Wednesday, March 3 – 11am

Public Space 1
Iowa City, Iowa

F@S Session 4: Worm Composting

“Don’t know what to do with your banana peel? What about those coffee grounds? And that moldy takeout?

Why not compost?

Don’t have enough space? Come to 827 E. Market St. #2 to learn how to build a worm compost bin that fits under your sink! If you would like to build your own, please bring two large, plastic bins with lids and some newspaper.”

More:
Worm Composting
Composting With Red Wiggler Worms

[Information and graphic from organization mailing. Cross-posted to The Data Stream.]

Tipitina’s Uptown
501 Napoleon Avenue
New Orleans, LA
ph. 1.504.895-TIPS

February 28 | 1 – 3:30 pm
Sunday Music Workshop Series
Featuring The Johnny Vidacovich Trio

“Resurrecting a program that was popular in the early ’90s, the Tipitina’s Foundation proudly announces the Sunday Music Workshop Series, the brainchild of Stanton Moore and Johnny and Deborah Vidacovich. These free workshops take place every other Sunday fro, when students have the opportunity to play with and learn from the best musicians in the city.

Sunday Music Workshops offer young, aspiring musicians from all walks of life the unique opportunity to play with and learn from some of the area’s most experienced and celebrated musicians. Each workshop offers students a hands-on, improvisational approach to music education. Students should bring their instruments! Each child will have their own chance play with the veteran musicians or solo on the famed Tipitina’s Uptown stage. Usually, workshops close with a jam session mixing students and veteran musicians together for a real Tip’s concert experience! As many of the city’s various music programs have been put on hold since the storm, these workshops are serving a vital need in the rebuilding process: passing on the musical traditions to a younger generation. Featured artists so far have included Stanton Moore, Johnny Vidacovich, Kirk Joseph, and Theresa Anderson. The free on-stage workshops are only for students, but all members of the public are welcome to attend.”

[Text from Tipitina's website. Photo from NolaFunkNYC. Cross-posted to Signal Fire.]

From February 1^st to March 1^st 2010, people are gathering in a storefront in the lower East side of New York, engaging in workshops ranging from the rudiments of the Lindy Hop to the principles of economics, from butter making to Baudrillard, from urban foraging to festival planning. At Trade School, students have the opportunity to participate in courses diverse in their physical, skill based, intellectual, and playful curriculum. Teachers of widely varying practices facilitate these classes, but everyone shares an investment in teaching for trade, not for money. In exchange for offering a workshop, students bring a good that is requested by the instructor.

Near by Essex market on the Lower East Side, Trade School is collaboration between the design company Grand Opening and the peer-to-peer networking organization, OurGoods. Trade School is currently functioning in Grand Opening’s storefront, a space that regularly facilitates innovative projects.

When walking by and glancing through the storefront windows, one would have a difficult time defining the scene Trade School provides. Part Levi Strauss trading junction, part tea party potluck, part modernist schoolhouse, the space is equally inviting and ever changing. Though it functions in a storefront, it is neither a store nor a café, working as its own immutable entity. Dried goods, cooking tools, textbooks, and readers line the left wall. In the front, a table offers a potluck of food that both students and teachers provide. A chalkboard spans the entirety of the right wall, displaying the notes of previous courses ranging from kimchee recipes, song lyrics, and handwritten graphs of various economic principles.

Though innovative for the predominantly currency-based system valuation of the contemporary context, Trade School is based off of a much older model of exchange. People trade skills and goods individually valued as compared to adhering to a predetermined monetary system.  In an ideal setting, the needs of both parties are satisfied by this process.  As co-founder of project School of the Future and Trade School instructor Christopher Kennedy states, “losing currency helps us to focus on what the currency is actually doing.”

Trade School is a success because it provides a structured, regular arena for endlessly evolving exchange. Andrea Liu, Trade School instructor of Baudrillard Camp states, “In a nutshell, I am interested because it is not ossified yet, and it hasn’t been glazed over yet into a package.” Each day, the space transforms: During the day, the storefront serves as a forum for the teachers of the workshops. People use it as a workspace and as an opportunity to potluck both food and ideas. At night, Trade School fills with students, and depending on the nature of the course, the utilitarian furniture constructed by Our Goods founders Caroline Woolard and Rich Watts is rearranged, providing a venue for intimate and large groups. (more…)

Matt Yglesias on the blog thinkprogress.org wrote a post recently concerning a troubling trend in America’s meritocracy: it doesn’t work, at least not as well as in other countries. Except for the United Kingdom, the United States has the lowest level of intergenerational income increase, meaning that, more often than not, people stay put in their parents social class. His data come from a Center for American Progress study. Here’s an illustrative graph:

The data contrast family incomes between late 60s/early 70s and the late 1990s/early 2000s.  While it seems hard to dispute such a comprehensive statistical study, the good news is that there may be other factors at work, at least in a few of the countries above. In the late 1960s, Norway had yet to exploit its substantial oil resources. At the same time, Germany, riven by the Berlin Wall, was emerging from the process of recovering from World War II, as was France. In the later half of the 20th century, however, things got better for Scandinavian and Continental countries. The United Kingdom it seems, however, has less of an excuse. There, stubborn distinctions of class seem to be at work, a barrier to a rising post-war tide that lifted everybody’s boat a bit.

What is to be done, though, in America remains unclear. The U.K. has a far more comprehensive social safety net, as do Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. But since Congress seems incapable of drafting legislation that will help keep the U.S. labor force alive, at least, there’s probably little hope in any effort that seeks to increase social mobility through redistributing wealth, at least as far as political reality is concerned. And, besides, it doesn’t seem to do much for breaking down class in the U.K. Perhaps the answer is more funding for education and school loans. But then that might mean having a less luxurious welfare state for America’s hard working corporate persons. Still, somebody’s got to lose in order for everybody to win.

Dismantling the Corporate State and Other Amusements at Columbia College Chicago’s Center for Book & Paper Arts is a one-woman exhibition of work by Anne Elizabeth Moore, artist, media activist, editor of the now-defunct Punk Planet, founding editor of the Best American Comics series, and author of Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity. The exhibition includes zines, video, and ephemera that chronicle Moore’s tireless work as a thorn in the side of corporate media and marketing culture and as an advocate of DIY culture.

Emblematic of Moore’s corporate parodies is “Operation: Pocket Full of Wishes,” in which she produced cards parodying shopping guide cards at the American Girl Place store. Her cards, displayed in the exhibition, offered such consumer goods as Domestic Partner Benefits, Free Tampons, Ample Career Opportunities, Safe, Legal Abortion Access, and Equal Pay for Equal Work. The project eventually caused her to be banned from the store.

Instead of a traditional book tour for her Hey Kidz! Buy This Book: A Radical Primer on Corporate and Governmental Propaganda and Artistic Activism for Short People, Moore went on a Radical Education Roadshow, teaching kids to create their own media with a zine called “How to make this very zine.” The show includes a plethora of examples of small zines made by kids she worked with. In a similar vein, but with more overtly political ramifications, is the collaborative project “New Girl Law,” in which young Cambodian women leaders collaborated with Moore on a revision of the Cambodian “Girl Law,” a restrictive code of behavior that, while no longer officially law, continues forcefully to shape gender norms. Together Moore and the 32 Cambodian women produced a text that was then letter-pressed and hand-bound in Rhode Island and calls for “basic human rights, gender equity, the eradication of corruption, and funding for cultural production…a re-envisioning of a potential future for the country.”

The exhibition also displays documentation from The Unlympics, held in winter 2009 as a series of alternative games and open discussions on Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid that brought attention to the potential cost to taxpayers of the event, the displacement of low-income residents, and issues of incarceration in Illinois. The Unlympics included such sports as Class-Conscious Kickball, Live Action Role Play Family Dinner, and The Solitary Isolation Game. Planning is underway for Summer Unlympics to take place in September 2009.

“Amusement” is key: Moore consistently mixes a sense of fun in with utopian imagining and fierce critique, demonstrating that activism does not have to be dour. While most of her work is thoroughly collaborative, she also spoofs corporate brand identity by making her personal identity a brand. At the exhibition’s closing festivities, on Friday, August 21 at 6:30pm, Anne Elizabeth Moore will present The Anne Elizabeth Moore Award for Excellence in Awesomeness. In the running this year are Anne Elizabeth Moore and some candidates other than Anne Elizabeth Moore.

The exhibition opened June 19 and runs until August 22, 2009. Columbia College Chicago’s Center for Book & Paper Arts is located at 1104 S. Wabash (2nd floor), in Chicago, IL.

Emory Douglas, Revolutionary Artist and former Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party, will discuss his work at the opening of the exhibition, “Emory Douglas: Black Panther” at the New Museum in New York City tomorrow evening (Thursday, July 23 at 7:00 PM). Currently on display (until October 18, 2009) are approximately 165 posters, newspapers and prints from the 1960’s and 70’s.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Harlem’s Studio Musem and The Groundswell Collective are co-sponsoring a mural, titled “What We Want, What We Believe”, on 122nd St. and Third Avenue. This permanent public artwork — Douglas’ first in New York City — will be created collaboratively by Emory Douglas, the Studio Museum, Groundswell, and up to 15 teens who will learn the social and political history of the Black Power movement as well as the history of printmaking and mural painting.

Americans Who Tell The Truth is a book by artist Robert Shetterly, containing fifty portraits and short biographies of Americans who uphold the values of America and speak the truth even in times where this may be difficult. It is aimed at middle and high school students for use in classrooms, but can be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in art or politics. Shetterly was inspired to create the book after September 11th, when in the wake of tragedy, he saw not a reassessment of our economic, environmental and military goals, but rather “a validation of terrorism…because if one looks at US foreign policy, the common denominator is energy, oil in particular.” On a search for American icons that have, rather than leading us into conflict, lead us into truth, restraint, compassion and wisdom, he wanted to share the people that he found. He tells more about his story and inspiration in his artist’s statement. In addition, the website has an exhibit itinerary and he frequently visits middle schools, high schools and colleges around the US. 

His book obviously includes beautiful portraits (a sampling shown below), but is especially unique because it is geared for a learning environment – for young adults who need good examples of what it means to be a leader in society. In the wake of blasphemies like this absurd debate in Texas, books like this that combine beautiful art and education about the true heroes of America are much needed. For more information about Americans Who Tell The Truth or to donate to the project, follow the first link to the main page. 

In the fall of 2008 Cornerstone Theater Company partnered with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network to form Teatro Jornalero Sin Fronteras- Day Laborer Theater Without Borders. This unique traveling theater troupe, comprised of 12 day laborers from Los Angeles, performs original short plays that highlight the daily struggles of life (and work) of day laborers without documentation. The troupe performs for their peers, hoping to not only to entertain them, but to empower and inform their community.

Since November the troupe has given over 40 performances to more than 3,000 day laborers at work centers located throughout Los Angeles County. These dedicated actors give voice to the stories and concerns of their community and continue to work to improve their lives.

Be sure to follow Teatro Jornalero Sin Fronteras on their blog, and on facebook.

Articles on the group: CS Monitor via CAN, and LA Downtown News

The College of Tactical Culture (CLC) presented by Eyebeam’s Summer School is a free lecture series/creative think tank which starts tonight (July 2nd) in NYC and goes every Thursday until the 23rd. The purpose of CLC is to help encourage the creative use of technologies for personal expression, activism, communication and more. Questions about measuring the impact of work, what we can take away from popular culture, the use of humor to get a message across and many other topics will be discussed. 

The list of lecturers along with more information is listed here. CLC is a great opportunity to network, discuss and learn more about creative uses for technology. But, remember, it starts tonight, so get ready.

The image above was created by Coca-Cola Company to help support UK Recycle Week. Though the point can be made that really what they did was cover a beautiful English cliff top with old aluminum cans, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on this one. The spectacular artwork, called Precious Metal, is made from solely aluminum cans an inspired by a classic Coca-Cola ad from the 50s. The title is supposed to remind us that old cans aren’t simply just pieces of trash, but rather precious metal with a multitude of uses. According to TreeHugger, Coke is backing up the message by working with Waste & Resources Action Programme to establish recycling stations in public spaces like shopping centers, airports and theme parks. In addition, they have released the following video that discusses not only the artwork but also ways to recycle metals. Coca-Cola, I am impressed by you.