SoCal VegFest Oct 20-21, 2018 (Orange County, CA) | ‘Single best way’ to reduce your impact on Earth

Hi everyone,

The recently released United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report alarmed many, even though some critics stated it continued to be an understatement of the urgent ecological emergency we are living in. Obviously, we need to stop using fossil fuels. Additionally, over a decade ago, the U.N. reported that a fast transition to veganism globally was a necessity and that same message was echoed recently by a 2018 Oxford study published in Science: Avoiding meat and dairy is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on Earth.

Here’s the good news. The 4th Annual SoCal VegFest is this coming weekend (11am-6pm, Saturday, October 20 & Sunday October 21). Here is your chance to have fun while doing good for yourself and others. This amazing event at the OC Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa has grown bigger each year and offers an amazing array of super-tasty vegan foods, cruelty-free products, inspiring speakers and entertainment.

This year, a student organized exhibit, Vegan 101, has been added to SoCal VegFest for those who want to know how to just get started. That is where you are likely to find me hanging out, so please come say “hi”.

BTW for those of you who enjoyed Connecting the Dots: Finding Compassion Despite Our Differences last April, our volunteer planning team is now forming for doing a similar event at CSU Fullerton in early 2019. Get in touch if you want to volunteer and help us with this effort.

See you soon!

In the spirit of Ubuntu,

Barbara English, LMFT, CBT, TRE® Certification Trainer
Co-founder and Executive Director, Living Ubuntu
livingubuntu.org | facebook | donate »
living vegan (facebook)
sogivemeanf.com | so give me an f (facebook)
(949) 891-2005
[Ubuntu] n. We belong to the greater whole.

Find people who regulate you well and stay near them (June 2018 events)

Adults remain social animals: they continue to require a source of stabilization outside themselves. …in some important ways people cannot be stable on their own.…
Total self-sufficiency turns out to be a daydream….
Stability means finding people who regulate you well and staying near them.
– Charney et al

Hi everyone,

What are you doing on Saturday, June 16? A bunch of us are taking a day trip to visit Farm Sanctuary in Acton. If you have never been there, it is a wonderful place, so you might want to come with us.

We filled up super fast for the number of spots we reserved on the tour. If you want to come, but did not register on Eventbrite yet, let us know by adding your name to the Eventbrite Wait List. We will do our best to accommodate everyone, but that means, we need you to let us know you want to be there. Do not hesitate, carpool arrangements will be getting finalized at the end of this week. So the time to tell us you want ‘in’ is now (or very soon).

June has many additional interesting things happening, so scroll down for a few more Upcoming Community Events.

In the spirit of Ubuntu,

Barbara English, LMFT, CBT, TRE® Certification Trainer
Co-founder and Executive Director, Living Ubuntu
livingubuntu.org | facebook | donate »
living vegan (facebook)
(949) 891-2005
[Ubuntu] n. We belong to the greater whole.

:::UPCOMING COMMUNITY EVENTS:::

SoCal VegFest: “Plant Fest“ (or on Facebook) — free!
Saturday June 2 & Sunday June 3, 10:00a.m. – 3:00p.m. each day
Irvine

Neighborhood Congregational Church: “World Peace & Justice Weekend – A Two Day Oasis of Compassion“
Saturday June 9 & Sunday June 10
Laguna Beach
* Audrey Waight, Art Trey Carlisle & Barbara English will present: “Healing the Disconnect: Caring for the Earth as a Whole” on Saturday afternoon

Living Ubuntu: “Field Trip from Orange County to Visit Farm Sanctuary in Acton“
Saturday, June 16, 10:00 a.m. – 6:00p.m.
Acton

Animal Rights National Conference
Thursday June 28 – Sunday July 1
Los Angeles
* Gene Baur, Synthian Sharp & Barbara English will present: “So Give Me An F” on Friday morning

“So Give Me An F” | Trip to Farm Sanctuary June 16, 2018

Hi everyone,

In July 2015, the OC Register featured an article about Bruno Barba, a Fullerton Joint Union High School student enrolled in FFA (Future Farmers of America) who found a home for his “project” Lola-Pig at Farm Sanctuary. Bruno resisted the “it’s what we do” conventionality that all of his peers followed, i.e. choosing life for Lola instead of slaughter. While some might consider him to be an upstander or hero, a rare high school student exercising critical thinking in order to make his own “best” or “right” decision, what was his instructor’s response? “We definitely don’t encourage it.”

Reading the article in 2015 was the first time I became aware that we had these programs in the local area. At face value it just seemed like a really bad idea: bad for humans, bad for non-humans, bad for planet earth. How could we possibly be asking children to raise and bond with animals then send them off to slaughter for financial profit? At a time of well-known looming eco-catastrophe globally, why the adherence to such an old-school model, and who is benefiting from keeping it going? Not to mention the animals themselves living in a cleaned up version of factory farming, deemed commodities, and killed at the end of the semester? All for academic credit?

After a conversation with Gene Baur (Co-founder of Farm Sanctuary), I decided to learn more about this type of agricultural curriculum being taught in the public school system. I met with Bruno and his mom, Dulce, as well as others. The more I learned, the more I felt deeply creepy-disturbed, and the more I realized I was not alone in my prior ignorance. These issues desperately needed and still need exposure. In 2016, Living Ubuntu started working with Synthian Sharp and commenced filming. Two years later, we are in the final stages of film editing. We intend to release “So Give Me An F” as a feature length documentary film later this year.

I am very happy to announce that Gene Baur, Synthian Sharp, and I will be discussing “So Give Me An F” (and screening a *new* sneak-peak clip from the film) at the upcoming Animal Rights National Conference in Los Angeles, June 28 – July 1 (early registration ends May 7). Consider joining us at the conference.

We need your support.
We need to launch a web site for the film, create promotional materials to help get the word out, pay for film festival entrance fees, and distribution costs.
Your financial contribution would be greatly appreciated — donate here.

Also, on Saturday, June 16, we will be taking a day trip, car pooling from Orange County, to visit Farm Sanctuary in Acton.
For full event details, please see Eventbrite and sign up there if you want to join us. FYI: space is limited and has been filling up very quickly.

In the spirit of Ubuntu,
Barbara English, LMFT, CBT, TRE® Certification Trainer
Co-founder and Executive Director, Living Ubuntu
livingubuntu.org | facebook | donate »
living vegan (facebook)
(949) 891-2005
[Ubuntu] n. We belong to the greater whole.

Carl Wilkens (4/25/18), TRE (4/28/18), and a trip to Farm Sanctuary – join us?

Differences are not intended to separate, to alienate.
We are different precisely in order to realize our need of one another.
– Desmond Tutu

Hi everyone,

The April events have been great so far, especially, “Connecting the Dots: Finding Compassion Despite Our Differences“. We have received a lot of incredibly positive feedback about the event and several have expressed their desire for it to become something we do annually. We invite you to join our planning team as we take some time to reflect on that idea and ponder the possibilities. Meanwhile, we have two more events this month.

First, a gentle reminder:
An Evening with Carl Wilkens: Beyond Genocide, Respect-Empathy-Inclusion, Wednesday, April 25, 7:30pm-9:30pm.
FREE ADMISSION | EVENT DETAILS & REGISTRATION.

April included many topics that are emotionally challenging. It felt important to end the month with an opportunity to come together and ‘release’. Please join us for:
Intro to Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE®): Connection, Compassion & Community, Saturday, April 28, 6:00pm – 9:00pm.
FREE ADMISSION | VEGAN REFRESHMENTS | EVENT DETAILS & REGISTRATION. (All are welcome: first-timers and those who have already learned.)

Some of you joined us last May when we visited Farm Sanctuary. We had a great time that day! Since Gene Baur, Co-founder of Farm Sanctuary, was recently here speaking at two of our local events, we wanted to invite you to join us as we visit Farm Sanctuary in Acton again this year, on a weekend, possibly in early June, date: TBD. We will leave mid-morning from Orange County in a carpool, arrive in Acton mid-day, picnic on the grounds with BYO vegan lunch, then take a private Farm Sanctuary tour ($10 to FS per person). Would you like to come with us? Send an email to: info@livingubuntu.org and we will make sure to include you.

In the spirit of Ubuntu,
Barbara English, LMFT, CBT, TRE® Certification Trainer
Co-founder and Executive Director, Living Ubuntu
livingubuntu.org | facebook | donate »
living vegan (facebook)
(949) 891-2005
[Ubuntu] n. We belong to the greater whole.

 

Carl Wilkens in Fullerton April 25, 2018 (GWC Peace Conference tomorrow)

“…we’ve got to recognize in each one of us, there’s such a potential for good and there’s such a potential for evil…”

 – Carl Wilkens

Hi everyone,

I will never forget the first time I watched the 2004 PBS Frontline documentary, “Ghosts of Rwanda“. Among the many horrific heartbreaking and gut-wrenching stories, listening to Carl Wilkens was incredibly inspirational. A missionary living in Rwanda before the genocide, he got his family to safety when danger became obvious, and then was the only American that chose to stay in Rwanda throughout the genocide. In 2009 I had the great privilege of participating in the Carl Wilkens Fellowship inaugural class and this gave me the great pleasure of meeting and getting to know Carl. Many lives were saved due to his compassionate and courageous decision to stay. A few years ago, one of my Facebook friends in Rwanda, someone I had never met in person, sent me a message after seeing me post something about Carl. The Facebook friend said, “He saved my life!” and I asked to hear the story that wound up giving me chills. I found out he was one of 200 hundred children in a Rwanda orphanage, surrounded by genocidaires armed with machetes, moments from being attacked and slaughtered. It was only by Carl’s quick thinking that they were saved. If you do not know this story, it is one of many worth hearing from Carl directly. Watch the video excerpt.

 

Please join us for An Evening with Carl Wilkens: Beyond Genocide, Respect-Empathy-Inclusion Wednesday, April 25, 7:30pm – 9:30pm. Admission is free. Register on Eventbrite.

Also, the vegan & zero waste GWC Peace Conference is tomorrow. See details below. Living Ubuntu will be tabling so please come visit us. (In fact, I have not found a volunteer to help tend the table with me yet. Anyone interested?)

In the spirit of Ubuntu,
Barbara English, LMFT, CBT, TRE® Certification Trainer
Co-founder and Executive Director, Living Ubuntu
livingubuntu.org | facebook | donate »
living vegan (facebook)
(949) 891-2005
[Ubuntu] n. We belong to the greater whole.

:::UPCOMING EVENTS:::

Peace and the Global Economy: Emerging Issues & Practical Solutions – 12th Annual Golden West College Peace Conference – tomorrow!
Friday, April 20, 8:30pm – 5:00pm
Huntington Beach

An Evening with Carl Wilkens: Beyond Genocide, Respect-Empathy-Inclusion
Wednesday, April 25, 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Fullerton

Intro to TRE: Connection, Compassion & Community
Saturday, April 28, 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Irvine

 

Human Flow – tonight (4/12/18), Gene Baur – tomorrow (4/13/18), Connecting the Dots – Sunday (4/15/18)

Hi everyone,

Just a few friendly reminders:

A Screening of “Human Flow” — tonight!
Thursday, April 12, 6:00pm – 9:30pm
Huntington Beach

An Evening with Gene Baur: Increasing Compassion, Sustainability & Equity in our Food System — tomorrow!
Friday, April 13, 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Fullerton

Connecting the Dots: Finding Compassion Despite Our Differences — Sunday!
Sunday, April 15, 12:00pm – 5:00pm
Santa Ana

Space is limited. Please pre-register to save your spot and reduce the length of time you spend in line at check in.

In the spirit of Ubuntu,

Barbara English, LMFT, CBT, TRE® Certification Trainer
Co-founder and Executive Director, Living Ubuntu
livingubuntu.org | facebook | donate »
living vegan (facebook)
(949) 891-2005
[Ubuntu] n. We belong to the greater whole.

April 15, 2018 “Connecting the Dots” – be there to amplify their voices – Register today!

 

diversity asks: who’s in the room

equity responds: who’s trying to get in the room but can’t, and whose presence in the room is under constant threat of erasure

inclusion asks: have everyone’s ideas been heard?

justice responds: whose ideas won’t be taken seriously because they aren’t in the majority
– Intercultural Communication Institute

Hi everyone,

Sometimes the obvious isn’t. In a culture that seems obsessed with bootstraps, Dr. Martin Luther King once said:

“It’s a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his bootstraps. And many Negroes, by the thousands and millions, have been left bootless … as the result of a society that deliberately made his color a stigma…” (video) 

It is only a week away. Please register now for Sunday, April 15, Connecting the Dots: Finding Compassion Despite Our Differences. Seriously. Please register.

This is important. Your engaged presence, is needed. Bring your curiosity and your openness. We can do this – together. Let’s transform the narrative.

In addition to the exceptional program speakers who are varying degrees of closer to my age, (GENE BAUR, CLAIRE JEAN KIM, KATIE-JAY SCOTT, MODERATOR: APRIL HOUSTON, VIA VIDEO: APH KO), and the amazing food and cooking demo we will have thanks to vegan food miracle-ist, JONI MARIE NEWMAN, a section of the program will feature AMINA MOHAMED, AUDREY WAIGHT, NYAJUOK SUNDAY KUANY, ART TREY CARLISLE and JOSE TRINIDAD CASTENADA, the voice of millennials. We have many dots to connect, and some of them extend across the generations. Come support, resonate and connect. Expand the impact of what they have to say by being in the room. Be there to learn from them and to amplify their voices.

BTW: Oprah will be interviewing Bryan Stevenson of Equal Justice Initiative on 60 MINUTES tonight: Oprah Winfrey gets first look inside memorial to the victims of lynchings.

In the spirit of Ubuntu,

Barbara English, LMFT, CBT, TRE® Certification Trainer
Co-founder and Executive Director, Living Ubuntu
livingubuntu.org | facebook | donate »
living vegan (facebook)
(949) 891-2005
[Ubuntu] n. We belong to the greater whole.

:::UPCOMING EVENTS:::

A Screening of “Human Flow” – GWC Peace Studies Program (a pre-conference event)
Thursday, April 12, 6:00pm – 9:30pm
Huntington Beach

An Evening with Gene Baur: Increasing Compassion, Sustainability & Equity in our Food System
Friday, April 13, 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Fullerton

Connecting the Dots: Finding Compassion Despite Our Differences
Sunday, April 15, 12:00pm – 5:00pm
Santa Ana

Peace and the Global Economy: Emerging Issues & Practical Solutions – 12th Annual Golden West College Peace Conference
Friday, April 20, 8:30pm – 5:00pm
Huntington Beach

An Evening with Carl Wilkens: Beyond Genocide, Respect-Empathy-Inclusion
Wednesday, April 25, 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Fullerton

Intro to TRE: Connection, Compassion & Community
Saturday, April 28, 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Irvine

 

An Intersectional April (2018) – Come join us for these six events

Intersectionality:
… attempts to identify how interlocking systems of power impact those who are most marginalized in society.
– Wikipedia

Hi everyone,

Have you seen the trailer for the Ai Weiwei film Human Flow? Growing hardened to the suffering of others endangers us all. We chose this film in collaboration with the Golden West College Peace Studies Program as an optimal pre-conference event for their 12th Annual GWC Peace Conference, “Peace and the Global Economy: Emerging Issues & Practical Solutions” — Friday April 20, and Living Ubuntu’s “Connecting the Dots: Finding Compassion Despite Our Differences” — Sunday April 15. “Human Flow” will screen on Thursday April 12 (free admission | vegan refreshments).

Additionally, for anyone not yet familiar with who Gene Baur is, it’s time to get there. Watch this clip from when he was on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. We are very excited to feature Gene in Orange County TWICE this month. The context for his talk will be distinctly different at Fullerton College on Friday April 13 vs as part of the amazing intersectional April 15 Connecting the Dots: Finding Compassion Despite Our Differences, where many inspiring, thought-provoking speakers will be featured. (i.e. you might want to come to both.)

As if that is not enough, Carl Wilkens, the only American who chose to stay throughout the 1994 Rwanda genocide will be talking about Respect-Empathy-Inclusion (REI) at Fullerton College on Wednesday, April 25. He was highlighted in the PBS Frontline documentary, Ghosts of Rwanda, view a clip here.

To close out the month, Intro to Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises: Connection, Compassion and Community is back. Join us Saturday April 28 for this free event with vegan refreshments.

There is limited space at these events. Please make sure to register. To find all six events all in one place: Living Ubuntu Events.

In the spirit of Ubuntu,

Barbara English, LMFT, CBT, TRE® Certification Trainer
Co-founder and Executive Director, Living Ubuntu
livingubuntu.org | facebook | donate »
living vegan (facebook)
(949) 891-2005
[Ubuntu] n. We belong to the greater whole.

***

LIVING UBUNTU

GENE BAUR * CLAIRE KIM * KATIE-JAY SCOTT * JONI MARIE NEWMAN

Moderator: April Houston | Emcee: Miriam Mirshafiee

Video by Aph Ko

plus:
Arthur Trey Carlisle * Jose Trinidad Castenada * Barbara English * Nyajuok ‘Sunday’ Kuany * Michele Martinez * Amina Mohamed * Piper Sample * Adelia Sandoval * Audrey Waight

CAMP DARFUR * SILENT AUCTION * VEGAN COOKING DEMO * LUNCH: GREEN GODDESS BOWL * ACTIONS TO TAKE

& more…

—

LivingUbuntu.org/events

Our Partners:

CHARTER FOR COMPASSION, HB HUDDLE, I-ACT, OCCA, SARAH, SOCAL VEGFEST, UNA-OC

 

***

 

April 15 (2018), Connecting the Dots — time to get your tickets

The human race is challenged more than ever before to demonstrate our mastery, not over nature but of ourselves.
— Rachel Carson

Hi everyone,

There is a better path. To find it, we must first recognize the path we are on and its inadequacies.

Call it what you wish, our collective trauma, brokenness, woundedness… pulls us to self-absorption and unplugs our holistic mind. Rightly so. When we perceive a threat, self-survival is top priority. This is exactly what a fight-flight survival defense mechanism that got us evolved this far is supposed to do.

If you encountered the term, species-preservation, given that we are currently on a trajectory to mass extinction, you might think it refers to an environmental conservation effort for endangered wildlife. Yet, two decades ago, in a published journal article on PTSD, Sheila Wang referenced it as a human mindset about other humans. It is what we lose access to when we feel threatened. The fight-flight activation unplugs us from the affiliative sense of being part of the whole. It gets replaced by self-preservation only.

Dr. Bruce Perry is famous for saying, states become traits. A defense mechanism designed for occasional use, to save our life in extreme situations, has become a normalized way of life for far too many of us.

As we look around and see the acculturation of hierarchy, oppression, and pathological narcissism, it points to our loss of healthy state of mind, and it is killing us.

We are not just ‘born this way’. We are not a world full of ‘bad seeds’. We are the product of life experiences across the generations. Within the healing of the collective, a foundational connection to goodness is affirmed and strengthened. At the intersection of our varied forms of oppression, there lies the key to transformation and increased compassion.

There is a better path and we must find it together.

We are hosting what we think will be an extremely powerful, interactive, intersectional, and engaging program. Our featured speakers include Gene Baur, Claire Kim and Katie-Jay Scott. We have assembled many additional speakers from the local area speaking from first hand experiences. While many serious topics will be presented, we will also have some fun and are starting the day by having a meal together.

Please join us for:
CONNECTING THE DOTS: Finding Compassion Despite Our Differences, (Sunday, April 15, 12p-5p) — DETAILS & REGISTRATION.

Scroll down for UPCOMING EVENTS.

In the spirit of Ubuntu,
Barbara English, LMFT, CBT, TRE® Certification Trainer
Co-founder and Executive Director, Living Ubuntu
livingubuntu.org | facebook | donate »
living vegan (facebook)
(949) 891-2005
[Ubuntu] n. We belong to the greater whole.

:::UPCOMING EVENTS:::

A Screening of “Human Flow” – GWC Peace Studies Program (a pre-conference event)
Thursday, April 12, 6:00pm – 9:30pm
Huntington Beach

An Evening with Gene Baur: Increasing Compassion, Sustainability & Equity in our Food System
Friday, April 13, 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Fullerton

Connecting the Dots: Finding Compassion Despite Our Differences
Sunday, April 15, 12:00pm – 5:00pm
Santa Ana

Peace and the Global Economy: Emerging Issues & Practical Solutions – 12th Annual Golden West College Peace Conference
Friday, April 20, 8:30pm – 5:00pm
Huntington Beach

An Evening with Carl Wilkens: Beyond Genocide, Respect-Empathy-Inclusion
Wednesday, April 25, 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Fullerton

Intro to TRE: Connection, Compassion & Community
Saturday, April 28, 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Irvine

***
GENE BAUR * CLAIRE KIM * KATIE-JAY SCOTT * JONI MARIE NEWMAN

plus:
Arthur Trey Carlisle * Jose Trinidad Castenada * Barbara English * Michele Martinez * Amina Mohamed * Piper Sample * Audrey Waight

***

Watch 60 Minutes Sunday (March 11) | April 2018 calendar of events

Hi everyone,

This coming Sunday on 60 Minutes, Oprah Winfrey will be featured interviewing the amazing national childhood trauma expert, Dr. Bruce Perry. See the preview here. If you are not familiar yet with the study done two decades ago linking Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEstoohigh, ACEsconnection) to both emotional difficulties and physical illness, with the long-term wise, informed voice of Dr. Bruce Perry, and with the national movement within various jurisdictions and institutions to become trauma-informed, please make sure you watch the interview.

And if by chance, you are someone devoted to activism, appalled by today’s political ‘climate’ – last November, the Washington Post published, “At Yale, we conducted an experiment to turn conservatives into liberals. The results say a lot about our political divisions.” Please read it here.

We need to understand that traumatization changes the inner state and subjective sense of the world. It can both deaden us so that we do not fear the thing we should, and cause us to feel threatened by the thing that is actually benign (e.g. sometimes that “rattle snake” on the hiking trail is actually just a stick).

Calm the fears and the political discourse will shift. To calm the fears, heal the trauma.

We have many events coming up in April. Please check out the calendar of events at the bottom of this email.

In the spirit of Ubuntu,
Barbara English, LMFT, CBT, TRE® Certification Trainer
Co-founder and Executive Director, Living Ubuntu
livingubuntu.org | facebook | donate »
living vegan (facebook)
(949) 891-2005
[Ubuntu] n. We belong to the greater whole.

:::UPCOMING EVENTS:::

A Screening of “Human Flow” – GWC Peace Studies Program (a pre-conference event) — save the date!
Thursday, April 12, 6:00pm – 9:30pm
Huntington Beach

Connecting the Dots: Finding Compassion Despite Our Differences — tickets on sale now!
Sunday, April 15, 12:00pm – 5:00pm
Santa Ana

Peace and the Global Economy: Emerging Issues & Practical Solutions – 12th Annual Golden West College Peace Conference
Friday, April 20, 8:30pm – 5:00pm
Huntington Beach

An Evening with Carl Wilkens: Beyond Genocide, Respect-Empathy-Inclusion (REI)
Wednesday, April 25, 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Fullerton

Intro to TRE: Connection, Compassion & Community
Saturday, April 28, 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Irvine