TueNight 10: Carolyn Gerin

Carolyn Gerin (on the right) with friends in her happy place
(Photo courtesy of Carolyn Gerin)

Carolyn Gerin is a career creative, activist, and optimist with a punk rock soul. “I love to flip the script on institutions and time-honored belief systems,” she says. First she tackled the Wedding Industrial Complex, as author of the bestselling Anti-Bride series. And now she’s tackling the burgeoning cannabis industry. She co-founded Cannawise.co, a creative agency dedicated to the B2B + B2C cannabis industry as well as awareness and advocacy.  Most recently though she’s embarking on a book tour as the co-author (along with last week’s TueNight 10 Jamia Wilson and Elisa Camahort Page) of Road Map for Revolutionaries: Resistance, Activism and Advocacy For All. (Ten Speed Press). Busy activist that Carolyn!

Her evening ritual? “I turn off the computer and phone, light a candle, put on some good music, cook, and switch out from the relentless work grind — this transition is akin to Mr. Rogers putting on his cardigan when he crosses the threshold to his home. I don’t check my phone every 5 minutes because it steals from the present. Life is short — and you need to guard your joy like a tigress!”

1. On the nightstandThe 48 Laws of Power, Robert Greene; Get a Life, Vivienne Westwood; Fear, Bob Woodward (just started); No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters, Ursula K. Le Guin; Good Girls Revolt, Lynn Povich; The Complete Sailing Manual, Steve Sleight; Magic for the Resistance, Michael M. Hughes

2. Can’t stop/won’t stop:  Sailing. I discovered it last spring. I’ve been going every chance I get on the Half Moon Bay Yacht Club Cal-20’s which is the boating equivalent of a VW Bug — 70’s fiberglass and great for learning. I plan to get my initial certifications next spring, check out as a skipper, and eventually end up on a liveaboard sailboat and do a crossing. I’m giving myself 2 years to certify.

3. Jam of the minute: Anything by Bowie and certainly “Suffragette City.”

4. Thing I miss: Sleep. Spending time with friends/family I’ve not been able to see because my book and travel schedule has been relentless. Binge-watching The Handmaids Tale. Taking the Zodiac (my boat) on the open ocean with the hubs. Talking to my muse: grandmother Dorothy, she sends me little signs all the time — and I totally pay attention.

5. 80s crush: Siouxsie, Gang of Four, Ramones, New Order, and (not technically 80s) but brooding sad boy Ian Curtis, lead singer of Joy Division. Shoegazer bands always slay me.


6. Current crush(es): 
My husband: He’s my warrior, best friend (and sailing partner) in the adventure of love and life. Emma Gonzalez: For leading a youth revolution and showing kids that politics, social change and boycotts aren’t just for grownups. Gloria Steinem: She blurbed our book and remains relentless in the face of oppression. Notorious RBG: For being the ultimate Supreme and badass — quietly and forcefully. She set forward a pattern of landmark decisions that have changed America for good.

7. Will whine about: 
The midterms, Trump, and Kavanaugh.

8. Will wine about: 
(Er, not wine, cannabis).The future of cannabis for healing, and state-by-state legalization and how I/Cannawise can assist. Props to my business partner Scott Johnson who’s running our Maui office and will lead the charge for cannabis in the Aloha state. Women I love and respect running for office at every level. Mid-terms and what can we do to flip the script. Everyone in my life at this moment is a badass activator and I’m constantly in a state of gratitude that I’m surrounded by people as talented, lion-hearted and passionate as they are about things that matter.

9. Best thing that happened yesterday: 
Hiked Montara Mountain, and saw an awesome blue-eyed alien face in the clouds, while talking to my sister Joan and texting my friend/author Michael M. Hughes, author of the above-mentioned Magic for the Resistance about how resisters can use spell casting to effect positive change in our world.

10. Looking forward to: Our book tour! Having a book launch at my former grad school, University of Baltimore, seeing old friends, professors and my entire East Coast family. Maybe one day meeting Gloria at our NYC book launch. Ready to rumble

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