Revenge of the Curves

"Growing Your Own Food Is Like Printing Your Own Money" Guerilla Gardening in LA

 

Ron Finley, an artist who decided to grow a vegetable garden on the street in front of his South Central Los Angeles home, was once issued a citation and threatened with arrest for his efforts. Instead of backing down, he got the community - and the news media - on his side and suddenly, the citation disappeared. Finley's observations about living in a food desert where people die of curable diseases and drop-in dialysis centers "pop up like Starbucks" absolutely resonate with me. I am on a bus or a train in New Jersey and New York just about everyday and the differences couldn't be more stark. On the New Jersey Transit train or the PATH train, there are people of various economic circumstances who ride it every day. Most get on the train without assistance and either pull out their iPad or Kindle if they aren't reading a newspaper or listening to music with their earphones. When I'm on the bus in New Jersey riding through Newark, I often see relatively young people walking with the assistance of a cane or in a very basic wheelchair. When I say relatively young, I mean people as young as thirty or forty. Finley's observations - and his hilarious, matter-of-fact delivery, resonates with me on so many levels. Highly recommended.

Ron Finley in front of his garden.

Soul Food Junkies 2012: An Update

 

In July 2011, I told you about Byron Hurt's online fundraising campaign to complete his latest project, Soul Food Junkies. The filmmaker, best known for his documentary, Hip Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes, was successful with the campaign and now, “Soul Food Junkies” is headed to PBS. It will be broadcast nationally on PBS's Independent Lens on January 14, 2013. At a panel discussion that followed a pre-screening of the 65-minute film, Mr. Hurt was asked whether he was concerned about depicting black people as problem laden. He responded that while some people worried he was going to denigrate black people (a curious response, I think, to a filmmaker who pretty responsible from what I have seen so far...) he was striving to show African-Americans in all “their complexity and humanity.”

Links of the Day: Doc McStuffins and Double Dutch

 

First Lady Michelle Obama can do the dougie AND jump double dutch! And her hair is still laid... [HLN]

Black female doctors are just head over heels for Doc McStuffins. The Disney cartoon features "the onle and only doctor who can talk to toys," and she just happens to be a black female.

 

The creators of the show were floored by the reaction they have received from black women doctors like Deonza Thymes, an emergency medical physician in Los Angeles who told KCRW, “I can’t think of a parent that wouldn’t be proud if their child became a physician. And it just lets them know that it’s possible. I think it’s genius that they made the mother actually be a physician, because that let’s you know it’s attainable.”  [KCRW]

Who benefits the most from food stamps? Follow the money! I promise it's not even close to who you think. [Food Politics]

Nudge your neurons Your brain not only improves with age, it can be "quite resilient and can be stimulated to innovate, create and contribute in extraordinary ways."  When your not beling challenged, you risk physical, mental and creative decline. Kathleen Taylor, a professor at St. Mary's College of California and an internationally recognized authority on adult learning has a few suggestions. "Nudge your neurons. Shake things up. Stay physically active. Keep doing different things. Challenge your assumptions. Become comfortable with ambiguity. Listen to differing points of view and develop the ability to accept differences. Travel. Learn different languages. You can seek out new environments that support your insights and creativity, but it becomes harder because you are more accustomed to the way things are." [CNN Health]