MEND Season 3 - Episode 47

Taking Poetic Action with Leslie Castellano

“Artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact. ”

― William S. Burroughs

When it comes to leading lives of passion & creativity, we tend to believe in a set binary.

There are those of us - so we say - that are meant to write, paint, dance, create - make the world a bit more vivid and beautiful by our voice, our touch, our presence.

It is the work to which we are called to in this life.

Then, the same story goes - there are those who are meant to engage in matters of policy.  Civic discourse and dialogue. Who can best affect change at the structural, boardroom, nuts-and-bolts, dare I say, utterly artless side of cultural exchange.  

There are the artists.  

And then there are the policy makers.  

And ne’er shall the two entwine.  

They are made for such entirely different things in this life.
My guest today is someone who tosses this limited theory out on it’s head.

Leslie Castellano is a local performance artist, teacher, dancer & businesswoman - who also happens to be running for City Council - Ward 1, in Eureka, to be precise - this year.  

In this talk, we discuss her decision to venture out of her long-tenure as contributing artist to her local community to a person who is striving to affect policy, as well.

We talk about the intersection of Art & Politics.  

About shifting out of our individual and collective comfort zones to lobby on behalf of the type of world we want to live in - which sometimes means canvassing, making phone calls, and going door-to-door, rather than simply writing a song or creating a dance piece.  

At the heart of each of these impulses, Leslie states,  is a driving desire to care for people and build community.

Through her efforts as an activist, artist & community organizer, she longs to build a society where all people are valued.

We talk about where this impulse has taken her thus far and the places she’s venturing into just now.

I hope you’ll be inspired, as I am, by the work and presence of this wonderful woman.

She’s a reminder to me that even though we all have our designated comfort zones - we can step out of them.  

We can take on new roles, new languages & new possibilities to begin to mend the culture where we live.  

There is a place for ART.  For beauty & symbolism & delight.

And there is a place for re-writing laws and by-laws.  For upending the current structure and mapping out an entirely different system than the one we’ve known.

And there is a way to synthesize the two - so that together they - we - all of us - can THRIVE.

MEND Season 2 - Episode 43

Spiritual Capital

with Carolyn Baker

Everyday we are faced with the evidence of global collapse…ecosystems around the world are dying or shifting rapidly, the number of people in the world far outnumbers what the earth can support, extreme weather is becoming a regular occurrence, ice caps are melting faster than previously feared, animal and plant species are dying off daily and we humans are becoming more insistent on our technologies, our machines, our tearing away at the flesh of the earth.  

Many of us feel the pain and anguish of this deeply and often ask ourselves,

How are we to cope?

Where do we pull our resources and our energy and take a stand?

What is our work in these times?

The grief so often can be overwhelming.

There is, however, a light in the dark night of our collective soul.

Carolyn Baker is a former psychotherapist and prolific author on the subjects of resiliency, spirituality, activism and how we as humans find our way in the murky and terrifying waters of global collapse.  Through the avenues of webinars, podcasts live workshops, books, articles, one-on-one life coaching and more, she assists people in “preparing for the dire consequences of the collapse of industrial civilization and abrupt climate change.” Her long list of books, along with links to articles, programs, speaking events, upcoming classes and information on the work that she does, can be found on her website carolynbaker.net. 

Carolyn observes that every person walking around today is traumatized and overwhelmed by the catastrophes, the destruction, the impending doom of our world.  But she urges us to allow that grief of this to be the power of our activism.  We may not be able to avert the affects of climate change or destruction by nuclear war, but we can do our shadow work, deepen our connections to each other and to the earth…we can, and should, be of service, build bridges of humanity, create and cultivate joy in our lives…and open up to the divine… this is what we are called to do.