ColumnSummer is here and it’s time to kick it feminist style—here’s what to watch, hear and see this summer!

Binge Watch: “Orange Is the New Black”

June 6. My excitement about this date (aka: TODAY) cannot be measured with existing technology. “Orange Is the New Black” season two is going to hit Netflix and I am going to hit the couch. I have a love/hate relationship with this new trend of releasing an entire season in one day so we can all binge watch. I feel like you miss some of the nuance and texture—like reading a book just for the plot and skimming over all of the descriptive text the writer worked so hard to create. On the other hand, I can spend 13 hours with the women of Litchfield! Swirl, swirl…

Go to the Movies: “Obvious Child”

An abortion ro-co? I’m in! Usually, when a character has an abortion in a movie, she has to pay. Not “pay” like write a check to Planned Parenthood, but pay on some deeper karmic level. She has to lose something—her mind, her ability to have kids later in life when she’s ready, her relationship, her dignity, her life, etc. Word on the street is that “Obvious Child” paints a realistic picture of what abortion looks like for many women: It’s something that happens but doesn’t have to be the thing that defines you. (Now playing)

Go to a Show: Pussy Riot, Miley and More 

Am I really saying this? Yes. I am. Miley Cyrus is touring this summer and, try as I might, I can’t help but be tempted want to get tickets. From saying she’s one of the world’s biggest feminists to declaring that, really, she’s just all about equality for everyone, Miley is interesting. But I get it. She’s not for everyone and, if you can’t take one more twerk, hit Riot Fest and check out Pussy Riot, Tegan and Sara and lots of other great musicians who won’t leave you feeling conflicted about your values. (Lineups vary by city)

Read a Book: “Mountain to Mountain: A Journey of Adventure and Activism for the Women of Afghanistan”

I can’t wait to read Shannon Galpin’s book about the work she’s been doing to launch an Afghan women’s national cycling team. Galpin started her non-profit, Mountain2Mountain to connect communities and cultures and work to empower women living in conflict zones. The name also ties to the subtext of an old Persian proverb, “No matter how high the mountain, there’s always a road.” And on that road? Women on bicycles! Culturally, it’s been an uphill battle, but she and her team of dedicated volunteers are working hard to make her dream a reality. Check out Galpin‘s memoir when it’s released by St. Martin’s on September 16.

What else should we see, read and listen to this summer?

Related on EcoSalon

‘Orange Is the New Black’—And I’m Addicted: That Happened

Yes Means Yes Means What? – Miley, Rihanna and Me: HyperKulture

Bring Back Our Girls: That Happened

That Happened is Libby Lowe’s weekly column for EcoSalon analyzing media, news and pop culture through a feminist lens. Keep in touch with Libby @LibbyLowe.

Image: Federico Mauro Creative Commons

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The power of art as activism.

What does it take to change perspective?

That’s the question behind Streets of Afghanistan, a bigger-than-life art exhibition that highlights the beauty and soul of the land and the people of Afghanistan while challenging existing perceptions of the war-torn country.

These aren’t your average travel photos. With life-sized images, the exhibit, a project by Mountain2Mountain, is a ground-breaking collaboration of Afghan and Western photographers, immersing the viewer in the busy streets of Kabul, transporting them directly into the culture and mindset of the country’s people. Through art, we have chance to step into a world that most of us will never see.

Focused around connecting communities through art, this fall the traveling exhibit will return to the place where the images originated, bringing the images back to the streets of Kabul and making the project come full circle.

“These images have allowed the voices and stories of the Afghan community to be heard, unedited, in the United States. Presenting them on the streets of Kabul to share with the Afghan gives back to a people from which so much has been taken and used to fulfill a particular narrative. The power of public art ignites conversation, community, and opens our eyes to both the beauty and the heartbreak seen every day throughout Afghanistan,” says Mountain2Mountain founder Shannon Galpin.

This kind of an endeavor does not come without costs, and Streets of Afghanistan is currently fundraising to make the Afghani exhibit a reality. You can support the project on Kickstarter.

Images: Streets of Afghanistan

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Telling the stories of movers and shakers around the world and inspiring action for positive change. 

What happens when you commit your life to making real change?

Ask Julio Solis, a sea turtle conservationist in Puerto San Carlos, Baja California, Mexico. In his youth, Julio poached sea turtles until a life-changing mentor shifted his perspective about his relationship with the ocean. Julio is now working to protect the sea turtles by running a nonprofit dedicated to preserving Magdalena Bayʼs natural resources, becoming a role model for his community and conservationists around the world.

Inspired yet?

Changing the world can appear a daunting task, but often it’s as simple as identifying the one thing that you are passionate about. In Solis’ case, it’s sea turtles, but we all have an issue or a cause that we identify with, a place that we can make a difference. That is the motivator behind MoveShake, a new character based film series that gives an inside look into the lives of people dedicating themselves to their cause and the personal struggles and successes that come with their journey.

Solis’ story premieres on June 7, 2012 from 7-9pm MDT as part of an online screening that also includes a Q&A with EcoSalon friend Shannon Galpin of Mountain2Mountain, another MoveShake story screening during the online premiere. Joining director Allie Bombach and Galpin in the Q&A session is Wallace J. Nichols, co-founder and director of SeeTurtles and founder of LiVEBLUE. A mentor in Solis’ life, Nichols was the man who originally inspired him to protect endangered sea turtles instead of poaching them.

Inspiring people to be movers and shakers in their own community, over the next few months MoveShake will continue to share the stories of individuals who are making a difference. They are not super heroes or billionaires or politicians, they are simply people that have found a cause that they are passionate about and committed to making a difference.

Want to take part in the MoveShake community? Check out MoveShake Unite, a place to share the positive change you see in your world everyday. Whether it’s an organic farm in your backyard or a community beach clean up, MoveShake is collecting visuals of positive change and posting them on the website. All you have to do is snap a photo on Instagram and tag it with #moveshake when you see:

• Something you want to make change in
• Someone making positive change
• Change already being made

Easy.

Now go forth and be the change that you want to see in the world.

Images: Allie Bombach

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SeriesKeeping Fear at bay means riding into it without brakes.

This is the first of many stories we hope to gather from women who have overcome hurdles and challenges that have made them not only stronger women, but role models for others. Do you have a story you’d like to submit on how you have overcome something? Send us an email at contact@ecosalon.com

I am sitting at my kitchen table, my front door and windows wide open to let in the fresh mountain air, enjoying a cup of coffee and conversation with my best friend, Christiane, on the other side of the country, when the topic of fear came up.  “You should write about Fear, you have experienced it so deeply, and live daily with it nipping at your heels.”  I laughed wryly, “Yeah, Fear is definitely camped outside my door waiting for an invite to come on in.”

Pausing to think if Fear is rabbit hole I really wanted to dive into today, two dogs burst into my kitchen. Neither one of them belong to me and as I chase them out Christiane hears me shout, “Get out! Out! This is not your home, you don’t belong in here!”

“Hmmm”, she says, “It’s as if they arrived on cue to spark that response! Those words could easily apply to fear as much as to the those dogs.” A cosmic sign?  Or just two overly curious and cheeky canines looking for some free food? To me, Fear is the summation of all the undefineable things that throw up resistance to change, roadblocks to experience, and an inability to love unconditionally. Not a fan of roadblocks of any kind, fear is not a companion I am willing to share my time, or my coffee, with. I have experienced it keenly as rape victim – brutal violence and violation that left me in a broken heap in the dirt. I endure its nearby presence daily as the founder of an international non profit that hasn’t yet turned the corner financially, and as a single mother that risked everything to fight for women’s rights in conflict zones like Afghanistan and at times has to choose between groceries and phone bill. I know how closely Fear is shadowing me.

The trick is to recognize Fear, to say hello as you would to the paranoid Tea Party supporter you see at the coffee shop every day, but to not make friends with it. If you simply try to ignore it, it tries to engage you in conversation, sucking you into the abyss.  But acknowledging it sets boundaries. “Hi, I see ya, but I’m too busy to chat today.”  Move along.  I’ve got things to do.

It’s the same on a mountain bike.  I have donated my fair share of blood and skin to the Gods of Dirt and Rock along with a cracked rib and broken elbow. One particularly pricey donation came while bombing down the backside of Hall Ranch chasing a much faster, and experienced, friend. I washed out on a slab of rock covered in a veil of loose dirt and ripped the better part of my forearm and elbow off.  I spent the rest of the evening trying to figure out what was me and was rock, and I know that by continuing to ride, donations like this are part of the contract.  Fear whispers, “Slow down, use your brakes.  Dismount before the rock garden. Don’t try to lift your wheel over that ledge, you’ll get hurt again!” But what Fear doesn’t realize is getting hurt is part of the game.  No one is invincible, we’re not built that way.  Life is meant to PLAY.

The therapy I get from two wheels, one gear, and miles of singletrack, overwhelmingly outweighs the risks.  The combination of a clear head, burned out quads, and dirt in my teeth far exceeds the occasional bodily appeasement to the deities. The irony is that by conquering Fear on my bike, I keep the daily Fear of life at bay, much like the old song, by Little Richard, “I hear you knocking but you can’t come in,” I call out.

The little victories on the bike translate into confidence and courage and then equals bigger victories off the bike. Choosing to get back on the bike knowing it may draw blood is a choice, and one I make willingly, even happily knowing that 95% of the time I’ll come off my bike, sore and dirty, but also gloriously happy.

I embrace the risks I’ve taken, without them I wouldn’t have ridden my singlespeed across the Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan. I probably wouldn’t have started mountain biking in the first place. I wouldn’t have lived abroad for ten years. I wouldn’t have started a business, or a non profit. I wouldn’t have entered the fight for women’s rights. I wouldn’t vacation in war zones. I wouldn’t have fallen in love. Twice. Hell, I wouldn’t have even become a mother, by far the scariest thing I’ve done to date, as anyone that has stared down a three-year-old’s tantrum can attest to.

Sorry, Fear, but you have to stay outside with the dogs.

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The best of EcoSalon’s stories this week.

We adore all our readers, but some of them simply blow us away – like Shannon Galpin, founder of Mountain2Mountain who is  working to empower women in Afghanistan and beyond.

Did you know the remarkable story behind Burt’s Bees – the good and the bad?

If you’ve been watching HBO’s Game of Thrones, you’ll know that Daenerys Targaryen is one tough cookie. In the words of the actress who plays her, Emilia Clarke, “she’s an incredibly strong and powerful woman who doesn’t come into her own until much later on.” (So keep watching!)

Being a foodie is all too often equated with being a snob – and Anna Brones is keen to point out that it’s not all heaps of succulent decadence. Sometimes, simple really is best (as long as it tastes good, of course).

Finally, how many times have you checked Facebook today? Or while you were reading this article? Do you think you have an addiction? If so, try a few of our 20 things to do instead of browsing through your Facebook updates.

The post Friday 5: The Other People Edition appeared first on EcoSalon.

Breaking barriers at home and abroad.

As the founder of Mountain2Mountain, Shannon Galpin empowers women in conflict zones by providing them with a voice and access to education and vocational training. Galpin works primarily in Afghanistan and famously cycles across dangerous zones like the Panjshir Valley – where Afghan women can be punished and even killed for riding a bike – to bring attention to women’s issues. Talk about cojones. We have incredible respect for Galpin’s work. As it turns out, she’s a fan of us too.

Name: Shannon Galpin

Website: http://www.mountain2mountain.org

What do you love about EcoSalon?

I adore the complete range of lifestyle articles, from alternative design and architecture, to green living and relationships, often covered from a truly unique and irreverent perspective! My favorite column is Foodie Underground – one week I’m dreaming of a fish taco-fueled Baja escape, the next rediscovering my Parisian addiction to the vast array of brightly colored macarons, to looking at oysters as not just a food but as an important part of a sustainable relationship with our food sources and waterfront economies. I love to see food discussed not as vegan or paleo, or as it relates to diet or body image, but instead reading about the pure joy of food, where it comes from, and how our communities are related to the food sources themselves. But I am also a huge sucker for the Sex by Numbers series, especially the Republican Caucus edition!

Tell us about Mountain2Mountain.

Mountain2Mountain was founded nearly five years ago with the desire to create voice and value for women and children in conflict zones. Essentially, I knew I didn’t want to just build schools or clinics as a reaction. We want to create catalysts within conflict zones that can create a ripple through their communities which creates a more sustainable and community-driven approach for change. We can do that by improving access for education, by activism for women’s rights, through vocational training, and through media training. One of our newest programs we are launching this year is called Combat Apathy, and its based on the idea that voice matters. So we work with citizen journalism and leadership with young adults in conflict zones and evolve into youth driven social impact programs that we support to tackle the issues of women’s rights, sex trafficking, LGBT rights, and war and conflict. If individuals are given the opportunity to use their voice, people will listen and you can instill a sense of value and confidence that we can cultivate into social action and community action. We have been working in Afghanistan for four years but are expanding into Cambodia, Mexico and other conflict regions this year as well.

Why women’s rights, and why Afghanistan?

I staunchly believe that we need to think of women’s rights as human rights. Women’s involvement in their community, their government, and global affairs are integral to the future of our global community. Gender equity is not just morally right, it is pivotal to global sustainable development. It is number 3 on the UN’s Millennium Development Goals – not just because its morally right but because empowering women will contribute to achieving all the other goals, reducing poverty, improving maternal health, improving universal education, combating HIV/AIDS, and even environmental sustainability. Afghanistan is consistently ranked the worst place in the world to be a woman so to me it seemed like the best place to start! It’s also a country that is the source of so much apathy in the US – overloaded with negative media and our ongoing military involvement – it seemed to me that if we could challenge stereotypes of Afghans in the U.S. and of Americans in Afghanistan baby steps could emerge.

One way you’ve broken barriers is by mountain biking across dangerous regions of Afghanistan. Can you talk a bit about the cultural implications of an act like that?

Well, Afghanistan is one of the few places in the world where women are not allowed to ride bikes. Around the world the bike is used as an effective vehicle for social justice and it was frustrating to realize that it just wasn’t something we could utilize in rural communities for school transportation, or for midwives and teachers. After working in Afghanistan for a couple of years I realized that I was constantly challenging gender barriers as part of my daily routine. When I’m in Kabul I like to walk as much as I can and interact with the Afghans I met in a more natural way. I ride a motorcycle which I bought in Kabul to avoid the traffic snarls that congest the city at rush hour, thanks to the lawlessness that permeates the country it means that you can ride on the sidewalk, or weave backwards through oncoming traffic, it’s all about the shortcuts. Being a foreign woman means that I find myself in a unique position as a hybrid gender. Men that still treat Afghan women as second class citizens will treat me as an equal and let me challenge gender barriers like riding my mountain bike because they are curious or intrigued but not threatened. It’s a little thing, but I also wanted to show another side of Afghanistan, the beauty, the adventure, and the possibility that what was once a tourist destination, could perhaps be again in the future if peace was ever achieved.

You’re obviously dealing with very heavy issues. What keeps you motivated and inspired?

My daughter, Devon, is a huge source of daily inspiration – nothing like the complete open honesty that a seven year old has to help you see the world in a fresh way. She’s also a big reason that I’m taking on the issues I am. Firstly feeling the responsibility to do my part to make the world a little better for her and her generation. Secondly to set an example to her that you MUST be involved in the world. The responsibility is not with governments or global organizations – it’s with individuals, citizen diplomats. Lastly, it’s important to remember that we are part of the global community. I want her to realize she is a global citizen, not just an American. She has to know that young girls in Afghanistan, or Cambodia, or even closer in Mexico are no different than her – and thus deserves the same access and rights.

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