Menstuff® sponsored the Browsers' Bookmobile, a converted motor home that has traveled around the U.S. since August, 1994, traveling over 30,000 miles through 26 states, visiting towns too small to support their own library or bookstore. The bookmobile houses over 1000 books, tapes and videos on 60 different men's issues. (The Year 2000.) (A Progress Report.) Shortcut to this page: http://bit.ly/flF1Ku
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Gordon Clay has been a men's movement activist since 1976. He is the creator of the Father & Teen-age Daughter Rites-of-Passage (1985) and the Healing the Father Wound® workshops (1985) for men only and women only. He is the founder of The National Men's Resource Center (1982), mailed out the first issue of Menstuff ® (1985) which was converted to this web site (1996), and is the road scholar/curator of the Browsers' Bookmobile (1994), the nation's first and only mobile reference library dedicated to positive change in male roles and relationships. Vitae.
Clay has long believed that knowledge and information are the keys to making the world safe for children. Concerned with the dramatic increase in men's health problems, suicide, and violence in our homes and schools, Clay decided to move much of his private library, believed to be the largest men's issues collection in America, into a converted motor home to make this information more readily available to communities too small to support their own facility. He sets up shop in parking lots or wherever local laws will allow and advertises "Continuous Showings - Bill Moyers' A Gathering of Men, while waiting for the curious to ask what the bookmobile is all about.
Unlike other mobile libraries, Browsers' Bookmobile is not a lending library. Rather, visitors are encouraged to browse through the extensive collection, perusing volumes on-the-spot that have particular appeal. While books, tapes, periodicals and videos may not be removed, Clay has lists of publishers', distributors or local bookstores with a separate men's section, where browsers can obtain their personal copy. And, as a nonprofit organization, a purchase of books through Menstuff helps continue our work to end men's isolation. So, wherever you find a book you would like to purchase, click on the words "Buy this book". Or when you want to see other books on the issue that we might not be aware of, click on the "amazon.com" box at the end of that issue. (See the end of this section.)
Currently stocked with over 1,000 books and videos covering 60 main men's issues, Clay hopes to expand holding capacity to several thousand books on fathering, divorce, single-parenting, health, relationships, work, mid-life transition and other issues involving men's physical and emotional well-being. Various informational brochures, bumper stickers and guides are available for purchase merchandise.
Here are some of the locations we've visited over the years.
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1. Welcome inside. 2. Heading East. 3. Livermore, CA. 4. Materials ready to catch a passerby. 5. Sacramento Conference on Self-Esteem, 6. Willits, CA. 7. Clear Lake, CA. 8. Penngrove, CA. 9. Carpenteria, CA. 10. Las Vegas, NV. 11. Happy Holidays '95. 12. Eslon Institute, Big Sur, CA. 13. Sacramento Governor's Conference on Fathers. 14. Harbin Hots Springs, Fathers' Day, '96. 15. Men & Masculinity Conference, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR. 16. MiVoden in Hadden Lake, ID. 17. Idaho. 18. Aryan Nation, Hadden Lake, ID. 19. Spokane, WA. 20. Ferry to Bainbridge Island, WA. 21. Coyote Farm, Bainbridge Island, WA. 22. The curator, Holidays '96. 23. Salton Sea, CA. 23a. Mt Madonna Center, Watsonville, CA. 24. Headstart Conference, Sacramento. 24. Burning Man, Black Rock, NV, 1999. 25. The Hot Springs at Burning Man. 26. Summer in Nevada City, CA. 27. Ft. Baker, CA 28. Hood River, OR. 29. Hey man! 30. 30,000 miles in Jefferson, OR 11/21/99. 31. Gordon Clay starting his year-long 'advance' 01.01.00. 32. The "office". Catching up on scanning for this web site. 33. The living room - about 1/3 of the 3,500 plus books on men's issues that we have on-site. 34. Gordon on 01.01.01 at the conclusion of the advance. 35. Gordon after being back in the "real world" for a couple of days. 36. Back on (off) the road again, Cazadero, CA. 37. Burning Man 2001. 38. The Browsers' Bookmobile resting place under the 30' tall rose bush in Brookings, OR. 9/8/01. 39. Gordon on 01.01.02. 40. Burning Man 2002, 41. Health & Wellness Fair, North Bend, OR 10/23/02, 42. North Coast Educational Conference, 2/7-9/03. 43. Have a nice day - 010103 44. Mill Casino Health Fair, N. Bend, OR 11/03
The bookmobile has been through 26 states since August, 1994. A milestone was reached on November 21, 1999 when the bookmobile passed the 30,000 mile mark in Jefferson, OR. It has since been retired from its travels and has taken up permanent residence at the Sea Horse Ranch and the Wildwood Himitage outside Brookings, OR in September, 2001. It will serve as a Doctorate Study Library for students choosing to explore Men's Studies. In addition to the 1,000 book library in the Bookmobile, there are an additional 2,500 books on men's issues stored in The Men's Study. Included are basically all of the books listed in the "Books" section on this web site.
The bookmobile is just the latest venture for this men's work pioneer who launched the Fathers' Network (1976) to find other single fathers whom he could network with in an effort to raise his then ten-year-old daughter. Ever since then he's been on a mission to "end men's isolation".
Founded in 1982, The National Men's Resource Center, an educational nonprofit charity (68.0337499), offers information and resources concerning some 300 men's issues to anyone on behalf of men. In addition to the library, Clay speaks to Lion's Clubs, at Women's Centers on college campus' and while there, demonstrates the value of a men's studies program at the college level. He also works with bookstores and libraries to develop men's issues sections. His itinerary is fluid to allow trips to be a guest lecturer in women's studies courses, or give "workshops" or make occasional appearances on the various talk shows around the country, from Oprah in Chicago, IL and Rick at Night in San Luis Obsipo, CA.
The Center had published Menstuff®, The National Men's Resource since 1985, which was a quarterly listing of hundreds of men's events nationwide plus an annual directory listing over 2,600 Organizations and Resources and Publications for men nationwide. In May, 1996 it was converted from a printed format to this web site (http://www.menstuff.org). As of May, 2005, it contains over 250 megabytes of information concerning cover 300 men's issues and gets over 100,000 visitors a day. The web site is updated atleast weekly.
Be well. And, do what you can to end men's isolation and insure
that the world is safe for all children.
Clearing the Air Workshops
Healing the Father Wound®
seminars, facilitated and begun in 1986 by Gordon Clay, are
interactive and highly effective weekend group experiences, held
separately for both men and women, dealing with adults whose
childhood was characterized by paternal dysfunction, ranging from
abuse, to uncaring, to overly-controlling, to total-absence, to the
"perfect father". Gordon's seminar's work to undo the negative
lifelong effects of such parenting, with the intent of freeing the
individuals to live happier, and more productive lives, and by
bringing a modicum of balance to continuing parental relationships.
These programs range from a 3-day retreat to a 35 minute presentation
and are based on his never to be published book by the same title.
www.fatherwound.com
Healing the Mother Wound® is
also offered for women only and men only and is facilitated by Shauna
Wilson. It is a four day, three night retreat. Through our navel we
have the visible evidence of our link to our biological mother - a
link that is encoded with messages - our history, patterns, destiny,
even our sense of self. We inherit our self-esteem and self worth
from our mothers. We are tied to this women who birthed us. And we
are tied to the generations that preceded us. As an egg in our
Mother's womb, we rested in the womb of our Grandmother. We can
choose to release ourselves from the bondage that traps us. We can
heal the wounds we took on from our mothers. The journey to freedom
is through excavating the memories and feelings, acknowledging
experiences, releasing emotions, forgiving ourselves and others, and
opening to new possibilities. When we heal our Mother Wound, we break
the cycle. We become free. www.howworkshops.com
Clearing the Air™ Between Women
and Men is a six-day, five-night process for 6 women and 6 men to
come together to work with the things that separate us, to air out
grievances and to release repressed anger in appropriate, safe ways.
Healing the Father Wound and Healing the Mother Wound are required
prerequisites for Level III. Co-facilitated by Shauna Wilson Mora and
Gordon Clay. There is also a day-long version presented at the
request of local women's and men's communities that desire a way to
come together in a healthier, safer, deeper way. This has been
presented for communities in California, Chicago, Louisville Ashland
and Indianapolis. www.howworkshops.com
All three workshops are experiential in nature. There is very little talking. The intention is to break through barriers and old patterns through movement, Tantrum Yoga® breath and release work, psychodrama, meditation and processes that excavate wounds and ties that keep us stuck. It is an intense and transformational series.
Everyman™, a day for men helps you bring men in your community together for a day of information and process with the goal of building or strengthening a local men's community. Facilitated by Gordon Clay.
As a cast member in The Color of Fear 
(1994) and the remake Walking Each Other Home 
(1997), Gordon Clay facilitates a three-hour process, including the
showing of one of the films. It's about racism and its impact on
men's lives today. Each film depicts the pain and anguish that racism
has caused in the lives of North American men of Asian, European,
Latin and African descent. Out of their confrontations and struggles
to understand and trust each other emerges an emotional and
insightful portrayal into the type of dialogue most of us fear but
hope will happen sometime in our lifetime. Copies can also be
purchased from Stir-Fry Productions, 800.370-STIR, who also put on
presentations for groups, government organizations, and businesses
around the country.
I've gone to find myself. If I should return before I get back, please keep me here. - Gordon Clay
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