Portland, OR – May 1, 2007 – The City Repair Project is proud to welcome Starhawk as it’s featured speaker for the night of May 23, 2007, at 8:00 p.m. Starhawk will discuss the paths that led to this moment of ecological crisis and a way forward to create a better world for our descendants as part of The City Repair Project’s 7th Annual Village Building Convergence (VBC). The event will be held at Disjecta, VBC’s evening events venue, located at 830 E. Burnside Street, Portland, OR.

Starhawk is one of the most respected voices in modern earth-based spirituality. She is also well-known as a global justice activist and organizer, whose work and writings have inspired many to action. She is the author or coauthor of ten books, including The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess, long considered the essential text for the Neo-Pagan movement, and the now-classic ecotopian novel The Fifth Sacred Thing. Starhawk’s newest book is The Earth Path: Grounding Your Spirit in the Rhythms of Nature. Starhawk lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

Starhawk is a veteran of progressive movements, from anti-war to anti-nukes, and is deeply committed to bringing the techniques and creative power of spirituality to political activism. Together with Penny Livingston-Stark and Erik Ohlsen, she coteaches EAT, Earth Activist Trainings, intensive seminars that combine permaculture design, political organizing, and earth-based spirituality (www.earthactivisttraining.org).

Each year, the VBC is held to promote human-scale community action. Over 30 private sites, institutions, schools, and neighborhoods will create community-based projects for community improvement, which will be implemented during the Village Building Convergence. This year’s Village Building Convergence will include feature projects ranging from building ecoroofs to garden construction in locations in all quadrants of the city. In addition to the site projects, the VBC includes workshops, speakers, live music, and entertainment. A full effort will be made to recycle all materials, promote bicycle riding to sites, and create a zero waste zone at the evening event site.

The City Repair Project is an organized group action that educates and inspires communities and individuals to creatively transform the places where they live. The City Repair Project facilitates artistic and ecologically-oriented placemaking through projects that honor the interconnection of human communities and the natural world. The Village Building Convergence is primarily planned, designed, organized, built and run by volunteers, and on a minimal budget.

Please help us keep this event fabulously community-supported by volunteering or donating. For additional information on volunteering, please contact Maralena Murphy at 617-406-8299 (cell) or vbcvolunteer@cityrepair.org. For general inquiries, please contact Meghan Crane at 301-580-3554 or vbcpublicity@cityrepair.org.

2007 Village Building Convergence Featured Speakers and Entertainers