HumANist society of New Mexico
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC: Jeff Benham's topic: “Truth, Justice and the American: How Comics Animate Culture”
For the past four decades, Jeff Benham has been telling stories through image and language, through the mediums of comics, live theatre, handmade books, and a variety of other arts. As Education Coordinator for arts non-profit 7000 BC, he has developed and taught the comics medium to teachers, librarians, students, and members of the general public of all ages and experience levels. He is especially interested in uncovering deeper connections, using comics and other story-based art as a bridge to unexpected disciplines such as science and medicine.
Guiding participants through explorations of how comics function, Jeff helps students to understand the place of visual literacy in communicating a broader sense of history and culture.
You have a head full of ideas, and we want to hear them. Join us for an open discussion that's exciting, respectful and wide-ranging.
Join us to discuss a topic chosen the month prior. You don't have to research the topic ahead of time, but some members like to stretch their awareness of the topic ahead of time. And feel free to suggest a topic for the following month.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. Come hear the dynamic young executive director of the American Humanist Association.
Fish Stark is an organizer, educator, social entrepreneur, and lifelong humanist. Fish has spent his career turning big ideas into bold action in service of belonging, flourishing, and social justice for all people.
Prior to joining the AHA as Executive Director, Fish was the Head of Program + Curriculum at Legends, an educational technology startup, where he led research and implementation teams to create products that helped children build self-confidence, positive mental health, and critical thinking skills.
Previously, Fish served as the Director of Programs at Peace First, a global nonprofit that provides training and funding to youth social justice activists, where he led a global team of organizers who empowered thousands of youth grantees in 140+ countries to make lasting change in their communities, and worked with organizations such as the Red Cross and Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation to develop youth leadership programs.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC: Jason Espinoza is co-owner of KW Consulting LLC and serves as the primary point of contact for association management clients.
His topic: SCIENCE IS US, an initiative designed to promote STEM.
He brings over a decade of experience in association management, public policy, and government affairs. He previously served as President and CEO of New Mexico’s statewide chamber of commerce and prior to that served as its Vice President of Government Affairs. Jason earned a master’s degree in Political Management from The George Washington University. He also graduated summa cum laude from Arizona State University with bachelor’s degrees in History and Political Science.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC: Jay Newton-Small is the executive editor of the Albuquerque Journal. More about her topic later, but you can bet it will include the state of journalism today, what's happening at the Journal and the overhaul of the Journal's opinion pages.
Read more about Jay here.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC: Keif Henley owns and operates The Guild Cinema, Albuquerque's art house cinema and an indispensable part of the city's culture. He'll talk about film, culture and his favorite films.
Watch an interview with Keif here.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC: Her topic is "Mind. Body. Fire." She'll talk about this unique stress reduction program designed for firefighters, but there's something for in it for everyone. If 2025 has you feeling on edge, learn how firefighters are coping and you can too.
Carmen has years of experience providing MI Training and teaching the Brief Negotiated Interview in an SBIRT grant at the University of New Mexico. She has experience teaching MI to a broad range of providers in various tribal communities in the state of New Mexico. In conjunction with Fire Departments in several communities in New Mexico, she's led the development of a stress reduction program for firefighters, and provided MI Training to firefighters and police officers. She continues to work as a community partner with the College of Nursing and the Department of Interdisciplinary Practice at the University of New Mexico. As a leader in student development in an independent school in Albuquerque, NM, she works with the structure of the system to move toward more Motivational Interviewing Philosophy as they work with families and children. She lives on a small farm in Corrales, New Mexico, and grows flowers and vegetables in her communal garden with her four granddaughters.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC:
New Mexico Poet Laureate Lauren Camp is the author of eight poetry collections, most recently In Old Sky (Grand Canyon Conservancy, 2024), which grew out of her experience as Astronomer-in-Residence at Grand Canyon National Park. She is the founder of the New Mexico Epic Poem Project.
Camp was awarded fellowships from the Academy of American Poets and Black Earth Institute. Other honors include a Dorset Prize and finalist citations for the Arab American Book Award, Housatonic Book Award, Big Other Book Award and Adrienne Rich Award for Poetry. She was artist-in-residence at Lowell Observatory, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Hedgebrook, Denver Botanic Gardens, Storyknife and The Taft-Nicholson Center for Environmental Humanities, and a visiting writer at the Mayo Clinic.
Her poems and essays have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, Orion, Missouri Review, and Poem-a-Day. Her work has been translated into Turkish, Mandarin, Serbian, Arabic, French and Spanish.
She has pivoted from a successful career as a visual artist (1996-2008). Her portrait series, “The Fabric of Jazz,” traveled to museums in ten cities. More artwork can be found in cultural centers, hospitals, museums, U.S. embassies and other organizations around the world. For 15 years, she was a producer and host for Santa Fe Public Radio.
Humanist Society of New Mexico, A Nonprofit Corporation * P.O. Box 27293, Albuquerque, NM 87125-7293 * Contact@HumanistsNM.org
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