5/28: Green in the Hood:
Houseing
Join City Repair, in collaboration with People For Mutual Education, for day one of the Village Building Convergence!
When: Friday, May 28th, 6:30 pm - 8 pm (Pacific Time). To resgister click here.
The foundations of a village start with shelter. For this evening, we will have a virtual teach-in on projects working to create shelter that include a focus on unhoused Black Portlanders, from the Afro Village PDX, and an intitiative diverting waste from construction companies to create building for villages for the unhoused from the Useful Waste Intiative.
We will also hear from Sankofa Village, an intentional community centering Black healing, liberation and regeneration in Little Rock, Arkansas. Sankofa Village Arkansas was launched in January 2021 and though in infancy, the vision is to create a multifaceted organization with three branches (1) blended conservation and community land trust (2) LLC building tiny homes and offering climate resilient landscaping and (3) 501c4 doing advocacy and policy work in our focus areas. This Black-affirming space will grow skills and practices that will help us heal ourselves and the Earth.
The projects will share how and why they got started, progress their causes have made, and the challenges and edges they face and need support with. More info on the speakers in the bios below.
Tickets:
Visit our TICKETING PAGE CLICK HERE
Attendnance is by sliding scale donation. BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and other marginalized communities encouraged to attend for free. All proceeds will be split to the causes putting this event on.
Speaker Bios:
Sankofa Village
Sankofa Village Arkansas will be an intentional community centering Black healing, liberation and regeneration. We will be located in Central Arkansas, tackling the intersectional challenges around Human & Civil rights, the Environment, and Health with thoughtful, multidisciplinary, and community-based approaches. Black American ancestors have always had a connection to the Earth, supporting sustenance, healing and ceremonies in response to but also separate from the trauma of enslavement. We value both the ancestral knowledge and academic understandings of the historical impacts of trauma on Black American culture and health. The project weaver Danielle Jones (she/her) grew up in Little Rock, AR and has multi-generational roots in the state. Sankofa Village Arkansas was launched in January 2021 and though in infancy, the vision is to create a multifaceted organization with three branches (1) blended conservation and community land trust (2) LLC building tiny homes and offering climate resilient landscaping and (3) 501c4 doing advocacy and policy work in our focus areas. This Black-affirming space will grow skills and practices that will help us heal ourselves and the Earth. We hope to create solutions that are scalable and adaptable for others.
AfroVillage PDX
The AfroVillage is more than a physical space, it is a movement rooted in the vision of Portland community member and activist Laquida Landford. The movement focuses on addressing the needs of our most vulnerable population — unhoused individuals — with a focus on racial disparities and inequalities. Through her initiatives and events, including Old Town Fresh in Downtown Portland, Laquida Landford provides a variety of critical services to community members and has started important conversations around fundamental basic needs such as hygiene and sanitation, food scarcity, mental and physical health, and safety during COVID-19
Useful Waste Initiative
“Useful Waste” is a Portland State University Center for Public Interest Design-led initiative that aims to reframe the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industries' view on construction waste and encourage material diversion and reuse.
The intent of this initiative is to utilize an overlooked material resource - stand alone construction mock-ups - by repurposing the material and responding to pressing social needs, such as the local housing emergency.
Mock-ups are seen as temporary structures and typically end up in the landfill due to lack of pre-planning and immobility. This initiative facilitates a new process of material diversion within the typical construction schedule and requirements. By re-purposing a mock-up, a project team:
Diverts material and reduces landfill waste
Reduces embodied carbon impact from materials
Assists project sustainable goals (LEED, etc)
Receive tax benefits for charitable donations
Contributes to local community efforts
People For Mutual Education
We are People for Mutual Education, a group based in Portland, Oregon who work collaboratively to assemble resources, synthesize existing information, and share knowledge on racial and social (in)justice. We do this by creating pamphlets for distribution through door-to-door canvassing and online, as well as presenting learning opportunities that feature Black public thinkers, scholars, and community members. Our goal is not to be the gatekeepers of knowledge, but rather, to offer a platform and a space for those who have been resisting oppression and fighting for liberation to educate others, so that the spread of information and means to take action runs as wide as it does deep.
People for Mutual Education, currently an all-volunteer initiative, was curated by a Black person to further advance the efforts of local and national activists working for racial justice. For too long, the antiracism movement has relied on the (unpaid) labor, energy and resilience of Black, Indigenous, and people of color. By using unpaid white labor to compile resources, People for Mutual Education redistributes the wealth of time within the local movement for racial justice, economic equity, and collective liberation.
