His Holiness the Dalai Lama congratulates Archbishop Desmond Tutu on receiving the Human Rights Global Treasure Award presented by Article3.org on December 10, 2020.

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We invite you to listen to the audio recordings of our Random Kindness Online Conference, held in February, 2015, celebrating the 20th anniversary edition of Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty, which includes a new foreword by Desmond Tutu.

February 9th-15th, 2015, was National Random Acts of Kindness Week, and February 17th celebrated Random Kindness day. This year we have launched the 20th anniversary edition of Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty. The re-release of the book is accompanied by our global Random Kindness Community Resilience Project, building justice and resilience throughout vulnerable communities in the face of climate change. Book proceeds go to climate and nuclear refugees from Fukushima.  

Conference Hosts: Carl Anthony and Paloma Pavel, PhD

Post-production Media Team: Lauren Dahlberg-Seeth and Dennis Rivers

Random Kindness Conference Audio

AshEl Eldridge

Climate educator and artist, Ashel Eldridge aka Seasunz, originally from Chicago, is a frontman emcee, vocalist, producer, and the founder of Earth Amplified. Based in Oakland, he performs and presents his conscious music, poetry and spiritual activism nationally. His acclaimed CD release, Earth Amplified, is a fierce tribute to the Earth and peoples’ liberation. Seasunz is an educator with the Alliance for Climate Education in Oakland, CA, and a Green For All Fellow. He is a co-founder of United Roots – Oakland’s Green Youth Arts and Media Center, where he serves as the Health and Sustainability Coordinator. He is also a co-founder of CommuniTree, Oakland Resilience Alliance, and the father of a new baby boy.

http://www.earthamplified.com

http://www.unitedrootsoakland.org

China Galland

China Galland, M.A., Producer of the Love Cemetery Project, is the author of several widely-acclaimed books. Her newest non-fiction work is The Keepers of Love, bringing us into the heart of America’s most searing dilemma: how to choose love when there’s reason to hate, forgiveness, reconciliation and race, the story of Love Cemetery in East Texas. Founder and Director of the non-profit, Images of Divinity (IOD), Galland is also a Professor in Residence at the Center for Arts, Religion and Education (CARE) at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley where she teaches periodically. web: www.resurrectinglovemovie.org blog: www.resurrectinglove.org

Jonathan London

Dr. Jonathan London Director, Center for Regional Change Jonathan K. London directs the UC Davis Center for Regional Change, which serves as a catalyst for multi-disciplinary and action-oriented research that informs efforts to build healthy, prosperous, equitable, and sustainable regions. He also is honored to serve on the board of the California Institute for Rural Studies and is the immediate past President. www.regionalchange.ucdavis.edu

Kirby Edmonds

Kirby Edmonds and Laura Branca are the managing partners of Training for Change (TFC) Associates, a training and consulting firm founded in 1982 and based in Ithaca, New York. They have worked in corporate as well as in not-for-profit environments, with unions, educational institutions, federal, state and local government organizations, and grassroots community organizations. www.tfcassociates.org http://www.dorothycottoninstitute.org

Rachel Bagby

Rachel Bagby, J.D. (Stanford Law School) is the originator of the poetic form she calls Dekaaz™; a form consisting of ten syllables in three-lines, which she speaks about during her recorded segment. Bagby has published several books and other recordings, as well as established Singing Farm, a solar-powered, 20-acre organic farm and musical learning center in Central Virginia. http://rachelbagby.com

Susan Griffin

Eco-feminist author Susan Griffin describes her work as drawing connections between the destruction of nature, the diminishment of women and racism, and tracing the causes of war to denial in both private and public life. In addition to her many published writings, Griffin co-wrote and narrated the award-winning 1990 documentary, Berkeley in the Sixties. She received a MacArthur grant for Peace and International Cooperation, an NEA Fellowship, and an Emmy Award for the play Voices. http://www.susangriffin.com

Valerie Love

No Tar Sands Campaigner Valerie Love works with Center for Biological Diversity as the No Tar Sands Campaigner. She is passionate about stopping tar sands expansion everywhere, and works towards a safe, livable planet for all. She also worked with Generation Waking Up, engaging and training young people as social change leaders; managed campaigns at Clean Water Action; and coordinated Buy Fresh Buy Local programs. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Pitzer College, where she studied environmental, international and intercultural issues. http://www.biologicaldiversity.org

Carl Anthony (Concluding Remarks)

Carl Anthony architect, author, urban/suburban/regional design strategist  Carl Anthony is a co-founder of the Breakthrough Communities Project. He has served as Acting Director of the Community and Resource Development Unit at the Ford Foundation, responsible for the Foundation’s world wide programs in fields of Environment and Development, and Community Development.  He directed the Foundation’s Sustainable Metropolitan Communities Initiative and the Regional Equity Demonstration in the United States. Carl funded the national Conversation on Regional Equity (CORE), a dialogue of national policy analysts and advocates for new metropolitan racial justice strategies. He was Founder and, for 12 years Executive Director, of the Urban Habitat Program in the San Francisco Bay Area. With his colleague Luke Cole at the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, he founded and published the Race, Poverty and the Environment Journal, the only environmental justice periodical in the United States. http://www.earthcityrace.net

On February 12, 2015, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu added his voice
in celebration of National Random Acts of Kindness Week. This year’s celebrations
include events highlighting the 20th anniversary edition of the book,
Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty, with a Foreword by Desmond Tutu

The Random Kindness Community Resilience Award recognizes leaders who embody the vision and values of community-driven planning for climate change adaptation and resilience. We honor those who:

• Strive to ensure that frontline communities, those who are most directly impacted by climate change processes, are engaged in public policy and participatory planning
• Conduct research in partnership with vulnerable communities and listen deeply to embedded community knowledge
• Build bridges across sectors, issues, and social divides to create a true movement for sustainability and justice
• Demonstrate that equity, environment and economy are mutually reinforcing in an interconnected world.

Building Climate Justice & Just Resilience
M. Paloma Pavel, PhD, With Carl Anthony and Guest 
Saturday 10AM — Sept. 20, 2014

Milano School of International Affairs
The New School, Manhattan
55 W. 13th St. Room 205,
Dorothy Hirshon Suite

10:00 am Refreshments and Reception
10:30 am -12:00 pm Book Signing and Community Dialogue

Join us for the launch of the 20th anniversary edition of Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty, with a Foreword by Desmond Tutu, and for a community dialogue on building Climate Justice and Just Resilience. M. Paloma Pavel and Carl Anthony (co-founders of Breakthrough Communities) are traveling from California to New York to host this event for UN Climate Week. Guests include Lynne Elizabeth of New Village Press, more to be announced.

M. Paloma Pavel brings a multimedia presentation on the Random Kindness Community Resilience Project, an inspiration and resource for community engagement, participatory planning and community organizing. The message in Random Kindness is an urgent call to action: in an age of climate crisis, we must work together to create the world we want to live in–a world based on sustainability with justice.

Carl Anthony invites us all into the deep philosophical foundations of the Climate Justice movement, described in his forthcoming publication, The Earth, The City, and the Hidden Narrative of Race. Carl connects struggles for social justice with the Universe Story, creating a new story for our time.

Continue on to the Climate Action Rally afterwards, 12:00 pm to 7:00 pm at the New School Auditorium, 66 West 12th Street.

To learn more about Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty 20th Anniversary edition (Foreword by Desmond Tutu) and the Random Kindness Just Resilience Project, visit www.RandomKindness.net

“The steps we take now
Make new earth grow beneath our feet.
The steps we take now decide what kind of
Earth that will be.”

M. Paloma Pavel and Anne Herbert
Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty

“Ubuntu tells us that we can create a more peaceful world
by striving for goodness in each moment, wherever we are.”

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu,
Foreword, Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty

We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible while we are in New York (Sept 19-22). Let us know about your Climate Week events, and we will see if we can join! 

Respect and Gratitude to our Global Friends and Colleagues,

Carl Anthony and Paloma Pavel, PhD

Co-Founders, Breakthrough Communities