senna, warrior princess

lula with freida pinto, girl rising spokesperson, at sundance 2013

one of the brightest spots at sundance 2013 was the preview we saw of 10 x 10 girl rising, a film spotlighting ten girls around the world and the impact that education has had on each of their lives.

we viewed the story of senna, named after a great warrior who fought for poor people (aka, xena the warrior princess). senna's beloved father loved to watch the warrior princess on television, and wanted his daughter to be as fierce and protective of her people as the televison xena.  senna is fourteen and lives in la rinconada, a high mountain mining town.  she witnessed her father's terrible, slow death after a mining accident, and found solace and courage when she discovered cesar vallejo, and became her own warrior poet.

lula is hosting a screening of this film in provo on march 14th.  i hope locals can join us--here's the link to reserve your seat.  and if you can't make the screening, you can purchase a ticket to donate to a low-income utah valley teen.

lula and i loved the film, believe in the cause, and think you will too.

hope you can come!

ALSO:  special for GITP readers--we are donating two tickets to one of our readers.  please leave a comment in the comments section to enter the drawing!  if you want, give us your perspective on global education for women.

sundance, day 2: a list

1) i started out the day writing morning pages, including this vow:  "today i will not be cynical."  i knew i would need some sort of intentional focus as i tramped around the festival, watching passersby glancing at my name tag to see if i was someone they should know. 

i wasn't.

i'm nobody.  who are you?  

but i stayed mostly happy and in the moment all day, not letting my thoughts waft in an existential direction. have i ever told you my mantra?  i repeat it to myself if i think there's a chance i might freak out.  goes like this:

don't think don't think
don't think don't think don't think.

works great.  give it a try some time.


2) then to austenland, a film by jerusha hess of napoleon dynamite fame.  a good midday romp to start off the festival.  nothing existential whatsoever in the film.  full write up to come.

oh, sat by rich white guys discussing (rather loudly) how hard the tax hike was going to be for folks making more than a million a year.  i wished i had a hankie to whip out and hand to them.

3) scored a pass to the miami lounge and some swag.  lula's wearing a cute hat i got there.  too bad it has a patron label on the back.  i'll try to pick it off later.

4) attended red carpet to emmanuel and the truth about fishes, a film from director francesca gregorini, daughter of barbara bach (bond girl) and step-daughter of ringo starr.  ringo was in attendance. as were cast members jessica biehl, sam jaeger, jimmie simpson, alfred molina (!!!) and rooney mara.  i got to do quick interviews with molina and simpson.  guess who was way, way smarter and more articulate?  that's right.  molina.  i really, really wanted to chat with gregorini, and she was the whole reason i attended, but the red carpet ended before she got to me. 

stood by canadian journalists on the red carpet.  canadians are the bomb!

5) took anna and joe, the photgraphers for the red carpet, to the annie leibovitz/ stella artois party.  ate some anti-pasti and marveled with anna, snarkily, at how tacky the stella girls looked.  fun though.  no sighting of annie leibovitz.

so, on the way home, the void started widening, but now i'm lying in bed blogging and watching garfield with moses, so everything's cool again.

but sometime, sometime soon, we need to talk.

oh, and legwear?  this is genius, and ingrid turned me on to it:  two pairs of tights. 

saturday summer swag

i finished grading a grueling set of midterms this morning, then

we rode the lift at sundance while eating portabello wraps & seven layer bars & root beer from the deli, then

we met ingrid at her fabulous job at outdoor adventure, then

we rode tubes down the provo river, a thunderstorm ahead and blue skies behind, and then

we came home to the locust salon where we heard t.j. borden, a cellist from buffalo and

christian

and steve and

saw some girls in dresses.

today was the first time in seven weeks that i totally, totally forgot to write my morning pages.  it kind of seemed like a good thing.

today was perfect summer,

perfect.

walden 2012

just returned from the walden 2012 graduation & it was lovely.

congratulations to nate and his family

here's a pic of me with nate, a student i've worked closely with over the years who i'm especially proud of because he'll be attending my alma mater, sarah lawrence college.  he's lucky to get to go there, and they're lucky to get him.  he's very talented.

nate wore his classic india sandals, eli his classic bare feet

another student, sofia, who has studied with me for four years, skyped in from china.  she was the class valedictorian, and her mom read her speech for her.  she's been gone all semester, and we've missed her so much.

this class contained a lot of muscians.  guitars lined the stage as quite a few students performed singer/songwriter material, a couple of original numbers and a couple of covers.

the graduation was held in the sundance redford conference center, and we ate baked goods from their restaurant.

i'm so proud of these students.  this was a group of programmers, woodworkers, photographers, bakers, writers, musicians, glass blowers, dancers, visual artists, chefs, engineers & scholars.  also, like all walden students, they are world citizens who have a global understanding that will influence everyone around them for years to come.  i'm super impressed with how they turned out, and can't wait to see what the next four years holds for them.

now i'm all ceremony'd out.  so good night all.