A twice-monthly radio show on KWMR as a podcast—about the power, diversity and possibilities of community.
Voices of the Valley is a twice-monthly radio show on KWMR (and distributed internationally) as a podcast—about the power, diversity and possibilities of community. What does truly living in community mean to you? Twice a month we interview a dynamic and diverse cast of extraordinary ordinaries—people being people having a quietly profound impact on their local community. Along the way we learn what community can mean in 21st century America.
How does one get connected and stay connected to community? How do we avoid isolation and lonliness? Tune in to find out and get inspired by longtime Valley resident Suzanne Sadowsky who has devoted her life to being of service in community for more than six decades and for multiple organizations.
Suzanne Sadowsky was born and grew up in Brooklyn, New York in 1935. She attended Alfred University in upstate New York, and went on to work for the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics soon after college, (first in New York, then Los Angeles and then in the San Francisco Regional Office) until her retirement in 1990.
After retirement she got involved in her local community and was invited to join the Boards of a number of local nonprofit organizations including: West Marin Senior Services, the Coastal Health Alliance and our very own San Geronimo Valley Community Center. Suzanne worked at the center from in 1997 to 2017 doing program development, fundraising, and grant writing.
In 1992, she started Gan HaLev, the Jewish Congregation of the San Geronimo Valley. Since 2014, she has served on the Board of the San Geronimo Valley Affordable Housing Association, now the Two Valley Community Land Trust. As well as the Marin County Commission On Aging.
Join us for an enlightening conversation with former Marin County Supervisor Steve Kinsey about what it takes to understand the nuance, complexity and commitment of government, policy, and how to engage more deeply in community around important issues that effect us all.
Steve Kinsey served as District 4 Marin County Supervisors from 2007-2017. Prior to taking public office, Steve owned and operated a building design and construction firm for 19 years. He has a B.A. in Architecture and is a Ca. Licensed General Contractor.
Steve’s unique blending of building design and planning skills with his local, regional, and statewide government experience has propelled notable community progress, including Marin County’s nationwide leadership in Safe Routes to School and non-motorized transportation, over ½ Billion dollars in voter-approved transportation funding, meaningful inclusion and funding equity for disadvantaged communities, and an award-winning General Plan grounded in principles of Sustainability.
His commitment to detail in design is reflected in his project management leadership, and his natural ability to work with competing interests to achieve creative, holistic solutions accepted by all parties.
During his years of public service in Marin County, Steve also served 18 years on the Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission, elected as Chair from 2004-2006. He led adoption of MTC’s TOD Policy and chaired development of its Smart Growth Livability Blueprint. He was founding Chair of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s public/private Electric Vehicle Strategic Council.
While Steve’s focus is primarily on the built environment, he has also been active in coastal resource protection and agricultural land preservation. From 2012-2017 he served on the statewide California Coastal Commission, selected three times as Chair, from 2013-2016. For 20 years, he served on the Board of the Marin Agricultural Land Trust, helping conserve over 45,000 acres of productive ranch and farmland.
Join me for an adventurous conversation with adventure film-maker and local valley resident Josh "Bones" Murphy. Josh Murphy is a director and producer of film, commercials, and branded entertainment who began his career in film as a professional skier turned filmmaker and launched the UNPARALLELED series of award winning action sports films in the early 2000’s. Josh directed and produced PURPLE MOUNTAINS for POW (Protect Our Winters) about legendary snowboarder turned climate activist, Jeremy Jones. He also directed and produced THE SCALE OF HOPE for Patagonia about aspiring alpinist, climate activist, and former Obama White House Climate Team member, Molly Kawahata, as she struggles with mental illness while trying to create a new climate narrative framed around systemic change and hope.
Josh also directed, produced, and co-wrote the multi-award winning feature documentary ARTIFISHAL (2019) that was commissioned by Patagonia founder and owner Yvon Chouinard and premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival where it was a finalist for the Tribeca X Prize. It won the Banff Film Festival, the San Francisco Green Film Festival, the American Conservation Film Festival, the InScience Film Festival in the Netherlands, the International Outdoor Documentary Festival of China, the Special Jury Award from the Jackson Wild Film Festival, the Golden Gate Award at the International Oceans Film Festival. The film had over 3000 local screenings worldwide before being released on Amazon Prime, iTunes, and YouTube where it earned over 2 million views in the first month.
Prior to film Josh was trained as a scientist with two degrees in natural resource science and fisheries biologist. His childhood idol was Jacques Cousteau and through him he discovered a love for film and the environment. Josh lives in San Geronimo, California.
Join us for a fasicnating episode on the wilderness of community featuring LIVE flute music by Paul Berensmeier. In this episode I talk with Paul Berensmeire about Deep Ecology, and how to keep your community wild. We discuss Paul's influential parents Lee and Jean who were instrumental in mobilizing the community to resist a proposal for massive development of our community. Lee was an inspirational artists who taught in San Francisco and showed his work nationally. Jean was a founder of the San Geronimo Valley Community Center and an effective environmental conservation activist.
Paul grew up in the foothills of Mt. Barnabe in Lagunitas, California. A scholar-athlete at SFSU, Paul earned a BA in Physical Education and a Masters in Sport Psychology while competing in the decathlon, eventually winning the NCAC championship. He co-founded Wilderness Way (a non-profit environmental education organization), focusing on taking children out of the classroom into the outdoors and bringing the outdoors into the classroom. He does annual backpacking solos in the Grand Canyon filming old native routes, often writing about his outdoor experiences in his well received “Wilderness Calls” column in Stone Soup. Paul has made over a dozen wildlife films of the Valley (including coho salmon), and does film documentaries of elders of the Valley. He serves as Treasurer of the San Geronimo Valley Planning Group. Paul’s work with Native Americans, and their philosophy about the health of the earth “seven generations into the future” heavily impacts his decision making, writing, and filmmaking. Paul plays the Native American flute and studied with renowned flautist R. Carlos Nakai. A Valley resident since 1965, Paul continues to run and hike the many Valley trails and now focuses his athletic talents on baseball, where he is a player/manager of a senior baseball team.
Join me for a fun (and funny) interview with longtime valley resident and award-winning writer Molly Giles, where we discuss her latest book LIFE SPAN: Impressions of a Lifetime Spent Crossing and Recrossing the Golden Gate Bridge, which is a memoir in flash form (short vignettes). We also cover a little about the creative process, creative community and the power of place (Woodacre).
Molly Giles is an award-winning fiction writer. Her first collection of stories, ROUGH TRANSLATIONS won the Flannery O’Connor Prize for Short Fiction, the Boston Globe Award, and the Bay Area Book Reviewers award. Four subsequent collections—CREEK WALK, BOTHERED, ALL THE WRONG PLACES, and WIFE WITH KNIFE, have also won awards, including the Small Press Best Fiction Award, the California Commonwealth Silver Medal for Fiction, the Spokane Short Fiction Award, and the Leapfrog Press Global Fiction Prize. She published her first novel, IRON SHOES, in 2000, and twenty-three years later, published its sequel, THE HOME FOR UNWED HUSBANDS. Giles has taught fiction writing at San Francisco State University, University of Hawaii, San Jose State University, the National University of Ireland at Galway, the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, and at numerous writing conferences, including The Community of Writers and Naropa. Her work has been included in many anthologies including the O.Henry and Pushcart Prize (three times), and she has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Arkansas Arts Council. She has won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Book Reviewing, been awarded residences at MacDowell, Yadoo, and The House of Literature in Paros, Greece.
Join us for an incredible conversation with Judith Selby Lang about art, perception, beach plastic, and the importance of place. We talk about how one person's garbage becomes another person's brilliance, and how great art can not only change how we perceive the world, but how making art can also possibly save it!
For some 25+ years, Judith Selby Lang has made the San Geronimo Valley her home. Although she and her artworks have traveled near and far from Forest Knolls to Point Reyes Station, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Baltimore, New York, British Columbia, Zürich, and beyond, she is always grateful to return to the Valley, the place that is the creative springboard for her launch into the wider world.
The uplifting and transformative nature of her multi-dimensional art practice reflects her commitment to creating positive symbols and life-affirming images to energize the conversation about social, political, and environmental issues.
Her ephemeral public artworks have graced the San Francisco Civic Center Plaza, the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve, and Stanley Harbor, Hong Kong. As a dynamic speaker about the creative life, she has presented at the Pitzer Institute for Entrepreneurship in Claremont, CA, Applied Brilliance in Jackson Hole, WY, and the Newseum in Washington, DC.
Join us for an incredible interview with American musical legend, (and Woodacre resident) Harold Jones, where we talk about his collaborations with Stevie Wonder, Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga, and so many more!
Harold Jones was born and raised in Richmond, Indiana and attended the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago on a scholarship, then took work where he could find it, including theaters and night clubs. In 1962 as a young member of the Paul Winter Sextet he played at the White House playing for the Kennedys. In 1967, he was invited to New York for what was intended to be a two-week engagement with Count Basie's orchestra but which lasted five years. Jones played on fifteen albums with Basie.
Harold Jones has played with some of the greatest Jazz, Blues, R&B musicians in the world including Natalie Cole, BB King, Ray Charles Elvin Bishop (also a local) Stevie Wonder, Christina Aguilera, Amy WInehouse, Tony Bennet and Lady Gaga to name but a few.
"In community lies the heart of the world"
In this fantastic innaugural episode I interview the new executive director of the San Geronimo Valley Community Center, Alexa Davidson; fourth generation Marin County resident who grew up in the San Geronimo Valley. We discuss our exciting vision for the podcast, a little history of her growing up in the valley, and what community means to Alexa. We also discussed the extraordinary number of musicians and artists that have graced our valley, people like Janis Joplin and Jerry Garcia, as well as touching on her amazing talent as a singer.
We closed with updates about our current paver campaign to raise money for our new courtyard and stage, upon which we will welcome the great musician Jesse DeNatale on August 18th as part of our Summer Music Series. Thanks for listening and supporting your local community center.
