GRITtv

Terry Tempest Williams on Memory, Mormonism and Voice

webmaster@grittv.org (Laura Flanders) — Fri, 25 May 2012 15:32:33 +0000

Terry Tempest Williams is an essayist, environmentalist, author, advocate, connection maker. She’s fascinated by what divides and what connects us—to one another and to the earth. Refuge, which Williams called an unnatural history of family and place, has become a literary classic alongside Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. Her latest, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice, starts with an investigation of her mother’s mysterious journals and spirals into a meditation on silence, secrets and voice. What does all of this have to do with politics, rebellion and social change? Everything. Market capitalism commodifies labor and land, splitting our work from the rest of our lives, and our land from our communities. Terry Tempest Williams refuses to choose between the personal and the political, the practical and the poetic. On behalf of us all she demands the right to be whole—and never more powerfully than in her new book. Here’s a rough transcript of our conversation:

LF: Does that sound about right: you as connection maker?

TTW: It’s how I see the world. We are so used to fragmenting, compartmentalizing, putting things in silos and that’s not how the world is. I think it is the pattern that connects that gives us the power to see the world whole.

When Women Were Birds starts with the mystery of your mother’s journals. She left you her journals, but they weren’t what you expected.

No, and it’s taken me twenty-five years to come to terms with that. Literally, the week before my mother died, I was rubbing her back in bed and she said, “Terry I’m leaving you my journals but you have to promise you won’t look at them until I’m gone.” I gave her my word. She passed. A month later, I found myself in the family house. There they were, just where she said they’d be, all beautifully bound, cloth journals. I thought, finally now, I’ll know what my mother was thinking. I opened the first one. Empty. I opened the second one empty. The third, the fourth, the fifth, sixth—all of my mother’s journals were blank.

What did you make of that, to begin?

I think I was so stunned. I kept going through them, trying to figure out what she was trying to say to me. It was so deliberate. I think at the time I was so grief stricken by her death that I couldn’t afford to think about it. I just gathered up her journals, took them home, and for years and years I wrote in them, unceremoniously.

All these years on, you find yourself the same age your mother was when she died, and you decide to revisit this story, but instead of weaving one narrative you give us a book of “54 Variations on Voice.” Why that structure?

When I think about voice I think about music, and the structure of music is variations, different parts. I don’t think, with a woman and her voice—I know for me and my own voice—it’s not a continual narrative. That would not be a true thing. It’s not as if you find your voice and move on. It’s almost like a kaleidoscope that you keep turning and your voice takes on a different resonance. There have been many times in my life that I’ve given my voice away or lost it or betrayed it. And there have been other times that I’ve stood at the center of my voice, whether that’s been through grief, or anger or joy. So it seemed to me that that was an honest rendering, both of my mother’s journals (fifty-four different ages, fifty-four years) and the different configurations that our voice takes through time.

If you had a chance to stand at the center of your voice and raise one alarm, what’s the one message you’re bringing to us today.

To listen. That’s ironic. It’s a paradox, about a book on voice. But I think that’s the most important think we can do right now is to listen—to one another, to other people, to other culture and to listen to the land.

A lot of people say, it’s too much, I have to turn it all off. I can’t listen; I can’t take one more TV show, one more podcast, one more e-mail. Do you sympathize?

I do. I think in many ways we’re washed—awash—with stimulus, especially from the media, but that’s not the only think to listen to. There’s birdsong, there’s silence, there’s water, there’s music. I think so often when we’re listening, we’re not really listening we’re waiting for our chance to speak. And therefore I don’t know how things change, if we’re not we’re not really in that true place of a reciprocal relationship whether its to each other or what we’re reading, or our relations.

What did you think of Occupy Wall Street which at its very heart was about spending time with one another?

I thought it was beautiful. I loved the organic nature. I love the messiness of it. To me that is real. That is an ecological model. And yet the critics were saying, “Who’s in charge?” We don’t know how to deal with circles, spirals. We only know hierarchies and what I love about Occupy Wall Street is that it’s asking us to use a different kind of model.

I’ve seen you asked, what might a different sort of power look like. Have you ever tasted, felt, had a glimpse of that different sort of power?

I see it among women. I saw it in Rwanda. In the village, they listen, they understand struggle, they’re not privileged. I see it whenever I’m in a wild place. That’s a very different kind of power that’s predicated on humility and respect…

You come from a traditional culture that has certain edicts—you must have children, you must keep a journal. You both, you and your mother, broke those edicts, and yet you clearly value, continuity, connection, tradition. How do we take the bits we like of our traditions and and at the same time allow a celebration of impermanence into our worldview?

I don’t know. I’m struggling with that. I mean I know the things I have been given within my Mormon culture—and I’m certainly not orthodox, and I don’t practice the religion, but I do practice some of the ideals I was raised with: taking care of one another, caring about community. I’m a great believer in prayer. Not praying to a white-haired, white-bearded, white male god, but being in prayer, which, again, is that act of listening. So those are tenets I respect and adhere to. They’re certainly not unique to Mormonism, but they inform my spirituality…

A lot of people right now, looking at the presidential candidacy of Mitt Romney, are very afraid of what they hear about Mormonism: the Temple, the secrets, the ideas about dominion. What about those parts of Mormonism?

I think there is reason to fear the Mormon Church. I would say the Mormon Church is a corporation. They have huge holdings and tremendous power and regardless of what candidate Mitt Romney says, I believe that [if Romney is elected president] the Mormon Church will have a say in governance. It will be subtle, it will be invisible, but it will be there.

What would it look like?

I think we just have to look at [Proposition 8] the proposition in California against gay marriage. That would be an example….

Noam Chomsky: Suicidal Policies vs OWS and Life!

webmaster@grittv.org (Laura Flanders) — Wed, 02 May 2012 11:43:19 +0000

Noam Chomsky has not just been watching the Occupy movement. A veteran of the civil rights, anti-war, and anti-intervention movements of the 1960s through the 1980s, he’s given lectures at Occupy Boston and talked with occupiers across the US. A new publication from the Occupied Media Pamphlet Series brings together several of those lectures, a speech on “occupying foreign policy” and a brief tribute to his friend and co-agitator Howard Zinn. From his speeches, and in this conversation, it’s clear that the emeritus MIT professor and author is as impressed by the spontaneous, cooperative communities some Occupy encampments created, as he is by the movement’s political impact. We are a nation whose leaders are pursuing policies that amount to “suicide” Chomsky says. But there are glimmers of possibility – in worker co-operatives, and other spaces where people get a taste of a different way of living. We talked in his office, for Free Speech TV on April 24. Read the full transcript at CounterPunch.

Watch Coverage of May Day Events from Media for the 99 Percent

webmaster@grittv.org (Laura Flanders) — Tue, 01 May 2012 12:59:44 +0000

Tuesday, May 1, is International and Immigrant Workers' Day. This May Day has a special significance, as it brings with it protests around the country, fueled by the rise in anti-immigrant legislation and enforcement, a lopsided economic recovery, and a re-emergent Occupy movement poised to challenge corporate power. FSTV is among 25 independent media outlets belonging to The Media Consortium that are collaborating to provide coordinated, national coverage of May Day events around the country.

1-3pm Live Coverage

6-7pm LIVE Coverage

8-9pm LIVE Coverage

Can ‘Caring Across Generations’ Change the World?

webmaster@grittv.org (Laura Flanders) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 12:00:38 +0000

A new campaign calling itself Caring Across Generations has in mind nothing less than a 180-degree turn in the way that Americans think about themselves, one another, the economy and workers. This group aims to create 2 million quality jobs in the process and put us all on track for a happy, healthy old age too. But first we need to talk, out loud, about care. A meeting in New York in February kicked off with stories. “Share a personal care story,” coaxed Ai-jen Poo, co-director of Caring Across Generations (CAG) and director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. From around the table, the stories came. The story of the grandpa whose homecare worker came to his hospital to brush his hair after he suffered a stroke. The nanny who took the kids to school so Mom could practice law. The lover with disabilities who needs full-time care: “It takes a village, but right now I’m the village,” says the partner, Alejandra, who also uses a wheelchair. Domestic worker Barbara, born overseas, was nervous: “I’ve been a caregiver all my life, and now I’m turning 65. Who’s going to be there to take care of me?” Funny how storytelling works. Within minutes I’m thinking of the live-in assistants who helped my father, Michael Flanders, perform on Broadway. A star, but also a polio survivor, Dad rolled onto the stage in his wheelchair every evening thanks in part to the help of an assistant in the morning. My grandmother Hope was said to be “independent” because she lived past 100 in her own apartment teaching writing to the end, but her students’ classes and her sense of self got a whole lot of help from Geen Crooks, her live-in aide. Ask anyone. We all have our “care stories.” What we don’t tend to have is a plan for what we’ll do when someone we love needs care, or when we ourselves turn out not to be invincible. We don’t have a plan, and neither does our government, and yet a crisis looms. The immigrant population grows as the baby boomers age. As of 2010, every eight seconds another American turned 65. The “age wave” is upon us—except it’s not a wave; it’s a tsunami. For more, read on at TheNation.com.

Rev. Jesse Jackson on George Zimmerman’s Arrest

webmaster@grittv.org (Laura Flanders) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 04:17:41 +0000

George Zimmerman was behind bars Wednesday night, 45 days and countless rallies after he went free after shooting unarmed high school junior Trayvon Martin in a Sanford, Florida gated community. Zimmerman now faces the possibility of life in prison, but Rev. Jesse Jackson, who has led some of those rallies, says that the mobilizing shouldn't end. As luck would have it, Rev. Jesse Jackson and I were both at Ohio University as the news from Florida came in. Here's what he had to say.

Jeffrey Sachs: Population Controller?

webmaster@grittv.org (Laura Flanders) — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 10:50:26 +0000

In a March 1 op-ed in the Washington Post Columbia economist Jeffrey Sachs made his pitch to be the next president of the World Bank promising to “lead the bank into a new era of problem-solving.” John Cavanaugh and Robin Broad have laid out a raft of righteous concerns about Sachs’s candidacy. The “solutions” Sachs proposes to poverty, they point out, can be summed up in the not very-new words: “aid” and “trade.” As if that wasn’t bad enough, there’s Sachs’s other favorite problem solver: population control. That’s taking us to a new era, alright: right back to the nineteenth century of Thomas Malthus. Read the full article at The Nation.com.

F Word: It’s not just Koran-Burning, also Drone Killings Riling People Up

webmaster@grittv.org (Laura Flanders) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 14:47:13 +0000

“Three major investigations were under way on Wednesday into the Koran burning at Bagram Air Base by the American military last week, the event that plunged Afghanistan into days of deadly protests…” So begins a New York Times report. To read the New York Times you’d think the only American offense that truly riles people up after ten years of war is book burning. It’s certainly the only offense that’s so far merited “three major investigations.” Read more at Counterpunch.

The Laura Flanders Show…coming soon!

webmaster@grittv.org (Laura Flanders) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:29:46 +0000

After three years in daily production, GRITtv is transforming into the Laura Flanders Show, for distribution online and on public TV later this year. Motion graphics by David Rowley.

How The 1% Exploits America

webmaster@grittv.org (Laura Flanders) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 04:01:40 +0000

Even in an Occupy world, most Americans don’t know exactly how the 1% does what it does. The money media haven’t explained it, and the 1% likes things that way. That’s how Robert Greenwald explained why he and the Brave New Foundation created a new video series. Each short video—one minute apiece—lays out the truth about a different one-percenter. They let their audience choose the subjects. They solicited suggestions on nominees, narrowed them down to 30, and let their audience vote. The new videos represent five of the top vote-getters, with more videos on the way. The first is above.

SUPPORT YOUR MEDIA DAY

webmaster@grittv.org (Laura Flanders) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 21:47:06 +0000

February 15th is Support Your Media Day! Laura Flanders and GRITtv are joining with independent media groups from all over the country in a one-day-only collaborative fundraiser. Join the fun by donating here. It's a friendly race to the finish with prizes along the way. Your contribution of $10 or $25 could give GRITtv the extra we need to win a $1,000 prize for "most donors" or "most donated in an hour" and there's a surprise prize too! Lots of other great independent media groups are taking part as well. I'll be interviewing them in this looping stream throughout the day. Share this event on Facebook and Twitter and help build the buzz. You can tweet about this day using #supportyrmedia. Spread the word by forwarding this link to your family and friends along with a personal note as to why you believe in our work, and why they should give at Support Your Media Day. Remember, we have one day. Show the power of all-for-one, one-for-all media - and help bring the Laura Flanders Show one step closer to being on the air on public television by taking part in Support Your Media Day. Thank you.