The ever amazing Meguey Baker has done it again. She's come up with another wonderful game,
Playing Nature's Year. I'm sooooo excited for this game. I have long been fascinated by the stories we tell about our environment, and about the importance of each season and the subtle changes that occur throughout them.
I can't say that the 'traditional' (read: Euro-centric) stories resonated with me growing up -- I didn't understand why snowflakes were the symbol of winter when it rarely snowed in Louisiana. Now that I've lived in several different places where the seasons are so very different, I have a better appreciation for the local stories. Here in California, we are entering the "rainy season" where the colors are vastly different from elsewhere. The deciduous trees are losing their leaves and turning brown, but the grasses are coming back to life. It's a time of grays and greens and browns, where summer is gold and blue and dark green.
I also have a deep appreciation of story-telling and gaming, and especially story-telling games! So, when I learned that Meg's new game combines storytelling and nature, I jumped at the chance to support it.
Meg was kind enough to answer a few of my questions, to help me share this fantastic project with you all. I hope that even if you don't decide to back Playing Nature's Year, you'll check out her many other games and find something that piques your interest!
SRPS: First of all, can you tell me a little bit about yourself -- your work, your passion, your goals.
MB: My basic mission in life, the thing that underlies pretty much everything I do, is to listen to under-heard voices and amplify them. For a dozen years, I facilitated a group for new mothers dealing with postpartum stress/anxiety/depression. I teach sex ed anywhere I can, especially to teenagers, and advocate for them as they discover their orientation and identity. I designed games for social change and the re-knitting of friendship networks among teenage girls in Ethiopia. I am a textile conservation specialist at two different local museums, where I help to uncover and preserve the stories of the past as told by the objects left behind and people that made them, with a specific focus on women, children, people of color, the currently poor, and other non-dominant voices. This extends to my parenting and how Vincent and I raise our three sons. I tell them my goal is for them to be "C to the 5th" - curious, compassionate, creative, connected and contributing members of their communities. I really do believe that every person has a story worth telling and a story worth hearing.