Minnijean Brown Trickey is one of those activists that may not be the highest profile but certainly commands a great deal of respect, and for good reason. In 1957, a 16-year-old Minnijean Brown, along with eight fellow African-American teenage students effectively de-segregated Little Rock Central High School. The students attended classes under the supervision of the National Guard, sent in by President Eisenhower. The students became known as the “Little Rock Nine” and became iconic symbols of the struggle for civil rights.

50 odd years have not slowed Minnijean down any, though. She has been fighting tirelessly for various causes and on Wednesday night, I had the immense privilege and pleasure to be able to listen to her speak and answer the questions of the fifty or so other eager UBC staff, students and alumni.

I couldn’t possibly impart just how amazing, gracious and hilarious this woman is but there are a few points she made that I’d like to share. Firstly, she very firmly and passionately reminded us that we don’t have any excuses– changes that came about during the civil rights struggle of the 50s and 60s involved great effort and great sacrifice. There is a lot of work to be done and we can’t just sit around and make up lame excuses not to do it.

Secondly, there are not “black issues” or “white issues” or “environmental issues”- they are human issues. Why can’t we get involved on the basis of humanity and wanting to help? She remarked that the struggles of homosexuals, transgendered people, black people, First Nations- they are all “our” issues. She added, responding to a question about why our generation seems hesitant to act, that there really is a way forward but we have to stop thinking someone else will demand things for us. This really resonated with me because while a lot of us like to pat ourselves on the back for posting things we don’t like on facebook, twitter, our BLOGS (guilty), we don’t DEMAND anything. Pick up the phone, call your MP, organize!

Lastly, though Minnijean had much more to say than the brief points I’ve made here, she re-iterated the pledge of non-violence. She (with great enthusiasm and passion) implored all of us to remember that and to hold that very dear. Police and authorities will show up and act foolishly but the dignity will fall on the shoulders of those peacefully resisting the injustices they see/feel/experience, just as the dignity fell onto the shoulders of nine courageous students in small-town Arkansas in 1957.

You owe it to yourself to google, youtube and wikipedia the Little Rock Nine and Minnijean Brown Trickey

(PS- the room was also filled with many cool concerned citizens, from a wide variety of backgrounds but my favourites were the Italian professor injected sustainability into her class out of ‘plain stubbornness’ and the young woman from Occupy who asked for some inspiration or advice from Minnijean. Her response: her critics had all the same arguments against what she was doing in 1957)

You know that cliche about how all the cool and pretty people in high school didn’t have to cultivate personalities so they turn into boring people and all the ugly, uncool people did have to create personalities so they become the CEOs and artists and stuff? Well I’m not sure I quite buy all that but my point is this: We are surrounded by an ever increasingly materialistic world and we expect more and more to be able to buy personalities. We buy the clothes, the music, the food, the coffee and use the language that will identify us as what we want to be seen as. Which, fair enough- it’s kind of an ingrained thing and if it creates diversity then it’s no skin off my nose. However, wouldn’t it be cool if tomorrow on your commute to work or school, you had a really great and wildly interesting conversation with someone you don’t know? Not that this would never happen but it seems unlikely, right? It’s not for a lack of people being interesting, it’s because… well actually I’m not quite sure why. Anyway. My thesis: let’s get weird.

Tips to Cultivate Weirdness:

- Sing loudly and sing often. Narrating what you’re doing is a perfect example.
- Buy at least one piece of surrealist art. This might mean you go buy a banana, stick a nail through it, wrap ribbon around one end and place it on your coffee table.
- have an alter ego. Mine is Raul Garbanzo, a deep-voiced and very suave Mexican man
- go have lunch with your weirdest and loudest friend in a very crowded public place
- develop a signature piece of clothing. Wear a top hat, tie a bandana around your neck, or wear bright red pants. Everyday. Then, right as people get used to it, change it!!
- talk to your food. Just trust me on this. You’ll be surprised what it says back
- Don’t be so serious. Life is tragic and hard and heartbreaking but you know what… it’s all we’ve got so have a ball. Seriously. Throw a ball and invite me.

Bread Challenge

Try making some bread and post your pictures and/or recipes in the comments below! I’d love to see everyone’s first attempt at bread!

Simple Bread Recipe

3 cups lukewarm water {85-105 degrees}
1 1/2 Tablespoon yeast {2 packages}
1/4 cup sweetening {honey, molasses or brown sugar}
4 cup whole wheat flour {substitute 1 or more cups of unbleached white flour if desired}

measure the water {3 cups}; lukewarm {85- 105}, does not feel warm or cold on your wrist. measure the baker’s yeast {2 T} for faster rising and lighter bread, use 1.5-2 times amount in recipe. sprinkle yeast over water and stir lightly to dissolve
add sweetening {1/4 cup}; 2 Tab. would be quite sufficient for the growth of the yeast, while larger amounts may be added for those with sweet tooths.; rinse measuring cup in liquid to clean.

If eggs are desired, beat and add at this stage, adding more flour if needed for proper consistency of dough. Or eggs may be added to the completed sponge ~after~ flour is in and the batter beaten.

then add whole wheat flour a cup or so at a time, stirring briskly after each addition. as mixture thickens, begin beating with the spoon, stirring up and down in small strokes and in small circles at the surface of the mixture. scrape sides of bowl occasionally. after 4 cups of flour have been added, the mixture will be quite thick but still beatable, a thick mud.

now beat about 100 times until the batter is very smooth. do this at the surface of the dough ducking the spoon under the surface, bringing it up above the surface pulling up the batter in a circular motion. the dough will become stretchier as you do this and much air wil be incorporated. this completes the mixing of the sponge.

Setting of the dough to rise:
Cover the bowl with a damp towel to keep off draft. set in warmish place {about 85-100 degrees} in summer, almost any place might do. otherwise on the top of stove over pilot light, shelf above the hot water heater, in oven which has pilot light, or in oven which has been turned on for several minutes then turned off . whichever. if it’s in a cooler place {70-85} it’ll just rise more slowly. if it’s frozen it won’t rise at all but will rise when it’s unfrozen. heat above about 125-130 degrees will kill yeast, which is what happens when the bread is baked.

let it rise for an hour or 45 minutes.

I highly recommend checking out NASA sites like “” for breath-taking photos of astronomical phenomena, as well as looking into how the galaxy and universe works. For lovely little tutorials, check out Salman Khan’s Khan Academy.

Growing your own food is actually pretty easy. You’ll need sunshine, dirt, a edible plant of some kind and probably some water at some point. Empty olive oil cans or other clean, re-used pots can be used to hold your “crops.”

Things you can grow in containers

Corn
Tomatoes
Beans
Cucumbers
Squash
Herbs