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JAMESTOWN CELEBRATES DAY OF THE DEAD (written in november 2023)
And we had fun! The Pebbles in a Pond Project presented a vibrant El Dia de Los Muertos Fiesta on Saturday, November 4th. With lots of help from Jamestown Elementary School, we hosted about 80 people for a Tamale and Taquito Breakfast with a mountain of Conchitas Galletas, colorful shell-shaped cookies, and big round loaves of Pan de Muertos. Chicken Ranch Rancheria of MeWuk Indians’ Tribal Council generously donated support for the breakfast. THANK YOU, CHICKEN RANCH! And our Cocineros de Desayuno (Breakfast Cooks) were Cindy Novo Lisette Sweetland, and Walker Lytle-King. Plus, we purchased plenty of guacamole from C&C Taquerio.
Best of all was the storytelling! Olga Loya, an internationally known bilingual storyteller, came to Jamestown just for this event. Joining her with a storytelling debut was Lisette Noelpáj Sweetland (Yes, the same one who helped cook b’fast). Both women told stories of growing up in two cultures and how their families came to embrace Los Estados Unidos as their home without sacrificing their love for their cultural homeland of Mexico. Olga also told rich stories of El Dia de Los Muertos, including a beautiful story that helped everyone understand the historic connection to this important holiday and the deep roots of the Aztec culture throughout Mexico’s history. Also on hand to add a musical touch was Nathan Ignacio, a talented One-Man Band musician, who lives in Tuolumne County but travels far and wide to perform.
The theme of the day’s event also centered on encouraging our local Spanish-Speaking citizens to get ready to vote in the 2024 elections. The Tuolumne County Elections Department set up a table for voter registration and voter information. Sitting with them was retired teacher and League of Women Voters-Mother Lode member Leo Russell, who is first-language Spanish, but also grew up in Tuolumne County.
Where shall we toss pebbles next?…
Since January we have been busy! We’ve now hosted FOUR Pebbles in a Pond live shows. But there are 3 to go!
TUOLUMNE TOWNSHIP: Thursday, March 28th, 2024, from 3PM to 4:30PM….A Family Show at the Tuolumne City Branch Library. 18636 Main St,m Tuolumne Township, CA 95379. “ALL TOGETHER NOW!” Fun stories and songs about making friends, connecting with others, and helping our communities. PERFORMERS: BZ SMITH, LISETTE SWEETLAND & THE NEIGHBORHOOD SOUND’S TIM McCAFFREY
GROVELAND: Saturday, April 13th, from 2PM to 4PM….A Community Show for All Ages at the Groveland Community Resilience Center. 18986 Ferretti Road, Groveland, CA 95321. “We, the People: Stories of America.” How the American people gained the right to vote and worked to strengthen democracy. PERFORMERS: BZ SMITH, RICHARD HARATANI, ANDREA VICTORIA LISBON, LISETTE SWEETLAND & NATHAN IGNACIO
SONORA-DOWNTOWN: Saturday, June 1st, from 10AM to Noon… “Our Pebbles in a Pond Grande Finale!” at Tuolumne County Museum’s Courtyard. 158 West Bradford Avenue, Sonora, CA 95370. Join us for a Breakfast Snack Buffet & Music Jam Session PERFORMERS: THE NEIGHBORHOOD SOUND, PEG REZA, MARK STOLTENBURG, NATHAN IGNACIO. BZ SMITH, ANDREA V. LISBON & LISETTE SWEETLAND.
ALL OF OUR SHOWS ARE FREE TO THE PUBLIC, AND SPONSORED BY THE CALIFORNIA ARTS COUNCIL, TUOLUMNE COUNTY ARTS & UNITED WAY OF MERCED COUNTY.
Heroes of DEMOCRACY ~ 19TH CENTURY UNITED STATES…
Days of ‘49
In order to understand the struggle for voting rights in the United States today, we must be willing to look to our past. We, the People are constantly working to improve and deepen our knowledge of our own history. Let’s remember that from its inception the U.S. has been working to broaden voting rights as we strive to create a more perfect Union.
JOIN US FOR PEBBLES IN A POND’S 4th LIVE SHOW for ALL AGES on Saturday, March 23rd, 2024, from 2pm to 4pm, at the Tuolumne Community Resilience Center, 18241 Bay Ave, Tuolumne Township. Featuring music by The Neighborhood Sound and Honey Run, plus storytelling by Richard Haratani, Andrea Victoria Lisbon, Lisette Sweetland, and yours truly BZ Smith. Enjoy our photo exhibition by Marianne Hale-Levitan: “Faces of Tuolumne County Voters.” Plus, please participate in our community art project! The entire program is FREE with refreshments, provided by Sonora Area Foundation.
TOSS IN YOUR ROCK! EVENT #3…
Since Fall 2023, the Pebbles in a Pond Team has been organizing community events that focus on two things: THE ARTS and PROTECTING OUR DEMOCRACY. How are we combining these two diverse ideas? Well, come to The Game Room on Saturday, February 17th, to get a glimpse!
What IS on tap?
Three live popular bands…Opening will be After the Disaster, two (very) young brothers, who grew up rocking out! One of the area’s most beloved bands, The Neighborhood Sound with Adam Dragland and Tim McCaffrey. These guys won a MAMA award in 2019. And then there’s King Hippo, a big sound dance band with incredible young musicians! This will be a night to BEHOLD when it comes to music.
(And free pizza, courtesy of The Sonora Area Foundation)
Plus, we’ll have some excellent Spoken Word Artists: Andrea Lisbon, a powerful speaker and poet, who tells it like it is! Ross Irwin, a Sonora Boy, whose grown up to be a recognized public speaker on college campuses across the U.S. And Tuolumne County’s own…BZ Smith, that is me.
(And tell the teens, “FREE PIZZA, courtesy of The Sonora Area Foundation”)
Along with these performing artists, we will have Caralee Young with FarOut Facepaint, and the Pebbles in a Pond’s resident visual artist: Art Photographer Mariane Hale-Levitan. Marianne is compilng a dynamic portrait series that chronicles “Faces of Tuolumne County Voters.” Joining all of this will be come hands-on art: Paint a Pebble to remind YOU to VOTE! And the League of Women Voters will be on hand to register new voters. Plus 16 and 17 year olds can PRE-Register now.
(Then the can eat FREE PIZZA, courtesy of The Sonora Area Foundation)
AND TO TOP IT OFF, WE WILL HAVE DOOR PRIZES, gift certificates donated by local merchants because they believe in…
The Power of OUR VOTES!
In the midst of all this, we are a non-partisan activity. The creator and director promises to not tell anyone how to think or how to vote. Individual performers will do their best not to lean in to their ideologies. The Pebbles in a Pond program is working diligently to remain neutral. Our team motto is that we don’t want to tell anyone HOW to vote. We just want to encourage them to be sure that they DO Vote!. Our project is sponsored by Tuolumne County Arts, United Way of Merced County, the California Arts Council’s Heartland Creative Corps programs, and local sponsors, such as the Sonora Area Foundation and Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Mewuk Indians.
What is in a word?…
For the last three years, I’ve been hearing some people claim, “America is NOT a democracy. It is a Republic!” Please, if you can help me understand this rhetoric, I’d be very grateful. I do know that The Heritage Foundation subscribes to this idea. I read the article, written by Bernard Dobski, PhD in the summer of 2020, that probably sparked this line of reasoning.
Aside from being a very scholarly piece that would be difficult for most college graduates to fully grasp (including me), it essentially undercuts the idea that American Citizens can live together with a respectful sense of equality. In this essay it sounds like things have to stay out of balance to be in compliance with what the original writers of the Constitution thought prudent. Reading his piece is like untying a Gorgon Knot, unless you’re already convinced about his premise. “Hold back those liberal hooligans that want everyone to be free! Those rampant Progressives who talk about E-Q-U-I-T-Y!”. I can almost hear the spit coming from some mouths because those SIX letters have become more vial than some words that only have FOUR letters (You know the ones: The D-word and the F-word, and the SH-word. OR my least fave, the dreaded C-word).
Wow! I didn’t mean to go THAT far!
Most of the time, I’m pretty much a simpleton. I like sticking with my ABC’s sometimes. You know, like the basic stuff we were taught when I went to school back in the age of the dinosaurs when our (democratically elected) Republic was MUCH younger. So, I got a crazy and freakishly simple idea: What would Noah Webster have to say on this subject? So, I turned to the Dictionary, the great arbitor of many debates, especially in a game of Scrabble!
Webster says “DEMOCRACY IS…1-A) Government by the people especially : rule of the majority. 1-B) A government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.
His original dictionary, published in 1828 says this:
DEMOCRACY, noun [Gr. People, and to possess, to govern.] Government by the people; a form of government, in which the supreme power is lodged in the hands of the people collectively, or in which the people exercise the powers of legislation. Such was the government of Athens.
That sounds pretty straight-forward. But what does Webster have to say about the word republic?
Webster says, “REPUBLIC IS…1-A.1) A government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and who in modern times is usually a president. 1-A.2) A political unit (such as a nation) having such a form of government. 1-B) A government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law, and 1-C) A political unit (such as a nation) having such a form of government
And here is the 1828 dictionary’s definition of REPUBLIC…
REPUB'LIC, noun [Latin respublica; res and publica; public affairs.] 1. A commonwealth; a state in which the exercise of the sovereign power is lodged in representatives elected by the people. In modern usage, it differs from a democracy or democratic state, in which the people exercise the powers of sovereignty in person. Yet the democracies of Greece are often called republics. 2. Common interest; the public. [Not in use.] 3. Republic of letters, the collective body of learned men.
So, after reading this, what do you think? Who IS entitled to vote? AND What IS in a word? I’d really like to know! PLEASE CONTACT ME VIA THE CONTACT PAGE! GIVE ME YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS BIT OF WRITING. BZSMITH.COM/CONTACT
JOIN ME IN THANKING THESE SPONSORS OF THE “PEBBLES IN A POND: THE RIPPLING EFFECT OF DEMOCRACY” PROJECT…
Tuolumne County Arts California Arts Council United Way of Merced County Sonora Area Foundation
Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Mewuks Indians of California
The Canoe is now rowing on the pond…
ROW, ROW, ROW YOUR BOAT…
We put our canoe in the water, and our 2024 live shows are now rowing and rolling out across Tuolumne County. We hope that you’re hearing or reading the BUZZ about Pebbles in a Pond! TODAY, 1/10/24, we’re featured in the Union Democrat’s “Weekender”! We’re doing a big show at the Tuolumne County Library Main Branch this coming Saturdayat 1PM. Grab the kids, and come have some fun!
BUT WHO ARE WE AND WHY ARE WE DOING THESE SHOWS? "The Pebbles in a Pond" project is a grant initiative from the California Arts Council’s California Heartland Creative Corps. Our team of artists and designers is using the ARTS to encourage voter registration and voter education in Tuolumne County. All of the programs are non-partisan, which means we do NOT tell you how to vote or which candidates to support. Instead, we’re there to tell the STORIES of VOTING and why it’s important for all of us to participate. We'll have League of Women Voters' registrars on hand to get people registered for the 2024 election. We're hoping that our programs encourage lifelong voting, too.
Along with the California Arts Council, our program grant is sponsored and support by Tuolumne County Arts and United Way of Merced County. THANK YOU, ALL, for all your guidance and help.
“All Together Now!” on January 13th, ‘24…
Join us at Tuolumne County Library…A free Live FAMILY show
from 1PM to 4PM with Storytelling, Puppetry, Music and Hands-On ART!
PRESENTED BY THE“Pebbles in a pond: the rippling effect of democracy”
California heartland creative corps in tuol-co…
The California ARTS Council is working in cooperation with the California State Legislature! The Heartland Creative Corps creates opportunites for ARTISTS to build awareness & involvement with key issues, facing California’s future.
In March 2023 Tuolumne County artists and organizations got word that a huge grant was rolling into town! Tuolumne County Arts announced that three Central California rural counties (Tuolumne, Merced and Stanislaus) were given a chance to work with United Way of Merced County and the California Arts Council to launch a pilot project. And the opportunities were (almost) wide open! Just create a project that would bring awareness and education about a list of key issues that are important to California’s future. That’s all! Oh, and make sure that you can start and finish your project in less than one year.
Now there are at least eight different projects working in Tuolumne County, and they cover a wide range of those key issues…ALL through the ARTS!
TOP LEFT…Artists of The Greater Good Collective take us to ther multi-media land of “Last Earth” to explore issues of climate change and global warming. NEXT—Ria Rice-Lawson is creating a film about ?????? (TBA). NEXT—Peggy Reza is making sculptures of regional wildlife from recycled plastics. NEXT—BZ Smith is producing 17 performances to protect democracy.
BOTTOM LEFT…Stefany Haney is creating murals to tell the story of local homeless. NEXT—Dianne Stearns is creating a ceramic mural of local wildlife with clients of WATCH Resources. NEXT—Crow Castlebury is creating an art exhibit of 3-D and 2-D works that address mental health issues. NEXT—Mercedes Tune and Barbara Balen are producing an expansive Cinco De Mayo Celebration in Columbia State Historic Park.
For a summary of the various Heartland Creative Corps projects that are taking place in Tuolumne County, read this announcement of awards article from last Summer in the Union Democrat:
https://www.uniondemocrat.com/news/article_f0e04f9a-58e7-11ee-bfb4-2f3fe45becba.html
Pebbles in a pond~ Jumping into 2024 with 6 live shows!
And so we dive in! The Pebbles in a Pond Project presents a Tuol-Co tour in 2024, We’ll be visiting neighborhoods and communities all around the county with 6 lively shows—all riding on the current of getting involved in our democracy,
We’re here with storytellers, puppeteers, musicians and visual artists to entertain education and engage you in what makes the U.S. truly great.
We’ve all heard stories of the Boston Tea Party and their cry, “
Thank you to the many sponsors, who are helping to make these grants possible!
Pebbles in a pond~ Jumping into 2024 with 6 lives shows!
Por Favor….Join us for bi-lingual stories of El Dia de los Muertos AND “Living in America/Viviendo en America,” stories of growing up as the child of Mexican immigrants in Chavez Ravine, the home of many Mexican Families’ in Los Angeles from the 1930’s until the early 1960’s. Voter Registrars will be on hand. Plus there will be lots of fun family activities, and a delicious Mexican breakfast. See you there!
Throw in your pebblE...
Toss a pebble in a pond, and watch a ripple spread across the surface. Toss a bunch of pebbles in a pond, and watch as each one makes its own ripple, then they all blend together to make one wave. That’s what voting is all about…Our collective pebbles, or votes, create waves of change.
