Crafted with love and passion, and after months of effort, Spirit & Flesh announces the publication of Issue number 7, Dreams.
In our pursuit of Dreams, we wish to support, with gratitude, Artists for Peace and Justice, an organization committed to long-term, sustainable development in direct partnership with the Haitian people, by empowering local communities, fostering economic growth, and the power of education to change a nation. To learn more, visit www.apjnow.org.
We are proud and grateful for all the beautiful work and inspiring stories featured in @spiritandflesh in support of @artistsforpeace and we ask you to
spread the word!
Net proceeds of the sale of the Dreams Issue will go to the valuable work of this charity.
CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOUR COPY. Net proceeds of the sale of the Dreams Issue will go to the valuable work of Artists for Peace and Justice.
Filled with thought-provoking stories and interviews, the issue features Tim Ferris and Deepak Chopra, who talk about leading the best life you can, and Joshua Bell, speaking about the importance of music education.
We also have not one, but two Vreelands: Alexander, talks about capturing the essence of his grandmother, Diana Vreeland, in a new line of perfumes, and his brother, Nicholas, speaks about the path, which lead him to become a Buddhist monk, along with the other love of his life, photography.
Actress Katheryn Winnick shares her philosophy for a successful life, no matter what direction we take, and Academy Award-winning director and writer Paul Haggis tells us how important sleep is for him, and how helping others is important for all of us.
In Nitrate Fantasies, we find out about the very beginnings of color motion pictures; dreams, come to life. Add to this the inspiring art of both Olga Tobreluts and Zhenya Xia, along with several other provocative fashion stories and profiles, guaranteed to make your REM sleep more satisfying.
If Spirit & Flesh keeps you awake… have some warm milk.
CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOUR COPY. Net proceeds of the sale of the Dreams Issue will go to the valuable work of Artists for Peace and Justice.
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
At the end of John Huston’s film The Maltese Falcon, Humphrey Bogart’s character Sam Spade describes the mysterious bird as “The stuff that dreams are made of.” In Dashiell Hammett’s 1930 novel, the falcon was a fabulous lost ancient treasure, the cause of dark adventure, lust, betrayal and murder. In the end it also turned out to be a copy, its mythic unattainability driving the characters to pursue their search with even more passion.
The film went on to be nominated for three Academy Awards and is recognized as one of the greatest of all time. Furthermore, it’s a quintessentially American story with an equally American theme: the pursuit of riches and a dream.
While no one owns the copyright on dreams, no other culture has grander claim on the concept of dreams coming true. The Dream has been part of every American’s consciousness, chased as ardently as the The Maltese Falcon characters hunted their treasure. As a society, we now tearfully mourn the death of the Dream, which was… what, again?
A split-level house in the suburbs. A husband, a wife, two-point-five children. A dog. A sedan. The problem is that as soon as the dream is realized, we immediately start to look for the next one, and the next, and the next.
Daytime or nocturnal, an authentic dream is always just out of reach; how disappointing it is to learn a dream achieved isn’t all we’d imagined. The dream house has mold. The dream girl snorts when she laughs. The dream car breaks down and is expensive to repair. Winning is not the transformative experience we hoped for.
In spite of temptation, I avoid such pursuits. I get satisfaction giving the best I can every day. I enjoy who I am without concerns about who I ought to be. I surround myself with people I like and act as my own judge, unaffected by scrutiny. I walk through each day fully awake, and when I sleep, I’m tired from my efforts; once rested properly, I commit fully to a new day, refreshed. Perhaps I’m unfocused or insufficiently ambitious. Or am I healthy, traveling through an ever-changing dream?
I think I found my falcon.
CHRISTOPHER AUSTOPCHUK,
Co-Founder, Spirit & Flesh.
CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOUR COPY. Net proceeds of the sale of the Dreams Issue will go to the valuable work of Artists for Peace and Justice.
About Artists for Peace and Justice / www.apjnow.org
Founded by filmmaker Paul Haggis, Artists for Peace and Justice (APJ) was born in a California living room, bringing together actors, directors, writers, performers and artists with leading thinkers and social justice activists to challenge the prevailing political thought post 9/11. Those meetings turned to direct actions and, after the Bush administration, APJ’s efforts turned to alleviating the most extreme poverty in the Western Hemisphere. When the catastrophic earthquake struck Haiti in 2010, APJ was well-equipped to respond, as they were on the ground and already had solid working relationships with the most effective local community leaders. Hand-in-hand with Haitian partners APJ created two large and vital institutions for the very poor: a high school, The Academy for Peace and Justice, and a post-secondary school, The Artists Institute. Today, as their projects continue in Haiti, APJ is also coming back to work at home uniting artists to resist and fight policies that target the poorest and most vulnerable. APJ is based in New York; David Belle serves as its CEO. To learn more, visit www.apjnow.org or follow @artistsforpeace on Instagram and Twitter.
