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Dear friends and family,

Sophie and the interns, Zach and Rachel, are at Sundance this week. Catch Zac's review of Tickled, below. Associate editor had the pleasure of interviewing Afghani rapper/Utah schoolgirl Sonita Alizadeh. Read that story, also below, or in the February CATALYST, which will be available Monday. Also Ralfee Finn, as usual, offers her sage insights for the week ahead.
 

~ Greta deJong
editor & publisher, CATALYST
Event picks for
January 28- February 4, 2016
Solidarity: SLC's impact on the Refugee Crisis
Thurs, Jan 28: 7pm
SLC Main Library, 
Level 4 conference room

Learn about the many challenges facing refugees and how Salt Lake City can help ease the global refugee crisis in a series of events hosted by the Library and the University of Utah's College of Social Work. Tonight, join Caren Frost and Gerald Brown for a discussion that will be guided by the TED Talk "Refugees have the right to be protected." 
Frost, a U of U College of Social Work professor, chairs the Refugee Women's Health Committee. Brown, director of the Refugee Services Office at Utah's Department of Workforce Services, has worked with refugees for over 35 years.   
 
Sunrise Session: Electrification: Towards a Sustainable Future for Our Transportation System
 
 
Fri, Jan 297:30-9am
Little America
500 Main St
 
Free  
  Transportation today consumes 28% of energy use, produces 50% of air pollution, and costs $1.5 trillion annually in the U.S. Learn about new technologies in development at USU aimed at  transforming the future of transportation. With Dr. Regan Zane. Includes breakfast. RSVP.

Community Meditation for Peace

 
 
Fri, Jan 29: 6-7pm
Utah State Capitol, 350 N State St
 
When people join in purposeful meditation to evoke peace within themselves, a rippling effect occurs. Bring a blanket or something comfortable to sit on. Meet in the rotunda at 6pm. Meditation is 6:15-6:45. Organized by Leraine Horstmanshoff and Nicole Gleave Hicks.
 
I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story
film and in-person interview 
 
Fri, Jan. 29: 7:30pm
Kingsbury Hall, 1395 E Presidents Circle
 $5-39

He was the short kid with the big ears. "And a name like Caroll didn't help much," reflects the man who would become a widely beloved and influential 8-ft.-tall bird. Spinney, now 82, has played Big Bird since 1969. Post-film Q&A with Caroll Spinney, moderated by Ken Verdoia.



 
SLC Singer Songwriter Showcase

Sat, Jan. 30: 9pm
The State Room, 638 S. State
$10; 21+

Morgan Snow (Triggers & Slips), Daniel Young (Hollering Pines), Ryan Tanner (Lower Lights), Paul Jacobsen (Madison Arm).


 
Indie Underground: A Wasatch Tertulia

Sat, Jan 30: 7pm-midnight
Sustainable Startups, 340 E 400 S, Ste 50
$10 (includes Cafe Shambala buffet and
alcoholic beverage)

Tertulia: a social gathering with literary or artistic overtones, especially in Iberia or in Latin America; similar to a salon. Participants, known as contertulios, may share their recent creations such as poetry, short stories, other writings, and even artwork or songs. Usually but not always, the participants in a regularly scheduled tertulia are in some respects like-minded, with similar political or literary tastes. See FB for action-packed schedule. Pixie and the Partygrass Boys play at 8:30pm. Evōk Clothing Collective will be doing live screen printing; bring a bag or apparel. Hosted by Revolution United.


 
2016 Year of the Fire Monkey: Feng Shui for Health & Prosperity
 
Sun, Jan. 31: Noon-1:30pm 
Salt Lake Buddhist Temple, 100 S. 215 W
$18 (includes handouts)


Get ready for a year marked by imagination, curiosity, versatility and fun. Taught by Valerie Litchfield, Feng Shui Master (see story, Jan.CATALYST: 

 
Reading of Julie Jensen's Winter

Mon, Feb. 1:  7pm
Free
Salt Lake Acting Company, 168 W 500 N

WINTER is the story of an older couple who has an end-of-life pact, until one of them backs out. This new play from Julie Jensen, inspired by the story "Robeck" by Margaret Pabst Battin, is a beautiful tale of family and the right to die. Featuring Daniel Beecher, Anne Louise Brings, Anne Cullimore Decker, Cragun Foulger and Bob Nelson. Part of the New Play Sounding Series.

 
Writing for Change: a community writing event

Tues, Feb. 2: 6pm
SLC Main Library, 210 E 400 S
Free

Learn techniques for writing for change, such as letters to the editor and public officials. Come with a concern or passion and stay to write and learn.

 
Becoming Bulletproof, documentary

Tues, Feb. 2: 7p
Main City Library, 210 E. 400 S.
Free.

A social experiment in extreme diversity in which men and women with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and other disorders are cast in a Western. Post-film Q&A with the filmmaker.  

 
City Art Presents Lynn Kilpatrick and Joel Long

Wed, Feb. 3: 7-9pm
SLC Main Library, 210 E 400 So

Lynn Kilpatrick has published essays and short stories. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from the U of U, and teaches at SL Community College. Joel Long is a much-published poet and essayist. His book Winged Insects won the White Pine Press Poetry Prize. He is longtime president of the City Art Reading Series.
The Vagina Monologues


Thurs-Sat, Feb 4-6: 7:30pm
Vieve Gore Concert Hall, Westminster College
$10

Eve Ensler's play is a compilation of over 200 interviews with women who describe their attitudes toward their own sexuality. Reading the Monologues has become an annual February event on college campuses since 1998 and has raised over $100 million for groups working to end violence against women and girls.

 
Years of Living Dangerously: 
Solving Climate Change with Clean Energy

Thurs, Feb. 4: 7pm
SLC Main Library, 210 E. 400 S
Free

Tonight: Episode 6 focuses on methane leaks from natural gas operations, lobbying forces in America and home-grown renewable energy solutions. Afterward, Sarah Wright, founder and executive director of Utah Clean Energy and Matt Pacenza, executive director of HEAL Utah, will share their insights on clean energy and climate solutions.
 

 
Blog Updates 
 
This week, it's a "start your engines but don't go too fast" frequency that seems to be a mixed message because it is. Mercury Direct began on Monday, January 25, and that "forward" motion freed-up a whole lot of plans and projects that have been on hold since the beginning of the New Year. But pushing ahead recklessly is never a good idea, if only because it may take a moment to gather the necessary components and participants to make positive progress. The best way through the next several days is to find and maintain your balance and, when possible, to avoid extremes...(read more)

 
--by Zachary Smith

Tickled: Yes, certainly we all have been; by a family member, friend, or bosom buddy; yes. But, can any of us rightly say that we've had our lives ravaged by tickling? Has tickling ever penetrated our professional, economic, and social lives in such a way so as to bring them down about our heads? I'm going to climb, ever so precariously, out onto a limb here and say "no, probably not." Yet, if we accept some variant of Murphy's Law-anything that can happen, is happening-then we must own up to the fact that somehow, somewhere, tickling is tearing lives apart. Cue David Farrier and Dylan Reeve's documentary, Tickled, premiering at this year's Sundance Film Festival...(read more)

 
--by Katherine Pioli

A slight girl, her smooth black hair half revealed by a slipping head scarf, holds a spoon to her lips like a microphone and stands above a crowd of school girls as she belts out a rap in Farsi that they gleefully chant back to her. Fortune cards! Buy your fortune from me! My future is bright. Don't worry about me. The girl is Sonita (pronounced with the accent on the "a") Alizadeh, a brave young Afghani refugee in Iran (now a resident of Utah) and the subject of the film Sonita, by Iranian filmmaker Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami, showing this week at the Sundance Film Festival...(read more)