Desert Live

Desert Live is a virtual series of storytelling events, panels, and workshops curated to entertain and inform the outdoor community in relation to Joshua Tree National Park and our public lands. We empower our audience through genuine connections with the culture, beauty, and issues of the outdoors.

It is most important for us that all Desert Live presenters embody the goals of the program through sustaining a proven record of supporting diversity and inclusion, environmental efforts, and Leave No Trace principles. The program was launched in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic commissioned by the Desert Institute and the Joshua Tree National Park Association.

ROLE: CURATOR - HOST - CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Join acclaimed photographer Ellie Pritts as she gives an inside look at some of her most well-loved photos from Joshua Tree. Then we’ll be diving into a quick edit session where she will share some insight on her coloring process using her specially created presets for Adobe Lightroom.

Materials needed: technically, you don't need anything, but if you wish to follow Ellie along in Adobe Lightroom you can. And Ellie will share a software "preset"  that you can use.

Adobe Lightroom Free Trial

Join David Catching for a Tour and Tell of the trinkets and stories around his famous music studio Rancho De La Luna in Joshua Tree, CA.

Julia Sizek is a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research concerns contemporary land use and conflicts over land management in the Eastern Mojave Desert in southeastern California. As part of her research, Julia has worked with a number of local desert organizations, including the Native American Land Conservancy, Coachella Valley History Museum, Mojave Desert Land Trust, and Twentynine Palms Historical Society. 

Today, Desert Magazine appears as a historical footnote, a small mid-twentieth century publication dedicated to the mission of entertaining people interested in the Southwestern US desert. DM fans are typically older readers, entranced by the nostalgic return to a 1950s America and the draw of the Old West.

The magazine, founded by newspaperman Randall Henderson in 1937, promised an intimate and honest portrait of the Southwestern deserts, in contrast to what Henderson disparagingly called “red-hot thrillers in which the hero carries a gun on each hip and speaks a language which was invented in Hollywood.” Distancing himself from the pulps, Henderson’s magazine was supposed to be family-friendly, offering beautifully-illustrated history, geology, and botany inside its covers.

In this talk, Julia Sizek walks the line between the contemporary nostalgic views of the magazine and what the magazine meant as a window into the frontier West back when it was published. She traces the magazine as a historical object that embraces a certain kind of veracity—the kind that sells papers—showing its relationship to pulp magazines and Coachella Valley real estate. Ultimately, she argues that Desert Magazine tied together with a certain desert aesthetic and Old West boosterism, informing how we see the desert today.

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Anyone who has driven through Wonder Valley, in the Morongo Basin, has seen the what geographer Alex Clark called in 1971 the minimum small tract cabin, a twelve by sixteen-foot building footprint that barely met the minimum requirements of the Small Tract Act at the time when it was permitted and built under the then-lax rules of San Bernardino County. Today, these cabins are—for lack of a better term—ruin porn—combining the affective pulls of a yesteryear and today’s love of tiny homes with the dilapidation of pastel colors, clean lines, and hantavirus.

In this presentation, Julia will tell you stories of what people thought about what are variously called shacks, vacation cabins, and perhaps most erroneously jackrabbit homesteads, the last of which was a valiant stretch on the part of real estate marketers. This is a story of the manufacturing of a dream that was always-already falling apart at the corners where the house never quite stayed together. That is, the Small Tract Act of 1938--the Congressional action that gave away five acres parcels for new vacation homes--was never quite the dream we think it is now. Even back then, so-called jackrabbit homesteaders and its promoters were trying to use the law to enact their dreams about homesteading that rang equally false then as they do now. This is a story of speculative dreams and their abandonment, and the legacies that they left behind.

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Although she is mostly forgotten today, Mary Beal was a pioneering amateur botanist of the Mojave Desert at the turn of the century. Though she was only an amateur, she corresponded with famous botanists of the time—Willis Linn Jepson, one of California’s most distinguished botanists—as well as other famous figures while she lived on the Van Dyke Ranch in Daggett. This talk will outline Mary Beal’s life in the context of wider happenings in Southeastern California, from the end of the silver rush at Calico (only six miles away from Daggett) to the growing popularity of the desert in Randall Henderson’s Desert Magazine.

Join Kristy Drutman from Brown Girl Green as we explore the weight that Natural spaces carry as to who does and does not have access to them. Nature should be a human right, but unfortunately, there are many people who are unable to reap its benefits. While visiting national parks and going on outdoor excursions are incredible privileges and opportunities, many people from low-income communities and communities of color may not have the financial resources or networks to access these activities. The inequality of access to natural space is something that must be examined and taken seriously if we are to encourage more people to connect with and take care of the earth for future generations.  In this presentation, we will explore how we can make nature more accessible for people, particularly those who come from low-income communities and communities of color.  This presentation will delve into how we can make nearby Nature a daily practice and will facilitate a conversation to reorient our relationship to the outdoors. Also, as many people now and in the future will be living in cities/ urbanized areas, what are the ways we can continue encouraging/ supporting initiatives to bring more nature into our backyards and neighborhoods. We will explore tools and resources individuals can use to reconnect with nature and support others around them to do the same.

Kristy Drutman (she/her) is a digital strategist and the host of Brown Girl Green, a podcast and media series dedicated to critical conversations around building an environmentally just society. Kristy interviews environmental rights leaders and advocates about the importance of diversity and inclusion as well as creative solutions to modern-day environmental issues. As a Filipina American, Kristy is inspired to make sustainability and the outdoors accessible to as many people as possible. 

Join Sydney Williams as she unpacks her “trauma pack”, sharing the story of how hiking helped her reconnect to, and heal, her mind and body - kicking her limiting beliefs and Type 2 Diabetes to the curb in the process.

As our public lands and outdoor spaces gain increasing popularity, it is our responsibility as good guests and visitors to make sure these spaces can be enjoyed by future generations. Hence we are faced with the challenge of minimizing the impact of millions of us who are eager to explore the great outdoors.

When we talk about Leave No Trace (LNT), we talk about caring for the natural resources of the places we come in contact with through self-awareness. But, why should we Leave No Trace? Who practices these principles, and who is left out? Why is that?

In this panel and open discussion with live audience members, we intend to explore the big questions of WHY that surround each of the 7 Leave No Trace principles and the idea of Outdoor Ethics as a whole.

PANELISTS

Gabaccia Moreno Public Lands Advocate and Volunteer  - Presenter

Sirena Rana Founder of Trails Inspire -  Panelist

Dani Reyes-Acosta Athlete, Volunteer, Writer - Panelist

Sophia Schwartz Athlete and Outdoor Advocate - Panelist

PANELISTS BIO

Sirena Rana Dufault is an advocate for the outdoors and wildlife. She has logged thousands of miles hiking, backpacking, rafting, and canyoneering in the Southwest, both for fun and working as a guide. Her consulting company, Trails Inspire, promotes the outdoors via photography, writing, public speaking, and trail design and development. Trails Inspire is committed to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion for outdoor spaces. Sirena is the author of the upcoming book, Best Day Hikes on the Arizona National Scenic Trail, with Wilderness Press. She is based in the Sonoran Desert in Tucson, Arizona, ancestral lands of the O’odham and Yaqui. You can find Sirena online at Trailsinspire.com and her blog Sirena’s Wanderings, and on social media at @trailsinspire and @desertsirena.

Dani Reyes-Acosta is a brand strategist, backcountry athlete, and freelance writer dedicated to democratizing human connection through experience, design, and the written word. Her next-generation consulting firm, Nomad Creativa, helps outdoor, nonprofit, and social change organizations connect with multicultural consumers through workshops, brand strategy, and visioning to support a healthy future for public lands, public health, and community well-being.

Sophia Schwartz  is a professional freeski athlete and ski mountaineer based in Jackson, WY. She spent 3 years on the US Freestyle Mogul Team and then transitioned to big mountain to follow her love of storytelling in the mountains. Sophia is her most self when she is flying through the air or charging down steep slopes. She is passionate about making the outdoors an inclusive space and constantly works to learn more about how society shapes our views of who belongs in the mountains. Outside of skiing, Sophia works as a Physical Therapy Rehab Tech and is interested in continuing to pursue a career in medicine. Sophia also volunteers with Coombs Outdoors. Learn more about Sophia's work on her website fullofactionpotential.com

Gabaccia is a conscious creative storyteller with a passion for responsible outdoor recreation and tourism. She holds a B.A. in Theater and Anthropology from SUNY College at Buffalo and an M.A. in Performance Studies from New York University. Having grown up in Veracruz, Mexico to a family of hunters and ranchers gave her an appreciation for the land and its wildlife at an early age. Her works, whether artistic, creative, or entrepreneurial, have always intersected with the social and environmental issues that surround her. She started volunteering for the Desert Institute in 2017, shortly after her first visit to Joshua Tree National Park. Being out in the field inspiring people to learn about and care for proved to be a passion for her. Last year, she served an Americorps term working the trails of the Kootenai National Forest and Glacier National Park with the Montana Conservation Corps.

Today you’ll find her mostly in front of a computer helping conscious business owners better organize their workload, but if not, she’ll probably be out hiking, fly fishing, or backpacking with her partner Roberto, #exploringresponsibly, and documenting their world through video and photography.

From the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics website:

The Seven Principles of Leave No Trace provide an easily understood framework of minimum impact practices for anyone visiting the outdoors. Although Leave No Trace has its roots in backcountry settings, the Principles have been adapted so that they can be applied anywhere — from remote wilderness areas, to local parks, and even in your own backyard. They also apply to almost every recreational activity. Each Principle covers a specific topic and provides detailed information for minimizing impacts.

The mission of the Center is to promote and inspire responsible outdoor recreation through education, research, and partnerships.