Hey everyone. I am writing to invite you guys to come to Nabolom next Tuesday evening for the first night of what will hopefully become a weekly Food Not Bombs "Stone Soup" meal at Nabolom. Here are a bunch of random notes I've typed up about this project idea. Dave from Apgar house has already agreed to help bottom-line the soup making for the first week. I don't have the time or energy to develop these notes into a coherant proposal right now. But if anything I say here interests you, then please write back to me with comments, or come to Nabolom next Tuesday evening to eat soup and develop this idea furthur. I apologize for how sprawling and unfocused these notes are. Hopefully some of you who read this will intuitivly get what it is I'm trying to organize, and hopefully some of you will be inspired to rally behind this project idea and invest your own creative visions into it. - Tim Roust Proposal: Tuesday Evening FreeSkool Classes at Nabolom ------------------------------------------------------ Every Tuesday from 6:00 pm until 9:00 pm, Nabolom can be transformed into a fully-integrated community freeskool space, with classes and meetings in the basement, folk music lessons/ folk dance lessons in the main space, and a communal "stone soup" meal being cooked in the kitchen. The primary purpose will not be to generate revenue, but instead, to generate community support, build a customer base, and help the Barrington Collective Freeskool. IN THE BASEMENT: * Set the basement up as a general-purpose meeting space and freeskool space * Hold Barrington Collective meetings in the basement instead of the main space. * Set up the space so that it is stuitable for D.I.Y. arts and crafts, Spanish/ESL classes, writing classes, etc. IN THE MAIN SPACE: * Every Tuesday night, arrange the space so that the back half (near the cash register) is dining space and the front space is FreeSkool space. * Clear the front space of tables and chairs, and rotate the piano against the wall, to create a large rectangular area suitable for music classes, dance classes, or yoga classes. * Wiret eh soundsystem so that there are speakers in the main space. Wire the office computer to the stereo so that you can play streaming audio and MP3's in the main space. * Have an info-table by the door, with a bullitan board of upcoming events at Nabolom and a donataion jar. IN THE KITCHEN: Tuesday Night "Stone Soup" meal (sponsered by Food Not Bombs?) * Have a communal soup pot cooking in the background while classes are happening. * Start by boiling a stone in a pot of water, just like in the children's story. * Encourage class participants to bring dumpstered produce, food donated from FNB and the farmers market, and bulk goods bought with food stamps. * Distribue information on Food Not Bombs, the Farmers Market, how to obtain foodstamps in the Bay Area, and how to form your own Stone Soup meal in your own neighborhood. (other ideas:) * Have a freeskool class on how to cook different types of soup * Compile an open-source Food Not Bombs Stone Soup cookbook. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Purpose/Goals for the Tuesday Stone Soup Meal: - To build a stronger partnership between Food Not Bombs, the Barrington Collective Freeskool, and Nabolom Bakery. - To create a place where peace activists can gather and share food communally. - To create a working model of a new type of Food Not Bombs meal, which is smaller, more decentralized, and self-organizing. - To create a music learning space. To create a gathering space. To explore the relationship between free food, folk music, and folk dance. - To help Nabolom develop a model for how their space can be utilized as a community space during non-business hours. To build a stronger support community for Nabolom. To promote Nabolom as a gathering space for peace and social justice activists. - To create a convergence space where people from different community houses can bring their dumpstered produce and exchange food with one another. - To create an integrated freeskool space, with food being cooked in the kitchen, classes being held in the main space, and meetings being held in the basement. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A "Reasearch And Development" space for new Freeskool Classes -------------------------------------------------------------- Every Tuesday from 6 - 9, while soup is being cooked in the kitchen and while the Barrington Collective has it's meeting in the basement, the main space will be reserverd for freeskool classes. The tables will be moved out of the center of the room, and the piano will be rotated against the wall, creating a space ideal for music workshops, and perhaps even dance workshops. Or perhaps the space could be set up for teaching free Yoga, Tai Chi, Pilates, or massage, or perhaps the space can be used for computer classes, arts and crafts classes, language classes, or I.M.C. film screenings. Every week the upstairs space can host different workshops, depending on who shows up and what their interests are. It can be though of as a "research and development" space, where ideas for new freeskool classes can be developed collaborativly and tested out. The first step, I believe, in starting a new freeskool class is to organize with other students. Tuesday nights at Nabolom can become a place where freeskool organizers go to find other students with similar interests, and experiment with different ideas for new classes. New classes can be developed organically at Nabolom, and once they attract enough students and enough interest, then they can find a new time and space to meet in, which can then be added to the Barrington Collective's freeskool calender. This is similar to the role that the Highlander Center played during the early days of the union movement and the civil rights movement in the south. They provided a space where community members could come together, identify common struggles, and develop strategies for collective action. Once a particular project was developed to the point where it could exist on it's own, the Highlander Center would pass on the leadership and administration of that project to an outside group, so that the Highlander's resources for the development of new projects. The "Citizenship School" movement, which spread throughout the south and became part of the foundation for the civil rights movement, began as a series of workshops held at the Highlander Center. The best, most innovative ideas often start out half-complete. I envision Tuesday nights at Nabolom as being a creative, playful, energetic space where people can bring their own half-completed ideas, in search of other sympatethic wingnut idealists to help complete their visions. I would like it if both Barrington Collective and Nabolom would create tribes for themselves on tribe.net, which could be used as a place to post classified ads announcing upcoming classes and workshops to be help on Tuesday nights. I also would like it if Barrington Collective had their own bullitan board on the wall by the piano, advertising upcoming freeskool events. There also could be clipboards hanging for the wall, advertising new classes forming, apartments for rent, musician listings, job listings, volunteer opportunites, etc. I would like to promote "cross-marketing" between Nabolom and the Barrington Collective, so that all Barrington Collective flyers have a reference to Nabolom, and Nabolom becomes the main information distribution site for the Barrington Collective freeskool. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Tuesday night music workshops: Getting new music classes started isn't easy. It is impossible to get musicians to show up at the same place at the same time consistently every week. And it is impossible to sustain interest in the same subject for very long. My own study of music is driven mostly by an endless curiosity. With each new type of music I am introduced to, whole new worlds of possibilities open up to me, and my curiosity and my focus shifts accordingly. I envision Tuesdays at Nabolom as being a space where musicians can gather and experiment with different ideas. Once there is sufficient interest in any particular subject, then a new class can form. Most musicians are interested in many different types of music. It is good to start music workshops off with a common focus, as a way of getting people together. But the group should feel free to shift the focus of the class at will, depending on what people are inspired on at any given moment. So instead of organizing workshops around set themes, I suggest organizing workshops around group warm-up excersizes. All you need to do to start a new music class is to define an arbitrary starting point for musicians to rally around. And if the emphesis is put on group communication, and if students feel empowered to follow their intuition, then the focus of the workshops will evolve organically. Instead of referring to freeskool music classes as "classes", I prefer to think of them "learning circles" or "affinity groups". And instead of basing classes around "teachers", I want classes to be driven by "focalizers". Most music circles will probably be very small, from 3 to 5 people, and most will not be designed to be permanent, but will be short-lived, and will be stepping stones to other projects. Over time, hopefully, a communication network of freeskool musicians will form, allowing people to get together for small, temporary collaborations. Here are some of the "learning circles" or affinity groups that I would like to help organize. If you are interested in helping to focalize any of these circles, or if you have any of your own suggestions for new learning circles, let me know. Remember, I am defining these classes simply as 'starting points' for musicians to organize around. Once people are organized into a circle, it is up to themselves to decide how they want their circle to evolve. IDEAS FOR MUSIC WORKSHOPS: Class name: UNDERSTANDING THE I-V7-I CHORD PROGRESSION THROUGH CHILDREN'S MUSIC Description: This class will study simple children's songs and nursery rhymes from around the world, with a particular emphasis on songs that are based around the I-V7-I chord progression, such as "London Bridge is Falling Down", "Three Blind Mice", "Allouette", "Pop Goes the Weasle", and many more. The I-V7-I chord progression is one of the most normal and most common chord progressions in folk music. Because this chord progression is so natural, it pops up time and time again in childrens songs from around the world. This class will use those songs as a vehicle for teaching the I-V7-I progression. Because the songs we will be playing are so simple and so familiar, the emphesis will be on rhythm playing, group communication, and creating weird orchestrations using toy instruments. Class name: Beginning Irish music Description: The Starry Plough hosts two Irish sessions, one on Sunday nights and one on Monday nights, but neither of them are designed with beginners in mind. I would like to form a study group of people who are new to irish music. Every week there can be two new tunes for the group to focus on, and each week we can add a new page to a collaborative songbook. Class name: Beginning Old-Time Session (Carter Family/Woody Guthrie sing along) Description: Except for the old-time session at Jupiter on Sunday nights and the bluegrass session at the Fifth String, there are very few opportunities in the East Bay for beginner old time musicians to find others to play with. Old time music is good for beginning musicians because the emphaisis is on rhythm and group communication rather than on technical skill. There are many old-time songs that only require three chords, which makes them very easy for beginner guitarists. This class will focus on creating a rhythm section made up primarily of acoustic guitars, piano, and banjo. The songs we choose will be songs that are good for group singing, such as songs made popular by the Carter Family, Woody Guthrie, Missisippi John Hurt, Elizabeth Cotton, as well as contemporary song writers who write songs in that same style, such as Gillian Welch. The emphasis of the class will be learning accompanyment styles for accompanying singers or for accompanying fiddle players. These are just a few ideas I'm insterested in developing with people. I am too tired to type any more right now. Please email me with any comments.