Last Sunday, The Girl and I attended the Maker Faire.  What’s the Maker Faire, you ask?  Well, it’s a lot of things.  Mostly it’s a bunch of oddly creative people making oddly creative things in oddly creative ways.  It’s sort of like what would happen if Burning Man crashed into Cirque du Soleil while Cirque du Soleil was busy ingesting a county fair.

There are robots.  There are Legos.  There are cars that run on trash and walnut shells.  There are victorian houses on wheels, and giant copper snails and tesla coils and furry cars and fire trucks that shoot fire and lots and lots of people in top hats and corsets (sometimes at the same time).

And of course, I took pictures.  Lots and lots of pictures:

The night we elected Barack Obama to be our next President back in November, I didn’t have to leave the house to know that lots of people in Santa Cruz were happy about it. From my back steps I could hear fireworks, car horns, chanting, singing, laughter, and general woo-hooing. The noise and excitement continued late into the night.

For some reason, I didn’t expect Inauguration Day to be quite so exciting.

But I should’ve known better. After all, the previous Inauguration Day in Santa Cruz was an occasion for mourning, with everyone walking around near tears, evidence that Inauguration Day really does mean something in this town. This time around, Santa Cruz was ready to party.

It was a wonderful surprise to me when I walked into the inauguration rally downtown last week, and boy was I glad I had my camera with me. Lots of cool people showed up to celebrate and represent, including the Reverend Deborah L. Johnson of Inner Light Ministries, the Watsonville Brown Berets, the Santa Cruz chapter of the Raging Grannies, and numerous other local activists, performers, artists, parents, children, pets, dancers, sign-wavers, and friends.

I’ve included several photos in this post, and you’ll see many more if you click the link below. Also, if you were at the downtown Santa Cruz Inauguration Day party and you see a photo of yourself or your group that you’d like to have, email me at redbatphotography@gmail.com and I’ll be happy to send it to you.

Congratulations Obama and Santa Cruz and the USA and everyone who made this day happen!

WANT TO SEE MORE? CLICK HERE.

WANT TO SEE MORE? CLICK HERE.

This September, around a hundred people participated in a conference on Race, Gender, Power, and Class at Walker Creek Ranch in Petaluma, California, facilitated by core members of Be Present, Inc. This very committed core group had spent 18 months preparing for the conference.

To quote from the Be Present website :

“Be Present is building a social change movement in a world where racism, classism, and homophobia still exist and historical barriers have divided us. Our work is designed to answer the question: What does it take to create and sustain positive change in this world? Be Present uses a model of transformation, the Be Present Empowerment Model (BPEM), which was created by Lillie P. Allen to provide individual empowerment and collective leadership skills first, to African-American women, and now to women from all walks of life, as well as men and boys.”

At the invitation of my friend Olivia, I attended the conference and met some truly amazing individuals of all ages. Here are some of my favorite shots from that weekend, including photos from Creativity Night (there were a lot of talented actors, singers, dancers, and artists of many kinds at this conference), photos of Walker Creek Ranch, and photos from inside a weird little nature museum.