About the Grail
The Grail is an international women’s movement.
We are committed to spiritual search, social transformation, global solidarity, ecological sustainability, and the release of women’s creative energy throughout the world. We are bonded in action, solidarity, and faith, working in 17 countries, as individuals and Grail groups, interconnecting regionally, nationally and internationally.
News From The Grail
I went home from the GA fired up to do something about fracking in my home community of Longmont, Colorado, just as our City Council was considering applications from Big Oil for leasing public land east of town for drilling. Joy Garland and Kate Twohy had already given me a “heads up” about how tricky it is to oppose fracking, and I had seen the DVD Gasland. But most of my neighbors and the majority of our seven city council members seemed woefully uninformed about what was going on.
Anyway the part of this tale that I want to share here is how appreciative I am for all the years of planning and facilitating meetings I’ve had, thanks to my work in the Grail. A small group of us here in Longmont is just beginning to organize ourselves to oppose fracking at nearby Union Reservoir and within city limits. We’ve had three opportunities to speak (for three minutes each) during city council meetings, and we’ve helped convince the council to enact a four-month moratorium on fracking. However, the moratorium merely delays the drilling. We’ve got major work to do in the interim. Read more →
In honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose feast is celebrated today, I share with you below my review of Guadalupe in New York, the splendid book by my friend Alyshia Gálvez. Gálvez is a member of the faculty at Lehman College here in New York and a rising star in Latin American studies.
For a lot of people, “globalization” is something smooth and shiny that makes better iPhones available. For others, though, it’s an experience of displacement and being categorized as less than human.
In Guadalupe in New York, anthropologist Alyshia Gálvez zeroes in on one group strongly impacted by “globalization,” undocumented Mexican immigrants in New York City. Throughout the twentieth century, Latino New York was primarily Puerto Rican and Dominican, but since 1990, increasing numbers of Mexican immigrants have joined the mix. Some estimates put the current Mexican population of the city at 500,000. Up to half of these new New Yorkers are undocumented.
Guadalupe in New York conveys effectively the difficult situation of undocumented Mexican immigrants in New York, caught as they are between economic crises in Mexico and the increasing demonization of the immigrant labor needed to make the US function. But primarily, Guadalupe in New York shows the ways in which devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe transforms the experience of undocumented Mexicans, instilling in them a sense of human dignity and of a trans-juridical, even cosmic, citizenship. Read more →
Now that I have your attention, here’s the rest of the sentence:
with the Transition [Town] Movement
Those who were at the GA on Thursday afternoon heard my spiel about the Transition (Town) Movement. (For those who missed it, the PowerPoint and audio are online in the member area of the Grail website, or click here.)
A one-sentence summary/refresher: Transition is about building stronger and happier communities while transitioning away from fossil fuel dependence. There is a lot packed into that little sentence, and there is much to say about how Transition is playing out; one such aspect is story-telling. So I thought this month I’d tell a bit of my “how I met Transition” story.
It was just about a year ago now. I was still inAustralia. Mostly lounging (walking, really) on endless, sunny beaches. And beginning to cast about for “what’s next?” The Transition (Town) Movement had spent a few years on my (very long) list of “things to look into, when I have time.” The time had finally come.
I was still in a state of high discouragement re: the-state-of-the-world. So I was quite surprised to find myself becoming increasingly excited, the deeper intoTransitionTownmy exploration went. What had me so captivated? Quite a bit, actually, but I’ll name just a few. (I’m setting aside for the moment all the cool projects Transition Initiatives around the world are doing.)
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” Buckminster Fuller
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