In Search of the Purple Desert
...or Stories that Become Us
For years Red Coyote and the Floating One have run from humans and scrounged for food in a hostile city. Their sole comfort has been the stories they scavenged from trash bins and abandoned buildings--the adventures of "The Purple Desert Gang." In desperation, Red decides to look for the gang and their desert, so beautiful and full of wonder. Their search brings Red to a place and people both familiar and mysterious.
In Search of the Purple Desert...or Stories that Become Us embodies the transformational power of art and stories. It illuminates the potential we all have to make other worlds possible.
Pages: 169
Dimensions: 8.5 x 11 inches
Paperback: Perfect Bound
Year: 2024
Isbn# 979-8-218-14715-0
Copyright: Avigdor Edminster, all rights reserved
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About the artist
Avigdor Edminster
Welcome!
I am very excited to share In Search of the Purple Desert...or Stories that Become Us.
Here are some slivers of my own stories:
I have been blessed to be part of lots of Beloved Communities, including LGBTQIA2S+ communities, punk and DIY art-making worlds, worker-owned collectives, and social justice groups full of good trouble generally and gender liberatory trouble in particular.* I was raised and raised up by people with big generous hearts, care for the world, commitment to acting on that, and lots of creative energies.
I spent 8+ years making the full body of In Search of the Purple Desert and quite a bit more time after that editing and finalizing it for publication. I worked on it almost every day during that time, and doing so changed me and my life. The daily enchanting and challenging work of making these stories and this world —writing, pencil sketches, drawing, inking, and painting— took many years. It is not something I think I could have done until I became more patient and fell in love with the process itself--not just what I could make, but the transformative power of the making itself.
I teach Cultural Anthropology and Peace Studies, including Food Justice—with great gusto! Along with art and teaching, I love making food, collaborating with plants, biking, giving great big sacred thanks through loving action, and frolicking with my familial pack.
In Search of the Purple Desert…manifests how important places are to me, so shout out to the places and multispecies communities I have been fortunate to be part of. I grew up breathing the salty eucalyptus and pine scented air of Raymatush, Ohlone, Mukwema homeland (San Francisco, CA) , and spent formative years in Kaskaskia, Peoria, Osage, Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, Klikaapoi homeland (Columbia, MO), Canarsie, Munsee Lenape homeland (Brooklyn/NYC) and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Dakota) homeland (Minneapolis). I currently live and work as part of Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, Anishinaabe, Ho-Chunk and Menomonie homeland along the white pine, jewelweed, and bald eagle blessed Red Cedar River (Menomonie, WI).
*Respects to John Lewis and Judith Butler for the terms “good trouble” and “gender trouble” respectively, and a lifetime of respect for all those who keep making them.
