Author: Lois

Open post

“The Longest Straw” an award winning film by L.A. Eco-Villager Samantha Bode, Friday, June 8, 2018 at 7pm at L.A. Eco-Village (north end)

The Longest Straw draws a connection between the water that supports a city and that water’s source. Samantha Bode, director, moved to Los Angeles and immediately fell in love with the abundant sunshine, the warm air, and the exotic plants of Southern California. But, she noticed within the city of Los Angeles the plants were very much like her native North East Pennsylvania. Green grass and tall trees grew everywhere, but there was no obvious source of water and it rarely ever rained. Where did all the water come from?

Samantha embarks on a journey up the Los Angeles Aqueducts and the Mono Extension, the original source of Los Angeles’ imported water. During one of the worst droughts in California history, Samantha laces up her

boots and sets off at the Los Angeles Aqueducts Cascades in Sylmar, CA. The audience follows her north and east for 65 days as she struggles through the rugged terrain of the Mojave and Great Basin deserts and loses herself in the shadow of the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains. She speaks with historians, community leaders and local residents, as well as employees of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), the operators of the city’s aqueduct. Through Samantha’s inquisitive nature, the audience gains a deeper understanding of the economic, ecological, and societal impacts of water importation and deportation on communities, as well as the future of Los Angeles’ water.

The Longest Straw emphasizes the need for more local water sources in Los Angeles through reuse and conservation, storm water capture, native landscaping, and grey water and black water education and treatment. The aqueduct can be viewed as a microcosm for ecological and resource struggle around the world. Too often in the world of instant gratification humans mistake temporary abundance for never-ending supply. The Longest Straw heightens awareness that the resources that civilization uses to thrive and survive are often shared by various communities; human, animal, and plant. By working together, humanity can ensure the future of reliable freshwater for all.

EVENT DETAILS
Date & Times:      Friday, June 8, 2018
7pm:        Veggie potluck (zero waste event: bring your own non-throw-away eating ware)
7:45pm:   Intros and announcements
8:00pm   Screening: “The Longest Straw”
9:30:        Q&A, discussion

Location:
3554 West First Street
Los Angeles Eco-Village – north end
Los Angeles 90004

***Please note: We have changed our location to one building north of 117 Bimini in the north end of Los Angeles Eco-Village ***

   ****Enter thru gate on Bimini Pl. just south of First St.*****

Fee:        Fee:  $5 to $15 donation* (self selected sliding scale or 2.5 Time dollars to CRSP.   Pay your cash donation at the door or make checks out to “CRSP”
NO ONE WILL BE TURNED AWAY FOR LACK OF FUNDS

GETTING HERE:
Please walk, bike or use our multi-billion dollar transit system.

Driving? Parking may be difficult.

Biking?  Please park your bike inside the yard at the event space

Directions:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/3554+W+1st+St,+Los+Angeles,+CA+90004/@34.0728044,-118.292883,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x80c2c7668aba9a0b:0xae768a55056c278b!8m2!3d34.0728044!4d-118.2906889?hl=en

 Samantha “Sam” Bode

About Samantha Bode:
Sam  is a film and television maker and lives in the Los Angeles Eco-Village where she actively demonstrates low impact living patterns and a high quality of life. Throughout the 10 years of her career, she has had the wonderful opportunity to be creative in a range of programming, from shows about Africa and it’s descendants, to short news pieces produced by at risk youth in the Los Angeles area, to documentaries about creating your own reality through open source projects and urban farming. The Longest Straw is her first film directing endeavor and is winner of the 2017 New Urbanism Film Festival Best Healthy Cities Film. When not making films or attending Eco-Village meetings, Sam can be found exploring the vast landscapes of  the American west and south west.

 

Los Angeles Eco-Village is celebrating its 25th anniversary all year long.
Plan to attend more events featuring the work of our  creative and activist members.

 

Open post

Earth Day Tea in the Street at L.A. Eco-Village: Sunday, April 22, 2018 from 2 to 5pm

Traffic calming tea in the intersection of Bimini and White House Place. circa 1993

As many of you know, LAEV has a long history of traffic calming activities. Tea in the intersection of Bimini and White House Place was a fairly frequent traffic calming activity back in the early to mid 1990s.  In those olden days, we did it just to meet neighbors who were always in their cars.  They would slow down and roll down their windows and ask, “What are you crazy people doing in the middle of the street?”

And we would enthusiastically reply, “Well we never get to meet you and other neighbors because you’re always in your cars, so why don’t you park and come have some tea with us.”  And often they did.

 

Now we have an equally important reason for neighbors and friends to come have tea with us in the intersection:  we want you to sign our petition to get big polluting delivery trucks to relocate their delivery service on Vermont instead of Bimini.  Often these trucks are lined up 3 and 4 at a time on Bimini with engines running, waiting to get into the Bimini-facing delivery dock for Seafood City.

So please walk, bike or bus on over on Sunday, April 22, 2018, between 2pm and 5pm to:

  • Just hang out with us, and
  • Sign the petition, and
  • Meet more neighbors, and
  • Share what your favorite planet saving activities have been this year, and
  • And what you plan for the coming year.

Please bring your own cup.  We’ll provide the tea, sun shade, and cookies.

EVENT DETAILS
Date & Time:       Sunday, April 22, 2018, come anytime between 2 to 5pm
Location:              The intersection of Bimini and White House Place in Los Angeles Eco-Village, LA 90004
Bring:                    Your own non-throwaway cup
Admission:           Free, no reservations needed, come anytime between 3 and 5pm.

Los Angeles Eco-Village is celebrating our 25th Anniversary all year long:  1993 to 2018.  Come hang out with us and share your stories about your experiences here.

 

Open post

Explorations in Nature – Closing Public Reception Sunday, April 29 from 3 to 5pm at L.A. Eco-Village

Free admission, NO reservations needed.
Refreshments.
Come celebrate the conclusion of this 8 week workshop and the beautiful work of the participating children.

Sunday, April 29, 2018 from 3 to 5 pm at
L.A. Eco-Village
117 Bimini Pl
Courtyard
Los Angeles 90004

Explorations in Nature is a unique 9 week art program for children 3 through 8 and their parents or guardians that use the visual arts to develop deeper connections between children and their experience of the natural world.  This program is made possible in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs and CRSP in association with the Urban Soil-Tierra Urbana Housing Co-op and the Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust.

Led by Artist in Residence Sylvette Frazier, creator of Connecting Children to Art in Nature, classes feature emphasis on creating art in an eco-conscious format, culminating with a public exhibition and collaborative nature weave.

Open post

Mushrooms and Oil Contamination Introductory Workshop #2: Sunday, May 6, 2018 at L.A. Eco-Village

Second in a series of Mushroom remediation events

DATE AND TIME:  Sunday, May 6, 2018 from 10:30am to 1pm

OTHER EVENT DETAILS:

WHERE: 
Songs at Los Angeles Eco-Village
3554 West First St.
Los Angeles 90004
Enter thru chain link gate on Bimini Place just so. of W. First St.

FEE:
$10 to $25 (self selected sliding scale)

RESERVATIONS REQUIRED:
crsp@igc.org   or 213/738-1254

MORE INFO: 
crsp@igc.org or 213-738-1254

Mycelium,  mushrooms, mycological remediation, fungi: it comes with many names, but what seems certain is that fungi of various varieties can go a long way toward cleaning up the industrial messes that have been contaminating our places and spaces since the beginnings of the industrial revolution, and even the mess that some of the ancients created, though not nearly as extensively as we have in these more contemporary times.

So, what to do, besides just dig the soil up and cart it away!  Here in the Los Angeles Eco-Village, we’ve just said No! to that!  Away?? Where’s “Away” anyway?  A “hazardous waste facility?”  A conventional landfill?  Someone else’s backyard?

Some of us here think, no matter who made the mess, it’s our place now, and we should learn to clean it up here where we’re at, because our sense of “away” for bad stuff, is that there is no “away!”

Public agencies have been helping to make that happen in a variety of ways with, for example, the US-Environmental Protection Agency’s Super-Fund sites, and to a lesser extent with a wide variety of Brownfields** throughout the country.  Cities, Counties and States, too, have been helping fund many of these clean-ups  that dig and haul soil “away.”  It’s expensive but it’s quick!  And with most developers, time is money, and everyone wants stuff to happen quickly.

Songs, a former auto  repair shop

But in the times we are living in, those monies are getting scarce, and we can only see them getting scarcer in the future, as we continue to accelerate our penchant for making our cities and rural lands more and more contaminated, not only with the devastating toxics of hydrocarbon derivatives, and toxic heavy metals in our soils, but with the poisons fostered upon our food supply, even as GMO seeds and toxic pesticides and herbicides drift onto organic farms and sometimes contaminated waters are used to irrigate the land.

We have decided to take matters into our own hands: to learn as much as we can about phyto-technologies  or bio-remediation.  These are technologies that use plants, trees, micro-organisms, fungi, air, and water to break down or take up both organic and inorganic toxins to render them harmless.  Granted the inorganic contaminants’ for example lead, copper, cadmium, etc.; take longer, but we can learn patience and how to respect these biological resources as they make their magic happen.

Our long time friend, Jim Bledsoe–artist, self-taught fungi activist, bicycle activist, inventor, carpenter, fixer–will lead us in a micro demonstration for remediating the oil contaminated concrete floor at Songs*.

We invite you to come learn with us.

———————————-

*CRSP will be sponsoring a variety of phyto-technology workshops on the new property in the north corner of the Los Angeles Eco-Village demonstration neighborhood, known as Songs, in the coming years.  We will be promoting these workshops to community groups throughout the Los Angeles area that are dealing with contaminated soils in their neighborhoods.

**A Brownfield is any site that is actually contaminated or perceived to be contaminated.  The property that CRSP purchased a little over a year ago is a brownfield with a variety of toxins in the soils and inside the buildings

Los Angeles Eco-Village is celebrating our 25th Anniversary all year long:  1993 to 2018.  Come hang out with us and share your stories about your experiences here.

Open post

The Soul of Soil* and the Ecocity Future of Los Angeles – Sat July 14, 2018 at L.A. Eco-Village from 1pm to midnight

Christian Arnsperger

Christian Arnsperger returns to LA Eco-Village for the third year.  And we welcome Kreigh Hampel , Richard Register, and Gideon Sussman from BuroHappold , and you, our neighbors, friends and colleagues for a special day of interacting with a few of the world’s most creative thinkers for healing and transforming  our Cities into  resilient eco-systems where health and justice prevail.

 

EVENT DETAILS:

When: 
Saturday, July 14, 2018 from 1pm to midnight or any part of the day as noted on the schedule below

 Where:
3554 West First Street – Songs Hall and Yard,
North end of Los Angeles Eco-Village on our new property
Enter on Bimini just south of First St.,  Los Angeles 90004

Reservations required:
crsp@igc.org or 213/738-1254

Fees (sliding scale):
Afternoon sessions, 1 to 5:15pm:  $10 – $25 or 4.5 TimeDollars** to CRSP
Catered Dinner, 5:15 to 7pm: $15 to $20 Cash or check to CRSP
Evening sessions,7pm to midnight:  $15 to $30 or 5 TimeDollars** to CRSP
All sessions: $30 to $50 with dinner, or 7 TimeDollars for sessions only** plus cash or check made out to CRSP for dinner.  Pay at the door.

**Note: TimeDollars to CRSP ok for talks; cash or check to CRSP required for dinner.  TimeDollrs are a local currency only available to members of the ArroyoSeco Network of TimeBanks


What the day will look like though there may still be some changes, so stay tuned:

1 – 2pm:
Veggie potluck lunch and registration – Songs Yard.  Please bring your own non-throwaway eating ware to make this a zero waste event.

     Gideon Sussman

2 – 3:30pm: Gideon Susman, PhD,  BuroHappold

       Peggy Nguyen

Lead Engineer for Songs Redevelopment Team; Ian McIlvaine, AIA, CRSP Board President; and Peggy Nguyen, Restoration Ecologist  take  “A Look Back for a More Resilient Future” –  Songs Hall

 

  Ian McIlvaine

3:30 – 3:45pm     Break

      Kreigh Hampel

3:45 – 5:15pm  Kreigh Hampel, Recycling Coordinator, City of Burbank talks on:  “How Mulch Good Can We Do? Satellite imaging,  microbial intelligence, the historic role of discarded nutrients, and a group exploration into the enormous potential for regenerative urban farming.”  – Songs Hall

Anaisabel         Mercado

 

Jimmy Lizama and Yuki Kidokoro

5:15 – 7:00pm     Vegan Dinner – catered for $s by L.A. Eco-Villager Anaisabel Mercado or bring our own – Songs Yard:  Evening Registration, Announcements, Intros and

Jessica Ruvalcaba

Special  GUEST DINNER SPEAKERS who are “Living the Change”, including L.A. Eco-Villagers:   Jimmy Lizama, bicycle activist and founder  of Relampago Wheelery: Yuki Kidokoro, Climate Justice Alliance National Organizer; and Jessica Ruvalcaba, Waldorf teacher/Mom/artist/award winning Filmmaker

     Richard Register

7::00pm – 8:30pm  Richard Register, internationally renown urbanist, founder of the world-wide Ecocities conferences, and visionary  revolutionary talks on “The LA Soil My Ecocity Ideas Grew Out Of – and Where They’re Headed”

8:30 – 8:45pm      Break

8:45 – 10:15pm    Christian Arnsperger, Economic Anthropologist, University of Lausanne will talk about the “Permacircularity and Human Permaculture for a New L.A.: The Wisdom of Ecocity Fractals and the Cultivation of Urban Tribes”– Songs Yard

10:15 – 10:30pm  Break

10:30 – 11pm       Wrap-up panel and dialog with participants – Songs Yard

11pm – midnight:   Collaborative reading of “The Spirit of Bimini” by T.H. Culhane – late night snacks or we might save this for another event.  Let’s see how we feel. – Songs Yard

      Samantha Bode

This event in part or whole will be videotaped led by L.A. Eco-Villager and award winning filmmaker Samantha Bode

This event sponsored by CRSP in association with:
– Urban Soil-Tierra Urbana Limited Equity Housing Cooperative
– The Beverly/Vermont Community Land Trust
– The Permaculture Academy
– Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
– Solidarity Research Center
– StreetsblogLA

Does your organizations or Agency want to be a co-sponsor to help spread the word?  Let us know, and we’ll add you to this list: 213/738-1254 or crsp@igc.org

——————–

*Note that this may be the first of a series on “The Soul of Soil”.  We have borrowed this theme name from the book of the same title by Joseph Smillie and Grace Gershuny  whom we hope to host at LAEV someday.

 

In Celebration of the 25th Anniversary
of the Los Angeles Eco-Village

 

Open post

Overview: Sociocracy for Ecovillages and Other Kinds of Intentional Communities – Sunday, March 18, 2018 from 4 to 6:30pm at L.A. Eco-Village

In Celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Eco-Village

 

In a lively presentation with hands-on exercises, Diana Leafe Christian will present an overview of Sociocracy, an especially effective governance and decision-making method she now recommends highly instead of consensus for ecovillages and other kinds of intentional communities, because of the wonderful benefits. When used correctly, communities have experienced better meetings, getting more done, being better organized, and a stronger sense of connection between group members. This Sociocracy overview will give you a sense of what Sociocracy is and how it works. However, people learn how to _do_ this method and apply it in their community in a 3-day Sociocracy training, which Diana will do here May 19-21.

EVENT DETAILS

DATE & TIME:
Sunday, March 18, 2018 from 4pm to 6:30pm

LOCATION:
Los Angeles Eco-Village
117 Bimini Pl. – Community Room #201
Los Angeles 90004

FEE:
$5 to $15 sliding scale

RESERVATIONS REQUIRED:
crsp@igc.org
or
213-738-1254

*Sociocracy (also called Dynamic Governance) is a system of governance using consent decision making and an organizational structure based on cybernetic principles (a system with closed feedback mechanisms). Sociocracy has been advocated as a management system that distributes leadership and power throughout the organization.

Watch for Diana’s three day Sociocracy workshop at L.A. Eco-Village, Sat-Sun-Mon,  May 19, 20, 21, 2018

 

 

Open post

Ecovillage Social Enterprises/Cottage Industries — Why We Need Them! Sat., March 17, 2018: veggie potluck at 6:30; slideshow/talk at 7:30pm with Diana Leafe Christian at L.A. Eco-Village

In Celebration of the 25th Anniversary of Los Angeles Eco-Village

Diana Leafe Christian through a lively presentation and slide show, will show how large, well-established communities have established healthy community economies through supporting individual members’ cottage industries  — “social enterprises” — and by encouraging their members to earn, spend, invest, and, when possible, even save money onsite, and how smaller and newer communities can do the same. Inspiring success stories as well as cautionary tales from ecovillages worldwide, including Crystal Waters in Australia, the Farm in Tennessee, Dancing Rabbit in Missouri, EcoVillage at Ithaca in New York, Findhorn in Scotland, Earthaven in North Carolina, and of course our own Los Angeles Eco-Village.


EVENT DETAILS:

DATE & TIME:
Saturday, March 17, 2018
Veggie Potluck at 6:30pm*
Talk begins at 7:30pm
* please bring your own non throw-away eating ware to make this a zero waste event

LOCATION
Los Angeles Eco-Village
117 Bimini Place – Lobby or Community Room
Los Angeles 90004

FEE:
$5 to $15 sliding scale

RESERVATIONS REQUIRED:
mailto:crsp@igc.org
or 213-738-1254

 

About Diana

Author, former editor of Communities magazine, and nationwide speaker and workshop presenter on starting new ecovillages, on building communities, and on sustainability, Diana lives in an off-grid homestead at Earthaven Ecovillage in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, She has said that living in an intentional community “is the longest, most expensive, personal growth workshop you will ever have.

She’s authored two books designed to help people who want to join or start their own ecovillages or other intentional communities,

In her book Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools for Growing Ecovillages and Intentional Communities, she uses success stories, cautionary tales, and step-by-step advice to cover typical time-frames and costs; the role of founders; getting started as a group; vision documents; power, governance, and decision-making; legal structures; finding and financing land; zoning issues; sustainable site plans; selecting new members; and good process and communication skills for dealing well with conflict.

In Finding Community: How to Join an Ecovillage or Intentional Community, she covers researching, visiting, evaluating, and joining communities.

More about Diana and her wide reaching influence on the intentional communities movement here

 

 

 

Open post

California Co-op Conference – San Diego – April 29-30, 2018

Click here for the Conference Brochure PDF

The conference will be held at theMarina Village Conference Center,
1936 Quivira Way, San Diego, which offers a beautiful view of the bay, and the convenience of a location near San Diego airport.

Conference workshops reveal how cooperatives revitalize and fortify local economies by creating jobs, housing, and locally owned businesses!

Pre-Conference: Saturday, April 28th: A full day intensive training on Sociocracy.

Keynote, Monday, 4/30: Building a Better World: The Case for a Cooperative Economy, Vernon Oakes

Start Your Registration Here!

Conference sponsor: California Center for Cooperative Development: www.cccd.coop
in association with co-sponsors:
U.S. Dept of Agriculture Rural Development
Cooperative Center Federal Credit Union
Pachamama Coffee Cooperative
North Island Credit Union
Tuttle Law Group
Alvarado St. Bakery
North Coast Co-op
Briar Patch Food Co-op
Shared Capital Cooperative
Food Co-op Initiative
Davis Food Co-op
Sun Anza
National Cooperative Bank
Capital Impact Partners
Sacramento Natural Food Co-op
University Cooperative Housing Association
Sustainable Economies Law Center

If you would like to become a conference sponsor  please follow this link for more information.

California Center for Cooperative Development (CCCD) is a non-profit and depends on people like you for support. CCCD members receive a discount on conference fees. CCCD is an equal opportunity provider and employer. Please click here to become a member of CCCD. Your membership contribution is considered a tax deductible donation.

 

Open post

Global Ecovillage Conference (GEN) Europe Conference – July 10 – 14, 2018 – Lilleoru, Estonia

Conference theme:  The Wisdom of Conscious Communities”

Including July 10, 2018: Co-Creation Day: How can we make Estonia the first organic country in the world.

The conference will bring together 500 sustainable experts, practitioners and visionaries from all over the world.

Go here for conference details:
http://gen2018.ee/?lang=en&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=genestonia100

For more information on the Global Ecovillage Network, go here

If you live in the Los Angeles area and are planning to go to this conference, please let me know:
Lois – 213/738-1254

 

 

Open post

Regional Cohousing Conference in Boulder CO April 20-22, 2018

Posts navigation

1 2 3 … 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 … 28 29 30
Scroll to top