Tuesday, April 25, 2017, 03:05 PM - The Solidarity Economy & Microfinance
I spoke on a panel at the Entrepreneurs with Disabilities Network last week with a few other "side hustlers." I haven't heard the term before but I like it. It fits along with the mosaic economy. Was once given the title "wild card." I've always called it piecing together a livelihood. Parts I do for money, parts volunteer. Parts with others in Sisters Inc and part on my own. Really, I explained in my talk, for me, it's a lifestyle that fits my rhythm and energy levels better. I'm not made to be at a desk all day. Working half time lets me work in fits and starts as seems to be more my nature. I've never fit the "driven entrepreneur" though. I don't live and breathe my business. I have structured my life this way to have down-time, play outside if it's lovely. Yesterday I went for a long motorbike ride and a run in the park. I can spend some time writing and thinking, doing things for my own curiosity. Volunteer where I learn potentially more than my work. Day dream. We underestimate the importance of idleness. Friday, February 24, 2017, 08:48 PM - Poetry and Writing
Thorax of tractor, trailer aground.
Letting the metal go.
The gathering is shrinking. Soon
we forget to ask.
Old men idle over tinto and war.
A dyke gives way nail by nail.
It doesn’t stop here, ever.
Through bulging sewers
and guttered debris,
the music snuck back,
slipped on a hot little dress.
What part of love is patience?
A blown-out, boarded-up
city stuffs its windows with toys.
The derelict car lot
polka-dotted.
Abandon as litter
or landscape?
Insides out
mustering red.
Published Halifax Poetry Series, Frog Hollow Press and FreeFall Magazine
2016
Wednesday, January 25, 2017, 08:17 PM - Adult and Popular Education
“Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”
Martin Luther King Jr. wrote that the year I was born in "Where do we go from here: Chaos or Community?" Timely given all that is happening right now.
I'm speaking in LA at a social entrepreneurship workshop (Starting Bloc) about how I use these ideas practically in my work, especially in network building. How we balance saying what needs to be said with widening the tent.Tricky beautiful stuff. How being a mutt or at the edges has always felt a bit lonely but I've come to realize is a unique and helpful vantage point. Well placed to help build the bridges.
Wednesday, January 11, 2017, 02:46 AM - Poetry and Writing
Was bloody, half the empire would fall
but battle only lays them for a time
they cut and burned the books to quell the living
Rites of Zhou replaced with rule of law
and rule of land and tombs that fit for kings
an infantry to make it great again,
chains of serfs and bandits moved as one
bound the little states that wrapped Beijing.
Two thousand years, about a million men,
a life for every foot of wall when done.
What is blocked and what is kept within?
Caged white roosters, mortar of human bone
like the scales of a sleeping dragon
and as visible, too, from the moon.
Friday, January 6, 2017, 03:34 PM - The Solidarity Economy & Microfinance
Working together with a group of people to ask the question: what is the role of a community-led organization in setting aside land and property for public good, particularly affordable housing but not only. Possibly community gardens, affordable rental space for community agencies.
We're in a neighbourhood, the North end of Halifax where gentrification is a serious issue. We're interested in ensuring development without displacement and linking it to neighbourhood employment and community building.
Tenants are in dire living situations and are being displaced. Those on assistance can't afford to live on the $535 stipend they're given so it cuts into grocery money, other things. There are community agencies that are looking for places to rent. Non profits that are losing or unable to upkeep their properties. How to safeguard and watchdog and develop opportunities for and by the community? Then there are those in the community who might be able to donate some of their property or equity. Who can pay market rates and give back to the community to ensure affordability. Maybe even a connection with rural land trusts where swaps are possible.
One thing I've learned from my work in economic organizing. The strongest alternative economic models are built on community networks. Wide networks. The community land trust models seems to have had the most success in providing affordable housing and community building and accountability. We'll have to see what works in our neighbourhood, political context, housing situation.
It's the beginning of discussions and connections that just take time. These aren't technical problems. It's about finding common ground to move forward in the same direction.
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