Menstuff® sponsored the Browsers' Bookmobile, a converted motor home that has traveled around the U.S. since August, 1994-12/31/1999, traveling over 30,000 miles through 26 states, visiting towns too small to support their own library or bookstore. The bookmobile housed 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 Following a Tradition
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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 (1994-1999), 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 of 6,000 books, 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 set up shop in parking lots or wherever local laws wiould 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. 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".
Browsers' Bookmobile was stocked with over 1,000 books and videos covering 60 main men's issues, 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 were available for purchase merchandise.
Here are some of the locations we 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 had 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 served 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 was an additional 4,500 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.
Our founder had a stroke on March 3, 2014, five days before his 74 birth day. He had written in his will to gift his entire library to the Changing Men's collection at Michigan State University. However, during his five month recovery he decided too move the collection there now to better serve the academic community. The books were packed out in mid-November and arrived in Lansing, Michigan on December 8, 2014. The transition is now a reality.
As for the Browsers' Bookmobile, it was gifted to a family in Crescent City, CA, on September 7, 2014, to be converted back into living quarters to become their home
The bookmobile was 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), offered information and resources concerning some 300 men's issues to anyone on behalf of men. In addition to the library, Clay speaks to Rotary, Elks and 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.
In 1985, Clay starting publishing Menstuff®, 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 (www.menstuff.org). As of May, 2005, it contained over 250 megabytes of information concerning cover hundreds men's issues and ranked in the top 20% of the top million web sites in the world (Alexa), i.e., the top .01% of all web sites world wide. menstuff.org is still fully functioning and new material is added often daily.
Be well. And, do what you can to end men's isolation and insure
that the world is safe for everyone but especially 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 residential 4-day 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 worked 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. Gordon created and
facilitated this workshop for 25 years and retired it at the end of
2010. www.clearingtheair.net
Healing the Mother Wound® was
also offered for women only and men only. It wwas originally
facilitated by Joya Jennings, a theapist from Berkely, CA. Then
author and therapist Carolyn Baker. It converted to a four-far,
three-night workshop and Lourdes Billingsley took the reins for 7
years. And, the final nine of 19 years were facililitated by Shauna
Wilson. 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.clearingtheair.net
Clearing the Air™ Between Women
and Men was 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.
It had been held in California and Virginia over a 19-year period.
Healing the Father Wound and Healing the Mother Wound were required
prerequisites for this work.
There was 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. Gordon Clay created and facilitated this workshop for 19 years and retired it at the end of 2011. www.clearingtheair.net
All three workshops were 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 was an intense and transformational series for many on both boasts.
I don't think I'm here right now. I've gone to find myself. If I should return before I get back, please keep me here. - Gordon Clay
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