In addition to video production, I am also a writer. Here are a couple writing samples of contributions I've made to the popular arts and culture website, Broke-Ass Stuart. 

https://brokeassstuart.com/2018/09/06/hopeful-stories-in-dark-times-the-sf-green-film-festival/ 

https://brokeassstuart.com/2022/05/03/bikes-and-bats-golden-gate-park/

I began collaborating with NorCal Public Media as a segment producer for their series, "Bay Area Bountiful," following environmental stories in the San Francisco Bay Area. I produced and edited this segment about the youth leaders of Literacy for Environmental Justice, working to make the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco greener, cleaner and more beautiful. Enjoy!  

The New York Times published an article about the five things that cities can do to fight record temperatures resulting from climate change. Planting more trees tops the list. Last semester, I wrote a paper on the benefits of planting more street trees in cities for my Ecology class at City College of San Francisco. Benefits include: neighborhood cooling, neighborhood beautification, pedestrian safety, wildlife habitat and biodiversity, groundwater management, carbon sequestration, and more. I interviewed Luis Gutierrez, owner of La Reyna Bakery on 24th Street in the Mission District, who successfully saved the mature ficus trees in front of his shop. 

You can read my paper here!

Loving Street Trees in the Time of Climate Change

I have been pursuing a certificate in Sustainability with a focus on climate change at City College of San Francisco for the last two years. I've had to write a lot of term papers, and I realized some of my research and findings could be useful to more than just me and my professor. So I'll be posting some interesting papers here and sharing them for San Franciscans and urbanites to read. It's helpful to think about our shared ecosystem and how climate change and an increased human population affects all habitants. Here's my latest paper on birds in San Francisco. Enjoy and let me know what you think. Feel free to share!

Bird Biodiversity v. Urban Development in San Francisco

I've had the opportunity to collaborate on simple call to action videos for non-profit clients, usually with very limited budgets. When working with bootstrapped clients, my advice is to always keep it simple, and PLAN AHEAD. The more planning the client can do for an upcoming production, the fewer hours spent in post-production. The more hours saved, the lower the overall cost. Here are some recent examples of simple call-to-action videos created for non-profit clients. 

As a dedicated bicycle advocate, I'm going of my comfort zone to talk about electric cars. I had an opportunity recently to collaborate with Golden Gate Electric Vehicle Association to produce a webinar for Interfaith Power and Light about the environmental, ethical and financial benefits of ditching your old internal combustion engine vehicle for a sleek, modern EV. As a student of climate change, I took advantage of this opportunity to offer some basic climate facts that I think every human on this planet should know. I also offer info on how electric vehicles can save you lots of MONEY. You'll also find a bit of spiritual inspiration in this webinar. I hope you enjoy it. Now I'm not saying you should ditch your bicycle for an EV, but if you are one of those people who absolutely NEEDS a car, then it's time to do the right thing for the planet and future generations and be an EV evangelist!

My interview with Corky Quirk about her continued work rescuing bats and educating people about their environmental, social and financial benefits was published in the magazine Wild Hope! You can order one online here. Or you can download the pdf below. 

This year, I've taken a deeper dive into my meaning of life. For years, I have been a bike advocate. From my blog Velo Vogue, to my film series Velo Visionaries, I have participated in the conversation about how bicycles make our lives better, and why we need safer streets. My commitment to the bicycle way of life led the way to going back to school to study sustainability and climate change. I feel even more committed to promoting riding bicycles, especially among women, as a serious solution to our climate crisis. Lately, my independent work has led me to collaborate on some great projects relative to my own personal mission. First up is Human Streets, founded by journalist Bryan Goebel. I collaborated with photographer Adrienne Johnson to create a new series, Women Just Want To Be Safe.

Women Just Wanna Be Safe profiles women cyclists in San Francisco. We will interview and photograph women from all districts and population groups in San Francisco to find out why they ride a bike, or why they don’t. We will explain why some women give up cycling and reveal the ways in which San Francisco government has failed time and again to make streets safe for women. We’ll dive deep into women’s stories, and show why they make the transportation choices that they do, to bike or not. We’ll feature all types of women: from mothers to daughters, from tech workers to retirees, from women warriors to the wounded. Stay tuned for a new episode in December. 

Next up, I created a video for People Protected Bike Lanes featuring an event they organized on the Embarcadero Bike Lane.

The video was made possible by Spin Bikeshare. Looking forward to making streets safer for cyclists, and raising awareness about how bike infrastructure can help solve climate change.

I went a little bit out of my element this past weekend and attended a dance theater workshop with one of San Francisco's most passionate artists, choreographer and artistic director Joe Goode. I've seen a few of Joe's performances over the years – most recently "Poetics of Space," which was more of an interactive experience than a performance. Audience members witnessed and participated in outpourings of passion in small spaces with the performers, sometimes as intimate as one-on-one exchanges. For me, the result was transformative. At a time when I've been so frustrated with the rapid change that has been happening in my city, when I attended this performance, I felt that I reconnected with the heart of San Francisco, right in the same location where it always has been, in that one block of Alabama Street between 17th and Mariposa – a community filled with artist studios, experimental theater and dance that has inspired me for decades. It's all still there. Still funky and quirky. Still surprising and inspiring. Still surviving and thriving against the odds.

So when I saw that Joe Goode was offering a workshop called "Start Simple" that was open to everyone, not just dancers or performers, I knew that I needed to go. I needed to heal my heart and soul through a weekend of practicing what Joe calls felt experience and embodied sound.

As a filmmaker, my art is mostly removed from any physical expression, which is probably why I need to balance myself out by practicing dance and yoga in my personal time. When I watch the Joe Goode performers, I'm inspired by how passionate their movement is, and how pure their verbal expression. The slightest touch carries the most profound emotion, and everyday words become unforgettable. 

During the fourteen hours we spent during the Start Simple workshop with Joe and one of his dancers Marit Brook-Kothlow, we explored how to create powerful collisions between our words and our movements, how to use our voices in a lyrical way, and how to draw inspiration from our surroundings and add meaning to it. The workshop certainly pushed my boundaries because I am used to hiding in a dark room full of people while my art is projected on a wall. In the edit room, I weave together other people's faces and voices to tell a story, but I'm too afraid to be the one in the spotlight. The truth is – I am petrified of pouring out my soul in front of a group of people. I don't ever want to feel that vulnerable. 

I learned a few things this weekend about how to overcome that fear. First, I found it easier to perform with a partner. Realizing that my partner needed me in order to tell his story, I knew I had to be there for him. I also really enjoyed combining movement with spoken word; the release of physical energy relieved my nerves while I told my story.

I learned from Marit that proximity to my audience and making direct eye contact with a few people removes the separation from audience and performers. The performer invites the spectator into a direct conversation, which doesn't seem artificial at all, and much more like the way we normally communicate with everyone we meet in our every day lives. We are no longer on stage and being judged. Art is no longer out there and something that they do, but something we embody and feel. 

Joe led us through some writing exercises that would help us shape our stories. Although I felt a little guilty over the subjects he asked us to write about (people in our lives), I realized later that I can parlay this technique into whatever I write, sing, dance or make films about. For example, in personifying the Earth, I dive deep into my relationship with her. What would she say are my greatest misgivings? If I could change one thing about her, what would it be? And how do I communicate this story to others? How do invite people to enter that space with me? Such techniques for dance and theatrical expression can be translated into film of any genre about any subject. And I look forward to doing more of that.

The bottom line is this: I was drawn to the workshop because I have been feeling frustrated. I've been angry about what is happening in San Francisco and I wanted to participate in the City that I cherish. I dove into the creative process of Joe Goode, and the repercussions of this weekend will continue to ripple throughout my life and work. I'm grateful to live in a city where I can explore new pathways into the soul and touch the creative energies of great artistic shepherds.

Thank you Joe and Marit for an incredibly mind-body-soul expanding weekend right here at home.

For the Catalyst Workshop, we had to present what's called a Pecha Kucha, a short presentation about a particular subject. For most of us, it was our first time doing something like this, so the Catalyst leaders gave us some suggestions. I chose to talk about storytelling, my story and how it relates to ocean conservation. Contrary to what you might think, I prefer to hide behind the scenes instead of being a public speaker. So after scripting and presenting, I thought I might share my Pecha Kucha with all of you. Enjoy!

What’s my story? I am a spiritual being here on earth having a human experience. My story began right here, and since then, I’ve made 44 revolutions around the Sun and I still call 37 degrees North, 122 degrees West home.

This photo I call The Sun, the Earth, the Moon and the Stars. I took it in Golden Gate Park one morning. Capturing small moments like this makes me love the planet we live on more and more.

And what we love, we must protect! Because I am a filmmaker, I feel deeply that my films must represent my passions and worldview and that we must practice what we preach.

I chose filmmaking because I wanted to express my passions through sight, sound, color and rhythm. But even though I love my creative endeavors, I often have to work on projects that don’t match my value system. 

I understand that we humans are part of nature and we need to forge a new relationship with it. And I also understand that we need to reach new audiences in a way that catalyzes systemic and behavioral change. But how do we reach new audiences? How do we engage them in a new story about our relationship with nature?

The earth’s surface is 71% water and the oceans hold 96.5% of that water. But water also exists in the air, in lakes, rivers, glaciers and in the soil. Even our bodies are 60% water. Our brain and heart are 73% water. Our lungs are 83% water. Our skin 64%.

So we humans are water! We evolved out of the oceans. This is Yemenja, the goddess of the sea, portrayed here in human form, or mermaid form. Let’s say she is the hero of our new story. If she is the hero, is humanity the villain?

Or maybe Yemenja is like Yoda, like a bodhisattva whispering to us as we gaze at the seashore, telling us what we already know. That we are all connected, and that we humans have a certain responsibility to protect the planet we call home and the other species we share it with.

In order to protect the earth, we need to change. If we are to envision the complete shift that the human race needs to make to ensure a livable planet for future generations of all species, what does that shift look like? Where are we headed? What's in store for us? What's at stake?

Because I’m only one human, I don’t know what the conclusion of this story is. Maybe it’s a never ending story. Just like the earth, the story is always evolving. And what we think might be the end is just a new beginning.