Robert is the visionary and culinary creator of Kickin’ Kombucha. He is also the kindest and most dangerous man I have ever known. Robert Lopez broke his leg in several places during a master jiu jitsu competition. 
This gave him time away to reflect on his life while he dove into a passion he has for Kombucha. We curate his beautiful elixir at The Eat Gallery. At his Eat Gallery artist talk he told us how the healing of his broken leg forged a connection with his true life purpose. What must be broken can connect us with true beauty.
October 19, 2011
From Broken to Beauty
September 15, 2011
Curator of Human Passion
My mission in life is to help folks excavate purpose from their own lives… 
I took a sabbatical from my architectural leadership at The Awakenings Movement to shape the culture and management of a historic coffee shop in 3rd Ward, Texas. A local businessman is giving us his 10 year old venture to evolve it as we see fit…
After a four month anthro-study in the shop and a two month soft launch, we decided to continue the legacy of G’s and Z’s Coffee by making it a “community well” where we could serve, connect with, and learn the stories of folks we would never see otherwise…
We crafted the spot to be a quirky eatery that features the culinary art of seven food artists and friends I deeply believe in. We called it The Eat Gallery because traditional art galleries curate art on walls but this gallery curates culinary art on plates. Right now they don’t have the overhead for their own restaurants so this is an experiment space for them. The Eat Gallery is a conservatory of caring, talented, and creative food artists who live purposefully one serving at a time…
Never thought I would be up at 6am to order croissants, almond milk, and avocado in the name of mission excavation… but the tools used to exhume pure passion are never what I expect or imagine… 
I am called (or crazy) enough to live the sermons most preachers are only willing to talk about…
July 26, 2011
saying what i mean…
@davewiner: W/only 140 chars 2 play w/, RT-ing is like jamming a class in2 corner of a classrm. Must say what I mean&mean what I say succinctly!
((a twoosh)) is a tweet w/140 characters, no more no less. I will re-articulate my days & life w/ one picture and a ((twoosh)) till I get bored…
February 12, 2011
rift valley
the rift valley is a place of new beginnings.
when we take groups there, they are challenged to reset and embrace new life.
this time (I) was the one challenging (me) to reset.
cant explain it but… God reoriented everything in my view…
the dress
I commissioned a designer I met at a fashion review in Nairobi to design a dress for Regina. 
I learned her story as we talked design, life, and philosophy.
Nkatha is one of the most inspiring and funny folk I had yet to meet.
we laughed hard and learned as we exchanged ideas and irritations.
Nkatha is a marvel and a maven of design and innovative ideas.
sojourn
the sun is setting outside of the nairobi art museum
August 22, 2010
Pa & Ma & Paa Ya Paa
When we turned the corner I got a sense of familiarity that was not just in my head but also in my heart. It was an indigenous memory that I get whenever I drive down the entrance and canopy of trees…
home… 
One of the first things you see as you drive up is the burnt ruined gallery that was consumed by a fire some time ago…
Then from death to life… you see the flowers… Then the lively and active, “Baba & Mama”!
The Paa Ya Paa was the first art and spiritual movement to develop after Kenyan independence. A power pole fell during a storm and burned 80% of the artwork and the gallery space down…
I sat down with Baba and Mama for a while and just talked about everything from village life to facebook…
Then… Baba shared the vision for the next building project AM is to do for this great institution of divine creativity…
It may partly look like ruins on the outside for now… 
but promise and a redefined future is brewing beneath the surface…
uniquely human
After the cab dropped me off, I walked about two miles to find the park where the festival was…. I didn’t mind cause it was a beautiful day..
I finally got to the section of the grounds where the festival was only to realize that it was a Land Rover off road race… FUN!!!! Old and new Rovers were lined up next to each other like renegade mud-warriors at attention…This was one of the most exciting experiences ever… as i was snapping this photo, just one wrong move coulda found me on the cover of this particular all terrainer…
I finally saw Lou who is a photographer and a computer scientist who invited me. He greeted me with a smile and some introductions…
He was taking pictures of some interesting lookin folk who are apart of his collective…
While she did not own up to it… Wanuri, is a brilliant filmmaker who won three awards including Best Picture from the African Movie Academy in 09…When I asked if she was good she said, “not hardly”… She lied… her most recent film “Pumzi” is a science fiction about a woman who is a virtual natural curator of a museum in a futuristic Africa where WW3 caused natural extinction… It is soooo dope!
Kamathi was introduced as a fashion designer who worked at Marc Ecko for three years and decided to come back to nairobi to spark an ancient-future by claiming the history of the nation in iconic shirts…Jamhuri…
Together they are opening a creative space like our Dream Station in the H…
It was time to go…cause it was getting cold…
If Africa is the future, (and I believe it is our ancient-future), then these three are futurists and agents of imagination…
January 15, 2010
Drummer Hands
I immediately felt the pulse of the city moving through the soles of my sneakers like a cultural current. It was the cadence of every people group, nationality, and continent moving up and down the streets… a living symphony where footsteps were the instruments. NEW YORK CITY IS A PEOPLE WATCHER’S PARADISE!!!
The first thing I wanted to do was meet a friend who was beginning his first day of Julliard where he is the only Masters Jazz Drummer in his class…
January 10, 2010
snow day
Today Regina, Jen, Cody, Connor and I played in some simulated snow. 
I began by showing Cody how to make a snowball… Read the rest of this entry »
