International Educators Take on Climate Action

By Inemesit Williams

This year, I’m at the horizon of celebrating being on this planet for nearly half a century as I commemorate 16 years into my second career as an international educator. I help college students study, intern, and volunteer abroad at various worldwide host locations and welcome international students to the United States. That’s thousands, even millions of miles traveled in pursuit of education. As the intersections of climate, racism and global education flooded and merged in my mind, I wondered how I could navigate these junctions in my role as an international educator. I began to ask myself, “What actions can I take individually and collectively to support myself, my community, and the world?” 

Visiting the SDSU Imperial Valley campus for their study abroad fair.

At the center of my personal and professional search to answer this question is the overlapping nature of international education, climate change, and racial justice - a Venn Diagram of interwoven connections. Historically, many well-known climate activist organizations in our society have emphasized climate-centered messaging actions. This tunnel vision focus sidelined societal inequities rooted in systemic racism, leading them to be regarded as less urgent and often separate endeavors in the urgency of climate change. Leaders opted for climate-first rhetoric that relegated frontline environmental experiences and voices to the margins. 

The global pandemic created an unexpected opportunity for us to refocus and encourage change in the climate narrative. It amplified and magnified the measurable disproportionate health disparities, climate impacts, and racial inequities deeply embedded in our societies. Highlighted data and experiences from pioneers such as Dr. Robert Bullard, Peggy Shepard, JoAnn Tall, Dr. Adrienne Hollis, Vernice-Miller Travis, Tom Goldtooth, and more inspired new, young voices to enter into climate and environmental justice activism. Climate advocates began to recenter their actions as Black, Indigenous, Brown representatives, leaders, and organizations claimed their seats at the table, or just made a whole new table altogether.

Adding my new and older voice to the crowd required that I consider the context of my collective educational knowledge as perhaps, a bit dated. To reframe my current perspectives, I committed to self-education. I delved into learning, building a bridge to revisit topics from past learning experiences and create a reparative education pathway through the lens of new, diverse voices and perspectives. There has certainly been plenty of room to navigate the role of both student and teacher concurrently. 

Students at home and those distanced by a border or ocean need resources and tools to understand better how their decisions, voices, and actions can impact our society, our planet, our communities, and their personal growth and experiences. Faculty and academics offer a large expanse of opportunity to develop academic paths to navigate intersecting identities and societal issues; however, staff members are also critical partners in these efforts. As international education practitioners, we can’t distance ourselves from the need to take on these responsibilities. We have to do the work too, which may require us to settle into a space of discomfort as we learn and address something new. We can’t always fall back on what is comfortable and known in our professional areas if we want to move forward to affect change. 

Sisters Ine Williams and Tanea Hibler who have both found their careers in education.

As always, jumping into something new comes with challenges, even sans a pandemic. As I watched the health crisis unfold and politics divide global leaders and inhibit collective action, the death toll of Black people began to rise. I started to view the ongoing deaths and murder of Black people in the U.S. as a type of societal pandemic. Seeing overt and targeted violence toward the Asian American and Pacific Islander community only added to the urgency. Voices have lifted across the nation and worldwide to condemn the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many others. I felt more united on our planet than ever before. Death and harassment of people of color in the U.S., particularly Black people, has been going on for so long without collective external comment that I had not expected to see global solidarity, outrage, and protest around police-sponsored violence and racial harassment. I felt and saw the potential for solidarity in our actions; moreover, I wanted to share my voice in the fight. 

Access to technology allowed me to find my voice when we were sequestered at home. Virtual connections with colleagues worldwide offered new platforms to share diverse perspectives, create new partnerships, and suggest further actions. I found my family of action-driven colleagues when I joined the board of the Climate Action Network for International Educators (CANIE). CANIE is a grassroots organization that Ailsa Lamot and Pii-Tuulia Nikula co-founded to help create awareness of our industry’s impact on climate change. We develop space to share free resources and training. We motivate and advocate for justice-centered action in the international education community. Our small group stepped away from the often siloed communities in higher education to find global connections, reduce actual and perceived boundaries, and generate solidarity within a virtual space. 

The adaptations international education had to make throughout this past year had us crying, laughing, and wringing our hands in concern and frustration. Many teams involuntarily reduced their team size and reprioritized elements of their work. We had to be resilient as we tried new approaches to our work that sometimes failed, but we just got back up and tried again. We connected with our students in new, meaningful ways. Professional development was almost entirely virtual, but we still sought advice from others and created spaces for support. And in this unique bubble of time, we also innovated, initiating and sharing changes that contributed to more diverse, sustainable, and equitable practices. 

Welcoming new international students to SDSU at orientation bowling social event.

The global pandemic created an unexpected opportunity to amplify and magnify measurable disproportionate impacts and highlight and inspire new voices in climate justice activism and global education change. As a Black, bisexual, female international educator a couple of years shy of 50, the pandemic drove my relocation from California to Arizona. This action required a pause in the forward projection of my career path in my home state and offered the best support for my family and time to improve my physical health. Now that I’ve adopted a new home, I am adding my voice from an unexpected location and within a new political arena. Still, I bring my experiences from California and around the world with me, and I am more ready for action than ever before. 

Get involved!
Climate Action Network for International Educators
https://www.can-ie.org/

Free Climate Leadership Training
Climate Reality Leadership Corps Training
https://www.climaterealityproject.org/training

Free Climate Solutions Training
Project Drawdown: Climate Solutions 101
https://drawdown.org/climate-solutions-101

CANIE Event Recordings & Podcasts
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT__0v06wB6t1hmmat9JTrA/videos

The Path Forward for California Public Schools

By Sydney Williams

With vaccines rolling out and COVID numbers trending down, California schools are returning to in-person instruction. With each of the state’s 1,000 school districts opening at varying pace and method, parents are asking similar questions throughout social digital platforms: Is it safe? How prepared is the education system? And more importantly - what support will be available for our children as they endure a COVID-19 pandemic and a pandemic of violence and racism in America?

California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond. Photo courtesy of CDE Communications.

We had the opportunity to interview State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, getting firsthand information on the work that the California Department of Education has been focused on and initiatives they are gearing up to roll out. His team has been in the trenches and hard at work, identifying and addressing opportunity gaps, battling with access and equality disparities, and rushing to find solutions to what many have long called a failing system. In this one-on-one conversation, Superintendent Thurmond is determined and ready to lead a pivot in one of the largest education systems that serves the Generation Z population that has been deeply impacted by some of the most horrifying and unprecedented moments of our time.

“Our parents and their families have had to be co-teachers for our kids in ways that we were not prepared for. Let’s face it. Our education system was not built to be delivered in the way that we have had to do it during this pandemic,” shares Superintendent Tony Thurmond. “We literally moved students to distanced and remote learning overnight to keep everyone safe.”

California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond at Milor High School speaking with students. Photo courtesy of CDE Communications.

The depth and expansiveness of the impact of the pandemic on K-12 students is assumed, but still greatly unknown. What the last year has clearly done was exacerbate existing gaps in the public education system. While the state legislature sets forth regulations, each school district ultimately decides how to address the unique needs of its school-age population. At the onset of the COVID-19 lockdown, the main concern of the Superintendent’s office was that over 1 million students in California did not have access to a computer and high-speed internet, both of which are necessary to participate in classes on an online platform. Low income students and students of color bore the greatest burden in the education system, especially during the learn-at-home period. In response, Thurmond created the Superintendent’s Task Force to Close the Digital Divide just one month after the start of the pandemic. This task force has delivered hundreds of thousands of devices and Wi-Fi hotspots to students across the state, making their at-home education possible.

Over the last year, legislation has been written and introduced to bring more funding to California schools so they can provide resources necessary to address disparities in education and access to learning-related devices. Thurmond and his office are sponsoring Assembly Bill 34 in the upcoming legislative session. If passed, this bill will bring 10 billion dollars to California to create the infrastructure for broadband high-speed networks in parts of the state that don't currently have it. Slowly returning to in-person instruction, many schools across the state are exploring a hybrid system where kids spend a few hours for a few days a week in a classroom with instructors and continue their learning online. Providing space in the classrooms and on campus for social distancing are still top priorities for safety. 

The Superintendent and his team have also led over a dozen school districts towards new equity grants that have come available. These equity grants are designed to directly fund resources to close the opportunity gaps plaguing the state’s schools. Thurmond has now turned back to the state to say: California schools need more funding. Approved by Governor Gavin Newsom on March 5th of this year, Assembly Bill 86 has come through with funds that are available right now for schools to use. The purpose of AB-86 is to bring COVID-19 relief and school reopening, reporting, and public health requirements to California schools. This is a 6.6 billion dollar legislation that has already made available 4.5 billion dollars to help districts close learning gaps. The return to in-person instruction is not being taken lightly. Legislators and voters know that students will need tutoring, educators will need professional development, and that the mental health and well-being of kids and their families are of the utmost importance.  

California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond participating in STEM education with California students (pre-COVID). Photo courtesy of CDE Communications.

“No one had a playbook on how to deal with this. My heart goes out to parents and students. I know how hard this is for them. We have seen an increase in depression for our young people, for our adults. This has been hard on everyone,” shares Thurmond. “I count the start of the pandemic as March 13, 2020. Since that day, we have literally tried to lean in on every single issue that has come up. Even when it is out of our direct control, we’ve had to say - let’s find a resource to help.” During the COVID-19 pandemic, violence and racism spiked across the country, creating an unimaginable strain on students. “We personally raised 5 million dollars from foundations to help with equity grants and grants for education to end social hate. We have watched a spike in hate since the killing of George Floyd, seeing the surge in hate against the AAPI community. We have gone out to foundations and said: schools need resources to have professional development that is anti-racism centered, focused on addressing implicit bias, and we have been able to secure resources to help our districts.” The healing and course-correcting has to begin at schools and students are clamoring for it. 

In 2020, the California Department of Education provided 45 million dollars to school districts through the Community School program, which gave schools the opportunity to use that money to bring in support and mental health services for students. With 9,000 of 10,000 California schools open or preparing to return to in-person instruction, these educational structures are continuing to be built, developed out of necessity. In addition to putting on webinars for the community and school districts to know which agencies have the ability to provide social emotional learning,  Thurmond created a Coalition for Mental Health to figure out how to expand mental health services for students and families.

“We are sponsoring this piece of legislation that will help California access more federal dollars for mental health through its medical program. We have one of the biggest footprints in the Medicaid program, but when it comes to mental health, we have one of the smallest utilization rates for mental health,” Thurmond noted. 

Over the past few years the Superintendent's office has put out over 90 million dollars in grants for restorative justice programs. Thurmond wants to help fund the development of alternatives, particularly to policing and suspensions. Even during the pandemic, we have seen a disproportionate rate of suspensions against African American and Latinx students. 

Another priority is to bring more expansive ethnic studies programs to California schools. The Superintendent's Youth Advisory council has been effective in establishing an avenue in which students can communicate directly with state officials, bringing the most pressing of issues to the forefront of their attention. Through the Council, students expressed a desire to ‘see people that look like us on campus, in our history books, and in our classrooms.’ At that moment, Thurmond committed to creating a mini series on ethnic studies, reintroducing it to students through social media. They brought in speakers from the African American, Latinx, AAPI community, and Native American communities. The students called for change, and the State of California is taking action. Thurmond worked in partnership with the State Board of Education to create what they call a Model Ethnic Studies Curriculum Guide which will serve as an example of what the program that will be provided in every school district in the state will look like. 

“Students should be able to see from their ancestors what their contributions have been instead of the stereotypes they see all around them. It helps build the self-esteem of our students, helps them to perform academically and successfully, so we are continuing to build on those efforts,” Thurmond shared. Through a partnership with the Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJA), they are introducing a new curriculum that will show positive contributions that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have made to society as a way of countering the increase in acts of hate. 

California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond working in the classroom with students (pre-COVID). Photo courtesy of CDE Communications.

Three factors play the largest roles in California public schools’ return to full time in-person instruction. 

1. People must continue to wear masks and to maintain social distance. This has been a huge challenge, but the state is providing resources to upgrade campuses with more ventilation. Even just piping in more outdoor air has a positive effect on mitigating COVID. 

2. Vaccination, vaccination, vaccination. Although there is no legislation that has been introduced that will require COVID vaccination for children to attend public schools, the DOE has instituted their own educational campaign on the vaccine through zoom conversations on its importance, particularly within the Latinx and African American communities. Information travels by word of mouth, so trusted messengers and leaders from Dolores Huerta to Congresswoman Barbara Lee have been brought to the conversation to talk about their vaccine experience - that it’s safe, that it didn’t hurt, and that it’s effective. 

3. Increasing supply, distribution, and access to rapid COVID testing. Providing this will determine if someone is sick within 15 minutes and make it easier to contain them and the spread in the event that a student tests positive. 

As programs roll out, Thurmond emphasized, “I would say great thanks to mothers, parents, families, and teachers for leaning in during what I think has been the toughest moment that most of us will experience in our lifetime.” The struggle for students has been a struggle for parents and educators alike. Remarkably, students have shown incredible resilience and leadership in all aspects of the devastation of 2020. “Our young people are leading. They’re protesting, They’re making their voices heard for police reform, for fairness in voting, for addressing poverty and inequities that have existed for a long time. They bring a fresh perspective to it all. There are so many things about our education system that weren't working for kids anyway, particularly our low income kids and kids of color. I believe we must take this moment to get really clear on better ways to measure learning and promote instruction.” 

Innovation Challenge: the race for broadband everywhere

Thurmond’s office invites innovators, entrepreneurs, researchers, and the California community to submit their ideas on how to close the broadband gap in California. Necessity is the mother of innovation, and California has always been innovation-focused. They are offering a $1 MILLION cash prize for a broadband solution that will help move California forward in equal opportunity for all. Participate in this challenge by sending the Superintendent's office a note at innovationchallenge@cde.ca.gov.

Girls in STEM with Sally Ride Science

By Sydney Williams

The impact of female scientists throughout history has altered the way we understand and interact with the universe. Marie Curie pioneered research in radioactivity and Sara Seager discovered 715 planets beyond our solar system. American physicist and astronaut Sally Ride did more than become the first American woman in outer space. Her legacy, Sally Ride Science, was founded in 2001. Three years after her death in 2012, her for-profit company joined in partnership with UC San Diego, where Ride had been a professor of physics for 20 years. Today,  Sally Ride Science at UCSD carries on Ride’s legacy with innovative programs to promote diversity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), as a nonprofit organization. It encourages all students, and especially girls from underrepresented communities, to become scientifically literate and consider careers in STEM.

The nonprofit has driven countless youth towards investing in their own futures and educating themselves in STEM, a field in constantly growing demand. We had the opportunity to speak with Sally Ride Science senior writer and editor, Margaret King, to bring you an inside perspective on this organization.

Each Sally Ride Science Festival featured a keynote speech by a woman astronaut. Ride is shown talking to girls at a 2009 festival. Sally Ride Science photo.

What was your inspiration in becoming a team member at Sally Ride Science? 

I was a newspaper editor before joining Sally Ride Science in 2009. After working with journalists, who tend to be cynical, I was surprised by how idealistic the Sally Ride Science staff was and how devoted everyone was to Sally’s mission of inspiring students in STEM. I soon recognized that Sally had a quiet charisma. She was a low-key person, but she conveyed a powerful sense of the importance of what we were doing. Even now, as Sally Ride Science celebrates its 20th anniversary, I feel a strong commitment to Sally’s mission and to keeping her legacy alive. 

What programs does Sally Ride Science offer?
These programs, overseen by UC San Diego Extension, include the summer Junior Academy, free STEM workshops with local library branches, professional development courses for educators, and community events, including the annual Women in Leadership panel discussion. (This year it’s a virtual event on May 20.)

Sally Ride Science Junior Academy is a summer program that was launched in 2016, after Sally Ride Science became part of UC San Diego. The academy offers dozens of STEAM (STEM plus arts) workshops for elementary, middle school, and high school students. Topics range from Astrobiology to Marine Biodiversity and from Python Programming to Website Design. Nearly 1,500 students have taken part, many of them on scholarships. Because of the pandemic, this year’s academy, from July 12 to August 6, 2021, will be online.

Girls work on an engineering project at the 2018 Sally Ride Science Junior Academy. The summer program was launched after Sally Ride Science became part of UC San Diego. Margaret King photo.

Can you tell us about how the organization facilitates the engagement of girls in astroscience?
After she became the first American woman in space in 1983, Sally quickly realized that her example was a powerful tool to get girls excited about space exploration and science in general. Later, she and her life partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy, became increasingly concerned about the lack of women in science and engineering careers. They did some research and found that girls have as much ability and interest in science as boys do, but girls tend to drift away from science in late elementary school and middle school. This happens in part because girls don’t see people who look like them in science careers, and they don’t think they belong in science. Trying to narrow the gender gap in STEM fields, Sally and Tam joined with three friends to start a science education company. 

Since its founding 20 years ago, Sally Ride Science has worked to inspire young people in STEM fields in part by showing them real women and men of all backgrounds doing meaningful work in STEM fields. During Sally’s lifetime, the company did this with Sally Ride Science Festivals around the country where girls could hear a keynote speech from a female astronaut. The company also published a Cool Careers in STEM book series and offered training for teachers on how to incorporate diverse role models into their science instruction. Today, as a nonprofit based at UC San Diego, Sally Ride Science continues to inspire students with programs that incorporate diverse STEM role models.

What message do you want to share with young girls and women who have a passion for science?
We have made progress in diversifying STEM studies and careers, but girls and women still face serious obstacles. Girls can be discouraged by negative stereotypes of scientists and by the unconscious biases of parents and teachers. Women pursuing STEM studies and careers often encounter condescension or even harassment. If you are a girl or woman with a passion for science, look for role models who can inspire you and mentors who can support you as you navigate these obstacles to realize your dream.

The staff of Sally Ride Science clowns around in a 2011 photo taken for Ride’s 60th birthday. At center in the light-colored cardigan is Tam O’Shaughnessy, Sally Ride Science cofounder. Sally Ride Science photo.

Women, girls, and people of color are too often left in the shadows when it comes to furthering their education in STEM. Sally Ride Science exists to help close the gap of opportunities and information available to underrepresented and underprivileged populations. This organization - Sally Ride Science - accepts donations and support from the community to continue their efforts to positively impact the lives of future generations. You can join their fight, register your kids for a life changing program, and donate today. 

Skateboarding: A Boys Club No More

Written by Tümay Aslay

It’s a bit of a sonata, hearing the rhythm of plywood against the pavement, of wheels scraping, spinning, lifting off and landing again. Bodies suspended in air, the dance of sneakers and jeans, swooping and gliding into a rhythmic lean - it’s nothing short of an artistic display. They say anyone can pick up a board and ride if they have a strip of pavement but for most of the existence of skateboarding, that hasn’t been the case. The narrative has always been that skateboarding is illegal. Skateboarding is dangerous. Skateboarding is for boys.

Skateboarding is going to the Olympics in July of this year. Sixteen driven and talented athletes, eight of them women, will represent the nation in the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games. As the conversation on gender bias continues to evolve across all fields, it can be said that there's no shortage of groundbreaking women in the skateboarding industry. These women ride for the passion but most importantly, they ride for the greater acceptance in an industry that was not designed for their gender. But it's a boys’ club no more.

Women have been skating for generations, starting in California around the middle of the 20th century. The stories told by legendary skaters like Peggy Oki, Patti McGee, Elissa Steamer, Leo Baker and Lizzie Armanto, and many more unleash the path to resilience, courage, and passion for younger women.

Elissa Steamer in San Francisco 2001. Photo by Pete Thompson.

Creating space for women to make a living in the skate industry hasn’t been an easy journey. Cara-Beth Burnside was the first female skater to get her own signature shoe in 1994 by VANS. Getting your own shoe represents so much more than just footwear for a professional skateboarder; it symbolizes not only an athletic achievement but also, a way to earn money in this career. Elissa Steamer is also another female icon who has been in the game from the beginning, tearing down walls of female stereotypes and making a living wage off it. Steamer’s list of accomplishments in this sport has been paving space for women athletes to compete on the same grounds as men since 1996. 

Kim Woozy is the director of development for Skate Like A Girl SF Bay in the Bay Area, a program designed to empower young women through the sport of skateboarding. She started her career marketing skateboarding shoes in San Diego. “This was exciting because I had the opportunity to help create skate shoes designed for girls, which in 2014 inspired me to start a video production company MAHFIA.TV that focused on girls in skateboarding,” Woozy says. Years later, Woozy formed WSA (Women’s Skateboarding Alliance) with colleagues Yulin Olliver, Mimi Knoop and Lisa Whitaker, a global management and consulting agency that represents the voices of women in the skateboarding world. “Six to eight years ago, there was no such thing as any female skater having an agent. There was no financial value in professional female skateboarding at that point which drove us to form an alliance to represent female athletes,” said Woozy, who has been providing young girls with opportunities to be involved in the skateboarding community for decades.

Kim Woozy during a Skate Like a Girl camp in Oakland, CA. Photo by Tumay Aslay.

Throughout its history, skateboarding has been portrayed as a rebellious sport. “The Olympics are changing that. Suddenly now you have these much larger companies investing in female athletes,'' Woozy says. Sponsorships and endorsement opportunities are only the beginning. Women athletes are finally getting the recognition they deserve. It’s not frowned upon anymore. It’s in the Olympics now. Woozy also points out that the growing numbers of female skateboarders, women-run brands, and positive reinforcement created organically through the youth programs are long overdue.

Meet Bay Area native Amy Yu. Photo courtesy of Amy Yu. 

In a time when our social media has been filled with images from skate culture, the reason for 27 year-old Bay Area native Amy Yu’s interest in picking up skateboarding is clear: to build confidence. As Yu put it, “I’ve just always had an interest in subcultures. It’s a male-dominated sport, and you don’t really see a lot of females at the parks. It kind of feels empowering being on a skateboard. I’ve admired the sport for so long and thought it was about time for me to finally learn. It can be intimidating to be the only girl at the skatepark, but I’ve discovered that I can be in my head too much and that I need to stop being my own worst enemy. Nothing beats the feeling of putting yourself out there and succeeding.” 

Skateboarding is not just a sport, but a form of art as each athlete creates their own unique style as they ride. It’s a form of dance that has been yearning for some much-needed diversity and girl power. Women are leaving their fears behind and heading to skateparks to build a sisterhood. A bond is being created over their common love for skating and their desire for less rules. This kind of sisterhood will change skateboarding forever.

Uplifting Earth

By Polina Smith

In honor of Earth Day, we celebrate California artists who draw inspiration from the breathtaking beauty and majesty of the natural world. With our very existence under threat every day by those who wield inexorable power over our industries and economies, artists are left with nowhere to turn but toward activism. This has led to a blossoming renaissance of art inspired by nature, not as a distraction, but as a means of prompting discussions as our environment remains under siege.

Activism has blended with the arts so seamlessly as to complement the beauty of each equally. Local artists have been tackling issues of communal negligence through art, inviting viewers to think and act to save nature, communities and ourselves. Even as we celebrate Earth Day from home this year, we are helped by artists to acknowledge the ways in which our environment can generate and regenerate life, even in the darkest and bleakest of times.

Ellie Barber

Singer-songwriter, cellist, and graphic designer

Ellie celebrates her passion for the environment through art. With a background both in the arts and natural sciences, Ellie has used her talents to create opportunities for the two fields to intersect. With acknowledgements and features from such prestigious publications as Yale Climate Connections and CleanTechnica, and institutions such as NASA, the Aspen Global Change Institute, and the Heising-Simons Foundation, Barber creates breathtaking work that serves as fuel for the climate justice movement. Follow Ellie’s beautiful work on Instagram and take a listen on Spotify.

Mia Pixley

Cellist, composer, and vocalist

Mia is a clinical psychologist and artist who uses her cello, voice, and performance style to playfully study and represent aspects of self and other, community, and the natural world. Mia is set to release her first full length album, “Margaret in the Wild”, a project unabashedly inviting all of us to move toward nature - within and beyond. Mia’s music is a transcendental balm for the soul, available on Spotify.

With ‘Ethyl the Big Blue Whale’ sculpture, artists Yustina Salnikova and Joel Dean Stockdill decided to literalize their commitment to conservation and their stance against ocean pollution with a sculpture that is equal parts artistic endeavor and political statement.

‘Ethyl the Big Blue Whale’ sculpture glows from inside at Crissy Field, San Francisco. Photo credit Building 180

Yustina Salnikova, artist and co-creator of Ethyl sculpture 

Spanning 82 feet and occupying a tract of space so large as to become impossible to ignore, ‘Ethyl the Big Blue Whale’ is a life-sized sculpture created from steel and plastic trash. It reflects the desire of these two artists to express the magnitude of ocean pollution and the drastic stakes of our collective inaction. The name Ethyl refers to the type of plastic used (High-Density Polyethylene), which is common in plastic milk jugs and laundry detergent containers. The scale of the sculpture was based on an actual whale that washed up on the beach in Bolinas, California. Watch this fascinating video about Ethyl and the process of bringing her to life, which was commissioned by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Originally displayed at San Francisco’s Crissy Field, Ethyl the Big Blue Whale has since been acquired by the Meow Wolf art center in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

As we confront the climate catastrophes that threaten our future and cast a shadow of impending doom over our everyday existence, it is no surprise that artists and creatives seek to express both their reverence for nature and their fear that its most beautiful qualities are being pulled out from under our feet. As we watch nature erode, we have few places to turn to for comfort. These artists and many more provide an outlet for our collective grief and a chance to practice hope and perseverance.

Limitless

Move Over Media Men – Time’s Up to Make Way for Women

By Kim Christensen

Over the last four years, the #MeToo movement has jolted the media industry, setting off a seismic reckoning by exposing sexual harassment, violence, and discrimination that have gone on far too long. Calls to smash the casting couch, dismantle patriarchy, diversify the industry and generally clean house rang out from coast to coast. What has been accomplished so far? Turns out quite a lot!

This industry shake up has cracked open new opportunities for women and people of color in media. Corporate media CEOs are finally getting the message that management must change and the same old boys club won’t cut it. New slots have suddenly opened up for women, thanks to brave whistleblowers and activists protesting and demanding change. Women are grabbing new opportunities to show their talent at the anchor desk, behind the camera, on production teams, as showrunners, in writers’ rooms, executive suites, starring roles, and even in late night comedy.

Here are just a few of the amazing new shows by talented women who have made a media splash in recent years. Make a point to watch and signal boost these women and their phenomenal shows to keep the good momentum going. The feminist future looks bright with these talented women on the scene, but they are going to need back up with loud and enthusiastic audiences demanding more, more more progress in media. For now, take a feminist victory lap and enjoy!

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Shows by Women Changing the Media Landscape – from News to Comedy to Late Night

• The Amber Ruffin Show on Peacock

• A Little Late with Lilly Singh on NBC

• Robin Thede’s A Black Lady Sketch Show on HBO

• Issa Rae’s Insecure on HBO

• Shrill on Hulu, created by Lindy West and Aidy Bryant

• Rebel on ABC, inspired by life of Erin Brokovitch

• Queen Sugar on OWN by Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey

• Joy Reid’s The Reidout on MSNBC

• American Voices with Alicia Menendez on MSNBC

• Tiffany Cross, the Cross Connection on MSNBC

• Abby Phillip’s Inside Politics on CNN

• Zerlina Maxwell’s Zerlina. The Choice on Peacock TV

Big executive moves have been made at major networks, bringing fresh perspectives and power players into position. Kim Godwin was hired to become President of ABC News this month, while Rashida Jones became the new President of MSNBC News last year, leading to a bunch of fresh faces, perspectives and shows on the air. And in a real sign of the changing times, #MeToo movement founder Tarana Burke has landed a development deal with CBS Studios to tell stories of underrepresented voices! 

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