Intro to Time-Banking
Thursday, July 15
7:00 Pm
LOCATION CHANGE
Hooked on Colfax
3215 E. Colfax Ave, Denver
$5 suggested donation or 1 Time Dollar

At this year’s US Social Forum in Detroit I attended one particular workshop about something that is truly revolutionary and vital in restoring our communities to independence. It was on time-banking, which is way to create reciprocal exchanges within a community without requiring money.

Let’s face it, we’re all pretty broke these days and we have many unmet needs that we just can’t financially afford to fulfill. But here’s the thing, there are plenty of unused resources in our community. Many people are unemployed or underemployed and yet they have lots of skills to offer. The only thing missing is the money but what if we stopped allowing money prevent us from providing for one another?

Enter time-banking. For every hour you spend doing something for someone in your community, you earn one Time Dollar. Then you have a Time Dollar to spend on having someone do something for you. It’s a simple concept but with profound implications for our communities and our relations with one another.

I filmed the time-bank workshop and even interviewed the founder of time-banks and have edited together a video introducing people to the idea and the changes that have occurred in communities that have implemented them. I’ll be showing this video and then opening up for a community discussion to lay the ground work for starting one in our community.

Please join me for this promising ArgusFest event this Thursday!

Abel and I left Denver at 1AM on Saturday, April 3rd to Join the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign’s “March to Fulfill the Dream“. We drove straight through taking turns sleeping and arrived in New Orleans around 7AM on Sunday, April 4th, the day of the kickoff for the march.

The significance of starting our march on April 4 is that it is the day that Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous speech in 1967 at Riverside Church denouncing the Vietnam war and boldly stating that we must declare an “eternal hostility to poverty”.

Over the next year King was organizing the Poor People’s Campaign with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and a poor people’s march to go from Marks, MS to Washington, DC. One year to the day after King’s Riverside speech he was assassinated. A month later the poor people’s march went forward without King and today, over 30 years later poverty conditions have not improved and have arguably worsened. On April 4, 2010 we began the March to Fulfill the Dream in continuum of King’s last dream of a world without poverty and war.

Here’s a video I took of Cheri Honkala of PPEHRC speaking at our kick-off event.

While in New Orleans we stayed at the Lower 9th Ward Village, an inspirational community center being spearheaded by Ward “Mack” McClendon. I fell in love with this place and made a short video about it.

Five years after Katrina, New Orleans remains in great need of repair and in the lower 9th ward 75% of the people remain displaced. Those who have returned and do not have money are just barely hanging on. Even Mack who runs this amazing community center may lose his home, which he has yet to be able to move back into. I’ll have a video about this and more coming soon.

On our way out of town we stopped at the New Orleans Mission interviewed some of the homeless people there. One person who really broke my heart was Ronald, a homeless Vietnam vet. He is evidence of the destruction from war that continues long after the war “ends”.

Our next stop was Waveland, MS where we met with Katrina survivors who have been in battle to keep their homes. I’ll have a report on this in the coming week. Please check back…

Also, follow the march by visiting the PPEHRC website (this website is a bit confusing but see the “UPDATES” column for the latest posts.

We have many more cities and stories to collect on this march and caravan. We want your involvement. Check out our route and dates. If you have a lead on a story about poverty we should cover along the way, please let us know. We also invite you to collect your own stories and share them with us.

We also will be holding music and cultural events along the way. If you are a musician or artist and would like to participate just let us know.

I can be reached at 303-669-7286

Fresh
Tuesday, January 26
7:00 PM
SAME Cafe
2023 E. Colfax Ave, Denver
$5 suggested donation or 1 hour volunteer

FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.

Among several main characters, FRESH features urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, the recipient of MacArthur’s 2008 Genius Award; sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma; and supermarket owner, David Ball, challenging our Wal-Mart dominated economy.

Escape from Suburbia
Monday, April 27
7:00 PM
Hooked on Colfax
3215 E. Colfax Ave, Denver
$5 suggested donation or 1 hour volunteer

In ESCAPE From SUBURBIA director Greg Greene once again takes us “through the looking glass” on a journey of discovery – a sobering yet vital and ultimately positive exploration of what the second half of the Oil Age has in store for us.

Through personal stories and interviews we examine how declining world oil production has already begun to affect modern life in North America. Expert scientific opinion is balanced with “on the street” portraits from an emerging global movement of citizen’s groups who are confronting the challenges of Peak Oil in extraordinary ways.

The clock is ticking. ESCAPE From SUBURBIA asks the tough questions: Are we approaching Peak Oil now? What are the controversies surrounding our future energy options? Why are a growing number of specialists and citizens skeptical of these options? What are ordinary people across North America doing in their own communities to prepare for Peak Oil? And what will YOU do as energy prices skyrocket and the Oil Age draws to a close?

Contested Streets
Breaking NYC Gridlock
Wednesday, February 4
7:00 PM
Hooked on Colfax
3215 E. Colfax Ave, Denver

Contested Streets explores the history and culture of New York City from pre-automobile times to the present allowing for an understanding of how the city ~ though the most well served by mass transit in the U.S. ~ has slowly relinquished what was rich, multi-dimensional conception of the street as public space to a mindset that prioritizes the rapid movement of cars and trucks over all other functions.

2009 Academy Award Nominee
for Best Documentary Feature
The Garden
Monday, February 23
7:00 PM
The Oriental Theater
4335 West 44th Ave, Denver
Tickets: $10

The fourteen-acre community garden at 41st and Alameda in South Central Los Angeles is the largest of its kind in the United States. Started as a form of healing after the devastating L.A. riots in 1992, the South Central Farmers have since created a miracle in one of the country’s most blighted neighborhoods. Growing their own food. Feeding their families. Creating a community.

But now, bulldozers are poised to level their 14-acre oasis.

The Garden follows the plight of the farmers, from the tilled soil of this urban farm to the polished marble of City Hall. Mostly immigrants from Latin America, from countries where they feared for their lives if they were to speak out, we watch them organize, fight back, and demand answers:

Why was the land sold to a wealthy developer for millions less than fair-market value? Why was the transaction done in a closed-door session of the LA City Council? Why has it never been made public?

And the powers-that-be have the same response: “The garden is wonderful, but there is nothing more we can do.”

Eco Village Pioneers
Saturday, November 29
2:30 PM
Mercury Cafe
2199 California St, Denver
$5 donation or 1 hour volunteer

Over a decade, Helen, a co-founder of Undercurrents went in search of a sustainable way of life. Along the way she recorded the UK’s most high profile campaigners on low impact living. She charted how Tony Wrench and his partner (see photo below) challenged and radically changed a council’s policy on rural housing. Their unique, inexpensive ecohome made from oak, cobwood and recycled window walls, straw-insulated turf roof, with solar power for electricity, compost toilet and reed beds for grey water is now a proven example of what the Government needs to be providing. Her journey took her to Crystal Waters Permaculture village in Australia, Sunseed Desert Technology centre in Spain, Findhorn spiritual community in Scotland, The Village in Ireland and the low impact settlement, Tinkers Bubble in Somerset England. Her trip also includes the world renowned Centre of Alternative Technology in mid Wales. The main strand of the film follows the story of Lammas- Britains First planned Ecovillage to be developed in England and Wales.

One Man, One Cow, One Planet
How to Save the World
Saturday, November 29
1:30 PM
Mercury Cafe
2199 California St, Denver
$5 donation or 1 hour volunteer

Modern industrial agriculture is destroying the earth: desertification, water scarcity, toxic cocktails of agricultural chemicals pervading our food chains, ocean ecosystem collapse, soil erosion and massive loss of soil fertility.

Our ecosystems ore overwhelmed. Humanity’s increasing demands are exceeding the Earth’s carrying capacity.

A simple recipe to save the world?

One old man and a bucket full of cow-shit.
Are you crazy?

Garbage Warrior
Saturday, November 29
12:00 PM
Mercury Cafe
2199 California St, Denver
$5 donation or 1 hour volunteer

What do beer cans, car tires and water bottles have in common? Not much unless you’re renegade architect Michael Reynolds, in which case they are tools of choice for producing thermal mass and energy-independent housing. For 30 years New Mexico-based Reynolds and his green disciples have devoted their time to advancing the art of “earthship biotecture” by building self-sufficient, off-the-grid communities where design and function converge in eco-harmony. However, these experimental structures that defy state standards create conflict between Reynolds and the authorities, who are backed by big business. Frustrated by antiquated legislation, Reynolds lobbies for the right to create a sustainable living test site. While politicians hum and ha, Mother Nature strikes, leaving communities devastated by tsunamis and hurricanes. Reynolds and his crew seize the opportunity to lend their pioneering skills to those who need it most. Shot over three years and in four different countries, Garbage Warrior is a timely portrait of a determined visionary, a hero of the 21st century.

Good Food: Sustainable Farming in the Northwest
Saturday, November 29
3:30 PM
Mercury Cafe
2199 California St, Denver
$5 donation or 1 hour volunteer

Something remarkable is happening in the fields and orchards of the Pacific Northwest. After leaving the land for decades, family farmers are making a comeback. They are growing much healthier food, and more food per acre, while using less energy and water than factory farms. And most of this food is organic.

For decades Northwest agriculture was focused on a few big crops for export. But climate change and the end of cheap energy mean that each region needs to produce more of its own food and to grow it more sustainably. Good Food visits farmers, farmers’ markets, distributors, stores, restaurants and public officials who are developing a more sustainable food system for all.