From June 23 - 30, 2008, a team of art educators and photographers from the US will live within the community and work with teenagers of the city of Nezahualcóyotl, a sprawling dusty expanse of low-income housing, and the second most populous municipality in the state of México.
Ciudad Neza is also considered among one of the most dangerous places in Mexico, due to rampant crime in the area.
Photographers will teach students, ages 13-17, photojournalism and story-telling skills, while creating awareness about social issues present in their lives.
As always, Project Luz needs the support of their friends and art community to succeed. They are currently seeking donations of old or new digital cameras to provide for their students. If you feel you can donate or assist them in obtaining camera donations, please contact:
Jasmin@ProjectLuz.org
or call
55 3051 6097 (Mexico)
415.335.4631 (US)
For further information: www.ProjectLuz.org
Participating Photographers In This Project:
Dante Busquets, Oscar Castillo, Livia Corona, Brian Frank, Nikola Okin Frioli, Darcy Holdorf, Russell Monk, David Paul Morris, Michael Mullady, Jessica Pons, Marcela Taboada, Holly Wilmeth.
Relying On Memory
August 20th, 2007
At times when the weather turns bad, like really bad, I have to sit down and reflect for a moment.
There is a hurricane bearing down on The Yucatan peninsula tonight. I can only sit on my comfortable couch in San Francisco and think about what that means. It’s not that we have a shortage of natural disasters here in SF, they just usually don’t announce themselves a week ahead of time. Earthquakes and windstorms are rather be here now that way.
Hurricanes on the other hand are different. We can track them now. Know where they might go. Know if they will build in strength or just peter out before hitting one of the most interesting places on the planet. Although I’m not talking about that Babylon called Cancun. I’m talking about all that is beautiful and interesting along the long shore of the peninsula, the jungle inland and the people, some of them magical, who live there. It looks like tonight is going to be a full on storm hitting the peninsula dead center.
The water of the Caribbean coast of the peninsula is the most incredible color of blue. As a painter, I can say that it’s a blue that can never be painted, although many have tried, because it can only exist in nature, and in that one place. The water kind of glows, as if it is actually back lit, or as if it is lit from underneath, rather than from the sun above. Palm trees line the beach, a beach made of white fluffy sand. Pangas rock gently on the small waves of the sea.
The stone ruins of Tulum that drop over the cliff and into the sea have survived a eight-hundred or so years of storms, I’m sure they will survive this hurricane too.
It’s hard to know that this special place may be hit hard. I take comfort in the knowledge that, as all things in nature do, the area will actually survive the storm.
Chichen-Itza Is A New Wonder Of The World
July 15th, 2007
One of my favorite spots on the planet was elected as a New 7 Wonders of the World last week. I am a little late in reporting this bit of news from July 7th, but since it is only one of the two places on the list that I have visited, I wanted to mention it.
Personally, I think that in this contest of sorts, Chichen-Itza represents all of the archaeological site on the Yucatan peninsula rather than just this one site. Chichen-Itza just happens to have had the most visitors of all of the sites there. Many of the Maya sites are just as incredible, or maybe more so, than Chichen. Uxmal, Coba, Palenque … all are pretty fascinating and well worth visiting if you happen to ever get to the area.
My story on visiting Chichen-Itza
New Information on Site
April 9th, 2007
Over the weekend I was a little wanting for something to do so I wandered around Berkeley, where I’ve been staying for the last year, and checked out some Places to Stay. If I had to choose between staying in San Francisco or staying in Berkeley, for sure I would choose San Francisco. The hotels in Berkeley seem to be completely centered around the university, both in location and in services. San Francisco has a lot more variety and things to do. And I don’t think it’s any less expensive to stay in Berkeley.
I had someone ask me how to make Pico di Gallo and it occurred to me that someone else out there may want to know how to make it so I wrote up the recipe, such as it is, for this Mexican staple. It’s really just a lot of chopping!
Enjoy!
