Mark Mathew Braunstein (born August 6, 1951)[1] is an American writer, nature photographer, art librarian, and advocate of medical marijuana legalization. His writing focuses on the topics of vegetarianism/veganism, wildlife conservation, animal rights, sprouting, and raw food. Braunstein has written six books, including his sixth, Mindful Marijuana Smoking: Health Tips for Cannabis Smokers, and his first, Radical Vegetarianism: A Dialectic of Diet and Ethic, and many magazine articles.
Life
Braunstein was born in New York City. His parents were Benjamin and Clare Braunstein. Benjamin Braunstein (died 2005) was a book critic and a literature and journalism teacher at Bayside High School, Queens, New York City.[2] Clare Braunstein (January 20, 1926 - April 5, 2011) was a homemaker and an editor of the Hadassah newsletter, and of its cookbook entitled One People, One Heart: Culinary Classics. Mark Braunstein has a brother, Jack A. Braunstein of Gibson, Pennsylvania.[2]
From 1978 to 1980, Braunstein was Editor at Rosenthal Arts Slides, Chicago. From 1980 to 1983 he was Assistant editor at Art Index in New York City. From 1983 to 1987 he was Head of slides and photographs at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. Since 1987, he has been an art curator and art librarian at Connecticut College, New London, Connecticut.
Braunstein has been a vegetarian since 1966 and a vegan since 1970.[4]
In 1981, Braunstein published his book, Radical Vegetarianism: A Dialectic of Diet and Ethic.
An "About the Author" blurb in 1990 said this:
Mark M. Braunstein is the author of Radical Vegetarianism: A Dialectic of Diet & Ethic. In addition to editing reference books on art history, he writes about animal rights and wildlife for journals such as Animals' Agenda, Between the Species, Vegetarian Times, Backpacker and East West. He lives in a wildlife refuge in Quaker Hill, CT, where his favourite hobby is sabotaging hunting. He served as the guest editor for this issue of the Trumpeter.[5]
On August 6, 1990 (his 39th birthday), Braunstein became a paraplegic due to a spinal cord injury from a diving accident. Since then, he smokes marijuana to control the pain and spasms in his feet[6] and has been an advocate of medical marijuana legalization. He testified before committees of the Connecticut legislature seven times over 14 years, urging passage of bills to legalize medical marijuana.[7]
Braunstein, after discovering that some prostitutes were meeting with clients on his private road, began documenting their lives.[8] From his photographs of them and their life stories collected over a ten-year period, he created a literary and photography project entitled "Good Girls on Bad Drugs",[9] which explores the lives of streetwalkers in the New London, Connecticut, area.[10] In October 2017, Braunstein published a book entitled Good Girls on Bad Drugs: Addiction Nonfiction of the Unhappy Hookers.
His sixth and most recent book, Mindful Marijuana Smoking: Health Tips for Cannabis Smokers, was published in 2022.
Cashman, Norine D.; Braunstein, Mark M., eds. (August 1990). Slide Buyers' Guide: International Directory of Slide Sources for Art and Architecture (6th ed.). Libraries Unlimited, Inc.ISBN978-0872877979.
Braunstein, Mark Mathew (March 1980). "On Being Radically Vegetarian". Vegetarian Times: 72–73. ... ours is a sick society where misconception cons the conscience while nature's truths go unheard or unheeded, ...
Braunstein, Mark Mathew (September 1980). "Vegetarianism in Art". Vegetarian Times (#40): 20–24. Isaiah, the vegetarian prophet, meant also that humans must sit with the lamb, the kid, the ox -- because humans must make peace with the animals before they can make peace with other humans.
Braunstein, Mark Mathew (Summer 1985). "Milk: Utter Truth and Udder Nonsense". Vegetarian Voice. 12 (2). Malaga, New Jersey: North American Vegetarian Society. ISSN0271-1591. Along with the majority of the non-Caucasian adult world which cannot digest, and therefore does not drink, milk, you too will outgrow it if you withdraw all milk and milk products for one year.
Braunstein, Mark Mathew (October 1985). "On Becoming Vegetarian". Between the Species (play). 1 (4): 44, 47. doi:10.15368/bts.1985v1n4.9. Retrieved 2016-04-28. He discovers the worst of conditions awaits the calves for whom the milk is intended. The farm family knows the true cost of milk, the price that must be paid with blood.
Braunstein, Mark Mathew (September 1995). "Why and How to Wean from Cow"(PDF). Country Connections: 26. ISSN1082-0558. Retrieved 2017-10-12. Only humans drink milk past puberty. Along with the majority of the non-Caucasian adult world which cannot digest -- and therefore does not drink -- milk, you, too, will outgrow it if you withdraw all milk and milk products from your diet for one year.
Braunstein, Mark Mathew (November–December 1995). "Confessions of a Hunt Saboteur: A Real Sab Story". Country Connections. ISSN1082-0558. Retrieved 2017-10-12. The hunters took aim (upon deer, not upon us) and were just about to release the bowstrings. BOOM! The blasts from our foghorns twice sent deer fleeing to safety.
Braunstein, Mark Mathew (2004). Karp, Gary; Klein, Stanley D. (eds.). "Take the pain"(PDF). From There to Here: Stories of Adjustment to Spinal Cord Injury. Horsham, Pennsylvania: No Limits Communications: 171–177. Retrieved 2016-04-28. On my thirty-ninth birthday, sober but celebratory, I dived off a footbridge into a river and emerged awaiting a wheelchair. I shattered my T12 vertebra and injured that fragile bundle of nerves called the spinal cord.
Braunstein, Mark Mathew (2009). "Good Girls on Bad Drugs". Social Documentary Network (Portraits of crack- and heroin-addicted prostitutes). Retrieved 2016-04-28. Once you hear their tragic life stories, you can no longer regard them as criminals or monsters or demons.
Braunstein, Mark Mathew (2013). "Sunlight and Sustenance"(PDF). Healing Our World. 33 (2). Hippocrates Health Institute: 26, 44, 45. Retrieved 2016-04-28. Exposed to insufficient light, seedlings grow long and frail stems in a vain attempt to reach for more light. Gardeners call this sorry state legginess. Botanists call it etiolation.
Braunstein, Mark Mathew (2013-04-01). "Eulogy to a Slide Library". Visual Resources Association Bulletin. 39 (3, Article 6). Visual Resources Association. ISSN1046-9001. Retrieved 2016-04-28. The transition from black-and-white lantern slides to 35mm color slides spanned 30 years—but the transition from 35mm film to digital images occurred virtually overnight. Farewell to the sparkling little gems and jewels called slides. Check the issn.
Braunstein, Mark Mathew (2015-02-23). "Walking in the March of Time". Spirit of Change (Spring 2015). Uxbridge, Massachusetts. ISSN1075-9182. Retrieved 2016-04-28. I became an old man in the blink of an eye. At age 39, I experienced instant old age when I dived off a footbridge into a river and did not land right. The impact broke my back, which injured my spinal cord, which paralyzed me below the waist.
Braunstein, Mark Mathew (July 2016). "Medical Marijuana More Acceptable -- and Refined -- Than Ever". New Mobility. 27 (274). The War on Drugs is losing, and pot is winning. And people who use medical marijuana have won the right to choose the treatment option in all of Canada, most of Western Europe, and half of the United States.
Braunstein, Mark Mathew (2017-02-28). "Hungry In New England". Spirit of Change (Spring 2017). Uxbridge, Massachusetts. ISSN1075-9182. Retrieved 2017-10-11. So next time you're famished and a long way from home, drive up to a Wendy's outlet and order a Baked Potato with Nothing on It, meaning no sour cream and chives, no butter, and no margarine.
Braunstein, Mark Mathew (2017-09-05). "Distracted Eating". Spirit of Change (Fall 2017). Uxbridge, Massachusetts. ISSN1075-9182. Retrieved 2017-10-11. Only a fool would intentionally hold his nose while eating, yet we essentially are thumbing our noses at our food when we pay scant attention to what we eat.
Braunstein, Mark Mathew (February 2018). "Artists and Writers Wanted". New Mobility. 29 (293). What started in 2008 as a partnership between an artists residency center and a foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life for people with spinal cord injuries has grown into a sprawling, multi-site opportunity unlike any other.
Braunstein, Mark Mathew (2020-08-25). "When Good Vegans Make Bad Neighbors". Spirit of Change (Fall 2020). Uxbridge, Massachusetts. ISSN1075-9182. Retrieved 2020-11-14. Was my lack of decorum the thoughtless and reflexive response of a self-righteous animal-rightist? Did my reply stir in him a bitter memory of an incident with some cantankerous vegan more strident than even I?
Braunstein, Mark Mathew (2022-09-01). "Playing With Fire - Safer Ways to Tune up your Cannabis Ignition System". Weed World Magazine. Coventry, England (Issue 159, early Fall 2022). ISSN1362-3540. Retrieved 2024-04-14. “Countless medical studies have shed light upon the health risks of smoking herbs, be they tobacco or cannabis. Yet most smokers hide behind a smokescreen of denial in recognizing the risky business of inhaling the ignition fumes from lighters or matches.”
Braunstein, Mark Mathew (2022-11-01). "Waterpipes - The Big Bong Theory". Weed World Magazine. Coventry, England (Issue 160, late Fall 2022). ISSN1362-3540. Retrieved 2024-04-14. “While the waterpipe had for centuries traditionally been used for tobacco, waterpipes are now associated only with cannabis use.”
Braunstein, Mark Mathew (2023-01-01). "Eat and Drink to Reduce the Health Risks of Smoking Cannabis". Weed World Magazine. Coventry, England (Issue 161, Winter 2023). ISSN1362-3540. Retrieved 2024-04-14. “Except for the nicotine in tobacco and the cannabinoids in cannabis, the smoke from the two herbs is quite similar. The nutrient loss from smoking tobacco is well documented, but there is no research about how smoking cannabis, too, might adversely affect your body’s storage and usage of nutrients.”
Braunstein, Mark Mathew (2023-09-01). "How to Preserve the Potency of Pot". Weed World Magazine. Coventry, England (Issue 165, early Fall 2023). ISSN1362-3540. Retrieved 2024-04-14. “Warmth. Light. Air. Water. The same elements that empower living plants to grow and flourish also reduce the potency of cannabis after it’s been dried and cured.”
Braunstein, Mark Mathew (2024-12-01). "A Plentitude of Self-Portrait Paintings". Still Point Arts Quarterly. Brunswick, Maine (Number 56, Winter 2024-25). ISSN 2163-0909. Retrieved 2024-12-15. “It is one thing to understand what we see, and another to understand ourselves through what we see.”
^ abPeacock, Scot (2002). Contemporary Authors. Gale. p. 110. ISBN9780787646141. BRAUNSTEIN, Mark M(athew) 1951- PERSONAL: Born August 6, 1951, in New York, NY; son of Benjamin L. (a teacher) and Clare Braunstein. Ethnicity: 'Eurocentric.' Education: State University of New York at Binghamton, B.A., 1974; Pratt Institute, M.S., 1978; also attended Carnegie-Mellon University. Politics: "Indifferent." Religion: "Judeo-Buddhist." Avocational interests: Painting, photography, calligraphy, studying religion and philosophy.
^ ab"Clare Braunstein". Newsday (obituary). 2011-04-07. Retrieved 2016-04-28. She served for many years as an award-winning editor of the Hadassah newsletter, and of its cookbook titled One People, One Heart: Culinary Classics.
^Braunstein, Mark Mathew. "Biography". Microgreen Garden. Retrieved 2016-04-28. Mark Mathew Braunstein has been a vegetarian since 1966, a vegan since 1970, and a high raw vegan since 1977.
^Stowe, Stacey (2007-06-11). "Marijuana Law in Connecticut Gains Ground". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-04-28. Mr. Braunstein, 55, walks with the aid of crutches and leg braces. He smokes marijuana every three days or so to control the pain and spasms in his feet that would otherwise immobilize him.
^Smith, Greg (2009-09-29). "Heather Brown's crimes often fueled by crack habit". The Bulletin (Norwich). Retrieved 2016-04-28. Braunstein, an art librarian at Connecticut College, began documenting the lives of prostitutes after he discovered some of them were meeting with johns on his private road.
^Braunstein, Mark Mathew (2009). "Good Girls on Bad Drugs". Social Documentary Network (Portraits of crack- and heroin-addicted prostitutes). Retrieved 2016-04-28. Once you hear their tragic life stories, you can no longer regard them as criminals or monsters or demons.
^Lang, Joel (2000-03-12). "The Phi Beta Kappa Prostitute". Hartford Courant. Retrieved 2016-04-28. If Braunstein had ulterior motives in pursuing streetwalkers for their stories, they weren't overtly sexual. Braunstein is frank about having lost sexual function and believes that is one reason streetwalkers are willing to talk to him. 'I use my paraplegia as my sword and shield,' Braunstein said. 'My sword is my crutches; my shield is my wheelchair.'
Summers, Judith; Braunstein, Mark Mathew (2013-03-18). How NOT to Jump Off a Bridge. YouTube (video). TV documentary about Braunstein's injury & recovery from his plunge into paraplegia by diving off a footbridge into a river.
