived as wholly unholy.

There’s something very evil about the way black women in particular are perceived as distant from the Divine. It brings to mind the Jezebel stereotype, the idea that black women are lascivious by nature, which has long plagued black women... [and] continues to thrive today...

In this volume of essays, I turn toward images of Christ on the cross. As I continue my exploration of the wholly holy female face of God, I ask a deeper question.

What does God’s femaleness and blackness practically mean for my particular black female experience?

And what does God’s femaleness and blackness practically mean for all of us? 

(from the website)

Find out more and order a digital copy for yourself:
http://www.christenacleveland.com/shop/christourblackmotherspeaks

the tale of the pyreneesian piranha

My great-great-grandfather lived in a small town in Europe and, it turned out based on his journals, liked to record happenings around town along with folk tales that the townspeople told. Here is his entry from January 4, 1876:

------

The Curse of the Pyreneesian Piranha

Once upon a time, there was a young man who lived by the sea. He was afraid of the sea, very very afraid of the sea and all that lived with it. 

"Give me an egg or a steak or a quail or a beet salad, but keep that sea-stuff away from me and my plate!" he said regularly.

And when he grew up, the very first thing he did with money saved from his first job delivering emails, was to move to the mountains. The Pyrenees, to be precise. To Bordes-du-Lys, France, to be more precise, a little hamlet high up in the Pyrenees and about equidistant from the Bay of Biscay and the Mediterranean Sea and thus, about as far away from the sea as possible without moving to Siberia.

After a few months, he learned the habits and routines of life in Bordes-du-Lys, and took them on for himself.

So he started every day by going to the bakery down the street, to get a fresh brewed coffee and croissant.

Except for one day. A box of chocolate came in the post, anonymously, just as he was about to leave, and he decided, as a special treat, to eat the chocolate for his breakfast 

Ta-a-asty, that chocolate. Good dark Swiss chocolate, with little bits of hazelnut embedded in it. Yummmeeeee.

Once the chocolate was all gone into his belly, he put the box on the kindling pile. That's when he heard a loud rumbling outside. 

"What is going on???" he asked himself!

He ran outside, looking around. The sky was clear though grey instead of the usual blue. Then, turning around and looking up at the mountain, he saw it. The biggest piranha he had never seen. Bigger than anything of any sort of fish or toothy thing he had ever seen in a book. Bigger than tall skyscrapers and the mountains themselves.

And that was when he knew. By skipping his usual morning jaunt and giving in to the temptation of the chocolate instead, he had broken the rhythm of the universe. And now the universe was coming for him. 

The piranha opened its mouth wider, 

        bigger than the sky, 

                        lunged forward,

                    and SNAP!

The End.

-------

Note to regular readers of this blog: I apologize that this post does not fit into the usual theme and genre of this blog. However, I have nowhere else to post my great-great-grandfather's stories.

whenever you do this...