Vital Ground Foundation Archive

Featured Stories

• Samuel Beckett, Confessions and the Human Condition
  Posted on December 5, 2019 | No Comments

  Samuel Beckett’s legacy endures, and reaches far beyond the written word. Of all the English-language modernists, Beckett's work represents the most sustained attack on the realist tradition, dispensing with conventional plot and the unities of time and place in order to focus on essential components of the human condition.

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• “Bleeding Kansas” and Stories of the Underground Railroad
  Posted on December 3, 2019 | No Comments

  Bleeding Kansas is the term used to described the period of violence during the settling of the Kansas territory between 1854 and 1861. At the core of the conflict was the question of whether the Kansas Territory would allow or outlaw slavery, and enter the Union as a free state. Check out the documentary Dawn of Day, Stories of the Underground Railroad.

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• Jesse Marquez: Public Preparedness for Threats from Refineries, Ports, and Freeways
  Posted on November 27, 2019 | No Comments

  Environmental Justice Activist Jesse Marquez speaks with EcoJustice Radio how communities can prepare to confront the dangers of living around five oil refineries, the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and hemmed in by the truck-clogged 710 and 110 freeways.

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• Urban Oil Drilling and the Intersection Between Faith and Environmentalism
  Posted on November 20, 2019 | No Comments

  On Episode 45 of EcoJustice Radio our guest Reverend Oliver Buie, Minister of Community Engagement at the Holman United Methodist Church in South Los Angeles, speaks with Jessica Aldridge on the important relationship between faith and environmentalism and what his parish has been doing to promote environmental and social justice in their community. As a member of the Steering Committee of STAND-LA, he speaks to the environmental justice movement to institute a 2,500-foot health and safety buffer between oil drilling and where people live, in particular motivated by the Murphy Oil Drilling site near his South Los Angeles church.

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• Regenerative Responses: Growing The Soil Carbon Sponge
  Posted on November 2, 2019 | No Comments

  Weather extremes, soil degradation, and climate disruption have turned our attention to the potential of soil, carbon, and water cycling as a formidable and creative response to climate change. EcoJustice Radio talks with Linda Gibbs about building the soil carbon sponge for resilience to wildfires and climate change.

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• How Urban Forestry Can Cool the Climate and Promote Social Equity
  Posted on October 25, 2019 | No Comments

  This episode of EcoJustice Radio we speak with Los Angeles's North East Trees organization regarding the powerful effect urban forests have on the health and well-being of our communities and the climate in general. We also look into programs that are working within those communities to provide equitable solutions, green jobs, and open spaces.

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• Sampling of Found Sound – Composer Pierre Henry
  Posted on October 17, 2019 | No Comments

  The Art Of Sounds is a 2007 documentary on French electronic music pioneer Pierre Henry (1927 – 2017). Henry, along with his colleague Pierre Schaeffer, creating a form they dubbed musique concrète – an approach to electronic music based on using recorded sampling (also known as ‘found-object’) as source material.

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• Youth Climate Strike Takes Over Downtown Los Angeles
  Posted on October 14, 2019 | No Comments

  The September 20th Los Angeles Youth Climate Strike was organized by a coalition of groups and led by Youth Climate Strike Los Angeles. EcoJustice Radio's Jessica Aldridge and production team joined the action at Downtown LA's Pershing Square, where anywhere from 10-20,000 people gathered for speeches and music, and then all marched through the streets to City Hall. This caused absolute pandemonium on the crowded city streets, but all happened peacefully and with grace from all involved.

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• Bottles And Cans Recycling: A Social Contract In Peril
  Posted on September 27, 2019 | No Comments

  Susan V. Collins, President of Container Recycling Institute, speaks with host Jessica Aldridge about how California underwent a recent wave of redemption center closures (those places where consumers can drop off their recyclable beverage containers for cash). So what needs to happen to fix the California bottle bill?

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• Shaping our Water Future: Through Water Quality, Equity & Nature Based Solutions
  Posted on September 13, 2019 | No Comments

  Los Angeles currently imports a whopping 70% of their water. And getting it to LA is the largest use of electricity in the state of CA. When water is not captured and utilized within the system, it traverses through the city and out to the ocean. In order to shape a strong water future, we must manage the flow in way that ensures high quality, social equity, and solutions based in nature.

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