There’s a Parrot in the Library!
Yup, it’s true. There’s a Quaker parrot hanging out in my library while she waits for a ride to a parrot sanctuary. After a lifetime alone in a cage, she’s been stretching her wings, exploring her surroundings (which include me), and discovering the comfort of creature contact. She brushes her head against my lips when she wants kisses and chirps happily along with me when I nuzzle her neck feathers. I’m going to miss her when she goes!
I love free birds in cities or other unexpected places. So, it was a joy to discover this site about the wild parrots of Brooklyn while I was looking up information about my guest. Which brings me to the second installment of the ongoing series of songs stuck in my head. You can find a free mp3 of “The Ballad of the Brooklyn Parrots” here.
As long as I’m sending you elsewhere, I guess I should get around to mentioning that the May issue of Herbivore Magazine has got a review of my book, Aftershock, along with part one of a fun conversation between me and Post Punk Kitchen diva Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Herbivore online is subscriber only, by the way, and with good reason. Herbivore was one of a number of independent publications that lost thousands of dollars when a distributor took the money and ran. Lots of great magazines went under but Herbivore has come up with a strategy to survive. With the impending demise of Satya Magazine, it’s especially important that it does. So, do us all a favor and subscribe if you can.
I guess I should also mention that the latest issue of the Australian magazine, The Abolitionist Online also has got an Aftershock review and interview. As it happens, the interview touches on some of the things that have come up in the discussion of my pornography and global warming post of a few days ago, so you might want to check it out if you’ve been following that conversation. Or if you want to get a preview of the ecofeminist definition of “liberation” that I recently presented at the NYC Anarchist Bookfair but have not yet gotten around to posting online. Either way, you should have a look at this issue of The Abolitionist, because it’s got great interviews with all kinds of people, including my hero Patty Mark. For sure, check out the Abolitionist interview with Isa, if only for the last line, which keeps cracking me up.
May 29th, 2007 at 11:18 am
Pattrice, the parrots in Brooklyn are beautiful and funny and also not very hard to find at all! They tend to stay out of the yuppy neighborhoods (like mine) and stick to the working class ones.
May 29th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Check out the Wild Birds of Telegraph Hill for a wonderful movie (also a book) on the parrots in San Francisco — also, there are wild parrots in Chicago!!
May 31st, 2007 at 12:00 pm
There was an effort to kill feral parakeets recently and it was heartbreaking. I will check out the links!
May 31st, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Ok, I am in the middle of reading your interview and it’s very interesting.
I just have to say that I really appreciate your views because too often within the animal movement I have seen very disparaging views toward activists who are experiencing depression or difficulties with trauma. While of course we all come from different viewpoints I feel like many people misunderstand these issues on a fundamental level and that misunderstanding tends to exclude people who might make very valuable contributions otherwise.
July 1st, 2007 at 2:01 pm
[...] I said goodbye to a parrot. The quaker parrot (monk parakeet) known as Greenbird spent several weeks here at the Eastern Shore [...]