Announcing that my work will be on display at Kejara’s Bridge in Lake Leelanau through the month of April.
The show is loosely titled “Food, Games and Celebrations” The three universals. Whether it is for a bowl of noodles in China, a traditional dance in Rwanda or a gathering of the community for a movie under the stars in Michigan, we live for the moments that bring us together. My favorite photography focuses on these moments. The images on display represent some of what I’ve been blessed to experience.
Kejara’s bridge is located at 202 West Main Street, Lake Leelanau, MI 49653 Phone: 231.256.7720
Listen to the commentary: CHOKE-FREE TC?
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I produced an audio commentary for Radio Anyway this weekend. The subject, Smokefree Ordinances, and their place in bars and restaurants. You may have 
recently heard that the Grand Traverse County Commission voted down a proposal which would have banned smoking in area workplaces—for the time being bars and restaurants are exempt from local smoking bans under state law. But the Traverse City Commission has moved forward and is urging the state to allow local governments to include bars and restaurants. (Click here to read a draft of the TC Letter to area State Senators PDF)
There has been a debate playing out in the local editorial papers, and amongst many on the street. The idea seems repulsive to some, and to others, well, it just makes sense. Smokefree ordinances in Traverse City may be a long ways away, but other cities, states and, in some cases, entire nations like Ireland, France and the SAR Hong Kong, all smoking meccas, are enacting them.
Click here for a list of restaurants that have already gone Smokefree in Michigan.
NOTE: Producing this piece was difficult. There was a lot I could have added, and somethings I wish I would have stated a little differently, but the commentary was a result of several conversations and interviews, and a lot of reading up on the subject of secondhand smoke and, as you will hear, a little philosophy.
Published the day I returned from Rwanda (February 25th), I thought the following article covered much of what I saw and experienced while in Rwanda.
This is a story about gourmet coffee and genocide. It takes place in Rwanda by Alex Renton…The article goes more in depth in finding perspectives on the question of the shadow of the civil war, the coffee industry in Rwanda and the larger questions surrounding Fairtrade. The focus on only the highly celebrated Abahazumugambi Bakawa co-operative that produces the Maraba coffee is not reflective of all that is Fairtrade in Rwanda. Fairtrade is an emerging concept in Rwanda.
The USAID funded projects in Rwanda have been criticized for providing money without organization and creating a myopic perception that the answer to better quality beans, and higher prices, is simply building washing stations. Rwanda’s small individual coffee farmers, who often manage less than 200 trees, are ideally set up to work in cooperatives and to produce organic, shade grown coffee on the Fairtrade market. Yet, there isn’t a wide acceptance or appreciation to the above agricultural concepts in the ministry of agriculture or among the producer cooperatives. Money to purchase each farmer a cow, for fertilizer, and some macadamia and other tree saplings, for shade, would go a long way in helping to produce high quality beans that the specialty market demands.
