Idris Phillips has been making superb music with wonderful artists for close to 40 years, and finally he's released his first CD, Star By Moon, this one emphasizing his folk roots, but promising his jazz, blues, and other styles in future recordings. His guitar & keyboards are magic, and his lyrics triple-deep, in the listener's ear, in Idris' personal experience, & in the mystical truths they name.

Occasionally big issues, like sexual abuse, are tackled through fiction - all the better when enhanced through an alternative detective approach. In St. Mary's Private Dancer, Blair Hull explores the underworld of sex work in a murder mystery, and in Quaker Witness the issues are sexual harassment, rape, & murder, written by E. Kirsten Peters under the pen-name Irene Allen. Kirsten's Ph.D.

"This “wisdom from above,” which today Friends typically call “the Light,” is a power to see the truth of our reality, to distinguish good from evil.

Our Light directs us to continually reexamine the memories and experiences that comprise our sense of reality – to question whether they are demonstrable facts or merely self-serving assumptions."

Editorial comments by Mary Klein from the July/August issue of Western Friend on Politics.

"The Beloved Community includes many campgrounds. We Friends can help the stranger find a place to call home, perhaps with us or perhaps with others."

Introduction by Mary Klein to the Sept/Oct issue of Western Friend "On Home".

"So it doesn’t just matter if we win, it also matters who we are winning for. And it matters which games we’re willing to play." Just one tidbit from the overview by editor Mary Klein to the Jan/Feb issue of Western Friend "On Competition".

When we find that even well-loved and previously-respected icons are dropping left & right, we need to be asking what we can do to encourage healthy, thoughtful, & non-predatory male sexuality. Fortunately, Peter Alsop has been exploring & walking just such a path with his music for decades, taking on all the related, thorny issues with wit, insight, & song. After all, Peter is an educational psychologist, as well as a wonderful musician. Also find him on Facebook.

All Featured Music is by Peter Alsop:

Let Elizabeth Erin Kemler ride into your heart with her passionate songs related to The Weight of Mortal Skin. Elizabeth champions an array of organizations like Kids for Peace, Songs for a Cause, Hope Sings, and many others, while single parenting her son. The skin may be mortal, but not so the music.

School cafeterias across the country are sowing healthier futures by serving more plant based meals. Obesity rates, greenhouse gas emissions and even costs go down. And kids come home asking for kale.  We talk with food service directors, a registered dietician, and sustainable food advocates about eating healthier for people and the planet. 

In Keeping It Halal: The Everyday Lives of Muslim American Teenage Boys, John O'Brien looks at the lives of the Legendz, a small group of members of the Muslim Youth Program of a mosque John worked with. The tensions of be a member of a too-often-feared religion and to be accepted as a teenager in the USA can be a real challenge, and John explores the way it works. John is Assistant Professor of Sociology at NY University - Abu Dhabi.

Past/current religious/spiritual influences:

Catholic, Muslim 

Anastasia Vishnevsky shares her Buddhist soul locally as Manifest Eau Claire and as part of RavenWolf (with Kai Ulrica). Stasia does alchemy, mixing pain, errors, injury, blessings, & vision into golden music. Her CDs Trigger and She are planned for release in 2018, but you can see & hear her music on Bandcamp.