The Tao that can be Spoken
Ken Cohen is one of my heroes. His book, Honoring the Medicine: The Essential Guide to Native American Healing, is one of the best books on healing that I’ve come across. In addition to his knowledge of Native American wisdom and healing, Mr. Cohen is also an initiate of Filipino oracion, has studied with Zulu shaman Ingwe, and is trained as an Igbo priest/shaman. He has studied with numerous Qigong masters and apprenticed to Dr. K.S. Wong from China’s sacred mountains. He is widely renowned for his research, writing and work on Qigong. And, he’s Jewish. We met one morning in early November in Tucson, and I had the pleasure of introducing him to Seven Cups, a beautiful traditional tea shop. An enthusiastic tea lover, Mr. Cohen was in heaven! He recited poetry in Chinese to the beaming owners, who brought out choice cakes of tea to show us. We shared three small pots of tea and a huge variety of mooncakes and mochi treats during our conversation.
Question Do you think that society is evolving spiritually?
Ken Cohen No. I would say we are de-evolving. Our brain size is smaller than the Neanderthals’. I’m a follower of Jerry Mander, and he says in his book, In the Absence of the Sacred, that evolution requires interaction between people and natural environments. Since we are now interacting mostly with objects of our own creation, humankind has an incestuous relationship with itself. We have stopped the process of evolution because, again, we need the stimulation of natural environments in order to evolve.
An Open Letter to Kalle Lasn
(editor of Adbusters Magazine)
Dear Mr. Lasn,
I just finished reading Culture Jam over the past two days, after a friend from my simplicity circle let me borrow it. Since she is “mainstream” and I am “alternative” I was surprised that it was the book she lent to me when I asked her for more information on the voluntary simplicity movement. I started your book with wonder, and even a little awe. I, too, flirted briefly with situationism as a philosophy/sociology major in college (although I have to admit that Guy Debord has stumped me more than any other philosopher I’ve read before or since- thank god for Vaneigm). But I guess your book brought up a lot of questions for me. First and foremost, I want to tell you claiming that culture jamming isn’t “cool” is a crock of shit.
It’s funny, since your description of what is wrong with the world is the lack of connection with nature, and conversation in real time, and that your prescription for this is culture jamming ™. While mentioned as a simple solution, the emphasis is not on talking to each other more, starting salons in living rooms, having indie punk shows in basements, writing groups and musical jam sessions in back yards, hiking clubs free to the public. The emphasis is on fucking things up.
T Q&A with Renee Angle
Renee Angle is the program coordinator at the UA Poetry Center. Angle grew up in Phoenix and attended Northern Arizona University, where she studied music and received a bachelor’s degree in English. She earned an MFA in creative writing at George Mason University. A poet in her own right, Angle’s work has been featured in Practice: New Writing + Art, Poet Lore, New Orleans Review and Diagram. She has taught workshops by (Kore Press, a feminist literary-arts press which publishes and distributes works by women, and she will be one of the teachers for the Grrls Literary Activism Workshop, a summer camp for girls age 13-17 taking place June 9-20. The camp costs $175, and some scholarships are available. The deadline to apply is Wednesday, June 4. For more information or to register, contact Lisa Bowden at 629-9752, ext. 227, or by e-mail.
What exactly is literary activism?
I think that is different for everyone. That’s a term that we ask students to define for themselves in the course of the class, but certainly, some examples of literary activism that we’ve put forth have some kind of written component as well as some kind of visual or performance component, and they’re somehow displayed or performed or being brought forth into public space. There are certainly exceptions to that, I think, and ways that it gets played with, but I think literary activism and what the girls perceive it to be is different from class to class, and also personal to any artist’s notion of their work.
