Where Are They Now?
We acknowledge the hundreds of community volunteers and participants in Wise Fool workshops, actions and performances over a 35 year history. The people included on this page played significant roles in the early years of Wise Fool Puppet Intervention. If you’ve worked Wise Fool Puppet Intervention or Wise Fool New Mexico and want to tell us what you’re up to we’re glad to include you on this page!
Jo Redline Christian (Founding Member & Co-Artistic Director) is a settler living on unceded Tewa Lands in Jaconita, NM. They are guided by the belief that movements need to imagine liberation to attain it. On the path to expanding imagination, Jo leads hands-on arts experiences and creates visual storytelling for actions, marches and community celebrations. They recently co-facilitated a pilot resurgence of Art and Revolution Convergence to spread and deepen the use of arts and culture in direct action campaigns and movements. Jo organizes with Northern NMSURJ, the O’ga P’ogeh Land Tax, and in coalition with Indigenous, Climate Justice, and Palestine solidarity movements. Their printmaking practice is inspired by the global lineage of political posters and a passion to “make revolution irresistible” (Toni Cade Bambara). Since passing the torch in 2019, Jo stays connected to WFNM as a teacher, board member, clown, and puppetmaster. They are available to facilitate workshops and residencies in arts organizing strategy, visioning, and creation of large scale visuals/street theatre. Find them on IG @JoRedline or jo-redline.squarespace.com
K.Ruby Blume (Founding Member & Co-Artistic Director) facilitated the last Wise Fool Puppet Intervention event in San Francisco in 2007. In 2008 she founded the Institute of Urban Homesteading, a homegrown folk-school of heirloom agricultural skills for adults. Offering classes in everything from urban gardening and backyard beekeeping to cheesemaking, canning and fermentation, this wildly successful project (2008-2023) educated and inspired an urban farming movement in the SF Bay Area. As part of this project Ruby hosted Urban Farm Tours giving the public a glimpse into possibilities for growing food and living more sustainably in the urban environment . She published Urban Homesteading: Heirloom Skills for Sustainable Living (with Rachel Kaplan Skyhorse 2011) and Every Day Cheese Making ( Microcosm 2013). She outgrew her 1/10th of an acre urban farm and in 2016 purchased a 22-acre rural property in Southern Oregon and founded Faerie Road Farm. As well as selling lamb, fruit and beautiful value added farm goodes, Ruby works seasonally as a fruit tree arborist and alpaca shearer. She continues to offer educational opportunities to the public and to create art and beauty wherever she can. RogueRuby.com • IUHOakland.com • FaerieRoadFarm.com • BeeBlume.com
David Keyek’s (Founding Member) passion for social justice led him to public education. Starting in 1993, David taught at the elementary school level in special education and English language development. In 1998, he and his partner Carrie moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to Colorado where David continued his work as a middle school special educator. He eventually shifted to high school counseling, mental health support, and crisis intervention in schools. David excels at raising hell as a tireless advocate for young folks everywhere and continues to find regenerative and transformative powers in the mountains, rivers, and deserts of the west!
Alessandra Ogren (Core Member) moved to New Mexico in 2000 and purchased a vintage movie theatre in the small community of Penasco where she continues work with communities in theater and puppetry. She has a partner and two kids and teaches art in the Penasco public schools as well as helping vision and run programming at the Penasco Theater.
Jay Mead (Core Member) moved from SanFrancisco to Vermont in 2002. While this move was about exploring sustainability in a more intentional way, he also continued to make and teach art. Jay has lead residencies and workshops at the University of Chicago and Vassar College, at Visao Futuro in Purangaba, Brazil and with the Dana Meadows Fellows in Hartland. He has been involved with Sustainability Leaders Network, bringing the Art of Sustainability to leaders in the social and environment change. He currently works full time at COVER doing urgent home repair for low income residents of NH and VT. Jay has carried puppets for Bread and Puppet off and on since college and now that he lives nearby you may see him carrying puppets to bring awareness to climate change.
Fiona Glass (Core Member) got her Masters of Social Work at San Francisco State University in the early 2000s. Since then she has worked at Mission Mental Health in San Francisco, a clinic that serves primarily LGBTQIA community and monolingual Spanish speakers. As well as offering supervision and working directly with clients, Fiona teaches Law and Ethics for Counselors at City College as part of a community health credentialing program for substance use counselors. Fiona is a member of Beautiful Beginnings Arts Collective whose focus is creating a joyful and healing culture that supports youth and honors elders. Made up of musicians, dancers and visual artists their largest annual project is creating a continent for SF Carnival. Towards this effort Fiona creates a float, makes giant puppets and leads puppet making workshops. Fiona is proud mamma to a 13 year old son.