August 4-11, 2013
Imagine that you got to go to camp again as an adult—but you could also bring your kids along. Or that you could attend a multi-day slumber party with all your best friends—both those you know and those you haven’t yet met. Or that you lived in a village where everyone figured out together how to feed one another, tend the land together, play games and engage in the questions that matter most.
Deborah Frieze and Tuesday Ryan-Hart are inviting you to join us for “Tuesday and Deborah’s Village Week,” August 4-11, 2013. We’ll be gathering at the Old Oak Dojo, part of Deborah’s home in Jamaica Plain, MA, where there is enough room for folks to share bedrooms, sleep on air mattresses, camp out in the yard (or stay offsite if that meets your needs). We’ll self-organize into teams for cooking, cleaning, hosting, entertaining, teaching, gifting, playing—whatever you are called to offer or create.
Here are some of the things we’ll likely experiment with together: upcycling, urban gardening, cooking, beekeeping, storytelling, writing music, dancing, yoga, contact improv, meditation, cooperative games, and more. We’ll have an opportunity to host one another and to ask our burning questions as we explore how we each might best be of use in these times.
The week will kick off on Sunday, Aug. 4 with an Opening Day for the Old Oak Dojo from 12-5 pm, and then we’ll formally open Village Week that evening for those of us who are staying on-site. We’ll have a closing celebration on Saturday night, Aug. 10, followed by clean-up and departures no later than noon on Sunday.
In what follows, you’ll find information about our schedule, what to bring and how you can get involved.
Opening Day Celebration
Village Week kicks off on Sunday, Aug. 4 from 12-5 pm with an Opening Day celebration of the Old Oak Dojo. Here’s the invitation that will be going out to about 100 friends and neighbors—you’ll be receiving a separate notice about this event:
The Old Oak Dojo at 14 Chestnut Place in Jamaica Place is an urban learning center, a place where neighbors gather to rediscover how to create healthy and resilient communities. This 900-square foot studio, which shares a half-acre residential lot with a community home, is an experiment in dissolving the boundary between public and private, commercial and non-commercial. Its purpose is to provide a space for community to meet, learn, eat, celebrate and play—and thereby restore our wholeness as citizens.
The Dojo is pursuing the world’s most rigorous building standard, the Living Building Challenge (LBC), which challenges us to ask the question, What if every single act of design and construction made the world a better place? The building is made of locally sourced and salvaged materials, harvests and re-uses natural resources and support more than 1,000 square feet of urban agriculture.
We’d like to invite you to be part of our community and introduce you to this unique space. Please join us for an Opening Day BBQ on Sunday, Aug. 4 from 12-5 pm.
For those of you participating in Village Week, you’re welcome to arrive in time for the Opening Day party—or just arrive in time for our opening session together on Sunday evening at 8 PM.
Schedule of Events
Here is the flow of each day, followed by a detailed listing of events and activities. There’s room for more, so let us know if there’s something you’d like to offer.
Sunday, Aug. 4
12-5 PM Opening Day
8-10 PM Village Week Opening Session
Monday, Aug. 5
8-9 AM Morning practice with Aaron
This will be a mix of yoga, kung fu, chi gong and other movement practices hosted by a mix of teachers. Details coming soon.
10-12:30 PM Open Space
2-5 PM Upcycling with Aerin and Sergio
Every day, people everywhere churn out mountains of plastic and non-biodegradable waste that threaten to eclipse our living spaces. But what if we begin to see to garbage as the world’s most abundant free asset? Upcycling, the practice of converting waste into things that are useful, durable and beautiful, transforms our relationship to waste. Oaxacan Upcyclers Aerin Dunford and Sergio Beltrán will lead us through a hands-on workshop in turning plastic, aluminum, glass and waste paper into useful and beautiful objects.
Space is limited to 20. Email Aerin to confirm your participation.
8-10 PM Movie night
Tuesday, Aug. 6
8-9 AM Morning practice with Yao
10-12:30 PM Open Space
2-5 PM JP Net Walking Tour with Chuck
Jamaica Plain is a vibrant urban neighborhood in Boston. This walking tour will visit some of the local experiments in forming a new economy—including transportation, food systems, and commerce. The Jamaica Plain New Economy Transition (www.jptransition.org) is working to support and catalyze a variety of efforts to build a more resilient, equitable and sustainable neighborhood. Chuck Collins will lead a tour and discussion. He is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, co-founder of JPNET, and has lived in the neighborhood for 23 years.
8-10 PM Storytelling with Tuesday
Wednesday, Aug. 7
8-9 AM Morning practice
10-12:30 PM Open Space
2-5 PM Theatre of the Oppressed with Reg
The Theatre of the Oppressed is a collection of theater techniques developed by Brazilian theater practitioner Augusto Boal in the 1960s. In Theatre of the Oppressed participants use theater as means of promoting social and political change through exploring, showing and analyzing the reality in which they are living. Reg Flowers of Red Hook Theater in Brooklyn will be leading us through this experience.
Learn more at www.redhooktheater.org and www.regflowers.com/regflowers/biography/
8-10 PM Open Mic with Nejem
Got talent? Calling all singers, musicians, poets, rappers and performance artists to bring your gifts to the stage. Nejem Raheem will host an Open Mic night for anyone willing to step on stage.
Thursday, Aug. 8
8:30-10 AM JP Local First Meeting
JP Local First, a membership organization for JP business owners who want to work together to grow the local economy and strengthen community, is having its fourth meeting at the Old Oak Dojo.
10-12:30 PM Open Space
2-5 PM Contact Improv with Aaron
8-10 PM Energy Trance Dance with Deborah
Wear loose, comfortable clothing, bring a journal and a bandanna and let ‘er rip! All other details to come upon arrival.
Space is limited to 20. Email Deborah to confirm participation.
Friday, Aug. 9
8-9 AM Morning practice with Aaron
10-12:30 PM Open Space
2-5 PM Afternoon Offering TBD
8-10 PM Concert with Paula
Singer-songwriter Paula Marchesini is releasing her new album, Chaos. We’ll be the first audience to hear songs from this folk-pop artist’s third album (to be released Fall 2013).
Learn more at www.paulamarchesini.com.
Saturday, Aug. 10
8-9 AM Morning practice with Aaron
10-12:30 PM Open Space
2-5 PM Afternoon Closing
8-11 PM Celebration
Sunday, Aug. 11
8-9 AM Morning practice
9-11:30 AM Clean Up
What to bring
We realize that some of you are traveling by plane, so you may not be able to bring along everything on this list. Whatever you don’t have, we’ll find a way to supply. But if you are able to travel with extra space, here are a few things you might want to bring along:
- Bedding
- Towels
- Yoga mat
- Cushion (for sitting on the floor)
- Water bottle
- Rain gear (so we can keep hanging outdoors no matter the weather)
- Headlamp or flashlight for those sleeping outside
- Musical instruments
- Bathing suit (in case we make an excursion to Walden Pond)
- Gardening gloves
Location
The Old Oak Dojo is located in Jamaica Plain at 14 Chestnut Place, a tiny street of Chestnut Avenue near Spring Park. 14 Chestnut is the second house, at the end of the road. Please come to the top of the driveway. The Old Oak Dojo is behind the house. See the map on our web site.
The Dojo is a 5-minute walk from the Stonybrook T station on the Orange Line and close to the Southwest Corridor bike path. We strongly discourage driving, as there is no parking available on Chestnut Place. If you must drive, there are a few visitor spots on Chestnut Avenue.
