Village Vancouver Newsletter and Calendar of Events
May 2013
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| The Stone Soup Festival on Commercial Drive welcomes the summer festival season! |
What a great month April was! It started off with a bang, with Village Vancouver playing a key role (alongside other great organisations including the New Economics Institute, AMS Sustainability and One Earth) in helping pull off the very successful New Economy Summit at UBC from April 4-6th. Hundreds of people, including many from other parts of Canada and abroad, to take part in stimulating workshops and bubbling discussions in between.
If you missed all or parts of the summit, don't fret: thanks to the Extraenvironmentalist podcast and lead summit organiser Justin Ritchie, most of the sessions were recorded and are available for your viewing pleasure here. You may even recognise a number of Village Vancouver members among the presenters!
May is not inclined to take a break, it seems. As you'll see in this newsletter, in the first week of this month you can join us for a screening of the acclaimed film Salmon Confidential, swap seeds and plants in Hastings-Sunrise, take in some great films at DOXA, learn about and help plant fruit trees at the Richmond Sharing Farm, learn about backyard chickens on Main Street, and more! Dunbar will be full of fun activities all month for Salmonberry Days, Commercial Drive will celebrate food and community at the Stone Soup Festival, and there are plenty of opportunities for learning useful skills throughout the month. We hope you'll take advantage of some of the richness our community has to offer!
In this newsletter:
- April round-up of Transition worldwide
- Salmon Confidential screening May 6th
- Hastings-Sunrise plant and seed exchange May 4th
- Chickens 101 on Main Street
- Learn to make kombucha and kefir beverages on the Drive
- O.U.R Ecovillage: Success through co-operation
- Salmonberry Days
- I matter, and so does what I eat! - Workshop
- Stone Soup Festival May 11
- Doxa Film Festival
- Fruit Tree demonstrations and work parties at Richmond Sharing Farm Orchard
- Kitsilano Sew-op and music exchange
- Free Intro to Permaculture Day on the Sunshine Coast
- Youth Permaculture program at Southlands Farm
- Vancouver Storytellers Evening in Kits
Your May newsletter team,
Jordan, Sharon and Ross
Become a member today!
Support Village Vancouver and local economic resilience in one go!
~From Transition Culture~
An April Round-up of What’s Happening out in the World of Transition
Click here to read the blog.
Watch Salmon Confidential with us on May 6th!
Monday, May 6th, 7pm
Unitarian Church of Vancouver,
949 West 49th Avenue
Salmon Confidential is a new film on the government cover up of what is killing BC’s wild salmon. When biologist Alexandra Morton discovers BC’s wild salmon are testing positive for dangerous European salmon viruses associated with salmon farming worldwide, a chain of events is set off by government to suppress the findings. Tracking viruses, Morton moves from courtrooms, into British Columbia’s most remote rivers, Vancouver grocery stores and sushi restaurants. The film documents Morton’s journey as she attempts to overcome government and industry roadblocks thrown in her path and works to bring critical information to the public in time to save BC’s wild salmon.
Hastings-Sunrise Plant & Seed Exchange!
Saturday, May 4th - 11am to 2pm
2700 Turner Block (in lane between Turner and Georgia)
This year we will also have a special sharing of tomato tips at 12:30 pm.
Rain or Shine. Look for our balloons and signs.
Rain or Shine. Look for our balloons and signs.
Commercial Drive Village Monthly Potlucks and Workshops
Potluck (6:30-7:30pm): Bring something yummy for the potluck.
Workshop (7:30-8:30pm) – Learn to make your own kombucha and kefir fermented beverages!
Fermented beverages like kombucha and kefir are both tasty, nutritious and easy to make yourself. Kick the coke can and join us to learn this useful skill!
What: Commercial Dr. VV Potluck & Workshop: Bike Maintenance
When: Thursday, May 16th: 6:30-8:30pm
Where: Rising Star Housing Co-op (1556 E. 5th Ave.) common room
Why: Build community, eat good food and learn to fix your own bike!
Cost: Free!!!
Hope to see you there,
Commercial Dr. VV Steering Group
p.s. Commercial Dr. Village Vancouver hosts a potluck and workshop the third Thursday of every month. Check out the Commercial Dr. Village Vancouver website for future workshops.
Main Street Village Monthly Potlucks and Workshops
Potluck (6-7pm): Bring something yummy for the potluck.
Workshop (7-8pm) – Chickens 101 w/ coop visit: Join our local chicken experts, Asia & Nate, as they explain the basics of keeping backyard chickens. Afterward we'll take a short walk and see the chickens in action.
Canning & Seed Exchange. We're doing this monthly! Bring something you've canned, seeds you've saved or food you've grown and exchange it with others!Main St. Seed Library: If you have any extra seeds you'd like to donate to the library please bring them by to share or take a few seeds home for your garden.
When: Tuesday, May 7th: 6-8pm
Where: Little Mountain Neighbourhood House (3981 Main St.)
Why: Build community, eat good food and learn about backyard chickens!
Cost: Free!!!
Hope to see you there,
Main Street VV Steering Group (Ileana, Sophie, Jason, Randy)
p.s. Main St. Village Vancouver & Little Mountain Neighborhood House host a potluck and workshop the first Tuesday of every month at LMNH. Check out the Main St. Village Vancouver website for future workshops.
Check out the Main St. VV website or "like" us on Facebook:
O.U.R. Ecovillage: Success Through Cooperation and Reworking Old Frames of Mind
-By Lucie Bardos
Last week I went to visit O.U.R. Ecovillage[1] on
Vancouver Island with a few friends to help get a taste of what life is like at
these ecovillages I have long been hearing about. Let me tell you - life (and
lunch) there tastes healthy, organic, and delicious! But how is it all made possible?
According to Brandy Gallagher, the executive director and co-founder of the
village, it is thanks to cooperation with industry, businesses, policy makers,
and even building inspectors!
I have watched videos and documentaries, read articles and
had conversations about the topic of ecovillages and natural building. Something
that always jumps out at me is how many of these seem to vilify "the
system", a.k.a. the government, corporations and big industry that always
seem to pose this giant barrier to sustainable living and homesteading. It's
always about how to get around laws, legal battles, how to hide structures so
that they won't be seen by inspectors, and how to cut ourselves off from the
outside. I have often asked myself: can this kind of sustainability truly last?
Do we really need to make enemies? Are all of the bodies that we often vilify
actually so evil?
[1] O.U.R. stands for One United Resource and is a
reflection of the belief that everything and everyone is useful and can be
considered a resource if we learn how to use it sustainably and in cooperation
with others.
Read the whole article here...
Salmonberry Days events in Dunbar
May means Salmonberry Days in the Dunbar neighbourhood, with great events taking place all month! Here are a couple suggestions:
SPECIAL FILM SERIES THIS MONTH:
Tuesday, May 21: Chasing Ice at St Georges Senior School at 7 pm
Thursday, May 23: Heart of Sky at St. Philips Anglican Church at 7 pm
Two remarkable films that tell real-life stories about things that are happening in our world far away from us -- but causing ripple effects that will be felt right here in Dunbar.
A FARM IN THE CITY:
Saturday, May 18: Family Day at Southlands Heritage Farm
Enjoy an afternoon on a working farm in Southlands. There will be a spring market, pony rides, a Southlands-wide scavenger hunt, pizza made in a cob oven, and more. Meet the bees, the pigs, the goats, the chickens and ducks on a guided tour of the farm. The fun starts at 1 pm…
I Matter and so does what I eat!
Workshop by Philip Be'er, founder of Home Harvest Farms
May 18th, 7:30pm to 9:30pm
Open Door Yoga Studio on Commercial Drive (1651 Commercial Drive)
Call Open Door Yoga today at 778.371.8179 to reserve your spaces. $30
How would it feel to live as if I REALLY MATTER?
Would I make different choices? Be healthier? Happier? Feel better about myself?
I Matter workshops provide us a unique lens through which to visualise many of the opportunities and responsibilities that arise when I live as if I REALLY MATTER.
The selected lens for these engaging workshops is our FOOD.
Join us for a stimulating, two hour workshop that touches on topics ranging from spirit and love to sustainability and lifestyle.
Philip Be’er is an experienced workshop facilitator, a young Suzuki Elder who is deeply involved in the urban farming community, and teaches “The Roadmap to Real Happiness” by internationally renowned author and educator, Paul Ferrini.
Stone Soup Festival - May 11, 2013
Saturday, May 11, 2013, Noon-5pm
Britannia Community Centre Site/Napier Greenway
1661 Napier St @ Commercial Drive, Vancouver
Britannia Community Centre is pleased to announce and host the 18th Annual Stone Soup Festival, a celebration of food, art, environment and community, including a food market, local artists, community groups, talks and workshops, live music, tea leaf reading, children’s activities, free soup and more!
More than ever, people are aware of the issues of food security, the benefits of sharing resources and eating ‘local’. Stone Soup will celebrate the diversity of food in our neighbourhood, the environment and it’s importance to the culture of our community.
Features Of This Year’s Festival Include:
- Children’s Seed Planting Workshop With The Environmental Youth Alliance: 1-4pm, West Kid’s Area
- The Urban Food Garden: Planning, Tips & Advice From Victory Gardens: 1-3pm, Family Activity Room
- Digging Economic Sustainability Into The Urban Food Movement, Talk by Peter Ladner: 3pm, Britannia Library
- Help Grow The Urban Forest: How To Plant & Care For A Tree: Workshop by David Tracey: 12:30-1:30pm, Al Mattison Lounge: For More Info On Treekeepers Program: www.treekeepers.ca
- Origami Workshop With Jan Nguyen: 12-5pm, Britannia Site
- Kickstand Bike Tune-Up/Workshop By Donation & Bike Games: 12-5pm, Britannia Site
- Village Vancouver will have a booth with all kinds of fun stuff - come say hello!
For more information tel: (604)718-5800/ www.britanniacentre.org
Doxa Documentary Film Festival - May 3-12
The Doxa Documentary Film Festival is about to begin it's marathon of beautiful, informative and mind-blowing documentaries from around the world. Tough deciding what to watch? Villager, documentary filmmaker and Doxa volunteer Dana Wilson has a few suggestions for you:
A concise and down-to-earth analysis of the global economic meltdown, When Bubbles Burstprovides a fascinating glimpse at the current state of the world economy. Looking toward the future, the film pointedly asks whether it is possible to trust the system ever again?
The Venus Project, located in central Florida near Lake Okeechobee, is the home and research centre for one of the world’s most influential futurists. Jacque Fresco is a philosopher, a designer, an architect and a very big thinker. Fresco’s views on everything from sustainable cities to resource management to cybernated technology are informed by more than 70 years of work in rethinking human possibility. 
In a series of sequential chapters, the film lays out the situation that precipitated the birth of Occupy, everything from the greed-maddened frenzy of Wall Street, to the plague of home foreclosures, and the apparent collusion of the American government and big business, that resulted in a 700 billion dollar bailout for American banks. The larger economic forces that have led to such global financial disparity are laid out in animated sequences, aided by cheerfully caustic commentary from analyst Reggie Middleton. Interviews with Chris Hedges, Cornel West, and Adbuster’s Kalle Lasn, add intellectual heft. But it is ordinary people who describe the personal cost of putting their bodies on the frontline that speak the loudest. What emerges is a deeply human portrait of social change, warts and all.The Sharing Farm Orchard is bursting into bloom!
Free orchard tours, demonstration and planting work parties May 4th & 5th
Great for all ages!
Learn how we are adapting to a challenging climate by blending commercial orchard techniques with permaculture principles, and growing fruit for our local Food Bank.
Join us:
- Guided tours of our 5-year old 1.5 acre fruit orchard along the beautiful Fraser River south arm... currently in bloom!
- Learn about planting a bare-rooted nursery tree, pruning, blossom-thinning, and building healthy soil (see below)
- Help us plant 300 trees in our 5-year old apple and pear orchard
- Kids' activities: planting bee-friendly flowers
RSVPs are helpful. Contact Kimi Hendess: kimi@sharingfarm.ca
Kitsilano Sew Op and Music Exchange
The Kitsilano Sew Op will be meeting on the first Saturday of every month in 2013. Come join us and help build the Sew Op concept, refurbish machines, and work on creative cloth projects.
We are still accepting donations of used sewing machines. We provide these machines to community members free of change on short-term loans. Please contact Sandra at sandraignagni@gmail.com for details.
Free Intro to Permaculture Day
Join a group of conscious learners in a free introduction to permaculture day in the Heart Gardens, Gumboot Gardens, Elphinstone Rainforest and Mandala Beach of Roberts Creek. Pilgrimage in carpools to the Sunshine Coast, a short ferry ride from Vancouver, to experience an unique and creative introduction to the permaculture paradigm.
After five successful runs of this free intro day, its been a great experience for people who are new to permaculture and those who are deeply experienced.
Together we will:
- talk about the ethos, principles, toolkit and metastructure of permaculture,
- tour the gardens,
- meet some of the food-medicine plants of the Coastal First Peoples,
- share a potluck meal,
- watch some permaculture movies,
- walk in the rainforest,
- meet by the ocean,
- and have an inspiring day learning and growing with nature.
The day will run on May 27 from 11 am - 5:30 pm, aligning with the bus linked to the 9:20 am ferry from Horseshoe Bay and the 6:30 ferry returning to Vancouver. I will help to co-ordinate a carpool as well.
There is a limited space so please RSVP to confirm your attendance to delvin@cosm.org.
Since its a free course, i am trusting that if you ask for a space you will make a commitment to following through and attending the full day :) The spring weather varies, please come dressed to be outside for short periods regardless of weather (dress warm and with rainproof gear or umbrella if you are worried about rain).
Looking forward to a day of wonderful people connecting and sharing about how to be more conscious planetary citizens.
Delvin Solkinson has completed a PDC, Diploma and Masters Degree with Bill Mollison and done advanced trainings with Rosemary Morrow, David Holmgren, Geoff Lawton, Robyn Francis, the Bullock Brothers, Tom Ward, Jude Hobbs, Larry Santoyo, Scott Pittman, Michael Becker, and Robin Clayfield. He is an accredited teacher through the Permaculture Research Institute and a Field Mentor through Permaculture Institute USA. Recently he completed a PDC in Portland with Toby Hemenway and a second Diploma through PI USA and is currently beginning a Doctoral study in permaculture education.
Youth Permaculture - Building, Design and Activism
Southlands Farm, May through June 2013
Facilitators and registrants alike will each have something valuable to contribute to this exciting workshop series at Southlands Farm.
Our neighbourhoods are our playgrounds; the boulevards are our gardens, let's share our resources and learn how to make our communities stronger. Over the course of ten engaging workshops at Southlands Farm gather the resources to implement projects that will transform your neighbourhood.
This program offers talented and driven youth a space to learn new practical skills and concepts each week. Participants and facilitators are encouraged to attend all workshops as a portion of each Friday will be dedicated to developing a project of your choosing.
Ages: Self-Defined Youth
Dates: Fridays, 4pm-6pm, 10 sessions. Starts April 26th, 2013
Suggested donation for all sessions: $250
Suggested donation per session: $15-30
Costs will be subsidized by profits made during farmers markets and fundraisers. Vancity grants are also available to subsidize participant costs. One third of donations will go to the farm, two thirds will be distributed among facilitators.
Registration is highly encouraged:
Drop in or call 604 261 1295 for more info.
Course Facilitators: Travis Pawlak and Emily Payne
Vancouver Storytellers Evenings in Kits
On the 3rd Sunday of every month, Vancouver Storytellers hosts an evening of storytelling in Kitsilano.
Last of the season! Sunday, May 19th at 7 pm: Listen! Laugh! Enjoy! Stories for You!
Theme: Sunshine and Moonshine
Storytellers: Doreen Giesbrecht; Priscilla Jones; Philomena Jordan
Guest Teller: Mike Evans from the North Shore
Guest Poet: Don Simpson, well known Vancouver Poet
Guest Poet: Don Simpson, well known Vancouver Poet
Host: Kira Van Deusen
Cost: $6; includes tea; treats by your donation
Contact: Mary Gavan: marygavan@telus.net 604-683-1575
Details: www.vancouverstorytellers.ca
Location: 1805 Larch/ 2nd Avenue (Door and parking in alley by St Mark’s)
