villagevibe May 2008 : News and views from the heart of Fernwood F ernwood NRG’s long-time staff member, Cornerstone Collective Records founder, and Cornerstone Café music coordinator, James Kasper, was recently awarded Monday Magazine’s prestigious M Award for the “Hardest Working Person in Local Music.” Congratulations James! To see more and hear his music head to www.geocities.com/ kasper1970. Bike lab gets wheels >> by Caitlin Croteau F irst thing in the morning at Vic High and most students are hunched over their books. Not the kids in Technology 10, Bike Mechanics. ey’ve taken over the tennis courts and are out playing a rousing game of bike polo. It’s similar to the sport enjoyed by Prince Charles, except one rides a two-wheeled contraption rather than rides a four-legged one! Cheering on the students is their teacher, Mike Drew, as well as members of Victoria’s Bike Lab Society. e Bike Lab Society is the non-profit sector of Recyclistas Used Bike Collective. eir goal is to promote bike culture in young people by teaching them how to build, fix, and have fun with bikes. Students in Technology 10 strip bikes down and rebuild them again, learning all the names and functions of parts as they go. ey also take part in fun activities like scavenger races and obstacle courses, as well as learning how to make bike art. As a bonus, they get to keep the bikes they’ve been working on once the class is finished. Kori Doty, one of the Bike Lab members, points out a student-built bike: tiny and coloured bright pink, its in this issue Banners rise in the neighbourhood Page 3 Feature: Fernwood: A Place to Be Page 4 Intrepid at the fringe of Fernwood Page 7 – continued on page 6 Photo: Caitlin Croteau >> by Trish Richards O n the evening of Tuesday, April 1st 2001Fernwood Rd was overflowing with an excited crowd of some 130 people who had come to celebrate the opening of Strongback’s Pick and Shovel Gallery. Long a dream of Strongback partners Adam Warrington and Rick omas, the gallery will provide an outlet for what Adam terms their “under- marketed friends who are such great artists.” As Adam says, “I’ve been encouraging anyone with skills and talent to build for outside. e work Strongback does is too nice to be decorated with plastic resins and lawn gnomes.” e Gallery’s opening exhibit featured works by Strongback regulars Ben Nolin, Robert Ives, Cecil Planedin, Delayne Corbet, and Jason Balaam and by Strongback friends Mike Butler, Birgit Piskor, and Kyla Hubbard. e eclectic exhibit ranged from a series of etched oil canvases, to recycled metal sculptures, to funky stained glass, to concrete birdbaths and exquisitely carved black slate tabletops. As Adam tells it: “We are focusing on but not limited to stone/metal/wood and concrete. Robert is displaying his paintings in the Pick and Shovel gallery at this time – we also will be showing and stocking hand-cut wood block prints on shirts or anything else, all work by Cecil Planedin.” Much of the art is of recycled material. “All our black slate pieces, by Cecil, are taken from unwanted pool tables. e metal figures are the way Mike Butler relaxes on the weekend (he works as a welder full time).” Personally, what caught my eye was an exquisite heron, imaginatively craſted from recycled metal pieces that perched in the corner quietly observing the festivities. I admit I was sorely tempted to hijack it from the lucky Fernwoodian who I met on his way home to hang it from his raſters a few days aſter the opening. Okay, if I can’t have it, maybe we can arrange for something similar to grace Fernwood Square as part of the square revitalization initiative. Strongback’s final words on the opening: “We’d like to thank everyone who came out to show support. Special thanks to Gerald Hogrefe who Pick and shovel gallery Fernwood’s own gets M award – continued on page 6 Photos: Trish Richards
ernwood NRG’s long-time staff member, Cornerstone Collective Records founder, and Cornerstone Café music coordinator, James Kasper, was recently awarded Monday Magazine’s prestigious M Award for the “Hardest Working Person in Local Music.” Congratulations James! To see more and hear his music head to www.geocities.com/ kasper1970.
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villagevibeMay 2008 : News and views from the heart of Fernwood
Fernwood NRG’s long-time staff member,
Cornerstone Collective Records founder,
and Cornerstone Café music coordinator,
James Kasper, was recently awarded Monday Magazine’s prestigious M Award for the “Hardest
Working Person in Local Music.”
Congratulations James! To see more and
hear his music head to www.geocities.com/
kasper1970.
Bike lab gets wheels>> by Caitlin Croteau
First thing in the morning at Vic High and most
students are hunched over their books. Not the
kids in Technology 10, Bike Mechanics. Th ey’ve
taken over the tennis courts and are out playing a rousing
game of bike polo. It’s similar to the sport enjoyed by
Prince Charles, except one rides a two-wheeled contraption
rather than rides a four-legged one! Cheering on the
students is their teacher, Mike Drew, as well as members of
Victoria’s Bike Lab Society.
Th e Bike Lab Society is the non-profi t sector of
Recyclistas Used Bike Collective. Th eir goal is to promote
bike culture in young people by teaching them how to
build, fi x, and have fun with bikes. Students in Technology
10 strip bikes down and rebuild them again, learning all the
names and functions of parts as they go. Th ey also take part
in fun activities like scavenger races and obstacle courses, as
well as learning how to make bike art. As a bonus, they get
to keep the bikes they’ve been working on once the class is
fi nished. Kori Doty, one of the Bike Lab members, points
out a student-built bike: tiny and coloured bright pink, its
in this issueBanners rise in the neighbourhood Page 3
Feature: Fernwood: A Place to Be Page 4
Intrepid at the fringe of Fernwood Page 7
– continued on page 6
Ph
oto
: C
aitl
in C
rote
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>> by Trish Richards
On the evening of Tuesday, April 1st
2001Fernwood Rd was overfl owing
with an excited crowd of some 130
people who had come to celebrate the opening of
Strongback’s Pick and Shovel Gallery.
Long a dream of Strongback partners Adam
Warrington and Rick Th omas, the gallery will
provide an outlet for what Adam terms their “under-
marketed friends who are such great artists.” As Adam
says, “I’ve been encouraging anyone with skills and
talent to build for outside. Th e work Strongback
does is too nice to be decorated with plastic resins
and lawn gnomes.” Th e Gallery’s opening exhibit
featured works by Strongback regulars Ben Nolin,
Robert Ives, Cecil Planedin, Delayne Corbet, and
Jason Balaam and by Strongback friends Mike Butler,
Birgit Piskor, and Kyla Hubbard. Th e eclectic exhibit
ranged from a series of etched oil canvases, to recycled
metal sculptures, to funky stained glass, to concrete
birdbaths and exquisitely carved black slate tabletops.
As Adam tells it: “We are focusing on but not
limited to stone/metal/wood and concrete. Robert is
displaying his paintings in the Pick and Shovel gallery
at this time – we also will be showing and stocking
hand-cut wood block prints on shirts or anything
else, all work by Cecil Planedin.” Much of the art
is of recycled material. “All our black slate pieces,
by Cecil, are taken from unwanted pool tables. Th e
metal fi gures are the way Mike Butler relaxes on the
weekend (he works as a welder full time).”
Personally, what caught my eye was an exquisite
heron, imaginatively craft ed from recycled metal
pieces that perched in the corner quietly observing
the festivities. I admit I was sorely tempted to hijack
it from the lucky Fernwoodian who I met on his
way home to hang it from his raft ers a few days aft er
the opening. Okay, if I can’t have it, maybe we can
arrange for something similar to grace Fernwood
Square as part of the square revitalization initiative.
Strongback’s fi nal words on the opening: “We’d
like to thank everyone who came out to show
support. Special thanks to Gerald Hogrefe who
Pick and shovel gallery
Fernwood’s own gets M award
– continued on page 6
Ph
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s: T
rish
Ric
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ds
We are committed to creating a socially,
environmentally, and economically
sustainable neighbourhood;
We are committed to ensuring
neighbourhood control or ownership of
neighbourhood institutions and assets;
We are committed to using our
resources prudently and to becoming
fi nancially self-reliant;
We are committed to the creation and
support of neighbourhood employment;
We are committed to engaging the
dreams, resources, and talents of our
neighbours and to fostering new links
between them;
We are committed to taking action in
response to neighbourhood issues,
ideas, and initiatives;
We are committed to governing
our organization and serving our
neighbourhood democratically with a
maximum of openness, inclusivity and
kindness;
We are committed to developing
the skills, capacity, self-worth, and
excellence of our neighbours and
ourselves;
We are committed to focusing on
the future while preserving our
neighbourhood’s heritage and diversity;
We are committed to creating
neighbourhood places that are vibrant,
beautiful, healthy, and alive;
and, most of all,
We are committed to having fun!
declaration of principles and values
I’ve recently been reading French theorist
Michel Foucault. And I’ve been thinking about Foucault
in the context of Mark Lakeman’s talk in Fernwood
last month (see pgs 4-5). Foucault says there are four
techniques that humans use to organize life: techniques
of production (to make things); techniques of signs and
symbols (to make words); techniques of domination/
power (to infl uence conduct); and techniques of the self
(to make ourselves into subjects, into selves).
Foucault spent most of his life writing about
techniques of domination, which are used, for example in
the prison, the school, the asylum. Here power is at work
and is meant to shape the conduct of people. In prison a
bread and water diet produces a prisoner’s docile body.
How is this related to Mark Lakeman and to neigh-
bours coming together to do things that matter to them?
Later in life, Foucault grappled with what he calls
the other side of the techniques of domination, that is,
the techniques of the self. Here he asks how we can make
ourselves into ethical beings. And he doesn’t mean ethical
as in moral or as in conforming to some pre-determined
or imposed-from-outside law or government. Rather he
means, how do we use what we learn from living as beings
in relation, to create rules for ourselves to live better
more ethical lives. He calls this a “logos bioethikos” – an
equipment of helpful discourses that one can use in action
in every day life.
While Lakeman was talking I thought about
the imposition of the western grid as a technique of
domination/power that shapes our conduct: straight
lines that produce missed opportunities for connection,
streets that produce drivers. But then there’s the other side
of that, a logos bioethikos, a collective logos bioethikos
craft ed in relation. As Lakeman said, “deep connections
transcend the need for government.”
editorial : Logos bioethikos
June 20 and 21, 2008
>> by Wendy Magahay
What’s a Fern Fest? Think Fern: Natural, green
plant magically repeating the same fractal patterns forever.
Now think FEST: fair, festive, festival. Put these together in
Fernwood and you have a unique community celebration of
music, community, fun, and creative possibilities repeating
again and again through the weekend.
Fernwood Neighbourhood Resource Group (Fernwood
NRG) is excited to present the 13th Annual Fern Fest. In
2008, Fern Fest is bigger than ever. It is moving to the heart
of the neighbourhood and is in Fernwood Square and the
Vic High sports fi eld. Fern Fest 2008 off ers something for
everyone.
For kids, there’s face-painting, Painting the Sun, the
ever popular bouncy castle, and a Fernwood favourite, Terry
the Bubble Artist. For bigger kids, appreciate the work of
local artists by taking in the 1st annual Fernwood Art Stroll
and the Vic High Student Art Show at the Cornerstone
Café, enjoy the best music Fernwood has to off er, and sit
with friends for a cold beer. For everyone, enjoy the food
(BBQ dogs and a Saturday morning pancake breakfast),
laugh under the sun (there will be sun!), join in the Mandala
project, and come out to meet your neighbours. Special this
year are sneak preview tours of the Fernwood NRG’s newest
community housing initiative, Park Place on Yukon Street.
Fern Fest is free and open to everyone! Th is year, Fern
Fest coincides with both the summer solstice and National
Aboriginal Day. Watch for the complete two-day Fern Fest
schedule in the next issue of the Village Vibe.
Fern Fest needs your energy and your ideas. To be a Fern
Fest volunteer and be part of the excitement, call 381-1552,
up online at www.fernwoodneighbourhood.ca/fernfest.
htm or fi ll out the volunteer form and drop it off at the
Cornerstone Café. Fern Fest is a Fernwood NRG project.
fernwoodneighbourhood.ca
Page 2 | News and views from the heart of Fernwood | May 2008 VillageVibe
The market is coming. The market is coming.
Fernwood Square’s own market returns for its fourth year.
Th e market opens Tuesday May 27th from 5:30pm – 8:30pm
and will run until September 16th. Th e organizers are actively
seeking vendors. Application forms are available at the She
Said Gallery on the corner of Fernwood and Gladstone. All
are welcome to apply.
Th ere is a ‘Strongback Blend’ coff ee being sold out of
the Parsonage. Th rough to the end of May the Parsonage is
donating $1.00 from each pound of coff ee sold to support
Vic High’s electric truck project. (See page 1 of April’s Village Vibe.) Strongback will be matching anything raised by the
coff ee sales.
Wishing a happy, happy one year in Fernwood to the
folks at the Fernwood Inn and Tracy’s clan at Mom’s Market.
We hope your fi rst year here has been as good for you as it
has for many Fernwood residents. I’m sure many of us have
enjoyed stopping in to chat with “mom” over a quart of milk,
a jar of salsa, or the Sunday paper, or downing a beer and
burger on Tuesdays, enjoying the sunny aft ernoon patio, or
catching some great live music at the Inn.
the Fernwood buzz
Fern Fest is coming!
Top: Fernwood Inn (left to right): Michael Colwill (owner), “Danny”, Sarah Colwill (part owner), James Wolfe (head chef)
Bottom: Mom’s Market (from left to right): Colleen, Carolyn, Tony (dad), Mom, Corrine, Carmel, Katie, Cullen (6 years old), Hailey (grandaughter - 3 years old)
Be a Fern Fest Volunteer
Help make Fern Fest 2008 fabulous! Your name
Your email addredss
Your phone number
How would you like to help participate at Fern Fest?
Help with event set up or take down
Be a part of the food / beverage team
Help supervise / organize the children’s events
Help supervise / organize the main stage events
Do you have some time to help volunteer to make this year’s
Fern Fest a success? Let us know using the form below.
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VillageVibe May 2008 | www.fernwoodneighbourhood.ca | Page 3
views from the street : What are you looking forward to the most at this year’s Fern Fest?
I am looking forward to a mix of individuals and
experiences. It’s great – you get to come out and meet
individuals you wouldn’t normally see!
I am looking forward to painting the Mandala!(Fern Fest organizer): I’d like nice sunny weather on
Friday and Saturday (in keeping with our theme of the
sun) so that people can enjoy the festival to the fullest!
I would also like to see total community participation
in the festival.
Neighbourhood initiatives
Azul Salvaje Garry McLaughlin Sue Gentry
neighbours in conversation and libations to select the
Fernwood Mandala on Monday, May 12th, 7pm at the
Cornerstone Café.
When he was in Fernwood on April 5th, Mark
Lakeman of Portland’s City Repair Project (see pgs. 4-5),
talked about what gave meaning – a sense of cohesion and
belonging – to a community. Painting a symbol that tells
the story of our community at the main intersection of our
neighbourhood is an opportunity for Fernwood to inspire
itself and to join in the intersection reclamation movement
that is becoming a worldwide phenomenon.
We would love your participation in defi ning the
Mandala’s features. What is the heart of the story about
Fernwood that resonates with you? What Mandala design
best represents it? Please join us at the Cornerstone Café on
May 12th to share your story and your visions.
Earth Awake
Th e fi rst annual Earth Awake event, a celebration of
communities and the emergence of community leaders –
complete with music, art, games, poetry and raw chocolate
– is happening on Friday May 9th, in the gymnasium of the
Fernwood Community Centre.
Funds raised through this event will help cover some
of the costs for people going to the Village Building
Convergence in Portland, Oregon – a ten day series
of hands-on workshops in permaculture design and
construction, ecological building using recycled and natural
materials, and creating shared places through public art.
“What I want to help do through Earth Awake,” says
event coordinator, Jeremy Kirouac, “is to raise funds for the
training of community leaders who will then have the skills
to bring people together for the creation of sustainable,
healthy and joyful communities.”
Essentially, I’m hoping that people will come back
from the Village Building Convergence with inspiration
and skills which can then be funneled into community
revitalization projects, such as Fernwood’s placemaking
initiatives.”
People who are interested in coming to Earth Awake
can purchase advance tickets by contacting earthawake@
gmail.com, or at the door for $10. Th e event starts at
7:00pm sharp and ends at 11:00pm.
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The Occasional Movie SeriesHosted by Fernwood NRG’s Food Security Group>> by R ae Abbott
Showings Th e premier event is on Tuesday, May
13th, 7pm. Upcoming shows will take place on
occasional Tuesdays thereaft er. See Village Vibe calendar
for dates.
Where In our own living room, at the Cornerstone.
Th e Café will be open for 30 minutes prior to the start of
the fi lm. All fi lms begin at 7pm. Bring your own pillow
and blanket.
What Movies, documentaries, fi lm series,
autobiographies … of food industries, revolutionaries,
activists, communities, and inspirationists. Visions to get
the community excited and aware of food issues which
aff ect us all and to create awareness out of
a basic necessity.
Who Fernwood residents, the Cornerstone staff ,
and Fernwood NRG’s Food Security Group.
Why Food Security and the rising awareness around
where our food comes from, how it is transported to
this island, and how the future of our oil-dependent
culture could potentially be aff ecting our food supply
are important issues that we as a community have an
opportunity to embrace. By showing various docu-
mentaries and movies on this subject, we are creating
an opportunity for dialogue around this issue.
Fernwood’s Mandala Party>> by Sue Gentry
Th e creative minds of Fernwood have come forward
with their visions. Th ey have captured an image that
will symbolize what is at the heart of our community.
Th is image will be made manifest at the intersection of
Fernwood and Gladstone during Fern Fest on June 21st. Now it is your opportunity to support the Mandala that
you feel represents our story.
Th e Mandala Group of Fernwood NRG’s Place-
making Troupe has been collecting Mandala images over
the past month and will be hanging them for display
at the Cornerstone Café beginning May 1st. You are
invited to come view the Mandalas and then join your
Banners Rise in Neighbourhood
On Saturday, April 12th neighbours
gathered to celebrate the raising of banners along
the Cook St business corridor. Th is is the beginning
of initiatives by the North Park Neighbourhood
Association to revitalize Cook St and surrounds as
North Park Village. Well done NPNA!
Beautiful banners are now flying high
along Fernwood and Gladstone Rds courtesy of
neighbourhood artists involved in the 1st annual
Fernwood Art Stroll which will be held in conjunction
with Fernfest, June 21 and 22nd. Our thanks for the
amazing ‘local colour’!
Look waaay up!
Above: Two of the Fernwood Road Banners. Artists Deryk Houston (multi media, left) and Anne Hoban (collage, right).
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Page 4 | News and views from the heart of Fernwood | May 2008 VillageVibe
>> by Gregory Smythe (www.earthlyambitions.com)
On Saturday April 5th, the Fernwood Neighbourhood Resource
Group (Fernwood NRG) hosted Mark Lakeman, a visionary
storyteller, community activist, co-founder of Portland’s City
Repair Project and Principal of Communitecture in Portland. Th e Fernwood
Community Centre gymnasium was fi lled to capacity to hear the sincere and
inspirational words of a true commune-ity orator.
When Mark Lakeman takes the stage, the room goes quiet in a cozy village
kind of way. He doesn’t take the microphone immediately – he’s not there
to speak to an audience but to share stories of possibility and vision for
community. His calm quiet voice draws those listening nearer, hearts yearning
to hear with the same humble intent with which he speaks.
Th ere is, ultimately, only One Story and One Vision being shared through-
out Mark’s presentation and worldview: the Human story of our collective
history and co-creative possibility, a story about our ways of relating to
One-An-Other.
He presents several examples to remind us that we have a relationship with
those around us as co-architects/co-authors of this common space, and if we
choose, we can transform our spaces into people loving places. Mark reminds
us that we’ve a choice to make daily about our world, and that choice is simple:
“To be or not to be. To have place or no place?”
Th ere are plenty of problems we could dwell on, but Mark encourages us to
spend more time refl ecting on the positive ways that things could be diff erent.
He emphasizes that there is an “infi nite spectrum of possibility” and it’s the
“moments spent refl ecting on the positive that will compel us to move towards
it.” He urges us to aim for the impossible, trusting that the means to make it
happen will arrive as we proceed.
So how do we want to begin? How do we want to be? How would we like
to write our world here in Fernwood? Th ere’s nothing stopping us. Nothing.
Our inherent villager nature off ers us the motivation and authority we need
in order to proceed. And proceed we have in many ways. But before we keep
moving forward here in Fernwood, let’s look back. Let’s review a little history.
In 1996, Mark and several friends decided they wanted to change the world.
Following an extended stay in a remote Mayan village, Mark returned to
Portland and experienced intense culture shock. Th e people he lived with
in the Yucatan possessed a profound connection to one another that was
nurtured through the organically organized places in which they lived. But this
was missing in Portland and Mark quickly realized that the urban communities
of North America have been historically designed in a top down fashion, to
protect profi ts and to secure land by creating neighbourhoods that used grids
(blocks) as a simplifi ed urban planning technique. Th is is a technique we
inherited from the Romans, who used it to dominate conquered villages.
Th e problem with “Th e Grid” is that it’s super-imposed in a cookie-cutter
style, and serves only to create dominated spaces rather than to encourage
community meeting places, which support socializing, collaborative
enterprise, and creativity. Th e Grid literally divides and conquers, by
imposing an unsustainable, pre-fabricated pattern upon the communities
which it’s supposed to support. Th is pattern attempts to contain the ways in
which people live their lives, the relationships they develop, and even their
perceptions and beliefs of what is possible.
As a result of this cookie cutter style urban planning, intersections – those
spaces most common to us all, where all possibilities, and all directions can
been seen and from which all possible actions emanate – have become places
of collision rather than creativity. Just like Portland, Fernwood has way too
much creativity to be stuck in a box! Enter Intersection Repair.
feature : Fernwood: A Place to Be with a Spectrum of Possibilities