For anyone who hasn’t already, please watch Bong Joon Ho’s new film, Okja. We saw it earlier this month and highly, highly recommend it to all audiences. It is awesome.

It’s streaming now on Netflix and—upon writing—can still be seen at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York and at Tarantino’s New Beverly here in Los Angeles. We’d highly recommend the latter if you’re able—the theatre and Tarantino had a 35-mm print made exclusively for their use and it’s beautiful on the big screen. PLUS they’re playing the film through next weekend at least as part of double features, fittingly paired with movies like Babe: Pig in the City and Free Willy, and cult classics like the original King Kong, and a 1984 movie called Razorback (“In Russell Mulcahy’s dreamlike, ultra-stylized Jaws of the outback, a giant Razorback boar roams the dusty landscape in a voracious search for human flesh”). PLUS the theatre’s been featuring “Okja Vegan Hot Dogs” at their (adorable) concession stand and have promised to keep them around even after Okja’s gone if the demand keeps up!

Next Tuesday, Los Angeles celebrates its second annual Climate Day LA—an event bringing together over 1,500 Angeleno leaders, advocates, and locals “to strategize, implement, and celebrate local solutions to climate change” and capping off with a fundraising gala DJed by everyone’s favorite Angeleno, Moby, and an evening concert with Neon Indian, Weyes Blood, and a DJ set by Eric Wareheim (you know—Big Bud from Master of None?). The event takes place at the beautiful Theatre at the Ace Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles this year, and is presented by KCRW, Climate Resolve, ecoAmerica, FORM, and IHEARTCOMIX in support of the Path To Positive LA initiative for climate solutions.  We wanted to find out more about the inspiration for the event so we reached out to one of its organizers, Jonathan Parfrey of Climate Resolve (who, also founded CicLAvia).

Read on to find out more about the event; the daytime portion (starting at noon Tuesday) is free with RSVP; gala fund-raiser (5PM) is $150; and evening concert (7PM) is $35; proceeds benefit Path to Positive LA.

6.26.2017 UPDATE: From the event promoter—”Due to unforeseen circumstances, the evening concert portion of our event with Neon Indian, Weyes Blood, and Eric Wareheim has been cancelled. All concert ticket holders will be refunded.”

raven + crow: Alright, for the uninitiated, do ycivilind starting by telling us about Climate Day LA—where did the idea for this come from?

Jonathan Palfrey: Our changing climate is going to alter just about every aspect of modern life—it’s a big deal—and we need to get ready. Climate Day LA was created to invite new people to make a difference on this most important issue. Our group, Climate Resolve, is partnering with a DC-based organization, ecoAmerica—the nation’s experts in climate communications and strategy—and together we’re reaching out to new constituencies with fresh new ideas.

That’s great to hear. I know last year, with the inaugural Climate Day LA, it was much more of your standard conference; this year, it seems to be leaning more in the entertainment realm—was that a calculated change of course to attract more of the general public? …or are you all just big Moby fans?

You’re right. We’re obsessed with Moby.

Who isn’t?

We’re also fired-up about re-attaching activism with music. Every progressive movement has been grounded in song—from Civil Rights to the singing revolution of Estonia. We also need to reach folks in their 20s and 30s, and music is a great vehicle to reach them.

Was it a challenge to get all these people from seemingly disparate fields—policy, entertainment, the nonprofit world—sitting down at the same table and committed to this as an event?

Climate Resolve’s creative director, Jacob Cooper, is our connection to the music community. Through his career as a musician, Jacob intro’ed us to the creative team at IHEARTCOMIX. Our Outreach Director, Kristina von Hoffmann, was introduced to the team at the Ace through a friend, and shortly after meeting with them we decided to collaborate on this event. We wanted to organize a concert that would reach new people. When it comes to climate change, we need more people to dial-in, become aware of the threat and make climate change a priority, and then to dedicate themselves to be part of the solution.

What are you hoping the event will accomplish for Angelenos?

Climate Day LA is an event that will be rich with information and cool ideas. There will be specific actions people can take, right there and then from their seats. It’s why the conference is free—we want to encourage folks to learn what’s happening on climate change right here in LA, and change the course of history. Sales of tickets to the gala and concert will support local projects and programs.

Not to veer too much toward the negative, but, given the current political climate (pun intended), can I get your thoughts on the importance of this kind of dialogue in context of what’s going on in Washington?

You mean the decision by Trump to back out of the Paris agreement and to appoint climate deniers? Here’s the thing, as bad as it is in DC—and I won’t sugarcoat it, it’s awful—many others are stepping up. Cities are stepping-up right here in California.

Even though Mayor Garcetti and Governor Brown have been damn good on climate change, they can’t do it alone. We need more citizens exerting their small “d” democratic rights and demanding that we protect the planet. It starts in LA, in California, and then spreads across the nation.

Do you feel that it’s the role of the state and/or local entities to pick up the slack when it comes to fighting climate change then?

Climate Resolve’s number #1 principle is this: Although climate change is global, we experience climate change locally, in our neighborhoods. Even though the federal government is a mess, LA and California are stepping up. In fact, California now has a competitive advantage over other states. Renewable power is cheaper and it’s the future. And California is ahead of everybody else.

It is encouraging, in these largely (for many of us) discouraging times to see the positive reaction on the local level many are having. I wonder though—most of us are used to fighting this fight in the arenas of government, non-profit campaigns, lobbying, but do you see opportunities to turn the tide from unexpected populations, like the tech industry or activist investors, of instance?

Yes! Our offices are located at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator. We share space with great innovators working on solar power, energy-efficient lighting, car-sharing and more at companies focused on the triple-bottom line: people, planet, profit. We need technology and policy and science to inform each other and keep pace—with both social good and economic benefit.

Oh, yeah—you’re actually rock-throwing distance from our studio; I had no idea.

So, I know you’re moderating a panel during the day—can you talk a little bit about what you hope to cover and who’ll be speaking as part of that?

Climate Day LA features two very cool panels.

The first highlights young emerging leaders. It’s moderated by KCRW’s Avishay Artsy and includes Aura Vasquez, LA’s brilliant new DWP commissioner, Araceli Campos, President of the LA County Women and Girls Initiative and Nourbese Flint of Black Women for Wellness. You may not know these names today…but they’re LA’s future.

Then I’m moderating a panel featuring established leaders like Tom Steyer of NextGen Climate, Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia, and the brilliant Rachelle Reyes Wenger of Dignity Health — all of whom have made substantial progress in climate activism.

What are you personally most excited about for Climate Day LA?

I want to meet new young people—fresh for battle to protect the planet.

Climate soldiers. Nice. I guess I’m wondering—specifically from someone as informed on the subject as you—if you’ve had much experience in convincing the many unconvinced that A) yes, climate is a real thing that’s going on, and B) here’s why it’s important that we work to change course; how do you approach the subject without totally turning off those who disagree with you?

Funny that you ask—at Climate Day LA there’s a mini-play, directed by Aaron Lyons of the LA Fringe Festival, that takes place at Thanksgiving where all hell breaks out when family members disagree over climate change. It’s fun and informative. Plus we’re offering a whole session on do’s and don’ts on climate communication.

That’s great, actually. Total aside, but thanks for founding CicLAvia—I feel like that’s one of the most popular regular events in Los Angeles.

Isn’t it great? CicLAvia taught me that the best kind of organizing isn’t a wagging finger, isn’t being a scold, but instead, organizing works best when you invite people into a better place, to have fun. Joy is the best motivator.

One hundred percent agree with you on that. Thanks again for taking the time to talk, Jonathan—see you Tuesday.

Our friends + longtime collaborators at Pel asked us recently to team up with them on their second digital bakesale.

As you might recall, Mary + Paul of Pel first announced the bakesale in January as an ongoing fundraising campaign to support the work of progressive grassroots organizations. The inaugural event involved two shirts they designed that read ‘AMERICAN’ + ‘PEACE’ in Arabic.

For their second bakesale, they’ve released two coffee mugs—an Otherwild-endorsed ‘THE  FUTURE IS FEMALE’ design and one that takes up what became a battlecry when Senator Mitch McConnell silenced Senator Elizabeth Warren in senate, later explaining ‘Sen. Warren was giving a lengthy speech. She had appeared to violate the rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation. NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED.’ We designed the latter mug, but encourage you to purchase both as all sales Planned Parenthood will benefit and the good work hey do to support the health of women nationwide.

As Mary + Paul wrote earlier this month:

“With your help, we raised over $1,400 earlier this year in our inaugural Digital Bakesale for The Sikh Coalition and Muslim Community Network. This time around, we are fundraising for Planned Parenthood with two awesome coffee mugs. Paying homage to 1970s feminism, one reads THE FUTURE IS FEMALE, which was originally designed by Labyris Books and re-introduced recently by Otherwild. The other, designed by our friends at raven + crow studio, is a shout-out to Senator Elizabeth Warren…because…NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED! 100% of profits will go to Planned Parenthood and your donation is greatly appreciated. Feel free to share this with friends, co-workers, relatives and anyone else who might want to help actually Make America Great Again. $25 each, or better yet, $40 for two.”

You can see and purchase both via their digital bakesale page and read more (and share with your friends) via their Facebook page.

Thank you all for your support!

This new reality we’ve all been living since January 20th has resulted in many firsts. Regardless of political leanings, we’re all being pushed into new realms, it seems; some of us who’ve chronically felt unheard and under-represented by our government have someone who claims to hold their interests close to heart in power of our country’s highest seat; others feel causes we believe in strongly as core to our identity as Americans are now under threat. In that latter category, many groups and individuals have been moved to find creative ways to support these endangered causes—community fund-raising events, apparel with positive messaging that go to benefit non-profits, prints and posters that do the same.

Now the people that brought us indie record label Secretly Canadian and the team behind 30 Songs, 30 Days have brought us Our First 100 Days, a project that brought together 100 artists, releasing one rare, unreleased, or exclusive song each with the goal “to raise funds and awareness for organizations supporting causes that are under threat by the proposed policies of a Trump administration.”

As they say:

“For a minimum contribution of $30, supporters will be able to access all 100 songs in the project, including new music from Angel Olsen, How To Dress Well, Toro Y Moi, The Range and many more. All profits raised from Our First 100 Days will go directly to organizations working on the front lines of climate, women’s rights, immigration and fairness.”

And the artists involved aren’t skimping. From totally heretofore unheard of original tracks to covers to live recordings to rare b-sides, with 100 artists and groups involved, chances are someone you love is doing something awesome on here. And you can get it all at a cool 3o bucks, all while helping worthy causes.

You can view more information about the six specific organizations the project is supporting on their website and listen to the whole thing below. The stream starts with the compilation’s final track by default—Phosphorescent‘s version of “This Land is Your Land”—but you can start from the beginning with Angel Olsen‘s beautiful intro song once that’s played through.

Our First 100 Days by Our First 100 Days

Today, we stand with all women, celebrating International Women’s Day and resisting in unity by observing A Day Without A Woman.

As the Women’s March, who organized the day put it:

“When millions of us stood together in January, we saw clearly that our army of love greatly outnumbers that of fear, greed and hatred. Let’s raise our voices together again, to say that women’s rights are human rights, regardless of a woman’s race, ethnicity, religion, immigration status, sexual identity, gender expression, economic status, age or disability.”

Print above by the talented Oregon-based author + illustrator Carson Ellis (with profits benefitting the ACLU).

It’s getting more and more difficult of late to use these pages for anything outside of the political, social, cultural, and activist realms. Things like vegan recipes and random cool products/designs are all great still,  but they seem trite compared to what’s been going on in the world these days.

Luckily, many of our friends and colleagues are marrying their work and social activism, creating projects that directly support campaigns and causes that need our help now more than ever.

One such project comes from our friends at Pel—Mary and Paul’s Digital Bakesale is an ongoing fundraising campaign they’ve created to benefit different grassroots organizations in the seasons to come. As they explain:

“For this inaugural iteration we are offering t-shirts that say either ‘AMERICAN’ or ‘PEACE’ in Arabic. Our hope is that they will foster conversation and demonstrate that there is nothing to fear from any language.”

All the profits from the shirts are being split evenly between the Muslim Community Network and The Sikh Coalition.

Pictured above is my PEACE shirt. Shirts aren’t solutions, but opening up needed dialogues and supporting important causes are just two of the small steps we need to take to affect positive change and stay true to the fundamental ideals of our nation.

Visit their site and order your own now.

We’re jumping on the downloadable poster bandwagon leading up to this weekend’s historic Women’s March in DC and Sister Marches all across the globe.

Because, hey, it’s a good bandwagon. And we like posters.

You can click any of the images below to download PDFs of any or all of the posters we worked up. Then just bring the file to your local print shop and have them print on something sturdy. Everything’s set to 13×19, but you can have them print on 11×17 if you want it smaller and just trim it down a bit.

And wondering if there’s a Sister March near you? Women’s March has a handy local march finder you can use—type in your zip, grab some friends, and get marching for positive change!

Belatedly wishing everyone a warm holiday season, happy new year, and a peaceful day of remembrance on the one year anniversary of David Bowie’s death. It still stings.

Let’s take the losses and turmoil of 2016 as a call to wholeheartedly enjoy and appreciate those we do have in our lives, be them creatively gifted entertainers, true friends, or both. Let’s also take it as a call to action.

Pictured, our yearly holiday/new year cards, designed by us and letterpress printed. You can listen to the song referenced here in our piece on the top ten records of 2016.

We just added a new client to our online portfolio—The Animal Museum, non-profit that works to preserve, interpret, and share the legacy of animal protection in order to nature overall awareness about animals in society and empower change. The Museum was located in Hollywood when it first started up but recently opened up shop mere blocks north of our studio in Los Angeles’ Arts District.

We started working with The Animal Museum some six months back, when they were still operating under their old name, the National Museum of Animals and Society. Leading up to their move into a bigger space, the board members and museum founder wanted to take the organization to a higher level in terms of recognition and impact.

They approached our studio and we worked with them first through an organization renaming process and then through the logo development and branding process, resulting in this final mark and, now, many promotional and educational materials.

In partnership with Santa-Monica-based branded architecture firm March Studios, we’re currently working on the museum’s permanent exhibit, scheduled to be unveiled next spring.

You can read more in the brand section of our portfolio.

Continuing the post-election series we started Monday where we ask friends of the studio and those whose opinions we respect, basically, what now? Rather than curl into the fetal position and sink into our dark place, how can we take this massive shift in culture and politics and make it into something good. Today’s piece is from a longtime friend and fellow Brooklynite in Los Angeles, Danielle Fee. Danielle works for a New-York-based arts agency and mother to one of the cutest kids ever (that’s our take on it, at least).

I woke up on November 8th to the sound of my daughter’s excitement to get out the door and to go vote. We had been talking a lot about the election and about why we were making the decisions we were making as a family. Her immediate takeaway from watching the news and debates with us was that Trump is “a jerk. He always interrupts Hillary.” I found her opinion to be a perfect encapsulation of my thoughts about Trump as well. As we got ready to go, we both dressed in white. I talked to her about the importance of wearing white to the polling place and how this honored the women who fought for the right to vote. As we arrived, we found long lines outside our polling place. My daughter showed unusual patience, reading her favorite DC Superhero Super Girls comic book as we waited. In the polling place in my neighborhood, enthusiasm was high despite the temporary inconveniences of malfunctioning voting machines and long lines. The poll worker who signed us in periodically broke out in song and general cheering. As I entered the voting booth with my daughter, I teared up as I cast a vote for what I expected to be the first female President of the United States. We were part of history and it left me breathless that I was sharing this with my daughter. I did not, and do not, take those moments from Election Day 2016 for granted.

And now?

I’m struggling to process the emotions this election has left me with. How is it possible to feel stunned, rage, despair, sadness, betrayal all at the same time, all so intensely and just a few hours after I was filled with such hope?

I’m grateful for all the think pieces (and even the not-so-thought-out reactive pieces) but it’s time for action. The WTF word bubble that’s been following me around is starting to disappear and I need to do something positive. Here’s a few ways I plan to do that.

Focus
The number and range of organizations that will need assistance is staggering. It’s honestly overwhelming. As adults, my husband and I have our own specific causes we support. But as a family we decided to focus on one particular area: empowering girls and women to have a voice. Running Start and She Should Run are two organizations we contributed to that inspire women to become political leaders.

Use My Voice
I will not normalize racism and misogyny. Complacency allowed many people in this country to legitimize hate when they chose to ignore Trump’s rhetoric. I have a responsibility to call out the “locker room talk” or “jokes,” to not ignore and brush off those remarks as just insensitive when I hear them from coworkers, friends and even extended family. I need to use my voice. Yes, it’s a small act. But it’s one that will hopefully open dialogue and lead to bigger acts.

Show Up
Most of all, I don’t want to forget that feeling of pride I had when voting. I’m taking my daughter to the Women’s March on Washington (in Los Angeles) not as a protest but to emphasize the positive for my daughter. I explained to her that we’re going so we can remind the next president that he needs to respect ALL the people in this country. I want to show her how proud I am of millions of women in this country and those who support women’s rights. Most of all, I want her to see the people behind the vote and that our responsibility to each other doesn’t end on Election Day.

Safety
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in this past election year, it’s that maintaining a safe space for dialogue online is increasingly difficult. It’s bewildering how fast discourse can deteriorate into violent threats—usually seeped in racist and sexist language. Anonymous comments casually threaten sexual assault against those with different political opinions. It’s no wonder so many women joined secret Facebook groups so they could be included in the political conversation without fear of someone else’s high school acquaintance threatening to sexually assault them for their beliefs. These secret groups were formed out of fear, but I am grateful for them. And the positive take-away? I’m still working on that. But I’m inspired to do more to support legislation against online harassment and to call out this unacceptable behavior when I see it.

When my daughter is old enough to vote I want her to have multiple female leaders to look up to and I want her to be able to voice her opinion online and IRL without fear of violence. For now, she doesn’t know if I’m posting information online to support a cause or engaging in a dialogue on Facebook. She can only see my actions. It’s time for me to be an example she can actually see and hear.