Powerhouse Kathryn Blume of Charlotte made a conscious effort to slow down this fall. Thus, in the early months of another spectacularly beautiful Vermont autumn, she only:

• Directed the female version of Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple" at Main Street Landing in Burlington;
• Put the finishing touches on her newly-redesigned website (www.KathrynBlume.com) to market herself as teacher, public speaker, workshop leader and creative climate activist;
• Launched "Unraveling and Turning: A Climate Cabaret," a music, dance and poetry "conversation" on climate change
• Co-led a new workshop, "Cultivating Hope," for environmentalists;
• Spoke at Johnson State College on "Emerging Topics in Science";
• Recorded commentaries as one of Vermont Public Radio's regulars;
• Taught a workshop on solo performance at Burlington's Flynn Theater;
• Worked with students at Essex High School to collaboratively write their one-act play for a statewide competition;
• Worked with Transition Town Charlotte for a November kick off a "Great Unleashing" of town conversations about peak oil and climate change;
• And wrote a performance piece for Vermont Stage Company's annual production of "Winter Tales" at Flynn Space in December.

Phew.

But wait, there's more! Blume is also cranking up Vermontivate! It's a statewide energy conservation game that everyone can play to transform their energy use. And there's a prize: free ice cream!

Oh, yes, and then sprinkled through September and October, Blume—who when only 24 became an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church—is booked to officiate at about 15 weddings.

Actor, writer, director, activist, spiritual seeker, teacher and determined-to- have-a-good-time-in-life, clearly, Kathryn Blume is an energetic, engaged woman, who cannot be neatly pigeonholed or stereotyped. She has a degree from Yale to show off when circumstances warrant, which they sometimes do, because she's also (her words) "little and cute."

Despite a lot of moving parts, Blume's life assembles into her whole. "My job is to be in service of healing the planet," she observes, "and I think there are an infinite number of ways to do that. Everyone needs to start where they are."

Given the state of the environment and other cultural and political crises, Blume takes her job(s) very seriously. "Ultimately we need to transform ourselves and our culture. We need to live our lives with a different ethos." Agricultural systems, economic, educational, energy and transportation systems all need transformation, she says, and stresses a parallel need for our personal "thinking and feeling systems."

Putting It All Together

For Blume, that means bringing humor and sass to serious events. She emceed a rally in Waitsfield last May for 350.org, the global movement to reduce global carbon emissions from the current level of 394 parts per million to below 350 ppm. Broadcast worldwide, its "Connect the Dots" event, helped citizens from every participating country to grasp connections between climate change and extreme weather-- such as fierce and destructive floods, droughts, winds and storms--all across the planet.

Vermonters focused on Tropical Storm Irene's devastating impact on communities and individuals--not exactly upbeat material. Nevertheless, Blume wore a cheery polka-dot dress for the occasion, and created a homey, living room-like set for an afternoon of conversations with Irene survivors and climate experts.

Her choices were purposeful: her outfit "a playful embodiment of the work we're doing," she says, and her setting designed to allow "accessible and relaxed conversation." Her introductions of speakers Bill McKibben and Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT-I), emphasized how each was highly regarded and also endearingly human.

"[It's] so intense and scary," said Blume, "if there's a way to celebrate at all, we need to grab that." She believes it's worth celebrating that "we choose to take action, we choose hope, we choose to believe in our ability to have an impact in the face of incredible odds."

Becoming Kathryn Blume

In some ways, Blume's personality and avocation emerged very early. She remembers always wanting to be on stage; as a three year old, she longed to be a go-go dancer. When she was in third grade, Blume's family almost moved from Minnesota to Worcester, Mass. She was overjoyed at the prospect. The PBS children's series Zoom was produced in nearby Boston, and Blume felt "destined" to join them. Alas, it was not to be. A disappointed Blume accompanied her family to Portland, Ore., instead, where she was active in theater throughout her school years.

At the same time, Blume loved science and nature. Wild Kingdom was one of her favorite TV shows, and she adored her high school physics class. She signed up for a summer science research program at a nuclear reactor, enjoying the work, but didn't identify with the "geeky" students. For a while, she considered becoming a marine biologist, but her fear of deep water overwhelmed that dream.

Born with a strong will, Blume was raised to think for herself. As an eighth grader at a public junior high, she waged an epic battle with her parents, who wanted to transfer her to a private school. She set up a petition drive, hid school application forms, and purposefully answered the questions wrong on entrance exams. Blume lost that battle, though she admits she did get a great education.

At Yale, Blume experienced a transformative "aha!" moment. An anthropology seminar explored different environmental effects on the development of indigenous cultures. In it, Blume realized that "all the world's environmental problems are interconnected, and are very dire," and that she couldn't "in good conscience live on this planet, and not do something to solve the problem."

How remained a question. Blume knew that she wanted to major in Environmental Studies, but students in that program were required to double-major with another academic discipline. She had trouble finding a second major as compelling and feasible. Scheduling challenges and "less than visionary" administrators had ruled out the obvious choice of theater.
Then, she discovered a special program that allowed students to design their own major, and Blume managed to craft a Baccalaureate of Arts in "Environmental Dramaturgy." It was so spot-on, it could still be used to describe her work and passion today.

"We don't often address environmental issues until there's a crisis," she said about insights that had driven her course of study. "If you can create a piece of theater that's great art, and is also topical and relevant, then you'll be able to build pathways of relationship between the audience and the issue." Then, the next time an audience member encounters the issue in the real world, "they're more open to it, more likely to engage with it, and to understand its significance. They're more likely to care."

"In retrospect," says Kathryn, "it all boils down to the power of storytelling.

The Lysistrata Project

After graduation, Blume became part of the theater scene in Seattle. Then her husband Mark inherited a family farm in Vermont. It was not the best place to earn a living in theater, so Blume followed her dreams to New York City. There, in 2003, she dramatically changed her life, as co-creator with Sharron Bower of The Lysistrata Project, a worldwide theatrical protest against the impending U.S. invasion of Iraq.

In the classic Greek comedy, written 2,400 years ago, women of Athens and Sparta, tired of continual war, conspire to go on a sex strike to end the war. The 2003 event—a day of simultaneous readings of the anti-war play—was a phenomenal success, with more than 1,000 performances in 59 countries and in all 50 states.

After their success, Blume and Borrow wrote an article about the project for Yes! Magazine. Despite the Iraq War, she discovered that the Lysistrata project had turned her into a leader. Prior to this, Blume had not wanted to be "in charge," because masculine styles of leadership, or wielding power over someone, didn't appeal to her. Now, she understands and is excited by the possibilities of a different style of leadership—what some feminists have described as, "power with," and which Blume calls, "power under."

Lysistrata reinforced Blume's instincts to think big and act big. She always wanted to "save the world," and The Lysistrata Project taught her that it was indeed possible to harness global energy for major events. Blume also learned to trust her own instincts.

"As an actor," Blume observes, "you have no control; you don't get to make many decisions. It's not very validating." With the Lysistrata Project, she and Borrow were in charge, and together. They had to make a lot of decisions to pull off a global event of gigantic scope. She can look back, and know she wasn't always right, but by and large, her instincts held solid.
She found out how strong she is, as a woman, activist and creator. Founder of 350.org, author Bill McKibben, has called her, "a great original—the funniest, grittiest climate activist we've got, a living argument for art and humor and sexy straightforwardness in the fight to save the planet."

Becoming a Writer

In the years following Lysistrata, Blume came into her own as a writer. She began playing with the idea of writing a one-woman show, a process that was speeded up considerably when she agreed to perform the piece in New York—even though she hadn't written one word yet!

Blume the risk-taker trusted her instincts, and rightly so. That show, "The Accidental Activist" (based on her Lysistrata Project experience), was a smashing success, with 10 performances in New York, followed by a well-received tour in cities from Toronto to St. Louis to Berkeley.

She followed that play with another one-woman show, "The Boycott," the story of the first lady of the United States launching a sex strike to combat global warming. That show had a six-week off-Broadway run, and a 30-city tour in the U.S., Canada and Europe. She performed in Copenhagen while the 2009 United Nations' climate negotiations took place.
Though Blume had never thought of herself as a Writer with a capital W, she does have a lot to say. And, as she observes, writing "is a useful tool." She's developed the skills to use it well.

Kathryn Today

Underlying all her traits is Blume's sense of spirituality. While she sees that "the world is full of suffering," she believes "it can also be utterly magical. [I] have the palpable sense that I am part of something much bigger and more mysterious than I could ever understand."

She believes in honoring the work that we all do to make the world around us a better place, and is committed to self-care. That's where teaching yoga fits in. "If we're going to talk sustainability, we have to embody it," Blume says. She recognizes that it's "a high aspiration," but, "we don't serve anyone by burning ourselves out. Any cause we engage in is going to be bigger than we are."

LEARN MORE

Vermontivate!
www.vermontivate.com/

350.org and 350VT.org
www.350.org/
www.youtube.com/user/350org

The Lysistrata Project
www.yesmagazine.org/issues/finding-courage/600

Blume admits to some dark moments of fear and apocalyptic thinking about what damage, pain and suffering climate change might bring. She keeps them to herself, and says that airing dire fears publicly, "usually serves to freak people out, but then just shuts them down."

A bit of a wild card, she seeks instead to wake people up, and pushes people's boundaries with a smile: "We need to escape business as usual to have a healthy planet." But her ultimate goal is to help people believe. "They have the capacity to engage in change," she says. "They usually know what they need to do." Her job is "to let them know they can."