Thoughts in Random Patterns

Benefit for Boulder Shelter for the Homeless

If you're looking for something fun to do this Saturday night, head on over to the Dairy Center for the Arts for an evening of comedy to benefit the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless!

Bollocks, this is Boulder!

Laugh till the cows come home! A hilarious night of improv comedy! A benefit for the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless Date: Saturday, September 24, 2011 Time: 7:30pm Price: $27.00 - General Admission all proceeds benefit the homeless shelter Location: Tickets and show at www.TheDairy.org. Join us for a night of high jinks and belly laughs to raise funds for the many programs at the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless.  www.BovineMetropolis.com is coming all the way to Boulder so you don't have to go all the way to Denver. A rare treat and all ages are welcome. This is going to sell out so stop chewing your cud and join the fun. Moo! Buy your tickets now right HERE! Presented by:

New Orleans: One House at a Time

I think the most important and interesting thing I did in November was to decide to work to connect the Boulder community with the New Orleans community and build at least one house there.  Amy Antoinette Brown came to Boulder and we had a lively and educational luncheon on November 28th at the Community Foundation and even had an article in the Daily Camera about the event.  Thank you to all of the people who attended, and those who wanted to but had other commitments. 

We have created a fund at the Community Foundation called Boulder Building New Orleans.  It will cost about $125,000 to build a house which will provide housing for 3 senior citizens.  The house will be designed by architects Coleman Coker and Jonathan Tate, who have been working with Amy Brown in the Treme district for several years.  Administrative costs are being paid by Brad and me so that every dollar contributed to the fund goes directly to building the Boulder House.  All donations are tax deductible. In addition, Brad and I have decided to build fundraising momentum by announcing a $10,000 matching grant for this project.

If you're interested in contributing to Boulder Building New Orleans please email me or contact Leah Sullivan, Grants Adminstrator at the Community Foundation at 303.442.0436 ext. 130 or email to leah@commfound.org.

Seeing for Myself

I've been home from New Orleans for a couple of days now, and have had some time to process what I saw there.  I went for a Women Donors Network conference called Revitalizing Democracy:  What We Can Learn from Katrina.  Part of turning forty and thinking about what I want to spend my energy on in the coming decade(s) is to be an advocate for organizations and ideas that I believe in and to stand up and speak out more.  So I'm doing that now.

I learned an incredible amount just by going and seeing for myself.  I had been partially informed before; but had no real idea of the magnitude of the destruction, and more importantly, how very little has been accomplished 15 months after Katrina. 

The first afternoon of the conference we took a bus tour of the still-devasted areas of the city.  I saw a public school that was still completely boarded up, without any remediation or renovation at all.  I saw a public library that still has books in the ceiling tile supports and such a strong smell of mold and decay that I could only stay inside for a few minutes.  We went to the locations of 3 levee breaches and I saw neighborhoods trying to come back to life, but with a long way to go.

The initial tour was pretty overwhelming.  I felt sad and bewildered and frustrated.  I kept, and keep, thinking that if a massive earthquake hit San Francisco all of the public schools and libraries would damn well be functioning a year after. 

Friday morning was a panel discussion moderated by Linda Usdin with Angela Glover Blackwell, Cecilia Muñoz,  Barbara Major, and Beverly Wright, all of whom spoke with such intelligence and  a fierce commitment and dedication to rebuilding the city that you can't help but be energized by their voices. 

Friday afternoon I took another tour with a Housing focus guided by some local grassroots non-profit people, one of whom turned out to be Amy Brown, who has been working with my friends and architects Coleman Coker and Jonathan Tate to build affordable housing in the Treme district.  Amy is an incredible woman, full of passion for her work and her home.  It's easy for me to connect with other Amy's, especially left-handed ones -- and I feel completely galvanized to support her in the serious work that she's doing.  Thanks to Coleman and Jonathan for connecting us.

Before I went I had some concerns about being some kind of disaster voyeur, so I didn't bring a camera, which I now regret.  One of the women at the conference said we were there to witness and bring back stories to our own communities.  After I read Stranger in a Strange Land in high school I wanted to be a Fair Witness, which is maybe part of why I'm a writer.  And why I'm going to keep going back to keep seeing for myself.

And what can you do?

One of the local housing activists recommended that we contact our members of Congress and ask whether they've been to the Gulf Coast.  If not, why not?  If they have, what have they done?

I'm going to read the local paper, the Times-Picayune (and what's a picayune, you might ask?) via RSS and keep learning about the complex political and economic realities and just continue to pay attention to what's going on there.

And I'm going to work with Amy and Coleman and Jonathan to build more houses in the Treme, and ask people to join me.  There's so much work to be done that it can feel overwhelming.  The way through that is to connect with people and take care of  just a small part of the world.  Building houses is a tangible, literally concrete way of making a difference to people in New Orleans.

The Watershed School

My neice and nephew, Morgan and Drew, finished up their academic year this evening by giving Presentations of Learning at their school.  Each student makes a 15 minute presentation explaining what they learned and assessing their own growth and learning throughout the year, both academically and personally.  These presentations are open to the public and the students take questions at the end of their presentation.  It's incredible to listen to young people who are articulate and thoughtful and knowledgeable about themselves, their community, and the world around them.  It gives my usually misanthropic critical self a rest and lets me be enthusiastic about the possibility of a better future.  I kept thinking about the book I just read, Oh the Glory of it All, as I listened to these young people.  It never ceases to amaze me how we cannot know the impact we can have on others, both postive and negative.  Even though Morgan and Drew will likely return to public school next year, they both expressed gratitude for the genuine attention and respect they received from their teachers.  I was a person who did well in public school (I've mentioned my gold-star seeking, goody two shoes, conformist behaviour before) and had some terrific, dedicated, life-changing teachers (hmm, you should go to college back East ("back East" apparently being a foreign country))-- but I wish I had gone to The Watershed School.  Congratulations to the students, teachers, staff, board, and supporters of the school!

From The Watershed website:

If you learn best through experience and engaging with the world around you...

If you are eager to take responsibility for your learning and to shape your own education...

If you are excited to work with other students from different cultures and backgrounds...

If you are willing to challenge yourself to go beyond what you thought was possible...

If you want to make a difference in your community...

If you are ready for the most extraordinary educational journey of your life...

...then we invite you to take a closer look at

The Watershed School

NCWIT

I went with Brad from Chicago to Washington DC for the launch event of the National Center for Women and Information Technology.  Brad and I are both enormous advocates for women’s education and believe that women achieving parity in the information technology field is an important economic issue for all of America.  We are delighted that our local congressman, Mark Udall, supports NCWIT and was able to spare some time to speak at the launch event.  Congressman Udall has a tremendous memory.  I thought the last time I had seen him was when our neighborhood evacuated for an out-of-control “controlled” burn that turned into a 60 acre forest fire last September and we were waiting at the Eldorado Market for information about when we’d have access to our house — but he accurately remembered our paths crossing at the Dulles airport in March as Brad and I transferred to a flight to Paris for my 6 week visit there.  Tremendous memory for tiny details.. 

Best wishes to NCWIT with their mission to “ensure that women are fully represented in the influential world of information technology and computing.”