The Nation.



ActNow! This Brave Nation

posted by Peter Rothberg on 05/12/2008 @ 12:06pm

Take a sneak peek at a unique new documentary series from Brave New Foundation and The Nation coming out this June.

The initial series comprises five episodes featuring produced conversations between historic figures discussing the issues and movements that have inspired and informed their work. The conversations will be produced as both short viral videos as well as thirty-minute DVD mini-documentaries.

Here's a two-minute teaser of a conversation between the legendary singer/songwriter/activist Pete Seeger and Majora Carter, the young and indefatigable founder of Sustainable South Bronx, an organization working to clean up the run-down neighborhood of her youth by replacing vacant lots and dilapidated buildings with river front parks and sustainable gardens. It took place recently in an apartment overlooking lower Manhattan.

Aside from Seeger and Carter, participants include Dolores Huerta, Tom Hayden, Naomi Klein, Bonnie Raitt, Van Jones, Carl Pope, Ava Lowery and Anthony Romero, who all share their ideas, lessons and experiences so as to inform, enlighten and inspire a new generation to seize the moment.

In recognition of that new generation we're also sponsoring a contest in which you can nominate local heroes making a difference in communities coast to coast. Click here to nominate yourself or someone you know. We'll also soon be announcing ways you can arrange house parties to watch the series so check out BraveNation.com for more info.

Comments (28)

  1. Posted by HAPPY3 at 05/12/2008

    do nothing. fiddle away. be happy!!!!

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 05/12/2008 @ 12:57pm

  2. Happy-If you suburbanites already have gardening tools then why are there so many stores that sell gardening tools in the suburbs and why are there so many suburbanites in those stores buying gardening tools?Hoe fetish?

    Posted by i'm nobody at 05/12/2008 @ 1:09pm

  3. i saw a pheasant near the old tiger stadium....

    Posted by frosty zoom at 05/12/2008 @ 1:10pm

  4. this is great stuff peter. i guess there is something in it that happy thinks threatens his stock portfolio, but go figger.

    i am increasingly coming around to the "think globally, act locally" mantra because it really really really does maximize the fruits of one's progressive labor. gonna be planting a garden soon myself - just got a bunch of books. now to see if this pink thumb of mine is brown or green...

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 05/12/2008 @ 1:12pm

  5. suburban gardening is flowers and chemlawn and such

    hopefully 'hoed with mexican hands.

    not always of course. but having the local superdupermegawowmart stocked up with the freshest of south african produce sure makes farmin' seem so old fashioned.

    well, at least the folks in the 'hood can have some florida tomatoes at the local bk.

    happy, why don't you start up a collection with your neighbours and donate some of those old tools to a program like this?

    you know the ones,

    the ones that say "made in u.s.a." on them.

    the antiques.

    Monday, May 12, 2008 1:20:16 PM

    Posted by frosty zoom at 05/12/2008 @ 1:17pm

  6. here, HAPPY17,453,687:

    give these folks in HOUSTON a hand.

    http://www.urbanharvest.org/

    this sure looks urban to me:

    http://www.urbanharvest.org/programs/cgardens/graphics/construction.jpg

    Posted by frosty zoom at 05/12/2008 @ 1:20pm

  7. Happy-In other words,suburbanites have to buy gardening tools just like the urbanites.What we need to do is teach you how to buy the right tools and how to use them without breaking them or letting them rust.You don't buy tools in the suburbs.You buy them in a farming community.That's one of the reasons we're heading back to the country as soon as the wife retires.Better quality everything.Costs a bit more,but lasts forever or is healthier to eat.

    Posted by i'm nobody at 05/12/2008 @ 1:38pm

  8. Your gardening tools rust and break?

    Uhhh...excuse me?

    I've had the same $15 shovel and hoe from Lowe's for the past 6 or 7 years.

    Here's a tip: Put your shit away when you're done with it.

    Posted by madlib at 05/12/2008 @ 1:52pm

  9. I don't much gardening but still, I've got to replace at least one or two shovels, rakes, hose heads (the pistol-grip type I, heheheh, `enjoy'!) or water hoses!

    Given how fast Houston's suburbs are growing, I don't need to wonder......where you live, I can understand!

    Now, if you'll excuse me....I need to go make a 20-mile run, burn some carbon and listen to Rushbo!

    Posted by HAPPY3 at 05/12/2008

    you should buy some stock in those shitty tool manufacturers - PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE IS $$$$$ FOR SOMEONE!!!!

    but i'm sure you know that.

    ah...what beautiful, decadent times! when virtue is vice and vice is virtue...when hard work and quality are forgotten and all that remains is smoke and mirrors hucksterism and profiteering! when pride in quality and craftsmanship is replaced by pride in sleazy schemes that fleece somnambulant consuming units of their hard earned $$$$!

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 05/12/2008 @ 2:19pm

  10. not just planned obsolescence,

    but also,

    debtfueled-inflation-hiding cheapness.

    praise the lord and pass the next rake, please.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 05/12/2008 @ 3:26pm

  11. rubber money, rubber rakes.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 05/12/2008 @ 3:31pm

  12. Wonder how HAPP reconciles the fact that Rush hates McCain,

    Posted by Mask

    bloodweiser.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 05/12/2008 @ 5:24pm

  13. bloodweiser,

    the kingmaker of beers.......

    Posted by frosty zoom at 05/12/2008 @ 8:04pm

  14. not landscaping.

    food.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 05/12/2008 @ 11:08pm

  15. shovels and rakes are for so.....yesterday!

    Posted by HAPPY3

    and tomorrow.

    you'll see.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 05/12/2008 @ 11:12pm

  16. I want to splurge in the beer

    posted by HAPPY3

    that's disgusting!

    Posted by frosty zoom at 05/12/2008 @ 11:23pm

  17. It's all about the Kokanee baby. That was our cheap beer in college, especially since I was friend with a Canadian. My father is partial to Labatt's but is also seriously repatriating us all (nous sons Quebecois) though he doesn't want to be stuck in Quebec and Mom doesn't speak a lick of French.

    Posted by yutsano at 05/12/2008 @ 11:30pm

  18. yutsano

    THIS is beer:

    http://www.unibroue.com/

    Posted by frosty zoom at 05/12/2008 @ 11:34pm

  19. Quebecois microbrews? J'ADORE!!!

    Posted by yutsano at 05/13/2008 @ 02:47am

  20. Majora Carter's organization has never planted a garden on a vacant lot. This is very typical of the kind of infantilized image lazy media likes to project on her though. Sustainable South Bronx has been training and placing poor and formerly incarcerated NYC residents in green collar jobs like green roof instalation/maintenance, brownfield remediation, and riverbank/estuary stabilization since 2001; and has a policy arm pushing new laws that fuel demand for these jobs. Thanks for not even looking at our website before writing about us Nation.

    Posted by SSBxCommunications at 05/13/2008 @ 09:21am

  21. I have had my own gardern for years..broccoli, tomatoes, beans, peas, (faiLed brussel sproutS, don't know why),CARROTS, YOU NAME IT, even grew our own popcorn for the kids when youmg..all my back yard food tastes wonderful..more flavor that those items ripened on a refrig railroad car...raspberries galore!!!!grapes, EVEN MADE MY OWN JELLY.

    The problem is no foods are "out of season" any more...so everything is always availlable to the younger people..

    To keep the tools from breaking or failing..CLEAN THEM WHEN DONE AND PUT THEM AWAY.

    Posted by JOMAMMA at 05/13/2008 @ 10:13am

  22. Posted by SSBxCommunications

    i've got tons of swampland for sale in detroit.

    keep up the good work.

    thanks,

    fz.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 05/13/2008 @ 1:18pm

  23. younger people will eat what you give them.

    they don't do the shopping.

    Tuesday, May 13, 2008 1:27:57 PM

    Posted by frosty zoom at 05/13/2008 @ 1:22pm

  24. While I don't often drink beer, occasionally a Killians Irish Red or a Rialto from El Salvador

    Posted by lvliberty1 at 05/13/2008 @ 2:03pm

  25. lvliberty1

    full of vitamin b!

    it's the brewer's yeast.

    good for the soul, too.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 05/13/2008 @ 2:56pm

  26. None of those bottles of rotten grain taste anywhere near as good as the nastiest juice or soft drink.

    Why are solvents, this cultures drug of choice?

    There are better ways than pickling oneself, to uncoordination, assholeness and eventual impotence, to attain a buzz.

    Quit drinking when i was 21-22. Nicotine (the other shitty cultural drug of choice) to much longer.

    Eric

    Posted by Malcontent at 05/13/2008 @ 11:57pm

  27. took*

    Posted by Malcontent at 05/13/2008 @ 11:58pm

  28. To all my friends & acquaintances at the Brewery B&B. Keep drinking those O'Keefes! In moderation of course & don't miss curfew.

    Posted by Sorelish at 05/14/2008 @ 8:49pm

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