The Lied Center of Kansas presents Learning About The Environment Through The Arts, a pilot program providing arts and ecology experiences for second-grade students from USD497.

In addition to the main performance series, the Lied Center is also committed to offering several education and engagement opportunities to communities in Kansas, including a number of school-only programs and performances. The Learning About The Environment program features teaching artist in-class instruction, a field trip to the Baker Wetlands and a Lied Center school-only performance of The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Eric Carle Favourites presented by the Mermaid Theatre Company of Nova Scotia, all taking place over the next three months.

Call this the “Arnold effect,” or “emulating the Governator.”

Everyone knows the story by now---the sky literally is falling, and global warming is wreaking havoc with planet earth, yet the government of the largest polluting country, the United States, continues to say “no” to protections and legislation that might start to undo some of the damage.

For some time now, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has been giving the finger to his own Republican party’s do-nothing environment policy, and enacting climate controls at the state level. Now, the City of Lawrence, already noted for going its own way compared to everyone else in the Midwest,  has formulated its own policy on climate issues, creating a citizens group, the Climate Protection Task Force, to advise the City on ways Lawrence can best help save the environment.          

Jeffrey Severin, Director of The University of Kansas’ Center for Sustainability and member of the task force, was nice enough to buy out some time and, via an email exchange, bring The Lawrencian up to speed on how the CPTF will act on climate issues.

“We are each other's harvest; we are each other's business; we are each other's magnitude and bond.” Gwendolyn Brooks

Dave Lowenstein and Gwendolyn Brooks hooked me. Just over a year ago, I was contemplating my stay in Lawrence and sorting out future plans. The circumstances that brought me here weren’t going to keep me here. All my work was in New York and Los Angeles. I had no compelling reason to stay. Then I walked by the mural.

The mural, replete with brilliant images of incredible African-American artists connected to Kansas, is the backdrop for our Saturday Farmers’ Market. But that particular day was a scorching hot Sunday and downtown was a ghost town. The one car parked in front of the colorful wall at 9^th and New Hampshire featured a bumper sticker demanding a living wage for Lawrence. I got up close to the words. I took a photo of the bumper sticker. In that sticky, solitary, epiphanic moment, everything became clear. I wanted to stay because of our magnitude and bond. 

I was reminded of this a few weeks ago at the Liberty Hall benefit for Maggie Backus. I don’t know Maggie, but I know and love many people in her orbit. When I heard her ovarian cancer had returned, I did what so many in the community did: showed up and asked how I could help. That evening, we were all Backuses, as each day, we are all Lawrencians. The way we take care of each other is what makes this town a community.