FASTFORWARD MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2020

FastForward #30 VOL 1 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020

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DR. NAHID BHADALIA ON THE FRONT LINES WITH COVID-19

REMEMBERING 9/11 LT. STEVE CASQUARELLI KURT WENNER INVENTOR OF 3D PAVEMENT ART

ALICIA GARZA

‘We need to love ourselves and fight for a world where Black Lives Matter’

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FASTFORWARD REPORTERS

CONTENTS For our cover story, we interviewed Alicia Garza Co-Founder of Black Lives Matter. Talking with Alicia was inspiring and motivates us to reach out, taking action to create change. We interviewed Dr. Nahid Bhadalia, an infectious disease physician on the front lines of COVID-19. Also included is our interview with Master Artist Kurt Wenner, the inventor of 3-D pavement art.

“Our minds expanded, while learning that listening to someone else can change our lives.”

learn, expand P. 4

BLACK LIVES MATTER — ALICIA GARZA TALKS

Jackie Chin

Max Goldman

Eliza Gould

Patrick Lenihan

Kimberly DeLeon

Lily Leone

Ashley Grady

Hugo Leinbach

P. 12 9/11 — AN INTERVIEW WITH A FIRST RESPONDER P. 14 KURT WENNER — MASTER ARTIST AND INVENTOR P. 20 DR. NAHID BHADALIA, INFECTIOUS DISEASE PHYSICIAN P. 22 ARTIST SPOTLIGHT — DYLAN HUBERT P. 24 MILL VALLEY MIDDLE SCHOOL — THE MEANING OF ART P. 26 ENVIRONMENTAL PAGE — FAST FASHION

Anna Palfy

Lilah Richman

Semira Robinson

Jack Callaway

Jacob TaichmanBernstein

Marguerite Walden-Kaufman

Zadie Winthrop EDITOR

P. 29 ART PAGE — MARIN PRIMARY & MIDDLE SCHOOL

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PUBLISHER: Winifred MacLeod winifred@fastforwardweb.com TEL: 415.272.3569 ADDRESS: FastForward 775 E.Blithedale Ave #388 Mill Valley, CA 94941 Published by KidSpeak, Inc. Vol 30 #1 www.fastforwardweb.com STUDENT EDITOR: Zadie Winthrop CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Jackie Chin, Jack Callaway, Max Goldman, Ashley Grady, Patrick Helios-Lenihan, Eliza Gould, Anna Palfy, Zadie Winthrop, Lily Leone, Hugo Lienbach, Dylan Hubert, Marguerite Waldman-Kaufman, Angela Tsai, Lilah Richman, Emerson Swift, Fiona Bailey, Patrick Lenihan, Semira Robinson, Kimberly DeLeon, Jacob Taichman-Bernstein, Wesley Slavin, Lilah Smith, Margeaux Davis, Helen Kay, Ella Hilton, Dexter Burnett, Zoe Pletcher

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3

A LOVE LETTER TO BLAC PEOPLE FROM ALICIA GARZA, CO-FOUNDER OF BLACK LIVES MATTER

CK

“We need to love ourselves and fight for a world where Black Lives Matter.

Black people, I love you. I love us. We matter. Our lives matter.�

Imagine having to write a love letter declaring there’s nothing wrong with who you are.

ON JULY 13, 2013, on the patio of Cafe 389 in Oakland, California, Alicia Garza watched the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the murder case of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old black boy who was shot while walking to a store. As the final verdict was announced, the cafe fell silent, and Garza was enveloped in shock and numbness. She didn’t realize the extent of the grief she would experience until she began to search through her social media.

Garza expected others to be feeling the sadness and outrage she was, but instead, she found a range WRITERS: Jackie Chin, Maxine Flasherof reactions, Duzgunes, Lily Leone, Marguerite some of Walden-Kaufman, Hugo Leinbach, Semira Robinson, Zadie Winthrop which blamed REPORTERS: Ashley Grady, Patrick Trayvon Helios-Lenihan, Kimberly DeLeon Martin for SCHOOLS: Marin Academy, Davidson Middle, Phillips Academy Andover, San his own death Rafael High, Sacred Heart Preparatory, because of the Sidwell Friends High School, Sir Francis clothes he was Drake High, Tamalpais High, The Menlo School, Urban School of San Francisco wearing.

“I imagined myself in that moment as Trayvon’s mom.

Imagine that she was spending those moments in the aftermath of the acquittal of her son’s murderer, reading all these comments about how we should have known better, or how we need to do better, as opposed to how we needed to change this country so that this doesn’t happen again,” said Garza.

Heavy with thick spirals of anger, frustration, and sadness, she poured her emotions into a love letter. If the world wasn’t going to tell Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon’s mother, that neither she, nor her son did anything wrong, Garza was.

“We don’t deserve to be killed with impunity. We need to love ourselves and fight for a world where Black

Lives Matter. Black people, I love you. I love us. We matter. Our lives matter,” Garza wrote on Facebook.

Patrisse Cullors, who would soon become one of the co-founders of Black Lives Matter, responded with #blacklivesmatter, the post went viral and, through social media, we witnessed the birth of an incredible social movement. With those three words, Alica Garza sparked a revolution.

Co-Founder of Black Lives Matter and Special Projects Director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Garza has now spurred the nation to write their own love letters to the black community in the form of everything from small donation projects and township marches to large community reforms and citywide protests. Black Lives Matter is not only about changing the ideas of attitudes of people around the world, but is also about creating tangible change in the form of laws and policies that work to reverse state-sanctioned black death and oppression of all black people.

One of the most important aspects of the fight for justice, according to Garza, is the value of intersectionality. Intersectionality involves the interconnection between different aspects of one’s identity — ie, between race, gender, and ethnicity — that creates a more whole representation of an individual than one single category can. It is a “practice of how we don’t leave anybody behind,” according to Garza. It’s about recognizing the different facets of identity and understanding how they blend with one another. To make this clearer for those unfamiliar with the term, Garza gave us an example: “How many of you have heard that women

A soft, but striking Trayvon Martin mural from The LISA Project appears in New York City’s Lower East Side .

The mural was created

by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh.

make 80 cents to every dollar that a man makes?” she asked. “This is specifically true for white women, who, on average, make 80 cents to every dollar that white men make. But when you look at black women, it’s actually 68 cents to the 80 cents that white women make to the dollar that white men make.

And then when you look at Latinx women, it’s like 54 cents to the 68 cents that black women make to the 80 cents that white women make to the dollar that white men make.” To close the wage gap, Garza says, we must start from those that make the very least — those that are most discriminated against.

“And so that’s how I think about intersectionality,” she told us. “It’s a similar practice of making sure that we approach challenges we’re trying to solve...through the lens of folk who have been left out and left behind.”

With that mindset, Garza seeks to represent all black people with her movement, especially those who face the most oppression in our society. “When we’re talking about black communities, we’re talking about all black communities,” she said. “We’re trans. We’re lesbian, gay, bisexual, we’re all kinds of folks along many different spectrums.”

Widening the conversation to include all sorts of intersectional identities is an incredibly important part of Garza’s work. “If we really want to improve the lives of black people, we have to start actually by redefining who belongs and who deserves safety.” She particularly seeks to invest in the leadership of black trans women, saying that the accomplishments of the black transgender community are often overshadowed by the supposed

danger of their identities.

Garza also emphasized that while everybody in this movement shares similar values, not everyone thinks the exact same way — and that’s okay. “The goal here is not for everybody to think the same.

It is for everybody to move in the same direction,” she told us. “There are lots of people whom I have in my life that I don’t agree with on everything, and I’m sure that that is true for each of you as well. The challenge becomes, can we still work together? Can we still learn how to be in the community even if we don’t approach things in the same way?”

To Garza, the answer is complicated.

She acknowledges the need to be able to work with people who have different viewpoints and opinions, but also acknowledges that there are exceptions to that idea. “If we don’t agree on the fundamentals, which is that all people deserve humanity, then I think it is actually pretty hard to work together,” she said.

This idea of humanity and dignity stands at the forefront of working together in the learning process. “If you believe that police should have the right to kill black people with impunity, then that is something that infringes on somebody’s dignity,” she said.

Garza’s style of decentralized leadership has ensured that societal changes can be distributed into the hands of many leaders, and above all, be sustained. “I think democracy is a full-time job,” she said. “And I imagine...that in a fully functioning democracy, everybody would care so much about our futures, that participation would be non-negotiable.” Everyone should take responsibility for the systemic oppression of black people, and everyone should actively be working to dismantle it.

What Garza truly hopes comes out of this movement, she says, is a reimagining of how we invest our resources. “I am somebody who feels very strongly that we put money in all the wrong places, and so we get all

the wrong results. We spend billions of dollars on wars. We spend billions of dollars on corporations. We spend billions of dollars on policing. And what suffers is hospitals and health care, schools, jobs, support for families, and childcare. Everything suffers when you invest in the wrong places,” she explained.

Instead of investing in police, she says the government should invest in resources that would improve the quality of life of citizens. “Police don’t solve homelessness. Police don’t prevent crime unnecessarily,” she told us. “What prevents people harming each other is people having the things that they need to live well.

And when we make access to those things scarce, when we say that you have to compete to get those things, then that’s what people do.” Bigger investments into things like schools, hospitals, and family support would create a ripple effect of positive change in our country, she says.

Many support this idea of reinvesting resources, and they’re quick to share their opinions via social media. While Black Lives Matter’s online presence is undeniable, Garza has her reservations about the extent to which social media can truly further a cause. While it can be a great way to share and receive information, she explained that many social media sites are owned by huge corporations who don’t always have the best interest of their users in mind. “Part of the challenge here,” she explained, “is that what it means to be privately controlled is that it’s not fully accountable to the will of people.” Her Facebook inbox is often flooded with death threats and hate speech, and the company has done nothing to stop it. “It’s not a safe space for a lot of us who are trying to make change. And the thing that I don’t love about social media is how mean people can be to each other.

What I think is that there needs to be more rules and rules of engagement that everybody agrees to,” she said, adding that nothing quite surpasses

the value of face-to-face connection in making lasting changes.

In light of the recent protests, many people have been discussing what it means to be a good ally to the BIPOC community, and Garza offers a unique perspective on the term “allyship”. She articulated that an ally can be quite passive, comparing it to someone who might support the children making Nike shoes in China, but then still wear Nike shoes. “We actually need more co-conspirators,” she said, because “conspiracy just means to breathe together, [the] right to conspire.”

Folks who are “conspiring together can bring people together across geography, across demographics, and across all the ways in which we’ve been divided and separated from each other.” Declaring yourself an “ally” is not enough. You must act on your beliefs and put in effort to fight for the cause.

For young adults going out into the world right now, it can seem difficult to remain hopeful. Upon her own graduation, Garza argued with her mother over what it means to build a career that both grounds yourself somewhere and serves others as a felt contribution. “It’s not about making money. It’s about making the world a better place,” she told her, echoing that message to us and encouraging us be part of something that is bigger than ourselves. ...

TO LEARN MORE, VISIT: SUPERMAJORITY.COM A community for women who want to work together to build and organize and transform this country.

BLACKFUTURESLAB.ORG Transforming Black communities into constituencies that change the way power operates—locally, statewide and nationally.

BLACKLIVESMATTER.COM A global network builds power to bring justice, healing, and freedom to Black people across the globe.

“I want us to be able to look back and say, ‘At this moment in time, I made a choice to be a part of the change that’s happening. I made a choice not to look away.

I made a choice not to isolate. I made a choice to be a part of the change that we read about in history books.’ So that you also get to tell the same stories that I’m telling 10 years from now, 20 years from now, 30 years from now, and keep inspiring more and more people to be a part of the change that we need.”

— Alicia Garza The Marin County Free Library’s Mission is to provide welcoming, equitable and inclusive opportunities for all to connect, learn and explore. A core strategy to achieve our Mission is providing resources and information that will help our community learn about and more deeply engage in racial equity. For more info, Visit: marinlibrary.org.

email winifred@fastforwardweb.com or direct message @fastforwardmagazine on Instagram

SPEAK OUT

10 FASTFORWARD SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020

Ground Zero:

An Interview with 9/11 First Responder STEVE CASQUARELLI

An Interview with Fire Lieutenant Steve Casquarelli— a First Responder Fireman at 9/11 FastForward student reporters and writers: Back, L to r: Minna Hibbitts, Semira Robinson, Naomi Lenchner, Lyla Tipton, NYC Firefighter Andy Trabanco, Zadie Winthrop, Patrick Lenihan and Joshua Santos.

Front, l to r: Kylie Sebastian, Sammi Dostart-Meers, Ashley Grady and Lilah Richman.

From: Marin Academy, Tamalpais High, Menlo School, Redwood High, Sidwell Friends, San Domenico, Urban

WRITERS/REPORTERS: Max Goldman, Jacob Taichman-Bernstein, Jackie Chin, Lily Leone, Marguerite Walden-Kaufman, Hugo Leinbach, Lilah Richman, Semira Robinson, Zadie Winthrop, Ashley Grady, Patrick Helios-Lenihan, Kimberly DeLeon, Ana Palfy, Wesley Slavin, Eliza Gould, Jack Callahan SCHOOLS: Branson, Marin Academy, Marin School of the Arts, Davidson Middle, Phillips Academy Andover, San Rafael High, Sacred Heart Preparatory, Sidwell Friends High, Sir Francis Drake High, Tam High, The Menlo School, Urban School of San Francisco

FDNY

first responder Steve Casquarelli describes the morning of September 11th, 2001 as “…a beautiful day, a cloudless day.”

S

eptember 11, 2001 — a day that none of us are likely to soon forget, whether we were there watching the devastation in-person, across the country or world, too young to understand what was happening, or not even born yet. The destruction of that day and the massive rehabilitation that followed is a critical part of American history, and the firsthand accounts of those who witnessed it will be passed down for generations. While most people who are old enough remember that day, there are few who remember it as vividly as Lieutenant Steve Casquarelli.

Although his father was a fireman as well, Steve Casquarelli didn’t always have his heart set on following in his footsteps.

After graduating from college with a degree in education, he set out looking for work. Since it was nearly impossible to get a job in the Board of Education in New York at that time, he looked elsewhere: he applied for a position at the fire department, police department, corrections department, and post office, among other 12

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places. The fire department happened to be the first one to call him back, and he soon found himself at the beginning of a long and fulfilling career. Though not his initial plan, he found the work to be extremely rewarding. “I just felt that when I went to work, I was able to make a difference and help somebody out in some capacity,” he told us. “If we went out and I was able to make somebody more comfortable or help them get out of a problem, it was a rewarding day for me.”

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Casquarelli and his colleagues were preparing for a shift in their Brooklyn firehouse. After the first plane hit, the firefighters gathered in the kitchen to watch the breaking news. “When the first plane hit, we thought it was just an accident.

The plane was flying too low and hit the building,” he told us, recalling his initial thoughts. It wasn’t until the second plane hit that they realized it was intentional.

“When the second one hit, that was a game changer,” he explained. “We knew it was done on purpose. It was a deliber-

ate act.” It wasn’t long before Casquarelli and his team were headed towards Manhattan, prepared to help out in any way they could. Although they were keeping up to date on the latest developments as they travelled, the reality of the destruction didn’t fully set in until they arrived on scene. It was unlike anything they had ever witnessed before. “When you see something on TV or a picture of it, it leaves a huge impression on an individual. But when you’re actually face to face with it, that anxiety level is amplified many times over.” He went on to describe the horrific scene on the ground in vivid detail. “We could see the destruction.

The buildings were down. There were 16 acres of ground down there that were in flames. There were people all over the place — firemen, police officers, civilians, all running around trying to help and trying to escape. So when we first got down there, reality set in for me.” The debris of the 110-story buildings spilled out about two square blocks from the epicenter, and in the middle rose the massive, 10-story pile of rubble where the Twin Towers once stood. “I was shocked that something so large could be reduced to something so little,” he explained, describing the jarring sight.

Casquarelli was asked to separate from his normal engine crew and relocate to the field communication unit, where he worked in a mobile command post and assisted in the management of search-and-recover operations. Putting his personal emotions and anxiety aside, Casquarelli says, was one of the hardest parts of the job. “Early on I knew emotionally that I had to remove myself from what was going on around me,” he told us, describing how he had to stay in constant communication with others, leaving no time for himself during his 24-hour shifts. “What I ended up doing so I could cope early on, is I made myself emotionally numb to what was going on.

I refused to allow myself to think of the death and destruction that was there even though I was faced with it every

The reflecting pools covering the exact footprints of the Twin Towers The 9/11 Tribute Center is located nearby at 92 Greenwich St, New York, NY 10006

single day. You could see it, smell it, you could almost taste it. But I refused. Even when I went home, I refused to allow myself to grieve. I stayed in work-mode and that way, the following day when I went back to work, I was ready to go.” Bottling up his emotions worked for a short time, Casquarelli told us, but it wasn’t long before he needed to reach out for help.

About three weeks into the operation, he developed a bad blister on his foot and went to the EMS unit for first aid. “I sat down in the seat and it was the first time in about three weeks that I got a chance to sit down in a chair and just relax,” he told us, recalling his visit to the EMS. “I sank right into the seat — it just felt so good to sit. My mind was so relaxed, and all of those experiences that I was going through in the previous three weeks rushed from the back of my head to the front. And I could feel my emotions welling up — the reality of the destruction, the reality of all of those deaths and families that were waiting for their loved ones to come home. All of these emotions started to come back to me and I realized I was ready to have my moment.” Seeing the look in Casquarelli’s eyes, the EMS worker quickly realized that he needed more than just some gauze for his foot.

She asked him if he was okay, and his emotions immediately poured out. “It was just that little moment of human compassion that somebody was offering me...I broke down in her arms and three weeks of emotion spilled out with her.”

Casquarelli describes that moment as a weight lifted off his back; not only did he release weeks of piled up emotions, but he realized that numbing himself wasn’t the best coping mechanism. He soon reached out to a counseling service that the fire department offered, and got the help he needed.

Casquarelli’s work on the scene of 9/11 didn’t only impact his mental health — it affected his physical health as well.

A year after the events, he was diagnosed with Reactive Airways Dysfunction syndrome (due to the inhalation of

toxic debris), greatly reducing his lung capacity and causing him to retire from the fire department. He has to be extra cautious now, he says, to make sure he doesn’t get too winded. “I have to be careful about what I do,” he told us. “I’m not holding back, but I do have to be careful how stringent my activity is. So in that respect, it has altered my life somewhat physically.” Luckily, while it has decreased his lung capacity, the disorder doesn’t cause him any pain.

The most important lesson Casquarelli learned from the events of 9/11, he explained, was how a devastating incident can bring people together. “While I was working in the command post, I met people from all over the United States. I met people from Alaska that came down here to help out, people from California — I met people from everywhere. All the caring and the love that was afforded to us in the city at the time — I actually found that extremely overwhelming.” Not only was he overwhelmed by the support received from all over the United States, but the global effort impressed him as well. “The humanity of people was just incredible,” he recalled fondly.

Today, Casquarelli finds that telling his story is extremely important. He has been volunteering at the 9/11 Tribute Center, a non-profit organization that provides the public with firsthand accounts of the attacks, for about five-and -a-half years. While it was difficult to tell his story at first, he says it’s gotten easier over time, and today he finds it almost therapeutic. “This way it doesn’t stay bottled up to release, you know. I think it’s good to talk to people. You get a chance to hear somebody’s story that was there and you’re keeping it alive. We can’t forget what happened that day.” As emotional as it may be, Steve Casquarelli will never stop telling his story. The events of 9/11 left an indelible mark on our nation’s history, and its impact will be felt for generations to come. “It just can’t be forgotten.”

KURT WEN

Lost World - © 2019 Kurt Wenner

NNER A 3-D WORLD Artist Kurt Wenner Takes Us Into a 3-D World WRITERS/REPORTERS: Jack Callaway, Jackie Chin, Kimberly DeLeon, Max Goldman, Eliza Gould, Ashley Grady, Lily Leone, Patrick Helios-Linehan, Hugo Leinbach, Anna Palfy, Lilah Richman, Jacob Taichman-Bernstein, Marguerite Walden-Kaufman, Semira Robinson, Wesley Slavin, Zadie Winthrop SCHOOLS: Branson, Davidson Middle, Marin Academy, Marin School of the Arts, Phillips Academy Andover, Sidwell Friends, San Rafael High, Sir Francis Drake High, Sacred Heart Preparatory, Tamalpais High, The Menlo School and Urban High School of San Francisco

L

ike most of us, as you sat in your ninth-grade geometry class, you probably didn’t think much about the subject and the way it manifests itself in the world. You undoubtedly spent your time looking at shapes on a paper, completing proofs, and measuring angles, while giving little thought to how geometry affects the way you see the world.

You probably thought you could forget the subject the moment you completed the class; unless you were planning on becoming a mathematician, geometry wouldn’t really affect your life, right? Not quite. In fact, geometry is all around us. It’s in the houses we build, in the art we create, and in nature. Our perspective on the world depends on it, and no one knows that better than Kurt Wenner.

Kurt Wenner has dedicated his life to the study of art. From his early beginnings as a high school student creating murals and logos for local stores and graphics studios, to pioneering a new art form and becoming a global sensation, he has wasted no time pursuing what he loves. However, despite his precocious career in the arts, he didn’t always receive encouragement and support. He recalls one experience he had while studying at the Rhode Island School of Design that led to a shift in his way of thinking — he was told by a professor that he was not good at drawing and he should stay away from it in his career. Ironically, this discouragement served to further pique his passion in drawing. He began to study outside of school, asking himself questions that were never brought up in his classes: What is drawing? What makes a good drawing? Wenner took it upon himself to pursue the answers. By studying books and drawings from the Renaissance he came to the realization that while he had trouble drawing, so did everyone around him. In fact, they all — students and teachers alike — had a long way to go if they wanted to master the art of drawing.

He soon transferred to Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California where the study of geometry began to spark his interest. It was there that he began his journey towards being one of the most influential artists of his generation.

“I was really interested in geometry, but not the kind of geometry you learn in math class,” Wenner explained to us. “It was a kind of geometry that in my day was used to design things. When you think of it, temples, motorcars, and spaceships were all drawn by hand — that’s the kind of ge-

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The Belgian Underground - © 2007 Kurt Wenner

ometry that interested me.” Wenner began to master the art of perspective drawing on his own, eventually gaining the attention of his physics professor, who helped launch him into a job as an illustrator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In 1982, he left his position, shortly before the invention of computer graphics (which rendered work by hand obsolete). He sold all his belongings and moved to Rome, Italy to pursue his love of classical drawing. Upon arriving, the odds were stacked against the young Wenner; he couldn’t speak Italian, he didn’t have a permit to work, and he didn’t know anyone. Nevertheless, his passion for art persisted, and it wasn’t long before his favorite two studies — classicism and geometry — became entwined and led to the birth of three-dimensional pavement art.

Wenner’s fascination with classicism and Renaissance art deepened during his time in Rome. Eager to learn the foundations of these art styles, he adopted a practice that was common during the 15th and 16th centuries — drawing from sculpture.

Each morning he would go and sit in front of the sculptures in the Vatican museums for hours on end, replicating the figures and shapes onto paper and occasionally selling a drawing off his board to a museum guard or tourist for fifteen dollars apiece. Wenner stated creating this type of art presented him with quite a challenge: “I was very interested in something that was not popular, which was classical drawing.

I thought that Renaissance drawings were the most beautiful things I’d ever seen. But, what I was supposed to do as a young artist at the time was maybe create an abstract painting or something like that. There was a difference between what I thought was beautiful, and what my culture thought was interesting or pertinent to its time.”

Replicating these classic works of art was a study program for Wenner rather than a means of supporting himself — at least the drawing sales stopped him from completely running out of money, but wasn’t a stable income. Enter street art.

Wenner started with two-dimensional

street art, painting traditional images such as saints and madonnas. However, once he realized his experience with geometry and perspective could transform street art, three-dimensional pavement art was born.

“It occurred to me I could use the kind of geometry and perspective I had developed working with NASA, and combine the two together to come up with a new kind of art form,” revealing how his art represents a union between art and geometry. His original idea, he says, was to create his perspective drawings in a public setting from start to finish, in order to prove to viewers that no “tricks” were used during the process. He described how, when he first started creating street art, he drew whatever came to his imagination. However, upon recognizing that his art was not being viewed from straight above, Wenner found himself playing with the perspective of his drawings and using geometry to create images meant to be viewed from street-level.

“There were historically certain kinds of geometry, which allowed you to pull and push the perspective of the figures, and elongate the figures so they would look good for a person standing at the bottom of the drawing,” he told us. “The idea was to create an image where people could stand at the bottom of the painting and look across it. The environment around it would then appear as part of the painted image.”

Today, three-dimensional street art is a worldwide phenomenon.

The “magic” of Wenner’s street art creations is not really magic at all — and he wants the world to know that. He wants any aspiring artist who is fascinated by his work to be aware that the trickery of three-dimensional art is based solely in geometry and mathematical proportions. It’s formulaic, and achievable for anyone who is willing to open their minds to the world of creative geometry. “All the young artists that who want to become visual magicians would say, ‘Oh, wait a minute, how did he make that look 3D?’ and then they would start to work on the geometry. The geometry then brings them into a world that they never would have come in contact with.”

Wenner explains how, while most people take a geometry class, very few truly understand the subject. “In my own work, I’ve been interested in saying, ‘Well, what is a point? What is a line? What is a circle arc?’

And I found that the elements of geometry are actually symbols of creative principles.

The simplest geometrical forms symbolize all the elements of the creative process. The more people are forced to use geometry, the

more they’re drawn into a world where at least intuitively they can understand the creative process in its most fundamental form.” Critical of the way that geometry is generally taught in schools, Wenner encourages students to consider geometry as a creative tool and not a purely analytical one.

Today, Wenner remains a passionate supporter of arts education. He has taught over 100,000 students, and continues to advocate for art education that involves more scientific and historical context — subjects that in his opinion are critical to the study of art. He says that modern technology has made some classic artistic techniques seem obsolete, and very few people still take the time to master these practices.

Even the addition of the camera, according to Wenner, has made it “very possible to do figurative art without really understanding the structure.” In addition, tools such as CAD and Photoshop have made it so artists don’t need to know as much about space, color, form, and other formal qualities of art. While his practice of learning the techniques of classicism allowed him to rapidly improve his drawing skills, Wenner says it took him twenty years to fully understand and intellectually explain these formal qualities. Proportion, line, tone, form — these are just some of the many aspects of art that artists spent lifetimes developing, and we shouldn’t take that for granted. “Generations of artists spent hundreds or sometimes thousands of years developing these relationships. And we’re not able to verbally explain them, so the only way to learn them is to draw from the great artworks and sculptures which embody them.” Art is a language, according to Wenner, and we must understand the fundamentals of that language in order to master it. “Sometimes to have deep knowledge,” he says, “you have to study art, or any topic, from the time period before a certain technology was invented and changed the way people worked.” After spending years studying classical and Renaissance art, Wenner has become a master of classical design — and

these skills are a prominent part of his street art. He includes the “abstract qualities of classical drawing and design” in his art, which he feels is a principal aspect of his work. “What I’m really trying to do is express more universal ideas which aren’t essentially mine, but which I’ve had the privilege of being able to understand in a way that other people haven’t been able to,” he says. Art, fundamentally, is a combination of two things: the principles of design and the story. One cannot exist without the other. Kurt Wenner’s art encapsulates this combination perfectly; the design elements support the story it is telling, and vice versa. This is what makes his work so fascinating. “What makes artwork interesting to me is the tension between the structure of the artwork that is the geometry, the color, and all the design principles, and the story it’s telling,” Wenner describes. “I think that the way those two problems interact with each other is what makes art interesting, at least to me.”

Spider-Man - © 2011 Kurt Wenner

FASTFORWARD SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER

2020 17

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FASTFORWARD SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020 19

Nahid Bhadalia An Infectious Disease Physican and Expert

REPORTERS/WRITERS: Jacob Taichman-Bernstein, Jack Callaway, Jackie Chin, Kimberly DeLeon, Max Goldman, Eliza Gould, Marguerite Walden-Kaufman, Patrick Helios-Lenihan, Hugo Leinbach, Lily Leone, Anna Palfy, Lilah Richman, Semira Robinson and Wesley Slavin

I

From: Branson, Marin Academy, Davidson Middle, Marin School of the Arts, San Rafael High, Sir Francis Drake High, Tamalpais High and Urban School of San Francisco

f you had a nickel for every time you heard the phrase “new normal”, “unprecedented times”, or “social distancing” in the last few months, you’d have a small fortune in your (recently washed) hands. Life as we know it has turned upside down, and we are straying further from the world we used to know with each passing day. While what we do know about this virus is enough to keep us locked in our houses all day, perhaps the most frightening part of the pandemic is what we don’t know. When will

20 FASTFORWARD SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020

this be over? Will life ever be the same? What long-term effects will this have on the world?

While most of our questions can only be answered over time, there are experts who we can turn to for guidance and knowledge.

Today, we turn to Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, an infectious disease physician and expert on outbreak preparedness and response.

Born in India, Dr. Bhadelia lived in the Middle East and Sweden before moving to the U.S. at age twelve. She has always held a deep interest in global affairs and social justice. During medical school, she worked with

international organizations and volunteered in resource-limited countries. After writing her master’s thesis on how pandemics alter societies, she realized how passionate she was about infectious disease preparedness and response. “Doing that master’s thesis, and learning what was going on and then seeing it play out as I was volunteering in several different countries, cinched the importance of infectious diseases because outbreaks reflect our societies; they’re mirrored back to us, and they reflect things we value and things we don’t value,” she said.

“You see this play out if you have a healthcare system that leaves out marginalized people. Those kinds of differences will be accentuated during outbreaks. If you have a system that is less about preparedness, that shows when an outbreak shows up at your doorstep.” Dr. Bhadelia’s interest in disease response led to an infectious disease fellowship in New York, where she became involved in outbreak preparedness.

Today, she works at Boston University, overseeing infection control at the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories and serving as the medical director of the Special Pathogens Unit. Dr. Bhadelia’s skills have taken her all over the world, including working as a frontline physician during West Africa’s 2016 Ebola outbreak.

“My job is to work on building resilience in healthcare systems, whether it’s in the U.S. or in resource-limited settings like Liberia or Uganda, to make sure that outbreaks don’t destroy entire communities.”

healthcare so people can get the testing and treatment they need. Comparing the United States’ response to the pandemic to that of other countries, Bhadelia says that we have a lot of catching up to do. With regard to China and the EU, she told us, “They’ve taken it seriously. They’ve been consistent with their message. They’ve put in the resources to break chains of transmission; they’ve been very quick about finding people, testing them, isolating them, and quarantining everybody else.

And they have populations that have taken this seriously in return.” While the majority of American citizens believe in the severity of the virus and agree to wear masks in public, many are not taking it seriously enough. “It’s different in different geographical areas,” she told us, referring to the disunity of the United States. “In some areas, they take the outbreak seriously, and in others they don’t. It’s that division that is hurting us.” Bhadelia says, “To truly

love, cause an economic disaster, and leave a psychological scar. This is a frightening time, and it’s common for people to look for something or someone to blame. They look for people to scapegoat. In response to COVID-19, even our national leadership made this about China and Asian Americans.

The rhetoric singles out certain people and tries to blame them for the disease. This stigma is extremely harmful, and needs to be stopped in its tracks,” Bhadelia says.

An important factor in an outbreak like this, according to Bhadelia, is how information is spread and received. Conflicting information abounds, and it can be hard to know what is factual and what is not.

Journalism and news media are the primary way people get information, and it’s crucial that those sources remain credible and trustworthy. Bhadelia explained, “It becomes the responsibility of the media to step backwards from sensationalism, really look at the body of data, and work with

“Learning what was going on and then seeing it play out as I was volunteering in several different countries, cinched the importance of infectious diseases because outbreaks reflect our societies; they’re mirrored back to us, and they reflect things we value and things we don’t value.”

— Dr. Nahid Bhadalia, Infectious Disease Physician and Expert Bhadelia stressed that the only way to rid the world of COVID-19 is to break the line of transmission. “Find somebody who is sick and ask who else they were around while contagious. Go tell everybody else who might develop the disease to stay indoors and quarantine. If you do that enough times, you stop the disease in its tracks.” While this seems simple, the execution isn’t always easy — especially in diseases that can be asymptomatic and still highly contagious, such as COVID-19.

In February, when the virus was new to the United States, it was impossible to tell how many people had the disease due to lack of available testing.

“The only way we could break chains of transmission was to tell everybody to just stay home,” Dr. Bhadelia told us, explaining why shelter-in-place orders went into effect so quickly. This allowed the healthcare system to “catch up” and prepare for patients. However, when states began to re-open, cases quickly overwhelmed hospitals. Dr. Bhadelia emphasized the importance of implementing safety protocols as businesses and schools begin to open up, as well as the need for affordable

fight this virus, we must unite as a nation.

We all need to come together and say, ‘No, we’re all together. It’s us against the virus.’

And that’s not happened yet.”

Bhadelia emphasized the pandemic’s effects will far outlive the virus itself, in the form of economic disparity and social stigmas. “In the aftermath of most pandemics, you see income inequality increase,” she explained. “Pandemics make it harder for the middle class and the lower socioeconomic strata to maintain financial stability.” Our essential workers, often faced with little job and financial security, are at the greatest risk of contracting the virus.

Many do not have health insurance, making it difficult to pay for testing and treatment. “What happens if you get sick and you don’t have financial security? You go to the hospital, right?” Bhadelia asked.

“You get hospital bills, and those hospital bills can lead to bankruptcies and take away the only remaining savings you have.” In addition to increased economic inequality, Bhadelia says we’re likely to be faced with psychological trauma and lasting social stigmas. “All pandemics take their toll. They take lives, take people we

experts to responsibly report the news.”

Additionally, she stressed the importance of the media conveying one unified message. “So, what is that one message? One message is that this pandemic is real. It has a real impact. People are getting sick, and we all need to take responsibility.”

She worries this message is being lost amidst the overwhelming amount of information we receive and hopes authority figures will emphasize the real impact of this pandemic.

Despite the grim circumstances, Bhadelia trusts some good will come out of this crisis. She believes it will give us an increased sense of global cooperation, and a realization the whole world is dependent on one another. “An outbreak in one place is an outbreak everywhere.

We’re all connected. Our economies are connected, our tourism is connected, and we have families in different places. I hope this brings a greater sense of global solidarity.” Despite the divisiveness we may feel at the moment, Nahid Bhadelia remains optimistic unity will prevail, and positive change will result from this time of global crisis.

FASTFORWARD SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020 21

Spotlight

Q&A

DYLAN HUBERT

The Marin School Grade 12

PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST

Dylan Hubert realized he had a love for drawing at a very young age.

Hubert, a senior at The Marin School this

year, talked to FastForward about his passion for creating art, about his styles and particular interests, and what art means to him.

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CELEBRATING YOUTH ARTISTS

Q: What are six words that describe you?

Hubert: Creative, happy, fun, chatty, intelligent, and social.

Q: What does art mean to you?

Hubert: Art is taking a scene, an object or a picture one has in their mind, and sharing, or preserving that imagination through a physical recreation.

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22 FASTFORWARD SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020

Q: What kind of art do you create?

Hubert: Drawings using Alcohol markers and pens. I would say overall it’s very surreal, dreamy, and almost psychedelic.

Many of my pieces are landscapes or rooms I know well which have been warped, changed, or disfigured in some other way. I try to cover the page with

pen before I color, this gives the art a sort of characteristic clutter so that while the color adds, the details are the main focus.

Q: How much time do you spend doing art?

Hubert: It depends, some days hours, sometimes I’ll take a week off. I often get super inspired and do a good portion of a piece, then slow down to finish and perfect it.

Q: Why is art important in the world?

Hubert: I think art is the best way to take a complex feeling or thought and share it with the world. Some things cannot be described with words and I think art can do this. With my art I want the viewer to imagine something they

would have otherwise never pictured, something that has familiarities, and yet makes the viewer further and further engaged.

Q: Who inspires you as an artist?

Hubert: Dr. Suess alot. His art is imaginative and places you in a totally different world, something I hope my art replicated. Apart from that, I take a lot of inspiration from Ghanian art, which we have lots of around the house.

Q: How do you find inspiration for a piece?

Hubert: I take the world I already know and give it a little twist.

Q: What do you hope people take away after seeing your art?

Hubert: I would hope that each time a viewer looks again they find a new detail. My art has lots of significance; for me, I can explain what each little feature means. So in a way, what I really hope is that my art is a window into me, each art piece reflects what was going on in my head when it was made.

To contact Dylan: hubertdy@themarinschool.org Need For Speed?

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Mill Mill Valley Valley Middle Middle School School Mill Valley Middle School

Kaden Hawks, 7th Grade

What Art Means to Us — Kim Tran’s Art Students Lilah Smith, 7th Grade Ever since using pencils or crayola markers since I was four years old, I’ve always loved art. It is a way to escape from all the crazy events that are happening outside of our world and to focus on one small but elaborate piece of art. It has taught me to not always rely on our world and all the problems in it, but to focus on what keeps you at peace and what you love to do — and for me, that thing is art.

And yes, it’s quarantine and everyone isn’t allowed in school/work but that doesn’t mean that we can’t find a way to make art. Even if you don’t have any art supplies with you at your home, there’s always a way to just make a model of art using play-doh, or even use rocks to draw a self-portrait outside on the sidewalk. There are so many different ways to do art at your house which is one of my favorite parts. You can be creative in so many different ways and nobody will judge you or give a care in the world about it.

The teachers in the art community have shaped me as a human being for the better. I’m able to express myself

through my art pieces. This is based on my emotions or feelings. I could be feeling as angry as possible and draw an enraged drawing based off of my anger. Even if I’m super angry or sad or tired or bored, art will always find its way to help make those negative feelings go away and turn them into positive emotions. I am very thankful that I’ve had art all these years to cope with my feelings and to shape me to the person I am today. Even when I am sad and feel alone, I always comprehend that art will be there for me whenever I need it.

involves the left brain too; it isn’t just being creative and letting your hands do all the work. It is opening doors of possibilities that you never imagined you could unlock.

Art is letting your mistake turn into a beautiful masterpiece. Most people can’t let a mistake go by. We are wired to fix the mistake or to start over. I am guilty of this very thing, but in sixth grade art, my ideas were rewired.

When, in the past, I would have erased a line, I now make it into something entirely different. Millions of doors open to you when you figure out how to let things go and see where they end up. I am no fortune teller, but I can definitely tell you that if you open up all these doors, you could create something that could change your whole frame of mind.

This is art. It’s letting all your mistakes, your faults, the things you have been beating yourself up about turn into pure beauty. In art, beauty isn’t just one thing. It can be anything. It can be a smudge or a fold in your paper.

It means everything and everyone is accepted. There is no end to the possibilities that you could come up with, there is no end to the things you could make.

Siena Bovich, 7th Grade

By Ma Margeaux Davis, 6th Grade I believe art brings the two sides of the brain together. It isn’t just one part of the brain, even though I know it is supposedly on the right side. I never believed that. Throughout this year I have learned that nothing is just on one side, it always has that tiny bit of familiarity with the other side.

Whether it is figuring out where the horizon line should be in art, or color coordinating a graph in science. Art

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I’ve had experiences in my art class that brought so many brilliant people together to make things that they wouldn’t have been able to accomplish without the company of others. When you think of art you don’t immediately think of social life. At least I don’t. But art involves people with ideas collaborating with people who understand and can make them happen.

In art, you find new ways of thinking — new ideas that separate you from others. I believe people call it “outside-the-box” thinking.

But it is more than just thinking outside-the-box, it is “doing” outside-the-box.

I hope that people can start believing that there isn’t one right way of making art, there are millions of ways. Once you figure out the meaning of art, and it’s okay if yours is different than mine, you will find the key to unlock so many new possibilities.

Helen Kay, 7th Grade What is art? Art is a way of expression. Art is a safe space where you can let your creative juices rise and fly. It is a place where you can let go of all your worries and just swirl colors together into whatever you dream. Art is something you can carry in your pocket. Art is an activity that I truly express my creativity in. I am not afraid to explore with art. I do not think that it is about perfection. It is about expressing your thoughts and dreams and transforming them into a painting, drawing, collage, anything you want! Art is something beautiful, magical, mysterious. It can be anything. Artists can express their personalities beautifully on any surface. There are so many styles, techniques, so many ways to use the pencil. Art is a community, where if you get stuck, someone will help you, inspire you. Art is impactful, powerful. It can have so many meanings.

Art can be used to teach a lesson, or make a mark in history. Art is such an interesting, marvelous thing. It has been used to show your thoughts since the beginning of humankind. Art is important to me.

It is a way to stay true to yourself and express your feelings.

ideas and wonders that exist because of an artist. And we can all be artists at heart. Art is not all about beauty; there is more to it than sunrises and the ocean. Art can be anything that moves you; inspires you to strive. Whether it is paintings, music, or life: each work of art tells a different story. The same artwork could speak to a person differently than the person before. That is what is lovely about art; it is free thought. Some of the oldest art I have seen is from the ancient Mayan temples and caves, and it is very old but to this day still tells us their story. Art to me is a captured story that cannot be told with words, that moves people in different ways in their heart and soul, depending on their interpretation.

DDexter Burnett, 6th Grade Art is not just drawing on a piece of paper or painting on a blank canvas. Art is an expression only you can harness, as you let your mind go. When I was younger in elementary school, I said, that drawing looks good and that one is not so good. But now I realize all art is good, it’s just how you perceive it in your mind. Art is so much more than using a paint brush and making something on a piece of white paper. Art is in plays, music and photography. Let’s say your favorite song is a work of art to you, but your friend who lives down the street doesn’t even like that form of music. It’s the same with painting or a play. For me, art is escaping reality and making something I love or see in my mind. When making art, you don’t need blueprints or even an eraser. Sometimes when I’m bored, I take a pencil and paper and draw a crooked line that turns into an abstract drawing of what time means to me. That is what my brain says art is; maybe in two years I might view this piece again and disagree with it, who knows?

Ella Hilton, 8th Grade Pablo Picasso once said, “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” This means the creation of art expresses what words cannot, our art is inspired by ourselves. To me art is a way to express emotions and feelings peacefully. The whole world is full of

Making Art with my Grandpa Zoe Pletcher, 7th Grade When I was really little, my grandpa created funny drawings for me. I watched him and was always amazed at what he could do. My grandparents live all the way across the country and I don’t get to see them very much.

So when they came three years ago I was excited to draw with Grandpa.

We decided to make a mural. We lay down on my bedroom floor with a huge sheet of paper, my crayons and markers all spread out making a huge mess. We each took one section at a time and worked on it for hours. After two days, we finished it. We had made a mural of kids running past different monuments on their way to catch the school bus. I enjoyed spending so much time with my grandpa and whenever I looked up at the mural hanging next to my bed I remembered how much I loved creating this piece of art with him.

Zoe Pletcher, 7th Grade

One year later, my grandparents came to visit us again. During this time, I was obsessed with the ocean and I wanted to incorporate my love of marine life into my love of making art with Grandpa. So we started another mural. This time instead of using markers we used watercolors. I was in awe at Grandpa’s talent for water coloring. He told jokes and made me laugh while we painted. Every few minutes one of us would get an idea. The ideas would be anywhere from making an octopus as big as a shark, or coloring the shipwreck pink. These ideas would turn the mural into something way better and either of us could have done alone.

We worked hard for more than 4 days.

When we were done, I replaced the old mural on my bedside wall. I put my old one up in my closet and continued to think about art and Grandpa when I saw them every day.

I didn’t see my grandparents for a long time after that and was missing making art with Grandpa. By the time they visited again, I had an idea already. I wanted to create another mural that would keep me making art. While we were working on it, my little cousin came into my room with a fat purple marker and put a big line in the center of our mural. I was so upset that our mural had been ruined.

Grandpa showed me how to turn this disaster into something beautiful — a flower. Together we created a floral mural that says “Imagine.” I hung it up over my bed and kept both of the other ones in my closet. This mural was my favorite.

It told me to keep being creative.

I love all of the murals I created with Grandpa. They remind me of my love for Grandpa and my love for art. Art travels through generations and art builds bonds. The art we created inspires me every day.

FASTFORWARD

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020

25

FASHION ETHICS

TIPS TO REDUCE YOUR FASHION FOOTPINT

By Angela Tsai MSEL, Senior

You may think that $7 shirt is a lucky find for a thrifty spender, but when it comes to clothing, there is more to consider than the price when deciding to purchase it. Often, unbelievably

low prices are the result of harmful materials and dangerous working conditions, practices implemented by the fast fashion industry.

Fast fashion is “cheap, trendy clothing” that “samples ideas from the catwalk or celebrity culture,” as described by Good On You, an organization that rates fashion brands based on ethical and sustainable practices. The fast fashion industry rapidly produces and sells clothing, garments, and accessories that are in style. And since this clothing is mass-produced and therefore cheap, fast fashion is extremely popular among adolescents and young adults, who are not able to spend large sums of money on clothes. However, since many of these pieces stay popular for such a short amount of time, there is a

surplus of clothes, fueling problems such as waste and overconsumption of precious materials. Therefore, the fashion industry is one of the largest polluters of clean water, second to agriculture.

Fast fashion comes at the cost of not only the environment, but also human rights in its manufacturing process. Fast fashion is popular because of its low price. However, this cheap cost is the result of child labor and inhumane working conditions for those who physically create the clothing. Many US clothing corporations operate in third world countries, where they get away with mistreatment and paying workers below minimum wage. Dana Thomas, author of Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes, describes fashion as an “industry that has depended on the toil of the powerless and the voiceless, and on keeping them that way.”

While this may seem overwhelming, there are many easy switches you can do to reduce your fashion footprint. Every consumer has the opportunity to show what their values are with their money. By educating yourself and making conscious purchases, we can take a large step toward a more ethical and humane fashion culture.

-Avoid Shopping as a Hobby: Today, corporations make buying products incredibly easy. Since shopping has become so convenient, many consumers purchase more than they truly need.

By simply purchasing less clothing, you can help decrease the demand for cheap clothes, which will eventually decrease the supply.

-Second-Hand Stores: As more people become informed about the consequences of fast fashion, there has been a rise in second-hand purchases among young generations. Thrifting is cheaper, greener, and more ethical than shopping at the mall. Goodwill, for example, combats unemployment and underemployment in local communities. If you prefer to shop from the comfort of your own home, there are phone apps, such as DePop, that allow you to buy and sell used clothing.

-Take the 30-Wear Pledge: Before purchasing a piece of clothing, FarmDrop. com recommends asking yourself “Will I wear it a minimum of 30 times?” If you can confidently say yes, then go ahead and purchase it.

-For more info, visit: goodonyou.eco

-Good On You was created to use the power of people’s choices to drive a sustainable future, making sustainable shopping easy for consumers.

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Preser ve your childʻs art

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SPONSORING LOMA VERDE SCHOOL GARDEN Each month Sloat Garden Center offers a $250 garden grant to a new Marin County school.

Jeannette Perez’s Gardening Students I like the garden because it is a peaceful place and it has great sounds like birds inside. I love exploring the different types of bugs that live in our garden and holding them. — Riley Sorber-Ellison, 4th Grade Jeannette is the best garden teacher ever. My favorite part of the garden is trying the foods she suggests. My favorite was the cucumbers.

— Tristan Anderson, 4th Grade I like gardening. I have learned so much and been inspired to go beyond my dreams in gardening. The vegetables in the garden taste amazing. I can’t wait to get back to school and it’s more kale, lettuce, broccoli and apples.

— Aria Simmons, 4th Grade Our garden looks like it is a welcoming place for kids to visit. It has a lot of plants and lots of water to help the plants grow. — Kourtney Beltran, 4th Grade I always have fun planting! — Helio Alves, 4th Grade The garden always has lots of fruit, looks cool and is a quiet place. I like to see plants grow, taste new things, find bugs and be helpful. — Rafael Alves, 1st Grade

To learn more about our work with Bay Area school gardens, visit www.sloatgardens.com

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2020

Art

Marin Primary & Middle School Paul Maes’ art students created self-portraits.

Hanzel Addae 8th Grade

Andrew Gorczycki 8th Grade

Lily Cox, 8th Grade

Audrey Dolan, 8th Grade Mia Corey, 8th Grade

Gus Squire, 8th Grade

Hunter Johnson, 8th Grade

Josie Jamison, 8th Grade

Grace Gilberd, 8th Grade Colby Yoslov, 8th Grade

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HumaneBday - 3.625 x 4 - final.pdf

Marin Making Humane Lives Happy Emerson Swift and Fiona Bailey Mill Valley Middle School, 8th Grade

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Learn about our

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remote humane birthday parties!

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Nancy and Richard Payne missed their orange cat.

Where was the fur littered all over their rug? Where was the cat-shaped dent in their bed? One day, eight years after Mr. and Mrs. Payne had lost all hope in finding Ginger, they got a call.

“Are you missing a cat?” a member of the Marin Humane Society asked.

“We lost our cat eight years ago,” they answered, “it can’t be the same one.”

Marin Humane thought otherwise, because, using a scanner, they had found a microchip embedded in Ginger’s collar, and traced it back to the Paynes. Marin Humane’s technology and passion for animals reunited the couple and Ginger.

“Our number one goal is to keep people and their pets together,” said Lisa Bloch, Director of Marketing and Communications.

Stories like the Payne’s are not uncommon at Marin Humane.

Every day, they rescue wildlife and find homes for all types of animals. They’re well known for placing dogs and cats, but most people don’t know they also handle adoptions of other animals like horses, goats, birds, and more.

Not only do they handle adoptions, but they handle every aspect of pet ownership. For example, dog training classes, supporting the importance of microchipping and spade and neutering, offering free pet food for owners who are struggling with money, a fun summer camp, after school clubs, and hosting birthday parties.

The Humane Society campus is a wonderful place for animal-

KIDDO!

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Call 415.506.6288 or visit marinhumane.org/birthday

lovers and pet-owners, as well as a home for many animals who would be out on the streets otherwise. It provides a welcoming environment for people and animals, and it is a core part of life in Marin County.

Like other businesses, the Humane Society has been affected by COVID-19. According to Lisa Bloch, the society has had to make changes to their policies and procedures. For example, they’ve put all their adoption animals in foster care, which, though it is certainly different, can also benefit the animals.

“It’s actually been a little bit better for the animals, because sometimes being in a shelter is hard on them,” said Lisa Bloch, “they are happier and healthier.”

Even during the pandemic, the Humane Society has the best interests of their animals in mind. And although it took some time to figure out, the Marin Humane is still open for adoptions. Using input from the foster families in charge of the animals, they play matchmaker between pets and people.

They have also continued with their dog training classes and summer camps virtually. This is certainly a new challenge, but the Humane Society is still making lives happy.

They remain a functional—and vital — part of Marin.

For more info, visit: MarinHumane.org

Helping Kids reach their potential through Art, Poetry, Music, Drama, Teacher Grants and PE

Mill Valley Middle School Chorus

Teachers: Jessica Nicholson and Coach, Accompanist Jennifer Gilmer The Mill Valley Middle School Chorus is an exciting and robust program for students who love to sing. The program consists of a variety of ensembles where students are exposed to a range of musical genres and performance opportunities. In chorus classes, students learn vocal technique and music literacy, but it is also a fun and welcoming communitybased activity. The MVMS choirs regularly perform in the community, such as on campus at MVMS, at the Throckmorton Theatre, the Redwoods, and at Oracle Park to sing the national anthem at a Giants game.

The chorus also regularly attends music festivals at Disneyland and Great America, and consistently receive high ratings from adjudicators.

Thanks to all supporters of Kiddo! who make Chorus possible!

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CFI Education @ MILL VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL

JOIN US OCTOBER 8-18 FOR HOME:

Family Films and Live Q&As Online

FOR SCHOOL:

Curriculum-Aligned Films plus Q&As for All Grade Levels Online

Program information and updates at mvff.com and THIS AD GENEROUSLY PROVIDED BY

VOTED BEST LOCAL GREEN BUSINESS & BEST SELF STORAGE

Saint Isabella K-8 School provides a wholesome nurturing environment that establishes a foundation for lifelong learning.

We are a parent involved school located in Terra Linda on a private campus close to Hwy. 101. Our programs promote the academic, social, and spiritual development of our students.

School Tours are offered by Appointment To schedule a personalized tour, please contact us at 415-479-3727 x112 or admissions@stisabellaschool.org 1 Trinity Way Terra Linda – San Rafael www.stisabellaschool.org

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FASTFORWARD SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020

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Marin Shakespeare Company United Markets congratulates all the actors, teaching artists, and parents who help make it possible for students to discover the magic of Shakespeare. Marin Shakespeare Company brings Shakespeare from the page to stage for thousands of students ages five and older throughout the North Bay. Year-round classes for youth, teenagers, and adults help students delve deeper into Shakespeare’s world while providing instruction in a variety of performing arts skills.

Students learn about Shakespeare, but they also learn self-confidence and have fun with their peers.

Our camps and classes are taught by professional actors, often seen in our main stage productions at Forest Meadows Amphitheatre. At Marin Shakespeare Company classes and camps, our students make theatre and make friends. We make Shakespeare FUN! Marin Shakespeare students share: “I like camp because we get to act and make new friends. I was really interested in Shakespeare.” — Laila Norenius, Age 8 “It’s really fun acting!”— Gilbert Farnsworth, Age 10 “I like the games and acting and we get to meet new friends.” — Lisa Noble, Age 8 “I like camp because we act and our teachers make us laugh!” — Elizabeth Mejia, Age 8

DEDICATED TO SERVING THE COMMUNITY WE LIVE IN Two Convenient Locations For Your Shopping Needs San Rafael 515 3rd Street • 415-454-8912

www.unitedmarkets.com

San Anselmo 100 Redhill Ave. • 415-456-1271