I had the high honor of being the MC at the Earth Day celebration in San Francisco this past Saturday. As mother of ceremonies it was my job to Shepherd the performers on and off the Gaia,stage while entertaining and enlightening the city folk about the benefits of living on the earth. I couldn't help notice that though we were surrounded by megatons of cement and plastic, right in front of my stage I could see grass poking up through the cracks, green and hopeful as ever. Trees still stood anchored in the ground birds flew gracefully and not one fell from the sky.
I was in the good company of feminist folk singers and activists that have serenaded and romanced mama earth for as long as I can remember and though the general audience was distracted by free samples from Cascadian farms and palm held devices, we had a job to do and we did it. One day we will grace and command the Main Stage at these events honoring our planet.
At first glance one would think we were there to entertain and inform the masses, but upon further scrutiny it became clear we were there for ritual in the name of mother earth. Afia Walking tree, born in Jamaica beat out the tribal rhythms for sacred barefoot dancing,The angelic Operatic aria of Carolluna saturated the city skies.
Joanne Rand belted out her prayer for the redwoods and the Kiowa and buffalo and off her newest CD Rise.
Here's a quote from one of the songs, Bones and All
"I am a woman, wit and will,
And wisdom are my backbone
Steady born, steady still,
All creation’s my home.
There’ll be no stopping hoof or horn,
And all that dies will be reborn, from what I see.
All you strangers hear me say,
There’ll be no stopping corn or grain,
And all that falls shall rise again, from what I see.
She sat in round robin with Kym Mamazon Trippsmith, Megan Mcelroy, and Marca Cassity. of the Raven fame. All of these voices sang out with indomitable spirit, truth, and sometimes fury in the name of Gaia, the Greek work for earth.
I also had the privilege of being on a Womens' Visionary panel. I sat next to Dr. Melanie Nutter Director of San Fransisco's department of the environment advocating controversial remedies such as mandatory composting and a proposal to require pharmaceutical companies to pay for safe disposal of chemical waste.
Delores Huerta was among us, co-founder of the national farmworkers assoc with Cesar Chavez and actually directed the Grape Boycott in 1965. At 80 years old, she has been arrested over 22 times and today she heads the Delores Huerta Foundation for Justice. She is a tireless and brilliant advocate for immigrants, workers, and their children.
Sitting next to Delores was Starhawk. So many of you know her as an author of such great canons of Pagan literature such as the spiral dance, a womanifesto on goddess worship, The Pagan book of Living and Dying and one of my personal favorites, The Fifth Sacred Thing, the story of a future ecotopia that exists in our very own bioregion on the verge of invasion by the "Stewards" who have exhausted all natural resources and are determined to pillage ours. This book is a must for every earth lover's shelf.
Patti Bellasalma represented Bay Area National organization of women, Amanda Cryer spoke in the name of 1 VOICE WORLD, a collective group of Entertainment professionals that have come together to shift the Entertainment and Media business, Cho cosh ho a oh, Chumash elder, reclaimed the definition of apocalypse to be a lifting of the veil, and rapture as ecstatic joy.
We discussed the importance of women taking on leadership roles as we are witnessing more and more of that in the world we encouraged each other and the audience to seek political offices as Ms. Nutter has and change the systems from within.
I then had the opportunity as Ma, the great Jewish Mother of us to bring much needed laughter to the serious nature of things and heard from the children in the audience they were growing gardens in their urban backyards.
Our stage was also graced by the presence of Riffat Sultana a courageous and talented artist from Pakistan defying her country's laws that prohibit women from singing in public. It was a local, international, spiritual, political,emotional ritual that filled us with optimism, passion and strength for what's to come. Because as we stood our ground in the center of this guzzling,buzzing, frantic metropolis the Armeggeddon truck circled the square and sent out it's minyans with signs forecasting the end of the world, complete with a 2012 in a red circle with a line through it and a date of May 21st as Judgment day, that's 26 days from now. That's when the shift hits the fan. Then god will destroy the world on October 21st. Check out the math for these calculations at family radio. com. It's mind boggling. I could not restrain myself from conversing with one of the protesters decked out in flyers and buttons.
I told her according to my calendar, non-judgment day is May 20th and she was welcome to join us. I said God loves us all no matter what, she said, God hates too. I had to laugh, talk about personification. I realize there is no arguing with someone's belief system or faith. So I asked her if prayer might help change things, she said, "I hope so" I said I do to. Ah common ground. Hope springs eternal. Earth Day Celebrations continue through May 21st in cooperation with "A Billion acts of Green" a world wide movement to make paradise, not just in heaven, but here on earth.
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