The Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) recently asked me a few questions about what I think about stuff and things, and then actually printed them! I guess I'm still surprised when professional- type folks seem interested in what I think.

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Today is the 1st day of Kwanzaa!

If you don’t already know about Kwanzaa, I encourage you to check it out and maybe think of folding a bit more meaning and purpose into the last week of the year…

It's that time of the year… I could remind you to slow down, to take breaks, to savor time spent with friends and loved ones… but that’s stuff you already know.

Here’s something happening that you might not know: t…

"Cost of living" implies that simply existing has a financial burden. It normalizes the idea that basic human needs—such as shelter, food, healthcare, and education—are commodities that must be bought, rather than fundamental rights. In a more just and ideal…

I saw this on a protest sign this morning. The protest was in the next town over, in Manlius, NY, which is 15 minutes from my home.

1^st Response:  feeling the wave of shock and fear crawl through…

Contrary to what most folks think, listening is not a passive intellectual exercise. It's an active, embodied skill, that get stronger with practice. 

Our culture values talking over listening. We attend to those who speak up, we praise those who…

The world is changing around us at an alarmingly fast rate. 20 years ago, I was drawn to landscape architecture because I believed through this discipline, I could help protect nature and connect people to the environment and each other. 

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We've all heard this, and I think, deep inside, we know this is truth - but it's hard to live it when we are immersed so completely in our modern culture which functions on separating everything. It’s how we speak…

Sometimes internal work goes external, and vice versa. I tend to focus on individual development and self-care, but lately it's systemic change that has been occupying my thoughts, because the internal and the external are not so different. [More on…

Listening is necessary to connect, communicate and understand. To listen, we must find quiet... and that takes time. In a culture where time is often perceived as scarce and is equated with money, taking time is an act of defiance…

So, as an American person living inside a light brown body for 5 decades, I have experienced innumerable incidents of bias, micro-aggressions, and overt racism, and I've also been accused of not being black or Latina enough, and I have…