Photos copyright Ana Elisa Fuentes
Today, members of the Coastal and Valley tribe of the Chumash joined together with members of the Santa Barbara community to re-dedicate the Dolphin fountain at the waterfront.
The fountain which honors the Dolphin relatives of the Chumash people, was enshrined thirty years ago today.
The Dolphins face the northern direction and its placement in the fountain symbolizes harmony in the three worlds. Since we are in severe drought, plants have replaced the flow of water; the Chumash people sang traditional and contemporary songs in their language – to honor and welcome the plants, their Dolphin ancestors and the flow of life; which includes the revitalization of the Chumash language.
Ho!
Learn more about Chumash life, culture and song here.
Text and photos copyright Ana Elisa Fuentes. Photos captured with Apple iPod
All images copyright Ana Elisa Fuentes.
France: Bringing Light to the World, and protecting Agriculture and Science, sculpture by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Musèe d’ Orsay, Paris, France. Photo copyright AnaElisa
Location: Seattle, the question: “Why Are You Here Today”Trayvon Gilliam of Seattle, “I’m here to show support for Trayvon. For justice” When I asked him if he had anything else to say or if he wanted to add anything else, Trayvon replied “Isn’t that enough.”
(l-r) Father and son, Glenn and Jennar, of Redmond, Washington: “This is my son’s first rally. We attended President Obama’s inauguration.” Jennar: “I don’t think it’s fair, what happened to Trayvon Martin. Marissa Alexander fired a warning shot and she got jail. Her husband should have gone to jail. George Zimmerman should have gone to jail. It’s good that people came here to show they care.”
(l-r) Son and mother Myles and Vanessa of Edmonds Washington: Vanessa: “It’s my opportunity to come and participate. We need our justice system revamped. I think the verdict is just another statement of this. Young black men are profiled because of the color of their skin. It’s unjust. I want justice for everyone. I don’t want my son to be another statistic. I am here to represent who I am”
Myles: “Don’t visualize me as a wrong person just because of the color of my skin. Don’t profile me”
(l-r) Two friends speaking: Ahoua of Seattle: I’m here to demand justice for Trayvon. To keep his name alive. I have two young boys of my own. Trayvon did nothing wrong. I do not want him to be forgotten” Holding the flag is Gwen of Seattle” “I’m here because we need accountability. He is dead. This child did nothing wrong. I have granchildren. Are they next? We are all the same. We’ve all come together, sorry we here again.”
At front, is Cheryl of Seattle: “I have black people in my family. I have black grandchildren. We talk about race all the time. All the time. They tell me whats really going on. 70 percent of black men have been, are in, or will be put in jail. My family is humiliated. Humiliated every day. They are terrified. They are frightened to leave the house. Afraid they are going to be the next to get killed. Last week my grandson was blowing kisses from the parking garage to his wife on the sidewalk below. The police stopped him and her, and asked her if that man was bothering her. My grandchildren ask me to take them downtown because they know I will protect them.”
Cheryl of Seattle, above left.
A Line in the Sand. What’s it all about?
If you draw a line in the sand, as the saying goes, you draw distinction, sets boundaries, throw the proverbial gauntlet. Simply say, enough is enough.
This column aims to address the tantamount concerns facing our environment, culture, society, and ethos. There is no better way, in my humble opinion other than to record the visual and opinion of the person on the street.
Think of it as a visual cross section of Americans.
I really love people. It is the joy of my profession is to speak, engage and converse with other people. I really do, love to listen and hear what people have to say.
My method is simple.
I ask a question. Write down the answer. Speak back what I’ve heard.
This keeps me in balance as a journalist, and gives the participant the space to add, ameliorate or subtract from the sum total of our conversation.
My twitter paper, also titled A Line in the Sand, may be found here
1994 Ephemera: Turning Point – The 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Published by The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Washington D.C. Authored by Frank R. Parker. Photograph taken in 1994 to commemorate Freedom Summer also known as the Summer of ‘64. This was a freelance assignment for the Washington Post.
This post in honor of the life of Trayvon Benjamin Martin
You can watch the webcast here via the Senate Judiciary website or here via Cspan
1994 Ephemera: Turning Point – The 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Published by The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Washington D.C. Authored by Frank R. Parker. Photograph taken in 1994 to commemorate Freedom Summer also known as the Summer of ‘64. This was a freelance assignment for the Washington Post.
This post in honor of the life of Trayvon Benjamin Martin
The Senate Judiciary Hearing will meet on Wednesday July 17th to conduct a hearing on the Voting Rights Act in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in a case from Alabama.
You can watch the webcast here via the Senate Judiciary website or here via Cspan
These photographs recorded in Santa Maria, California on assignment. Published in the Santa Barbara News-Press and syndicated to the Associated Press, CNN and other print and broadcast outlets.
Building my website has been an exercise in many disciplines.
Apart from viewing my professional history through my photographs, more and more I realize them for what they are: a record, a document and a mirror of our society.
One of the questions I have been asking myself recently is, how much have we grown as a nation? How forward thinking, have we become as a country?
We call ourselves the greatest democracy in the world, yet we are willing to destroy our natural resources, sell our democracy to lobbyists whose only consideration is their own profit, and undermine our constitution, all in the name of progress?
Progress for whom?
This progress guarantees no future for our children and in the name of this progress we give permission to take their lives prematurely in an epidemic called gun violence.
Not only is Congress giving permission and guaranteeing a shorter life span for children they are starving our children and working families while feeding the insatiable belly of corporations. Corporate greed and religious intolerance galvanizes and energizes the chasm dividing our nation, through a violence that especially targets the most vulnerable populations, children. As George Zimmerman said: “I was doing God’s plan.” His justification rooted in a moral ethic that is supported by lobby espoused religious zeal, dressed up as law, entitling him to take the life of Trayvon Benjamin Martin.
Have we really become a nation that settles for watching “reality TV” while dismissing, denying and refusing to participate in our own democracy?
Why are these same themes repeating themselves?
The life of an African-American males continues to be devalued and discounted, around the country and especially in the very same regions that would take our right to vote.
Women are still fighting, clamoring for our right to own our bodies, to choose, to access healthcare.
The sentinels screaming the religious indignation of ‘Right to Life‘ are the very same guardians obstructing health care outside the womb. The very same group body opposing the collective body of citizens in the right to vote, in equality for all people, of all colors and races, in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and in our inalienable right in freedom of speech.
In love thy neighbor as thyself, where is the love to feed those who do not have enough to eat because the appetite of corporate greed exceeded their neighbors?
These guardians, the very same sentinels whose right to bear arms will stand their ground in ‘Right to Life.’ Right to whose life?
We are in peril of losing one of our most precious pillars of democracy, and that is our right to vote. It is our collective voice. Our mandate. The navigation that guarantees our waters of democracy.
Our guarantee of an even keel for all, not just the few.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then I have written a few toward this sum today.
These photographs, my copyright, were recorded while on assignment for the Los Angeles Times and will be available via my archive
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| Kate Frey pictured among blooming peas at the sustainable Fetzer Valley Oaks garden in Hopland, California. |
Kate Frey, has for 18 years designed and managed the gardens at the Fetzer Valley Oaks vineyard with her award-winning bio-diverse, organic and sustainable gardening methods in Hopland, California. Her merits include gold medals at the Royal Horticulture Society Chelsea Flower show in 2005 and 2007; and a Silver Gilt in 2003. Her colorful and sustainable gardens were not only favored by the judges but met with literal approval from Her Majesty Elizabeth ll, Queen of England, who met with her privately in 2003 and 2007.
Unassuming yet vibrant, Frey was eager to roam the gardens that gave birth to her career. There are numerous accolades attesting to her achievements but there is no mistake, that her work is all about the love for sustainable gardening and the beneficial insects, pollinators, and birds who are the punctuation of a colorful garden palette. She likes to create what are called “bird and insect hospitable gardens.”
Since Chelsea, Frey and her husband Ben Frey have accepted invitations from the Shizouka prefecture in Japan and a consultation with the Royal House of Saud to tailor their organic farms.
Apart from her international accolades and achievements, Frey continues to focus her commitments on the California landscape. Her gardening successes, awards, and prizes have brought her to her current position as teacher and director of Sonoma State University’s Sustainable Landscape Program with Extended Education. The program started in 2007 and issued their first Landscape program certificate in 2008. Her additional projects include presentations at the social and scientific Bioneers conference, and biodiversity specific projects such as The Melissa Garden, a honeybee sanctuary located in Healdsburg, California. Frey was commissioned to the sanctuary project because of the “pollen generator” plants and flowers that are at the heart of her garden landscape design. Pollinators are a given throughout the year, floral nourishment and an environment free from pesticides. The 40-acre ranch owned by Barbara and Jacques Schlumberger consider themselves “bee-stewards.” “It is no secret, Frey said, that bees are a dwindling population in the US.”
We named the sanctuary “Melissa,” after Melissa officinalis or Lemon Balm a herbaceous planet and a favorite of bees in horticulture and mythology. Melissa, in Greek mythology who fed Zeus honey as an infant and who later transformed into a queen bee. Melissa is a Greek word meaning honeybee.
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| A bumblebee during buzz pollination: the rapid movement of their wings dislodges pollen from its source. |
Words and Pictures Copyright Ana Elisa Fuentes
AnaElisa 