This week, I had three vivid conversations in three different places that all turned my attention toward the Palos Verdes Blue Butterfly. On Sunday, I spoke with artist curator Katie Murphy and artist Vanessa Mayoraz about our upcoming show at Persons Unknown Gallery (opening June 6th). Katie evoked the late poet Andrea Gibson's heartbreaking and beautiful poetry collection - The Lord of the Butterflies - as a ground for thinking and feeling with our work. On Saturday, I met anthropologist and filmmaker Devlin Gandly at MOCA Geffen's Plant Sale through co-tablist Emma Kemp.  He responded to my story about working with the ecosystem in and around Angels Gate Cultural Center with his own story about re-introducing the endangered Palos Verdes Blue Butterfly into a abandoned bunkers in the nearby White Point Nature Preserve. On Monday, I ran into artist and deep attunement collaborator Marco Schindelman, who shared his long-term dream of creating an opera within the White Point Nature Preserve inspired by the Palos Verdes Blue Butterfly and this incredibly relevant and early "cine-poetry" film The Life of Butterflies (1911). 

So for this week, we will gather and walk to the bunkers where Devlin released Palos Verdes Blue Butteflies. I will read a poem from Andrea Gibson's The Lord of the Butterflies inside the bunkers. And, then, I will screen The Life of Butterflies. We will close the session by performing the third score from Pauline Oliveros' environmental dialogue suite together.

We will meet at 1pm, Friday May 22nd at 1478 W Paseo Del Mar, San Pedro, CA 90731 (at White Point trailhead: https://maps.app.goo.gl/rrsBzBBCsq7zSWTZ6) for those traveling by foot. 

Access information: the bunker we are heading to is wheelchair accessible through via the Vista Trail with parking immediately in front of the Nature Center. We will travel about 0.5 miles on this path from the visitor center up to the bunker.