Ruth Manasco is an artist, teacher, conservationist and elder in the Blue Clan of the Echota Cherokee. She is the much loved heart of Dancing Rabbit Pottery studio. Ruth was part of the years-long efforts to have the Sipsey declared Wilderness in 1974, and was part of the movement to save the Bankhead National Forest in the 80’s and 90’s.
Janice Barrett of Wild South’s Alabama office introduces the context of the Present Tense Media series, “The Fight For Alabama’s Last Wild Places”.
Janice Barrett of Wild South and Present Tense Executive Producer Anne Markham Bailey in the Bankhead National Forest.
Anne Markham Bailey, producer and host of Present Tense is joined by Janice Barrett of Wild South, in interviews with 13 of the key warriors who joined together to form a movement to stop the toxic management practices of the US Forest Service that were prevalent through the early 1990’s in the Bankhead National Forest. We hear how each of the warriors played a key role in the process of changing hearts and minds, including grassroots resistance and spiritual practice. Each interview is an episode. We’ll release several per week over a four week period.
Episode One features Lamar Marshall, citizen eco-warrior, founder of the Bankhead Monitor and Wild Alabama that became Wild South. Lamar mapped over 200 miles of the Trail Of Tears across Alabama and has been in the process of mapping Cherokee trails across the Carolinas.
Lamar Marshall and Present Tense Producer Anne Markham Bailey in the Moulton office of Wild South, in Lawrence County, Alabama. Lamar browses an early edition of the Bankhead Monitor.
Janice Barrett, Alabama Outreach and Education Coordinator for Wild South, offers the historic context for The Fight For Alabama’s Last Wild Places series. Janice first volunteered as an artist and writer at the Bankhead Monitor in 1992, continuing when it became Wild Alabama in 1994, and Wild South in 2004.
Lamar Marshall/Butch Walker/Ruth Manasco/Charles Borden/Bob Crow/Chief Grey Fox/Greg Preston/Charles Siefried/Vince Meleski/Larry Smith/Janice Barrett/Rob Cox/Terra Manasco/The Power of the Wild
They attended and performed at the Declaration of Wilderness Areas for the Sipsey River and the Dugger Mountain ceremonies. Says Faron Weeks of the White Horse Singers, “A memory of note, while we were playing a prayer song at the Dugger Mountain ceremony a Red Tail Hawk flew over our drum. It was a good day.” They currently host pow wows in Alabama and Tenneessee and will be at the Oakville Indian Mounds in Lawrence County, Alabama on the 3rd weekend of May.
Present Tense Theme Music by Cellist and Composer Craig Hultgren.
Episode Music by The White Horse Singers, a southern style American Indian Drum group.
Thanks to Janice Barrett of Wild South Mouton Office for her endless support in the recording of this series.
Get ready for a lengthy and real conversation with free improvisation musician and writer Davey Williams. We talk about the path of the artist, the struggles of addiction, his journey with cancer and more. This episode is a tribute to Davey Williams who died of cancer on April 05, 2019. This conversation was recorded in October 2018.
About Erica Dawson
Erica is the author of two collections of poetry: The Small Blades Hurt (Measure Press, 2014), winner of the 2016 Poets’ Prize, and Big-Eyed Afraid (Waywiser Press, 2007), winner of the 2006 Anthony Hecht Prize. Her poems have appeared in Barrow Street, Birmingham Poetry Review, Blackbird, Literary Imagination, Unsplendid, Virginia Quarterly Review, and other journals. Her poems have been featured in several anthologies, including Best American Poetry 2008, 2012, and 2015, American Society: What Poets See; Living in Storms: Contemporary Poetry and the Moods of Manic-Depression; and The Swallow Anthology of New American Poets.
Erica’s third book, When Rap Spoke Straight to God, will be published by Tin House Books in Fall 2018.
Born and raised in Maryland, Erica holds a BA from Johns Hopkins University, an MFA from Ohio State University, and a PhD from University of Cincinnati. She’s taught workshops and seminars at the Florida Arts Coalition’s Other Words Conference, St. Leo University’s Sandhill Writers Retreat, and the DISQUIET International Literary Program in Lisbon. Erica is the Director of The University of Tampa’s Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing, and, at UT, an associate professor of English and Writing.
She lives in Tampa with her Shih-Tzu, Stella, whom she named after Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella, not Tennessee Williams’ Stella or Stella Artois, though Erica really likes Tennessee Williams and Stella Artois.
NOTES ON THE EPISODE
Hakīm (alternative transcription Hakeem) indicates a "wise man" or "physician", or in general, a practitioner of herbal medicine, especially of Unani and Islamic medicine (via Wikipedia)
Mullah: a Muslim learned in Islamic theology and sacred law.
Naqchbandi: a major Sunni spiritual order of Sufism. It got its name from Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari and traces its spiritual lineage to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, through Abu Bakr, who his father-in-law , a companion and successor of Muhammad. Some Naqshbandi masters trace their lineage through Ali,[1] his son-in-law and successor, in keeping with most other Sufis.[2][3]
Gaddi Nasheen The Gaddi looks after the shrine and carries out significant rituals
Maulvi (Mawlawi) is an honorific Islamic religious title given to Muslim religious scholars or Ulema preceding their names, similar to the titles Maulana, Mullah, or Shaykh. Mawlawi generally means highly qualified Islamic scholar.
Dera Ismail Khan: British Cantonment town in KPK Province of Pakistan
ABOUT YASMEEN KHAN & THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2011/12/an-interview-with-yasmeen-khan-senior-rare-book-conservator-at-the-library-of-congress/
https://www.loc.gov/
https://www.loc.gov/collections/
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/05/toolkit-rare-book-conservation-library-of-congress/
ABOUT BOOK & MANUSCRIPT PRESERVATION & CONSERVATION
https://academicmatters.ca/2017/03/books-ready-dustbin-history/
https://www.loc.gov/preservation/about/history/pres-hist.pdf
RITA FELDMAN
I was born in the beautiful very modern, though very ancient, 2000 years old city, named Tashkent. It is the capital of Uzbekistan, back then a part of the Soviet Union, now it is an independent country in the Middle Asia. In 1993 my family had to leave our homeland because of the etnic problems that not-native, not-Uzbek people started to face in Uzbekistan. We emigrated to America, and we were recognized as a political refugees. The organizations that helped us to move choose the city of Birmingham Al as a place where we were suppose to build our life almost from the sketch. It was hard,very hard, but eventually we did it, though we are still working on it. 🙂. I have many professions, starting with a chemical engineering, computer programming, tour guiding, but all my life I was attracted to working with the people, their outer, and inner conditions and states. That's why for my professional life in America I chose to work as a skin care specialist, massage therapist, and also I do energy healing - I am a Reiki Master, I do Past life regressions, and I facilitate Family Systemic Constellations - powerful therapy that is dealing with a history of people's families, and how it influence our current lives. I have my own business called "Rita’s Touch" since 1998, and this year we are going to celebrate 20 years of it's successful service to the people of Birmingham.
Rita and her mother Genia
Rita and her son Maksim.
If you have not listened to Part 1 of "Not Too Bad" go to Episode 2 and listen now!
In Part 2 of "Not Too Bad," we join J Everett Batterbury as his life changes dramatically.
Everett's place on 12th Street South in Birmingham
My house on 12th Street South, across the street from Everett's place
Sometimes we meet a person and cannot possibly envision how our lives will be changed because of them. When I met J. Everett Batterbury on 12th Street, I was a young mother just divorced, struggling in relationship with a charismatic but irresponsible artist named Jesse. In the early 90’s I was expanding the family printing company client base, finishing an MFA in Book Arts and parenting my son Edward. Everett was an unforeseen spiritual teacher. I bonded swiftly and fully.
