It's another installment of Spirituality and Politics with Marielena Ferrer. Today we largely speak about her upcoming exhibit, "At Arm's Length," where she dives deep into the meaning of Poison Ivy. It's the second time a friend has built artwork around the plant that so many fear. It conjures an interesting response from most humans and perhaps sheds light on how we can or should respond to a threat, whether real or perceived.

Her show is a part of the MFA thesis exhibitions at the Samuel Dorsky Museum and the opening reception is this Friday, May 17th from 7:30-9:30pm with additional hours May 17 – 20, 11am-5pm; and May 21, 11am-4pm.

She will be receiving the Artivist award from Arts Mid-Hudson this June 11th for her work advocating for the rights and recognition of immigrants via her Broken Monarchs exhibit.

Marielena is also the new Managing Director at Unison where she will be expanding upon her desire to foster diverse communities through the arts. Stay tuned for exciting things coming from Unison!

Today’s show was engineered by Ian Seda from Radiokingston.org.

Our show music is from Shana Falana!

Feel free to email me, say hello: [email protected]

** Please: SUBSCRIBE to the pod and leave a REVIEW wherever you are listening, it helps other users FIND IT

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Today I am severely under the weather so I postponed my original guest and instead have time to honor a dear friend, Sarah Bisceglie, who took her life last year. In the beginning of the show I share some memories of Sarah who was a beam of love and light with a brilliant mind. She and I worked together to bring gong and reiki healing to many in the Hudson Valley both at the local domestic violence shelter and at my former studio in Kingston. She was a guest on the show back in November of 2018, and it's a timeless conversation worth revisiting even if you've already tuned in.

Her art is being shown this weekend, May 11 and 12 from 10-4pm at The Stable Gallery at 84 Sickler Road, Lake Hill, NY. The gallery is snuck back off the property passed a pond and an open field, but just follow the little signs that say parking and you'll get there. It's worth the journey.

For much of the remainder of the show I share music inspired by the recent The Goddess Party performance and finish up with a little New Moon Astrology from Tanaaz over at Forever Conscious.

Here's the playlist for those who want to enjoy it further.

Love yourself and uplift one another!

Today’s show was engineered by Ian Seda from Radiokingston.org.

Our show music is from Shana Falana!

Feel free to email me, say hello: [email protected]

** Please: SUBSCRIBE to the pod and leave a REVIEW wherever you are listening, it helps other users FIND IT

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Today on the show I get to speak with Laura Victoria Ward, CMA, RSME, a dancer, choreographer, movement teacher, Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst, musician, painter, consciousness explorer, somanaut, and meditator.

She is the artistic director of Kingston Contemporary Dance Theatre (formerly Octavia Cup Dance Theatre), a multi-disciplinary, multi-generational company. She has been creating dance theater and performing in New York City, the Hudson Valley, and internationally for over 25 years.

She regularly creates and performs with Tonus Maximus and the Glam Rock Cabaret, The Goddess Party, and she is in your grandmother's punk rock band–a.k.a. Dick Pinchers. Recently, she played Columbia in Rocky Horror Picture Show with R’Ville Stage Creations.

She holds a BA from SUNY Empire State in Dance, Theatre, and Movement Studies and has studied with Irene Dowd, Liz Koch, and Gil Hedley. She studied the Meisner technique with Michael Harney.  Her teaching experience includes Wagner College, Gina Gibney, Dance New Amsterdam, Equinox, Dutchess Community College, Manhattan School of Music, the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies, Cornell Creative Arts Center, and privately. She has received several KCACTF Awards for her choreography at Ramapo College in New Jersey, as have the ensembles she has worked with. Her Ramapo choreography credits include Spring Awakening, Twelfth Night, Urinetown, Church, Ride the Cyclone, and Church.

This year Laura received a Dance Force Choreographer’s Initiative grant (NYSCA) which she is just beginning to work on. She has 2 paintings in a show at the Berkeley Alembic.

She shares her early memories of movement and how her awareness of the body has developed and shaped who she is and the work she does. It's quite an inspiring conversation as Laura is steeped in body wisdom while being playful and open about how that weaves into her life. We learn about her own practices in both movement and stillness and what she offers to others as their guide. She indulges my questions about toddler movement, the nervous system and truth and offers a short yet powerful practice towards the end of the show. Connect with her via Facebook or Instagram for updates on classes, Dick Pinchers and Tonus Maximus and the Glam Rock Caberet.

You can also check out her YOUTUBE Channel, Somatics with Laura V Ward here!

See you at The Goddess Party performance this Saturday. And here's the info on costume designer Ramona who we gushed about!

Today’s show was engineered by Ian Seda from Radiokingston.org.

Our show music is from Shana Falana!

Feel free to email me, say hello: [email protected]

** Please: SUBSCRIBE to the pod and leave a REVIEW wherever you are listening, it helps other users FIND IT

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Today on the show I get to speak with Nancy April, a ceramicist and master gardener and Leonora Wiener, an executive and career coach. They are both officers of The Pacama, a Conservation Collaborative, Inc., which was established in an effort to preserve the rural character of the Olive, Marbletown, and Rochester communities in Ulster County, New York, by a group of concerned neighbors. The group came together in 2020 to strategize how to protect local wetlands, animal habitat, and native plant species in the face of growing development in the area and insufficient town oversight of that development. They created this non-profit conservation corporation, to hold land in trust, preserve its natural character, and educate the community about the beauty and unique attributes of the area.

​Pacama is the name the Esopus-Munsee band of Mohicans, the native people of this area, gave to the wetland/vly in our community.  For more information about the native people who lived in the area contact the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Tribal Historic Preservation Association. Their motto is "People of the waters are never still."

Today they share how they were personally impacted by the proposed development in Olive, and what they did to limit the size of the development so that it was aligned with the needs and preservation of the natural environment, from letter writing, to attending planning board and town board meetings to filing an Article 78 Petition following the town's negative declaration of an environmental impact. Through their combined expertise, dedication and successful fundraising, they eventually came to an agreement with the developers to purchase a portion of the land. They formed Pacama as a non-profit organization to hold this land as “forever wild” for the benefit of the larger community, and the environment, which so desperately needs protection.

Not only was this a timely conversation aligned with Earth Day and an ever increasing need for us to take better care of our earth, but it was also a story of a community coming together successfully to work on a solution to a collective problem. Something we could also use more of in my humble opinion.

I mentioned towards the end of the show an Art Exhibit honoring the art and life of Sarah Bisceglie, a dear friend and past guest who passed last year. Opening reception happening May 4th from 3-6pm at the Stable Gallery.

And here's the info on The Goddess Party performance also happening on May 4th at 7:30 pm.

Finally, here's the Full Moon Report.

Today’s show was engineered by Ian Seda from Radiokingston.org.

Our show music is from Shana Falana!

Feel free to email me, say hello: [email protected]

** Please: SUBSCRIBE to the pod and leave a REVIEW wherever you are listening, it helps other users FIND IT

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Today on the show I get to welcome, Amy Daughters, a lauded Award-Winning Author and dynamic Keynote Speaker, who
envisions unity in diversity, where our disparities intertwine as bonds rather than divisions. By revitalizing the age-old art of handwritten letters, she revives human connections in an increasingly digital age. Infused with wit and humor. Amy draws from her experience crafting 580 handwritten letters to all her Facebook friends, illuminating the path to profound connections
in the unlikeliest corners. With acclaimed works like "Dear Dana" and "You Cannot Mess This Up," Amy inspires others to embrace vulnerability, proving that genuine kinship thrives even in unexpected spheres.

Today she shares the compelling story about reconnecting with a childhood camp friend through handwritten letters and how that changed the trajectory of her life from writing 580 of her Facebook "friends" letters to learning the art of connecting despite our perceived and even real differences. Her ability to convey the magic in her lived experience is truly contagious. She emphasizes how you do not need to be a writer to write letters, and encourages everyone to try it at least once to see how it may impact themselves or another.

Here's the Tarot Card reading I shared from Nikki Fogerty.

I end today's show with a little self care talk with my Mom!

Today’s show was engineered by Ian Seda from Radiokingston.org.

Our show music is from Shana Falana!

Feel free to email me, say hello: [email protected]

** Please: SUBSCRIBE to the pod and leave a REVIEW wherever you are listening, it helps other users FIND IT

http://iwantwhatshehas.org/podcast

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Woo hoo, it's a solar eclipse, a partial one at least, and we're broadcasting live from outside the radio station having some fun talking about what the eclipse has meant to others, means to us, might mean to you, and how Marielena spent the last full solar eclipse.

New Moon Solar Eclipse Blessings to YOU!

Big thanks to the Radio Kingston Tech Team, Carrie, Eli, Bern and Daniel for making it happen!

Today’s show was engineered by Ian Seda from Radiokingston.org.

Our show music is from Shana Falana!

Feel free to email me, say hello: [email protected]

** Please: SUBSCRIBE to the pod and leave a REVIEW wherever you are listening, it helps other users FIND IT

http://iwantwhatshehas.org/podcast

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Today, my guest is Joanna Leffeld, more famously known as the “Moolah Doula.” She’s worn many roles in her life including certified financial planner, mom, yoga teacher, artist, and hospice volunteer. She was a guest on the show a few years ago where she laid the foundation of what and why she does her work. In the past few years, she's gone deeper into her own healing as it relates to trauma and ancestral trauma. Today she talks about how this relates to her work, how it's helped her surface her gifts and how it she will be supporting others to do this work as well. As a trained end of life doula, she sits bedside with terminal patients, and listens to regretful stories of lives not lived to the fullest, missed opportunities, and hopes and dreams unfulfilled. This profoundly shaped her perspective on why living a conscious life in alignment is essential to health and abundance. Drawing from these unique and varied experiences, she has created a powerful process to help individuals and couples heal and align their relationship with money.

She has some in person and virtual workshops on the horizon:

Cultivating a Life of Abundance with Joanna Leffeld and Bahia Miller  Thursday, April 11th from 7-8:30pm. This workshop is Free Through Sacred Reciprocity via the Holistic Life Community who she continues to volunteer with on a regular basis during their virtual health care weeks.

Healing Your Money Issues Workshop in Brooklyn at MahaRose on May 30th from 7-9pm in person.

Last but not least, you can find her art at Joannaleffeldart.com

Getting ready for next Monday's New Moon Solar Eclipse with the help from Tanaaz. If you're in the Hudson Valley, come see us outside Radio Kingston for next week's show followed by a soundbath and meditation.

Today’s show was engineered by Ian Seda from Radiokingston.org.

Our show music is from Shana Falana!

Feel free to email me, say hello: [email protected]

** Please: SUBSCRIBE to the pod and leave a REVIEW wherever you are listening, it helps other users FIND IT

http://iwantwhatshehas.org/podcast

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Today on the show I am joined by Martha Williams who has spent her life as a serial creative firebrand. She is an award winning filmmaker, writer, and choreographer, and kept the lights on with creative direction, video production, consulting, coaching and training. After 20 years of following her calling Martha realized that even though she was lucky (or crazy) enough to be making art she was still not making the difference she set out to make. While her art was activist in nature, squeezing out work in a world where people are choking on “content” and mindlessly consuming life, didn’t seem aligned with her greater mission to help communities reclaim and restore soulful connection to self, other and the world around them. This is when her work as a conversation activist began. Martha and her partner run Culture Shift Agency and BreakBread World, working to reweave our common humanity through the art of conversation and the power of soulful gathering.

Our conversation weaves through the meaning of conversation activism, how Martha found this work, the patriarchy, the embodiment of the masculine and the feminine and so much more.

BreakBread is hosting an Embodied Conversation Workshop at GWI on April 14th.

As mentioned, Engather is co-hosting a special happening this Friday, March 29th at ASK for creative connection and community. You can learn more here!

Here's the Moon Report that inspired our moon chat.

Today’s show was engineered by Ian Seda from Radiokingston.org.

Our show music is from Shana Falana!

Feel free to email me, say hello: [email protected]

** Please: SUBSCRIBE to the pod and leave a REVIEW wherever you are listening, it helps other users FIND IT

http://iwantwhatshehas.org/podcast

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Jami Smith is a music journalist and creator of Songs That Saved Your Life, a queer rock history newsletter on Substack. She has also written for The Advocate, OUT magazine, and OUT Traveler. Jami believes that if “Rock & Roll Jeopardy” were still on the air, she would’ve beat Mark McGrath.

Her new show on Radio Kingston, "Songs that Saved Your Life" shines a spotlight on the often untold stories of rock & roll. Each week, she’ll celebrate her favorite icons and allies with genres ranging from synth-pop, punk, soul, hip-hop, glam, and disco. Tune in from midnight to 2am every Monday night into Tuesday morning (starting on 3.25) for a tiny bit of history and a whole lot of music.

Today on the show Jami schools us in some deep music history, starting with rock and rolls roots, which were undoubtedly very queer. We also learn about Jami's past life as a stand up comedian, and what we can expect to hear on Songs That Saved Your Life. Check it out. I highly recommend! Along with her Instagram!

In the second half of the show I welcome Barbara Bravo, a dedicated gardener with more than 30 years’ experience reclaiming neglected gardens as well as establishing new beds and an enclosed vegetable garden at her home in Saugerties. She is a Cornell Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Volunteer and Garden Day Coordinator which is taking place on April 6th this year. She has lectured on many gardening topics and this year at Garden Day will be presenting Ground Covers - Better than Mulch. When not in her garden, Barbara can be found in her studio creating nature inspired works of art in clay and painted paper collage.

Today, Barbara helps me through some of my gardening snafus, tells us about her own roots in gardening and what to expect during the often sold out Garden Day! Did you know that you're not supposed to pull "weeds" out? Tune in to learn why and what you should do in today's episode.

Today's Words with Warren teaches us about how to repell those pesky mosquitos!

Today’s show was engineered by Ian Seda from Radiokingston.org.

Our show music is from Shana Falana!

Feel free to email me, say hello: [email protected]

** Please: SUBSCRIBE to the pod and leave a REVIEW wherever you are listening, it helps other users FIND IT

http://iwantwhatshehas.org/podcast

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During this month's installment of Spirituality and Politics, Marielena and I are talking about the important women in our lives. This leads to a conversation about women's role as caretaker and the feminist movement and a slight rant about the patriarchy. Sorry, can't help myself sometimes. 

Today’s show was engineered by Ian Seda from Radiokingston.org.

Our show music is from Shana Falana!

Feel free to email me, say hello: [email protected]

** Please: SUBSCRIBE to the pod and leave a REVIEW wherever you are listening, it helps other users FIND IT

http://iwantwhatshehas.org/podcast

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