Women's March: Inspiration, motivation, galvanization

Unity in numbers / Hundreds of thousands of women (and men), both
white and of color, marched for political activism in Washington, D.C. and
throughout America, and around the world. 

The American writer and poet Alice Walker, who wrote the critically acclaimed novel The Color Purple, once said "Activism is our rent for living on the planet." I think she was on to something because last Saturday women (and men), both white and of color, spanning a variety of economic and religious backgrounds, united for a just cause.

They marched for political activism. Health care, the economy, climate change, immigration, paid family leave, net neutrality, education, freedom of the press.

Millions united worldwide and took to the streets to protest the inauguration of Donald Trump and also to celebrate women's rights. On Saturday, they marched for democracy.

My heart and support goes out to my friends, family and loved ones – and to all – who marched not only in the Women's March in Washington, D.C., but also hundreds of sister marches throughout America and around the world. Through the power of their spoken and written words, as well as through their images and pictures that were shared via social media platforms – and, importantly, in their strength in numbers – we saw that there is such great hope for our country. I'm proud to see so many devote their time and energy towards walking for civil liberties and basic, fundamental human rights for all.

A view of the National Mall as seen from the U.S. Capitol,
during the Women's March in Washington, D.C. The
number of participants far exceeded expectations,
event organizers said, and it eclipsed the crowd attending
President Trump's inauguration a day earlier.

A day after President Trump's inauguration last Friday, in which he shared his uniquely dark and dystopian vision of the U.S., there was much support, love and light shown during the Women's March in Washington, D.C. According to the organizers of the event, the goal was to send a powerful message to the new administration and to the new President. Initial estimates numbered 500,000 participants in the nation's capital alone – considerably more than the 200,000 expected, and far exceeding the number who attended Friday's inauguration of the 45th President. Demonstrations remained peaceful throughout.

Linda Sarsour, a Palestinian-American activist and national co-chair of the Women's March on Washington, said during an interview Monday evening on MSNBC's All In With Chris Hayes that she was extremely overwhelmed by the turnout. "Women showed up (all over the world) and showed their power," she said. Asked why the march exceeded expectations, Sarsour said: "We were able to speak to the values of people. We came together in solidarity to stand with the most marginalized people. We were also intersectional. It wasn't just about reproductive rights. It was climate justice and racial justice and immigrant rights. Everyone found a place to be there. We spoke to every one's inner frustrations. We went from Friday's devastation to Saturday's inspiration, motivation and galvanization."

In a New York Times editorial published on its website Monday, it wrote: "Whether President Trump, newly ensconced in the White House, was surprised or even noticed is unclear. Given his reputation, he may not even care. But the Republican Party should."

We are America /
Marching near the National Museum of
the American Indian in Washington, D.C.
(Photo by Carla Morris.)

Actress America Ferrera, who was one of the first speakers at the Washington, D.C. rally, said: "We march today for the moral core of this nation, against which our new president is waging a war. Our dignity, our character, our rights have all been under attack and a platform of hate and division assumed power yesterday. But the president is not America. ... We are America and we are here to stay."

The feminist icon Gloria Steinem, 82, also speaking in the nation's capital, exulted: "This is the upside of the downside. This is an outpouring of democracy like I've never seen in my very long life."

Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, marching in Boston, said, "We can whimper. We can whine. Or we can fight back!"

Back in Washington, D.C., singer Madonna said matter-of-factly: "Let's march together through this darkness and with each step know that we are not afraid, that we are not alone that we will not back down. There is power in our unity and no opposing force stands a chance in the face of true solidarity." She added: "Today marks the beginning of our story. The revolution starts here. The fight for the right to be free, to be who we are, to be equal."

Energizing in the name of goodwill /
A sign proclaiming "My Body My Choice" was one of
many causes represented during the Women's March.
(Photo by Carla Morris.)

Among my many Macalester College friends who marched in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere, Carla Morris, an independent consultant who is married and the mother of two young boys, described her march experience like this: "It was like we had all individually and collectively found the real America again! I did not see a single act of unkindness or disrespect all day long." On her Facebook page, Morris called the mood in Washington, D.C. "so jubilant. Everyone on the trains going down to the march beamed at each other, smiled, chanted together, clapped, traded stories, helped each other. ... It was so wonderful. A fabulous, energizing day of goodwill."

Among many speakers whom I saw while watching TV coverage via MSNBC and C-SPAN, I was particularly interested in learning viewpoints from people of color and of different religions, groups which are being marginalized by the Trump administration. I heard the passionate voices of Zahra Billoo, the San Francisco Bay Area Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and of Van Jones, founder and president of Rebuild the Dream, an American center-left political organization, and a former Obama Administration advisor.

Billoo, a Muslim-American, said: "Our America ... includes all of us in our beautiful diversity. Our America requires that we march to protect each other. Our America needs us to build a better future. We have our work cut out for us but we are ready."

Marching towards a better future /
The Women's March showed peaceful yet powerful activism.
(Photo by Carla Morris.) 

Meanwhile, Jones, a black male, reached out to both conservatives and liberals during his speech. He said: "This movement has the opportunity to stand up for the underdogs in the red states and the blue states, to stand up for the Muslims and the Dreamers ... but also to stand up for the coal miners who are going to be thrown under the bus by Donald Trump. We're going to stand up for them. All those Rust Belt workers who he doesn't want to mess with but wants to mess over, we've got to stand up for them. We have to have a position that's clear. When it gets harder to love, let's love harder."


Looking back upon this special and unique day, in Washington, D.C., throughout American cities from Seattle and San Francisco to Ann Arbor and Chicago, to Raleigh, Boston and New York, and around the world – a record turnout for protests the likes of which we have not seen since the Vietnam War  – there was great strength found in this peaceful yet powerful activism, and unity in its numbers.

On this memorable day, love truly trumped hate.

Photos: Courtesy of Google images and Carla Morris.

SFMOMA – Welcoming an old friend back to the City

Welcome back / The new-look SFMOMA has grown from five to 10 stories.

Last Thursday evening, my wife and I welcomed an old friend back to San Francisco. The San Francisco Museum of Modern ART (SFMOMA) reopened earlier this month after being closed for the past three years while undergoing a massive – and challenging – expansion project by Oslo and New York design firm Snøhetta. The new-look SFMOMA has grown from five to 10 stories. Dropping in on the newly transformed museum after work for a short visit before heading out for dinner and shopping, we delighted in seeing some favorite artworks and architectural features – including some of the gems from the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection, considered to be one of the world's greatest.

The largest living wall in the U.S. greets visitors to SFMOMA.

From first glimpse, there's much to like about the new look and space of SFMOMA, including new galleries, expanded exhibition space, better lighting, greater access, art-filled public spaces, six terraces and sculptural staircases, which offer unique views out to the city.

As visitors step outside onto the main terrace, they are greeted by a giant living wall designed by Habitat Horticulture. It is part art, part landscape and it's the nation's largest public green wall of native plants.

Constellation  (1949) / From Alexander Calder: Motion Lab

We delighted in seeing the Alexander Calder: Motion Lab, which highlights Calder's restless innovation in bringing actual movement into art. We viewed About Time: Photography in a Moment of Change, a thematic exhibition which investigates how photography has profoundly reflected, inflected and transformed our perception of time through its 180-year history. We also saw Model Behavior, Snøhetta's initial sketches and models for the expanded SFMOMA building, located in a challenging and prominent urban site on Third Street, just south of Market Street.

A swarm of chaotic energy /
Studying Antony Gormley's "Quantum Cloud VIII"

Finally, upon ascending to Floor 5, we admired British Sculptors, in which more than forty years of diverse sculpture by artists who were born or reside in Great Britain was displayed.

My favorite was Antony Gormley's "Quantum Cloud VIII," a 1999 steel sculpture that was acquired by the Fisher Family in 2000. According to the sculptor, "Quantum Cloud VIII conceives of the body as a swarm of chaotic energy. A human figure seems to alternately materialize from and disintegrate into the cloud of metal bars."

Created between 1999 and 2009, Gormley's Quantum Cloud series reflects on "how the subatomic particles and energy that make up our bodies are integrated with those that compose the universe around us."

Alexander Calder /
Big Crinkly (1969)

There is much to see and enjoy in the 170,000 square feet of exhibition space, and as members, we look forward to going back often to see some of the things we missed during our initial visit. Some of the current exhibits include:

• Paul Klee in Color, which includes paintings and watercolors by the Swiss-born modernist Paul Klee (1879-1940) that explore "his intuitive and theoretical approaches to color."

• German Art after 1960, which is an overview of leading German artists such as Gerhard Richter, Georg Baslitz, Anselm Kiefer, and Bernd and Hilla Becher.

• Typeface to Interface, which features graphic design from the Collection, "a trajectory of iconic type and the evolution of digital tools marking the rapid transformation of graphic design over the past sixty years."

San Francisco / A city that loves art and open spaces.

In its 81-year history, SFMOMA has established itself as a premier showcase for modern art – think Calder, Close, Kahlo, Kelly, Pollack and Warhol. One things certain: There's definitely a new a positive dedication to openness as the museum begins a new dialogue with San Francisco, a city that loves its art.

To read more about what art critics are saying about the new SFMOMA design:
http://www.dezeen.com/2016/05/18/critics-reaction-san-francisco-museum-modern-art-sfmoma-extension-snohetta-mario-botta/

Photos: All photos by Michael Dickens © 2016.

Independent bookstores: A glimpse into the soul of a city

Contributing to the cultural fabric / Powell's City of Books, Portland, Ore.

The comedian Jerry Seinfeld once said that a bookstore is "one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking."

Thank goodness for bookstores. Thank goodness we are still thinking, too.

Visiting independent bookstores are always a treat because they offer something unique. Whenever I travel, I try to seek them out. They offer a glimpse into the soul of a city and a sense of a pretty cool place to buy a book.

Despite the shuddering of nationwide chain Borders a few years ago and the bland sameness of Barnes & Noble stores throughout the U.S, we can be grateful for the colorfulness of independent bookstores across the country. In cities such as Portland, Ore., independent bookstores like Powell's City of Books – which covers an entire city block and offers maps for its customers – not only are thriving, they contribute to a city's cultural fabric.

READ / Window display outside of
Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle.

A neon READ sign in a window display greets customers as they walk by Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. It's a sign I never tire of photographing each time I visit the bookstore – and I've been coming to Seattle for more than 20 years. With over 120,000 titles to browse, and a spacious interior that includes original fir floors, a beamed ceiling with skylights, and an in-store café, Elliott Bay Book Company is always on our list of places to see – and to buy a book – when we visit our longtime Seattle friends.

Last Saturday, Independent Bookstore Day was celebrated across the United States. It brought to mind the many wonderful and unique independent bookstores I've visited over the years and willingly patronized. A few of them come to mind:

Book Passage in San Francisco's Ferry Plaza Building; Mrs. Dalloway's Literary and Garden Arts in Berkeley; Powell's City of Books in Portland, Ore.; Books & Books  in Coral Gables, Fla.; Lemuria Bookstore in Jackson, Miss.; Faulkner House Books on Pirate's Alley in New Orleans; Common Good Books in Saint Paul, Minn.; and my favorite, Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle.

Bought a good book lately? Remember: Support your local independent bookstore. READ!

Original fir floors, beamed ceilings, plenty of
 books inside Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle.

Tomes Not Drones / Timeless commentary
at Common Good Books, Saint Paul. 

Eat Sleep Read Dig / Window mantra
at Mrs. Dalloway's Literary & Garden Arts,
Berkeley, Calif.

We Recommend ... / Good books,
great atmosphere at Book Passage,
inside the Ferry Plaza Building,
along San Francisco's Embarcadero.

All photos: © Michael Dickens, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016.