Transitions- Gratitude for 2021
Movie Night at Anita Purves Nature Center. Wall-E in Moonlight.
As one man-made calendar outdates,
the other is replaced.
The previous events
r still playing its presence in the next
And present movements
already had its seeds in past events.
This is a space where
two moments, two planes, two episodes
Interact Transit Transform
Creating a chance for change
2021 saw the best of both-
The brunt of pandemic, shadows of which seem to extend into this following year.
And the rise in awareness, in connectedness and urgency for harmony as a collective fate.
As Thich Nhat Hanh says- ‘No mud, no Lotus’. The mud is the reason for Lotus to flower. There has been enough space this year and much negative from past to accelerate our speed for humanity to blossom.
As an Art facilitator, It is nice to see how Arts are creating a revolution, making a difference and creating awareness while also maintaining its flavorful creativity, nourishing our senses.
It would be nice to share some of my inspiring Art-moments from the exiting year as 2022 makes its way into present. Most of these events would be continued into 2022 and I feel pleased to write about them.
I would like to start from events we hosted. A huge thanks to all the Volunteers, Supporters and Guests who, inspite of the stress and challenges, made 2021 a productive year generating more hopes for all.
Our first important event was ‘National Crafts Month 2021’
We r Thankful to Spurlock museum and Museum of The Grand Prairie for being our cohost on this week long virtual celebration.
Ms Kim Sheahan had beautifully compiled various resources and activities based on each day’s themes. As a Storyteller, she did a fantastic job with her interactive stories, opening up youths for creative activities that followed!
Kim Shehan’s stories can be enjoyed at Facebook live on their page
https://www.facebook.com/SpurlockMuseum
Also it was wonderful to hear Ms Katie Snyder, from Museum of Grand Prairie, talk about the local history as she gave us a virtual tour of various Museum collections. Interesting to know a little more about our local orientations.
Over all it was a great learning experience and fun too!
We are working on ‘Art based on Museum’, a project for March 2022.
Our Earth-day event was a wonderful culmination of Arts, Culture and Eco -Talks. Thanks to Ms Beth Watkins from Spurlock museum for cohosting this virtual event. Ms Watkins brought to the virtual scene, the Museum’s prolific collection based on Series themes. The presentations, in form of slide shows, were a treat for one’s with artistic taste and historic inclinations.
Link to the meets https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZWwqKneOMo&list=PLRx2TLHW7oP4DcBbg1FebnmHXA79TDFdN
Another event in the series of Earthday celebrations was Spirit of India- Ladies’ meet. We are thankful to our guests, Harshal Jagdale who shared her creative reuse of fabrics and Nirmala Gehlot who threw some light on her Native foods and their foraged origins. It was a wonder and learning while watching them.
Check the excerpts here
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRx2TLHW7oP4wdgjpmjcFNTva8VQQVV9l
Spirit of Inia also celebrated ‘Environmental day 2021’ We are grateful to Aditi Tiwari Misra and Ketki Bendre for gathering the kids and helping organize a week long virtual STEAM workshop that culminated in Environmental day zoom event. It was impressive to see how our youths at this age are aware and open to work towards the right change. Excerpts of the meet here-
Collage of Art works display at Boneyards Arts fest 2021- Artists from right to left: Michael Roughton, Mohan Tracy, Michael Sherfield, Kuldeepa VM
Our Cultural exchange event for Boneyards 2021 was an invigorating experience! Thanks to Nazanine Agassi for sponsoring the event and gathering her talented friends who brought various interesting facets of their native cultures, making it a fun yet enriching experience! Thanks to Bao Bui for hosting the event. There was Music, Talks, Food, and Visual arts!
We are looking forward for more such cultural events. Check some excerpts here-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyZ-PBzoJjk&list=PLRx2TLHW7oP5L_Tcty_7KemxTcejx4-BF
‘Inspired by Nature’ exhibition including the following meet ups were part of ‘America Recycles day 2021’ celebration. It was fun and educational series.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRx2TLHW7oP41TyuyZpLNJpOmDE6VyDOQ
Huge Thanks to Asian American Cultural Center for hosting our exhibit, and to all the Guest Artist, and David Subers from Anita Purves Nature center for being willing to help in anyway to promote environmental work. Even though a short time, he agreed for a presentation on pollinators and a game based on right recycling methods. He shared the following link to help create local pollinator pockets.
https://extension.illinois.edu/cfiv/pollinator-pockets
APNC will have many interesting events and Nature based activities as the new year unfolds. Some events are mentioned below in APNC para.
As part of the exhibition prep, Julie Nieset and George Hardbeck hosted a persimmon planting activity and art making from dried leaves, a panel called ‘Nature the best recyclers’ with 4-H youths. Thanks to them both and to Mrs Thiele, our leader for 4-H Club, for encouraging us always. The panel adorned one of our exhibit walls.
The ‘Inspired by Nature’ project will continue well through Spring of 2022.
Some of my surrounding experiences.
End of the year I happen to attend a book discussion on OCTAVIA E. BUTLER'S ‘PARABLE OF THE SOWER’
A virtual event hosted by Champaign Public library as a pre-event discussion for upcoming performance at Krannert Center.
I haven’t read all the book yet but the discussion was very involving and for me, it was inspiring to hear each participant’s take on revisiting our own societal, personal and inner relationships moving into the Future.
The performance is coming up in Feb of 2022.
https://krannertcenter.com/parablepathcu
Another event in fall by CSAMES hosting Afghanistan rapper, Sonita, was deeply moving and inspiring how the next Gen is leading in powerful ways, a much needed change.
Sonita Alizada’s family has been targeted by the Taliban due to her public activism for Afghan women and girls. She is trying to get her family safely overseas and we can help her at following link.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-sonitas-family
This reminds me of ‘Wonderful Women creating Change’ a virtual event hosted by Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. As they mentioned, ‘ Women’s history is the history of entire humanity, of science, and of arts…” I felt uplifted after attending part of the event.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG0H8_f3wa8
On Arts and Cultural front, it’s astounding to see how the global issues are impacting the Art creation in immersive ways. The exhibitions I encountered this year were not just high quality Art, some of them were centered around social activism, cultural awareness, human histories, Ecological issues, all in interesting ways, bringing new approaches towards social norms as well as Art expressions!
‘Americans in Spain’ at Milwaukee Art Museum,
https://mam.org/exhibitions/details/americans-in-spain.php
Sewn in Memory: AIDS Quilt Panels from Central Illinois at Spurlock Museum
https://www.spurlock.illinois.edu/exhibits/profiles/sewn-in-memory.html
Abraham’s Farewell to Ismael at Perez Museum of Art
https://www.pamm.org/collections/abrahams-farewell-ishmael
Krannert Center for Performing Arts annually celebrates Ellnora guitar fest! This year I was fortunate to attend it after several years of gap. Many uplifting performances! The one caught my attention the most was Joe Reuen’s performance with his hanmade guitars from everyday objects. Not only the designs of instruments were amazingly creative but also their varying Sounds were engaging! Joe also learns Eastern classical music making it no surprise to feel the depth in his art an his music. https://college.berklee.edu/bt/news/joe-rauen
On environmental front much work is impressively progressing all over the world!
In March, I happen to attend a virtual Turtle conservancy meet hosted by Florida Wildlife Conservation. https://flmtph.myfwc.com/attend-online/
The talk of saving turtle habitats touched various topics related to environmental issues. One of them, the night light pollution coincided with our ‘night lights off’ promotion based on Champaign county’s documents on this topic. The page 6 on link takes us to useful info on light pollution
https://www.ccfpd.org/Portals/0/adam/Content/m0Yrrp4qo0Co3Fvdr8-fOQ/Text/DarkSkyResourceGuide2.pdf
Who doesn’t love pristine nights! You see I have always been attracted to the Darkness. ‘Darkness’ seems to be aesthetically and spiritually inclined, whereas the ‘Dark-side’ carries negative connotations.
No surprise I love All Night landscape paintings, not just ‘the Starry night’ and I enjoy my own collection of night captures, though they r urban. Oh so much to write about night landscape… may be a different post later!
Talking of night, reminds me of movie night hosted by Urbana Park District at Anita Purves Nature center, a place me and my kid loves to visit whenever possible! And the movie was none other then my favorite— Wall-E!!! I watched it several times yet it was wonderful experience to watch it in open air with people dispersed at secured lengths and the moon rising behind movie, it was like experiencing a larger drama around the movie screen!
The UPD has some interesting events planned for coming year! One of them is ‘Butterflies Across the World’ exhibit which is open at the center for viewing. They will have an adjoining virtual event free for public but registration is required. Check their event at
https://www.facebook.com/events/496097961838832?ref=newsfeed
To register for event-
https://apm.activecommunities.com/urbanaparks/Activity_Search/10579
As we talk of Nature, comes to mind Ms Elizabeth Evans, an ESL teacher from Franklin Middle school who initiated the idea of Gardening on unused piece of land in their premises. Her work caught momentum forming into a Garden club. It is inspiring how Ms Evans worked through the challenges to get the ball rolling and made possible some meaningful addition to the education system.
Talking of eco, reminds me of WRI’s talk on Carbon emissions promoting E- vehicles in public sectors. Personally, it is uplifting for me to attend any meets hosted by WRI. It’s putting efforts in action based programs simultaneously promoting Global Eco- talks, data softwares, creating provoking newsletters and much more. Their work in developing countries makes it an impactful organization curbing Climate change
So many events are catering to awareness of a global village, simultaneously fostering local lands.
Membranes that divided science, arts, ecology, economy, compartmentalized gender groups, discriminated social classes, are all dissolving through time, creating newness.
Though the situation is not the best, we r better equipped after couple of years of survival challenges, more resilient for future threats. So let’s look forward to a creative world thriving in a harmonious wave.