Women's Day 2003 introduced the art of living concept of COSION cosion: of all things "co" - community, collaboration, co-creation, connecting... The event realized our intention to celebrate women of all ages throughout the ages - from the conception of Eve to the New Woman of Today. Every bit as powerful as in previous years, COSION included yet another array of really great people contributed their gifts into the circle - in spirited song and heart-centered meditation, exuberant firedancing and "bust the age barrier" participatory bodypainting. The powerful new footage and contributions of people like yourself, will go towards moving the "Dance of the Feminine" documentary to completion. Another of our intentions - to have this International Women's Day gallery utilized in classrooms throughout the world - already began to take form when a teacher who attended voiced a long-held interest in bringing Women's Day into her school and desire to be supported. Perhaps you'd like to do something similar! We welcome your participation on every level. Click here: The Art of LIVING founder Frankie Lee Slater in hand-painted dress by Yaari, leading the ceremonies to set our intention for a new cycle of Peaceful Co-existance and Inclusion With a grace and precision sourced in her 30 year practice of Tai Chi, our 47-year-old model Leslie Levy expresses a freedom in her body that frees us to see woman's beauty with new eyes! NAKED INTO THE FUTURE by Leslie Levy "Behold homo-transitionalis of the feminine gender...Alive and working through her Divine Experiment to bridge the gap in consciousness (inner consciousness and social consciousness) from the turbid egotistic conditioning toward a freer psychic paradigm..." "My mission (and I am choosing to accept it in small and large ways daily) is to transform the patriarchal male-dominant power of Tai Chi into a gender balanced, user-friendly method of internal self-cultivation through a solo inner-life practice...I'm claiming the Tai Chi power for the Divine Mother. "My outer world as an artists' model sustains my simple lifestyle and provides a viable survival strategy, while putting my Qigong to work...But in the early 20th century, brave, pioneering women who dared to risk the consequences of social ostracision to stand in the altogether in front of artists were breaking the way for me...so that I can break the way for the evolutionary harbingers of the next generation. "Even nude, we are all wearing the mantles of our foremothers and carrying the torch of consciousness into an unknown future that reflects our illumination only to the degree we dare to risk our status and security in the present." Natalie Lehman, accompanied by Peter Ludwig on Cello, leading an integrative meditation to connect us with that peaceful place within, which is ever available when we still ourselves enough to notice. Natalie Lehman and Peter Ludwig Mitra and Rama Kahbar Persian songstress Mitra accompanied by her husband Rama - modeling partnership on such a refined level. Mitra wrote and Rama composed the song "Zan" as a prayer for Afghani women ... excerpted here, it will be on their new album. Zan ("Woman") zan, khahar, madar farzand tanha, bikas, darmande dar jahan ah, nale, faryad,bidad atash zade bar ostoghan jayam kooh..khodaya beshnoam javabam kooh Translation: woman, sister, mother, daughter alone in the world the moaning the cry the fire burning my bones where is my place... god hear me... where is my answer Zor The masciline pays homage to the feminine in the fire dance! Zor Web Site The Artist Yaari Rom and his Art The Art of LIVING Coalition's annual Women's Day events are serving to weave the City of Los Angeles together - from the Agape International Spiritual Center in Culver City to the Electric Lodge in Venice to the Pacific Palisades Methodist Church to this year's event at the artist Yaari Ram's studio in the newly gentified historical neighborhood west of downtown. Yaari's Biography Yaari Rom Web Site