Richard Bruxvoort Colligan is a passionate singer/songwriter with a difference - his degree from United Theological Seminary in the Twin Cities. Whether making acoustic music on his own, singing with his wife as River's Voice, creating liturgical music, or writing on his blog called 'World Stretching', you'll find a kind, deep heart & mind poured out through beautiful melodies. He's also a founder of the Progressive Christian Artists Network.
Sandy Bishop & Rhea Miller were the 2012 Lopez Spirit Award winners for many of their works, including very notably their work with the Lopez Community Land Trust which nurtures the island in myriad ways, like producing net-zero-energy housing developments and the Seed Library. Rhea hosts a home church, drawing on, and continuing beyond, her training in Episcopal seminary. They will be married in September under Washington State's newly approved marriage equality law.
Reese Erlich is an award winning journalist and author, and a frequent visitor to the Middle East over the past 10+ years. We start with a talk he gave at FNVW about Libya & Syria and the Arab Spring, and continue on to an visit with Reese addressing his goals in seeking out truth, starting from his organizing against Vietnam. Reese is the author of a number of books including Conversations With Terrorists, Dateline Havana, Target Iraq, & The Iran Agenda.
David Massengill mixes singing, songwriting, storytelling, mountain dulcimer, guitar, and the taste of home-grown Tennessee, painting auditory pictures that pluck heart strings and induce smiles. He's engagingly just himself. Find info also on his website.

The KXL Pipeline Truthforce and their 3/24/13 Educational Forum & Concert in Norman Oklahoma will bring together great speakers plus music by Buffy Sainte-Marie and Indigenous. Event organizer, David Druding, and Grand Water Keeper (of the Waterkeeper Alliance) & Cherokee elder, Early Hatley, share info and there's more at Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance
Priscilla Herdman is a shy person with the gift of a singing voice that carries the listener to laughter, tears, and wonder. With 13 CD, some solo, some family albums, and some as part of a trio, Priscilla shares audio riches to paint pictures. Trained to work in fashion, the folk music scene stole her away, and the rest is history, shared here!
Steve Horn photographed throughout the former Yugoslavia in 1970, not returning with his camera until 2003, after the war in Bosnia. He documented the before and after of war and was able to take back to the people a slice of their pre-war past nearly lost. With his book, Pictures Without Borders - Bosnia Revisited, Steve teaches us to know our global neighbors. Raised in a Jewish family, Steve is a long-time resident of Lopez Island, Washington.
Music Featured:
Jovana Jovanke - The Baksheesh Boys
Dave Para & Cathy Barton are passionate about folk music and folk history, living that out by performing folk music, old and new, by creating historical albums, like about Lewis & Clark, anchoring the Big Muddy Festival and by jamming with the folks of Carp Camp at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas.
At that age of 76, Margaret Moore took part in the Teaching Drum Outdoor School family year-long, living naturally in the Northern Wisconsin woods for 11-months as an intergenerational clan of 42 people. Without the niceties of civilization, like books, soap, clocks, etc, Margaret and the rest experienced a connection to nature and each other badly missing for most people today.
Mark Kastel is co-founder and senior farm policy analyst for The Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-originated organization serving as a watchdog for "good food" - organics, family farms, environmental and economic justice issues, all around food. With careful research and attention to the oft-missing integrity of our food system, Cornucopia helps plug the holes in our national organic food standards.
Interview transcript available: