Showing posts with label youth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label youth. Show all posts

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Our Socially Constructed Jungle - Poem by Athena Lamberis

Socially Constructed Jungle
by Athena Lamberis

Over the seas
 Far away
In the neck 
Of the jungle
Trees cast shadows on our eyes

Until we wake up
We won't realise
We grew this jungle deep
and under these trees
I weep.

Don't deny that the trees grew
but were planted by you.
Don't forget that the sun is above.

We all belong
All belong to the roots.
We are the children of the bark.

Awaken to truths
before 
we create clouds
to covers the skies
Under these trees

Under these trees
I weep
Under these trees
We weep.

****





Let's consider and understand
 this socially constructed jungle
we live in will suffocate us all
if we don't recognise the harm
it has caused by the seeds
from which it was planted.


Dedicated to lives lost
 families in pain
Our global community mourns
A plea for
Truth and Reconciliation
For hate crimes across
the Globe.

***
"The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil,
but by those who watch them without doing anything"

-Albert Einstein

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Create-Make-Music: The Landfill Harmonic Orchestra




  The Landfill Harmonic is a short film about a community of musicians creating instruments and music out of disposed objects.  This documentation highlights industrious creativity, marginalised communities, and the global language of music.

  Our is world over-consuming, our human population is constantly growing, inequalities continue yet art fosters our hearts to overcome obstacles and create change and influence alternatives.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Justice, Travyon & Historian Robin D.G. Kelley . . .


 
Sense Masala: athena lamberis perspective blog-Justice in USA
source: gregorykroger.com

"The point is that justice was always going to elude Trayvon Martin, not because the system failed, but because it worked. Martin died and Zimmerman walked because our entire political and legal foundations were built on an ideology of settler colonialism—an ideology in which the protection of white property rights was always sacrosanct; predators and threats to those privileges were almost always black, brown, and red; and where the very purpose of police power was to discipline, monitor, and contain populations rendered a threat to white property and privilege. This has been the legal standard for African Americans and other racialized groups in the U.S. long before ALEC or the NRA came into being. We were rendered property in slavery, and a threat to property in freedom. And during the brief moment in the 1860s and ‘70s, when former slaves participated in democracy, held political offices, and insisted on the rights of citizenship, it was a well-armed (white) citizenry that overthrew democratically-elected governments in the South, assassinated black political leaders, stripped African-Americans of virtually all citizenship rights (the franchise, the right of habeas corpus, right of free speech and assembly, etc.), and turned an entire people into predators."-Robin D.G. Kelley

Friday, June 21, 2013

Creativity with Food & Videos. Education for Change.


This is creativity  . . . in the kitchen.  What happens when a Music selector makes mashed visual alchemy with a visual artist?
This brilliance.  Enjoy this week's Rhymes and Rhythm Wrap up with two great videos:

Artist Driven | What's Cookin? from LRG on Vimeo.

And now with a strong message on exposing the ills of our modern food systems.  Showcasing the need to take responsibility for our food security, to choose wisely in the world of greed in the seed industry.  What happens when we only are given access to food products that don't nourish us on a cellular level but rather stuff a slow 'death down our throat'?  Dr. Vandana Shiva said it best, "It's more dangerous than bombs."  Let's eat foods that grew naturally from nutrient-rich soil.  Let's support permaculture, bio-dynamic farming practices, small-scale local organic farms--but most of all, turn your community into an edible landscape.  Peace to grass lawns, yes to green beans and wheat grass.

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

World Environment Day is Every Day!



Acknowledge and Respect our planet by choosing to eat foods produced by nature.

Learn how to make delicious nourishing food that sustains our soil, our Earth and in return develops a stronger and smarter planet. 

For more inspiration, watch films like Hungry For Change, Food Inc, Food Matters, and the GMO debate: The World according to Monsanto

Let's be a part of the change that teaches children about proper healthy simple nutrition that is not funded by processed white flour food product companies, corn fructose flavours and milk chocolate sugar fake energy bars.

The better we eat, the better we learn, the easier to protect and develop our planet into a healthy home for every living organism.

Happy World Environment Day!

Monday, May 27, 2013

Urban Agriculture and Balanced Nutrition for the City of Cape Town: Food Security Summit



 Tomato flavoured corn chips are more accessible to children than GM-free tomatoes in South Africa.

  Meanwhile, Hulett's Sugar was a main sponsor/contributor for The National School Nutrition Programme Recipe Book.

 Is Education being sold out to food companies controlled by profit instead of the well-being of their consumers?

Was combatting dietary diabetes on the Dept. of Education's agenda?

The good news is that questions surrounding food security are being asked and brought to the awareness of Cape Town citizens.

One solution is to develop proposals for preferential trading of producers selling
Sponsors of the Department of Education support a recipe book filled with their products. 
healthy and local food.  This could change our feeding
landscape and changing this picture to the left of the young child snacking on "Crack -a- Snack" to him displaying a bite from his apple grown on his street corner.

Only two options for vegetables in the South Africa Dept. of Education Recipe Book.  Oh, and don't forget to add sugar!

Other questions regarding food security concerns and solutions in Cape Town:

Wetlands to possibly be used as organic farming in? 
 Agricultural focus schools?
Educational programmes to reduce dietary diabetes and practical skills for healthy food production?
Utilising urban space for food gardens?

The Food Security Summit held in Khayelitsha on May 24 and 25, 2013 addressed pressing issues around our shared necessity: Food justice, urban agriculture, and health education were some of the topics discussed.  Below is the document that was shared on May 26th, 2013.




Site E in Khayelitsha.  Potential for urban food production.
Declaration of the Food Security Summit held in Khayelitsha on 24 and 25 May 2013



We, the delegates gathered here at the Khayelitsha Campus of the False Bay College, have engaged over the last two days about the challenge of food security facing our communities. 
With the benefit of listening to a keynote address by the Minister of National Planning, an address by the acting Mayor of Cape Town and various inputs from the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), the Provincial Department of Agriculture, the City of Cape Town, the Philippi Horticultural Area Food and Farming Campaign and the Mitchells Plain Education Forum (MPEF);
And having participated in vigorous discussions in commissions that covered the following critical areas of urban food security:
1) Enabling urban food production and access to markets for small-scale farmers;
2) Addressing the health and well-being of urban residents through food-based interventions (e.g. household and community gardens, nutrition education, making healthy foods more accessible in the market);
3) Social safety nets to ensure food security: The role of civil society and government in assisting vulnerable groups;
4) Urban planning and governance as tools to address food insecurity; and
5) Food justice and the Right to Food;

Food security solutions: Urban agricultural, community gardens and home food production
And having had the privilege of conducting site visits to the Siyazama Community Gardens, the Rocklands Primary School and the Philippi Agricultural Area;
And further noting:
That food security is defined by the FAO as:
“[T]he condition when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active, healthy life.”
Although much of the focus has historically been on ensuring the availability of food at the national scale, household-scale food security is comprised of availability of food, access to food, use of food, and the stability of availability, access and use. Each of these dimensions needs to be addressed in order to ensure food security for urban residents.
There has been a remarkable turnaround since about 2005 in child underweight and stunting trends (although the latter, especially, is still too high) but at the same time there has been a steady upward trend in both mean Body Mass Index figures (with the mean now close to technical obesity) for adults (both male and female).
Food insecurity is not simply determined by household poverty and food choices, but also by market structure, food pricing, access to safe storage and cooking technologies, access to social protection, amongst others.

We therefore resolve :
To ensure the utilisation of existing land attached to people’s houses for food gardens, beginning immediately with a pilot project in at least one Mitchells Plain and one Khayelitsha street;
• To engage National, Provincial and Local government authorities, parastatals as well as private land owners including churches and mosques to release excess land at schools, churches, correctional and health services facilities;
• To lobby the City of Cape Town to ensure that urban agriculture is included as one of the land uses in the spatial development framework;
• To engage with the owners and prospective owners of the “DENEL” land at Swartklip to ensure that the development plan includes clear set-asides for urban agriculture to benefit the surrounding communities;
• To protect all agricultural-zoned land within the City of Cape Town and on the urban edge from opportunistic attempts to rezone and/or sell such land;
• To initiate a focused land audit to identify appropriate land for urban agriculture within the South East Metro region. This audit should be completed within six months;
• To investigate the use of the wetlands within the PHA for organic farming;
• To campaign for the establishment of an agricultural support centre/hub to support all aspirant agriculturists and farmers in the South East Metro;
• To support subsistence smallholders as well as commercial farming where viable within the South East Metro;
• To support small-scale producers with access to abattoirs, warehouses and packaging facilities to ensure that these producers obtain maximum value from the various stages of the production and distribution chain;
• To support the objections to all attempts to rezone the Philippi Horticultural Area, including the consideration of legal steps to secure this land for urban agriculture. In particular, the Summit agreed to organise a special presentation to the leadership of KDF and MPEF as well as the steering committee concerning the 475 hectares Rapicorp 122 land;
• To initiate awareness programmes on balanced meals in the community;
• To have education programmes on the dietary causes of diabetes;
• To initiate comprehensive training on the establishment and maintenance of household and community gardens, especially for people who are not able to buy and store fresh vegetables;
• To promote early childhood and school-centred solutions to provide balanced meals for poorly nourished children. Such solutions should include food gardens at schools and kitchens with trained community dieticians/nutritionists. This could include community development workers and those employed by the Community Works Programme.
• That the NPC be requested to assist to ensure alignment and co-ordination of government programmes regarding social safety nets;
• That a social compact including KDF and MPEF and other role players should be established to drive social 
security provisioning in these areas; 
• That the IDP of the City should be used as a tool to address the food security needs of the community on a sustainable basis. Such IDPs should include a clear programme of land release to support a fair social safety net and be informed by the need for a local food security strategy;
• To reaffirm that Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain have been declared as Presidential urban renewal nodes and that this status should be maintained to ensure ongoing support from all spheres of government;
• That co-operatives should be the main vehicle through which community food production takes place and that there should be an urgent investigation as to the status of the Khayelitsha Poverty Reduction Programme;
• That recipients of Child Support Grants should be monitored as part of the social compact to ensure that they complete their schooling;
• That there should be community consultation about urban space utilisation for food gardens;
• That there should be national regulation for food retailing;
• That there should be monitoring by the City of both food pricing as well as quality;
• That, as part of the process of finalising the National Food and Nutrition Security Policy, an opportunity should be created to discuss the use of pesticides, GMOs and other farming production inputs;
• To develop proposals about preferential trading for those producers selling healthy and locally produced food and to lobby for implementation of these proposals by the City;
• That central to the attainment of the right to food is to ensure adequate access to land, water and appropriate seed;
• To embark on a programme to strengthen all community-based organisations involved in urban agriculture by securing support for organisational development, funding and capacity building; 

Many South Africa dinner tables do not serve fresh fruit or fresh vegetables.  It mainly consists of starchy produce, grain,  sugar and sometimes meat.
• To call for the urgent finalisation of the National Food and Nutrition Security Policy and ensure an opportunity for dialogue and participation as part of this process;
• To fully support Section 27 of the South African Constitution and call on Parliament to urgently address the required legislation and regulatory framework to give effect to these provisions;
• To call on DAFF and the broader social cluster within Government to convene a broader Western Cape summit for all urban communities in the province on urban food security, with the possible support of the NPC. To further call on DAFF and the social cluster to convene similar food security summits in at least one urban centre in each of the nine provinces;
• To support the unregistered ECD centres to obtain registration so that they may benefit from the relevant state subsidy;
• To convene a public forum in the South East Metro to discuss the impact of GMOs on food security;
• To call for an urgent engagement with the relevant Government departments to ensure that the ECD, Primary and High school curricula include the provision of practical skills for the production of food;
• To approach DAFF and DTI to conduct a value chain study to assess the income earned by small-scale producers as well as other participants within the South East Metro;
• To initiate a broad public awareness campaign about food justice and the right to food. 

We further resolve that, in order to ensure the implementation of this declaration, the KDF and MPEF executives should convene the steering committee within two weeks to develop an implementation plan to take the content of this decaration forward.
We further noted the following offers and proposals:
• Bidvest offer to enter an MOU regarding the purchase of product grown by community growers;
• An Urban Agriculture Exhibition (Show) for Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain;
• Youth Animal Show;
• Agricultural focus school to serve Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain;
• A social media intervention, including cellphone technology, for community nutrition and farming networks; and
• Invitations, both formal and informal, for a community delegation to visit various organisations in China, Cuba, Brazil and Italy.
And thus resolve that these proposals be further discussed by the steering committee to be convened by the KDF and MPEF.
In conclusion we declare our deep gratitude to all those responsible for organising and funding the Food Security Summit in Khayelitsha.

Our special thanks are noted to the following Sponsors:
• DAFF
• Old Mutual
• City of Cape Town (URP)
• Brimstone
• Khayelitsha Community Trust
We leave this summit energised and passionate about implementing the contents of this declaration and are confident that we will make progress in the struggle against poverty and food insecurity.

Sunday 26 May 2013 

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Taxi Cab Lunch: 100 in 1 day Cape Town-A social movement for citizen-powered change

100in1day_introduction1 - YouTube:

 On May 25th, 2013-- Citizens across the world and Cape Town, South Africa will take part in a 100 or more urban interventions across their communities, streets, towns and neighbourhoods created and implemented by every one and any one interested. Inclusive Acts of Experience.

 Some interventions may be:
 - establishing a public bench with sound equipment for citizen expression, music and message sharing.    - urban gardening
 - city soup swaps
 - installing park equipment
 - planting trees
 - pasting art

 "Citizens, organisation, students, children, teachers, rebels, and politicians are invited to voice their dreams through actions, pop-up events, performances, social games, artistic interventions, and urban hacks. Together we will create a diverse and uncontrolled global movement."  Orange Innovation-KaosPilots

 I visited the KaosPilot's temporary hub for 100 in 1 day Cape Town on 36 Buitenkant Street, upstairs from the Truth Coffee HQ.

I submitted my intervention and invite all of you to become a part of participating in it.

It's called Taxi Cab Lunch: Travel. Experience. Taste. Share.

  Instead of asking a cab driver to take you where you want to go, you get in and engage: ask... Where do you like to  eat lunch?  

 This springs into a genuine exchange through a shared common bond we all share…food, a language that connects us across age, background, economic and verbal language barriers. The variety of our interactions may lead to meaningful and genuine exchange between different crosssections of our society, our city.  It may also highlight many issues and realities of our city and country beyond it's borders.  The taxi cab lunch is a way to bridge our borders and be an aid toward exchange and respect in a cultural diverse canvas … raising our awareness through the experience of food in the culturally plural African city we all share.  As we open our minds and palettes, we can share our experiences. Accessing a part of the city through the eyes and stomach of your fellow urban citizen: The learning starts there.  

 So hop in a cab, and travel, experience, taste and share.  

 Write, blog,  take pictures, GoPro, video, film, audio record and share it across your favourite medium.  

  Send me a link and share your thoughts.  Be inspired!  I was . . . http://www.taxigourmet.com/about-taxi-gourmet/

 Ready, set, . . .  May 25th, 2013: Taxi Cub Lunch.

Monday, August 6, 2012

South African dance documentary films: "I dance as if I have gun to my head" Pop, Lock 'n Roll


There are incredible stories to be told.  And dancers who use their body to express and encapsulate emotion is a language, a story in itself.  I filmed African Cypher Dance Session on my phone at Fly on the Wall Production House in Cape Town, December 16th, 2011: Dance crews that perform and compete at contests like the Red Bull Beat Battle in South Africa and around the world.  Check the trailer link below.

  I have always been captivated by music and dance.  I couldn't resist the urge to film on my phone in the dark warehouse above Roeland St in Cape Town.  The pantsula artists had woven a whole sequence of comedy, sex, violence and gender roles with innovative movements that put the whole cypher into a hypnosis.
Now, another fresh young filmaker, Ziggy Hofmeyr, is raising funds to share a story with the world about dance, love and quest.  Pop, Lock 'n Roll -- Indiegogo: http://igg.me/p/191398

  If we support filmmakers, creactivists, dancers: Culture . . . then we will be preserving a tapestry of identity.   Go on to IndieGogo and support the projects that speak to you. Or better yet, tell us when your next project is!

Watch the film African Cypher, and support South African films like Pop, Lock 'n Roll to be made.


Monday, July 18, 2011

Messages on the wall: Public Street Art


Meeting Os Gemeos en Atenas in 2005 was a highlight-sharing my writing style with them, checking their sketches and the motivation behind the wall they were commissioned to paint lit my street art passion into a higher gear.  The wall they painted is the whole bus station that lines the...in Gazi.  It’s images of people riding bicycles in nature, using alternative methods of transportation than diesel-guzzling motors.  Like a photo, contrast is important.  
I wonder now if there is a bike lane on that road? :)
Now back in South Africa: 
 Fear is a prison.  Fear is in the woman dressed in pink.  She says, “Excuse me, do you have permission to paint on this wall?”
“Yes, we do” 
“No, you don’t!”
“Yes, we do.”
“I’m going to call the police and . . . . Blah blah blah.”  Fear is a prison, dear sister in pink. And thank you for wearing pink but your threats we do not fear. I may rather ask for what is threatening you?  Has anyone but yourself ever solved what it threatening you?  I assure you, police are just people like you and me, and so what is there to fear? Police, more art, silence, thought, there is nothing to fear.  Don’t make up threats unless do you believe you are not free? Oh so that is why you chose the prison and threaten others to join you? No thank, we do our best to stand free, come join us, you’ll like it.
“We’ve tried to uplift this area . . .” she later explained to a listening ear.
And so what is upliftment? 
To threaten your community members is not uplifting.
Use your anger to change something in yourself.
As we express ourselves freely, we uplift ourselves freely. And if we live in this community, that we can be brave and fearless in, we are uplifted because we are not threatened or threaten ourselves because we live in fear. Just like you dress in pink, you are expressing materially on your body canvas-go head! I’ll lend you my pink sweater next time I see you in the neighborhood. 
And if we live in this world, that free expressive vibration roots into each step-changing our geographical minds. And with each step, another one is taken and shared by another free individual that crosses our path, unthreatened.  And there, two souls, moving freely, uplifted by their own choices, their inspirations and individual motivations, transform, positively, the world we live in. Upliftment! 
So thank you for painting the wall red. The contrast is beautiful-uplifting-and for the next individual to say yes to the canvas, to spread their free public uplifting expression.
 And slowly, we will all move out of the prison.



Saturday, February 26, 2011

Joy and Chaos with MP3 experiment

 Improv Everywhere comes to Cape Town, ZA

Balloon battles, and random high-fives.  Peeps got an afternoon of random spontaneity with a lesson in listening in the Bay of sunglasses, six-packs and pouty lips.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

The cradle of the West in flames: Another one tears from gas

 This image could be from anywhere at the moment.


Activists are coming out and protesting for what we believe we need as a greater whole. These aren't local issues. We may live within borders but global issues cross and today we are more interconnected to stand in solidarity of human rights than ever before. Greece has started to protest austerity measures implemented by the government which is another stand against a system that isn't working for the people.  The cradle of the west is in flames which well may be a foreshadow of efforts to spark change around the world.  Dictators are stepping down, corrupt governments are being pressured, a call for action towards change is in order.  How many more curtains of tear gas and Molotov cocktails will have to be thrown?

I came across this website: Tips to survive a tear-gas protest which lists first-aid to bring with you and a 101 of all things considered when protecting you from tear-gas at a protest.  We can come prepared and aware, but intuitively I think we are capable to act and stand for peaceful change, educate ourselves and eachother to communicate.  While protesters on ground level are burning and blinding eachother, how can another wave of activism support the same issues and combat on another level without tears from gas?

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

It's Recess Time at the MOMA PS1, Long Island City, New York City

PS1 outside: an urban beach and inside out playpen 

William Kentridge's Zuma's shower head in the halls of PS1
 Last summer, My friend Claire took me to PS1, Long Island City. It was a rocking party and took you back to the feeling of being at school recess, but this time with beer tents, art and DJ's.
This pool installation fits the perfect vibe for my PS1 'student' school activities. Swim class without the swimming costume.
In Cape Town, the Design Indaba is happening and I can't wait to see all the innovative design projects that are being shared with the public for the first time! I didn't get the chance to dip into Erlich's pool but I love the interactivity it welcomes to the creative playground.
floor of baseball bats

playground love groove

classic PS1 classmate at recess

Leandro Erlich’s installation “Swimming Pool” at MOMA PS1, New York City.
Source: ps1.org via Athena on Pinterest 



Monday, February 14, 2011

Tunisia ☑ Egypt ☑ Iran ☐

"We are great people and we did something great.  This is the expected end for every dictator." Mahmoud Elhetta, an Egyptian protest organiser.


The bridge leading to peace is a strong image. My thoughts and solidarity are with protestors in Iran during anti-government protests and the struggle towards change.

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