Earth Day author panel

Bank Square Books presents an author Earth Day author panel with David Mahood (Kings of a Lonely Kingdom: Earth Day Essays, Poems, and Musings on Nature), James T. Powers (Earth Spirit: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Hope) and Karina Lutz (Preliminary Visions).
About Kings of a Lonely Kingdom

In his latest book, Kings of a Lonely Kingdom, author David C. Mahood shares his passion for preserving nature, biodiversity, and for combating climate change, through ten years of Earth Day essays, original poetry, and related sentiments. Throughout the book he shares compelling examples of a world in need of greater care in order to bring attention to the unfavorable, long-term consequences of climate change, and the loss of biodiversity. The plights of penguins and pachyderms, whales and wolves, minks and monarchs, and the struggle for clean energy and environmental justice are topics woven into Kings of a Lonely Kingdom. Mahood reflects on the origin and success of the first Earth Day as well as the status of its fiftieth anniversary, which also contains excerpts from a 1972 Earth Day booklet that the author wrote as a nine-year-old, fourth-grade student. The purpose of Earth Day is also expressed by members of today’s youth, from ages nine to thirty-two. Kings of a Lonely Kingdom is a combination of wit and concern and personal stories, a unique appeal for a healthy habitat for all species, and for all times.Wisdom – Apprenticing to the Unknown and Befriending Fate tells a story of what it means to apprentice to the unknown. It offers a strong plea – stop trying to get life right and allow life to get you right.

Such an allowance happens over time as the ego comes to know defeat and the illusion of its sovereignty. The wisdom path must be walked with curiosity and honesty, letting ourselves admit that we are employing some form of bypass that can allegedly circumvent life’s unpredictability and insecurity. Apprentices become increasingly informed by letting go of what is out of their control and learning to find the courage to address what is in their control. The reader learns what it means to remain a student of life, less enamored with being impressive, and as the need to perform and achieve atrophy, gains a devout receptivity to all that fate desires to teach. Wisdom is a verb. It is the apprenticing in a constant state of inquiry.

About Earth Spirit: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Hope
Rising sea levels swamping low lying coastal regions, dramatically warming temperatures bringing about a radical transformation of the ecology and biodiversity of the environment through mass extinctions of faunal and floral life. Although this is a forecast for the near future of our planet, by looking to the past we can learn from the Indigenous people of Southern New England who over 14,000 years experienced dramatic climatic and environmental disruptions and changes. They not only survived, but thrived and their ability to adapt was the key to their survival. Their adaptability was due in large part to their relationship with and perception of everything within their environment. Can it be the same for us?

Indigenous success was predicated upon how they related to and perceived every single living and non-animate element they shared the planet with. They deeply understood that we and all creation are part of an interconnected web of energy and consciousness. Consequently they lived with a sense of gratitude in reciprocity, honoring their interdependence with the Living Earth. Indigenous people still acknowledge their very survival is dependent upon all of nature and elements within the environment, their “family”. In contrast, our culture has embraced the belief that we are, as the pinnacle of evolution, separate from and above nature. This has driven us to dominate and exploit everything on Earth to satisfy our overconsumption, in the process destroying much of the planet and threatening all life. We are now facing an ecological and environmental disaster from which there seems no escape.

There is a way forward however, to save ourselves and the rest of life on the planet. By embracing the perception and consciousness that has sustained Indigenous people and our ancestors for thousands of years, we can begin to heal our relationship with the Living Earth and create a world where all life can continue sustainably in balance and harmony. It is time to listen to the voices of wisdom from our collective past before it is too late. This is the message of Ancient Wisdom, Modern Hope; Relearning Environmental Connectiveness.

About Preliminary Visions
Preliminary Visions creates moments of being, moments of relation, moments of meaning-making–frequently with a sense of being observed by silent witnesses. The poems relationality blurs the imaginary outlines of the separate self, and provoke a sense of the ecological self.

About David Mahood
David C. Mahood, LEED AP, is a sustainability consultant, environment writer, poet, and the principal of Olive Designs, LLC. He holds a BA from the College of Wooster and an MBA in Sustainability from San Francisco Institute of Architecture. His articles have appeared in numerous publications including Interiors and Sources, International Ecotourism Society, The Environmental Blog, NEWH Magazine, and Living Green Magazine. His poetry credits include Writer’s Cramp, Fifth Street Review, and Prick of the Spindle. He published One Green Deed Spawns Another: Tales of Inspiration on the Quest for Sustainability on November 27, 2017, a book that chronicles his twenty-year path to environmental activism. This is his second book.

About James T. Powers
James T. Powers is an historian, archaeologist, author, and retired teacher. James received a BA and two MA’s from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Ct. Throughout his career James has studied and taught about Early American history and Native American life and culture. His interest in the Quinnipiac people, a local Indigenous tribe, and his desire to share the story of the Quinnipiac experience has been furthered through his research while involved in the establishment of the Quinnipiac Dawnland Museum at the Dudley Farm Museum in Guilford, Ct. where he currently serves on the board of directors and is a founding member.

As a student of Celtic and Native American Shamanism, James has gained insights into how those belief systems have shaped the world view of the cultures where shamanism has and is practiced. These areas of study led James to write Ancient Wisdom, Modern Hope; Relearning Environmental Connectiveness. James and his wife Adriana live in an early 18th century home in Durham, Connecticut.
James has published three non-fiction histories; Saving the Farm; A Journey through Time, Place, and Redemption (2013), and Seeing the Past; Stories on the Trail of a Yankee Millwright (2016). Both were published by Homebound Publications. His latest history, On the Edge of Uncertainty; The Siege and Battles of Saybrook Fort during the Pequot War, 1636-1637 (2020) was published through a grant from the United States Park Service and received a national Award of Excellence from the American Association for State and Local History. This summer (2021), his historical novel, Shadows Over Dawnland was published by the Beacon Publishing Group (www.beaconpublishinggroup.com). It tells the tragic story of the first fifty years of interaction between the English colonists and the Quinnipiac people during the 17th century.

About Karina Lutz
Karina Lutz worked as an environmental activist to help secure passage of sustainable energy legislation, thwart a proposed megaport, and restore wetlands in her home watershed of Narragansett Bay, RI. She helped launch a nonprofit green power company and is currently collaborating to form an intentional community, Listening Tree Cooperative, practicing permaculture in northwest Rhode Island. With an MSJ from Medill School of Journalism, she has worked as an editor, reporter, magazine publisher, and in nonprofit communications. Her chapbook, Post-Catholic Midrash, was published in 2019. Information about her publications can be found at: www.karinalutz.wordpress.com.

Event date:
Friday, April 22, 2022 – 5:00pm
Event address:
Bank Square Books
53 West Main Street
Mystic, CT 06355
Kings of a Lonely Kingdom: Earth Day Essays, Poems, and Musings on Nature Cover Image
Kings of a Lonely Kingdom: Earth Day Essays, Poems, and Musings on Nature (Paperback)
By David C. Mahood, Gina Poirier (Designed by)
$19.00
ISBN: 9780999487624
Availability: Ships to Our Store in 1-5 Days
Published: Olive Designs, LLC. – August 5th, 2021