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What is this? This google doc is a collective resource, a knowledge commons, an open source compendium to store and share material related to living in harmony, arts-based research, community-based land stewardship and all the myriad subjects under those giant umbrellas

How should I use it?

Dig into it, share it, and feel free to use comments to call out any suggestions, corrections, praise, critiques or relevant personal findings. There’s a section at the end of the doc to drop in additional links and resources which Jessa (this document’s tender) will review and integrate into an appropriate section. If you find delight in info architecture or info design please help make this space even more compelling and easy to use.

*anything underlined in these slides are hyperlinks - even if they’re not blue.

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LAND LAND.

looks like rural and urban spaces that blend aspects of pre-existing models like intentional communities, co-ops, residencies, and collectives to practice arts-based research and ethical land stewardship. not a pastiche of the back-to-the-land communes. We integrate vetted technologies & healing modalities to enable a connected and active reciprocity with the wild world, its rhythms, its lessons, its mysteries. We will broaden the scope of our awareness to encompass critical inquiry and radical compassion.

We’re seeking others to join us who have the knowledge and experience of farming, facilitating, building, infrastructure design, alternative economics, healing, tech, cultural programming, accessibility, interpersonal / group dynamics and systems thinking to help develop systems of longevity within the community. Members will be encouraged to travel and rent their spaces or arrange for workstay trades to maintain a constant flow of energy and exposure to the new and the different. Additional collective spaces will remain available for artist residencies, screenings, workshops, talks, parties, harvests, collective selling streams, and ongoing educational programming in partnership with sister spaces / groups in cities across the globe.

Achieving all of this requires personal development tools and processes that allow for vulnerability, self awareness and an ability to share power. The land will be a place to practice all of this with intention in real time.

Our digital spaces, will allow us to share our best practices in all realms, help us connect individuals and groups to shared goals and progress made towards them, keep our fire lit and help us manage and redistribute the wealth of knowledge and experiences we receive.

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We believe that liberation is possible by way of :

inner work & inquiry

creative expression

non-dogmatic earth-based spirituality / earth care

healing collective trauma

innovating generative and just systems

humor (a jester’s approach to navigating discomfort and conflict)

Imagination and pragmatism as compliments (not opposites)

beliefs

Our omnidisciplinary collective vows to create :

physical and digital spaces to practice the art of living in balanced reciprocity with everything / everyone that we depend on

accessible content, resources & strategies

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It’s absurd to think that humanity can go on expanding and acquiring infinitely when we exist within the finite limits of our planet and bodies.

Our aim is not sustainability - to keep things going as they are - we are striving for regeneration & transformation.

Our health crisis, climate collapse, economic disparities, gender inequalities, racial injustice, crime and violence are all linked to the imbalance of power seeded by capitalism, supremacy and the delusion that we are separate from each other and the living world that enables our survival and flourishing.

root cause

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goals

2.

Honor and respect the limits of our earth and participate in a reciprocal relationship

3.

Examine the limits of our ability to flourish under the currently dominant conventions/values and incite new methodologies for care, health and joy.

  • equity* and justice for all
  • fluency in the more than human world
  • art & creative expression
  • homegrown and locally sourced food
  • lovingly & ethically made tools for life
  • more time to breathe
  • More time for critical inquiry & process

1.

Test the theory that it’s not belongings but belonging that we really long for.

Belonging may be achieved by :

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*Equality vs. Equity :

I think the difference between equality and equity is taking into account diversity of needs, preferences, abilities, positions. Equality often means the same for everyone, whereas equity takes into account that the same inputs for everyone does not create the same outcomes for everyone. Equity is also explicit about underlying systems and policy decisions. An example from my discipline (public health) is that when we talk about health disparities or inequalities, we include the fact that many more people assigned female sex at birth people get breast cancer and the fact that cancer clusters exist in areas around toxic plants. The disparity in breast cancer is an inequality but not an inequity, because more people assigned female sex at birth people have more mammary tissue, but the cancer cluster is because a calculation was made that the lives of the people living around the plant are worth less than those of people who live in places where the plant owners would not dare locate. To get a bit more into the example, there is a racial inequity in breast cancer within the (sex-based) inequality. Black women have a higher risk of the more fatal types of breast cancer and a higher risk of fatality if they get breast cancer, which is due to a confluence of human-created inequities in society such as those cancer clusters, racial capitalism determining which neighborhoods are invested in and which aren't, which leads to more abandoned buildings in communities of color which has been shown to increase breast cancer mortality risk, healthcare worker bias, and economic oppression which means Black women are less likely to have regular high-quality healthcare. Even narrative stereotypes of the "strong, Black woman" contribute to this inequity as Black patients complaints of pain are often not taken as seriously. Here's a nice graphic that also shows these concepts: https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Finteractioninstitute.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F01%2FIISC_EqualityEquity.png&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Finteractioninstitute.org%2Fillustratin

  • Alison Chopel

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Values & beliefs (how we work towards our vision)

  • generation of joy, healing, abundance & gratitude

  • reciprocity (equal giving and receiving) within all relationships

  • honesty & transparency

  • inclusivity to those that value and honor all races, bodies, ages, expressions of gender & sexuality, all species & ecosystems

  • experimentation and learning from failure over perfection and efficiency

  • quality over quantity

  • expression, art and healing have value equal to or greater than logical or analytical modalities

  • existing in community is essential to health and wholeness

  • redistribution of resources, knowledge and abilities to achieve collective flourishing : currency as medicine

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principles & practices

  • interdependence1 and decentralization2
  • nonlinear3 and iterative change4
  • transformative justice5
  • creating more possibilities, using language that reflects possibilities6
  • decolonized non-violent communication7
  • Intersectional Environmentalism8

8. Intersectional Environmentalism—as stated by environmentalist, Founder and Creative Director of Intersectional Environmentalist, Leah Thomas—is “an inclusive version of environmentalism that advocates for both the protection of people and the planet. It identifies the ways in which injustices happening to marginalized communities and the earth are interconnected. It brings injustices done to the most vulnerable communities, and the earth, to the forefront and does not minimize or silence social inequality.”

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principles & practices defined

1. Interdependence -

2. Decentralized -

3. Non-linear -

4. Iterative change -

5. Transformative justice -

6. Language of possibility -

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principles & practices defined

7. Decolonized Non-Violent Communication - is speaking with clarity, authenticity, body awareness and trauma awareness, is not liberal language policing that denies invisible systems of power and homogenizes the flavors of language. “The decolonial lens asks us to remember that we do not exist in isolation, instead always living in connection and interdependence with the world around us”

8. Intersectional Environmentalism—as stated by environmentalist, Founder and Creative Director of Intersectional Environmentalist, Leah Thomas—is “an inclusive version of environmentalism that advocates for both the protection of people and the planet. It identifies the ways in which injustices happening to marginalized communities and the earth are interconnected. It brings injustices done to the most vulnerable communities, and the earth, to the forefront and does not minimize or silence social inequality.”

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Incubation

We are currently in the phase of research and development with the aim of making public all findings & resources with opportunities to participate in the course of creation. Our financials, partnerships and processes will be fully transparent to ANYONE. Open book, open door, open source open window, open everything.

current status

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Phase 1a : Micro Iterations

Trillium Micro Residencies :

Summer 2021 - Kendra Daily : Exchange Rate Workshop, Slow Fashion Image Making, Botanical Drawings

Fall 2021 - Kim Upstill : Respite & Recovery, Log Carving / Object Creation

Winter 2022 - Seb Choe : Sonic Collaboration, Solidarity / Cooperative Governance, Land Land & Manifesting Mutuals Development

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Phase 1b : Affinity Group

LAND LAND could begin the work of forming by co-creating a container to grow our collective and individual awareness of one another, build trust, learn and practice being a group, understanding each other's needs and alignments.. In-short, an accountability-buddy system or praxis cohort paired with a content aggregator in the form of newsletters, IG feed, knowledge share / study group sessions

Getting to know lifelong community members, funding and finding a physical location takes time, let’s do it while enriching the human mycelia network.

In this phase we :

  • Skill build together, take some trainings like NVC etc

  • Research all agencent entities and make our findings available to the public

  • Set up our entities structure and establish group governance, decision making processes, and financial planning

  • Discover that perhaps a project already exists that we want to be an active contributor to.

  • Lend each other support in pre-existing or spin-off projects.

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Phase 2 : IRL Activation

A rural space comprised of :

Community accommodations

Performance / Festival Space

Art Studios

Recording Studio & Bathhouse (same space)

Fabrication Spaces

Community Library

Seed Library

Gardens / Farm

Commercial Kitchen

Market / Farm Store

Community accommodations : Housing for Full & Part Time prime movers, visiting artists and guests.

Performance / Festival Space : indoor and outdoor spaces to gather and showcase work

Art Studios : Raw spaces as well as built out industrial shop spaces for fabricating artworks

Gardens / Farm : no-till regenerative growing to provide on & off site food (community supported agriculture boxes), carbon sequestration and biodiversity

Commercial Kitchen : enables the hosting of large scale event catering, the creation of food goods to be sold at the farm store and distributed as a community supported kitchen meal service

Market / Farm Store: stocking life supplies on site to prevent the need for frequent travel

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Phase 3 : IRL Activation

An urban or suburban space comprised of :

Cafe / Kitchen

Garden

Community accommodations

Art Studios

Teen Space

Kids Space

Library

Bodega

Gallery

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community agreements (based on activation residency, sister is and full bleed)

***Agreements are intended to be fluid and sturdy, shift with our needs, provide clear pathways for safer engagement, and center the most vulnerable always***

We are multiplicity

Meet people where they are or don’t come. Listen first, gather experienced based foundational knowledge. Suspend judgment and remain curious before becoming critical.

Honor Indigenous Knowledge

Find ways to honor the indigenous people, culture, lands and waters wherever you are; this means not just acknowledging herstory, but transmuting intention into action after thoughtful observation with consent or invitation.

Invest in BIPOC lives

Reparations are due. Solidarity not charity. Shift surplus, build equality, inclusion and access into systems and processes from the jump.

Value Rest and Physicality

Honor the magic that occurs when rest is centered. Rest wherever and whenever possible. YOU HAVE A BODY.

A basic expression of this agreement : listen and respond to body needs - food, sleep, stretch, “gut feelings”, pains and sensations.

The best expression of this agreement : encourage sensorial / experiential exchanges whenever possible - use as many parts of your body as possible on a daily basis. Consider the human bodies role in the larger ecosystem, respect and honor its capacities and limitations. Treat your senses.

Encourage Autonomy, Dismantle Hierarchy,

Clearly Define Roles and Collective Expectations for Each. Develop processes that limit people’s dependencies and help them meet the ones that are inherent and perpetual. Lift each other up.

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community agreements cont.

***Agreements are intended to be fluid and sturdy, shift with our needs, provide clear pathways for safer engagement, and center the most vulnerable always***

What Else is True? (let’s practice the opposite of confirmation bias)

Accountability seeks to support healing without causing further harm, hold contradictory truths - that we can be harmed and cause harm at the same time - and provide safety in holding ourselves and each other accountable. Accountability processes can look like two folks chatting, BATJC pods, mediatory meetings, clearing circles, and conversations centering the needs of those impacted by harm.

Teachers Are students and Students are Teachers

We are not experts but rather, curious people eager to hold space for this work to be done.

Care Before Impact

Caring for yourself is caring for others and vice versa.

Consent

Act with respect for physical, emotional, and spiritual boundaries and needs. We can’t always know what’s traumatizing or triggering and we can’t always know how people will perceiving our words or actions so act with grace and understanding towards each other if consent boundaries are crossed unknowingly.

Antidiscrimation

Move with the intention to be and make actively anti-discriminatory choices. Challenge your own thought process, scrutinize your default programing.

Consider Abundance

We are building in opposition to the scarcity models of white supremacy, capitalism and oppression by sharing and creating resources. A basic expression of this agreement : feeling how rich we are in the present moment and embodying gratitude.

The best expression of this agreement : Enacting generosity without expecting a return on investment in the immediate future or ever and doing this within our means - if we don’t have money, maybe we have time, if we don’t have time maybe we have space, if we can’t offer labor maybe we can offer ideas.

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community agreements cont.

***Agreements are intended to be fluid and sturdy, shift with our needs, provide clear pathways for safer engagement, and center the most vulnerable always***

CONSIDER EVERYTHING AN EXPERIMENT

We are not experts in human evolution, interpersonal affairs or world saving, playbooks are helpful but there is no hard or fast equation. We are creating and creation takes patience, dedication and exquisite risk.

A basic expression of this agreement : put into practice the understanding that every win and every loss are themselves coins with two sides with potential to fall with it’s positive or negative face up. The best expression of this agreement : Each experience has the potential to inform another. The difference between science and messing around is writing it down. Consider the role of the experiment in the scientific process and be attentive to documentation, submitting it for peer review and sharing your results in wider public spheres.

INTEGRATE!

We are complex web of ecosystems that are inextricably linked.

A basic expression of this agreement remembering that every action / non-action / interaction affects the collective. The best expression of this agreement : stop separation mindset before it starts, act like everything is connected because it is.

IF YOU WANT TO GO FAST, GO ALONE. IF YOU WANT TO GO FAR, GO TOGETHER.

An obsession with speed and productivity is a facet of oppression. Planning is best done in advance! Don’t impose personal accelerated timelines on others. Consider, accept and adjust for the pace of the collective.

MAKE NO ASSUMPTIONS

Speak directly, clarify, double check and confirm.

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These are hyperlinks that you can click on to listen, watch, read more about these north star projects

references

/ resources /

crushes

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These are hyperlinks that you can click on to listen, watch, read more about these north star projects

references

/ resources /

crushes

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These are hyperlinks that you can click on to listen, watch, read more about these north star projects

references

/ resources /

crushes

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These are hyperlinks that you can click on to listen, watch, read more about these north star projects

references

/ resources /

crushes

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These are hyperlinks that you can click on to listen, watch, read more about these north star projects

references

/ resources /

crushes

SHELTERWOOD COLLECTIVE

HOLISTIC

PROPS.SUPPLY

AMOENUS

A-Z WEST

WASSAIC PROJECT

FIND CENTER

NEW PEACE

CREATIVE TIME

Mary Mattingly

FEM SYNTH LAB

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These are hyperlinks that you can click on to listen, watch, read more about these north star projects

references

/ resources /

crushes

WEEKSVILLE HERITAGE CENTER

POWER PLANT BROOKLN

INHABIT GLOBAL

TEA AT SHILOH

HUMAN RESOURCES LA

K-HOLE.net

Rehearsal

ALMA BACKYARD GARDEN PROJECT

CRENSHAW DAIRY MART

MEADOWSWEET

THE REVOLUTION SCHOOL

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These are hyperlinks that you can click on to listen, watch, read more about these north star projects

references

/ resources /

crushes

INTERSECTIONAL ENVIRONMENTALISM

FUTURE EARTH

SUPER PLAY GATHERING

USAL PROJECT

TERRENO FAMILIAR / MIGUEL CINTA

NONHUMAN TEACHERS

SALMON CREEK FARM

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COLLECTIVE INQUIRY

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

* Ask the local / native residents near to the land what their needs and values are in order to reassess the object and purpose of the community / determine if its aligned with the land.

MEMBERSHIP PROCESS

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

* Applying members have some prerequisites (like decolonized nonviolent communication training and others TBD) - if they don't have these they can train with us before starting a trial period

COMMUNITY AGREEMENTS & ACCOUNTABILITY

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

* let’s focus on determining the Implicit vs Explicit agreements

DYNAMIC GOVERNANCE & DECISION MAKING

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

* Establish a foundational Decision Making Matrix and how to assign and distribute units of value

(in progress)

ROLES

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

*Establish foundational roles to be shaped by the individuals / committees that will fill them

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GROUP STRUCTURE

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WORKER COOPERATIVE

Co-op Fund Handbook

Downsides : Many states don’t allow outside equity therefore all funding has to come from worker-owners and in certain states like CA worker-owners are only allowed to earn minimum wage, as a result many organizations organize and LLC and implement cooperative bylaws and governance.

Upsides : Adding or removing new worker-owners only required that it be included in the meeting notes, but no additional action is required.

PERPETUAL PURPOSE TRUST

Excerpts from NEXT ECONOMY NOW ; Natalie Reitman-White: Restructuring Organically Grown Co. to a Perpetual Purpose Trust

How do we bring collective flourishing into every aspect of our endeavour from the product we carry or produce, to how we make decisions, to how we own and finance the project and share the return overtime? The purpose is to provide actual value to people and the earth not shareholder value, profit is the byproduct of providing actual value, profit is just one of the outcomes among other more important outcomes that your business creates. Mission first as the reason why we exist and we reinvest profit into that mission and the people who are carrying out that mission. The project is not a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder, it’s an engine for achieving the mission. There are no human beneficiaries of the assets in the Trust, the direct beneficiary is the purpose. No individual can claim personal property rights over the assets in the trust which is all of the company common stock, the trust directs the trustees to use 100% of the assets that are held in the trust to further it’s mission, the purpose for which the trust was established. The trust in this context, unlike a person, will never die and never need to extract income from it. There are 5 stakeholder groups that share in the returns of the company, employees, farmers, community allies and trade associations and investors - all of them share in the returns and the governance but none of them have the private property rights to sell the company overtime. There are no stock holdings, the stock is all held by the trust and since it will never exit none of the company’s money need to be used for stock buyback and 100% of the company money can be used to reinvest in the business and do annual governance and profit sharing with the stakeholders without the complication of stock buybacks, valuations, transfers etc. There’s a deep incentivisation all the way through the structure of your business, into the supply chain and workforce and even your customer base.

Perpetual Purpose Trust from Alternative Ownership Advisory Board

Perpetual Purpose Trust - special session of Next Economy MBA

https://www.eolaw.com/

purpose-economy.org

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L3C

An L3C is structurally exactly the same as an LLC. It has members, managers, an operating agreement, and flexibility with ownership rights. From a legal standpoint L3Cs differ from LLCs in one significant area: profit motive. In general, legislation authorizing the creation of low-profit limited liability companies has three requirements: (1) that the company significantly furthers charitable or educational purposes as defined by the IRS, (2) that no significant purpose of the company is the production of income or appreciation of property, and (3) that no purpose of the company is to accomplish political, legislative, or lobbying activities. This structure makes the L3C a more suitable vehicle for raising capital previously inaccessible to low-profit and non-profit organizations.

L3C model is only allowed in 7 states

L3Cs are geared towards attracting program related investments (PRI) which are like grants in that foundations use them to give money for charitable activities. ... PRIs can help foundations make low-cost financing available for other charitable entities such as social enterprises. Most PRI dollars support affordable housing and community development.

Above excerpt from : L3C - A Hybrid Low Profit Entity

What Is A Program Related Investment

DisCO (Distributed Cooperative Organization)

Some of the primary aspects of a DisCO are :

Making visible the invisible, understanding value in all labor, becoming a source of information sharing

Open-sourced technology that supports care work and transparency.

The belief that “If technology receives investment from existing power structures then it will inevitably reflect the motives of those power structures.”

The belief that Collecting data is challenging - reorientation and self discipline to pay attention to how you spend your time

Co-mentoring - a common responsibility to ourselves and one another to understand the mechanics of the organization- every aspect of its functioning even if it’s not our field of expertise or interest.

A reaction to DAO (decentralized Autonomous organization) because DisCO’s rely on more human to human resolutions and less automation / smart contracts.

Above excerpts from a deep dive into : DisCo Elements

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B-CORP

Why would a company want to become a b-corp :

+ social signaling to consumers

+ attracting and retaining talent

+ B-corps have strong relationships with their suppliers so they’re less likely to incur costs in supply chain disruption.

+ b-corps comes with a built in framework for a growing entity to check themselves against.

Background :

In 2005 the founders of AND1 wanted to sell the company and reap their return. US law insists that companies sell to the highest bidder. AND1 wanted to sell to a company that was mission aligned, but if they did they could be sued by their own stakeholders. So they did sell to the highest bidder and within weeks those new owners striped away all of the social change programs that were embedded within AND1 so they decided to try and do something different.

B lab created a framework to assess an entire companies impacts instead of just the product which resulted in the “Benefit corporation and b corp”(available in 37 states in the US ) which allows you to legally consider more than just profits, it allows you to consider impacts. the benefit corp legal structure allows companies to consider workers, community, and the environment when making decisions, whereas standard US corporate law only allows the consideration of shareholders when making decisions.

A certification aspect and a legal requirement aspect - corporations are governed at the state level so they had to break them out into two different things.

Any for profit company can become a Certified B Corporation. No non-profits or government agencies can become B Corps.

But often, if a foundation wants to work w/ a corp, they’ll just do a mission related investment (MRI), which is often easier to do administrative

no tax benefits currently. Getting tax benefits can start to draw negative attention (from people who don’t believe they should receive tax benefits). B Lab wants the B Corp movement to succeed on the merits, rather than by getting tax benefits.

The impact assessment tool from B Lab is free - many companies that aren’t B corps use it.

The B-Corp Handbook

Bcorporation.net

Deep Dive Into B-Corps from LIFT/NEXT ECONOMY

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501c2

the c2 Agrarian Commons are locally governed. The National c3 has a board, structure

How 501c2 could lower your risk

Multi-Stakeholder Coop

Outside investors may own a shares in the company but have no control over governance which is determined and run by the worker-owners

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ROLES / COMMITTEES

(PRIME MOVER OF) AGRICULTURE, ECOLOGY AND WILDERNESS

* Description

(PRIME MOVER OF) BIPOC SOVEREIGNTY

* Description

(PRIME MOVER OF) OPERATIONS (space stewardship)

* Description

(PRIME MOVER OF) ARTS PROGRAMMING

* Description

(PRIME MOVER OF) EDUCATION

* Description

(PRIME MOVER OF) ADMINISTRATION (organization and digital housekeeping)

* Description

(PRIME MOVER OF) FINANCE

* Description

(PRIME MOVER OF) GOVERNANCE & MEDIATION

* Description

(PRIME MOVER OF) TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION

* Description

(PRIME MOVER OF) HEALTH AND WELLNESS

* Description

(PRIME MOVER OF) MEDIA AND OUTREACH

* Description

(PRIME MOVER OF) ACCESSIBILITY

* Description

  • Let’s map how these committees and roles interact with each other and what are their functions are.
  • Org Design Templates & Resources from NEXT ECONOMY https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10Y80v5nqRFHtfK8Q9bpLYVJsqwpNE_4vD-BZFV094-k/edit#gid=859407539

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Prime Mover Assessment

1. How do you identify? Who are your people? Where in the world do you reside? Where in the world can you imagine putting down roots?

2. What are you trying to birth into the world? What dreams, projects, roles, futures? How are you currently working towards them?

3. What do you need to fully manifest those futures? What barriers or obstacles block you from those needs being met?

4. What hard or soft skills do your friends, family, peers and clients ask you to provide?

5. What new hard or soft skills are you seeking to develop in the near future?

6. What brings you peace, bliss, joy? What gives you trouble or dis-ease?

7. How does being a land steward / community member embody your values?

8. Would you benefit from a group of kind beings creating a container for emergent strategy*, accountability and collective knowledge wealth? If so how much time do you have available to spend co-creating and participating in such a effort?

9. In your relationships, what qualities or behaviors do you consider strengths or gifts? Are there any patterns you’d like to unlearn? Have you identified any potential opportunities for growth?

10. What aspects of being part of a community do you enjoy? What aspects of being part of a community do you find difficult?

11. What types of resources would you be willing to contribute to growing a community? Knowledge and Insights? Experience? Connections? Monetary capital? Land or equipment? Time? Emotional, Social or Narrative Intelligence?

12. Do you prefer to dwell in rural, urban or suburban areas? If you prefer a mixture please elaborate.

13. Which of the following roles do you often play: weaver, experimenter, frontline responder, behind-the-scenes connector, seer / visionary, builder, caregiver, disrupter, healer, storyteller, guide, researcher, pragmatist, fairy, jester. *

14. Which of the following committees would want to help shape (see previous slide)? Are there committees you’d like to help shape that are not listed?

Google Form : https://docs.google.com/forms/d/17HtIlODkcr0VLe_W07_xeE1vNv7TqUZNVnimHnfwtgU/edit

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Prime Mover Affinity Group Meeting

Meeting 1 Prep :

  1. Divinatory pairing : each person to reviews another primer mover form and introduces that person to the group
  2. Voice note prompt & sound collage

Meeting 1 Agenda :

  • Audio collage listening / drop in / rotate sharing a creative offering
  • Non dominant hand writing exercise / affirmation
  • Tell about / introduce the person you who’s form you reviewed, ask them one question.
  • Brief LAND LAND evolution recap
  • What’s our intention / motivation / hope for this group, is there something else we want to call it?
  • Co-Create communication agreements
  • Review Goals on pg. 8
  • 6 months public manifesto goal?
  • Co-Create some desires for our next conversation

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Adjacent Projects & Orgs

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INTERESTED FOLKS

KENDRA DALLEY ( she/her )

ENNEAGRAM TYPE 2

SUN virgo

MOON cancer

RISING sagittarius

AFFILIATIONS / LINKS :

(bio) Kendra Dalley is simultaneously a reverent ecologist, evocative futurist, systematic artist, and abstract scientist. A first generation immigrant, she is in the practice of embodying those same dualities her work hinges upon. She founded a biomimetic design studio, Imaginal Being, integrating nature’s laws and strategies alongside the values and requirements of a client. Bridging biology to technology and nature to culture. Above all, Kendra inspires to close the gaps of dissonance brought on by modern society, reconnecting your world to our common nature.

SHARON PARK (pronouns)

ENNEAGRAM TYPE XX

SUN xx

MOON xx

RISING xx

AFFILIATIONS / LINKS : xx

(bio) xx

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INTERESTED FOLKS

Kim Upstill (pronouns)

ENNEAGRAM TYPE

SUN

MOON

RISING

AFFILIATIONS :

(bio) xx

Seb Choe (they / them)

ENNEAGRAM TYPE

SUN

MOON

RISING

AFFILIATIONS :

(bio) xx

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INTERESTED FOLKS

Salimatu Amabebe (they/he)

ENNEAGRAM TYPE

SUN

MOON

RISING

AFFILIATIONS :

(bio) xx

Lauren Machen (pronouns)

ENNEAGRAM TYPE

SUN

MOON

RISING

AFFILIATIONS :

(bio) xx

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INTERESTED FOLKS

Calvin Rocchio (pronouns)

ENNEAGRAM TYPE

SUN

MOON

RISING

AFFILIATIONS :

(bio) xx

Lexi Visco (pronouns)

ENNEAGRAM TYPE

SUN

MOON

RISING

AFFILIATIONS :

(bio) xx

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Sophia Sandford (pronouns)

ENNEAGRAM TYPE

SUN

MOON

RISING

AFFILIATIONS :

(bio) xx

Cleo Barnette (pronouns)

ENNEAGRAM TYPE

SUN

MOON

RISING

AFFILIATIONS :

(bio) xx

INTERESTED FOLKS

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INTERESTED FOLKS

KELLY RANDOLPH (SHE / HER)

ENNEAGRAM TYPE 4 (THE HELPER)

SUN GEMINI

MOON xx

RISING xx

AFFILIATIONS : MEALS 4 HEELS, ZENGER FARMS

Kelly was born and raised in San Francisco, but has lived in Portland for the past seven years. She inherited a deep reverence for food and plant magic from her mother, and applied it to her restaurant industry career, home cooking endeavors, and alternative medicine study. She is excited to learn food farming practices, and she hopes to bring her aggregated experience to her future endeavors of connecting communities of color with local, nutritious food to empower their health and autonomy.

TODD SHWAYDER (HE / HIM)

ENNEAGRAM TYPE 9 (THE PEACEMAKER)

SUN PIECES

MOON ARIES

RISING GEMINI

AFFILIATIONS : SEATTLE RECREATIVE, PNA COMMUNITY CENTER

Todd Shwayder is an architectural designer and natural builder/carpenter, jack-of-all trades and vanagon mechanic extraordinaire. A kind and gentle soul, he would be a cherished addition to any community. Todd loves animals and wishes to involve them in his future community dreams.

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INTERESTED FOLKS

BABETTE DELAFAYETTE (SHE / HER)

ENNEAGRAM TYPE X

SUN TAURUS

MOON CANCER

RISING LEO

I build activated environments through my multidisciplinary work as an artist, curator, and producer. I utilize what I have learned as choreographer and performance artist to build body, sculpture, and multimedia based installations. I produce and support the work of artists who encompass intentional, investigative collaboration while building interdisciplinary immersive experiences for people. I believe in the kind of artwork that involves experimentation, complexity, depth, and a rethinking of traditional approaches to curation and presentation. My professional practice currently brings awareness to the significance and study of time through a multitude of cultural practices and artistic mediums while facilitating community involvement in historical and contemporary thought surrounding durational performance art. I try to practice this directly in forms of radical self-care and horizontal collaborative system building. I see the work of land curation aka being caretakers of land (not owners) central to my system of being and moving through the world.

JESSA SHWAYDER CARTA (SHE / HER)

ENNEAGRAM TYPE 7 (THE ENTHUSIAST)

SUN CAPRIQAURIUS

MOON AQUARIUS

RISING AQUARIUS

AFFILIATIONS : COLLECTIVE POWER, FULL BLEED

I’m a multimodal omnidisciplinary artist compelled towards the collapsing of categories, systems thinking and collective healing. My work/play traverses ecosystem and egosystem to trace the leading lines of value, ownership, authorship, identity, time, performativity, language and labor.

As a child my list of future occupations were fairy, geologist, potion maker, surgeon, and set designer. I became enmeshed in Seattle’s cultural landscape as a founding member of LOVECITYLOVE, a DIY artist collective now recognized by the city as a cultural landmark where I developing programming and produced exhibitions of my own work and the work of others. I am currently exploring the alchemy of mediums, the intersections of modalities via motion, sound, duration, performance, ceramic, printmaking, printed publications, site-specific work and community building. My work is a practice of externalizing an internal conversation about transitory phenomena and the crafted human constructs that surround them. I feel most compelled towards the union of opposites and the notion of the emergent third.

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LANA SHARP (SHE / HER)

ENNEAGRAM TYPE 7 (THE ENTHUSIAST)

SUN CANCER

MOON LEO

RISING VIRGO

AFFILIATIONS : NAU

Lana is a musician and artist. She has lived in community now for the last 2 years. First a pirate colony in the forest area of Vienna Austria where the punks said she was fancy and next a commune country club. She is looking to build a home with others and live in peace and harmony with all beings, preferably in the most magical way possible.

JENN HOTES (SHE / HER)

ENNEAGRAM TYPE xx

SUN VIRGO

MOON ARIES

RISING LEO

AFFILIATIONS : UCLA Design|Media Arts, ArtSci

JENN is a multidisciplinary research scientist whose work aims to understand our cultures systemic failures by studying deep ecology, As a practicing artist, she uses the scientific method to experiment with what conditions bring out authentic creativity in order to build environments that invite the muses to come play.

FULL BIO & WORK OVERVIEW

INTERESTED FOLKS

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INTERESTED FOLKS

Lisa Fitzhugh (SHE / HER)

ENNEAGRAM TYPE 7 (THE ENTHUSIAST)

SUN

MOON

RISING

AFFILIATIONS : Creative Ground

https://www.lisafitzhugh.me/story

Jillayne Hunter (SHE / HER)

ENNEAGRAM TYPE 4 (THE HELPER)

SUN pisces

MOON virgo

RISING taurus

AFFILIATIONS : huntress yoga / the house of ia

I have always been drawn to the harmonization of body and earth, especially in relation to receiving. The offerings of the sun, the functions of our organs, our heart beat. I feel the responsibility of re-educating and re-membering the art and practice of listening, pausing and responding accordingly with precision to the present moment. My personal calling and focus is on the cultivation of the one body vessel we are given in this life-time and how to be with it, within it, access it, heal it by way of bringing ourselves into wholeness, fuel it and use it to serve. Through consistent studies and practice of yoga, pranayama & meditative movement, I am slowly learning how to be, at peace, in my body, on this planet. A radically simple yet deeply complex process I have found.

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FURTHER LEARNING

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OCCIDENTAL ARTS & ECOLOGY CERT COURSE LINKS

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INTERPERSONAL / COMMUNICATION / GROUP PROCESS

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INTERPERSONAL / COMMUNICATION / GROUP PROCESS cont.

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SOLO PRACTICE / COURSE / CLASSES

Creative Study

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ONLINE COMMUNITIES / ORGANIZATIONAL PLATFORMS

Might Networks

Circle

A New and Ancient Story

Earthspeaks

Loam Love

Hypha Earth

Future Thinkers

Bioneers

Substack

Loomio

Arena

Miro

Monday.com

Hylo

Notion

Figma

Discord

Airtable

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NEW ECONOMY RESOURCES

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NEXT ECONOMY NOW MBA RESOURCES

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REMATRIATION & REPARATIONS

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TECH ETHICS

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FOOD & FOODS

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BODY-BASED PRACTICE RESOURCES

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ECOLOGY / EARTH RESTORATIONS

Recompose - end of life care for our bodies and the earth

Inhabit - Films for action

SaveTrees.org

Community Driven Climate Resilience Report by Pandora Thomas

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

2014 National Climate Assessment Report

Water Aikido #1 (swails, ponds and permaculture water collaboration)

Water Aikido #2 (swails, ponds and permaculture water collaboration)

Occidental Arts and Ecology Permaculture Certification workbook

Permaculture Designers Manual by Bill Mollison

The West is Burning

Thrive Lot

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ONTOLOGY

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ACCESSIBILITY

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ARTS & DESIGN

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BUILT WORLD / INFRASTRUCTURE / CONSTRUCTS

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MISC

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COLLECTED COMMUNITY AGREEMENTS

School For Poetic Computation

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ALL UP READING LIST

All About Love

The Web of Life

Circe

The Goddess Versus the Alphabet

Against Creativity

Mother Earth Spirituality

What the Nose Knows

The Jazz of Physics

Stealing Fire

When Women Were Birds

Home Going

The Doors of Perception

How to Change Your Mind

Milk and Honey

The Sun and Her Flowers

The Pond

The Secret Life of Trees

The Power of Myth

Inner Work

Eco Dharma

Why Fish Don’t Exist

Silent Spring

My Grandmother’s Hands - Rasmaa Menakem

Braiding Sweetgrass

Women and Nature

Radical Dharma

The Next Great Migration

Becoming Wild : How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace

Emergent Strategy

Tending The Wild

Deep Play

A Natural History of the Senses

Sacred Economics

Widening Circles - Joanna Macy

Courting the Wild Twin - dr. Martin Shaw

Creating A Life Together

Tempered Radicals: How People Use Difference to Inspire Change at Work

Joyful Militancy : Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times

The spell of the sensuous

The botany of desire

Feminism is for Everyone

Courting the Wild Twin

Wolf Milk : Cythonic Memory in the Deep Wild

Scatterlings : Getting Claimed in the age of Amnesia

Parable of the Sower

Parable of the Talents

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ALL UP READING LIST cont.

WINNERS TAKE ALL

WARRIOR MARKS

When things fall apart

The Places that scare you

Confessions of an economic hitman

The Revolution Will not be funded

Games for Actors and Non-Actors

Finite and Infinite Games

How To Do Nothing ; Resistance in the Attention Economy

Learning By Heart - Sister Corita Kent

A History of the world in seven cheap things

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ALL UP READING LIST cont.

The Revolution Will Not Be Funded

The Trouble with Wilderness- William Cronon

Racism is Killing the Planet- Hop Hopkins

Reading list from INSTITUTE FOR INTERSPECIES ART AND RELATIONS

Future Earth Book Shelf

DEEM Journal Reference Room

The flowering Wand - Sophie Strand

Resources from Miguel Cinta via Pocoapoco Material Studies

Symposium of the Whole

A Range of Discourse Toward an Ethnopoetics

by Jerome Rothenberg (Author), Diane Rothenberg (Author)

Blackfoot Physics

a billion black anthrophcenes or none

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RELATED PROJECTS

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Association Index

Urban Community Hub, Studios, Kitchen,

Residency & Production Accommodations

LAND LAND

Physical community / rural residency space

& studios

NATURAL NAME

Digital & physical bodega / essentials for the shift

FULL BLEED*

Creative agency / publishing / artist representation

Full bleed is not longer intact perhaps this is SĪ

XX FARMS

Food sovereignty center

WATER WAYS

Bath House + Recording Studio + Watershed Restoration

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ADJACENCY

Study

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GOALS / ETHOS

  1. from around the world convene at Mildred's Lane seasonally, coevolving pedagogical strategies around contemporary topics that concern us. Collectively, we are practicing social engagement in every aspect of life centered around domesticity
  2. Practitioners apply the tools for social engagement to landscape, vernacular architecture, installation art, sculpture, history, archaeology, natural sciences, utopian studies, and creative domesticity. Mildred's Lane is a transdisciplinary site that concentrates on broadening skills that aid us as cultural practitioners working in the social sphere.

MODEL

NUMBERS

94+-acre

VALUES

embrace every aspect of collective existence

1) our relations to the environment, 2) our relationships with each other, 3) challenging systems of labor, 4) forms of dwelling, 5) inventing new design apparatuses, and importantly, 6) critical and creative domesticating – all of which compose the Mildred's Lane ethics of comportment – WORKSTYLES. Being IS the practice

revolutionary-rigorous-rethinking

MEMBER REQUIREMENTS

OFFERINGS

  1. Artist residencies
  2. workshop or event specific to your group’s needs and desires.
  3. Individuals, classes, and institutions often visit for an overnight stay, weekend, or for a full week

MILDRED’S LANE

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GOALS / ETHOS

  1. Provide people with an affordable property investment that meets their need for security, flexibility and well-being.
  2. Create a space that services a regular community of members as well as accommodating guests attending wellbeing and personal development workshops, company retreats and entertainment

Events.

  • Build a Global network to allow for simple and affordable ways to live all over the world
  • Foster a culture of rewilding, renewal and resilience that supports a sustainable way of life.
  • share Kasaba model as a way for people to placemake - open source guideline to legal frameworks / operational / financial / booking system / marketing while still letting each location self govern and evolve the model to their specific needs & desires

MODEL

Perpetual Purpose Trust

Kasba owns the property

Tiered Membership for various levels of involvement / investment �

Members purchase/own the dwelling AND pay an annual membership fees

Kasaba facilitates frequent and short term rentals of the dwellings and shares profits with Members

Members participate in decision-making on capital expenditure prioritization, the Village Code and other village initiatives.

NUMBERS

150-200 people can live in the community (depending on property size)

80 acre property

24 mins from a medical facility

2.5 hours from a major city

$130,000 - initial cost of membership & dwelling

$300-$600 - monthly facilities fees

VALUES

Tolerance

Inclusivity

Generosity

Rewilding

Sustainability

MEMBER REQUIREMENTS

Purchase Agreement

Lease Agreement

Village Code Agreement

Non-Refundable Deposit

OFFERINGS

Permaculture Food Forest & Communal Kitchen

Ongoing arts & culture programming

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GOALS/ ETHOS

MODEL

NUMBERS

VALUES

MEMBER REQUIREMENTS

OFFERINGS

WOMEN’S CENTER FOR CREATIVE WORK

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MISC

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5/8/2020 Meeting Notes

  • How many people need to be on the team for optimal functioning? 6
  • What roles do we NEED for the team to work?
  • What does the nonviolent/shadow awareness training/drivers manual look like? How do we help people develop personally to show up wholly?
  • How do we document and communicate the moments of difficult emotional work to show prospective team members what the real 99.99% of the work is?

Mind maps, how do individual goals overlap for the common goal of World Garden

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Pacific Grove Language Dump (to be sorted)

-online subscription slide income based platform delivering daily content for the (R)evoltion.

- mystical in the mundane

-Drivers Manual

-world map pass the mic morning routine/recipe/

we know that through making experiences and media, we can help people shift and move further toward empathy and ecstasis (timeliness, selflessness x, x,) and embodied success

+we want wider, deeper platforms; we want to expanded networks; we want to feed hungry audiences with nourshing ideas and understandings

be a sizeable, knowable, evocative change in culture by making and elevating positive messages

create work that lands effectively in the ears of baristas and CEOs; young and old; citizens of the world; lovers and fighters of every shape, size, color, creed, and conviction

COMMUNITY HAS MEDICALLY PROVEN BENEFITS TO HEALING AND WELLNESS

In a time of unprecedented uncertainty many look to world leaders and health experts for guidance through the unknown. While these valued experts are necessary for the working knowledge of how to run institutions, it disproportionately settles the bulk responsibility of healing a wounded world onto a select few. Small communities wait anxiously for widespread solutions to gain access to the simple necessities of life. Quality food, shelter, and the support of each other.

What I hope to accomplish with this grant money is to distill the complex intellectual work of leading ecological scientists and visionaries into a simple expression of song so their lessons can be absorbed through beauty. I have spent the last 5 years actively studying the work of thought leaders and have found myself with both a wealth of knowledge as well as a gift for content creation that I feel called to share. Not everyone has the access to the intellectual resources that I have been given, as it takes time and money to learn this material of deep ecological awareness and how to activate on an individual level to take responsibility into our own hands instead of relying solely on those in office.

We live in a wasteful world. While many focus on the waste associated with food, energy, and natural materials, many forget that all of these resources are harnessed and poured into growing a human life, only for the potential of most human life to lay dormant in individuals not knowing how to harness their own power.

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Land Land is communal, but not mob mentality

Land Land is steeped in respect and adoration for ancient indigenous people’s knowledge, but not cultural appropriation

Land Land is experimental, but not unhinged

Land Land is anti-capitalist, but not resource starved

Land Land is analog, but not technophobic

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Similar but different

UnBound Amsterdam

OASA

Cocoon Portugal

Ethel’s Club

Yia Mas

Herban Cura

Earthspeak

Future Thinkers

WITCHES CONFLUENCE

COMPOUND LB

THE COMMUNITY LA

NAAS COMMUNITY

CEDAR BLOOM

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EXPERIENCE LOG

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EARTHSPEAK reflections :

I joined as a member for 3 months and had a recurring scheduling conflict with the regular group meetings. The digital-only space didn’t satisfied my craving for community and was the last modality in which I wanted to exist in amidst so many other engagements that required me to be on a screen and in a zoom format gathering. I craved more of a balance between the ultra magical topics/workshops/prompts and some grounded hard/soft skill building and critical discourse. The frequency of meetings & email were a lot - Jessa

EARTHSPEAK community guidelines :

1. This is an inclusive and anti-racist space that is intended to be safe for all people. Any behavior that violates this will not be tolerated.

2. What happens in the Collective stays in the Collective. Feel free to share your own thoughts and experiences publicly, but keep other people's shares confidential.

3. We have no agenda for you, and we ask that you have no agenda for anyone else. We’re not here to fix or be fixed. We’re here to be witnessed in presence.

4. Ask consent before providing advice, or reflect on what someone else has shared in a live call,

5. Trust yourself - if we’re doing an activity or you’re being guided in a meditation and something doesn’t feel right for you, trust that.

6. Make no assumptions. If something is not clear, ask for clarity.

7. Please only promote your business or invite people into professional sessions with you in the “Share Your Biz-Art-Services” forum space.

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CEDAR BLOOM reflections :

In short, it felt like a really exceptionally dreamy state park campground but not an activated community. - Jessa

Draws :

Really great interiors in the dome

Lovely flat spacious forested area that did make you forget about the neighboring "civilization"

Sauna / outdoor shower

river with lots of pebbled bank spots for posting up with a book

Tea Shack with beautiful bulk herbs / botanicals, cups and kettles where you honor system venmo paid the host for your tea that you could cruise to the river or the sauna with

Awesome looking little A frame structures

Little mini analog kitchen unit in the dome with a large 5 gallon glass water jug and ceramic dispenser set over a little basin that could be moved / tossed outside

Drawbacks :

The surrounding area / town / RV park was pretty off-putting / sad

Busy & noisy main road right across the river bank

Very campground style layout with not much privacy inetween spots

The host was very aloof

The wasn't an air of activation / vibrancy

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OCCIDENTAL ARTS & ECOLOGY reflections :

Online Permaculture Design Course

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CAL EARTH SUPERADOBE CERTIFICATION reflections :

O

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LIFT ECONOMY MBA reflections :

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FREEDOM GEORGIA COMMUNITY LAND FINANCING reflections :

(their land) 96 acres - 20 friends - no specific criteria but intentional unspoken requirements - “no matter what” mentality, “when they can’t get their way they still want what’s best for the group”

(their guiding question) *Does this decision brings us closer to generational wealth?

(their process) *majority vote rules

Step 1. meet with a lawyer to set up the basic incorporation requirements (an llc) bylaws, Memorandums of understanding.

Step 2. revenues projects / costs / business plan partner

Step 3. who has the highest income and best credit and name them the managing partner

Step 5. (year 1) Water, run off, waste management utilities, civil engineer for surveys, environmental impact

Step 6. (year 1) disaster preparedness

Step 7. (year 2-3) build structures needed to develop revenue streams

Step 8. (year 4) build community homes *People aren’t allowed to build structures until they pay off their entire share of the groups fee

(their committees)

Special needs & education committee

Economic & business dev committee

Emergency preparedness committee

Health & wellness

Innovation & technology

Architecture and infrastructure

Arts and culture

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FREEDOM GEORGIA COMMUNITY LAND FINANCING reflections cont. :

RESOURCES

http://www.oregon4biz.com/

Powernomics

hub zone locator - will show you tax benefits and write-offs

GENERAL LEARNINGS

+ THE BEST way to ensure peoples involvement is to get their money in the pot.”

+ The south is mostly unincorporated and has no building codes or zoning restriction

+ lots of USDA loans and farming grants available for ag

+ the land itself is an asset even if it’s not activated, buy it as a group and sell it later

+ Owner Financing - the owner was not reporting the mortgage to the credit union. - only closing fees are to closing attorney doing title work / title insurance

+ People aren’t allowed to build structures until they pay off their entire share of the groups fee

+ as long as you have a mortgage you can’t subdivide the land.

+ a “resolution” is the designation of who can do what - appointments

+ The land trust can’t be established until the land is owned outright

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NEW RESOURCES : YET TO BE CATALOGED

Drop in text, images, or links on the follow pages with any suggestions on where you think in could live and Jessa will reformat the doc to include the new resources.

MANY THANKS!

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ROLE OF THE ARTIST

I see the creative world or the world of the imagination as the other world or the spirit world, I think they're the same place. Artists and mystics both go there, they both travel there. Going into this interior world is a one of the most important things that artists do, it's what they do for our world, opening and keeping open that portal between the worlds. - Amanda Yates Garcia

the relentless striving expected of us in modernity, and what that does to us how it erodes us as humans and as a culture. - Beth Pickens

In the Jewish tradition on Shabbat, we have an extra soul. And when I learned that from my rabbi, I thought immediately of artists, and I have a belief that artists are actually born with an extra soul. And they are traveling through the world with this extrasensory ability to see, observe, feel, hear, articulate, consider. And it's also what makes the world very harsh and difficult to be in sometimes, because of this extra sensory soul traveling with you. And that extra soul is what allows artists to do the deep mining of the interior, and pull from all that extra sensory experience. That soul has to be really taken care of…because we also live in modernity, where the whole world wants to take you from your practice, including you, there will always, be a reason not to make your creative work. But place yourself as an artist engaged in your creative work in the same pot, as taking care of your body, cleaning your home, feeding yourself, anything required for your mental health. If you're an artist, one of those things is also showing up for creative practice. All of the reasons not to show up for your practice, other people's needs, not having enough time, working demanding paid day jobs. All of those could also be reasons to not drink water… but we know what happens when we don’t take care of ourselves. It gets bad. fast. - Beth Pickens

Artists are here to help us process grief, to help us understand the meaning of our life, to give us a sense of purpose, to understand our relationship to the mystical. Artists are doing very important, spiritual, creative, intellectual, philosophical labor that is essential to us living, like otherwise, why go through all of this living? Artists are really helping us make sense of it all. And our culture is constantly trying to convince us that the only thing that is important is that relentless striving towards the amassing of capital, not even really for ourselves, for the powers that be. The values of the dominant culture are so skewed, and they make us feel so afraid that if we don't participate, or if we focus on other things that are of value to us, that we will be severely punished, we will end up homeless, we will end up in debt, we will end up sick, we won't have anyone to take care of us, no one will take care of our kids. I mean, we all know all the things that could happen and what the threats are. So, I feel there's a lot of valor in the artist, remembering constantly to connect with what is deeply important about their work and why they're investigating it. And to me, that's one of the reasons why they have to have that studio time to make work because that is the place when they enter into that other world, when they cross that threshold, they get reminded, that is where they feed at the the flower, they get the nectar of that inspiration, which fortifies them against the dominant power structures that are trying to delude them all the time. - Amanda Yates Garcia

It's astonishing that we collectively ask artists to try to make sense of the ineffable, of our life and times and of all of the simultaneity of what it means to be alive, process that and then make work about it and put it out into the world. All the while providing no infrastructure of support. Artists are the only laborers to my knowledge, who work jobs in order to make their work. And the artists who are able to make a full time living, sometimes lucratively, out of their creative work pay a high price, and they all know it. I've worked with many artists who make all of their income and are very commercially successful from their creative work and they often have a spiritual crisis about that, because that's what happens when capitalism intersects with the spiritual nature of living. And that's what artists are doing all the time, living at the intersection of capitalism and their deep, deep spiritual interior. - Beth Pickens

Creative expression is good for everyone, but I find that artists require it in order to have a fully realized life. - Beth Pickens

But what about people who feel like art isn't enough? We're facing a huge crisis, police brutality, environmental collapse, the erosion of democracy, children locked in cages at the borders, all sorts of things that are truly horrifying. A lot of artists that I know feel that they need to either be chaining themselves to the White House fence or going door to door petitioning because their art is not enough right now. So what have you say to those people? - Amanda Yates Garcia

You can't do anything to make the world better if you're not well, and all social change, all social engagement, all political work is a marathon is not a sprint. It is going to be throughout your entire lifetime. And in order to show up consistently throughout your entire life, to show up for your values, in community and in the world, you have to be fortified, you have to be resourced and well. So for the artist, again, one of the ways you are fortified and well is by making your creative work. That's one of the essential things you have to do to take care of yourself and the more you take care of yourself, the more you can show up for public engagement, and not become burnt out. So no matter what your work is, whether or not you think it is politically engaging or not, whether you think it’s contributing to somebody's life or not, no matter what, you just have to keep making it. It will give you the energy to continue showing up in service of your values in the rest of the world. - Beth Pickens

Many of us suffer from racial trauma, class based trauma, disability based trauma, gender based trauma, this is a huge burden that you have to attend to and heal from before you even get to the starting line before even realizing you have the desire or capacity to make creative work. So it can feel like a big struggle or burden. We need as a culture to slow down, we need to enjoy our lives, we need to have time off, we need to recognize the value of our friends, of our work, of our communities. And that we are making a statement by claiming that joy for ourselves and refusing to feel bad, guilty or ashamed no matter how much our culture says we should be. Finding other people, other artists who can help us remember that when we forget is so important. - Amanda Yates Garcia