Build the Village. Be the Village.
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City Repair will host the eleventh annual Village Building Convergence (VBC), from May 27 to June 5, a ten-day placemaking festival that combines crowdsourced activism, creative community development, hands-on education and celebration.
VBC participants will be able to travel around the city each day and get involved many exciting community development projects. And during each evening, at St. David’s Church (2800 SE Harrison St.), the extended village building community will come together to enjoy wholesome meals, inspiring presentations, musical performances, and creative participatory activities. Evening ticket packages are available online. Pre-sale discounts end May 15. Details at http://vbc.cityrepair.org/
In addition to the daytime placemaking and evening celebrations, VBC will offer an intensive design course to provide aspiring community organizers with critical theory and training to complement their hands-on placemaking experience. This Village Building Design Course is especially valuable for out-of-town participants who wish to bring placemaking back to their own cities. Register online!
“If you’re interested in learning about vibrant models for sustainable urban life and positive transformation then this is the event for you,” Eddie Hooker, an Evening Coordinator said . “If you’re coming from out of town we have very affordable housing options online in the ticketing section.”
Placemaking is the age-old process of investing our stories and values in our built and cultivated environment. “Our revitalized approach to placemaking empowers people to be responsible citizens. By using collaborative projects created in our public spaces to encourage positive interactions and creative solutions to societal problems we can reduce social isolation, a rapidly growing epidemic in all cities. These placemaking projects range from social structures, including benches and bulletin boards; ecological installations, such as community compost stations and living roofs; public art, such as street intersection murals and tile mosaics; and community networks, including cultural festivals and emergency preparedness strategies. All projects are designed locally and implemented locally with the critical support from volunteers like you!” said Sebastian Collet, VBC11 Placemaking Coordinator.
The central venue becomes a community hub and a village hall. Meet people from all walks of life who are coming together to learn about what it means to live a more connected, participatory life. Each evening event will include a wholesome vegan meal and an assortment of inspiring and elevating experiences, including presentations and storytelling from experts in the field of positive world transformation, musical or performance acts from acclaimed local talent or interactive community building exercises and workshops.
A Village Building Design Course will be offered for those who are interested in a deeper and more holistic village building experience. “This course augments the hands-on placemaking opportunities of VBC with in-depth morning classes. It is ideal for people outside of Portland who are eager to learn about, and replicate, the work of City Repair and the VBC in their own town or city,” said Mia Van Meter, Design Course Coordinator.
The full daytime and evening schedule will come online early May. In the meantime, interested participants can get pre-sale ticket packages, sign up for the Village Building Design course, and find out how they can volunteer to help make the VBC a success!
About City Repair
City Repair is an organized group action that educates and inspires communities and individuals to creatively transform the places where they live.
City Repair facilitates artistic and ecologically-oriented placemaking through projects that honor the interconnection of human communities and the natural world. The many projects of City Repair have been accomplished by volunteer staff and thousands of volunteer citizen activists.
City Repair projects include the annual Village Building Convergence, where people gather at neighborhood sites throughout Portland to engage in intersection repair, natural building, and other forms of placemaking. City Repair hosts Earth Day, teaches workshops through its Placemakers’ Academy, and operate a mobile tea house called the T-Horse.
For information visit http://vbc.cityrepair.org
For accompanying photos, videos and past articles visit http://vbc.cityrepair.org/media
