✏️ Newsletter Jan 26, 2021: “On The Faultline”

As the weeks march on and we can almost touch the one year anniversary of our Shelter in Place Order due to COVID, my weeks follow a general pattern. Engineering some days, office work on other days. I have had the pleasure of working more closely with some of our morning hosts during the pandemic. These are multifaceted, wonderful people, who put in the time to bring you programming on KWMR. A big thank you to all of the KWMR volunteer programmers.

And once again I must say how fortunate I am to work with the staff here at KWMR. What a great team – Richard Dillman, Ian McMurray, Mia Johnson, Jeffrey Manson, and Alyssa Tanner.

Sunlight on Limantour Road    photo: Amanda Eichstaedt

On Wednesdays I get to engineer for myself! The time goes by fast.

Tomorrow I will talk with Dewey Livingston about history. We try to meet up on the airwaves at 8:30 AM on the last Wednesday of every month. The topics vary. With history, there is always something interesting to discuss. Dewey is a treasure.

At 8:15 AM I will talk with Lisa Bennett, an organizer for SURJ Marin. Lisa is an activist and founder of Indivisible Sausalito, as well as a board member for the Multicultural Center of Marin, and ACLU Marin, and Co-Chairperson for Ice Out of Marin. This will be the first of many conversations, as we make space on KWMR for discussions about how we can all show up for racial justice.

At 8 AM Bonny White will join me for the last time in her role as Deputy Director for the Marin County Free Library. Bonny is retiring at the end of January. I’m going to miss our chats, but the library will still be involved with KWMR.

Poet Tess Taylor will join me at 9 AM. Her most recently published book of poems Rift Zone, is a lovely collection. I have known Tess for many years, but we have just recently reconnected. Tess is no stranger to the airwaves, as she serves as the poetry reviewer for KQED’s “All Things Considered.”

At 9:20 AM I will play Muriel Murch’s “Letter From A Broad” for listeners. Muriel (Aggie) Murch’s roots go back to the beginning of KWMR. As a Founder of the station she has relegated herself to the “B Team.” She is currently living in London with her husband Walter.

The word rift is an interesting one. It can be a noun, or a verb. It applies as much to geology, as to relationships, and politics. We live on a fault (another interesting multifaceted word). How fortunate we are to live in this dynamic landscape.

In Olema  by Tess Taylor

February: Buckeye unscissor new leaves.

Cows pasture, buffleheads paddle.

a kestrel perches on a bishop pine.

Now just above us the mountain’s humped spine

pushes north to Alaska.

Extinct invertebrates ride sea cliffs through time.

Even these stones have lost cousins in Mexico.

Even the freshet is landmass torn open.

even these rocks are reft from each other.

Each shelf pulses onward, a restless swimmer

Looking for land though nothing is still.

Gray whales swim through ocean explosions.

along continents forged of cracked dispossession.

Sunset today: The ridges grow luminous.

Sharp air, dark spice: horses exhaling.

They stomp on the cold, steaming, visible earth.

We heat the stove. The children are napping,

The cabin’s the raft on which we are floating.

Below us the crust is molten, is nationless.

We only light our lamps on the rift.

I hope you will listen in,

Amanda Eichstaedt, Station Manager and Executive Director