Feeling....anxious? Spencer Pride can help.
Community, yoga, dance, health & wellness, birdwatching, coffee klatch around the kitchen table...
Hi all. Saludos from Bloomington. It’s been a few weeks. I hope you’re doing … well? OK? Hanging in there? I don’t know how to ask or respond to that question these days. The news … let’s not even go there. You know.
Update: Weirdly, this just popped into my inbox, as if author A.J. Jacobs was reading my mind:
Some news about Spencer Pride. Let’s start with the film.
We have invites for theatrical premiere screenings this fall here in Southern Indiana, so that’s great, there’s our deadline.
The crew is in place. Brittany Alsot as editor, G Angel as researcher/assistant editor, Lessie Jo Frazier as co-producer / educational advisor, Gabriel Lantz for additional camera. (If Gabriel’s name sounds familiar, it’s because we worked together on the Earthkeepers. He moved, but he’s back — a Bloomeranger, as the locals say.)
There is still much to do.
Post-election, I’ve been doing a flurry of unexpected new filming. Partly because Indiana state and federal government are threatening communities like Spencer Pride with bills and bans and lies and other crazy shit. I think it’s important to recognize that we’re in this moment.
But also because Spencer Pride keeps launching so many cool things — yoga, math tutoring, dance, health and wellness, birdwatching expeditions. Doubling down on the good work they do.
If you want a model for staying together and not succumbing to despair, look no further. Here’s my calendar for this week, to show you what I mean:
Wednesday: Gabriel and I are taking the new community yoga class.
Thursday: Dance class
Saturday: Attend and Legislators breakfast (Spencer Pride folks will be there. Could be interesting. Bringing the mobile recording gear for this one)
Saturday: Attend CPR training for volunteers
Saturday: Birdwatching at Lake Monroe
Sunday: Rainbow Circle, discussion group about how to lead a more peaceful life
The best way to keep up with Spencer Pride events is their website calendar or Facebook events page.
I’m especially stoked about the new yoga class because I love yoga, and feel kind of responsible for it because I introduced instructor Julie Madewell. I first met Julie years ago when she was teaching Spanish at Indiana University. Last December I met her again — unexpectedly — leading a puppy (!) yoga class at Celtic Glenn Farm. One thing led to another…
If you are in the area, please join us. No registration necessary, just drop in, bring a yoga mat. Or meet us after at the indispensable Civilian Brewing a block away. Stretching and sipping, or something like that.
That’s plenty for now. Next time, I’ll fill you in on plans for editing, and about a mini-tour of Peruvian films + Quechua workshops that Doris and I are doing out in the High Plains of Wyoming and New Mexico next April.
Thanks as always for reading. I would love to hear how you are. - Mitch