getting some love from Grace at the 2011 Farm Sanctuary Hoe Down

Every year in Watkins Glen, NY there is an event that turns the quiet little town into a bustling mecca of vegandom. The Glen is known to many as a NASCAR hot spot, or perhaps a place to get buzzed while buzzing around between wineries, but for those looking to have a deeper experience the Farm Sanctuary Hoe Down is something truly special.

I arrived on Friday night and set up my tent and then hung out by the camp fire, serenading myself and whoever else wanted to listen with my ukulele. I was so happy to be at the farm after a long absence that I stayed up till almost 4 a.m. I made some new friends and hung out beneath my old friends, the moon and stars.

Saturday at the Hoe Down offered a fine line-up of vegan speakers and workshops, which this year included Crazy Sexy Cancer survivor (or thriver, as she would say) Kriss Carr, vegan bodybuilder Robert Cheeke, Farm Sanctuary co-founder Gene Baur, sanctuary animal caregiver Susie Coston,  FS Senior Director for Strategic Initiatives Bruce Friedrich, humane educator Zoe Weil, author Victoria Moran, cooking demos, and more.

At night the farm transformed into one of the best vegan parties around. The transition period included a cocktail hour with live music, a showing of the documentary Forks Over Knives, and a Hilda Club tour to visit the critters on the farm around twilight (a magical time on the farm). Gene Baur gave a presentation on his trip across the country in the VW van that he once sold veggie dogs at Grateful Dead concerts from to finance the farm. Kindfood from Ontario presented Gene with a beautiful cake to commemorate Farm Sanctuary’s 25th anniversary.

cake by Kindfood in Ontario commemorating Farm Sanctuary's 25th anniversary

Once darkness was firmly established the contra dancing began in the People Barn, and the crazy vegans started to let loose. Soon after a live DJ took over and the rowdy dancers shook the rafters of the barn, earning the right to call this party a hoe down. Simultaneously another camp fire began outside for those who didn’t want to dance, or who needed to take a break to roast their vegan marshmallows. That fire went on long after I fell asleep exhausted.

Most of us camped in tents and we all enjoyed big meals served on the deck of the People Barn. Sunday morning featured a yoga class led by Katya Burns, a coffee talk with the Farm Sanctuary staff, and breakfast. I got to spend some time with Gene and Susie out on the farm, and recorded an interview for an upcoming episode of Vegan Radio. By lunch there were torrential downpours, whose melodious pitter-patter struck a soothing symphony on the tin roof of the People Barn. I had to pack my tent up during the deluge, so I got a free shower before my ride home, which my fellow travelers appreciated. I am so blessed to be part of this vegan revolution.

Be sure to check out my new galleries of sanctuary farm animals. You can click this link to see only the photos I added to the galleries from the Hoe Down.

Here are my favorite photos from the event on flickr:

I am happy to announce that the publisher of the book Ninety-Five: Meeting America’s Farmed Animals in Stories and Photographs (featuring some of my farm animal photographs) has won an “Ippy” (Independent Publishers Award). Coincidentally coinciding with this event I have created new galleries of my farm animal photographs where my fans and admirers can view & purchase the photos featured in the book as well as other gorgeously stunning photographs of cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, goats, sheep, ducks and other lovely critters.

Ninety-Five, the latest book by non-profit publisher No Voice Unheard, has won the Gold Medal in the Animals/Pets category of the Independent Publishers Awards (referred to in the publishing industry as an “IPPY Award”). The IPPY’s “bring increased recognition to the deserving but often unsung titles published by independent authors and publishers.” The award ceremony took place on Monday, May 23, 2011 in New York City during Book Expo America.

Brimming with beautiful, full-color photographs, Ninety-Five is a compilation of work by vegan photographers and writers, telling the captivating stories of farmed animals living in sanctuaries and homes across the country. From Justice, the steer who broke out of a truck on the way to the slaughterhouse and who is now the self-appointed greeter at the sanctuary where he lives, to bold and irrepressible Lucas, a pig desperately infatuated with Petunia (the feeling isn’t mutual, but that doesn’t deter him), to Amelia, the turkey anxious to share a hug with her photographer. Their stories are compelling, enlightening, and always moving.

Released last year, thousands of copies of Ninety-Five are already in circulation, causing readers to reevaluate their assumptions about farmed animals. Animal advocates have adopted the book as a personal outreach tool, giving it as a gift to friends and family to “show them why I’m veg.” They are also keeping copies on their desk or coffee table and spreading the animals’ stories via social media. Writes one advocate: “I have been able to get 30 copies in schools and libraries throughout my county. Working on churches next.” (No Voice Unheard offers a special “Giving Package” for such outreach, which includes five copies of the book at a deeply discounted price.)

Farmed animal advocacy organizations are also using the book to educate and fundraise, from the sanctuaries included in the book to organizations as far away as Australia and the UK. According to Diane Leigh, No Voice Unheard co-founder, “For every person who reads Ninety-Five and decides to adopt a vegan diet, we know that approximately 95 animals are spared – hence the title of the book. We publish to honor animals and eliminate suffering; that is our ultimate goal.”

Ninety-Five previously received an Eric Hoffer Book Award, which “honors the memory of the great American philosopher Eric Hoffer by highlighting salient writing, as well as the independent spirit of small publishers.”

No Voice Unheard is a non-profit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) independent publisher whose previous titles include the highly regarded One at a Time: A Week in an American Animal Shelter and Thought to Exist in the Wild: Awakening from the Nightmare of Zoos, by Derrick Jensen.

Ninety-Five is available through my website as well as the usual places you might find books. Please check out the galleries of my farm animal photographs on my new SmugMug pages, and show a starving artist some love. I will be adding new images and galleries throughout my foreseeable future.

Ninety-Five: Meeting America's Farmed Animals in Stories and Photographs

On June 5th I kicked off my 2010 vegan wedding season at Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary in Woodstock, NY. The couple, Sloane & Matt, are animal rights activists from NYC who hired me based on a recommendation from sanctuary founders Doug Abel and Jenny Brown.

Sloane & Matt were blessed with a beautiful saturday full of sunshine and tattooed vegans. It is interesting to participate in weddings at sanctuaries (and vegan weddings in general). There are always the friends who are excited to be at a wedding where they can eat all the food and spend time with the amazing farm animals who are the residents. Then there is the family, who are sometimes a little freaked out and worried how they will get through several hours without eating anything that comes from an animal, all the while being surrounded by creatures that they usually only encounter in a different form on their plates.

the flower girl plays with a kitty before the wedding

I like to think about all the ripples of compassion that spread out from events that make a splash in people’s consciousness. The flower girl seemed most enraptured in the company of the animals. Children live so much with their hearts for as long as they can keep at bay the cultural conditioning that emphasizes apathy over empathy. This is often the time when young girls become vegetarians, or have the epiphany that leads them in that direction.

My hope is that even adults who attend vegan weddings at sanctuaries will spend some time with the animals who live there, and some time thinking deeply about the reasons why vegans and sanctuaries exist. I have met people who have become vegan through visiting sanctuaries, and I am sure this transformation occurs at weddings as well. Weddings are about love, food and ritual. If there is to be a transformative effect all three of these elements must work together. Matt & Sloane’s wedding was a great example of how this can happen.

Matt & Sloane kissing next to Billy the goat

a tattooed vegan wedding guest with a vegan tattoo

On July 31st, 2010 Petrina and Kevin got married at the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary in Woodstock, NY. This was the second vegan wedding I got to photograph at the sanctuary this year, which makes for a good year! I met Petrina a few years back at a Farm Sanctuary Gala in NYC. She was assisting WFAS founders Doug Abel and Jenny Brown in videotaping the event for posterity. Since then we have all become good friends and Petrina has been very helpful volunteering for WFAS in various ways. Somehow she ended up in Great Britain with her future husband Kevin, who she came back here to marry.

A vegan for life handbag hangs off a guest's chair

The timing of the wedding was very auspicious for me, as I got to go take a Jivamukti yoga intensive the next morning right up the road from the sanctuary. It turns out Jivamukti founders Sharon Gannon and David Life live within a short bike ride from Woodstock Sanctuary! Every year they host a month of intensive classes at their Wild Woodstock Ashram home studio. I got to officially meet Sharon and David, which was an honor. I gave them a cd containing the Vegan Radio Podcast I produced featuring Jivamukti yoga in New Orleans.

Upon Sharon’s urging one of her friend’s and advanced yogini named Julie Kirkpatrick took me to visit the Catskill Animal Sanctuary that is a few miles from WFAS. I am slightly embarrassed that I have never been there, since I am known as a photographer of sanctuary animals and it is so close to Woodstock. I guess I feel a fierce devotion to my friends Jenny and Doug and their sanctuary. But as with all love, the more we share the more we find in our reserves. I did not take any photos on this trip but I am now resolved to return in the future and spend some time photographing the critters there.

All in all it was a great weekend, spent with good friends and practicing the yoga that I connect to the most. I feel so lucky, as if the universe arranges itself in a lovely asana just to tickle my fancy. Of course it will slap me down to size every now and again too. Annica, annica! Petrina and Kevin, I wish you all the best as you spread your vegan happiness across the ocean. Just come back to visit us every now and again.

Bride with Annie the goat

Kevin and Petrina being playful by the river

Jenny Brown, co-founder of Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary, with a Rooster

I have been friends with Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary’s founders Jenny Brown and Doug Abel since a bit before they started working on the sanctuary in 2004, and have been blessed to watch it grow into the wondrous hippy hipster refuge for rescued critters that it is today. It somehow still feels strange for me to go to the events at the farm when the animals we call people outnumber the people we call animals. The time I spend there photographing the animals is typically peaceful and meditative as I try to imagine the world through their eyes and understand who they are. There is plenty of commotion; grunting pigs, chickens and roosters chasing each other around squawking, goats bleating and maybe a cow’s ruminating bellow sounding above the crowd. And of course there is Jenny Brown making her rounds chatting with the animals and orchestrating the day to day chores involved in running a farm animal sanctuary. Still, with the mountains all around and the immense importance of what is being done here, it feels somehow quiet and relaxed.

By contrast, the June Jamboree is an event bristling with families and activity, live music and amazing vegan food being served by celebrity chef Isa Moskowitz. There are lots of people I know, social responsibilities to attend to, foods to sample, pictures to take and potty breaks. For some reason I tend to spend less time with the animals when there is an event going on (except for the ones with opposable thumbs). It is heartwarming to see kids and animals bonding, and wondering if they will grow up to be compassionate and wise. I photograph these interactions because I know they will be used to bring people and donations to the farm, even though it feels a little intrusive sometimes. Usually I just put on a big lens and stay in the background, but sometimes I have to come in close with my wide angle to see what’s up.

I had originally hoped to attend this event with the Vegan Bus, but as it turned out the bus was in the shop getting new brakes, and so my friend Meredith drove me down along with my friend Scott and her friend Wendy. It is fun to be in a car full of vegans and the two plus hour drive through the Berkshire Mountains and into the Catskills went quickly. It was Wendy and Meredith’s first time visiting WFAS, and they were both moved by the experience. Scott seemed to enjoy himself as well, didn’t you Scotty? I thought so.

Anyway, here are some photos of the trip, hope you enjoy them and will be encouraged to visit, donate, volunteer, or send some love.

See all of the photos on my flickr account.

pigs are magnificent, intelligent, and beautiful. anyone who tells you different has an agenda.

this poem is my gift to you
in this prelude to the new swine flu
we all feared, but who really knew?

who knew these sweet and noble beings?
live confined in their own shit and vomit
on concrete beds beneath artificial light?
thank god they can not think and feel
like we do.

well who really knew?
it did not say so on the pinkish styrofoam
or even on the news.

if i said i knew
you would hang me from the highest tree
for lying to your children.

if i said i knew
you would put your hands around my throat
and choke the words inside of me.

in this time we have to dance tonight
in this sweet twilight of an era
i will say that i forgive you
and tell you that i love you
and that is the truth.

this way has been passed down
from mother to baby
father to child
like faery tales of santa clause and jesus
we flash our funny little teeth
and pretend to be carnivores
something about killing someone else
makes us feel immortal
something about someone else’s flesh
can taste like heaven for a moment.

the world is alive
her strangled seas
her burdened air
her sweet pigs
most noble and loyal of creatures
sweet sweet pigs.

who knew the consequence of commodifying sentience?
pigs so different from us on the outside
but to a virus perhaps not so different
from the impoverished worker
who had to kill mothers and babies
over and over until he was de-humanized

who knew that even a penny of our purchase
went to the man who came home with a pandemic?
it didn’t say so on the cellophane
dripping with blood
it only said cook to a proper temperature
and everything will be all right.