Amy Goodman in San Antonio, Texas

Amy Goodman, a broadcast journalist at Democracy Now, http://www.democracynow.org/ , was brought to San Antonio through the many efforts of Texas MEP (http://texasmep.org/ ) and The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center (http://esperanzacenter.org/). She was featured as a speaker for one of the Lady Fest events held this year in San Antonio, Texas. Lady Fest is a festival showcasing women in music, art and films,( http://ladyfestsatx.org/ ).

I have had the privilige to hear many people speak, but Amy Goodman was pretty incredible. She is very intelligent and her summary of US foreign policy over the last 50 years made the audience sick, especially what happened in East Timor. What particularly struck me about her lecture was her commitment to articulating people's name over and over and over throughout her speech. She said that by naming people, by pronouncing their name, you dignify them. This is true, how many people were never named throughout history? How many soldiers will have died in Iraq with no name?

Lady Fest San Antonio, Texas October 19 - October 21, 2006

LadyFest is a community based, not-for-profit, festival established to highlight female artists, bands, musical groups, media producers, and visual artists organized by volunteers. This festival came about as a result of the DIY ethic and "Riot Grrrl" movements in Olympia, Washington as well as the many contributions by authors on inclusive feminist philosophy. The first ever LadyFest was conducted in Olympia, Washington in August 2000 with over 2000 people attending. Prime motivators in the event were Sleater-Kinney, Cat Power, and Neko Case. The primary organizers of LadyFest are women, but everyone is encouraged to attend and volunteer at every festival.

Since the first LadyFest, the event has branched out into other urban centers such as Amsterdam, Atlanta, Belgium, Berlin, Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Brooklyn, Cardiff, Dublin, Lansing, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Orlando, Ottawa, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Diego, Toronto, Washington DC, and more. Primarily volunteers organize each festival locally and independently of other LadyFest events. Proceeds from LadyFest festivals are donated to non-profit organizations dedicated to eliminating the sexist oppressions of women.

NALAC Conference and Meeting Muses !!

The NALAC Conference in San Antonio was simply awesome!! A local writer gave me her ticket to attend. She said that my analytical mind would take away quite a bit from the conference and she just didn't have enough time in her schedule to attend. And why not, I was eager to be surrounded by people who have risked everything to love their work, their job, their contribution.

I was a little disappointed at how diluted the actual workshops were, but the people who attended rocked!!

The workshop on music was enlightening because it was in that moment that I felt that reoccuring theme in my life -- wishing to love something as much as they loved their work and their contribution. They were so fully engrossed and caught up in the moment and the audience felt truly transported. I admired and envied the musicians for having such a passion for their work that propelled them to get up every morning, as well as their ability to rouse the audience. I suppose the reason for going was that I wanted to be around passionate people, or people with passions! Being around so many muses and that kind of palpatable energy was really wonderful, re-energizing, and refreshing. I am not used to spending so many days socializing, or around that many people. I am not socially phobic, but it simply doesn't happen very often. Two particular muses made me smile much!! One particular muse gave great, long hugs. If I saw him today I'd hug him until he yelped -- which would not be difficult at all. :-)I feel privileged to have met them both. And the pianist kicks ass!!! You know who you are! You are playing at my wedding, don't you dare forget!! I will do the work on my end at finding the suitable mate. Arrrrghhhhh!