Wild Forces, an Interview with Magenta of the Evolver Network by Evolver Network

"Wild Forces"
There are beautiful wild forces within us.
Let them turn the mills inside
and fill
sacks

that feed even
heaven

- St. Francis of Assisi

Have you ever had this one person, maybe a small circle of people, who continually remind you of the limitless human ability to create the world anew? And who bring forth this reminder with their every action, their every presence and movement, despite - scratch that “despite,” I meant “amid,” perhaps even “utilizing” - some very strenuous circumstances, systemic or personal?

For an expansively blossoming international community, the woman-leader I am introducing today is just that. There is no generational boundary that stopped her from channeling the generative power of community and trusting that all who may come for the care of our shared planet will be included. Artist, healer, systems engineer, ecological activist, chaos magician, and Executive Director of the open-source Evolver Network (TEN), Magenta Imaginationhealer is a human being who renewed an experiential sense of trust in what being a leader is all about for hundreds of people, fostering interconnectedness from acknowledged difference and ushering coalition-building movements among grassroots collectives and causes worldwide.

There is so much I can cite about Magenta that speaks to her many labors of love. She designed the HiveMind festival as a community forum to create alliances across devotions to healthy ecology, spiritual realization, and right use of technology. She served as editor and curator for Aorta Magazine, dedicated to female and trans-identified radical political artists. She is an advocate for legalizing entheogens, as well as for acknowledging the historic and lived traditions of global indigenous medicine practices, cultivating in community ways of avoiding unethically-appropriative representations in favor of allying with indigenous communities. Did I mention she teaches psychic skills using chaos magic, cognitive science, and the physics of light? That as a marketing strategist, she is reimagining the role of branding as a visionary art rather than exploitative symbolism? That she designs clothes from recycled materials?

I can go on, but it wouldn’t suffice to capture the foundational sense of joyous presence that comes from working with Magenta, some of which I attempted to capture for you through this interview. There is a foundational sense of full, visceral visibility and urgency for the struggles of our species with which Magenta receives the concerns and suggestions of others. From the heedless destruction of rain forests; to the between-bloodshed armistices leading at best to power play stale mates; to everyday racism, sexism and speciesm even among the most enlightenment-proclaiming of communities, Magenta is quite apt at preparing space in a community setting for full expression of disadvantaging conditions for everyone present.

The result is paving the way for joint tilling of collective experience to harness wisdom, resources, and just and generative responses to be shared in addressing local and planetary crises. Maintaining a joyful, down-to-earth grace through it all is an integral part of the alchemy of Magenta’s work as she shifts from personal receptivity to channeling of collective resonance, sounding back into reality cries, songs and echoes from another reality buttressed by the mud and skies and lives that charted it together. As you will hear in the interview, I found it hard to describe such a bridging, playfully shifting and stretching network like TEN as an institution. Indeed, it is a budding grassroots institution, but it is more of a social amoebae. A process of many rebuilding processes. A naming of space for human biodiversity and spore-spreading. A song of many wild songs.

[[[[[[[[[[As Magenta puts it for an earlier piece by Reality Sandwich contributor David Metcalfe:

“We have all the resources we need to create personal and planetary health and world peace. We need to learn to talk to each other and Earth again and play. We can do this together, and it can be fun, and magical. We can step into a place where the lids of oppression are lifted, from within and without, and the wild song of creation passionately making love with itself can be heard in its unbridled fullness.”]]]]]]]]]]]]

And on that note, I leave you with my interview with Magenta, launched by a song that she created as part of band duo Mu Fa Or, called “All Creatures Sing.” There is also literal bird-chirping, some robotic attuning courtesy of fussy internet reception, and a few tracks for interludes. Here is to a magnificent culture worker and organizational healer who may hearken within us, and us within her, the wild forces of our cleverly innovative, resiliently responsive humanity, germinating from all resources and all conditions of this sprout of a planet.

Interviewed by Miriam Gabriel, writer, actress and arts activist living in NYC: http://mirigabriel.com/