Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty

Anne Herbert is perhaps best known for coining the phrases “Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty” and “Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you though times of no libraries.” She was an American writer and past editor of CoEvolution Quarterly, a percursor to the Whole Earth Review.

Margaret Paloma Pavel is an international advocate of healthy, just, and resilient urban communities. She is founder and president of Earth House of Oakland, California, founder of the Eco-Justice film series in the San Francisco Bay Area, and editor of Breakthrough Communities: Sustainability and Justice in the Next American Metropolis. Dr. Pavel holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard University as well as degrees in psychology and economics.

Mayumi Oda, known to many as the “Matisse of Japan,” has exhibited over 50 one-woman shows throughout the world. Her artwork is part of the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Yale University Art Gallery; the Library of Congress; and many others. She has authored books about her own creative life, including Sarasvati’s Gift, Goddesses, and I Opened the Gate Laughing. She has also illustrated several books for notable authors, including the esteemed Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. In addition to her work as an artist, Oda has spent many years of her life as a global activist participating in anti-nuclear campaigns worldwide. She founded Plutonium Free Future in 1992, launched the WASH (World Atomic Safety Holiday) Campaign in 1999.