Winterstar 2002

Ina May Gaskin, Certified Professional Midwife, is a founder and director of The Farm Midwifery Center, located near Summertown, Tennesee. Founded in 1971 in connection with The Farm Community (the largest and most successful hippie community in the world), the Center has handled over 2000 births with remarkably good statistics. Ina May has attended more than 1000 births herself. Her texts Spiritual Midwifery and Babies, Breast-Feeding, and Bonding have become classics in the field of pre- and post-natal care. She is the first living inductee to the Counter-Culture Hall of Fame, and the first woman to hold that honor.

Stephen Gaskin is a well-known teacher and counter-culture personality, and the author of several books including Haight- Ashbury Flashbacks, Rendered Infamous, Cannabis Spirituality, This Season’s People, and Outlaw in My Heart. He is a founder of The Farm Community: the largest and most successful hippie community in the world, created by a caravan of 400 hippies in 50 school-busses (and about 40 other vehicles), travelling across country from Haight-Ashbury. Stephen is also a founder of he Rocinante Health Center Project and Plenty International, an overseas relief and development company that helped rebuild 1200 houses and put in 27 kilometers of waterpipe in Guatemala, set up clinics in Lesotho and Mexico, and manifest many other projects around the world including the Jefferson Award winning South Bronx Ambulance Project in New York City.

Halim El-Dabh is a Professor Emeritus of African Ethno-Musicology from Kent State University. He has travelled the world on projects by such organizations as the Smithsonian Institute, studying and participating in the life and music of tribal cultures. He is an experienced drummer and performer on a wide variety of authentic African musical instruments and on keyboard. He was a soloist with Leopold Stokowsky,
and he’s the composer of the music for Martha Graham’s Clymenestra, Nuriev and Margo Fontayne’s The Fallen Angel Lucifer, Nile Festival Music, Ramses the Great Symphony, Lament of the Pharoh, and the sound-light show for the Pyramid of Egypt. His production Opera Flies was part of the 25th Anniversary memorial program for the Kent State shooting. A pioneer in the field of electronic music, he has a new CD entitled Crossing Into the Electric Magnetic. Halim now works with both the Ohio Arts Council and Cleveland Public Theatre.

Ian Corrigan is a Chameleon, ACE organizer, and has been a teacher, writer, singer and ritualist in the Pagan movement for over 25 years. Ian is a former Archdruid and Director of ADF, and is presently it’s national Preceptor. A founding member and Elder of Stone Creed Grove, ADF’s oldest congregation, he is author of four books on Celtic Paganism: The Portal Book, The Book of the Dragon, Grammary, and Druidheachd: Rites and Symbols of Druidry. One of the finest bards of the modern Pagan movement, Ian has been writing and performing songs of the British Isles and Neo- Paganism for over 25 years, and his music and poetry have
delighted audiences at A.C.E. events and Pagan festivals across the U.S.A. and Canada.

Liafal, M. Ed, is a Chameleon, an ACE organizer, and a founder and former Senior Druid of Stone Creed Grove. She is a professional educator and a Priestess of the Traditional Craft, current Vice Archdruid for ADF, a past officer of the Ohio local Covenant of the Goddess, and has been a major motivating force behind the Starwood Festival Kids Programming for many years. A talented singer, she performs with Ian Corrigan in the group Awen.

Chas Smith holds a Master's Degree in Music from Cleveland State University, where his class "Roots of Rock, Soul and American Pop Culture” is the largest-attendance class offered (over 300 per semester), and he's the author of the textbook From Woodstock to the Moon: The Cultural Evolution of Rock Music. His studies focus on composition, ethnomusic and electro-acoustics, and he's been an avid proponent of alternative ideas in music therapy. He directs and plays keyboards and bass for Einstein's Secret Orchestra and Cobra Verde, and has programmed ESO Radio at WCSB 89.3 FM (www.wcsb.org) in Cleveland since 1987.

Harvey Wasserman is an environmental activist, a historical radical, and author of several books including The Last Energy War: The Battle Over Utility Deregulation and Harvey Wasserman’s History of the U.S. In 1968 Harvey helped form Montague Farm, a legendary communal/organic farm in Western Massachusetts that’s still going after 33 years. Since 1974 he’s worked for a nuclear free/solar-based future. He helped form the legendary Clamshell Alliance, which led the first U.S. mass demonstrations against atomic energy, beginning in 1976. A resident of central Ohio, Harvey writes a regular newspaper column and has made hundreds of radio/TV appearances and public speeches. Among his debate opponents have been Phyllis Schafly and General Westmoreland.

Rev. Ivan Stang co-sub-founded The SubGenius Foundation in 1980, and has authored 4 books about The Church of the SubGenius and fringe beliefs, including The Book of the SubGenius and Revelation X. Since 1985 he has produced the syndicated “Hour of Slack” radio show, and has preached the word of J.R. “Bob” Dobbs at hundreds of stage shows. The Church of the SubGenius carved out a niche for itself on the Internet, where Stang now resides (http://www.subgenius.com).

Marty Laubach, PhD. is one of the founders of the Crystal Serpent (a Bloomington ritual Magick group) and the Bloomington CUUPs chapter. He was an elder of the ELF Lore Family from 1985 to 1992 and editor of the Elven Chronicles newsletter, and has co- organized major rituals at past WinterStar Symposiums and ELF Fests. He has practiced and taught Tai Chi since 1976, using William Chen’s adoption of Cheng Man-Ch’ing long and short forms. He currently works with Black Moon Publications, and is working on a Ph.D. in Sociology with a dual focus on the social psychology of religious experiences and the experiences of the working world.

Linda Clemons has taught and performed Middle Eastern dance since 1985. She is currently a trance dancer, using the dance form to explore western ceremonial and VooDoo spirituality, choreographing and performing ritual dance and teaching trance through movement.

Charlene Suggs has devoted much of the last fifteen years to researching and envisioning ways to bring people together to share land, life, and vision. A primary founder (with husband Todd) and first president of the land-based community Wisteria, she is familiar with the practical intricacies necessary to the establishment of a cooperative land-based venture. She has also worked in corporate management capacities, and is self-employed in the family jewelry business. As a former editor of Circle Network News (published by Circle Sanctuary) she has worked on a national level on behalf of Paganism, religious freedom issues, and interfaith public relations. She has also served in civic capacities as a library board trustee, a founding trustee of a Chamber of Commerce, and in local government.

Todd Alan has been actively involved in the Pagan community for over 16 years. A guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his recorded music and performances with Todd Alan and the Quest and Oracle, he has traveled the festival circuit extensively as a workshop presenter and musician. A founder and current president of Wisteria, a land-based community in Southern Ohio, Todd (with his wife Charlene) has dedicated the last five years to the welfare and on-going development of the settlement he now calls home and to living the community dream. Todd is also a gifted artisan and visionary and is self-employed as a gold and silver smith. (www.toddalanstudios.com)

Jeff Rosenbaum is the executive director of the Association for Consciousness Exploration. He holds a B.A. in Sociology from Case Western Reserve University, and has spent over 25 years as a student of an eclectic array of spiritual paths, philosophies, and illuminating pursuits. He’s also run a steel metallurgical lab, been a mental health worker, president/CEO of a steel pickling plant, truck dispatcher and freight broker, and a precious metals reclaimer. He’s played guitar & percussion with Ian Corrigan and Victoria Ganger in the band Chameleon, performed on the ACE cassette Bonfire Dreams, and been published in Green Egg Magazine and interviewed in the book Modern Pagans. He is the conceiver and a founder of ACE, the Chameleon Club, the Starwood Festival, and the WinterStar Symposium, and is both the primary event organizer and product manufacturer for ACE.