books behind bars

People in prison are always starving for books. A central aspect of survival in a cage is letting one's mind go elsewhere, continuing to learn, and often to organize. Keeping one's mind active, and as free as possible.

Programs like the Alabama Prison Arts & Education Project (run by a friend, I'm proud to say) are pioneering, and rare. This specific project is amazing in that it hasn't just built a library for inmates, it isn't just providing literature and art classes. It's political, and focuses on works by Southerners, by African Americans, by activists and prisoners. It's not a one-off, sending a James Patterson book and calling it a day. It provides context and support as well as inspiration.

Most prisoners are not in facilities with these kinds of programs. And that's why Books through Bars, Books behind Bars, Books to Prisoners, Prison Book Program, and many other similar organizations are invaluable in helping to fill the need.

Additionally, many independent bookstores and book trading services work with books-to-prison programs.

Please donate your books!

culture & ferment

I just took a fermentation workshop with Sandor Katz, food activist and wild fermenation fetishist.

I am interested for a couple of reasons, the first of which is flavor: many of my favorite foods (miso! pickles!) are fermented. AND THEN, all the emphasis on fresh, local foods doesn't make much sense without preservation techniques. Without them, when the C.S.A. and home garden seasons are over, it's back to wilted, airplane-shipped produce from greenhouses far away.

Canning seems a bit challenging to me, but fermentation is easy—low tech and without dangers. And really tasty. And really good for you.

The workshop was a lovely afternoon spent with a nice group of people on a beautiful farm. The bonus was to learn that Sandor is queer and an AIDS activist, and has lived (healthily) with HIV since the 80s. (My first tipoff was the book dedication to an ACT UP comrade.) He lives in a queer intentional community in Tennessee.

It's funny how people become known for one thing, yet we all turn out to be as three dimensional and multi-colored as a bucket of freshly chopped veggies. This picture shows our group's "bruiser" releasing the juices of our veggies by squeezing them. Those very veggies are fermenting right now, in their own juices, in my basement.

connected

Sunny Taylor was born in Tucson, Arizona, my hometown. She lived near Davis Monthan Air Force Base, which was the reason my military family was in Tucson. She was born with a muscle development condition that has her in an electric wheelchair. Many children in the neighborhood are born with disabilities, and people suffer from an increased rate of cancers.

The mostly Latino and Chicana neighborhood's drinking water is toxic because of military waste.

Sunny Taylor is a painter and writer. Her subject matter includes disability, environmental racism, the military's free pass to pollute, and factory farms. She is a disability rights activist, a vegan animal rights activist, an anti-military activist, an environmental and anti-racist activist. Though the media likes to focus on her painting with her mouth and toes, what is much more interesting is how she so easily connects the impacts of war and industry on human and other animal bodies.

I've never been much of a fan of classical oil painting, but Sunaura Taylor has proven that it can still be radical, and very moving. The painting pictured here is "Chicken Truck", from this year, and is a ten and a half foot wide glimpse of hundreds of broken bodies.

mockumentary

A new documentary film called Terrorist - SHAC 7 has just released their trailer. It's unspeakably sad to have to watch a movie preview to see the faces of friends for the first time in two years, since they're imprisoned in federal prisons spanning the country.

I've closely watched this and other green scare cases unfold, but there's so many details that I'm excited to learn more, to see this film. Hopefully the movie will expose how obscene these indictments have been, how dangerous it is to fling around the word "terrorist", and make clear why everyone should support those prosecuted under the Animal Enterprise Protection Act (and to resist the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act).

There are many places to learn all about the SHAC 7 case, the new wave of government-induced fear, and other imprisoned eco-activists. I won't even try and explain what's happening in a quickie way. It's dramatic, and detailed, and deserves more attention. It's ruining lives. Hopefully those resisting the attack on dissent will save many more.

merit badge - model citizens

abovegroundpool's very first badge of merit, what the scouts call the "model citizen," goes to....

[[drumroll]]

lefty lawyers Susan Tipograph and Lynne Stewart.

Susan and Lynn are both radical activists, both having worked their lawerly magic in the same building in lower Manhattan for many years. They are both criminal defense lawyers who have always represented the poor and political prisoners, Lynne Stewart having been disbarred in the hysteria over "aiding terrorists." Susan, of course, worked on Lynne's defense team.

Some notable clients have been Black Liberation Army prisoners; Puerto Rican nationalists; former members of the Weather Underground; Renata Hill, one of the black New Jersey lesbians imprisoned for defending themselves against a homophobic attack; Tabitha Walrond, accused of murder when her breast-fed infant died of malnutrition; Sherman Austin, anarchist webmaster; and yours truly.

Susan and Lynne, we can't even express how grateful we all are to have had you on our side. We know it hasn't been easy. To you we give our greatest respect.

abovegroundpool merit badges

I was a girl scout for many years, and loved it. I knew some of the stuff we did was goofy (endless lanyard making, kissing the bishop's ring, weird rituals involving bridges over tinfoil ponds and reciting oaths while making extra-terrestial hand gestures). But I got to go camping a lot, make crafts, and earn merit badges. I'm not even a Virgo, but merit badges were an obsession. I had to have as many as possible to fill up my vest and sash. I thought boy scouts were cooler, since they got to do hardcore outdoor survival stuff, but I was still happy to be a scout.

This explains the box covered in rainbow unicorn stickers, filled with merit badges. The god's eyes I got rid of, the badges I kept.

I know how conservative scouting organizations are in the U.S. I realize that gender indoctrination is part of the package, christianity is assumed, and non-white participation is minute. They're also responsible for my ability to throw a clay pot, to build a good fire, and for my stash of embroidered patches.

I thought I'd finally put these babies to good use, and give them as awards to those doing great things in the world. Check the merit badges label to see all awards given. Write me or comment to nominate a person or group or action that you think deserves a badge of merit.

Photo courtesy of The House of Kent.

gorillas

The late summer edition of VegNews has an article by Mickey Z. that I can't stop thinking about. It talks about how cell phones require a metal ore called coltan. The bulk of coltan is found in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo). The DRC is embroiled in a massive and deadly civil war. The mining and sale of coltan are feeding both sides of the conflict. The people of the DRC are victims of our cell phone addiction.

The other victims are the Eastern Lowlands Gorillas, the world's largest primates. They are headed for extinction, and are among the millions of refugees in the area.

Mickey Z. asks us if we will

"....ever disrupt our (allegedly) comfortable lives and dedicate ourselves to stopping—by any means necessary—nightmares like global warming, US military interventionism, economic exploitation, animal agriculture, and environmental devastation?

It's not as if we don't have choice (and I'm not talking about picking Chris Brown over Linkin Park). Ask yourself this: Which do you prefer, a consumer culture or an ozone layer? Hamburgers or rain forests? Cell phones or Eastern Lowlands Gorillas? Would we give up the ability to text TTYL to our BFF to help save an entire species from going extinct?

In 2008, it's a valid question. You can type that in your damn cell phone and text it."

guerillas

Guerilla Gardening means all kinds of things, from beautifying neglected public spaces, to growing food in those spaces, to harvesting unused food on public land, to making political statements with shrubbery.

Years ago some friends and I had fantasized about delivering a public message to a homophobic religious group who happened to have a large, freeway-facing lawn. We planned to write our message in vinegar, letting the grass die over a number of sunny days. (It's just a less toxic version of leaving a message in glass etch on a shop window.) This project never happened, alas, I still look at horticultural messaging with longing. A teen friend showed me up by mowing "fuck you" into her parent's lawn when pressed to do chores. They thought their lovely daughter was so brilliant they had a hard time being angry.

Sometimes, the plants speak for themselves. Other times you need to deliver a botani-gram. Here are one|two|three! methods for moss graffiti that are very enticing. I'd stick with beer or soy yogurt instead of buttermilk to keep it vegan.

tool talk - the scythe

Everyone likes to talk about their reel mowers, and feel proud of them. Including my own little reel mower moment. I even saw a t-shirt this week "advertising" how cool and strong people who use reel mowers are. I don't feel quite that cool. Or strong, for that matter.

However, I am adverse to gas and oil guzzling equipment, and hate hate hate loudness. Sometimes to my detriment....I hate vacuuming, even. So when I come across a fine hand tool, I'm very happy. My Japanese pull saw is a beloved item, as is my worn wooden spoon for making relief prints (and sauces!). I have quite a collection of beautiful old hand tools that are still in service.

As you know, we've still got grass. (So suburban! So 1950s!) Go ahead, get your gripes out. We'll still have grass when you're done. I've refused to use a noisy, dangerous, weed wacker, and instead break my back doing yard work with nippers and trimmers (oversized scissors, really). We've got a big yard, so some of it suffers from neglect. i don't mind weeds, generally, since it draws all the neighborhood groundhogs to come and crunch. But this time of year we have lots of tall, DEAD weeds, and even I start to feel shabby.

All this is to say that a casa de abovegroundpool got a scythe. Except it's not really a proper scythe, since it has a shorter blade with two serrated edges. Ours is called a grass whip, though what it works great for is tall weeds. I don't know the proper name for this thing, but I know I'm excited about the new manual tool. We look like "proper" neighborhoodies now, and after only a couple hours of swinging.....the same time it would've taken someone with a nasty, noisy weed wacker.

Be strong. Be cool. Be quiet. Be modern. Use a scythe.

recycled reading

Used Book Cat, originally uploaded by trp0.

so you live frugally, but can't find the books you really want to read at yardsales. or you live in an urban setting where all the independent bookstores have closed down, and borders seems like it only carries magazines and 20 bestsellers. or you love to read, but don't always know what comes next, and can use a recommendation.

i'm all of the above. which is why i'm a big fan of bookmooch, and why i benefit by convincing you to use the service. it's book trading, just like you do with your friends, but on an international scale, improving your chances of getting to read those small press or rare books you're after.

it's a freecycle, excellent at de-cluttering your life, but focused solely on books. there are other services (library thing, good reads, etc.), but mooch is just about trading, not much else. get on there, and send me your good books!

first figs

vegan fig + plum cake, originally uploaded by flint knits.

For breakfast today I had my first three homegrown figs of the season. There is nothing more beautiful and more tasty than a fresh fig.

Mine are brown turkey figs, since they're the only kind that can stand winter this far north. Some determined souls dig the roots on one side, tip the tree over, and bury it every fall. Apparently this method doesn't disturb the tree, and it prospers every summer. I see other fig trees lovingly wrapped in loads of burlap and tied with string. I've taken the lazy route, dragging the poor thing inside at the first deep freeze, then back out in spring. It is now overgrowing its enormous pot, and I'm worried about what to do next. I may be forced to take the un-lazy approach of my old Italian neighbors.

My figs were naked and perfect on their own, but this vegan fig and plum cake doesn't sound so bad either.

grow my art and sculpt my bush

A few of my favorite things are coming together at P.S.1: art, architecture, activism, and food. Public Farm One is on view through September 15th. It's an urban farm created in cardboard, compost-able containers, meant to educate New Yorkers about the possibilities for growing food in the city, even in concrete courtyards in Queens. I haven't been yet, but rumor has there's a water feature (this means POOL to me) and swings.

Several years ago I thoroughly enjoyed the swimming, sunbathing, misting installation outside P.S.1, and I fully intend to visit this show, pluck some eats, and stick my feet in the pool. There's talk of the installation looking like a flying carpet, which I hope I'll understand when I see it.

Tomorrow night (8/8) Michael Pollan (Omnivore's Dilemma) is speaking about "taking the plant's point of view" when considering the environment. Probably just a cute way of pointing out that we all need to be more aware, but potentially interesting.

And a bonus, the Horticultural Society will be exhibiting live plant sculptures in conjunction with the show. Get out your clippers!

the end of the world as we know it?

Everytime it's 70 degrees in New York in January, I'm positive it's global warming. When I saw last month how thick the oceans and river are with jellyfish, I thought it just meant there were a lot of jellyfish this year, and ok, a little early. Alas, the NY Times reports that it means the death of the oceans. Behold the jellyfish, and be very scared.