The Long Haul For Haiti Tour Coordinators are Jean Bernard and Michael Johnston. Jean has so far been the one who posts most of the news, takes the photos, and occasionally tries her hand at road poetry. Mike is the guy depicted in the logo, and is also the artist who does the depicting.
For the record, here is a bit more about each of us:
JEAN BERNARD (weather person, navigator, poet) came from a circus family based in Florida and spent summers criss-crossing the continental US and Canada, walking slack wires, juggling and playing with chimpanzees. She has been an avid cyclist since the age of 7. She studied literature and philosophy at George Washington University, then went on to serve in the Peace Corps in Thailand, where she organized an enthusiastic group of her students into a traveling circus that toured the country doing benefit shows. A life-long learner, Jean has acquired advanced degrees (M.A.T., St. Michael's College; Ed.D., University of Massachusetts at Amherst) but considers the road and the people she meets to be the real teachers. She has also been a migrant farm worker, a journalist, an Fulbright exchange professor in Vietnam, an English teacher, and an education specialist at UNESCO in Paris. While there, she was active in planning for education in situations of emergency and conflict, and was focal point for arts education. She strongly believes in the power of art to help people who are suffering from long-term trauma and dislocation to rebuild their lives.
MICHEAL JOHNSTON (mechanic, artist, red lantern) grew up in Saudi Arabia, where his dad worked as a welding inspector. The unfenced open spaces of the Kingdom gave him his first experiences of true cross country travel, reading the fall of the dunes, the ridge lines of the stone hills and the twinkling lights of towns in the far distance. Within the ancient towns, he became fascinated by the flow of people through old passageways and the repeated geometry of public and private spaces. These ideas and images have been the foundation of Mike's art. On his many travels, he has enjoyed making 'carnets de voyages' drawing city, land and seascapes, boats and bicycles, and people - always looking for gestures and features that distinguish one place from another, that make some places destinations and other places home. His media are portable: pencil, brush, ink, sometimes watercolor and video. Samples of Mike's drawings can be viewed at http://michaeljohnstonart.com and his videos of African performance art at www.youtube.com/spectaclemedia. 