About Derek Goodwin
The creative photography, music and vegan activism of Derek Goodwin
Painting of Derek with Blacky by Elise Hartmann
photo of Blacky by Derek
When I was 10 years old I went to visit my grandfather’s dairy farm in Kansas. I had a Kodak 110mm camera, and took this photo of a calf who I fell in love with and named “Blacky”. A few months later I was looking through my photos and asked my mother how Blacky was and when we could visit him. To her credit, she told me honestly that he was a veal calf and probably long since had become someone’s dinner.
Nearly two decades later while studying photography at RIT, I began giving up animal products one by one and eventually became vegan. At the time, I told myself it was for health reasons. It wasn’t until later that I realized that my childhood friend Blacky was the reason I became vegan. That fateful encounter influenced my subsequent awakening, and since then my photography and my veganism have been intertwined. Blacky was my first farm animal photograph.
HOW IT ALL VEGAN
I went vegan on New Year's Day 1996 with my girlfriend at-the-time Megan Shackelford. By 1998 we were both enmeshed in the Rochester vegan community and were serving on the board of directors of the Rochester Area Vegetarian Society (RAVS). We moved to Northampton, Massachusetts together in 1999 and I began to put my talents as a photographer and web designer to work for the movement. I created the original web site Veganica.com in 2000 as an online community for vegan artists and musicians (website now de-funked).
In 2001 I began photographing events and animals for Farm Sanctuary and also became the photography advisor for VegNews magazine. My photographs of sanctuary farm animals have since been published in hundreds of magazines, newspapers and books around the world. Some of the them were featured in the book Ninety-Five: Meeting America's Farmed Animals in Stories and Photographs.
VEGAN RADIO
In 2005 a community radio station called ValleyFree Radio launched in Northampton and I decided a show about veganism would be just the thing. In October of 2005 Vegan Radio made its debut and featured me and my co-hosts Megan Shackelford and Scott Lahteine. Together we covered news stories and events, interviewed vegans and animal rights activists, and played music by vegans. The broadcast shows were digitized and made into podcasts. Vegan Radio was one of the earliest and most popular vegan podcasts. In December of 2005 I received Farm Sanctuary's Outstanding Activist Award.
At Farm Sanctuary in Orland, CA.
2006 was the year that I got the Good Egg Award from Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary and the "Friend of Farm Animals" Award from Farm Sanctuary. I also began to work part time as a vegan baker and vegan brunch chef at Cafe Evolution in Florence, MA, which I continued doing until the end of 2009. During that time I designed their vegan brunch menu which is (mostly) still offered.
THE VEGAN BUS
The Vegan Bus on its way to Burning Man 2007
Derek Goodwin in the driver’s seat of the Vegan Bus. Photo by Star Drooker.
In late August of 2006 I went to the Burning Man festival and was inspired by the amazing artworks and abundance of creativity among the participants. This event grows in size and scope every year and is shaping culture and art all around the world. I realized the potential that bringing a vegan message to the event could have and in an epiphany came up with the concept of a veggie-powered school bus that would be a vehicle for doing education and outreach about veganism - the Vegan Bus.
In April of 2007 a group of vegan friends and I began fund raising and by August had purchased a full sized school bus and converted it to run on waste vegetable oil (WVO). We took the bus on its maiden voyage of 6000 miles (round trip) from Massachusetts to Nevada to attend the 2007 Burning Man Festival, where we joined with an organization called Vegcamp that did outreach and education at the event.
The New Orleans Vegan Examiner
I moved to New Orleans in January of 2010 and wrote a column at Examiner.com as the New Orleans Vegan Examiner. I also created the website for the NOLA Veggie Fest, and gave a talk on yoga and veganism at the event in 2012.
THE VEGAN YOGI
In the woods of Woodstock Sanctuary
In April of 2012 moved to New York City to work for Jivamukti Yoga as the Web Editor of their new web site, launched in December of that year. Jivamukti Yoga promotes the practice of non-violence towards all beings (ahimsa) as one of the most important aspects of a spiritual path. The website has blogs and discourses promoting veganism and compassion, and is followed internationally. I left the position in 2018 to pursue my own dreams.
TEACHING YOGA: As another way of helping the movement, I taught yoga at the 2012 & 2013 Vegan Spirituality Retreats in Philadelphia, at the NYC Farm Sanctuary Walk for Farm Animals, at the 2013 The Seed event in NYC, and at the 2013-2015 Farm Sanctuary Hoe Downs in Watkins Glen, NY. I organized the Jiva Jam yoga retreat at Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary in 2015, which brought over 200 people to the sanctuary and raised money for the organization.
RECENT WORK
I lived in NYC from April 2012 to June of 2019. I have volunteered my photography services at fundraising events hosted by Mercy for Animals, Farm Sanctuary, Our Hen House, the Coalition for Healthy School Food, and Tamerlaine Sanctuary, to name a few.
In October 2019 I moved to Boulder, Colorado to start the next chapter. This website has been designed and updated since I have been here.
VegNews Vegan Man Issue
I was mentioned in the VegNews magazine March/April 2012 "The Vegan Man Issue" as one of the "vegan men we love." Thanks for that!
Our Hen House
In 2015 I was featured on the Our Hen House TV show in Brooklyn NY. Our Hen House’s TV show, a co-production with Brooklyn Independent Media, ventures into the under-explored world of animals rights with a sense of humor, a passionate heart, and more than a few opinions on the state of animal rights. The show features me playing Big'Ole Vegan Mountains on ukulele, photography of farm animals, talk of yoga (including a handstand demo!), and tasting of vegan nut cheeses that I made.