Shifting the Universe - Author Talk with Candace Wolf
This book is like a majestic table around which are gathered an extraordinary, international assembly of people who share stories about the nature of their daily work-and even more importantly-they bear witness to their experiences struggling against systems of local and global oppression. In a single location, SHIFTING THE UNIVERSE brings together the voices of 18 unlikely companions: fishing folk who make their livelihood in the Arabian Sea off the coast of India-members of Indigenous communities protecting the Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador-a Salvadoran janitor who cleans skyscrapers in Los Angeles-a Muslim midwife in Atlanta-a master puppeteer from Silesia-an Appalachian coal miner-an Egyptian spinner and weaver, an African American teacher in Washington DC-track workers in New York City's subway, father and son surgeons in Cuba-a sailor on a ship carrying munitions to the Vietnam War-among many other contributors.
SHIFTING THE UNIVERSE is the product of Storyteller Candace Wolf's epic international quest to track down and record the firsthand testimonies of folks who participated in acts of resistance while toiling at a variety of physical, mental and artistic labors. The people who generously shared their personal histories with Ms. Wolf have wrestled with urgent contemporary problems: the savagery of war and racism, the absence of respect and dignity in the workplace, abusive healthcare practices, poisoning of irreplaceable ecologies, suppression of cultural identity and destruction of community.