Join us for food, speakers, performances and music

VBC8 events will take place at Bossanova, 722 E Burnside, 5pm to late.

The venue for this year’s Village Building Convergence does not fully accommodate those people in our community who use wheelchairs. We apologize for this and are committed to ensuring that next year’s venue and projects are more inclusive. We invite people to collaborate with us for next year’s planning process. If you are interested, please contact Hindi, hindi@cityrepair.org

For Summary of events, see table of contents at the right! Full, detailed schedule below

Amanda believes that the real wealth of Portland is the people who live here, and the environment we share, envision, and create. She is currently seeking election to the Portland City Council, to fill the Commissioner position being vacated by Sam Adams. Amanda is also a longtime City Repair supporter. (More)

Lydia has been building since she first stole her sister’s legos at age three. She operates Flying Hammer Productions, a natural building construction company and facilitates a variety of workshop from mudslinging to carpentry for women. You can usually find her in the mud, wrestling straw bales or just flying around by the seat of her pants... (More)

Since 2001, Jenny has weaved her energy into a variety of community sustainability projects around Portland. With The City Repair Project, she co-founded the Village Building Convergence, facilitated Placemaking projects and workshops in dozens of communities in Portland and across the U.S, co-authored the 170-page Neighborhood Placemaking Guidebook and coordinated City Repair’s T-Horse and VisionPDX projects. Now, as Board member and Placemaking Program coordinator, she is helping City Repair evolve its unique programs for neighborhood transformation.

Last year, Jenny built upon these experiences and developed her own year-long tour of the U.S. and Africa, traveling as a “cross-pollinator” in order to explore the emerging ecosystem of grassroots changemakers, and building momentum through the interactions among the individual components. Now, Jenny has returned to Portland to weave the art and science of cross-pollination into Portland’s vibrant critical mass of changemakers. She is facilitating a year-long project among social justice and ecological changemakers of all types that fosters powerful linkages of communication and understanding without having to formally align organizations in mission, value or language, or create a new coalition or organization. (More)

afrobeat/ funk

Jujuba is an 11-piece Afrobeat and Juju band featuring master talking drum player, Nojeem Lasisi. The powerful and melodic beat from Nojeem’s drum catalyzes pure Afrofunk energy between Jujuba’s horn, rhythm and percussion sections. Nasty lines and soulful solos blare from the four-piece horn section. Bass, keys, guitar and drum kit forge a funky backbone rhythm section. An explosive percussion section with flavors ranging from West Africa, Cuba and Brazil ignite the dance floor. The result: a sound that is irresistibly danceable. Check out Jujuba for more details and our new album...

(members of Signal Path + Surrounded By Ninjas)

Surrounded By Ninjas
create danceable-yet-thoughtful, forward-thinkin-yet retro electronic music that blends composition and improvisation. Pulsating basslines and beats, virtuosic keyboards, and spoken word samples cut by a turntable are augmented by blips, bleeps, and breaks forming a crushingly intense sound experience. Surrounded By Ninjas

VBC8 Core, “The Big Picture of VBC8”

Brandy Gallagher [previously MacPherson] (BSW, MA) is one of the original founders and developers of O.U.R. ECOVILLAGE, Shawnigan Lake (Vancouver Island) BC. (More)

Brandy brings an innovative and unique discussion on the real life example of how one Ecovillage was created from within all regulatory processes. This amazing example of a “full featured human settlement” was not created out of the visibility of regulatory processes but dared to partner with the regulatory powers that be! First, by creating a brand new re-zoning project which allowed for a ‘Sustainable Land Management Design” (a park, an organic farm, an education facility, and an eco-residential housing cluster), secondly by working with building inspectors and engineers on ‘natural building’ (cob, strawbale, light clay, etc) compliance with building codes, then alternative Waste Water Treatment through the Health Act, now a national research project on FOG: Finance, Ownership and Governance for Landshare Projects....these landmarks have created unprecedented opportunities and an amazing contribution to all other live/work communities in Canada and even the US. This is all accomplished through an amazing development of new relationship and partnerships within the Regulatory process.

Please join us for an evening of sharing the history, design and development of this example through a slideshow and group discussion!

Sandra Davis Lakeman is an Emeritus Professor of Architecture from California Polytechnic State University, 1981-2006; and, University of Arizona. She is an architect, photographer and author of Natural Light and the Italian Piazza, the international exhibition and catalogue, sponsored by the Comune di Siena, Cal Poly, the Graham Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Primarily architectural and urban in nature including contextural landscape images, this exhibition opened in the Palazzo Pubblico, Cortile del Podestà in Siena, Italy in 1992; Portland, Oregon in 1994 and San Luis Obispo in 2004. (More)

“Who is The Goddess Alchemy Project? Bringing forth a timeless science through a live, lyrical experience of “more than one sista on the mic at a time”… this crew gives voice to the potent medicine of Goddess Alchemy rising. Empowering the revolution from within, these creatresses synergize their individual skills to weave together an evolutionary, artistic collective grounded in the ancient ways of women’s wisdom. In collaboration with many artists and producers, Goddess Alchemy’s sound alchemizes a fresh, feminine flavor by integrating elements of underground hip hop, world accents, spoken word flows, and soulful melodics. Combine this with ancient texts, quantum physics, ancestral roots, multi-dimensional symbology, and an all-female cipher… the result to this equation is a new, musical science they call “Open Source Soul Floetics”. Utilizing multi-media as they’re tool of mass creation, The Goddess Alchemy Project fuses music, visual art, spoken word poetry, dance, their al.KEM.y Designs clothing company, and community outreach to bring sacred intention to the forefront of artistic momentum.”Goddess Alchemy Project

Bhangra, Hip-hop, Dub, Dancehall, Bollywood

“DJ Rekha invites the listener to go with her into a world that merges the traditional Bhangra music of South Asia and the Hip-Hop beats of today” Koch RecordsDJ Rehka

Mark Lakeman, “CR Impact on Community Health”

NALAWALLA is a transdisciplinary artist, teacher and performer dedicated to active crosspollination between the arts and ecology. Living on an off-grid, island homestead in the Puget Sound area, she facilitates the Bcollective, an umbrella organization which seeks to distribute widely the tools of bodybased arts for commonsense use in creation of healthy community, and to honor to these arts for this essential work. (More)

Deb Delman, The Pangaea ProjectPangea Project

Karen is the founder of the Sunnyside Swap Shop Co-op which holds one time and ongoing events to support the recirculation of useful household goods while building and strengthening community. (More)

Karen Hery, Sunnyside Swap Shop Co-opSwap Shop

Topic: Radical Rummage - planting a more sustainable commerce through innovative forms of urban permaculture

Jeremy O’Leary, an organizer with Portland Peak Oil, will talk about the process that led to the creation of the City of Portland’s Peak Oil Taskforce and the ongoing efforts to integrate peak oil mitigation into local government. Basically there are 500 number one priorities to do and the odds are pretty good you are going to be handy with a few of them. The additional good news is that as individuals and small groups, most of the things we need to do to mitigate the effect of global weirding and peak oil will also re-localize the food supply, reduce our energy needs, create urban habitat, and improve both emergency response and our general quality of life.

If you are interested in a Peak Oil 101 Presentation from the Oregon Department of Energy, please attend the workshop at CRHQ from 3 to 5pm earlier on May 27th. Go here for more info - http://www.portlandpeakoil.org/discussion/vbc8_kaufmann

For over 10 years, Tony has been the lesser-known half of the dynamic duo known as DCAT (the Development Center for Appropriate Technology, with rockstar David Eisenberg), has been deeply involved in the natural and green building movements, is an arts and media activist, and also holds a part time position in Tucson City government developing sustainability related policy objectives. (More)

Daniel Lerch is the author of Post Carbon Cities: Planning for Energy and Climate Uncertainty, the first major municipal guidebook on peak oil and global warming. A program manager with Post Carbon Institute, Lerch has worked on urban planning issues for over ten years in the public, private and non-profit sectors. He is also a co-founder of The City Repair Project, an award-winning non-profit organization working on community public space issues.

More information about Daniel’s presentation topic linked here.

Alpaca! is a Live experience. We uphold the deeply rooted connection between music, people, and dance; The transfer of energy between the musicians and our audience evolves our sound and we thank every individual who comes to see us play for inspiring our music. When we step onto the stage above a dance floor, we bring it hard and non-stop. Our sound spans genres of funk, electronica, rock, drum n’ bass, downtempo, dub, and beyond. It is ultimately a culmination of our broad musical backgrounds and styles... indescribable with words, but pleasant to the senses. Music is our passion and we work diligently to continually create new sounds to be shared with our growing audience. Our music is an invitation to co-create in the live music experience, so throw on your glitter and sequins... bring your disco balls, lights, and body paints... fill up your spirit... and LET’S GET DOWN! “ONE nation under a groove.”Alpaca

This is feel good folkin’ soul...A freshly formed local family band that pours it out from the heart. The three-part harmonies will warm your bones. Feel the new conscious gospel in full swing! Hallelujah!Fruition String Band

Tony Novelli, Tucson Development Center for Appropriate TechnologyTDCAP, “Life in the Times of Peak: From Dump Town to Stump Town”

Paul Cienfuegos is a founding (and recently ex) member of the City of Arcata Committee on Democracy and Corporations which had its origins in ‘Measure F’. It is the first committee of its kind in US history, and works to “ensure democratic control over corporations conducting business within the city...” Paul (and co-author) are currently working on a book for mainstream Americans on how to dismantle corporate rule. Paul also owns an online bookstore: <http://www.100fires.com> which carries thousands of books to help create a better world.

Starhawk is a writer, teacher, activist, and Witch who has been a long-term leading voice in the Goddess movement and a committed global justice activist and organizer. She is the author of several hallmark books in ecofemenism, women’s spirituality, and earth-based activism including her latest, Earth Path: Grounding Your Spirit in the Rhythms of Nature. (More)

Live Electronics/ Dub / Hip HopOff The Grid

Pam & Joe Leach, Portland Permaculture InstitutePPI

SCRAP–The School and Community Reuse Action Project–is a 501©(3) non-profit and our mission is to promote creative reuse and environmentally sustainable behavior by providing educational programs and affordable materials to the communitySCRAP.

“The Hunker Down To Rise Above Cinema Show” will be highlighting shorts by various makers which focus on folks taking matters into their own activist hands, be it within bike culture with guerilla bike lane making and all girl bike dance troupes, or homestead style with films on humanure, self watering containers and making chicken dinner, to name a few. These films are not the usual activist videos, but rather a hybrid of art/documentary and DIY!

Founder and janitor of The Oregon Department of Kick Ass, she is a filmmaker by nature, not by stress of research. She puts scholars to rout by solving through Nature’s teaching problems that have fretted their trained minds. (More)

Vanessa Renwick of Oregon Department of Kick AssODOKA

How much do you know about how the food you eat is grown and made? Who’s controlling our seeds, soil, and in turn, the future of food? Are there sustainable alternatives to the high-tech takeover of the global food system? What can we learn from grass roots, local food movements around the world? Lisa Weasel will share insights garnered from her work over the past 5 years with small farmers, agricultural ministers, and food and farming activists in Zambia, India, Thailand and Europe as they fight to resist the incursion of genetically modified food, and cultivate and celebrate local sustainable food systems in its place. She will also discuss how citizens can be proactive in local food policy and regulatory decisions. Uncovering how politics drives consumer preference and limits our food choices, this presentation will show us how and why we need to engage directly in food politics at both the local and the global level. (More)

Art Ludwig is an ecological systems designer with 27 years full-time experience in water, wastewater systems, energy, shelter and human powered transport. His specialty is complex, integrated “systems of systems.” Art has authored numerous articles (including one on water testing procedures) as well as the books “Water Storage” “Principles of Ecological Design,” and “Create an Oasis with Greywater.” (More)

Ambient / IDM / Down-tempo

A classically trained pianist and master of the art of software production. Bluetech’s love of the melodic and exquisite sense of sound design makes him one of the most ingenius producers today. Bluetech’s sound emerges from his custom-built Reaktor instruments and software based synthesisers as a primordial electro-dub alchemy. While encompassing musical touches from different parts of the globe, he presents a total blend, crossing genres and borders. Bluetech has created a label called Native State Records to release his own music and music from other artists who cross boundaries between ambient/chill and more idm/experimental sounds. Not content to stay at home, Bluetech has toured extensively and performed in Japan, UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, Croatia, France, Denmark, Mexico, United States, and Canada. Bluetech has released two albums on Aleph Zero Records, an internationally acclaimed chill label run by recording artist Shulman, and is currently working on a third for release in 2008. Aleph Zero brought Bluetech’s music to the attention of the international chill audience, and helped to launch his career worldwide through strong support and beautiful packaging. Stay tuned for the next chapter! Native State RecordsBluetech

Psychedelic / Dub / Electronica twisted records

The most fantastic modern dub from West Country, UK, reclusive genius OTT...

... who’s debut album really is over the top in quality, depth and shinning brilliance. Spacey strings, chants, otherworldly noises and pertinent samples collide with his massive rub-a-dub beats and bass. OTT s music is a world to it’s own, a pure undiluted atmospheric world of swirling stoned sound and colour. Indian to Arabic to African OTT s dub’s are boundary- less and boundless in their, scope and strength. OTT’s music is a paradox of dub, not stereotypically slow heavy sounds but at once an upbeat dancey dub full of light, world chants and funky beats, while still maintaining a slow and relaxed ambient groove.OTT

Brenna Bell, ReCode PDX & TLC Farm TLC Farm

Kiko, his wife, and two boys live in a little mud hut in a big garden where he helps make compost, maintain the operating systems, watch things grow and try to figure out how to be an artist. It took Kiko until 1994 to rediscover his nativity, but since then he has been using earth (cob, or adobe) to make ovens, buildings, murals, and other sculpture. Much of the work has been done in or with communities. (More)

“Octavia” is an explosive multi-media performance piece, featuring original music by Pelican Ossman and Sara Tone, animated art, film, marionettes and dance sequences by Portland’s legendary Habiba. The theme is “Forever”, with a hard hitting sub-theme exploration of the influence of the American pharmaceutical industry’s saturation of our air, water, soil, soul and spirits.

Helen Hill is co-founder and co-director, along with 12 other art-intoxicated beings, of Bay City Arts Center at the Oregon Coast. BCAC (www.baycityartscenter.org) is a rollicking, runaway train with a happy face offering a diversity of children’s programs, original theatre, community art openings, concerts and many special events. (More)

Electro / Breakbeat / Drum & Bass

sub-ID is the soundtrack to the modern world. Their music bridges the gap between DJ culture and the improvisational elements of jazz. sub-ID’s sound represents the juxtaposition of their musical influences: organic and electronic, improvised and composed, traditional and contemporary. Live, sub-ID combines relentless dance grooves and psychedelic imagery and lights, with unforgettable melodies and soaring solos creating a concert experience that is completely unique. This is creativity that knows no boundaries in terms of origin and destination. sub-ID’s sound design and production skills have been used in virtual instruments, music software, commercials, and commissioned pieces, in addition to working with other artists on albums, remixes, and various collaborations. One fans recent blog says it all, “sub-ID is not just a band...it’s theater. Theater of sound...sound that takes over the bones and sinew till they have a mind of their own and they jig me on the dance floor like a marionette.”sub-ID

Progrsv House / Breakbeat / Hip Hop

A spontaneous collaboration has led to a full-time partnership between four young emerging artists, as Colorado-based MC Souleye joins instrumental San Francisco trio BLVD on the road and in the studio. Consistent West Coast touring has brought this collaboration to the vanguard of the live electronica movement and continues to break down boundaries between dance club culture and the live music community. The synthesis of these two scenes is at the heart of BLVD’s primary focus since the band’s inception in 2003. BLVD’s live interpretations of what are generally considered to be electronic musical forms blend naturally with MC Souleye’s conscious and rhythmic approach to rapping. Together they create a dynamic sound with broad appeal.BLVD

Tony Deis, Trackers Northwest Trackers NW

What would it mean for our passion for communal change to be grounded in a permaculture of the heart? If the principles of permaculture were not merely ethics or deeply held values that we learned, but the natural outflowing of our deepest meditations on the experience of our own hearts? In this playful presentation we will discover these principles anew, not through the observation of the nature around us, but from seeing the nature of our loving. We will move from living in a way that reflects our values, to making our values an organismic response to our experience of living. Finally, we will discuss the challenges of living permaculture from the inside out, and engage in collective problem solving on meeting those challenges together.

Hunter Flournoy loves life passionately. A shaman, seer, poet and storyteller, he distills the deepest wisdom of the Toltec, Christian, Sufi, Buddhist, and indigenous healing traditions of the world into a crystal clear vision of personal revolution. Hunter is a teacher in the Toltec Eagle Knight lineage of Don Miguel Ruiz (author of The Four Agreements), a shamanic healer in the lineage of Rebecca Crystal, facilitates healing sweatlodges, and serves as a pastor for Amigos de Dios, a mystical Christian fellowship. Hunter has been coaching individual clients and leading workshops and retreats in intuitive awareness, holistic healing, and personal freedom for seventeen years in the US and Mexico.

Open Mic: Out of the Everywhere and into the Here - universal truths expressed in poetry, movement, music and song. Sign up sheet will be in venue all week long.