Ladies -- I'm in the final stages of my dissertation research and I need your help.

Please fill out my survey, link is below and pass it on to all other
female drummers and percussionists that you know.

I need both amateur and professional drummers to fill it out.

This is a cross-cultural study and is focused on Brazilian women drummers who are
practitioners of Candomble.

Note: You do not need to be a practitioner of Candomble to
participate in this study!

Survey in English: gaiafestival.wufoo.com/forms/...survey/

Survey in Portuguese will be posted soon!

Kris Katsuko Oster
kris@gaiafestival.com

May 16, 2007


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2nd Annual Gaia Festival Debuts on West Coast

Los Angeles-- Gaia Festival West Coast, celebrating multi-cultural, interdisciplinary and inclusive of all spiritual beliefs, debuts on Saturday, May 26 at 10:30 a.m. through Sunday, May 27 at Temescal Gateway Park, 15601 W. Sunset Blvd., Pacific Palisades. Tickets are available for full weekend passes ($180) and individual seminars ($10-$25).

Festival presenters are leading scholars and artists in their fields that have created dynamic, interactive workshops to engage the whole person: mind, body and spirit.

“Gaia Festival is a collaboration of diverse and multi-cultural artists, educators and business owners, to celebrate our connection to the living earth, Gaia, as well as pool our collective wisdom towards resolving the many issues and problems we are facing today,” says Kris Katsuko Oster, co-creator of Gaia Festival with Stephanie Hamberger.

Ms. Hamberger organized the inaugural Gaia Festival on November 11, 2006 in New York centered on two workshops facilitated by Pagan author and activist, Starhawk. The energy and interest generated by the initial event led to the momentum necessary to develop the second event on the West Coast.

“We recognized a yearning for connection to our Earth Mother and conceived Gaia Festival to feed that hunger,” says Ms. Hamberger. “Our goal is to begin a community that expands beyond the two day festival into a regular practice of goddess worship and earth nurturance.”

Author, lecturer, Goddess advocate and native of Venice, California, Karen Tate (www.karentate.com), is the headline presenter and has played a major role in developing the festival program for this year.

“I was really interested in working with Kris and Stephanie on Gaia Festival because it’s so in alignment with my own work, bringing the Sacred Feminine into mainstream consciousness,” Karen explains.

Karen’s workshop “Sacred Sites of the Goddess: Ancient Echoes of Herstory” will open the Gaia Festival program on May 26, 2007 at 1:15 pm.

Gaia Festival will share proceeds donated by sponsors and advertisers with its non-profit partners Temple of the Goddess Pasadena (www.templeofthegoddess.org) and global sustainability think-tank Empowerment Works (www.empowermentworks.org).

Xia and her attendant Priestesses from the Temple of the Goddess
Pasadena have developed a powerful and transformative opening ceremony to invoke Gaia and send healing prayers to ailing bee populations.

The opening ceremony will feature the drumming talent of frame drummer and singer, Miranda Rondeau.

Melanie St. James, Executive Director of Empowerment Works, is giving a lecture entitled "Social Permaculture" on Sunday, May 27, 2007 at 2:00 pm. Melanie’s organization practices a model of support and collaboration that creates a sustainable future for our planet.

About the Gaia Festival Founders
Hamberger is a photojournalist who has led pilgrimages to Glastonbury, Cornwall and Bath, England for Lammas celebrations since 2001 and is currently authoring a book about the sacred traditions of bread baking around the world.

Oster is a percussionist, myth scholar, sacred event organizer and web developer. In 2006 she spent 2 and a half months in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil completing research for her Doctoral dissertation in progress, “The Heartbeat of the Mother: Ritual Drumming & Revisioning Images of the Feminine in Candomblé.”

# # #

Gaia Festival - Celebrate our Ancient Connection to the Sacred Feminine
May 26-27, 2007
Temescal Gateway Park
Pacific Palisades, CA.

Gaia Festival Workshops & Events:

May 26, 2007:

10:30-11:00 am Opening Ceremony - "Invoking the Divine Feminine"
Gaia Festival opens with a ritual circle of all participants and presenters, led by Rev. Karen Tate and members of the Temple of the Goddess from Pasadena.  
Public Ceremony. $5 suggested donation to the Temple of the Goddess of Pasadena.

1:15-2:45pm - “Sacred Sites of the Goddess: Ancient Echoes of Herstory” workshop with Karen Tate. $25 fee.

3:25-4:55pm - “The Magdalene Circle: Connecting with Mary Magdalene Within” workshop with Joan Norton. $25 fee.

7:00-8:00pm - “Fumbling Towards Ecstacy” - A Dance Workshop with Jo Cobbett. $15 fee.

9:15pm - Film Screening of “Signs Out of Time” – Documentary about the life and work of Marija Gimbutas. Film duration is 58:40 and will be followed by brief discussion. $5 suggested donation to Gaia Festival.

May 27, 2007:

11:20am-12:50pm - "A Musical Journey Through the Elements: An Introductory Frame Drum Workshop” with Miranda Rondeau. $25 fee.

2:00-2:30pm. "Social Permaculture" - 30 minute lecture by Melanie St. James, MPA of Empowerment Works. $5 suggested donation to Empowerment Works.

2:30-4:00pm - “Celebratory African Drum/Dance Workshop and Performance” with Adama "Ken" and Naomi Doumbia. $25 fee.

4:30-5:00pm - “Closing Ritual of Thanksgiving”
Gaia Festival closes with a ritual circle of all participants and presenters, led by Rev. Karen Tate and members of the Temple of the Goddess from Pasadena.  
Public Ceremony. $5 suggested donation to the Temple of the Goddess of Pasadena.

Note: If you wish to stay for the weekend, we have a festival pass available, all workshops, overnight stay and meals inclusive. Please see our website for prices: www.gaiafestival.com. Or call Kris at 805.624.4361 for more information.

Last night my husband Shaun taught a class on cooking Mexican/Japanese fusion style dish. It was soooo delicious.

The subtleties of the flavors and textures were exquisite.

And of course the flavors were so well balanced - sweet, tangy, spicy and some bitter,

The menu:

White roughy baked to perfection, on top of a tempura poblano chile and medallion of dashi-infused quinoa. The fish was topped off with a saki tomatillo sauce to die for and a single tempura shitake mushroom.

Dessert, made by my mother-in-law Nancy was a delectable green tea flan. Rich and creamy with plenty of caramel sauce, and a kiss of green tea flavor.

It was glorious!

Have a happy Monday,

Kris