Green Sanctuary Program
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Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship
Green Sanctuary Program |
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January 1, 2010 8th Annual Bellingham Labyrinth Celebrate the New Year ~ walking a Labyrinth! As Bellingham moves towards the year 2010, a small group of private citizens with Project Labyrinth have joined together to offer a different type of experience for the community. If you are interested learning how to build a labyrinth and participating in its construction then please be there at 10:00 AM on December 31st. A dismantling ceremony will take place at 5:00 pm on January 1st. Time: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm Location: The Leopold: Crystal Ballroom, Bellingham Cost: Free Contact: Laura Chandler 752-0048 or Kathy Harris 410-9228 January 6, 2010 Green Drinks Bellingham! Join us at this newly-remodeled "green" office building, home of 2020 ENGINEERING, Ecotech Energy Systems and Heating Green. Mingle with other community green-thinkers in this innovative, eco-friendly design and spacious meeting area complete with a pool table! __** Remember to bring your own glass to this waste-free event! **Green Drinks is an organic networking session that started in London, England and has since caught fire around the world. Like-minded individuals in places from Hong Kong to India, Sweden to South Africa meet every month to catch-up, network and talk about the latest green issues. According to greendrinks.org, “These events are very simple and unstructured, but many people have found employment, made friends, developed new ideas, done deals and had moments of serendipity.” The best part about Green Drinks is that there is no structure, just good people meeting at a regular place and time. Time: 5:00 pm Location: Wellspring Building, 814 Dupont Street Cost: Free Contact: Megan Artz at (360) 733-8307 or MeganA(at)re-sources.org January 7 - March 21, 2010 "Out of Bounds" The Lightcatcher building’s inaugural exhibition surveys some of the latest developments in contemporary art. It features over more than 80 compelling works in all media – painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, video, and installation art. Artists from around the world, both internationally recognized and emerging, are represented. The artists represented in their collection likewise transcend borders as they move between countries, cultural traditions, styles, and time. By experimenting with new ways of making art, they expand their work in limitless directions. The artworks are organized around the following themes: Reinventing the Figure; Reimagining the Landscape; Transforming Objects and Materials; and Making Art New: Form and Process. Many of the artists explore global political issues as well as interpret personal and communal identities. They also find new ways to express humanity’s complex relationship with the planet. A group of artists in the exhibition configure commonplace objects to frame new meanings, insights, and experiences for viewers. By contrast, other artists create totally new abstract forms through innovative technologies or approaches to art making. "Out of Bounds" highlights both abstraction and representation in a celebration of beauty and creativity. Barbara Matilsky, Curator of Art, will lead gallery tours of both exhibitions. Docent-led tours take place at 1 p.m. Thurdays-Sunday. Time: 12:00 - 5:00 pm, Tuesday-Sunday Location: Lightcatcher, Bellingham Cost: $10 general, $8 students, seniors and active military, $4.50 age Contact: whatcommuseum.org January 7, 2010 "Bloom: The Elephant Bed" A Site-Specific Installation by John Grade Inspired by natural cycles of creation and destruction, John Grade’s abstract sculptures reference the formation and erosion of landscape. "Bloom: The Elephant Bed" reflects the artist’s fascination with microscopic organisms (called coccolithophores) whose limestone shells formed the chalky White Cliffs of Dover in the United Kingdom. Geologists call this exposed layer of calcium, laid down over 200,000 years ago, the “Elephant” bed. For the Whatcom Museum, John Grade will suspend a forest of bell-shaped sculptures from the Lightcatcher’s new twenty-six-foot-high gallery. Visitors can walk through and explore these dynamic forms that will change over time. During the course of the exhibition, several sculptures will be lowered into a pool of inky-black water where they will slowly dissolve. Mark your calendars for Saturday, April 10. This is when the remaining pieces will be cast into the Bellingham Bay after a public procession. Time: 12:00 - 6:00 pm Location: Lightcatcher, Bellingham Cost: $10 general, $8 students, seniors and active military, $4.50 age Contact: 778-8930 or whatcommuseum.org January 14, 2010 Western Reads Keynote Speaker: Michael Pollan For the past twenty years, Michael Pollan has been writing books and articles about the places where the human and natural worlds intersect: food, agriculture, gardens, drugs, and architecture. He is the author, most recently, of In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. His previous book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, was named one of the ten best books of 2006 by the New York Times and the Washington Post. It also won the California Book Award, the Northern California Book Award, the James Beard Award for best food writing, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Pollan's previous book, The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World, was also a New York Times bestseller, received the Borders Original Voices Award for the best non-fiction work of 2001, and was recognized as a best book of the year by the American Booksellers Association and Amazon.com. Time: 7:30 pm Location: WWU's Performing Arts Center Mainstage Theatre Cost: $15.00 Contact: (360) 650-3846 January 16, 2010 Corporate Rule, Climate Change, the Economy: Everything is Connected Eighth Annual Martin Luther King Celebration. Time: 1:00 PM to 5:15 PM Location: Philip Tarro Auditorium at Skagit Valley College, 2405 E. College Way, Mount Vernon Cost: Suggested donation: $10 Contact: (360) 650-3846 Three presentations will be followed by discussion among all present. The presentations: Paul Cienfuegos-Dismantling Corporate Power: The hidden history and root causes of the corporate takeover of our democracy; strategies for recovering democracy. John Rawlins-21st Century: Humanity's Bottleneck Century -- It's not just peak oil, but peak everything! Joel Magnuson-Neo-classical Economics: How to produce stuff (but not well-being), war and oppression (but not security), and top it off with environmental devastation! Sponsored by People for a Peaceable Planet and Calling All Colors of Skagit Valley College. Paul Cienfuegos is the co-founding director of Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County based in Arcata, CA, and is the co-author of “Measure F: The Arcata Advisory Initiative on Democracy and Corporations.” He gives lectures and workshops on corporations and democracy, and was a featured speaker at this year's Village Building Convergence in Portland. Listen to an interview with Paul on KBOO Radio Portland: http://kboo.fm/node/14909. With a Ph. D. in nuclear physics, John Rawlins has taught college physics, most recently at Whatcom Community College, and spent nearly 20 years working in the nuclear power facilities at Hanford. Since 2004, he has made an intensive study of the world's terminal consumption not just of petroleum (peak oil), but also of other conventional energy sources (coal, natural gas, uranium), and how that will affect the world's industrial and food systems, both of which are dependent on cheap, abundant energy. Joel Magnuson, Ph.D. is an economist based in Portland, Oregon and specializes in non-orthodox approaches to political economy. He is an active member of an international research group based in Europe that is working toward new philosophical foundations for economic theory and practice. He is a visiting fellow at the Ashcroft International Business School at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, England and advisor to the editorial board of Anglia's journal, Interconnections. Magnuson is most known for his book, Mindful Economics: How The U.S. Economy Works, Why It Matters, and How It Could Be Different, published by Seven Stories Press, New York, 2008. January 16, 2010 Pickford Cinema: "Food, Inc." Film showing Food, Inc. will change your relationship with what you eat. Forever. Our nation's food supply is currently controlled by a small number of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health. The livelihood of American farmers is in jeopardy, the land we depend on in peril. In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults. Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield's Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms' Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here. Time: 12:00 pm Location: Pickford Cinema, Bellingham Cost: Varies Contact: January 18, 2010 NSEA: MLK Jr. Day Of Service Work Party At Padden Creek' Please join NSEA and the City of Bellingham Parks Volunteer Program as we work to maintain the riparian habitat at this established restoration site by removing non-native, invasive plant species and spreading mulch along the streambanks. Tools and gloves, as well as light refreshments will be provided. Please wear sturdy shoes and weather-appropriate clothing, and bring your friends, your family, and your enthusiasm! Walk west on Old Fairhaven Parkway towards Fairhaven, look for NSEA signs, and check in at the blue tent. Time: 10:00 am Location: Corner of 24th St. and Old Fairhaven Parkway, Bellingham Cost: Free Contact: Lindsay Taylor Volunteer Coordinator 715-0283 January 20, 2010 A Seasonal Rounds-The Ethnobotany of the Pacific Northwest Native People Washington Native Plant Society (WNPS) January Meeting--Join Heidi Bohan to learn about Pacific Northwest ethnobotany, including traditional collection, preparation, and utilization of native plants. A PowerPoint presentation will describe role of plants in northwest native culture and economy for food, technology, and medicine. Heidi Bohan works with the Snoqualmie Tribe, Northwest Indian College at Lummi Nation, and other communities throughout the northwest, and teaches at Bastyr University as an ethnobotanist and has traditional ecological knowledge about native plants. She is currently completing the third year of a project with the Snoqualmie Tribe creating gardens and sharing knowledge about traditional uses of plants. She will bring copies of her new book, The People of Cascadia--Pacific Northwest Native American History, which was released in September 2009 Time: 10:00 am Location: ReStore Sustainable Living Center, 2309 Meridian St., Bellingham Cost: Contact: January 21, 2010 Twin Bear Story Pole - Its Making, Installing, and Blessing Local wood carver Rand Jack will present a slide program on the making, installation and blessing of the Twin Bear Story Pole in the Lightcatcher building. He will discuss the message of the pole. Along with his love of woodcarving, Jack is also an ardent conservationist, retired teacher, and sometimes lawyer. This event is sponsored by Village Books. Time: 12:30 pm Location: Whatcom Museum: Whatcom Museum Rotunda Room, Bellingham Cost: $3/Museum members free Contact: Cyndy Sheldon, cyndy.sheldon@comcast.net January 21, 2010 Pickford Cinema: "Collapse" Film Viewing When we screened this film at this year's Toronto fest, it was the most talked about, buzzed about, and compelling film in the festival. It won't leave you unmarked. Michael Roger Ebert: "I have no way of assuring you that the bleak version of the future outlined by Michael Ruppert in Chris Smith's "Collapse" is accurate. I can only tell you I have a pretty good built-in B.S. detector, and its needle never bounced off zero while I watched this film. There is controversy over Ruppert, and he has many critics. But one simple fact at the center of his argument is obviously true, and it terrifies me." Time: 6:30 pm Location: Pickford Cinema, 1416 Cornwall Ave, Bellingham Cost: Contact: (360) 647-1300 January 21, 2010 BIONS Presents Transition Whatcom: Transitioning To The Future: Envisioning and Creating Our Ideal Resilient Community Join Chris Wolf and Tom Anderson for an evening of local inspiration. Both members of Transition Whatcom, Chris and Tom will provide a brief update on Peak Oil, Climate Change, and Economy, report on the work Transition Whatcom has performed since they last presented to BIONs in May, and share what's in store next for the organization. Chris and Tom will conclude the program by leading a visioning exercise for the future. Transition Whatcom's vision is creating resilient and more self-reliant communities throughout Whatcom County with a local food supply, sustainable energy sources, a healthy local economy, and a growing sense of vitality and community well-being. Time: 7:00 pm, doors open at 6:30 pm Location: RE Sources’ Sustainable Living Center, 2309 Meridian Street, Bellingham Cost: Suggested donation $5-10; no one turned away for lack of funds. Contact: Cyndy Sheldon, cyndy.sheldon@comcast.net January 21, 2010 First Gear Bicycle Class: Confidence & Comfort First Gear, introduction to essential skills and techniques for confident, comfortable cycling on roads and urban trails. The course is based on the League of American Cyclists certificate curriculum. First Gear is the first of the three-part everybodyBIKE Full Cycle course. Registration required by January 19. Time: 5:30 pm Location: Whatcom Council of Governments 314 East Champion St., Bellingham Cost: $10 or Free for Smart Trips participants who register in advance Contact: Mary Anderson 671-BIKE or info@everybodyBIKE.com January 22, 2010 Pickford Cinema: "Collapse" Film Viewing When we screened this film at this year's Toronto fest, it was the most talked about, buzzed about, and compelling film in the festival. It won't leave you unmarked. Michael Roger Ebert: "I have no way of assuring you that the bleak version of the future outlined by Michael Ruppert in Chris Smith's "Collapse" is accurate. I can only tell you I have a pretty good built-in B.S. detector, and its needle never bounced off zero while I watched this film. There is controversy over Ruppert, and he has many critics. But one simple fact at the center of his argument is obviously true, and it terrifies me." Time: 9:00 pm Location: Pickford Cinema, 1416 Cornwall Ave, Bellingham Cost: Contact: (360) 647-1300 January 23, 2010 Educational Courses With Michael Pilarski: Winter Wildcrafting We will do hands-on wildcrafting of a number of medicinal plants. Devil’s club root and rootbark, oregon-grape root, cottonwood buds, usnea lichen, lungwort lichen, teasel root, dandelion root and licorice-fern are some of the things we will be looking for. We will discuss other medicinal and useful plants we come across. Both sites have meadows, riparian zones and forests to explore. The information is applicable to western Washington in general, particularly the wet forests on the west side of the North Cascades. We will do wildcrafting and processing, as well as talk about sustainability, ecology, ethics, etc. Mostly we will work and learn out in the wild. Come prepared for the weather. Bring warm gear, raingear, work gloves, collecting bags and hand pruners. Michael is a farmer, wildcrafter, author & educator practicing in northwest and north-central Washington for nearly 15 years. He is one of Washington’s most knowledgeable people on the topic of sustainable wildrafting. Space is limited to 10 students per course. Pre-registration required. Time: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm Location: River Farm Cost: $75 per Student Contact: 360.312.3928 or KearsleyDesign@Gmail.com January 23, 2010 Pickford Cinema: "Collapse" Film Viewing When we screened this film at this year's Toronto fest, it was the most talked about, buzzed about, and compelling film in the festival. It won't leave you unmarked. Michael Roger Ebert: "I have no way of assuring you that the bleak version of the future outlined by Michael Ruppert in Chris Smith's "Collapse" is accurate. I can only tell you I have a pretty good built-in B.S. detector, and its needle never bounced off zero while I watched this film. There is controversy over Ruppert, and he has many critics. But one simple fact at the center of his argument is obviously true, and it terrifies me." Time: 9:40 pm Location: Pickford Cinema, 1416 Cornwall Ave, Bellingham Cost: Contact: (360) 647-1300 January 24, 2010 Seed Saving The season for seed saving is upon us. You are invited to come by for a cuppa and help pack garden kits. Several people have expressed an interest in picking my brains about small space intensive urban gardening, seed saving, home preservation, etc. My pleasure, let's keep our hands busy while we chat. Thank you so much to the people who came to help clean the seed. The efforts of many reduced many sacks of dried vegetation to neat packages of cleaned seed.__The end result of this effort will be seeds for various good causes and 45 garden kits: collections of seeds and starts designed for small spaces and container gardening. Some are already reserved for non-profits and gardeners with constrained resources. The rest are free to anyone, perhaps you, who would like to start a food garden. Help and donations cheerfully accepted. Call me to reserve a garden kit or come to Tea and Seeds. Time: 2:00-7:00 pm Location: Celt's Garden, 1028 12th St, Fairhaven Cost: Contact: 756-8957 January 24, 2010 Pickford Cinema: "Collapse" Film Viewing When we screened this film at this year's Toronto fest, it was the most talked about, buzzed about, and compelling film in the festival. It won't leave you unmarked. Michael Roger Ebert: "I have no way of assuring you that the bleak version of the future outlined by Michael Ruppert in Chris Smith's "Collapse" is accurate. I can only tell you I have a pretty good built-in B.S. detector, and its needle never bounced off zero while I watched this film. There is controversy over Ruppert, and he has many critics. But one simple fact at the center of his argument is obviously true, and it terrifies me." Time: 8:00 pm Location: Pickford Cinema, 1416 Cornwall Ave, Bellingham Cost: Contact: (360) 647-1300 January 24, 2010 Permaculture Applied to Whatcom County Whatcom County is already a hotspot of good ideas and initiatives. This permaculture event will attempt to put them all into perspective. We will explore how trees, food production, transportation, energy, housing, ecosystem restoration, animal husbandry, economy etc are integrated into sustainable design at micro to macro levels. Permaculture design emphasizes co-generation opportunities, closing loops, and turning wastes to resources - outputs of one part of the system becoming inputs for another part. We study interconnections and flows. Soils, communities & ecosystems get richer. Michael has been involved in the permaculture movement since 1981 and is one of the Northwest’s leading permaculture teachers. Suitable for grass-roots activists, county planners, and concerned citizens. Time: 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Location: Squalicum Yacht Club 2633 S. Harbor Loop Dr. Bellingham Cost: $30-50 Sliding Scale Contact: (360) 312-3928 January 27, 2010 WWU Water Film Series : Posioned Waters More than three decades after the Clean Water Act, two iconic waterways -- the great coastal estuaries of Puget Sound and the Chesapeake Bay -- are in perilous condition. With polluted runoff still flowing in from industry, agriculture and massive suburban development, scientists fear contamination to the food chain and drinking water for millions of people. A growing list of endangered species also is threatened in both estuaries. [This film] examines the rising hazards to human health and the ecosystem and why it's so hard to keep our waters clean." Time: 3:00 pm Location: Western Washington University,Parks Hall 146 Cost: Contact: January 28, 2010 Out of the Forest: A talk with Andrew Vallee, Smith & Vallee Woodworks What is behind the walls in the new Family Interactive Gallery? Andrew Vallee discusses sustainable woodworking in the Northwest, what the Smith & Vallee Woodworks team have been doing since The Tree Project and the amazing new installations at the Lightcatcher. This event is sponsored by Village Books. Time: 12:30 pm Location: Whatcom Museum: Whatcom Museum Rotunda Room, Bellingham Cost: Contact: January 29, 2010 Transition Whatcom: "Homegrown" Film Showing HOMEGROWN follows the Dervaes family who run a small organic farm in the heart of urban Pasadena, California. While "living off the grid", they harvest over 6,000 pounds of produce on less than a quarter of an acre, make their own bio diesel, power their computers with the help of solar panels, and maintain a website that gets 4,000 hits a day Time: 7:00 pm Location: Fairhaven Firehouse, 1314 Harris Avenue, Bellingham Cost: $5 Donation Contact: Kate Clark at kateclark101@hotmail.com January 31, 2010 2nd Annual Bellingham Seed Swap Schedule: 12:00- 12:30 Tea & Introductions, Non-profit Tables, Garden Share Opportunities 12:30-1:00 Circle Gathering & Seed-Swap Etiquette 1:00-3:00 Open Seed Exchange 2:00- 3:00 Specialty Seed Exchange 3:00-4:00 Presentation: Why and How to Save Your Own Seeds Thanks to our Sponsors: Forest Garden Urban Ecology Center, Center for Local Self Reliance, Sustainable Bellingham, Food Not Lawns, Earthcare Garden Designs, and Transition Whatcom. Time: 12:30pm - 4pm Location: Center for Expressive Arts, 1317 Commercial (btwn Holly & Magnolia), 2nd Floor Cost: Contact: Shannon Maris, lightsourceon@comcast.net. |
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