Osprey is also an artist, and creates works that integrate into urban landscapes, while honoring the natural world. One of the world’s few female monument makers working with allegorical images, her international projects reflect cultural diversity integrated with appreciation for nature, to create a sense of belonging and connection. Osprey’s work addresses how nature-based narrative artworks can bring balance and hope into the heart of our cities and homes.

Even though we are not having a memorial, I made a little altar at home with a vase of Rhododendron, ubiquitous in our home state of Oregon,  and beautiful in its prehistoric tenacity, rosemary for remembrance, a string of Danish flags, candles, and some childhood photographs of Dad and his siblings.  Many of his childhood photos were lost when my log house burned down in the 1970s.

Things turned out differently than I might have wished, but he was once a beloved mother’s son, and that mother was my loving Farmor (father’s mother in Danish). So I honor the memory of those days for him and for her. We all begin life as innocent children, and no matter what choices he made, I find forgiveness in my heart for my father, and know that he is now at peace. Although it may sound strange to some, I feel that our connection may become stronger now. There is a song that my friend sings by the poet Rumi, and some of the lines are:

Out beyond right and wrong, there is a field—I’ll meet you there.

Both women will be part of a panel discussion on Saturday at 11 AM at the festival: Women Behind the Camera, discussing the role of documentary and narrative women directors in the industry. Jen McGowan, who began her career in acting at NYU, will screen a short narrative film, Touch, as part of the Short Films program, screening Friday and Sunday. I’m looking forward to speaking with Jen, and learning about her plans for her first feature film. 

So I’m packed and ready…just need to navigate the road to the San Francisco airport (an adventure in itself) and drop the car at the park and fly, and of course there’s the long flight across the U.S. and the Atlantic. If I remember that every step is part of the adventure, perhaps I can keep my equilibrium even with the  indignities of modern travel. It will be lovely to see Nice again.

I discovered Duffy when I watched An Education (nice little film, by the way), and that led to an exploration of a few singers in the pop genre whom I may not have discovered otherwise. I love Corinne Bailey Rae’s sweet voice, and the contrast to Duffy’s rough edged sound. I snuck in some Nina Simone, Lucinda Williams, and we’ll finish the night with Adele. The Grammy’s are in the news lately, and it’s fun to listen to modern young singers along with some other favorites. Let’s mix it up this Monday night.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Join me on Women’s Voices at 7:00 PM Pacific Time Monday January 31 on KZYX for an interview with Belva Davis, author of Never in My Wildest Dreams, A Black Woman’s Life in Journalism. Ms. Davis was the first black female television journalist in the western United States. A reporter for nearly five decades, Davis was born to a fifteen-year-old Louisiana laundress during the Great Depression, and raised in the projects of Oakland, CA. She suffered abuse, battled rejection, and persevered to achieve a career beyond her imagination.

“No people can say they understand the times in which they have lived unless they have read this book” –Dr. Maya Angelou

“Belva Davis has lived this country’s history as only a brave black woman could, and has witnessed it as a journalist with a world-class head and heart,” noted feminist leader Gloria Steinem. “I don’t think it’s possible for anyone to read her words in Never in My Wildest Dreams without becoming a better and braver person.” The memoir, written with award-winning journalist Vicki Haddock and published by PoliPoint Press, reminds us all never to fear the space between reality and our dreams.

Here’s an excerpt from Belva Davis’s website:

Never in My Wildest Dreams is a book about courage and achievement from pioneering journalist Belva Davis, who helped to change the face and focus of TV news. When Davis started her journalism career, the major media outlets were largely closed to African Americans and female reporters. In the earliest part of her career, she worked for black newspapers and black-programmed radio stations. In 1966, when, racial barriers began to fall, she became the first black woman hired as a television news reporter in the western United States.

Many of the explosive stories of the ‘60s ’70s and ’80s intersected with her private life. She spent months covering campus demonstrations, anti-Vietnam war protests and the rise of the Black Panthers. She married William Moore, who became the first black television news photographer at a commercial station in California – at one point each of them had station-issued gas masks to protect them during the protests. As she covered the kidnapping ordeal of heiress Patty Hearst, police informed her that white supremacists were threatening to abduct her own daughter. When she reported a series about alleged police misconduct, her son was mysteriously arrested. The family housekeeper turned out to be a likely spy on behalf of the Rev. Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple. And her daughter worked in San Francisco’s City Hall and was there the day Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were assassinated.

Never in My Wildest Dreams also covers Davis’ years of reporting on the AIDS epidemic, stories of her travels to Cuba to meet with Fidel Castro, and travels to Kenya and Tanzania after the bombing of U.S. embassies in those countries. With honesty and openness, she talks about the difficulty of managing her family and professional career, while quietly fighting racism and sexism. Along the way she held fast to her dream and changed the perception of who should and could be a good television news reporter. Join me on Women’s Voices–this should be a fascinating interview. 

Join me on KZYX Monday January 10 at 7:00 PM Pacific Time for an interview with Chicana writer, activist, and world traveler Stephanie Elizondo Griest.

She’s mingled with the Russian Mafiya, polished propaganda in China, and belly danced with rumba queens in Cuba. Her adventures have inspired many books, including Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana, and 100 Places Every Woman Should Go.

She’s a passionate activist, and founder of the Youth Free Expression Network, an anti-censorship organization for teens, a program of the National Coalition Against Censorship in New York City, where she is a board member.

She travelled 45,000 miles in 42 states across America and has been a political reporter and teacher of journalism at China Daily in Beijing. During a three month fellowship at the New York Times, she wrote about male belly dancers, Latina filmmakers, and dentists who replace canines with fangs.

A Hodder Fellow at Princeton University,  Griest loves the open road, and her wanderlust has taken her to 35 countries. She’s currently pursuing an MFA in the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa. This should be an interesting interview…please join us streaming live on KZYX