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About Us |
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The mission of the Pagan Alliance is to educate our Communities and the general public, to promote acceptance of our faiths and traditions, to work for justice, to connect our communities, celebrate our spiritual diversity. (last updated 2008-06-05)
The Pagan Alliance began in 2001 as the Interfaith Pagan Pride Parade and Celebration. The original parade was modeled after the “Return of the Snakes” parades seen in Ireland by one of the founders while vacationing on St. Patrick’s Day. The Pagan Pride Parade and Celebration is designed to give the Pagan Community and all who participate an outlet to reach the community at large and to celebrate the diversity and unity of faith.
In 2004, we changed our name to “The Pagan Alliance”. We further committed our collective mission to provide a place for the Pagan community to come together to jointly educate the public in an attempt to change the public’s view of Paganism, as well as to make room in our name for events beyond the annual parade and festival.
Today, the organization has evolved into a bright and shining example of cooperation and celebration of Earth-based; nature and justice centered; and polytheistic faiths and traditions. Endorsed by the Interfaith Center at the Presidio, the Alameda Green Party, San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade and Celebration, Council Member Dona Spring of Berkeley, Covenant of the Goddess, and Reclaiming, this event has become a blossoming new tradition that brings together community, family, friends, and neighbors to celebrate the ‘Spirit’ of all living beings and Mother Earth.
The Pagan Alliance is committed to education of the general public with the intention of changing public views, opinions and response to the Pagan Community. We present workshops and a Speakers Series, presenting different traditions and issues that impact the Pagan Community and the community at large, including concerns for the environment and justice.
We believe this work will lead to the creation of increased acceptance and understanding, and to also dispel common misconceptions. We are committed to justice and eliminating prejudice and ignorance in all communities, including accepting all across ethnic backgrounds, sexual orientations, gender identities, age and class affiliations. We sponsor activities and events that reflect how our traditions are supportive and in tune with Nature, and play a positive role in healing human’s relationship with the Earth.
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Pagan Alliance Committee |
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| Arlynne Camire: Director |
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Alameda resident and co-founder, Arlynne Camire graduated from Cal State University, Long Beach with a Bachelors of Arts in Geography, a Masters of Public Policies Administration and a certificate in Urban and Regional Studies and is currently a Planner for the City of Hayward. She is also a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners. Arlynne has been an activist and organizer for the Alliance for Survival, a non-profit anti-nuclear activist organization. She is an environmental activist and is a former chapter president of Friends of the Earth, as well as an Urban Forester for the TreePeople. She has received several leadership awards. She explores the spiritual mysteries of ancient traditions and has been a solitary practitioner. |
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| Jennifer Robinson: President
- Board of Directors |
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Jen has a long history of non-profit community
involvement. An Eclectic Kitchen Witch, Jen enjoys maintaining a
comforting and healing hearth space in her home, exploring new things
with her husband Jason, and relaxing with her cat, Bubba. Jen enjoys
creating chain maille and working in her garden in her copious free
time
Jen works as an Environmental Health and Safety Specialist for a
medical device company, providing guidance for protecting the earth
and those on it, and at night attends school to attain her goal of a
PhD in Psychology with a focus on Human Sexuality. In her professional
capacity, Jen is involved with watershed protection, is a member of
the American Society of Safety Engineers ? Women in Safety
Engineering, and a certified Radiation Safety Officer.
While balancing career and school, she has also volunteered more than
1500 hours for the YWCA Rape Crisis Center of Palo Alto, was a
volunteer Red Cross instructor, and coordinated the San Francisco/Bay
Area Pagan Pride Day for both 2002 and 2003. Jen has produced numerous
fundraisers, speakers-series events, food drives, and is a fiscal
sponsor of the Pagan Alliance.
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| Venee Call-Ferrer: Art
Director |
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Berkeley resident Venée Call-Ferrer was born and
raised in California, she received a degree in Arts and Social Change
from New College of California.
She is an artist working in the mediums of Photography, performance
and Altar building. She came to altar creation through her own
spiritual quest and from her travels and exploration of other cultures
and faiths throughout the world. She has created altars for over 6
years for numerous public and private events such as Spiral Dance,
Bioneers, Day of the Dead at the Mission Cultural Center, the
Crucible, and The Altars of Extinction Project. She has served as
Altar coordinator for Reclaiming Spiral Dance and Singing for your
life. As well as Public Relations, Set Designer, Event Coordination,
Stage Manager for Magical Acts Ritual theater.
She is a Druid, Bard of Taliesin , and a Second Level In the Nine
Sisters Training. |
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| James L Bianchi, Esq.:
Executive Assistant & Legal Advisor |
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James L. Bianchi, Esq. is among the first graduating
students from the oldest public interest law school in the country,
New College of California, School of Law and is best described as a
community activist. Over the years he has been on Boards and
Commissions, or founded non-profit corporations, that operate homeless
shelters, domestic violence shelters, sexual assault programs, drug
treatment programs, legal aid offices, and after school programs for
elementary school children. Jim is the producer of Benicia Video
Theatre. He operates a law practice there. Jim is also a professor
at the Cherry Hill Seminary for the professional pagan ministry, were
he teaches a course on Pagans and the Law. James L. Bianchi is a
Druid in the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids of East Sussex,
England, and is the leading Ovate of Taliesin in the San Francisco Bay
area. |
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| Amara: Board Member &
Treasurer |
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Amara (aka Natalie Case) has been involved in the Pagan Community in
the Bay Area for the last four years, after transplanting out of El
Paso, Texas. She has served as Treasurer for a number of
organizations in the past, including religious and civil groups.
Her volunteer career has spanned Police and military organizations,
running a food bank, organizing Crime and Safety Awareness events,
coordinating city-wide (In a border city that included city, county
and state Police, Military Police, Border Patrol, FBI offices, Texas
Rangers, Federal Marshals and up to 10 campus police organizations)
law enforcement agencies and emergency response agencies for
information campaigns. In her mundane life, Amara is a data analyst
by day, a Business student by evening and a struggling author by
night. In February 2003, Amara released a chapbook of poetry titled
"Sacred and Surreal". In May 2005 Amara's essay "The Tulip Bulb of
Samhain" will be published in "Celebrating the Pagan Soul", an
anthology of stories by and about the Pagan community, edited by
Laura Wildman and published by Citadel Press. A dedicant of
Morrigan, Amara is a life long student of the human connection to
the Divine, walking a Pagan path for the last 13 years, after
walking away from a very restrictive and less than nuturing journey
through the darker regions of Christianity.
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| JoHanna Coash: Board Member
& Acquisitions Coordinator |
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JoHanna Coash is a fourth generation
Northern Californian and an Oakland Resident. She is
a student of many traditions and occasionally a teacher.
.She is in the middle of her academic education, with two
A.A.s w/ honors in Liberal and Two-dimensional Arts, with
plans to obtain B.A.s in Education and Studio Art, and
eventually a M.A. in Education Administration. Her
life-goal is to open a private school that integrates
spirituality, self-sufficiency, and rigorous academia. The
daughter of a protestant and a metis Lakota with shamanic
heritage, she has been a practicing witch since the age of
eleven, and is a currently a solitary with leanings in the
faerie direction. |
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| Amethyst Moonwater:
Communications Director |
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Amethyst Moonwater, a.k.a. Patricia Kevena Fili,
Wiccan Priestess, is the Communications "Goddess" for The Pagan
Alliance. She is a poet, performance artist and activist. She serves
as the Executive Director for The Lighthouse Community Center, the
center that serves the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex
and questioning community of Southern Alameda County. An activist
since she abandoned the womb, she has been active in the transgender
and bisexual communities. She serves on the National Gay and Lesbian
Task Force's National Religious Leadership Roundtable and serves on
the Board of Advisors for the National Center for Transgender
Equality." |
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| : Volunteer Coordinator |
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Becky has traveled from her home city of Chicago to
Oakland, California where she is pursuing a Ph.D. in Chemistry at UC
Berkeley. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and Physics
from Northern Michigan University. Becky has considered herself an
eclectic pagan for almost 10 years, but has been incredibly inspired
the last four years by the environment and culture of the Bay Area.
She practices both in groups and as a solitaire. She really enjoys
(yet at the same time can be frustrated with) the interface of science
and spirituality. Her passions include photography, horseback riding,
and working with animals. |
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Donald Burbano: Project Manager and Vendor Coordinator
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Donald Burbano, B.A., Ex’pression College of Digital
Arts in Sound Arts. Audio engineer, sound designer, musician,
composer, fire dancer, creator of a multi-media ritual, and organized
the San Francisco Fire Conclave at Burning Man in 2003. |
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| DJ Hamouris: Music Director |
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Deborah "DJ" Hamouris has been involved in music all
her life, playing piano beginning at the age of 5 and continuing
through a BA in vocal music. She was founding director of Gaia's
Voice, a Pagan Chorus, and East Bay Harmony, a community a cappella
choir, as well as music director for the Reclaiming Spiral Dance from
1999-2001. While at CSUH, she created Musica delle Donne, a music
festival of compositions by women, which continues annually.
DJ has recorded, performed, directed and taught music in the Pagan
community for more than two decades. Recordings include "Welcome to
Annwfn" (1986 with brother Rick Hamouris), "The Chorus of Life" (1990
with Gaia"s Voice), "Let It Begin Now" (1997 with Reclaiming), and
Moonrise"s "Songs of Love, Magic & Other Mysteries" (2003). Her
rendition of "Angel of Bells", on "The Chorus of Life" was chosen by
Serpentine Music for "The Best of Pagan Song" CD, (2004).
DJ conducts vocal ensembles, sings, plays mountain dulcimer, composes,
and arranges music. Besides performing with Moonrise and her jazz
trio (DJ & Brook), DJ teaches music at her home in Oakland and leads
vocal workshops.
www.ninshibar.com/Music.htm |
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| Sarah Soward: Assistant Art
Director |
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| Jason Robinson: Webmaster |
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Fremont resident Jason Robinson has lived in the Bay Area all of his life,
but has been lucky enough to travel to many places. Interfaith work has always struck a
chord for Jason, studying many faiths including Christianity,
Buddhism, Judaism, and Islam, with Paganism being the newest of his
causes.
Jason has an extensive background in technology, including
information technology, software architecture, and wireless
networking. Currently, he spends his days developing websites for
small and medium sized businesses and capturing key phrases on search
engines.
He enjoys work, and other things that
have to do with work, including working on this website (which has a
completely customized content management system). |
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| Jeff Munroe: Board Member &
Event Coordinator |
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Jeff
Munroe is am a 30 year resident of the bay
area and currently lives in Marin. He is a retired commercial
photographer, who had his own studio in SF for 25 years,
ending in 2000. Now, Jeff is a part time faculty member in
the Photography Department at the City College of San
Francisco, and the father of two grown children. He leads
a simple and (what he hopes,) is a minimally
invasive life in harmony with nature and looks forward to
whomever and whatever he meets along the way. |
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| Morgan
Anduin: Security Manager |
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Morgan
Anduin is thirty-three years old and has been a
member of the Pagan community his entire life. He has
lived in San Francisco, on and off, during most of that
time. He is a graduate of San Francisco State University,
and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology. Morgan
is, and remains, active in his community. He served as the
head of security for last year’s San Francisco Pagan
Pride, has been involved in the coordination of several
Beltane festivals, and has served as a member of security
for the Ancient Ways Festival. Skiing, creating magic with
his coven, and hosting imaginatively themed parties is how
he spends his "copious" spare time. |
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