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 Starhawk is a committed global justice activist
and organizer, and the author or coauthor of eleven books. Her works include
The Spiral Dance, long considered the essential
text for the Neo-Pagan movement, and the now-classic ecotopian novel,
The Fifth Sacred Thing. A personal favorite
is award-winning Webs of Power: Notes from the Global
Uprising. Starhawk's newest book is a picture book for children, The Last Wild Witch.
.
Starhawk's books have been translated into
many languages, while her essays are reprinted across the world, and have
been included in numerous anthologies. Her writing is influential and
has been quoted by many hundreds of other authors, from magazines to trade
and academic press. Her books are often used in college curriculums.
Starhawk is a gifted teacher and speaker with an international audience.
She is a veteran of progressive movements, from anti-war to anti-nukes,
and is deeply committed to bringing the techniques and creative power
of spirituality to political activism. Her work in progressive movements
spans over 30 years. She has organized, trained protesters, and been on
the front lines of antinuclear actions at Diablo Canyon, Livermore Weapons
Lab, Vandenberg Air Force Base, and the Nevada Test Site, among others.
She traveled to Nicaragua with Witness for Peace in 1984 and made two
trips to El Salvador to give ongoing support for sustainability programs.
She continues to be a witness for peace on the front lines of the Palestine/Israel
war, working with Palestinian and Israeli peace activists. A main focus
for the last several years has been the global justice movement; Starhawk
has taken part in many of the major actions, including those in Seattle,
Washington DC, Quebec City, Genoa, New York City, Cancun, Mexico, and
Miami. She co-founded RANT: Root Activists' Network of Trainers, and teaches
non-violent direct action trainings for groups throughout the US, Canada,
Mexico, Europe, Palestine, and South America. She is active in the revived
American peace movement, and works with Code Pink. Starhawk also works
on countless environmental and land use issues, and is a founder and active
member of the Cazadero Hills Land Use Council in western Sonoma County.
Starhawk is perhaps best known as an articulate voice in
the revival of earth-based spirituality and Goddess religion. Besides
her inspiring, much-read books, she is a cofounder of Reclaiming, an activist
branch of modern Pagan religion, and continues to work closely with the
Reclaiming community (www.reclaiming.org).
She consulted on and contributed to a trio of popular films, the
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Women's Spirituality series (directed
by Donna Read). Starhawk and Donna Read formed their own film
company, Belili Productions. Their first release was "Signs
Out of Time" (2004), a documentary on the life of archaeologist
Marija Gimbutas, the scholar whose discoveries sparked the
Goddess movement (www.belili.org).
Starhawk and Donna are at work on their next film: Permaculture
- The Growing Edge, scheduled for release in fall of 2010.
Starhawk travels internationally
teaching magic, the tools of ritual, and the skills of activism.
She lives part-time San Francisco, in a collective house with
her partner and friends, and part-time in a little hut in
the woods in Cazadero, California, where she practices permaculture
in her extensive gardens, and writes. Her website is www.starhawk.org.
In Earth Activist Training, which she and Penny Livingston-Stark
developed and co-teach, many strands of her life work are
braided together. This is the best opportunity for those who
wish to do extended work with Starhawk.
Starhawk will teach at all the EAT courses.
Bibliography: Starhawk's Books and Novels:
- The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion
of the Great Goddess. San Francisco. HarperSanFrancisco. 1979,
1989, and 1999 editions. German, Danish, Portuguese, Japanese, and
Spanish editions.
- Dreaming the Dark: Magic, Sex, and Politics.
Boston. Beacon. 1982, 1988, 1997 editions. French edition, 2003.
- Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority,
and Mystery. San Francisco. HarperSanFrancisco. 1988.
- The Fifth Sacred Thing. New York. Bantam.
1993. German, Italian, Portuguese, and Polish editions.
- Walking to Mercury. New York. Bantam.
1997.
- The Pagan Book of Living and Dying, cowritten
with M. Macha NightMare and the Reclaiming Collective. San Francisco.
HarperSanFrancisco. 1997.
- Circle Round: Raising Children in the Goddess
Tradition, cowritten with Anne Hill and Diane Baker. Illustrated
by Sara Ceres Boore. New York. Bantam. 1998.
- The Twelve Wild Swans: A Journey to the Realm
of Magic, Healing, and Action, cowritten with Hilary Valentine.
San Francisco. HarperSanFrancisco. 2000. Dutch edition, forthcoming
in German and Spanish.
- Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising.
Victoria, Canada. New Society Publishers. 2002.
- Earth Path: Grounding Your Spirit in the Rhythms
of Nature. HarperSanFrancisco. 2004.
- The Last Wild Witch. Mother Tongue Ink. 2009.
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Erik Ohlsen is an ecological/permaculture
designer, practitioner, and teacher. He's also a community
organizer, facilitator, and activist. He's devoted the past
seven years to building sustainability movements locally and
internationally.
Erik is a co-founder of Planting Earth Activation, the RITES
Project (Return Intentions Toward Ecological Sustainability),
Green Bloc Sonoma County, and Adopt-an-Activist. He also runs
his own business, Permaculture Earth Activation, to offer
services in ecological design & landscaping, permaculture
trainings, and consultation for neighborhood/community emergency
preparedness (such as peak oil and global climate change).
Erik's work and community involvement includes initiating
hundreds of community gardens, organizing local and global
campaigns, and conducting trainings within the permaculture
and global justice movements. He's consulted for many non-profit
organizations and individuals on projects ranging from market
gardens/farms, to urban sustainability, to group decision-making
processes.
Erik has strong skills in ecological design and project implementation,
consensus process, group facilitation, campaign organizing,
and community-building strategies. He is solution-oriented
in his actions and campaigns. He focuses on projects that
utilize methods of both mutual health and vitality that have
a direct interface between the community and environment.
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Erik has worked throughout the nation and
the world to implement permaculture systems and global justice
campaigns. He has worked in tropical, temperate, and dry land
ecologies and with Latin American, European and North American
campaigns.
Erik teaches with the following organizations: Earth Activist
Training, the Regenerative Design Institute, the Solar Living
Institute and the RITES Project.
Erik's intention is to integrate social and ecological systems
to bring about sustainability and justice. He devotes himself
to being an educator and builder of workable alternatives,
with the ultimate goal of empowering communities to make vital
changes towards Earth-based regenerative systems.
Erik's website is at www.permacultureartisans.com
Erik was on the cover of a newsweekly in late June 2010, in
an article that introduced permaculture and discussed the
work of both Erik and Penny. Read at the Bohemian.
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Erik, Penny, and Starhawk share very silly moment with students |
Penny Livingston-Stark is internationally recognized as a
prominent permaculture teacher, designer, and speaker. She
launched and directs a business and two not-for-profit organizations:
- Sustainable Living Designs (SLD), a professional permaculture design/build
firm that integrates landscapes and structures with water, soil, plants,
and energy efficiency.
- The
Permaculture Institute of Northern California (PINC), an educational
and research organization promoting sustainable technologies and methodologies.
- Regenerative Design Institute (RDI), an education program focusing
on hands-on skills development. RDI is currently in collaboration
with the Institute of Noetic Sciences and Commonweal (a cancer healing
and retreat center), both in Marin County, California.
Penny is one of America's leading teachers of permaculture. She has taught
all around the country, from Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, to the
Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. She co-created and taught the Ecological
Design Program at the San Francisco Institute of Architecture. Recently
she began an urban permaculture program in Oakland, California. She has
taught internationally in Portugal, Mexico, France, England, Indonesia,
and Costa Rica. She did her own training many years ago with Bill Mollison,
the "father of permaculture," and has gone on to instruct many
of the practitioners now working in the field.
In addition to her teaching, Penny has a wealth of practical experience.
She has worked professionally in the land management and development field
for 25 years and has extensive experience in all phases of ecologically
sound landscape design and construction, as well as the use of natural
non-toxic building materials. She specializes
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in site planning and design of resource-rich landscapes
that integrate rainwater collection, edible landscaping,
pond and water systems, habitat development, and watershed
restoration. Her clients include co-housing communities,
schools, homes and businesses, retreat centers, and diverse
yield perennial farms. Early in her career, she was a market
farmer, textile artist, and tool and die machinist.
A popular speaker (from KPFA radio to Bioneers Conference),
her work has been featured in the media, including Natural
Home, the Pacific Sun,
Healthy Living, San
Jose Mercury News, and SF Chronicle
Home & Garden. Book authors have also been keen to include
Penny's work: The Beauty of Straw Bale
Homes (Bill & Athena Steen); Gaia's
Garden (Toby Hemenway), The Art
of Natural Building (Michael Smith, Joe Kennedy &
Catherine Wanek), The Hand Sculpted House
(Ianto Evan, Linda Smiley & Michael Smith),
The Natural House Book (David Pearson), and Building
with Vision: Optimizing & Finding Alternatives to Wood
(Dan Imhoff).
Penny is currently on the boards of the Institute for Solar
Living (Hopland, California) and the Green Building Council
(Redwood Empire chapter). She is a member of the U.S. Green
Building Council and serves on the advisory board of the
Organic Waste Recycling Project of Northern California.
In addition, she serves on the Institute of Noetic Sciences'
Site Development Committee. She also CO-founded the West
Marin Grower's Group, West Marin Farmer's Market, and the
Community Land Trust Association of Marin.
Her web site is: www.regenerativedesign.org.
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Charles is a wandering spirit who has come
to this work by daring to follow his heart and listen to the
yearning of his soul. With faith and curiosity he has spent
the past 12 years roaming North America, with a brief foray
to the Middle East (Palestine/Israel/Jordan). Charles is most
at home and alive in the wilderness, though his dedication to
creating a better world often draws him out to march in the
streets or work in community. Most biographies focus on what
the person has done as an indicator of who they are. In that
realm, Charles has a long list of "dones." An eclectic
list such as working with livestock, building homes, blockading
tanks, designing greywater systems, 30-day solo canoe trip,
converting a bus to run on veggie oil, starting fire by hand,
building a root cellar, constructing labyrinths, planting gardens
and such. He has taught at Sterling College, various Witch Camps
and Earth Activist Trainings, and numerous workshops around
the states. As a wilderness traveler he has spent countless
weeks out alone and even more leading groups. He has led primitive
wilderness journeys for troubled youth and adults seeking their
place in the world. His love of Earth has led him to introduce
hundreds of children and adults to the beauty of the natural
world.
Charles is a talented facilitator and conflict mediator. He
has worked with many groups: from mass mobilization meetings
with 100+ people to a handful of people working for progressive
organizations; from Quaker-style Unity to anarchist-style consensus; |
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from inexperienced teens to highly trained
professionals. Through a rough and rugged process he has gained
an eye for what helps build community and support.
As an activist he has spent time in numerous cities speaking
out for justice and confronting oppression. He is a war tax
resister and has worked on campaigns against war, corporate
globalization, bio-tech, imperialism, and environmental destruction.
Much of his street work has been with the Pagan Cluster and
the Alliance of Community Trainers.
His journeys have taught him many lessons: how to survive on
what is at hand, how to relate to many different kinds of animals
(including humans), how to solve problems without first worrying
whether a solution can be found. His life is his spiritual practice.
Sustainability and Earth stewardship are his passions.
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Charles, Erik, and Starhawk |
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