Tuesday, November 18, 2014

1 of 3: The Initiatory Magic of Franca Rame

Hi dear Earthlings:

"Long time no see," as the sage said. Yes, I'm back and I bring you news of one of my

mentors and initiators: late actress, writer, activist, and senator Franca Rame, much missed, also wife and lifetime collaborator of Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo, who dedicated the prize to her.

This article was a request by fellow Italianist Donato Santeramo, for the first (of many i hope) collection of writings about Franca Rame. I accepted. It was also the third time she visited my life. She's welcome back any time, and the article will appear in three "visits" here too. Enjoy the first one!

Thanks for your patience. I am well and happy to be back. Much more good and exciting news to come. Namaste.

The Initiatory Magic of Franca Rame

Franca Rame is coming back into my life. For the past three decades, she has inhabited my imagination in one way or another, as we shared the same living planet. As a young woman, I looked upon Franca and Dario as an enviable dyad: two people with equally magnanimous souls and talents, yet differentiated enough to grow together as they grew apart. It was difficult for me to behold that. I felt the danger of flying too close to the sun, as the daughter of a successful and honest politician whose first wife imploded in their relationship as a conventional couple. I was searching for alternatives, and, as a young woman and mother, Franca represented a role model for me when I was healing from my own mother’s early death from cancer. Later, I learned to diversify my emotional investments and overcome the fear of same-sex love. As a happy sexigenarian, I welcome this visit. I remember feeling the void the day from Facebook I realized the ultimate recycling had happened for Franca. May this first in-absentia volume initiated by younger colleagues be the time for me to reflect, in my wisdom years, on the wisdom of engaging with Franca when my career started.

I am grateful to the collection for hosting my 1984 interview with Franca Rame, a long- winded “confession,” oral-history style. It may be a measure of the divine feminine manifesting its power to

know that, in late life, Franca became a senator. I imagine her ambling the halls of Palazzo Madama where I felt intimidated when I was young. It is sad that she felt compelled to resign, in the same way that my father had felt compelled to reject executive positions in his own time. I’m happy to write this introductory reflection as I’ve become more cognizant of Franca’s initiatory role in my life. Aside from the sadness of parting, this third visit is an occasion to confirm Franca Rame’s legacy as initiatory and magic.

The first visit came about three decades ago, in the mid eighties, when my focus was separating Franca’s work from Dario’s, for recognition of hers, in a gender dynamic infected with male dominance as a cultural standard. I wanted her to admit she was an author and she wouldn’t. “Why did I do it?” I’ve often wondered. It was dissertation time, and I felt called to something that far exceeded my comprehension. I didn’t dare to presume I could interview Franca. And yet she wanted it. I was healing from my family tragedy, as the beautiful and auspicious couple my parents formed had imploded with my mother’s demise. I was exorcizing her destiny as I removed myself from the position of emotional recipient for, and physical obstacle to my father’s healing from that trauma. At 27, with a young child of my own, I had picked up the pieces of my life and moved from Rome to Riverside, California to get my doctorate. As dissertation time came about, a grant funded my trip to Florence for the appointment with Franca. My blended family at the time was composed of my young Italian daughter and the fellow student who was my French partner. They were waiting for me back at UCR. In retrospect, I was moved by my own path of seeking a place of co-creativity out of the masculine shadow of patriarchal domination and fear of inadequacy.

The train from Rome to Florence ran in the dark night. I was alone in the compartment when my mother visited. The apparition was very tangible. I kept my cool even as it occurred to me I was probably hallucinating. She said: “this is what you were meant to do. Go for it! It will save your life.” I’ve rarely talked about it. Yet it was this visit that summoned my strength as I met Franca. I’m now 5 years older than Franca was at the time, and 12 years older than my mother ever was. The results of that moment of meeting were the article on Theater that acknowledged Franca’s entity as a co-author, the interview in Italian on Leggere Donna, and its translation into English on Feminist Issues.

To be continued a week from now. Come back for the "second visit" on November 25, 2014.

Namaste,

SerenaGaia

Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

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Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Mini Encyclopedia of EcoSexuality - EcoSexuality (2 of 2)

Entry: Ecosexuality

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

Cont'd

As an emerging movement, Ecosexuality sustains the initiation of the human species into a new phase of its evolution: from a needy child accustomed to depending on a mother’s resources, humanity is called to evolve into a responsible adult who treats the planet that generously hosts human life as a lover deserving all reverence, equality, and reciprocity in love. The scientific origins of the movement can be traced to what is known as the Gaia Hypothesis: a new epistemological paradigm that establishes the interconnectedness of all life forms as a new foundation for knowledge or episteme. This integrated, self-sustaining web of life is made of interconnected ecosystems and generates its own homeostasis. A key principle in this new style of amorous expression is that bodies are ecosystems, ecosystems are bodies: equally deserving of love, care, and affection.

As a new galvanizing force in cultural transformation, ecosexuality also means different things to different people. Two avatars of the movement, performance artists Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle, expressed their ecosexual vision in LoveArtLab, a seven-year project involving a series of ecosexual weddings where the artists married the sun, moon, sky, rocks, coal, snow, sea, a lake, and other nature entities. In these 17 performative events around the world, they “changed the metaphor from Earth as mother to Earth as lover,” and vowed to “love, honor, and cherish the Earth until death brings us closer together forever.” This work seeded a number of cultural environments with the intent to “make the environmental movement more fun, sexy, and diverse.” The bride-artists integrated activism for marriage equality with the affirmation of ecosystems, natural elements, and forces of nature as participants in the generation and fruition of the force of love. The practice of ecosexual weddings extended to the 1^st EcoSex Symposium, which was organized as a honeymoon after the Purple Wedding to the Moon in 2010 in Los Angeles. More symposia have come together in subsequent years, along with convergences, workshops, festivals, courses, digital discussion groups, more weddings, and intentional communities dedicated to the exploration of ecosexuality as a central trope for the organization of cultural action and energies.

A definition of ecosexuality would be premature at this point, and would limit the cultural trope’s transformative potential, which is largely untapped yet. One way in which ecosexuality has been described is as “the style of love that reaches beyond genders, numbers, orientations, ages, races, origins, species, and biological realms to embrace all of life as a partner with equal rights.” This description has been adopted in the introduction to a forthcoming reader tentatively entitled Ecosexuality: Notes for an Orgasmic Earth. It has the effect of supporting amorous practices that interpret ecosystems as bodies, and bodies as ecosystems in an interdependent network of interconnected nodes that auspicate a new planetary consciousness.

Sources

Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Serena. Gaia and the New Politics of Love. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2009.

Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Serena and Lindsay Hagamen eds. Ecosexuality: Notes for an Orgasmic Earth. Contributed volume. Forthcoming.

Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Serena and Robert Silber. “Ecosexuality: A Course in the Arts of Conscious Love.” Varallo, Italy. July 16-21, 2011. Poly Planet GAIA. http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/2011/01/ecosessualita-un-corso-sulle-arti.html, November 28, 2013.

Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Serena, et al. “Ecosex at U Conn. Course Production from Spring, 2013 Seminar in Ecosexuality and the Ecology of Love. Storrs Campus. http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/search/label/EcoSex%20at%20U%20Conn: November 28, 2013.

: Novemebr 28, 2013.

Cordova, Gabriella. “EcoSex Symposium.” Portland, OR. June 29, 31, and July 1^st, 2012. http://www.ecosex.org/index.html: November 29, 2013 Dixon Luke, Annie Sprinkle, and Beth Stephens. “1^st International EcoSex Symposium.” Colchester, Essex, UK. July 14-18, 2013. http://ecosexlab.org/, Novemebr 28, 2013.

Ecosexual. Definition in Macmillan Dictionary. http://www.macmillandictionary.com/buzzword/entries/ecosexual.html, November 28, 2013.

Ecosexual. Definition ins Wikitionary. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ecosexual, November 28, 2013.

“Ecosexuality, a new sexual identity where you are lovers with the Earth.” Examiner.com. April 10, 2012. N. A. http://www.examiner.com/article/ecosexuality-a-new-sexual-identity-where-you-are-lovers-with-the-earth, November 28, 2013.

Iris Weiss, Stefanie. EcoSex: Go Green Between the Sheets and Make your Love Life Sustainable. New York: Ten Speed Press/Random House, 2010.

Sexecology. Wikipedia definition. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexecology

Sprinkle, Annie, and Beth Stephens. “Ecosex Symposim I.” Highways Performance Space. October 24, 2010. http://www.loveartlab.com/PDF/ecosex_sym1_program.pdf, November 28, 2013.

Sprinkle, Annie, and Beth Stephens. “Ecosex Symposium II.” Center for Sex and Culture, San Francisco. June 17-19, 2011

http://sexecology.org/ecosex-symposium-2/, November 28, 2013.

Sprinkle, Annie, Elizabeth Stephens. LoveArtLab. www.LoveArtLab.org, November 28, 2013.

Stephens, Elizabeth. “Becoming Eco-Sexual.” Canadian Theater Research: 144 (Fall 2010): 13-19.

Windward Community. “Surrender: An Ecosexual Convergence.” June 14-16, 2014. Windward, WA. http://www.ecosexconvergence.org/, November 28, 2013.

Wagner, David. “Beyond Tree Hugging.” San Francisco Chronicle. 7/16/2011.

Our Mini Encyclopedia of EcoSexuality is complete for the moment. But everything always already is a work in progress. Would you like to add an entry? Let us know. . . .

Sending much love and all good wishes to all of you and your loved ones. Thanks you for listening and opening up. Stay tuned for more coming. With all good wishes for a happy spring and summer. Thank you!

Namaste,

SerenaGaia

Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

Poly Planet GAIA Blog: http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/ Website: www.serenagaia.com

Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings
Go to Author's Page/Lists all Books:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA
YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini
Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Mini Encyclopedia of EcoSexuality - EcoSexuality (1 of 2)

Entry: Ecosexuality

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

Ecosexuality is a new sexual identity and the cultural trope that is likely to galvanize a movement of movements that places love and its infinite modes of expression at the gravitational center of cultural formation, dynamics, and organization. As a sexual identity, ecosexuality denotes a desire to organize practices of love around well-being, care, and ecosystemic health rather than any given oppositional rhetoric. As a catalyst for cultural transformation, ecosexuality offers a new interpretation of love that aligns sexuality with ecology and inspires a cross-pollination of the ideas and metaphors contained within these two traditionally distinct discourses.

The term “ecosexual” initially emerged in the personal ads as an environmentally conscious correlative to "metrosexual." Regardless of sexual orientation, an ecosexual date connotes as somebody who would likely enjoy a visit to a farmers market or a raw-food meal. Ecosexual have been described as an “environmentally conscious person(s) whose adherence to green living extends to their romantic and/or sexual life.” Ecosexuals made their appearance at a time when sexual fluidity and amorous inclusiveness were largely accepted in open-minded online dating forums, and when “eco-living” was rising in acceptance and popularity. In the capacity of a tool of discernment in the current dating system, the practice of ecosex helps to guide consumers toward practices of love and products thereof that respect the ecosystemic balance of the human bodies engaged in them. Sexecology is a correlative that “seeks to make environmental activism more sexy, fun, and diverse and to involve the LGBTQ community” in such activism.

As a trope of cultural transformation, ecosexuality galvanizes action in the arts, activism, theory, and practice to effect change in the metaphors by which we humans interpret the relationship with our hostess Gaia: the planet who, thanks to four billion years of symbiotic processes that began with bacteria (our first ancestors), has evolved a biota capable of sustaining the life of our species. How do we imagine this relationship between Gaia and our species? Are we friends or enemies? When we see nature as an enemy to be controlled, we produce the exact opposite of what we want, because, as Gaia science explains, the Earth is sovereign and its powers are supreme. All species are subject to being welcome in Gaia’s existence.

EcoSex Flag, by Cindy Baker

But then suppose we want to be friends: suppose we do have a desire to align with Gaia’s power, to second her will, as in all styles and practices of the environmental movement. That’s when metaphors for this relationship become significant. Is our relationship with Gaia based on kinship or is it elective? When we say “mother Earth” we inadvertently endorse the assumption that terrestrial resources are available to us ad infinitum and no cost. Mothers are our kin: they don’t choose us and we don’t choose them. We are all too often culturally programmed to simply exploit them with no price tag or return. When we imagine Gaia as a lover we begin to realize how much we have been taking for granted. Are we humans a respectful partner in the relationship or an abusive one? If our behavior is abusive, wouldn’t Gaia do well to end the relationship? And what would that scenario look like for us? Life on Earth started with bacteria. In Gaia science, the existence of these simple, fun loving microorganisms also marks the beginning of consciousness, choice, love. In this perspective, we humans as a species are just a new kid on the block: we could very well be the first one to go. Gaia is a Latin word that literally means gay. The Earth is sovereign and happy to exist in and of herself. As a cultural trope, Ecosexuality brings awareness to the possibility that life could very well happily continue to thrive after we, as a species, are gone.

To be continued . . . . . come back next week, same time.

Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Mini Encyclopedia of EcoSexuality - The Gaia Hypothesis (3 of 3)

Entry: The Gaia Hypothesis

Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD

3. Conclusion: Gay Nature

Lovelock’s macroscopic perspective emphasizes the risk of taking for granted that Gaia, the Earth, will always be hospitable to human life, or even life in general. As an animated

entity, Gaia has a biography: and if we don’t pay attention, Lovelock admonishes, the biota could dry up and Earth become just as barren as its neighbors Mars and Venus. Margulis’s microscopic perspective compounds this awareness from an evolutionary viewpoint. The process of autopoiesis has evolved complex organisms like us humans out of those simple, loving, resource-sharing bacteria. We, the new kids on the block in evolutionary terms, have some lessons to learn. The global ecology that sustains life as we know it is symbiotic: it is the expression of love that results in the infinite acts of sharing resources and collaborating within and across species and biological realms. To put it more simply: love is the ecology of life. Take love out of the equation, and you turn Gaia, with her beautiful blues, greens, yellows, whites, reds, and blacks into a brownish rock like its dead neighbors. So the Gaia Hypothesis is also an axiomatic statement that life is essentially “gay”: capable of loving for fun and across conventional gender lines. If love is the ecology of life, if health, pleasure, joy have been the purpose of lovemaking since our first ancestors bacteria populated the Earth, then we may as well hypothesize that Gaia, our hostess planet, is gay! And we better keep her gay, happy, cheerful. How? It’s simple: by practicing love in symbiotic, fluid, fun, erotic, ecosexy, gay, imaginative, and inclusive ways.

Or else.

List of Sources

Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Serena. Gaia and the New Politics of Love: Notes for a Poly Planet. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2009.

Eisler, Riane. The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future. New York: harper Collins, 2011.Gimbutas, Marija. The Language of the Goddess. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2001.

Lovelock, James. The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living Earth. New York: Norton 1995.

______ . Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth. Oxford University Press, 1979.

______ . The Revenge of Gaia: Earth’s Climate Crisis and the Fate of Humanity. New York: Basic Books, 2006.

Margulis, Lynn. Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution. New York: Basic Books, 1998.

Margulis, Lynn and Dorion Sagan. Acquiring Genomes: A Theory of the Origin of Species. New York: Basic Books, 2003.

______ . Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Microbial Evolution. University of California Press, 1997.

______ . Mystery Dance: On the Evolution of Human Sexuality. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991.

Margulis, Lynn and Dorion Sagan eds. Slanted Truths: Essays on Gaia, Symbiosis, and Evolution. New York: Copernicus, 1997.

Golding, William. Wikipedia Entry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Golding, November 23, 2013.

Lovelock, James. Wikipedia Entry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lovelock, November 23, 2013.

Margulis, Lynn. Wikipedia Entry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Margulis, November 23, 2013.

Ryan, Christopher and Cacilda Jetha. Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships. New York: Harper Perennial. 2011.

To be continued . . . . next entry: EcoSexuality. Come back next week, same time.

Sending much love and all good wishes to all of you and your loved ones. Thanks you for listening and opening up. Stay tuned for more coming. With all good wishes for a happy end of winter, spring, and summer. Thank you!

Namaste,

SerenaGaia

Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez