Love The Everglades Movement
Let's Keep in Touch
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Everglades Cleanup Series
  • Events
  • Take Action!
  • Native Plants
  • Blog
  • Blog En Espanol
  • Everglades Awareness Concert
  • Symposium 2017
    • 2017 Speakers
  • Summer Symposium 2016
    • SS16 Speakers
  • Summer Symposium 2015
  • Summer Symposium 2014
  • Newsletter
  • Walk for Mother Earth
  • Videos: Filmgate 2014
  • Music Video: THE RAVEN
  • Board of Directors
  • Donate Now!
  • Friends
  • Contact Us

Miccosukee Tribe's Initial Comments Opposing so-called "ROGG"

7/22/2015

0 Comments

 
by Houston R. Cypress, Coordination Circle,
Love The Everglades Movement.

Picture
Photo copyright belongs to JohnBobCarlos.com/Carlos Fernandez, and is used with full permission.
On June 22, 2015, the Miccosukee Tribe submitted Initial Comments that begin to explain some of their major concerns regarding the so-called "River Of Grass Greenway" project -- a 76-mile, multi-use, asphalt bike path that is proposed to extend from East Naples to West Miami along the Tamiami Trail, as it cuts through protected lands, National Parks, State Parks, and other areas that are sacred and culturally-sensitive to the indigenous sovereignties known as the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and the Council of the Original Miccosukee Simanolee Nation Aboriginal Peoples.

In their Initial Comments letter, the Miccosukee Tribe requests an extension of the Public Comment period because the amount of time originally given is insufficient to adequately translate and convey the message to the Community Elders -- many of whom do not read or write in the English language.

Some other concerns include the following:
  • Negative Cultural Impacts;
  • Risk of exposure of Miccosukee cultural, historical, and archaeological resources to loss, theft, and vandalism;
  • Invasion of Privacy;
  • Negative Wetland and Habitat Impacts;
  • ROGG fails to adequately address how the bike path might influence the Spread of Exotic Species;
  • Use of herbicides to maintain grass strips impacting Native Species;
  • Water Quality Impacts;
  • Miccosukee Tribal lands have stringent Water Quality Standards which Must Be Met;
  • Water Quality Certification Responsibility;
  • Miccosukee Tribe sees no reasonable alternative that do not impact Tribal lands or waters and therefore will deny Water Quality Certification for any portion of the project within Miccosukee jurisdiction;
  • Health & Safety Concerns;
  • ROGG places more demands on the limited fire resources of the National Park Service;
  • ROGG will also divert fire rangers and and fire management resources from saving lives.

The Miccosukee Tribe also goes on to enumerate the many laws that must be followed.

  • All Applicable Laws Must Be Followed, including:
  • National Environmental Policy Act;
  • Endangered Species Act;
  • Federal Advisory Committee Act;
  • Clean Water Act;
  • Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA);
  • Big Cypress Enabling Act;
  • Big Cypress National Preserve 2014 Superintendent's Compendium;
  • Miccosukee Reserved Area Act;

Quote from the letter:
"The ROGG Draft Plan does not comply with all applicable laws, does not meet the requirements of NEPA, and does not comply with Tribal policies and practices."

Outside of the scope of the letter, I would like to remind folks what a separate indigenous sovereignty has been saying for quite sometime.  I'm referring to Bobby C. Billie of the Council of the Original Miccosukee Simanolee Nation Aboriginal Peoples.  One of the messages that he's been repeating is that burial sites would be disturbed if this project were to move forward.  He's been reluctant to specifically identify the locations of these burial sites.  I empathize, because I know very well how the sacred and holy can be open to violation, parody, or satire, once this information becomes public knowledge.  His concerns are definitely serious enough that they would have NAGPRA implications.  A lot of times, though, these areas are a taboo subject for public discourse, and that also complicates matters

I would personally like to take this time to remind the public of the difficult and contentious histories that indigenous communities across this continent have had with colonial powers, and governments like the USA.  Treaties signed and disregarded, broken promises, genocidal policies, forced removals of children, forced relocation of communities, wartime atrocities, assimilation policies, prohibitions on freedom of religion.  And yet, our indigenous communities have also found shining moments of cooperation, collaboration, and mutually-beneficial accords which contribute to the revitalization of indigenous communities and strengthened sovereignty.

There is a way forward where parties on all sides can express respect and appreciation for each other's customs and ways of life.  And what we must first do is pause, and listen, and reflect.  So let's take this opportunity to listen to and appreciate what this particular indigenous sovereignty is saying about how negatively this project will impact a way of life that has already been threatened by massive and prolonged environmental degradation.

And what is it about this particular way of life that is so special and unique that they are using all legal, moral, and spiritual avenues to express their concerns?

Well, in my opinion, it's about a garden, it's about a cooking fire, it's about the stories told at night by family and friends, it's about the stars twinkling overhead, it's about that Milky Way above, it's about knowing your place in the Universe.  It's about healing, and balance, and songs.

Read the Initial Comments by the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida below.  (Document only visible on laptop or desktop computer.  Click the icon in the lower-right corner to read the document Full Screen.)
0 Comments

What We're Doing

4/14/2015

0 Comments

 
by Jean Sarmiento, Coordination Circle,
Love The Everglades Movement

Picture
Map can be found here: http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/06/24/323665644/the-map-of-native-american-tribes-youve-never-seen-before
What we’re doing in the Everglades:
  • efforts to raise awareness;
  • get people involved;
  • thru their own media;
  • the Responsibility belongs with us all;
  • being here and supporting our Indigenous brothers and sisters.

There are parallels that exist throughout the world.

In Northern California, for example, the Indian Nations there that are going through the same struggles, now amplified by the States Drought.

So we do our part here in South Florida contributing to the well-being of our Environment. The further into the future we go the more prevalent the issue of Water will become and we see it already in more and more publications. http://www.nationofchange.org/2014/11/18/water-wars-21st-century/

Picture
Picture
And although we have a deep respect and love for Science, I swear these guys are gonna research & pie-chart themselves up until the moment of destruction.  Let us look at the late, great Dr. Masaru Emoto and the gift he brought to the world with his beautiful research.  Can you not see the core of his message, Silly? 
Picture
Yet, we have folks running around debating whether or not to show love to the water.  It’s that underlying discontentment – our need for more and more.  If you think I’m lying, then why do we have such high suicide rates? – and why do the Prozacs and other anti-depressants make billions?
Picture
Picture
Humanity has been at War for waaaay to long.  The discontentment is so much that we would rather pay to send rockets in search of Water than take care of the abundance of Water we have here on Earth.  Emoto taught us if you want to know God, get to know these Waters, get to know yourselves and each other.  More importantly:  love each other, be kind, and the World will be kind right back.
Picture
Picture
We are done with the Death Dealers we are done with the Wars.
It is time to start loving each other. The real love, not the idea we have, but rather that unifying principle; the force that makes cells divide and all things grow. And with that love comes a profound change that is expressed in this statement:
"It is easier to flush toxins from the river valleys than to remove toxic ideas that cause them from human minds. In the order of healing, it is human consciousness that must first change." 
- Ken Carey, Return of the Bird Tribes

And as far as I’m concerned healing and recycling are the biggest jobs.

We are ALL made of this Water, whether you like it or not.  And because of that, this Water ties us all together.  And so it is through these Waters that we can transmit and deliver this message of Love – appreciation penetrating the very core of our beings

This Love is the highest principle of cohesion and surely trumps any draconian system of control we are under. Allow this force to be our guiding light.

May the boundaries that impede humanity be dissolved!

And on the Strength and Authority of Universal Law we act to steer this planet to its deserved harmonious state. 
Picture
0 Comments

Effective Resistance - Dreaming the Future We Need

11/26/2014

0 Comments

 
by Mary Jo Aagerstoun, Ph.D.

ACTIVIST ART:  Effective Resistance / Dreaming the Future We Need

Picture1) Collectors and rubberneckers enjoy art-for-profit titillation at Miami Art Basel. // Photo: Ian Witlen.
As I write, the drums announcing the arrival of Art Market Royalty are getting louder and louder.  Art Basel is about to descend on Miami once again, bringing with it lots of objects and titillation for the 1%.  So, thank you to Houston Cypress of Love the Everglades Movement for donating this space for my friendly rant, contrasting the annual art-for-profit carnival with what I believe we need now—artists engaged with the real ecological threats we are facing in South Florida and elsewhere.   More of them. Much more.

Picture
2) Little Panda. 2014. Vinyl Mural. Artist: Birds Art Nice (Diane Arrieta). Artist’s call to action for endangered species and remediation of the degradation of their habitats around the world. Get the scientific info right here: http://faumacarthurlibraryexhibit.blogspot.com/2014/10/birds-are-nice-installs-new-mural.html
I can see the quizzical looks and the raised eyebrows.  Artists are engaged with the real ecological threats we are facing, aren’t they/we?   Artists across our region are documenting disappearing wild areas, animals and plants in installations, paintings, photographs and videos on the walls of universities, museums, funky art spaces and high end profit center galleries alike.  Artists are hitting the art neighborhoods like Wynnwood and the Boynton Beach Art District, with strident guerrilla and commissioned street art admonishing us to change our profligate ways.   Artists are often in leadership of activist groups, creating stunning images, banners and signs for demonstrations.  So what are you talking about, you say! Artists are out there doing it!
Picture
3) Solidarity Fish festoon exterior wall of The Elliott Museum, Stuart, FL. Summer, 2014. Silkscreen on plywood, hand painted. Artists: Janeen Mason, Marjorie Shropshire and Marcia Moore. Fish were also carried and utilized in several community demonstrations to protest Army Corps of Engineers releases of polluted fresh water to the Indian River Lagoon, 2013. Nice video of instigator Mason here: http://www.janeenmason.com/solidarity-fish-project.html
And so you/they are. And thank you for that.

But, to stay relevant to the crises besetting us in the South Florida region, there is nothing like being willing to entertain a little criticism and self-criticism.  This is what I offer here.

I believe the time is now to get much more strategic and tactical about how we deploy art activism.  We need the whole spectrum from the quieter, slower EcoArt to the high profile, high energy pranks and hijinx of the YES MEN.  And we need to learn how to do them, as well as when and where for greatest effect and impact on the public.

For seven years I have worked through the organization I founded, EcoArt South Florida, to promote site specific art interventions into ecological damage.   We searched out opportunities for local artists to create eco-positive artworks that engaged science, engineering and community engagement as well as more traditional visual means like scale, color, texture and more. 
Picture
4) Biofiltration Wall. Seminole Casino at Coconut Creek, FL. 2012. Architecture-integrated sculpture. Concrete, stone, plant material, water, various technologies. Artist: Michael Singer. Captures, filters, stores and recycles 150,000 gallons of stormwater an hour in large storms. Solar array on roof powers Casino garage and EcoArt work's pumps.
Nearly seventeen South Florida EcoArt works are completed, or under way, that directly address Water Quality, Disappearing Habitat, Estuary Deterioration, Dearth of Canopy Trees and Wildflowers, and lack of connection, especially of our urban dwelling children and youth, with the few wild areas left in our state.  Progress was being made in creating exemplary projects to convince stakeholders that engaging art with environmental stewardship deserved support.
Picture
5) Sea Rise of 10 meters, effect on Florida peninsula. (Image: NASA.)
About a year ago, I started looking at some very uncomfortable realities …sea rise and climate change… and I began to be convinced there was a strong need for a different kind of activism.  Something that matches the urgency of our situation, as the oceans rise and the air becomes hotter.

This does not mean I think the EcoArt I have worked hard to help establish in our region is no longer relevant.  I believe it is vitally important to produce EcoArt direct intervention projects as models of what a sustainable presence of humans on this planet can and must become.  I consider these EcoArt works to be “slow activism” and intrinsically valuable.

The term “slow activism" was coined by British theorist Wallace Heim who has proposed that some of the most effective art interventions are consciously designed to proceed slowly: “…in the time it takes to engage in conversation…”  A great example of “slow activism” as “conversation” is the human-generated trophic cascade that occurred with the reintroduction of the wolf into Yellowstone National Park.  This intervention was not EcoArt, it was a straight science action, but it shows what can happen when a species long gone from an ecosystem reenters it, and by human design.  Soon after the wolf was reintroduced, aspen, cottonwood and willow, that had been all but extirpated, began to reestablish.  Why?  Because wolves were eating the elk, and therefore not as many elk were foraging on those trees, allowing small trees of these species to proliferate.  Trophic cascade as conversation between natural systems and human intervention was occurring!
Picture
6) EcoWalk at Seabourn Cove. Boynton Beach, FL. 2014. Transformation of streetside right of way: reforestation and pollinator habitat. Concrete, stone, soil, plant material. Artist: Lucy Keshavarz. http://nativeplantwildlifegarden.com/revise-revitalize-rejoice-urban-reforestation-works/
In each of the EcoArt projects completed we can point to such “conversation” occurring, a kind of call and response between ecosystem crises, human (art) intervention and ecological response:  EcoArt as slow activism!!  EcoArt projects in this mode of activism teach, show, demonstrate and engage -- at a conversational pace.  They are tacitly critical of common eco-negative practices that have gotten us in the trouble we are in. They point the way, and gently point the finger.

But today, in this space Love the Everglades Movement has so generously provided, I want to urge all of us, especially artists, to engage a different kind of activism.  While EcoArt’s slow activist conversations with ecologies in crisis take place on one stage -- ecological restoration art as slow activism performance -- we also need to take assertive action on another stage -- the doorsteps of the entities causing the ecological damage.  We need actions that continue, expand and localize mobilizations like the impressive Climate Action event last September in NYC.
Picture
7) People’s Climate Event. NYC. September 2014. Photographer unknown.
I am convinced what we need now here in South Florida is a tactical art activism that emphasizes irony and humor while burning indelible images into public consciousness, amplifying the information and warnings from our scientists and backing up the legal strategies of our advocates, with careful forethought and planning.  And, a basis in theories generated by some of the most interesting minds to focus on effective direct action and advocacy.

Tactical is the operative word.  Two of my favorite theorists come to mind:  the Chicana feminist thinker Chela Sandoval, and the Argentine born anthropologist Néstor Garcia Canclini.  I propose we consider their advice for how to engage a tactical art activism in the current context in which we find ourselves.

Sandoval’s concept of tactical activism is elaborated in her classic book Methodology of The Oppressed.  This is the concept of the “differential.”  Sandoval’s construct of “the differential” is not unlike the differential in the manual transmission of a car – it is the mechanism that allows gears to shift based on changing terrain; it is what makes the car adaptable.  Like the now old-fashioned stick shift, Sandoval asserts that contemporary activists can be more effective by being knowledgeable about and prepared to use multiple methods in their pursuit of social change.  They must have “differential consciousness” and engage in “differential social movement” that allow them to shift “gears” deftly from one approach to another.  In an environment of rapidly morphing political threats, it is not enough to use one method or pursue a single, unvarying strategy; today’s effective art activist must be prepared with a toolkit of diverse methods and a tactical mindset.

My other favorite theorist to whom I recommend we look for advice is Néstor Garcia Canclini.  In his 1995 book Hybrid Cultures: Strategies for Entering and Leaving Modernity, Canclini argues that politicized art gestures cannot, by themselves, lead to real change.  Canclini proposes that art should be deployed in situations calling for change as “performances” which represent and simulate political action in sync with other politically transformative energies, but on different stages at the same time.

Keeping Sandoval and Canclini in mind, then, I would like to introduce several examples of current art activism that tactically deploy both the “differential” and the “performative,” are directly engaged with environmental crises, and operate in sync with politically transformative energies in the culture.
EARTH AMBULANCE
Picture
8) Earth Ambulance. 1982-2004. Artist: Hélène Aylon. Performance with vehicle, pillowcases, soil, seeds and other materials. Currently in long term installation at Hudson Valley Center for Visual Art, Peekskill, NY. http://hvcca.org/press/011506.html
In May 1982 ecofeminist artist Hélène Aylon created the “Earth Ambulance” that she took on a road trip to US Strategic Air Command bases, to “rescue” earth, metaphorically, from the threat of nuclear war.  (See slide show) Aylon collected soil samples at each site, in pillowcases inscribed with women’s accounts of their dreams and nightmares about atomic holocaust.  Aylon transported them in her retrofitted “ambulance” (a converted U-Haul van) to a mass disarmament rally at the United Nations on June 12, 1982.  The earth-filled pillowcases were carried on army stretchers down the steps of Ralph Bunche Park, across the street from the United Nations complex.

Over the next decades, Aylon carried out related Earth Ambulance projects in the Soviet Union, Japan and Israel as well as the United States.  The original Earth Ambulance has been decommissioned from active travel, and is reconstituted as a permanent exhibit at the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art in Peekskill.  Viewers are invited to sit inside the ambulance, which is outfitted as a kind of meditation space, decked with photographs and video documentation of several previous Earth Ambulance projects.
I am drawn to the concept of Earth Ambulance as particularly relevant to the state(s) of emergency now faced in Florida, especially in extreme Southern Florida, as sea rise will have some of its first effects here, both on coastal communities and the Greater Everglades as well as for our aquifer that provides fresh clean drinking water for all species, including humans.  Earth Ambulance has the potential to be used on many stages across the region, supporting the initiatives of many organizations working to bring the message of emergency and the hope of healing that can activate whole communities.  It literally provides a vehicle that can respond quickly and deftly carrying both activists and messages to specific locations. It can serve “differential” and “performative” needs on many stages.
The YES MEN
Picture
9) The Yes Men-Cutting the Corporate Crap. Graphic from YES MEN website. “The Yes Men are a culture jamming activist duo and supporting team. Through amazing actions of tactical media and other organizing techniques, the Yes Men raise awareness about problematic social issues.”
The YES MEN are a dynamic prankster art duo who specialize in satirical performances, impersonating corporate lackeys and fooling journalists.  They began pranking in the 1990s, and, in addition to their ongoing hilarious hijinx, have a passel of books and films, and an action network and planning instruction YES LAB to their credit.  They also teach activist performance in prestigious NY institutions.  Their real names are Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonnano, names that seem so fake they decided to create other names for their YES MEN personae--Jacques Servin and Igor Vamos--just to confuse people. 

In a recent prank, the YES MEN crashed a Homeland Security Congress in Washington DC, attended by government contractors, lobbyists and officials, including a retired Navy Admiral, a retired USAF general, a former Seal team leader, and an aspiring Republican Congressional candidate. 
Picture
10) Andy Bichlbaum as “Benedict Waterman” YES MEN performance at US Dept. of Homeland Security Congress, 2014. Disguise included page boy grey wig similar to hairstyle of US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz.
Their performance consisted of:
  • A stirring announcement of a fictitious new US government plan, the "American Renewable Clean-Energy Network" (AmeriCAN), to convert the US to 100% renewable energy by 2030.  The completely false, but also completely doable new energy initiative would redirect oil company tax breaks and subsidies to support renewables; commit to "Manhattan Project-level" Defense spending on conversion to renewables in order to prevent future climate-change-related conflicts; and partner with Native American nations whose lands could provide all of our renewable energy needs.  The announcement was interrupted repeatedly by audience applause.

    The announcement was made by the (allegedly) US Department of Energy's "Benedict Waterman" (Andy Bichlbaum ) wearing a page boy grey wig recalling the hairdo of the recently appointed Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz.  The wig was made especially for the occasion by RuPaul’s wigmaker.
  • This was followed by an eloquent speech by "Bana Slowhorse" of the “Bureau of Indian Affairs” (actually Gitz Crazyboy, a youth worker and anti-tar sands activist from the Athabascan Chippewayan First Nations, whose land includes the Alberta Tar Sands).  “Bana's" speech concluded: "We are all the Department of Energy.“  Accompanied by enthusiastic audience applause and whistles.    
Picture
13) "Bana Slowhorse," actually Gitz Crazyboy with “Benedict Waterman” (Andy Bichlbaum) at YES MEN intervention, US Dept. of Homeland Security Congress. Photo courtesy of Yes Men.
  • All attendees then danced a “celebratory circle dance” to the singing of "Drum Chief Four Feathers" (actually Tito Ybarra, an Ojibwe comedian and singer).  After the event, two dozen contractors lined up to hand "Waterman" and "Slowhorse" their cards and offer their services in carrying out the conversion.
Besides the Yes Men, Crazyboy, and Ybarra, participants in this project included members of Idle No More, and several other groups.  The action occurred just a few days after the Cowboys and Indians Alliance rally against the Keystone XL pipeline.

I consider the YES MEN to be the sine qua non of the super-sophisticated, brainy end of the artistic activism spectrum.  They do their homework.  They craft their hijinx carefully to gain maximum exposure in all corporate “news” media, create and circulate films in traditional venues, and for free online, and take full advantage of social media’s viral effects.  They utilize satire, shaming and wild humor, turning the real life ridiculousness of huge international corporations’ poisonous actions, responsible for our many environmental and human tragedy crises, against them.  They fund all this successfully with crowdsourcing, and have a team of probono lawyers ready to respond to lawsuits.  That they now focus almost all their efforts on their YES LAB, teaching others how to incorporate these kinds of approaches in their local efforts means this is a resource I hope we can’t refuse to use! 
The Illuminator
Picture
14) The Illuminator. Support to students in Montreal protesting a controversial law prohibiting protests with more than 50 people in the wake of the student movement in Québec. Photo: Kyle Depew.
The Illuminator, in its first incarnation, was a cargo van equipped with video and audio projection equipment as well as a fully stocked infoshop and mini-library.  Illuminator explains that technically tricked out van was “a tactical media tool, available to the movement in several cities [nice video summary of the Illuminator crew’s experiences here].  It adds a bit of visual energy and pop, becoming the centerpiece around which an event is organized, or randomly appearing at a busy intersection and creating a spectacular surprise.”  How it works:  the projector is lifted through the van roof opening to project onto a building.   The plain white van is converted into The Illuminator instantly via magnetized identifiers. Instantly removable allowing the van to fade unobtrusively into city traffic.   Lately, Illuminator has been operating via a tricycle camouflaged as a delivery bike.  The high powered projector conveniently recedes into the trike’s rear basket quickly when authorities appear.
Illuminator is the ultimate guerrilla street art intervention.  The images are ephemeral “murals” that appear and disappear at exactly the right places at the right times, last long enough to be photographed or videoed, producing images which are then posted online right as they are being projected so they go viral almost immediately!!  Illuminator is a perfect example of the Canclini suggestion of how best to activate art interventions “in sync with but on different stages” from other energies abroad in the culture.  There is some synergy with the Earth Ambulance idea, as it allows the activist artists to be very mobile and be present where the images and slogans they project are most needed.  And, the mobility allows them to become quickly anonymous and make fast getaways when appropriate!  Illuminator activists have been experimenting recently with bicycle deployment which eliminates the expense of buying or renting vans.
Light Brigades
Picture
17) Overpass Light Brigade. Milwaukee. “Americans in 275 locations, across 49 states sent a strong statement to President Obama that the Keystone XL pipeline is wrong for the nation. Joining vigil goers in several cities was the Light Brigade Network, and the DIY Drone Brigade.” See more at: http://occupyriverwest.com/us/no-kxl-vigils#sthash.njtipQiL.dpuf
Light Brigades are popping up all over the country.  A little film about their work is part of PBS’s Online Film festival…see it here.  This activist art intervention began in Wisconsin during the “Wisconsin Uprising” that sought to recall the Republican Governor Scott Walker.  While the recall did not succeed, the approach did!  The Wisconsin originators of the “Overpass Light Brigade” describe who they are and what they do:  “Our messages shine over highways at night.  We believe in the power of communities coming together in physical space, as well as the importance of visibility for grassroots and progressive causes.  We are a loose and inclusive affiliation of people dedicated to the power of peaceful and playful protest.”  Since the initial overpass displays on bridges spanning Wisconsin freeways, the approach is spreading rapidly across the country and are added to the OLB website as they emerge.  Detailed instructions on how to create the illuminated letters that spell out OLB messages are here.

Like The Illuminator, Light Brigades are highly mobile, placing illuminated messages at targeted locations, appearing and disappearing quickly.  Events are photographed, and have a longer life via postings on social media.  There are several points at which individual community members can engage in Light Brigades, including planning and strategizing for where the Lighted Messages should appear, development of the slogans, creating, maintaining and storing the lighted letters, and holding the messages at targeted locations, as well as keeping social media updated as events unfold.  Costs are relatively low, so this explains why so many brigades are appearing across the country, as opposed to Illumination projections, which do require a major investment in 10,000 lumen (minimum) projectors.
Picture
18) Rude Mechanical Orchestra. Audience participation limbo-ing under the trombones! Photo: Leonardo March
The Rude Mechanical Orchestra is a 30-odd-piece radical marching band and dance troupe.  They are for hire, and play protests, demonstrations, direct actions, picket lines, marches, benefits and events for good causes.  They say:  “We’ve played protesting union-busters and tip-garnishers, gentrifiers and privatizers, xenophobes, homophobes, and a host of other big uglies.  We’ve worked with groups like Time’s Up, the Restaurant Opportunity Center of New York, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project and the War Resisters League.  We’ve played community events around town and beyond, like the Queens Pride Parade, the Mermaid Parade, the East Village Roving Garden Party, Philadelphia’s Spiral Q Peoplehood Parade, and Boston’s Honk Festival.”  The group originated in the early 1990s, and has emerged and reemerged depending on need.  The most active orchestra operates in NYC, and there are new ones currently emerging in several other cities.  A typical set might include “a spritz of klezmer, some Balkan and Brazilian notes, plenty of funk, some Latin beats, a little jazz and an El Tigre cover, all of it served up with a patina of punk.”  They don’t do Sousa marches.  Here’s a sample from their gig at the big Climate Action March in NYC in September 2014! 

Music is so important to activism, and the Rude Mechanical Orchestra provides a mobile alternative to the stationary concert which often is expensive, discourages those not actively playing in the band from participating directly, and obviously cannot be deployed at fraught locations such as the headquarters of oil companies.  Activist musicians in the orchestra also point out that “To be effectively loud on New York streets, you usually need a loudspeaker, and to use a loudspeaker, you need a permit from the NYPD. If you’re planning on playing loud instruments, however, no such limitation exists, and this has made the RMO an essential ingredient in many impromptu demonstrations.”  TMO is a great example of the tactical wisdom of figuring out ahead of time what needs and what does not need a permit! And acting accordingly! 
The Backbone Campaign
Picture
19) Backbone Project. Demonstrators from Tacoma, Olympia, and Seattle gathered to protest oil trains currently carrying Bakken crude through populated areas and the 24 trains proposed for the future. Photo: Alex Garland
The Backbone Campaign out of Vashon, WA, provides creative strategy, tactical trainings and action support to progressive activists, organizers and organizations around the US. Backbone says:  “We are renowned for our ‘Artful Activism’ that is both fun and effective in service of societal transformation.  Our training programs invigorate and nurture a people-powered, community-based, and internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights, thriving communities, and ecological wellbeing.”
Picture
20) Backbone Project. Localize This! Action Camp.
The group runs Localize THIS camps (video), coaches communities on creating actions and offers training in:  Non Violent Direct Action 101, Creative Tactics For Visibility & Building Power. Giant Banner Building & Overpass Bannering, Flashmob Training, Projection As Protest, Light Brigade Training, Climb Training & Tripods, Blockade Training, Papier Mache Puppetry building.  Backbone pays special attention to “Security Training which shows would be activists how to stay two steps ahead of the authorities, versus two steps behind in paranoia.  Covers the basics of creating and implementing security within the group when engaged in an action, as well as in offices, homes, personal lives, and on computers.”  Lots of online action kits as well!

Along with the YES LAB and Beautiful Trouble, the vibrant Backbone Project not only plans and carries out their own artistic activism related specifically to local issues in Washington State, but they also provide assistance to other groups locally in Seattle and other WA cities, and elsewhere, both coaching actual actions on site, and training groups to do their own actions.  One very impressive offering is assistance with personal and group security, very much needed when activist art is introduced in contested public spaces.  Backbone also personifies the Sandoval prescription that activists become proficient in advance planning and the use of a wide range of approaches, tailored to specific on site requirements.  A new Backbone emphasis will be to develop a program to prepare CSOs (Community Supported Organizers) in local areas, based on the model of Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs).
Beautiful Trouble and Beautiful Solutions
Picture
21) Beautiful Trouble is both a book and a website.
Beautiful Trouble is a book, or rather it was a book.  It is now much more than a book.  The project consists of short, interrelated modules that share the best of resistance campaigns – creative tactics, action design principles, case studies, and theoretical frameworks – that together comprise an accessible matrix of best practices and ideas in creative activist resistance campaigning.  The website includes the core content of the book as well as a growing array of additional modules, resources, profiles, debates and a cutting-edge visualization interface that allows perusal of the project’s content with pinpoint accuracy according to one’s needs and interests. 
Picture
22) Beautiful Trouble is also a cutting edge visualization tool!
Beautiful Trouble also has a corps of experienced trainers for hire.  The trainers available through the Beautiful Trouble network are both artists and activists. Recently Beautiful Trouble spun off a new initiative:  Beautiful Solutions!  As they point out, “Resistance is essential, but it is not enough.  As we fight injustice around us, we also have to imagine – and create – the world we want.  We have to build real alternatives in the here and now –alternatives that are not only living proof that things can be done differently, but that actively challenge, and eventually supplant, the power of the status quo.”

I end this discussion of a selection of the best of the best activist art initiatives currently available with Beautiful Trouble and Beautiful Solutions.  As concept and ongoing resource, these twin entities speak eloquently to what two of my favorite theorists, Chela Sandoval and Canclini pointed to almost two decades ago. Beautiful Trouble and Beautiful Solutions demonstrate the effectiveness of acknowledging, utilizing and distributing the best theoretical thinking and the best examples of intelligent, creative, strategic resistance visioning and deployment. 

I look forward to working with many of you to address what needs to be confronted, and what needs to be dreamed into existence here in South Florida.  There is so much that can and should be done to which all our innovative, artistic and creative thinking and action must be directed.


— Mary Jo Aagerstoun

Mary Jo Aagerstoun has studied a lot of activist art history and theories of cultural activism.  She enjoys brainstorming with likeminded folk on how to get epic stuff out there that can change the way things are.  She lives and schemes in West Palm Beach, FL.  See her on Facebook, or contact her at: mjaagerstoun@gmail.com

0 Comments

FREC Award Highlights LTEM Work

11/17/2014

0 Comments

 
by Houston R. Cypress,
Coordination Circle, Love The Everglades Movement

Picture
The Film, Recording & Entertainment Council (link) is one of South Florida’s most important economic development organizations serving the Entertainment Industry and over the weekend FREC held its 11th Annual Star Gala recognition ceremony at the Magic City Casino.

The Star Gala (link) recognizes industry professionals and organizations whose careers and bodies of work establish South Florida as a significant region for developing a career in this commercial sector.  There is a thriving community of people here in South Florida and it is important to note just who they are and what they have done.

The nature of entertainment necessarily highlights those on stage, or in front of the camera, or in the spotlight, and so the unique work of the Star Gala is to highlight the talent and expertise of those behind-the-scenes.  The types of categories that this event notes include the work of choreographers, lawyers, recording executives, producers, directors, make-up artists, casting directors, recording studios, up-and-coming talent, and so many more.

Love The Everglades Movement, like FREC, is a member-driven organization.  Our work is concerned with offering opportunities for people to connect with the Everglades and thereby inspiring positive change in the broader society so that we can achieve goals such as improved water quality in the Florida Everglades.  Many of us are artists, and so the methods that we’ve been using reflect our skills.  We understand how our artistic projects communicate complex messages across multiple dimensions, so we’ve been eager to invite influential people to participate in our excursions and events.  Our understanding of the influential embraces people such as teachers, event planners, spiritual leaders, political organizers, etc.

We also strive to cultivate a community of people concerned with Everglades matters using an approach that is respectful of local mores – which we are discovering is not an easy task.  This work has required us to learn new languages, to go outside of our comfort zones, and to confront obstacles of all types.

LTEM began with a vision that Jean Sarmiento (link) was blessed with as a result of his dedication to his spiritual and ceremonial work.  Since the fall of 2012, our work has evolved:  from Everglades excursions, to art exhibitions, inter-faith prayer rituals, benefit concerts, short films, interviews with print/radio/television/internet media, and an eclectic symposium.

Our Summer Symposium 2014 (link) was the culmination of all of the projects and community networking that we’ve been involved in since our efforts began.  Our program and attendance reflected that.  It was also an event that was free to attend so that there would be no barriers preventing people from getting engaged in Everglades advocacy – FREC took note.

At the Star Gala, event hosts such as Trina Robinson of NBC 6 and world-renowned artist Laurence Gartel took time to highlight my achievements in film, television and art, as well as my community work with the Love The Everglades Movement as a prime reason for the honor.

So, I would like to share this honor with everyone who has been involved with LTEM in one way or another since our work began, including all those who’ve been on our Everglades excursions, everyone who has prayed for the water, all the friends we’ve made in all the different communities that we’ve visited, our benefactors and sponsors, and all the members of the Coordination Circle (link).  Nuff Respect!

Another honoree that was noted for Best Film Festival was Filmgate Interactive (link).  Filmgate is an event that showcases and develops transmedia projects – projects that are expressed across multiple media platforms.  Diliana Alexander, Executive Director for Filmgate, invited LTEM to collaborate on their filmmaking workshop.  Diliana wanted to use her resources to express an environmental and humanitarian concern for the Everglades and the Miccosukee community while providing artists from around the world with an opportunity to hone their skills using cutting-edge technologies.  You can see the result of this collaboration by clicking THIS LINK.

The Star Gala was a blast!  Some of us from the Coordination Circle who attended had an opportunity to rub shoulders with the professionals of the South Florida entertainment industry.  And I had a great time, with Dudley Alexis of Epyllion Films (link), in putting together the tribute video honoring Irene Marie of modeling agency fame for her Lifetime Achievement Award.  Love The Everglades Movement was in great company.
0 Comments

Moksha Lecture Series:  Indigenous Ecologies & the Everglades

10/13/2014

0 Comments

 
by Dr. Dennis Wiedman & Houston R. Cypress

Picture
THE MOKSHA LECTURE SERIES PT. 4:
"INDIGENOUS ECOLOGIES AND THE EVERGLADES" 

A Dialog with Miccosukee Houston R. Cypress and Anthropologist Dennis Wiedman

Indigenous peoples around the world continue to express their views that natural and physical environments are being harmed by humans whose philosophies of life do not respect the Earth. The 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples confirmed their rights to traditional lands, resources, language, medicines, religions, media and culture. Anthropologist, Dr. Dennis Wiedman reflects upon the political and environmental changes occurring over the past centuries that disenfranchised Native Americans from their lands, their resources and their sacred places. Houston Cypress, member of the Miccosukee Otter Clan, brings an Indigenous world view to the public through his videos, words and actions. For the past several decades there has been a renaissance of Indigenous arts, music, and religions here in the US and throughout the world. The Indigenous voice is now being heard in films, music, the internet and in the courts.

Contemporary Native American scholars, artists and film makers are bringing to the public their ways of knowing about life, the Earth and human relationships with the Earth. Many of these express the Indigenous Peoples’ perspectives as caretakers of the Earth, as compared to those who view the Earth and resources as objects to be exploited, controlled, bought and sold. With environments being modified, polluted, and spoiled, this dialog and discussion of these differing world views may lead to reconciliation and a better understanding of how public policies can respect the Earth.

Here in South Florida where the natural Everglades, rivers, and wetlands were drained, canaled, controlled, filled-in and polluted, Indigenous Peoples continue to express their concerns about the quality of water and how it affects all human and biological life in the Everglades. In this evening of information sharing, dialog and discussion, Houston and Dennis compare and contrast these contested world views about the environment and nature facilitating a better understanding of the restoration of the Everglades and the need for public policies that respect the earth affecting the future quality of life for generations of South Floridians.

Dr. Dennis Wiedman is an anthropologist whose life long work on Native American health extends from the Miccosukee of South Florida, to the Delaware, Apache and Cherokee Tribes of Oklahoma, and the Inupiat of Northern Alaska. His research has ranged from traditional healing to contemporary health problems, from Peyotism as a health care delivery system, to the causes of Native American diabetes and the global increase of diabetes with modernity. Since receiving his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Oklahoma, he has taught for many years at Florida International University where he is an Associate Professor in the Department of Global and Sociocultural Studies. His latest work is published in the American Indian Culture and Research Journal, and the American Indian Quarterly.

Houston Cypress, an Otter Clan member of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida. Houston grew up in the swamps of the Florida Everglades, blazing trails through the bush. The endangered beauty of the natural environment made such an impression on him during his childhood – being a refuge for his ancestors and the source of traditional plant medicines – that he grew to find ways to articulate strategies for preserving this World Heritage Site. Art, communications and spirituality are some of the modalities and techniques that he employs through his collaborations with the following organizations Miccosukee Magazine TV; Film, Recording & Entertainment Council, FREC Star Gala, Medicine Signs Spiritual Center, Camposition, Inc. and the Love The Everglades Movement. Houston is committed to supporting his society of clans by assisting in cultural preservation, environmental protection, community outreach, business development, media & event production and strengthening sovereignty. He resides on the Miccosukee Reservation located west of Miami, Florida and he maintains a number of traditional villages located on tree islands scattered throughout Water Conservation Area 3A -- the area known as the historic River of Grass, and called by his community: Kaahayatle, which can be translated as "Shimmering Waters".

In consideration of the upcoming election on Tuesday, November 4, Amendment 1 which is about the environmental protection will be discussed. To learn more about the ballot initiative, check out www.FloridaWaterLandLegacy.org and www.VoteYesOn1FL.org - for more information.

*MOKSHA ART GALLERY EXHIBITION*

~JAKE CORDERO~ 

Stay later for musical entertainment with
~DJ CARE~ http://djcare.com/

Tuesday, October 28, 2014:
Doors open at 7:00pm
Lecture begins at 7:30pm (sharp) -10:00 pm

$10 donation pre-sale 
$15 donation at door
Pre-sale tickets available here:
http://mokshalecture10-28.bpt.me/

Share this event, thank you!

Come early for refreshments and snacks from Plaiedean Lounge.

7th Circuit Productions, 228 NE 59th St. Miami, FL 33137www.mokshafamily.org/ for info #305-757-7277
0 Comments

Message to the River Rally

8/3/2014

0 Comments

 
by Geovanny Perez & Houston R. Cypress,
Coordination Circle, Love The Everglades Movement

Picture
Picture
Hello everyone.  I'd like to thank THE RIVERS COALITION, THE RIVER WARRIORS, AND C4CW for inviting me to speak today; I truly feel honored to do so.  I'm also excited to be able to connect with all of you, even if under such dire circumstances.

As for the matter that brings us here, I have found it necessary to participate in the effort to restore the Everglades because it's where my home (including my clan and Tribe) and heart resides.  In my lifetime I've seen many destructive changes to our lands, such as the disintegration of tree islands, the disappearance of game animals, the increase of pollution in water, and the erosion of the Everglades.  Because our culture is tied to the land (our ceremonies, our medicines, and many other spiritual practices), we are witnessing the gradual disappearance of our culture.   We are losing our roots.

But we know there is hope; we can certainly steer this thing in the right direction, but it will take incredible coordination and resolve to manifest our dreams.

This is where our spirituality comes in.

Personally, I don't believe spirituality to be superstition or hollow, self-promoting, self-serving, self-comforting cliches.

Instead, it is about wisdom, insight, strength, patience, trust, and compassion, and in the face of great uncertainty and potential doom, this is exactly what we need.  There are many great sages that have explored the struggles of the human condition in such a mysterious universe, peering deeply into our very being and place in the universe.  There is much to learn for the sake of our global as well as local ecosystems.

With Love the Everglades Movement, LOVE is central to our cause because we do not want to be ruled by fear or anger.  In fact, we know we cannot afford to be mindlessly distracted given what's at stake and the amount of time we have to make things right.  We know that anger and fear, especially in a crisis situation, may galvanize some, but it can also blind us, divide us, perpetuate the delusion that we are factions bent on defeating one another, and thus undermine these important efforts. 

In getting to know some of you, I've heard from you about other groups involved in this issue, and those comments have been disparaging.  We are supposed to be the SOLUTION to this problem, otherwise our divisions are poison in the water.  We do not have the luxury to bicker, but we can overcome this, in fact, we MUST overcome this.  As someone with an outside perspective, this entrenched rift is off-putting, but it is also all too familiar, so I sympathize with you even as I am critical (our Tribe has been witness to entrenched bickering slowing the Everglades restoration effort to a glacial pace).

So how are we to overcome this bickering? -- this factionalism?  Love & Respect is a good place to start.  We have youngsters here among us and we must set a good example for them.  Let's show them how to have a civil and civilized dialogue with one another.

Let's also continue to have forums for discussion, so we can increase understanding of our concerns and priorities and proposals for action.

Let's also ask for help from our friends, people such as you.

And let's not be afraid to disagree.  Let's welcome disagreements and critiques as opportunities to learn where our proposals can be strengthened and improved.

Let me offer an example of constructive critique within a context of civilized discussion.  Plan 6 and the Southern Flow way -- a very important proposal with definite room for improvement.  The Holey lands are an area designated as O.F.W. -- Outstanding Federal Waters.  From what I've read on Plan 6, there is not enough discussion or information about this important area:  the Holey Lands, an area with very stringent regulations.  Plan 6 would bring MORE WATER at a REDUCED QUALITY than is currently allowed and protected for.  So the question that Plan 6 must answer to move forward with broader support is:  How do you propose to degrade Outstanding Federal Waters with water from Lake Okeechobee?

Picture
I also have a request for my friends:  I need your help to address the L-28 Interceptor Canal.  The failure of CEPP to move forward was very disappointing to all of us.  But CEPP didn't do enough because it failed to address the L-28 Interceptor Canal.  CEPP was concerned with bringing New Water into the system, but the L-28 Interceptor Canal is currently bringing 40% of the waters coming into the area, and it's bringing water in with a disgustingly high concentration of Phosphorus.  By the time the waters pass through the Water Conservation Area 3A, the waters have been naturally filtered out and nearly meet the desired goal of 10 PPB of Phosphorus.  So what this means is that Miccosukee territory becomes a De Facto Stormwater Treatment Area (STA) and that is not right.  So I'm asking for your help to raise awareness and push for action regarding the on-going problem of the L-28 Interceptor Canal.

As for the factionalism within our environmental movements, well those of us from Love The Everglades Movement pledge to work from a place of Love & Respect with each and everyone of you.  WE WILL NOT TAKE SIDES.  We will continue to express our Love and Respect for these waters.

We continue to pray for the purity of the waters flowing from the Kissimmee River Valley, through Lake Okeechobee, over the River of Grass, and out beyond Florida Bay.

We continue to pray that compassion flourishes in the hearts and minds of the decision-makers and stakeholders involved with Everglades Restoration.

We continue to pray for the growth of the community concerned with Everglades Matters -- because the Everglades matters.

And we will continue to stand with you in prayer for the integrity and vitality of the Circle of Life.

These are the challenges we are called to meet -- with hope, grace, and diplomacy.
0 Comments

Knowing the Past to Understand the Present

8/1/2014

0 Comments

 
by Matt Schwartz,
Executive Director, South Florida Wildlands Association (Link).

Picture
Dr. Carl Sagan (and many others) said - “You have to know the past to understand the present.”  If you want to understand what's ailing the Everglades - and why every rainy season polluted fresh water gets sent into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie Estuaries west and east of Lake Okeechobee - these two images are a great place to start.

Photo on the left is not real - it's a simulation of the historic "pre-drainage" Everglades.  What a satellite would have seen in the 19th century before the first major drainage canals were dug - if a satellite had existed.  The Everglades is one massive interconnected system - slowly flowing - both above ground and below - from just south of Orlando to Lake Okeechobee and then south over the soggy shoreline of the lake to the River of Grass and Florida Bay.  Photo on the right is what we actually see today.  Drainage canals have allowed about 6 million of us - and many more tourists - to settle on Florida's lower east coast - while millions of acres of natural wetlands surrounding Lake Okeechobee in all directions have been drained for agriculture (sugar, citrus, and other crops) and cattle ranching.  The water is laden with cattle waste, fertilizers, pesticides, urban runoff, and septic discharges.

A restored Everglades will be a system that looks - as much as now possible - like the photo on left.  The more natural wetlands we bring back - the less load we will be putting on the system and the more mother nature can do what she's always done in South Florida.  Want to really stop (or at least significantly diminish) the polluted discharges coming from Lake Okeechobee?  Clean up the water before it gets to the Lake and bring back the wetlands that can receive that water like they did before.  More to come.

For more information on Matt Schwartz and the South Florida Wildlands Association, please visit their website:  http://southfloridawild.org/.
0 Comments

SS14:  EcoArt South Florida

8/1/2014

0 Comments

 
by Dr. Mary Jo Aagerstoun,
Founder, EcoArt South Florida (Link).

Picture
Still WAY UP THERE after a hugely encouraging two days at the Love the Everglades Movement's First Annual Summer Symposium 2014 where I was so honored to present this discussion of EcoArt as slow activism and the need for aesthetically powerful and tactically deft Activist Art for our ecologies.

Please feel free to use any of this if you find it useful.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3vv0rlhomkddqb5/EcoArtActivismnotes.pdf

and for larger images of the slides:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/oacdllii34v1ynx/EcoArtActivismEcoArt.pdf

For more information on EcoArt South Florida, please visit their website:  http://ecoartsofla.org/.
0 Comments

Videos:  Summer Symposium 2014

8/1/2014

0 Comments

 
Video recordings provided by John W. Scott,
Clean Water Initiative of Florida (Link).

Picture

For more information on the Clean Water Initiative of Florida, please contact John W. Scott by e-mail at:  jscott@cwifl.com, or reach him at his website:  cwifl.com.
0 Comments

Ceremony:  Water Reaching the Bay

7/2/2014

0 Comments

 
By Jean Sarmiento,
Coordination Circle, Love The Everglades Movement.

Picture
It was much nicer than I had envisioned, even more meaningful to me than I thought it would be.
        Last year in April we borrowed a few gallons of Water from a sacred island in the Everglades the area is known as "Water Conservation Area 3A" Homeland of the Miccosukee people.  One of big issues we face as Floridians is the unnatural water levels in the Glades and its detrimental effects on the land, where we now see too much Water in the North and not enough Water in the South reaching Florida Bay.
        Our intent is to pray with these waters, caring for them, they have been to many prayer circles, many sweat lodges, many ceremonies, have touched the hands of many different beautiful men, woman and children who each has bestowed their love and gratitude unto these Waters, these very same Waters each and everyone of us depend on everyday to survive.  These very same Waters that will determine our continuation here on Earth.
        So we set out to Florida Bay with love, gratitude, appreciation in our hearts and gently released the Waters in a symbolic gesture of "Water reaching the bay" to connect with the land and offer our love our forgiveness, to hear our pleas and assist us in dissolving the boundaries that hinder humanity's progress, maybe, just maybe, we won't have to learn this lesson the Hard way.
        Let's give this Water the Respect it deserves!  I don't care if you think you're cute or you're a Diva or a tough guy gangster, el guapo, Rick Ross or you work for the government, if you're an Army Corps guy, if you have Money or if you're black, blue, pink.  It doesn't matter:  Appreciate this Water while you have it in such abundance because I guarantee you -- not maybe, or If -- I Guarantee you'll be crying for this water if it wasn't around.
        Thank you to all the men and women and children, past and present, who labor to bring light unto this world. 

Preserve - Restore - Conserve
One Love Florida Everglades
0 Comments
<<Previous
Forward>>

    Author

    So many voices.  So many colors.  So many nations.  One water.

    We are the Movement's many voices -- from the Coordination Circle, from the allies and supporters, and from those who yearn to share their Love of the Everglades.

    Archives

    May 2019
    January 2018
    December 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    May 2016
    July 2015
    April 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014

    Categories

    All
    10ppb
    2014
    7th Circuit
    Aboriginal
    ACOE
    Activism
    Activist Art
    Aesthetics
    Alcee Hastings
    Amendment 1
    Andy Bichelbaum
    Applicable Laws
    Aquifer
    Army Corps
    Art
    Art Basel
    Arthur R. Marshall
    Backbone Campaign
    Beautiful Trouble
    Big Sugar
    Bike Path
    Billy Cypress
    Blessing
    Bobby C. Billie
    Borscht
    Buffalo Tiger
    BullSugar.org
    C4CW
    Caloosahatchee
    Carl Sagan
    Cempoalli 20
    CEPP
    Ceremony
    CERP
    Chela Sandoval
    Children's Books
    Clean Water Initiative
    Climate Change
    Collaboration
    Colley Billie
    Community Events
    Concert
    Conference
    Coordination Circle
    Crafts
    CWIFL
    Data Sovereignty
    Debbie Wasserman Schultz
    Delores Billie
    Dennis Wiedman
    Design
    Diane Arrieta
    Diliana Alexander
    Discharges
    Doc Thomas House
    Donate
    Downloads
    Dreaming
    Dropbox
    EAA
    Earth Ambulance
    EcoArt
    Effie Osceola
    Environmental Justice
    Epyllion Films
    Events
    Everglades
    Everglades Caucus
    Everglades Coalition
    Everglades National Park
    Felipe Marrou
    FGCU
    Film
    Filmgate
    First Nations
    Frank Allegro
    FREC
    Frederica Wilson
    Free Downloads
    Ft. Lauderdale
    FWC
    Gas
    Geovanny Perez
    Gitz Crazyboy
    Green Corn Dance
    Helene Aylon
    Hip Hop
    Houston Cypress
    Howard Osceola
    Illuminator
    Indigenous
    Interview
    Intracoastal
    Janeen Mason
    Jared Jacobs
    Jean Sarmiento
    Jennie O. Billie
    Joe Garcia
    Joe Negron
    John Scott
    Josie Billie
    Ken Carey
    L 28
    L-28
    L 28 Interceptor Canal
    L-28 Interceptor Canal
    Lake O
    Lake Okeechobee
    Legal
    Light Brigades
    Literature
    Lois Frankel
    Love
    Loxahatchee
    Loxahatchee Wildlife Refuge
    Lucy Keshavarz
    Marcia Moore
    Mario Diaz-Balart
    Marjorie Shropshire
    Martin County
    Mary Jo Aagerstoun
    Masaru Emoto
    Matt Schwartz
    Miami
    Miami Herald
    Miccosukee
    Miccosukee Simanolee
    Miccosukee Tribe
    Michael Singer
    Miguel Bravo
    Moksha Family
    Moral
    Music
    Music Video
    National Park
    Negron
    Nestor Garcia Canclini
    NoROGG
    Nyla Pipes
    Oil
    Otter Clan
    Painted Intersections
    Painting
    Palm Beach County
    Patchwork
    Patrick Murphy
    Patterns Of Power
    Pdf
    Phosphorus
    Ploppy Palace
    Prayer
    Prayer Circle
    Prophecy
    Public Art
    Publishing
    Quese IMC
    Racism
    Rebecca Coughlin
    Reggae
    Reservoir
    Resistance
    Respect
    Retro
    Rick Ross
    Rick Scott
    River Coalition
    River Of Grass Greenway
    River Rally
    River Warriors
    Robin Haines Merrill
    Robin Merrill
    ROGG
    Sabal Trail Pipeline
    Safety Issues
    Satellite
    SB10
    Sea Level Rise
    SFWMD
    Sierra Club
    Skyway Bridge
    Slow Activism
    Solidarity
    South Florida
    South Florida Water Management District
    South Miami
    Spiritual
    Spirituality
    Sponsor
    SS14
    Star Gala
    Stephen Tiger
    St. Lucie
    Suicide
    Symposium
    Tamiami Trail
    Ted Deutch
    TEK
    Textiles
    Tropical Audubon Society
    Turtle Island
    USACOE
    USFWS
    Village
    Virginia Poole
    Vote Yes On 1
    VTM Productions
    Wallace Heim
    War
    Water
    WCA 3A
    Wildlands
    Wildlife Refuge
    WRDA
    Wynwood
    YES MEN

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly