Category Archives: General Announcements

U.S. Senator Patty Murray in the House

U.S. Senator Patty Murray

U.S. Senator Patty Murray

All our hard work this past week in repairing and cleaning the center paid off with a delighted group who kept dropping great comments about the center and how “charming” it was. They had about 40 guests who were mostly senators and aids from Olympia plus guest speaker, U.S. Senator Patty Murray. Paul knew a number of guests from his days in politics which was nice. Many took brochures on both Spring St. Center and Subud. Rep. Frank Chopp, State Senators Sharon Nelson and Karen Keiser and Ed Murray (also the Seattle Mayoral candidate) attended. The head staff member said a state senator found us on the web and recommended us. So our website worked.

Hopefully, this will lead to some more bookings like this. . – Marston Gregory

Patty Murray Invite

FAMILY CAMP!!1 LOOK AT THE THE NEW PRICES

CHANGE IN RATES FOR CAMPING and have an OFFER FOR DAY VISITORS 

 
This year we are able to offer camping for $25 a day (5-18 years olds are half price) plus any meals you order.
 
 
Day visitors will be offered a $5 reduction is either lunch or dinner- and that includes tent campers.
 
 
We hope that this will help more people be able to attend!!!  We hope to see you there!  A great way to do latihan, a great way to be with other Subud members, a great way to be in nature.
 
 

Subud House Repairs by our dear Chair

All hail our Chair, David Lynch! Marston sent this report today:

Completed:
1  Ceiling in chapel totally fixed and looks great.
2. Ceiling in Room 4 patched and painted.
3.  Bathroom now has a hand lock in upper floor.
4.  Railing to top is stained and will go up tomorrow after I seal it.  hardware is up.
5.  Signage is now up for upstairs bathroom and also MSF plaque.
6.  I added flowers to the garden to spruce it up and cut back the roses which were looking awful.
7.  Toilet on main floor has new O-ring so it will now not leak.
8   Replaced the shade in room 3 (other one was jammed).
Lots of good things done.  David will come back and replace the railing on the deck and he is talking about adding a roof to it so
people can stand out there in the rain plus a floor deck in redwood.  Would look really nice.  It also would protect that door from the weather.
Great progress!

Prayers for Melinda

Melinda Wallis

Melinda Wallis

Longtime Subud member Melinda Wallis broke her femur and had surgery to correct the problem. Halimah Collingwood made this report on Facebook:

I just spoke with Melinda and she is doing pretty well considering. Her spirit is up, her humor intact but of course, has bouts of, “What’s it all about, Alfie?” She is watching herself watch the myriad of nurses and doctors from the many countries of the world, reflecting on compassion and how we treat each other. She is marveling at all the phone calls and messages of support and love from around the world. Melinda is an observer of human nature and in the hospital, she has plenty of food for thought. She will be moving to a rehab facility for about 3 months. And she loves hearing from you!

Old Time Members/New Homes

We in Subud Greater Seattle would like to welcome Sebastian and Lorraine Tedrow and Halstein and Ida Stralberg. Both families have recently bought homes in Lake Forest Park. Both families want to be near their growing grandkids.

We want to wish them much joy here in their new homes. Sebastian is Executive Director of Subud USA, Lorraine is Past Chair of SICA USA and Halstein is a local helper and Ida is a retired helper.

We are blessed to have these dedicated members joining our center.

El Habib Louai Talks Beat Poetry At the Subud House

Habib at Kerry Park, Seattle

Habib at Kerry Park, Seattle

Thanks in part to a SICA grant to help facilitate the visit of Moroccan Poet and Beat Scholar, El Habib Louai, he spoke yesterday (8.11.13) at Spring Street Center to Subud Members and other attendees about the Beats in Morocco, the cultural milieu in Morocco during that time (late 50s, 60s) and shared some of his work, which included some of his impressions of the Northwest U.S.

I am grateful to SICA, the Subud International Cultural Association and to the Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs for helping fund Habib’s visit to Seattle and to Subud Greater Seattle for hosting the talk at their Spring Street Center.

Introduction to Habib’s talk, August 11, 2013, at Spring Street Center in Seattle. (3:18)

Habib’s Talk, Part 1 (19:57)

Habib’s Talk, Part 2 (22:20)

Q&A (21:00)

Longtime Subud member and writer Hadiyah Carlyle said: “Sitting in our Subud house, sitting around on comfortable chairs, we heard El Habib Louai, a Moroccan poet making analogies to the beat poets of my generation to the rebelliousness of his generation in his country.  El Habib talked about his travels, his life.  It was so refreshing to hear his poetry and about his life.  It was also great to have Subud members sitting around listening with “outsiders,” young and old taking it all in. I also noticed that members were talking to the visitors, everyone enjoying refreshments, after the performance.  What a great way to build community.  I hope we have more programs like this.”

Habib reading Kerouacian Epiphanies in the Portland Greyhound Bus Station with the Jim O’Halloran Quintet, August 10, 2013 at Bradner Gardens (9:56)

Habib and I also visited Sam Hamill and his daughter Eron in Anacortes last night (8.11.13) & Sam gave Habib several books, and showed him the book Habitations, a remarkable work of book art by Ian Boyden. It is a huge series of original paintings with Sam’s poems laser-etched into the work. Hear part of Sam’s impromptu reading here.

New Ibu Rahayu Talk with Subtitles Now Online

Ibu Rahayu gave a talk recently, a Talk to Members on August 2th, a Night of Power.
To view the video of the talk, go to:

http://www.subudlibrary.net

IF YOU DON’T ALREADY HAVE A PASSWORD,FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS THERE TO GET ONE.

Once on the site, go to Ibu Rahayu Talks (video) and scroll down to this video.

This is message from Vernon Contessa, moderator of the site.

Please share this message with others!

Guest Poet from Morocco at the Subud House Sunday

El Habib Louai

El Habib Louai

Please remember this Sunday, August 11, please stay after latihan and hear El Habib Louai speak about the Beats from a Moroccan perspective and read some of his work, including translations of Allen Ginsberg into Arabic. SICA (the Subud International Cultural Association) and The City of Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs are sponsors.

El Habib Louai is a Beat Scholar from Agadir, Morocco, and is working on translating the poems of Allen Ginsberg and other U.S. poets into Arabic.

Saturday, August 10th Habib will perform a poem as part of the annual concert by the (Subud Brother) Jim O’Halloran Quintet at Bradner Gardens at 1730 Bradner Pl S,  Seattle. 6:30PM.

Sunday, August 11th, he’ll discuss the Beat poets from a Moroccan perspective at Spring Street Center, 1101 15th Avenue, Seattle. 12:30PM.

Monday, August 12th he’ll be the featured

reader at the North End Forum at the Wedgwood Ale House, 8515 35th NE, Seattle. 8:30PM.

Thursday, August 15th, he’ll discuss the Beat poets from a Moroccan perspective at the North Cascades Institute’s Environmental Learning Center near Sedro Wooley, WA. 7PM.

 

It seems that the inception of sentimental states is unchangeably similar

Dear clients, I shall seize the opportunity to canalize these feelings!

Especially to those sitting somewhere on bus station benches

Unexpectedly, waiting for trains or buses bound to nowhere

I would love to desperately inform you:

I reckon I have never visited Finland.

Actually, I probably never should visit Finland,

Since it is a place I love so much on paperbacks

I bought from Powell’s Books with my working class dimes

It turned out I am visiting 21st century American dream

 

Now that I am sitting in this greyhound bus station

Not because I am expecting a girlfriend’s heart to revisit

Not because I am picking up my grandmother’s leather suitcases

Not because I am bound to meet a Rockefeller businessman

Not because I am solitarily taking 8.30 train to Eugene

It is because I whimsically remembered Jack in his French Beret

It is because 50s style Cadillac car smoke gets into my myopic eyes

It is because my ears picked “Born to Be Wild” on the entrance to Portland Central Station

It is because I imagined again Jack’s mother weeping in front of Madonna icons

It is because I ventured into the epiphanies of the varieties of religious experience

 

It is In Portland where everybody leisurely rode their fanciful organic bikes,

In Portland where the deer leap and traipse through when you plant roses,

In Portland where blond girls walk in their vegan underwear late in the evening,

In Portland where Gays and Lesbians read their battered copies of “Gender Trouble”,

In Portland where Columbia and Willamette rivers erotically confluence,

In Portland where nouveau riche American couples have two types of tap waters,

I walked in distress when I saw old and young homeless pass out on hard floors

 

What would Kerouac say in this postmodern greyhound bus station?

Shall he say again “the floors of bus stations are the same all over the country, “

Shall he say again “they are always covered with butts and spit”

Shall he say again “they give a feeling of sadness that only bus stations have.”

Shall he say again the trip “was an ordinary bus trip with crying babies and hot sun”

 

I shall not dwell in memoriam of anything celebrating funhouse mirror reflection of Portlandia

I shall not join Portlandia’s cage-free, organic and fresh satires on Mississippi Avenue

I shall let the Road unfold in a series of joyful epiphanies, in truck stops, Greyhound bus station

I shall stare through the early evening windows of jazz bars

This shall be my love letter to the great American landscapes I left in Iowa, Ohio and Indiana

I shall be too busy for failing love relationship scruples

I shall just allow my muscles a space to twitch, to live the ragged joy and go

I shall just sit in the greyhound bus station and think everything over.

 

Poems for Peace (From Latifah)

Woo hoo!

According to the US Patent and Trademark Office, Poems for Peace ® is now the registered service mark of the Subud International Cultural Association (SICA) “for arranging, organizing, conducting and hosting social entertainment events.”

Registered July 30, 2013.
We applied for this months ago.  Am thrilled.  Of course, other non-Subud folks can use the name as well — “with the kind permission of the Subud International Cultural Association.”
I feel something like I did when I got the name Latifah.  It came in the mail for me.  And when I read the letter that said my name was Latifah, I pressed to my heart and felt that I now had something of my very own.  My name.
It feels a bit special that now SICA — SICA all over —  has something of its very own.
With love  and wishes for a blessed last days of the fast,
Latifah

—

Latifah Taormina

Chair
Subud International Cultural Association
9509 Ketona Cove, Austin, TX 78759, USA
skype:  ltaormina
What if an organization is not to be managed but played like a musical instrument? — Andrew Taylor                             
It’s been said that culture is an action of one’s inner nature — one’s soul. Then SICA is for activities that grow out of the development of one’s soul.