Mark Mathew Braunstein (born August 6, 1951)
is an American writer, nature photographer, art librarian, and advocate of
medical marijuana legalization. His writing focuses on the topics of
vegetarianism
Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter.
Vegetarianism may ...
/
veganism
Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. ...
, 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
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. His parents were Benjamin and Clare (Pitalon) Braunstein. Benjamin Braunstein (died 2005) was a book critic and a literature and journalism teacher at
Bayside High School, Queens, New York City.
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
Gibson is an unincorporated community located within Gibson Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeas ...
.
[
In 1969, Mark Braunstein graduated from ]Farmingdale High School
Farmingdale High School is a public high school located in Farmingdale, Nassau County, New York, and is the only high school operated by the Farmingdale Union Free School District.
The school also serves East Farmingdale and a portion of North ...
(Farmingdale, New York
Farmingdale is an incorporated Political subdivisions of New York#Village, village on Long Island within the Oyster Bay (town), New York, Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, New York (state), New York. The population was ...
) In 1974 he received his B.A.[ degree from the ]State University of New York at Binghamton
The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public research university with campuses in Binghamton, Vestal, and Johnson City, New York. It is one of the four university centers in the State ...
. In 1978 he received a Master of Science degree at Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...
, Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
.
From 1978 to 1980, Braunstein was Editor at Rosenthal Arts Slides, Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
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, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
. 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
The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...
in Providence
Providence often refers to:
* Providentia, the divine personification of foresight in ancient Roman religion
* Divine providence, divinely ordained events and outcomes in Christianity
* Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island in the ...
. Since 1987, he has been an art curator and art librarian at Connecticut College
Connecticut College (Conn College or Conn) is a private liberal arts college in New London, Connecticut. It is a residential, four-year undergraduate institution with nearly all of its approximately 1,815 students living on campus. The college w ...
, New London, Connecticut
New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States, located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut. It was one of the world's three busiest whaling ports for several decades ...
.
Braunstein has been a vegetarian since 1966 and a vegan since 1970.
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
''Between the Species: A Journal for the Study of Philosophy and Animals'' (formerly ''Between the Species: A Journal of Ethics'' and ''Between the Species: An Online Journal for the Study of Philosophy and Animals'', also known as ''BTS'') is a p ...
'', ''Vegetarian Times
''Vegetarian Times'' is an American publication focused on food, culture, health and lifestyle for vegetarians, vegans, and all people interested in plant-based eating. ''Vegetarian Times'' promotes an eco-friendly lifestyle with recipes, and he ...
'', '' 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.
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 and has been an advocate of medical marijuana
Medical cannabis, or medical marijuana (MMJ), is cannabis and cannabinoids that are prescribed by physicians for their patients. The use of cannabis as medicine has not been rigorously tested due to production and governmental restrictions ...
legalization. He testified before committees of the Connecticut legislature seven times over 14 years, urging passage of bills to legalize medical marijuana.
Braunstein, after discovering that some prostitutes
Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...
were meeting with clients on his private road, began documenting their lives. 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", which explores the lives of streetwalkers in the New London, Connecticut, area.Quaker Hill, Connecticut
Quaker Hill is a village or neighborhood in the town of Waterford, in the southeastern part of Connecticut, USA.
It is located in the northeast corner of the town, on the west bank of the Thames River (around Smith Cove) north of New London, and ...
.
Books
* LCC
2009024467
Foreword by Viktoras Kulvinskas
The Hippocrates Health Institute (HHI) is a nonprofit organization in West Palm Beach, Florida, USA, originally co-founded in 1956 in Stoneham, Massachusetts, by Lithuanian-born Viktoras Kulvinskas and Ann Wigmore.
The Hippocrates Health Instit ...
.
**
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* LCC
99014286
*
* LCC
2013002999
*
**
* LCC
2018966460
*Braunstein, Mark Mathew (2022-07-17).
Mindful Marijuana Smoking: Health Tips for Cannabis Smokers
'. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group is an independent publishing house founded in 1949. Under several imprints, the company offers scholarly books for the academic market, as well as trade books. The company also owns the book distributing compa ...
. ISBN 978-1538156674
LCCN 2021051061
Articles
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See also
*Animal protectionism
Animal protectionism is a position within animal rights theory that favors incremental change in pursuit of non-human animal interests. It is contrasted with abolitionism, the position that human beings have no moral right to use animals, and ought ...
*Animal Rights
Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding suffering—should be afforded the sa ...
*Hunt sabotage Hunt sabotage is the direct action that animal rights activists and animal liberation activists undertake to interfere with hunting activity.
Anti-hunting campaigners are divided into hunt saboteurs and anti-hunt monitors to monitor for cruelty a ...
*Medical cannabis
Medical cannabis, or medical marijuana (MMJ), is cannabis and cannabinoids that are prescribed by physicians for their patients. The use of cannabis as medicine has not been rigorously tested due to production and governmental restrictions ...
*Drugs and prostitution
Drugs and prostitution have been documented to have a direct correlation.
Drug use tended to predate prostitution among low-level prostitutes with the connection most likely due to economic necessity. Low-level prostitutes tended to use depressan ...
Notes
External links
*
* TV documentary about Braunstein's injury & recovery from his plunge into paraplegia by diving off a footbridge into a river.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Braunstein, Mark Mathew
1951 births
Living people
20th-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American non-fiction writers
American animal rights scholars
American people with disabilities
American veganism activists
Binghamton University alumni
Farmingdale High School alumni
Jewish American writers
People with paraplegia
Pratt Institute alumni
Raw foodists