Autumn is here again!

Florida Autumn is such a beautiful thing - Dia de los Muertos - planting season - the return of the monarchs and hummingbirds!  We hadn't seen one of those in over two years, and finally, while working around a bountiful food forest last Sunday, one of the eagle eyed ladies spotted the faster-than-life hummer.  An incredible reminder of the impact we each can make with intent, determination and focus.

This week we'll open up an exhibition of ofrendas again, the community artists have already put together their loving thoughts for the friends and relatives they wish to remember. Together, South Florida is relearning how to find ways to strengthen our connectedness to each other by knowing who we are, and sharing our stories across the many boundaries and barriers that too often keep us apart.

This month too, I'll offer a public workshop on the history, music and movements that come from our geographic and social relationship to Mesoamerica.  It is so wonderful to sit here in this one spot and see all the connections there are to this place. History, maps, written accounts, people, objects, ideas... I see now why I needed to return here, there is so much to my own personal history that was stored away, waiting to be remembered, understood, from within the context of today.

We need to always fully utilize the resources we have available, and South Florida is most assuredly a media and ideas hub of the Americas. It's difficult to take a stand here on any item or even form an opinion because we are in a bed of hot political coals, and we never want to alienate potential donors, allies, funders... but there is so much that needs attention... Historic Preservation, Education, Arts Funding, not to mention water, climate change, and bioaccumulation of toxic chemicals.

We need a consistent, long term, multifaceted approach to keep each other motivated, on track and performing at our fullest. The good news is that there are lots of venues that are expanding to include multiple voices and perspectives using a variety of increasingly innovative methods.

All in all, it's been good to sit here and learn, observe, reflect and remember.  I look forward to seeing everyone come by History Fort Lauderdale this month to spend some time reading the Ofrendas that have been built, and take a moment to contemplate what makes our own life worth living every day.

Huracan means Heart of Earth Heart of Sky

... I had just returned from my second summer of working with Institute of Archaeology (NICH) Belize to squeeze in what would be my last family vacation (to date at least). We had driven over to Sanibel Island, FL and explored the beautiful west coast of our home state. Upon the weather reports, we rushed back across Alligator Alley, Everglades, Fl to encounter a whole line of cars heading in the opposite direction.

Our hurricane prep had to be kicked into high gear, with only a few short hours until the predicted landfall. It was by far the scariest night of my life. Uncertainty. Humility. Unknowing. When in the midst of a natural disaster we are wholly and completely in the hands of mother nature. Eventually the sun rose again, and by noon the waters in our neighborhood had receeded. Having survived with our home more or less intact, we gingerly ventured out to survey the effects.

Of course there was no electricity. Or running water at first. But these services were restored within several hours to several days in our area. The olive trees were all down, uprooted, laying sideways on the ground. Electrical wires dangled dangerously throughout the neighborhood like strewn jump ropes. The park was a complete mess. But the most difficult part of all was the complete absence of communication with our family in the Homestead area. No phone. Internet did not yet exist for us, nor did cell phones. Land lines were inoperable. And we had no access to television because our electricity had not yet been restored... Those were the most difficult days, hours that seemed like months.

Once the electricity finally came back on and we were able to view the #TV #Broadcast coverage of the storm damage... we could not believe what we saw. Complete and utter destruction. Telephone poles snapped like toothpicks. Trees completely denuded of branches and foliage. Houses, apartments and businesses in ruin, reduced to a messy pile of concrete and wood from which they were constructed. That had been my first experience in a serious hurricane, there were many close calls before, but this... this was a direct hit and a hard one. Many families lost everything in that storm. We began to see the incredible destruction that the southern parts of #Miami had sustained, and unable to contact any of our family members, my dad and I loaded up water, blankets, food and first aid supplies and headed out. We were going on a search and rescue mission, not knowing what to expect or what we would find. It started out okay, more trees down, electrical wires hanging... but as we drove further south, the landscape began to change. This familiar route became more and more foreign to me. Housing complexes crashed in from the top. Areas once covered with tree canopy looking like open savannah. The #MiamiZoo campus, with its new aviary, completely unidentifiable.

Once we got off the highway, which had been somewhat cleared of the debris, crumpled metal signs and their poles had been moved out of the center lane onto the shoulder. It was even hard to know where to get off, the landmarks were all missing. The short journey from the highway to the neighborhood where my mothers grandmother lived was the most difficult part of all. There were command centers set up, long lines of people looking disheveled. Soldiers handing out water. As we got closer it seemed to get more difficult to figure out where we were. At this point, there were no trees in sight. Not a single leaf anywhere. Many homes we passed were in various states of collapse, yards were littered with random debris, aluminum siding, patio furniture, buckets. We finally managed to locate the house. It too was bare of trees, foliage, just the trunk of the giant avocado stood behind as a sentinel of sorts... but the house was still standing! We found a clear spot to park. Got out. And the door opened! I was so happy and relieved to find my three grandmothers all alive and relatively well. There were parts of the house that were in shambles, roof busted, but they were okay. We brought in the food, water, and supplies that we'd brought. Dad got to work with the chainsaw, clearing fallen trees from the driveway. And honestly, I don't even remember the ride home! All I know is that I was really happy that our search and rescue mission was successful. The rest is #history....

If you have stories of #HurricaneAndrew, check out History Miami or contact them at archives@historymiami.org or 305-375-1623.

Summer fun!

July! Last leg of the freedom of summer vacation. End of the carefree "lazy, hazy, crazy dayz of summer."  Here in South Florida this is the time to prep for the possibility of the occasional hurricane.  And in the meantime, we enjoy those summer fruit jewels - mango, mamey, and the family of annona.  The heat is so intense but the sweetness of a tree-ripened tropical fruit is so very delicious!

Its that time to also start sending our thoughts toward preparations for fall. That means setting those marigold and milkweed seeds to germinate, as many as possible! Those monarch butterflies will be gliding through our greater everglades flyway before you know it and in our overdeveloped coastal areas, this means we need to plant more milkweed! [Get your free milkweed seeds here.] Then we can start to plan for which veggies will go where and what soil conditions each needs... soil type is so crucial here in the tropics... northern gardeners really just don't get it!

Finally, it's that time to start thinking about ofrendas. This year's #SouthFloridaDayoftheDead Celebration will host free community workshops throughout the fall, including family friendly puppet, mask and ofrenda making. Follow South Florida Day of the Dead for event postings coming soon! There's also a couple of adult only events too, including Roast of the Calacas which offers a showcase of your best off-color puppet humor (call to artists coming soon).  Applications are open for the community to participate as artists in the month long Ofrenda exhibit at History Fort Lauderdale. And everyone is welcome to dance, walk or roll in the November 2 Day of the Dead procession from Huizenga Plaza through the downtown historic district to Revolution Live.

In the end it's all a cycle, with art, love & planting holding it all together for us - let's work!

Learn more about Mesoamerican Danza
Photo credit: Kendall Clarke

A Return to Turtle Road

Yesterday morning, I pulled up happily up to the entrance gate of John U Lloyd State Park a full half hour earlier than anticipated. Early morning weekday traffic to the South Florida Beach was a lot more user friendly that I thought it would be.  A friend from the South Florida Day of the Dead celebration invited us out to do a presentation on #FTLhistory at the summer camp she coordinates.

Mornings at the beach are a rare beauty for me. A beach visit, however fleeting, without my own children is something I hadn't experienced in over a decade! It is truly amazing the gift that just a few moments can be in one's life. I'd been thinking of a young friend this week, hearing news of the #Moonshot meetings, and missing the amazing person she was... but the intense light of the rising sun on the water and the graceful pose of the maturing sea oat pods distracted my thoughts.  I looked toward the horizon, wondering what beauty might still be ahead on my own journey through life.

As I traversed the few paces along the shoreline back toward the pavilion where my work day would soon begin, a peculiar pattern caught my attention.  I knew this u shaped track from seeing it once before, cradled in midnight darkness.  This was the evidence of a nesting sea turtle.  I was impressed by the realization that several hours earlier, a massive, 200 pound mature female turtle had emerged from the open sea at this precise location of her hatching 5 to 50 years prior.  Soon enough the park ranger arrived to investigate and document the nest. Fifty two days from now, the eggs should hatch, barring any hazards like racoons, coyotes, or overly rough seas.

That 20 minutes may be the most gratifying observation that I've ever made. It provided me with a much needed reminder that in life you may need to return to the slow road of a turtle, but the road of a turtle is strategic, definite, purposeful and carries a message that is intergenerational in its impact. May we all experience the beauty of a return to turtle road...

Turtle Track Pic

More turtle track pics

Last year's #WorldOceansDay #SeaTurtle nesting adventure

Sister Power! Part 2.

So, the year that I turned 13, I had the ultimate summer vacation.  It started off with a 6th grade graduation ceremony from the Montessori School I'd just aged out of (yes, it was still called graduation back then, not promotion or moving up or completion like we do now with any non-twelfth-grade achievement).  We started out with a one day cruise to Freeport aboard the Sea Escape. Ugh, the absolute most miserable day of my life - except for the few hours we got to spend on that lovely solid Bahamian soil... how I wish we could have stayed, but eventually, we did make it back to good ol mainland USA. Thankfully!

Me, my sister Adrienne and my late cousin Sharane eating tamales at the Belmopan market, still my favorite food.

Soon after, we took a whirlwind trip to Belize, not uncommon for us in those days, while Mom and Dad were both working, we took a family trip home most every year.  This one was a bit shorter than most, as we had my cousin Sharane along, it was her first time to Belize. It was pretty funny, the process of her acculturation - apparently her dad wasn't as adamant as my Mom when it came to passing on the subtleties of Belizean language and culture.  "What's a shilling?" and "There's not even a 7-11" were the two most memorable Sharane quotes of the trip.

And then finally, to round out the summer, I still got to take my annual trip to my own hometown of Scarborough to visit with my grandparents and aunt and uncle.  I loved those trips more than anything else in the world.  The connection to the land that I experience in Belize and in Canada are so similar and yet so different.  My return to "real life" in Scarborough was always an experience in going home to my grandparents.  Those beings who exuded so much unconditional love for me, that I can still feel it today, decades after their passing.  

That year, an amazing thing happened.  I got to stay in Canada.  My options were bus to Miami Lakes Jr. High, or walk to Carol City Jr. High. This was the 1980s - the advent of gun violence in schools was just starting to top the news charts, and metal detectors had just arrived at the front entrance of the latter. I got accepted to Pace too, but that seemed way too far from my reality to be a good fit.

So, my aunt, Andrea Chadwick-Maguire, extended an invitation to my parents to consider allowing me to stay in the Toronto area that year and attend Fern Hill School in Oakville where she would be teaching.  I was ecstatic.  I could not believe that my parents said yes!

That year, I studied Latin, learned Ukranian dance, got a steady job babysitting, and spent every weekend with my beloved grandparents.  For my birthday, I got my first ever hair cut at a barber shop. Mullet head. I was so proud! I even started wearing eyeliner for the first time... much to my mother's discontent.  It was a momentous part of my life journey, now looking back. That ability to forge an identity outside of my parental expectations allowed me to grow into the determined, rebellious, hopeful idealist that I still am today.

On the set of the HMS Pinafore demonstrating Ukranian dance with 7th Grade Math teacher Christine Puhach

At the conclusion of my school year, maybe around this very time, I got a call from my mom, not unusual, I did miss my family and my baby sister Adrienne quite a lot during the year, even though I loved being where I was.  But this call was quite different.  My mom had something to tell me... and she was hesitant, like she didn't know what to say or how to say it.  If you know my mother, this is a trait that is quite uncharacteristic of her. I owe my blunt, undiplomatic, say-it-how-it-is nature to her.

Finally, she said, "I'm going to have another baby." I was floored, flabergasted, completely in disbelief. I think my reply was something like, "What?! You didn't even ask me!"  Ha ha. Pretty funny now thinking back. But honestly, I could not even fathom the possibility of my 37 year old mother even being able to still have a baby.  A baby!!!  OMG.  This changes everything!

So, another trip to Belize that summer! This time, with Mom waddling around in her Yucatec-style huipil... that was the year she took us to Xunantunich and declared, "You know you're part Maya too, right, Tara."  Another "WHAT? How could you not have told me this," response from me. 

And of course I, as the big sister of the family, felt obligated to return to my family and take up my daughterly duties.  Reina was born on the first month of the year.  She was noisy!  I got up and brought her into bed with me every morning at 2 am when I could not bear to hear her crying anymore.  After her, I never wanted to have kids. Or at least not for another 13 years anyway. But I learned how to be a mother through Reina.

My baby baby sister is truly one of the most special people in my life.  She is practical, super smart and she has always had an incredible gift for maintaining a healthy balance between work, life, family and community.  This girl is definitely one of the sparkles in my eye.  I graduated from Miramar High School just as she was entering grade school at Fairway Elementary.  I left home when she was so little.  More than anyone, this time, away at college, I missed Reina.  So whenever I had a chance, I bought a plane ticket and brought her with me to work.  Chippewas of M'Njikaning, Center for Indigenous Theater, Belize Department of Archaeology... Reina came to visit. It was fun, for me a way to mitigate our isolation from one another.

Center for Indigenous Theater at Kimbercote Farm

Today, my sister Reina, like our other sister Adrienne, has become a friend, role model and mentor for me.  Reina's passion and adeptness at marketing, public relations and communication has spurred me to look at the way we promote our businesses in a new way.  Regardless of whether they are arts, community, small business or non profit organizations, maximum reach is crucial to the sustainability of our work.  

Now she's on me to grow again... that's her other gift, in addition to always seeking the best possible position for her clients, she is also all about making sure that we are all placing appropriate value on ourselves as well... 

This was at the world premiere of #MayaHiddenWorldsRevealed in St. Paul, MN, now on at the Witte, San Antonio

Thanks for always encouraging me Reina.  Without you, I would never have started to blog, or learn how to use social media.  I look forward to what the future holds for you, my baby sis.  Till then, I better keep on truckin' or I know I'll get a call with some "encouragement"...  :)

See some of Reina's recent blogs at: Americans for the Arts and The Leaky B@@b 

Sister Power! On International Museum Day

I hereby declare May sister brag month. I have two biological sisters. My first baby sis, the one who made me into a big sister, is actually way bigger, badder, bolder and cooler than I. She was born on a freezing February morning in the bedroom of a modest east end apartment overlooking the immeasurable geologic beauty of the Scarborough Bluffs. Yes, we are Scarberians... strange creatures who emerged from the cave of life at the far eastern corner of what they call the GTA. Used to be a day long Greyhound trip here from downtown Tdot, aka Cabbagetown. Not anymore though, unless you take the 401, then it may still take a you a day to traverse the 12 miles.

My baby sis was born three weeks ahead of schedule into the able bodied, yet completely unprepared hands of my aunt and grandmother. From day number one, she required innovation from every person around her! No nose squeezy thing? Find the straws and clear out those passageways so this baby can breathe!  As she grew, she exuded creativity and confidence in every aspect of her life. From where she determined it was best to keep her toys (on the floor), to where she preferred to consume her self assigned snack (under the table).

One of her first jobs was as my fundraising assistant - official escort of the Saint Catharines Museum IMP (Important Museum Person) aka full-bodied papier-mache gargoyle capital campaign mascot, created by Diane Sharpe, and animated by yours truly.  Thirty years later, my little sister has now become my consultant and mentor in art and museum development, education, programming and management.

Hats off to sister power! I remain honored that Adrienne chose to follow my footsteps into the world of museums and humbled that my sister continues to share her time, knowledge and experience with me as we work to extend the passion and power of culture and art into the lifelong learning routine of as many people as possible.

You can find Adrienne's daily photo journal at https://www.instagram.com/adriennechadwick/

To view the art of Adrienne Chadwick visit AdrienneChadwick.com

Kites, kids, kindness and kicking life to a new level...

On aging:

Today I got my first pair of granny glasses. Yep, knew it was comin... lotsa folks younger than me have had theirs for a while now. Baby sis thinks I'm a wimp 'cause she's had hers her whole life. Don't get me wrong, I'm so happy to actually be able to see small stuff close up again. But wow. The actual process of finding out that my body's officially on the other side of that hill... well... it's not a subject that's very popular - and especially not for a female to write about - unless you're writing about how to stop the inevitability of aging. But I say, let's hear it! All that stuff still stuck in the taboo categories of the 1890s. It's 2016 now, let's act and write like it. The glasses are still making me feel a bit seasick, but it sure is nice to see like a superhero again, even if I do feel like I'm seeing through a bubble. 

On Prince:

So while I sit here and write, many friends and colleagues back in the Twin Cities are attending a block party at Sabathani Community Center in honor of our artist. It's been interesting, conceptualizing just how powerfully art can act as a catalyst for emotional, social, individual and collective change.  And realizing how all the different parts of the production and consumption of art work together to form a lasting impact on people over time.  Its an area I've never given much thought to:  concept, funding, production, post-production, editing, marketing, outreach, evaluation, finance... it's mind boggling to actually think of all those pieces of the "success" puzzle. But it's also super exciting that we all can take a little piece of this model and apply it to the work we do in our families, communities and neighborhoods. I am still sad, and so happy to receive this gift of insight from a guy I never knew, but who was always there, teaching through challenging in a beautiful, masterful way what I think about men, women, relationships, gender, music and gender roles. The funny thing is, I generally pay as little attention to popular culture as possible, but this guy even challenged that, and while I still mourn his loss, I sure am glad that we had the chance to have him with us in the soundtrack to our lives. My tribute to Prince: Purple Sky Bubbles.

On reflecting:

Spent the start of this month still realizing all the things that were going on for us in 1986. Not only the birth of the Belize Association of Florida, but the birth of my baby sis, Reina. And an awesome move from South Florida to Southern Ontario, a little town about 20 minutes North of Niagara Falls, once the terminus of the underground railroad, St. Catharines. It's a bustling little metropolis, home to the Georgia Pacific paper company, and yes, your professional and personal paper needs may still be met by a factory there. My early teen years were filled with volleyball, visits to the Falls, lots of time with my beloved grandparents, and volunteering on the fundraising team of the local historical society, now the St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canals Center. My role: IMP (that's Important Museum Person, by the way!) Funny that now, my sister Adrienne and I continue our family's tradition of promoting education, art and civic engagement through our work in the museums field, almost 30 years later. 

Maya Hidden Worlds Revealed opens in San Antonio May 14 - tix at #MayaSA

On kites & kids:

And finally, an update on the spread of kite fever... this month the African American Research Library celebrated kite month with a series of kite making workshops, kite flying festival and a month long exhibit of kites in their museum. It was amazing to see the skills of kite engineers from all over the Caribbean demonstrate their favorite tricks of the trade and share stories of childhood memories where all children learn technology, math, physics, geography, and science by playing! At the conclusion of a month long standardized testing season, happy Dia de los Ninos to all our young people - we love you!

And by the way:

Happy International Workers Day & May Day to everyone out there, struggling for balance, equity, dignity and sustainability in their life.  Congrats to one of my favorite old collaborators, In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre for appearing in CNN's article on May Day - lookin forward to seeing the pics tomorrow - have a great one! Florida - let's organize!