One of the best companions you could have at a protest, around a campfire or in a song circle is Bruce O'Brien. With his banjo and guitar (and sometimes mandolin or even violin), Bruce is completely in his element holding his ground or under a shining owl moon.

Tom Small found a way to take on species extinction on the local level, and he tells about it in his book, Using Native Plants to Restore Community (In Southwest Michigan and Beyond). By converting his grass-lawn into native flora, creating habitat for native fauna, Tom found a way to make a difference, locally.

Tom co-founded the Kalamazoo chapter of Wild Ones, and you can find a chapter near you.

Jillian Rae says that she's got music genre ADD, unable to stay focused on any one genre of music. Trained in classical music on the violin, she's likely to be on stage singing and playing pop, cosmic country, old-school folk, hard rock and anything else in reach. You can see her in person at the Great River Folk Festival, August 28-30, 2015.

Don't know about the planned (and underway) Nicaragua Inter-oceanic Canal? Tere Campos, Nicaraguan native, and her husband, Brad Stocker, are working to put out the word about this potentially disastrous plan which would put at risk the 9th largest lake of the Americas, and much more. Tere & Brad are deeply steeped in environmental concerns, SEYM's Earthcare Committee, and ProNica, and Brad has a Post-doc certificate in ecology & human spirit.

While there are many roots to the global environmental crisis we face, some of the most important emerge from our concepts of ownership, especially of land. Howard Vogel is an emeritus professor of law at Hamline University, having taught constitutional law, restorative justice, international human rights, and a seminar in ethics after having done extensive public interest litigation in environmental law.

Sandy Weisto has been a part of Milwaukee's folk music scene for 30 years, in front of and behind the spotlights. Having done organizing and sound for Milwaukee's The Coffee House and at The Miramar Theatre, and performed individually and with groups like Sweet Diversity, The Silver Linings, and, currently, Green Sails, Sandy puts a beautiful voice to great music.

Our third visit with musician/poet/artist extraordinaire, Carrie Newcomer, during her visit to the 2015 FGC gathering at Western Carolina University. Along with the release of her 15th album, A Permeable Life, Carrie released her first book, of poetry, by the same name. Carrie's gentle spirit and her deep and persistent passions combine with her music to make world-changing songs.

Anti-war activists and military folks are predisposed to see each other as "the enemy", but even mainstream or conservative folks can have a very difficult time truly welcoming home vets. Zachary Moon is very concerned about treating vets as real people, not political or theological pawns in some game. Relatively few Quakers serve in the military, even as chaplains, as Zachary does, and too few know how to really support our troops when they return home, so he has helped pioneer a way forward. Zachary is a life-long Quaker and author of Coming Home: Ministry That Matters with Veterans and Military Families

Greg Elliott is helping the American Friends Service Committee to launch a program, innovated by Unitarian-Universalists, and adapted to Quakers to help avoid the burn-out & lack of results which result from un-centered, though well-motivated, activism. With an approach that ties together spirit & action, using worship, story-telling, & deepening relationships, we are helped to remember the ways in which we can be faithful to our work of world-healing, without giving in to a exhausting and unfocused treadmill.

For decades there has been a political war about abortion where the only acceptable answers were pro-choice or pro-life. Aspen Baker, founder of Exhale & author of Pro-Voice: How to Keep Listening When The World Wants a Fight, has been advocating for empathic listening to women who've had abortions as a new path to peace in the abortion wars.

Featured Music:
Sit With Me - by Holly Near