Starting August off with a bang!

So summer is in full swing, and I have been enjoying a lot of time outside. Unfortunately, this means not much progress has been made on making this website more interesting, but the good news is I've had some great opportunities to perform, and do things like lots of writing by the lake, and attending fun events like Peacestock. I feel like I am filling up on experiences, so that in winter when I'm hunkered down and working hard on introspection I will have lots of sunny energy stored up-like a plant or a a bee hive.

With that in mind, there are two things in the first week of August that I am so excited to be performing at! The first is tomorrow, Aug 3rd, which is a fundraiser for the Future Roots Project. This is an amazing endeavor by two friends of mine, Jamie and Liz, who are going to a small town in Nicaragua called Nueva Esperanza to volunteer at a school there. Jamie is a teacher, who wants to work with the amazing children there and teach them how to read. And Liz is planning on building with them a community garden, and teaching them how to plant, harvest, seed save for themselves.

Isn't that beautiful? The ingenuity of these two is also commendable. They just wanted to go, so they found a way to make it happen. This fundraiser is part of that effort to raise funds, so I hope lots of people can come and I hope we raise a ton of money.

You can donate to this good cause by attending said show, or by going to their page here http://www.gofundme.com/futureroots

Second, is an event that WAMM is having on August 6th (next tues) which I was surprised and thrilled to find out about. Medea Benjamin is coming to Minneapolis! Medea is the co-founder of the group Code Pink, author of many books, including Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control, and a personal role model. Her activism is a fresh and provocative. In an antiwar movement that sometimes seems to need a little stirring, she is pushing her way into the mainstream conversation.

I am thrilled (did I say THRILLED?) to have the chance to perform my poem, Military Drones (and tearing them to pieces), at this event and for Medea. I confess, I wrote the poem directly after reading her new book (it just came out this last year) and basically poemified her work (yes, that's what I said). Now she is coming here to give us a talk and I get to share my poem with her! I've already asked my friends in WAMM and they love the idea. And I've already got the night off work.
Hoorah.

So, August 3rd
Future Roots Fundrasier
at Palmer's Bar in Minneapolis
form 4pm to 9pm
cover at the door $5

then, August 6th
Women Against Military Madness is hosting Medea Benjamin
at The Spirit of St. Stephens Church in Minneapolis
from 7pm to 9pm

I hope these are both well attended and successful events. I am performing at both, and I hope that part goes well, but I am also really just glad to be going to both. This is the way I want to spend my summer. This is my definition of fun.