Join us for an afternoon celebration of Writing to Heal by Anthony Fleg, MD, MPH. Writing to Heal has been well received and lauded throughout the literary and medical community. The event will be taking place at the WHEELS Museum and includes live music, talk, multimedia presentation, art as well as the WHEELS exhibits! Part of your entrance fee goes to support this wonderful non-profit museum located on the beautiful Albuquerque Rail Yards grounds! The event will be taking place on Sunday, August 28 beginning at 4pm.
Anthony Fleg is a family medicine physician, a healer whose work is grounded in love, culture and community. He is originally from Baltimore, MD and has three younger brothers…Anthony lives in Albuquerque, NM with his wife Shannon, a Dine’ (Navajo) woman who guides him in life’s adventures. They co-direct the Native Health Initiative and have four children (Nizhoni, Bah’Hozhooni, Shandiin and Sihasin) that are the center of their lives…Anthony considers this one of his medicines and a part of his identity as a healer. He brings writing into his clinical work as part of a patient’s treatment plan and has begun teaching writing as a form of wellness and self-care to fellow healers. When the pandemic began, his writing came out of dormancy as he started the Writing to Heal blog project which spawned Writing to Heal the book.
l’art pour l’art, was coined in the early 19th century by the French philosopher Victor Cousin. The phrase expresses the belief held by many writers and artists, especially those associated with Aestheticism, that art needs no justification, that it need serve no political, didactic, or other end. Encyclopedia Britannica
Right, there should be no justification to create art for simply purpose of creative expression. But what if the medium and media provided to create art are facilitated by a cause? Taken one step further, what if the moment was created on the periphery of movement? Specifically, the Black Lives Matter movement.
Making a Left at Albuquerque
In Albuquerque, New Mexico we had such an occasion arise due to the BLM protests organized to shine a light on Police Brutality and injustices by those in power, over people of color and specifically African Americans.
Let me back up a little because, this is, From the Left Field Bleachers, and we always juxtapose something from the sports world with our society at-large and use it as a starting point for conversation. I’ll start with LeBron James, the greatest basketball player of all time – GOAT. He is the greatest because much like speaking out on social issues, he began making his teammates better from the jump – the start of his career. Michael Jordan, on the other hand took longer to realize that he needed to make his teammates better in order for him to get to the next level and that didn’t happen until later in his career.
Back in Albuquerque, Downtown, to be more specific, business owners along Route 66 put up plywood boards to “protect” their businesses from, among others, folks pretending to be protestors but actually trying to incite violence thereby working against the cause. Eventually artists were invited to paint on the plywood boards that covered the windows and doors of businesses, with the general effort being titled Paint for Peace. There were some amazing works of art to be sure. Colorful, creative, adventurous. and many on the theme of peace. But are peace and justice synonymous?
The photos of the art featured in this gallery were taken by Community Publishing in a public setting. The artwork remains the creative property of the artists, please be mindful and respectful of their intellectual/creative property.
Lasting Peace
Trinity Nuclear Bomb Test Site, NM
Semantics mean the world sometime and lets deconstruct the word peace for a second: Freedom from disturbance, tranquility. A state or period in which there is no war or a war has ended. If we unpack these first two definitions in our mind we can imagine a place of, well tranquility. I love peace. I think its should be the goal that all humans should be moving towards. But… Is peace like this dependent on justice. It doesn’t seem like it’s dependent upon any enlightenment on the part of the inhabitants of this planet. A ghost town or a nuclear bomb site provide that type of peace, haunting, fragile and temporary. If we move to the archaic definition, peace is defined as: Used as an order to remain silent. Ponder that as you continue to explore what peace means to you and what it looks like when you visualize it. Should ‘Lasting’ and ‘fundamental’ be part of the definition for peace? I believe so and I think most people do as well. These days and certainly during Black Lives Matter issues/events/protests its more effective to be explicit rather than implicit.
"You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his (their) freedom.' Malcolm X
Fundamental/Foundational Peace is a multi-stepped approach which involves justice, equity and repatriation(s). Peace is a wonderful concept, an ideal that we can reach together, be we need to use our collective voices/platforms to explicitly verbalize the injustices in our society with the aim to rectify them immediately. Whether you are LeBron James on a global platform or one of the talented visual artists on 5th and Central, the time is now to be deliberate when standing for peace and obvious in our plan to get there. What are your thoughts?
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Uno de los hitos tecnológicos en la historia de la humanidad ha sido la invención de la radio. Por sus radiofrecuencias se ha transmitido toda clase de información y sonidos siendo uno de los medios más masivos durante todo el siglo XX. Nuestros abuelos desarrollaron la mayor parte de su vida cerca de los radio-receptores para enterarse de noticias y acompañar sus vidas al compás de armonías y ritmos variados en todo el globo. Nuestros padres, que vieron el nacimiento de la televisión igual mantenían la costumbre de encender la radio. Yo, particularmente, crecí en una familia donde escuchar radio era parte de la exposición cultural y política y desarrollé un profundo amor por el trabajo que se realiza del otro lado del micrófono.
Viaje de Radio en Albuquerque
Ha habido grandes profesionales de este medio, pero también muchos aficionados, voluntarios que han levantado, desde la segunda mitad del siglo XX, espacios radiales comunitarios que se salieron de los, cada vez más estrictos, cánones comerciales del medio. La estación de radio pública KUNM, 89.9FM tiene, entre muchos shows dirigidos por voluntarios, el programa del colectivo Raíces, un programa que divulga la cultura ibero latinoamericana y está siempre dispuesto a hablar de los temas de interés de su comunidad. El grupo es diverso y toma todas las decisiones de forma horizontal y distribuyéndose las tareas necesarias para mantener el programa al aire. En este espacio fue donde finalmente pude cumplir mi sueño de hacer radio.
Cuando me mudé a Albuquerque en el 2003 mi madre, que ya vivía allí, me hizo escuchar el programa y resonaba por los parlantes la voz de Henry González. En una de sus salidas al aire repitió la frecuente invitación a sumarse al “colectivo” Raices, así fue que en ese momento llamé. El siempre muy amable locutor de inmediato me dijo que me sumara a la próxima s reunión y desde ese momento compartí con ellos casi diez años de pasión por la radio. Hoy les comparto una entrevista realizada el 7 de junio de este año al señor Henry González.
Entrevista con Henry Gonzáles
Henry González at KUNM
SP: Como descubriste el colectivo Raíces? Comienzos del colectivo (70s)?
HG: Yo había ido a estudiar a la universidad en California, y cuando me estaba mudando de regreso a New Mexico, ya cerca me puse a buscar radios mientras manejaba y de repente escucho que pasaban la canción de Pablo Milanés a Ho Chi Ming y dije “esta radio es interesante”. De ahí en adelante la escuché siempre. Pero fue recién en el año 84 que, escuchando en el programa música de la nueva trova, finalmente decidí llamar para ofrecerme como voluntario en la estación. Además de Raíces, hice los programas de Free Form (programa de formato libre en cuanto a la elección musical) y llegué a ser coordinador de la estación así como del colectivo Raíces.
Expresiones Culturales
SP: Por qué apostaron a hacer un programa promoviendo las expresiones culturales que no eran tan solo la Hispana Nuevo Mexicana, chicana, Mexicana, sino que fue más allá de las fronteras, investigando y compartiendo música de todo el mundo latino? ?Que encontraban en esa música que resonaba con ustedes?
HG: Ya desde el comienzo había miembros de sur y centro américa que aportaban su música. No era raro escuchar a la nueva trova o folklore de distintos países. Creo que además los miembros que nacimos en EE.UU. no éramos de los que escuchaban la música comercial de las otras estaciones, esa música toda igual sonando por horas. Muchos estábamos y estamos preocupados por lo que pasa en el mundo y nos gusta aprender de lo que pasa en otros lugares contado por su gente. La música ayuda mucho en eso.
SP: ¿Por qué crees que ha sobrevivido tantos años el programa?
HG: Bueno, el programa ha sobrevivido porque desde su comienzo se estableció casi de forma natural una polifonía de voces y pensamientos los cuales son respetados porque enriquecen a nuestro programa. La audiencia sintoniza Raíces y un día estará un conductor con su estilo, sus opiniones y el radioescucha puede estar en desacuerdo y a la semana siguiente otro conductor con otro estilo y opiniones. Además, siempre se respeta mucho la opinión de la audiencia y se fomenta su participación. Esto hace que la gente no se canse y que nadie del colectivo se sienta que debe amoldarse más allá de las reglas básicas y el propósito general del programa.
SP: Como dices, el Colectivo Raíces es un trabajo de promoción de la riqueza de la diversidad, esto contrasta fuertemente con la idea que promueve el sistema de hacernos cada vez más parecidos, de “amoldarnos”.
HG: Si, hay mucha riqueza en la diversidad. Nosotros pasamos música de artistas que en otros lugares pueden ser famosos pero aquí no suenan en las estaciones comerciales, pero también le damos lugar a artistas nuevos, y sobre todo artistas locales. En las radios comerciales nunca le dan lugar a esa gente porque aun no han vendido una cantidad de discos. También promovemos a otros artistas como poetas, directores y actores de teatro, de la danza, es decir de todo tipo de arte. Así mismo, nos visitan organizadores comunitarios y políticos locales para hablar de los temas que le preocupan a nuestra comunidad. El Colectivo Raíces es tan diverso como su comunidad.
SP: KUNM y Raíces promocionan esta idea de que la radio es un espacio para los que no tienen voz y un espacio para escuchar puntos de vista alternativos a los medios corporativos de comunicación. Todo esto también entra en conflicto con los Fake News (un nombre nuevo a una tradición que viene al menos desde la época de Goebbels y fue mejorada por los medios de comunicación de las corporaciones).
HG: Así es, la estación tiene el lema de que su energía viene de la comunidad, lo cual es además materialmente real ya que su principal fuente de sustento son las donaciones que hace la audiencia; la comunidad con su multiplicidad de voces hace que sea una radio interesante, donde no se va a dar una noticia solo desde un ángulo, donde las opiniones son variadas. Claro que uno podría ver cierta tendencia entre sus miembros, pero somos muy diferentes e incluso a veces hay discusiones. Lo cierto es que aquí el departamente de noticias siempre está investigando en profundidad para tratar de no estar repitiendo falsedades o verdades a medias.
HG: Recuerdo, para dar un ejemplo, que en los 80s yo estaba pasando música sandinista y me llamó un hombre muy enojado porque estábamos pasando esa música. Me dijo que su padre había estado en Centro América combatiendo el comunismo y que yo estaba promoviendo esa ideología. Le dije que me gustaba lo que representaba esta canción y que podía quejarse con la dirección de la estación. No se si el hombre cambió su parecer, pero al menos fue expuesto a ver que otras personas en los Estados Unidos piensan diferente a él y no aprobamos la intromisión de la CIA en otros países.
SP: ¿Cómo evalúas la importancia de los medios independientes en estos momentos de levantamientos populares contra el racismo, de pandemias, guerras y destrucción del medio ambiente?
HG: Estos medios independientes como KUNM o Community Publishing son muy importantes por esto de promover la diversidad de voces, de permitirle a la comunidad participar de forma directa sin intermediarios ni intérpretes. Son estos espacios los que ayudan a combatir el racismo y la xenofobia.
Participa en tu Radio Pública
SP: Convocatoria a que la gente participe en las radios públicas y en Raíces.
Please help support Independent Media by subscribing below. This is a free subscription which will entitle you to free giveaways, books information, book previews, merchandise giveaways, event news, book signing info and more! Thank you. Community Publishing is from the community for the Community!
Hi, I’m Carlos and I’m a workaholic that’s right, I got time to find time to figure out just how to work more before I clock out and the sun goes down… When I get up, I hustle was taught to not figure yourself out of the fight until the final bell sounds – and right now I am fighting for my life. I, am happy to have your workload if you can’t handle it – I will get it done on my lunch hour how’s that for food for thought? I thought, we were all put here to hustle? no? Yes, I rest, when my eyes are closed and one day, that will be infinitely so – so, when I am extinct… no longer a creature of creativity
and callused hands, no longer a man but dust to dust – and so I shall return. until then, I burn, the wick at both ends until it scorches between the tips of my digits – and look back at the product post putting in work and observe the fruits of this labor. It tastes like: sweat like blood like tears like pride – I swallow it proudly. Hi, My name is Carlos and I’m a workaholic – I choose not to recover, but rather to announce the fact that I am proud of just how much I can get done while there’s still sun, and or by the light of the moon –
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Carlos Contreras has been recognized as a national champion performance poet. He got his start in the area of competitive spoken word, or Slam Poetry. He is currently the Marketing Director for the City of Albuquerque, a community organizer and Programming Manager at Tractor Brewery Wells Park. He is the Founder of Imma Star Productions which is dedicated to promoting Poetry, Journalism, Activism, and Humanism. He grew up and resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico. READ MORE
Community Publishing brings local artists of all mediums together in creative collaborations for distribution as multimedia books while promoting literacy in our communities. #JoinOurCommunity at http://communitypublishing.org We are proud to be From the Community For the Community!
Mariposa Music Presents: Sunflower River Music Festival Series
Spend a beautiful Spring Day in the midst of open-space wonder enjoying live music, dancing, arts, crafts, and craft beer during the inaugural Sunflower River Music Festival! We will have your favorite, LOCAL arts/crafts vendors, live art and craft beer from New Mexico’s premiere brewery – Marble Brewery! Festivities begin at 11:00 am with music beginning at 12:00pm!!
This will be the first of 4 music festivals in beautiful Los Padillas, New Mexico on the Sunflower River property. Close to Albuquerque (free parking), and with the Sandia Mountains as a backdrop, this is the festival we have all been waiting for!
Live music begins at 12:00 pm. Our lineup will feature some of the most popular bands in Albuquerque with an out of town guest act! We will also be offering educational tours of the grounds, and the surrounding environment as well. Take your shoes off, dip them in the Sunflower River and come spend the day with us.
Musical Line-Up 4/7
Temporary Tattoos – Albuquerque, NM
Loki Moon – Durango, CO
Moonshine Blind – Albuquerque, NM
Le Chat Lunatique – Albuquerque, NM
Tickets
General Admission $25 – Includes:
Free Parking
VIP $60 – Includes:
Free VIP Parking Section
VIP Seating Section
Free Limited Edition Sunflower River Music Festival T-Shirt
Educational Tour of the Grounds/Farm
Friends of Sunflower River $100 – Includes:
Free VIP Parking Section
VIP Seating Section
Free Limited Edition Sunflower River Music Festival T-Shirt
Educational Tour of the Grounds/Farm
Free Beverage
Meet the Musicians and Photo Op in Green Room
Your Name Listed as a Friend of Sunflower River on all of our printed materials
Notes: 21 + Please. You will be emailed the address of Sunflower River upon purchase.
Vendors – Live Artists
Join New Mexico’s top artists as they create art, inspired by the music of our incredible line-up and the beautiful surroundings of the Sunflower River!
We are bringing in some of the most talented arts/crafts folks in town for your shopping pleasure. Items are made and sourced in New Mexico!
Brought to you by Mariposa Music:
Click links to follow us on Facebook / Instagram
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Onna Tuesday:
A Collection of Poems from Carlos Contreras and Hakim Bellamy
“The contents of this collection takes titles of popular Rap songs from the 80s forward and uses them as the titles of poems by Albuquerque’s Inaugural Poet Laureate, Hakim Bellamy and myself Carlos Contreras.
The connection, we were raised on these “war songs,” they became our battle cries, and from the throws of these trenches, we’ve created a reality for ourselves by continuing to use the voices given to us by those who came before us.”
Today I found nowhere for it to go that feeling in my chest the one that wells up into eyes the one that makes me short of breath breathe.
I kept, telling myself breathe I was short of breath…
heavy chest
lots of stress
bills family work hustle repeat repeat after me, breathe…
I kept telling myself to do just that –
It feels like nobody would understand I don’t want to feel “like that”
Like this – this isn’t easy never has been.
Anxiety has been my friend or lack thereof for quite some time now – sometimes I wish we didn’t know each other’s names.
Sometimes I can barely remember my own when it comes to visit sits on my chest and refuses to say anything explain itself and I can’t explain why I can’t breathe… I kept telling myself.
it’s in moments like these that I can’t seem to find words –
Go figure a poet at a loss
I’ve lost a lot of time feeling this way.
lost some weight lost some peace lost a piece of myself that now seems replaced by the puzzling nature of being out of breath a natural reaction and action of survival – and it’s all I am trying to do sometimes, when it hits – survive breathe…
Think about how it will all be ok about how it all doesn’t need to get done today – things and people and life can wait –
As I wait –
Today, I waited for 3 hours to feel normal –
and that doesn’t in any way make me feel normal.
I wonder what inside of me has made this my… “normal.”
I fail and or give up before starting on finding answers to rhetorical questions that will only make me feel worse about myself while hoping I haven’t passed on the worst of myself
To my daughter – That she will learn to approach life with a chest that doesn’t feel like it’s a hundred pounds heavier than necessary – when all the sun did was rise.
My eyes dart across the room and look for anything that will make it stop
My mind never does my feet never do my mouth rarely does except when I find myself here –
Often alone trying to not be a burden trying to not be found out finding myself out of sorts and off kilter – the kind of day that can go fuck itself dying to be over and it’s only 10am –
And then at some point in those days in this kind of day the tide subsides leaving me in my own wake worn and weathered a little wet under the eyes a little sore in the chest frustrated between the ears but grateful to still be breathing.
It’s these things that make us who we are, the stronger for its or in spite of its the confusion worn like a badge of honor displayed for anyone willing to see to listen to ask –
I am not ok some days and that’s ok some days because my some days are some folks every day – I remind myself and say, just breathe…
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Carlos Contreras has been recognized as a national champion performance poet. He got his start in the area of competitive spoken word, or Slam Poetry. He is a Community Organizer, Community Engagement Strategist with ProgressNow and the Founder of Imma Star Productions which is dedicated to promoting Poetry, Journalism, Activism, and Humanism. He grew up and resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico. READ MORE
Onna Tuesday: Poetry from Hakim Bellamy and Carlos Contreras
Cover Art by Anthony Evans
It is with this offering to the communities we come from and have come to represent that Hakim Bellamy and I, Carlos Contreras, pledge to continue to write, speak, and act. As poets, fathers, activists, and artists, these words hold truth, growth, and pain. From these places we develop our respective crafts, like so many practitioners who came before us – without space carved out – it has been created, and so from this place, we create. Listen, hear us, see us, and render yourself audible, visible, and important, along with us. In the beginning was the word – word
The contents of this collection takes titles of popular Rap songs from the 80s forward and uses them as the titles of poems by Albuquerque’s Inaugural Poet Laureate, Hakim Bellamy and myself Carlos Contreras. The connection, we were raised on these “war songs,” they became our battle cries, and from the throws of these trenches, we’ve created a reality for ourselves by continuing to use the voices given to us by those who came before us.
The recognition gifted to Bellamy and I, by the cultural producers of the 80s and 90s Rap era is then, that our voices matter – that as men (and women as well for all the female poets and artists of color in this world, in solidarity) we have the need and right to express ourselves, to paint ourselves visible, and to continue to call for change, equity, and understanding, as we aim to understand, appreciate and love ourselves first, with hopes that the favor will be returned.
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Carlos Contreras:
Carlos Contreras is the Community Engagement Strategist at ProgressNow NM, a Kellogg Community Leadership Network Fellow, and a Masters Student in the Department of American Studies at the University of New Mexico. Contreras is also currently an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Chicano/a Studies. He is a community organizer, artist, father, and human being. Contreras works daily to try and make the community he lives in a better place for everyone who lives there too. Contreras specializes in event coordination and creation – as well as collaborative art, writing and performance coaching, by way of his own small business, Immastar Productions (www.Immastarproductions.com). He is a published author (Time Served, West End Press 2014) and National Champion performance poet, working to create space for artists in Albuquerque, in ways that don’t exist. He believes that #ArtIsEconomicDevelopment and #CommunityIsInCollaboration.
Hakim Bellamy:
As the inaugural Poet Laureate of Albuquerque, NM (2012-2014), Hakim Bellamy is a national and regional Poetry Slam Champion, and holds three consecutive collegiate poetry slam titles at the University of New Mexico. His poetry has been published in on the Albuquerque Convention Center, on the outside of a library, in inner-city buses and in numerous anthologies across the globe. Bellamy was recognized as an honorable mention for the University of New Mexico Paul Bartlett Ré Peace Prize for his work as a community organizer and journalist in 2007, and was awarded the Emerging Creative Bravos Award by Creative Albuquerque in 2013. In 2014, Bellamy was named a W. K. Kellogg Foundation Fellow and was awarded the Food Justice Residency at Santa Fe Art Institute. Bellamy has been named “Best Poet” in the Weekly Alibi’s annual Best of Burque poll every year since 2010. His first book, SWEAR (West End Press/UNM Press) won the Tillie Olsen Award for Creative Writing from the Working Class Studies Association. He is the co-creator of the multimedia Hip Hop theater production Urban Verbs: Hip-Hop Conservatory & Theater that has been staged throughout the country. He facilitates youth writing workshops for schools, jails, churches, prisons and community organizations in New Mexico and beyond. Currently, Bellamy is completing multidisciplinary arts projects (manuscripts) from his travels to Turkey, Nepal and time he recently spent with His Holiness Dalai Lama XXIV. Bellamy has had his work featured on AlterNet, Truthout, CounterPunch and the nationally syndicated Tavis Smiley Radio Show. He is the on-air television host for New Mexico PBS’s ¡COLORES! Program. Bellamy holds an M.A. in Communications from the University of New Mexico, is the Creative Writing & Literature Department Chair at New Mexico School for the Arts and is the proud father of a 10 year-old miracle and is the founding president of Beyond Poetry LLC.
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Albuquerque is a medium-sized city with small town sensibilities. You start seeing the same faces over and over again. Many of the faces in Albuquerque belong to talented artists of all mediums. Living with and around artists (painters, musicians, actors, writers, photographers…) for these last several years has allowed me to “discover” a fascinating link between them: the ability for their work to transcend the everyday tasks demanded of us by our current economic system (work, pay bills, uhm work some more, bury somebody and work some more).
For those unfortunate folks who work somewhere that is not contributing to their happiness, the arts can provide an escape, a refuge from their daily “reality.” But can the arts “create” reality or better put change our current paradigm from a “war-based” one to a “peace-based” one? The power of Art Therapy is well documented. But for folks who are not “conscious” of their affliction, the arts also have great power.
We have all been immersed in a good book or movie. Similarly many works of literature inspire, rejuvenate and/or promote motivation. Just as advertising/marketing pros capture our minds through carefully crafted uses of words, colors and memes, we can as a global society capture the power of the arts to move us towards a peaceful future.
At the core of war is fear. The way I see it, sociopath leaders create the conditions for war and rush to use the tools of communication to convince us that war is ok, acceptable, necessary even vital to our survival. War is only necessary for their survival. The answer to war comes in breaking down walls created by fear. Grammy Award winner Omar Akram (Afghani American) explains that he plays instrumental music so his art can be communicated to everyone regardless of culture, nationality etc.
The key is “Arts Immersion Therapy.” Arts Immersion Therapy is not covered by your health insurance but it is available right outside your door. It involves visiting the wonderful galleries, independent book stores, local music venues, local watering holes and eateries that provide a space for the arts. Unfortunately too much of our “national” media are focused on war – Corporate TV/Film. Avoid those and visit small local movie houses, and live-theatre venues. Your support of the arts has reciprocal benefits: the dollars spent in a local establishment will allow that establishment to pay artists to display their work and in turn benefit society and move us in a positive direction.
“We often think of peace as the absence of war, that if powerful countries would reduce their weapon arsenals, we could have peace. But if we look deeply into the weapons, we see our own minds- our own prejudices, fears and ignorance. Even if we transport all the bombs to the moon, the roots of war and the roots of bombs are still there, in our hearts and minds, and sooner or later we will make new bombs. To work for peace is to uproot war from ourselves and from the hearts of men and women. To prepare for war, to give millions of men and women the opportunity to practice killing day and night in their hearts, is to plant millions of seeds of violence, anger, frustration, and fear that will be passed on for generations to come.” Thich Nhat Hanh
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The Rail Yards Market (RYM) is committed to promoting local businesses and boosting the local economy by providing small, locally owned businesses increased exposure both at the RYM and outside of it. Vendors are rotated regularly with the emphasis on keeping the RYM fresh and vibrant and exposing visitors to the amazing locally grown produce, food products, arts and crafts. Local produced items, many using local materials, are often created on the spot while you wait. Click the image on the right for more info.
The first two seasons of the Rail Yards Market has generated over 1 million dollars in revenue! A steady increase of vendors from 60 in 2014 to 80 in 2015 generated an increase in revenue for vendors. With over 100 vendors this season, that number is sure to increase exponentially.
1. Helps the Local Economy
The benefits of shopping local are well documented and publicized. For example according to the organization Keep It Querque, “Your dollar recirculates 254% more when you spend it with a Local Retailer. When you dine at a Locally Owned Restaurant your dollar recirculates 287% further.” Therefore a 10% shift would add an additional $179 million to the local economy each year.
2. Benefits the Community
There are many misconceptions when it comes to shopping local such as having to pay more for goods. These are mostly false. Additionally, your patronage allows for local-shops to keep their prices down. Click image to the left for more info. The benefits of shopping local go far beyond the economic benefits to the consumer and shop-keeper. Benefits such as building personal relationships with your neighbors, building a sustainable environment, building a more intimate community, building a vibrant community of friends and family knowing that your patronage improves the quality of their lives and yours as well.
3. Help Reduce Environmental Impact
At the Rail Yards Market the vendors create what they sell using NM sourced materials. According to Sustainable Connections, “Locally owned businesses can make more local purchases requiring less transportation and generally set up shop in town or city centers as opposed to developing on the fringe.This generally means contributing less to sprawl, congestion, habitat loss and pollution.”
111 Media Collective
Remember before you decide where you shop, ask yourselves, what’s your Local Motive. See you Sunday!
*** Thank you to Keep It Querque for data and graphics!
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Local publishing company, Community Publishing announces the release of their 4th multimedia children’s book: the bilingual offering, Janie and the Hummingbird. The book release is scheduled for Saturday, May 28 beginning at 1:30 at the Cell Theatre. The book release event will include live music, percussion lessons for kids, a petting zoo and other children’s activities. Visit the Event Page for detailed information.
Janie and the Hummingbird is the brainchild of artist/musician/educator Seth Hoffman. Mr. Hoffman, a Wisconsin native, is a Fulbright Scholar having conducted research in New Zealand pertaining to integrating the arts into the curriculum. Mr. Hoffman plays solo and in the Temporary Tattoos. He tours the country regularly as a soloist.
Seth Hoffman has been writing and performing music for more than 17 years. As a college student in Madison, WI, Seth played the local coffee house and folk scene. When he was 21, he backpacked around Europe and was a street musician in Amsterdam, Prague, London, Paris, Venice and Barcelona.
Community Publishing brings local artists of all mediums together in creative collaborations for distribution as multimedia eBooks while promoting literacy in our communities. They specialize in multimedia books available in digital and print.
Curated by Mary Ann Gilbreth, Ed.D., Department of Teacher Education, Educational Leadership and Policy, at the University of New Mexico. This collections includes the work of her students from several of her Reading Methods Classes, promoting cultural diversity in the classroom.
Alex Paramo
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From the Left Field Bleachers: Art for Art’s Sake
Right, there should be no justification to create art for simply purpose of creative expression. But what if the medium and media provided to create art are facilitated by a cause? Taken one step further, what if the moment was created on the periphery of movement? Specifically, the Black Lives Matter movement.
Making a Left at Albuquerque
In Albuquerque, New Mexico we had such an occasion arise due to the BLM protests organized to shine a light on Police Brutality and injustices by those in power, over people of color and specifically African Americans.
Let me back up a little because, this is, From the Left Field Bleachers, and we always juxtapose something from the sports world with our society at-large and use it as a starting point for conversation. I’ll start with LeBron James, the greatest basketball player of all time – GOAT. He is the greatest because much like speaking out on social issues, he began making his teammates better from the jump – the start of his career. Michael Jordan, on the other hand took longer to realize that he needed to make his teammates better in order for him to get to the next level and that didn’t happen until later in his career.
There have been some notable athletes to stand up for social causes and against injustices from Muhammad Ali, to Tommie Smith, John Carlos and Peter Norman of the 1968 Olympic Games, athletes have taken a stand at their own peril or that of their careers. For example Peter Norman was ostracized and had his life ruined by the Australian Olympic Team for standing in support with Smith and Carlos.
No Justice, No Piece of Art
Back in Albuquerque, Downtown, to be more specific, business owners along Route 66 put up plywood boards to “protect” their businesses from, among others, folks pretending to be protestors but actually trying to incite violence thereby working against the cause. Eventually artists were invited to paint on the plywood boards that covered the windows and doors of businesses, with the general effort being titled Paint for Peace. There were some amazing works of art to be sure. Colorful, creative, adventurous. and many on the theme of peace. But are peace and justice synonymous?
Lasting Peace
Semantics mean the world sometime and lets deconstruct the word peace for a second: Freedom from disturbance, tranquility. A state or period in which there is no war or a war has ended. If we unpack these first two definitions in our mind we can imagine a place of, well tranquility. I love peace. I think its should be the goal that all humans should be moving towards. But… Is peace like this dependent on justice. It doesn’t seem like it’s dependent upon any enlightenment on the part of the inhabitants of this planet. A ghost town or a nuclear bomb site provide that type of peace, haunting, fragile and temporary. If we move to the archaic definition, peace is defined as: Used as an order to remain silent. Ponder that as you continue to explore what peace means to you and what it looks like when you visualize it. Should ‘Lasting’ and ‘fundamental’ be part of the definition for peace? I believe so and I think most people do as well. These days and certainly during Black Lives Matter issues/events/protests its more effective to be explicit rather than implicit.
Fundamental/Foundational Peace is a multi-stepped approach which involves justice, equity and repatriation(s). Peace is a wonderful concept, an ideal that we can reach together, be we need to use our collective voices/platforms to explicitly verbalize the injustices in our society with the aim to rectify them immediately. Whether you are LeBron James on a global platform or one of the talented visual artists on 5th and Central, the time is now to be deliberate when standing for peace and obvious in our plan to get there. What are your thoughts?
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