USING THE "VILLAGES" STORIES
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These stories are not yet formally published.
The Missoulian newspaper published a Feature Story before the first story walk, with a briefer news article on the second (we were by that time calling it a "walk and roll" and mounted pages at appropriate ADA heights). Montana Public Radio aired a reading by host Annie Garde on their 'Pea Green Boat' children's show. As the author & illustrator, I love making the stories available to community groups, educators and families. They are inspiring and powerful in these times that call for stronger communities to imagine and enact big ideas together. |
With beautiful original art, they are potent, too, in teaching how we humans can tend the intricate ecosystems upon which we rely.
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I offer use of these stories to you on a flexible basis. I am self-employed. As baselines for a downloadable copy, consider these: $25 - $50 for organizational use, $5 - $10 for family use.
I also support creating a more holistic economy where money is offered based not only on value but on one's capacity to pay. That means, you may have significant resource and can pay significantly more than these baselines. Or cash may be tight. If they are useful to you and your people or organization, then I work with that also. Beyond these thoughts: if you'd simply like to donate something to support this work or The Living Classroom or projects Across Generations, I'm glad of that too! You can designate how I use your donation. What are you excited about seeing more of in the world? There will be more episodes of the story. I've donated the laminated story sets to our local primary school's library. I send 30% of any monies to two Indigenous and BIPOC-led non-profits here in Montana as part of my personal work to repair and heal some of the hurts of marginalized peoples and of Native genocide in a practical way. Contact me to preview them, and let's make an agreement! |
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Various readers have offered appreciation:
"This is amazing. Wonderful. I am an artist and educator of young children in Oakland, Ca, trying to do some similar community work in my own neighborhood."
"I absolutely loved your story, illustrations, and the bigger project of which it was a part! I loved that it was written about how children might be experiencing community in these times and I especially loved the part where you wrote that they sought help from adults so adults could help in their ways, but the children were still committed to finding ways to help that were possible for them. It's such a nice parallel for how we all can contribute in some way to solving larger problems in our communities with our own abilities and resources."
"I love reading about what you've done in your community. Very ingenious. I am an indigenous person of Hawaiian ancestry. Thank you for thinking about the indigenous people where you live."
"I didn't realize that this story was going to culminate in a *real world* moment of community building. That makes this whole walk all the more meaningful. Way to go in changing the world through your artwork and activism!!"
"This is an amazing piece of work and I especially value the prompt that creative work that doesn't look like usual "activism" could be just as powerful."
"Just got time to read this. As a songwriter I especially appreciate your use of story and creativity to spark fresh thinking and grow community!"
"This is amazing. Wonderful. I am an artist and educator of young children in Oakland, Ca, trying to do some similar community work in my own neighborhood."
"I absolutely loved your story, illustrations, and the bigger project of which it was a part! I loved that it was written about how children might be experiencing community in these times and I especially loved the part where you wrote that they sought help from adults so adults could help in their ways, but the children were still committed to finding ways to help that were possible for them. It's such a nice parallel for how we all can contribute in some way to solving larger problems in our communities with our own abilities and resources."
"I love reading about what you've done in your community. Very ingenious. I am an indigenous person of Hawaiian ancestry. Thank you for thinking about the indigenous people where you live."
"I didn't realize that this story was going to culminate in a *real world* moment of community building. That makes this whole walk all the more meaningful. Way to go in changing the world through your artwork and activism!!"
"This is an amazing piece of work and I especially value the prompt that creative work that doesn't look like usual "activism" could be just as powerful."
"Just got time to read this. As a songwriter I especially appreciate your use of story and creativity to spark fresh thinking and grow community!"