Chimamanda Adichie explains in a beautiful talk about how we construct single stories about people and cultures. This happens all the time with indigenous communities. People often hear one native person say something and attribute that quote or idea to a whole culture or even worse, to “Native Americans.” Adichie goes deeply into how the flattening of stories results in power shifts that lead to marginalization. Spend the time watching…
Sporadic eating from the road: Andrew Rixon teams up with cartoonist Simon Kneebone to map living systems. Tanya Davis instructs us on how to be alone. Dan Oestreich on four kinds of power that leaders claim. Ellen Clegg and Bonnie DeVarco’s Shape of Thought
I’m in the waiting area of the Dutch Harbor/Unalaska airport in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. I’ve been here for less than 24 hours accompanying some colleagues on some consultations with Alaskan fishing communities. This place is all about fish, and that is all: pollack, halibut, salmon, cod and of course the world famous crab fleet which plies its trade in the Bering Sea on the World’s Deadliest Catch. The motto on the wall here at the airport is “The highest degree of opportunity” and that is indeed what this town is all about. Opportunity abounds to make money for …
From my friend Jerry Nagel, a quote from guitar maker Phil Patrillo: We send our kids to school. I call it the “brain laundry.” They teach them everything you don’t want them to know. It’s done in the name of education and fairness and righteousness, and the things of common sense and how things are done, are never explored. You get a piece of paper with your name on it, if you follow the instructions. I got a Doctorate not because I wanted the piece of paper; I got the Doctorate because my professor said to me, “You know more …
Please consider joining us on Bowen Island, BC, Canada for an Art of Hosting learning retreat, October 3-6, 2010. On the hosting team will be Teresa Posakony, Caitlin Frost and Tenneson Woolf, me. Pass along to your networks or to anyone you know interested in this opportunity. As well as working with and learning about participatory process, living systems, and chaordic design, in this Art of Hosting retreat we will be working extensively with harvesting, with change models currently being developed by the Berkana Institute, with Byron Katie’s inquiry work, with improv theatre exercises and probably some Warrior of the …