Archive for the ‘People’ Category
Shared Backyard Design Presentation: An Example of Fresh Design Ideas In Northampton
The Whoo Space on Market St, has been host to a variety of community events, from an art exhibit of handmade books to campaign headquarters for Arnold Levinson in this years past Ward 3 Special Election. This past Tuesday was no different when University of Massachusetts’s Permaculture Program, in conjunction with Creative Community Collective, and a number of local residents hosted a presentation on shared community space.
According to C3′s website, “three Northampton neighbors decided to take their fences down and combine their yards to create a larger space for shared recreation and food production.” The goal was to create a Permaculture site, which C3 defines as:
…a vision, design system, and global network that draws on patterns and principles found in nature to meet human needs, while regenerating the natural world and creating abundance we can share.
The students redesigned the shared backyards into a sustainable open space, taking down the barriers of the three neighboring backyards and integrating them into one cohesive shared area for recreation and sustainable gardens. The goal is to inspire others in the community to open to the idea of turning neighboring land into shared space for the community to gather around.
The presentation consisted of a number of design possibilities. The various options which the team of UMass students had assembled ranged from the more conservative rearrangement of bushes and minor terraforming to the highly progressive, with much of the shared backyards transformed into a super efficient organic farm powered by animals complete with rice paddies and greenhouses heated by chickens. Owen Freeman-Daniels, newly elected Ward 3 City Councilman, owns a condo on part of the property used for this project. He told our Director of Marketing that he hoped his neighbors were interested in pursuing the concept. 
The turnout was exceptional, with more people in attendance than the space could accommodate. Many passersby were poking in to see what the gathering was about. Each mini-presentation was followed by a short Q&A session where members of the community could gain further insight in each proposal. The group was then invited to stay and take a closer look at the various proposals drawn up by the students, as well as ask any further questions to the presenters. Check out our gallery of photos to see the audience and designs. It was a great success, with a lot of interesting new ideas about utilizing the ever-decreasing open spaces that we have here in Northampton’s Ward 3.
“Rhymes with Orange” Cartoonist Appeared at UMass-Amherst on April 7th
Hillary Price, who does the strip “Rhymes with Orange,” appeared at UMASS-Amherst on Thursday, April 79th, 2011 at 5:00 PM in Room #249 of the Boyden Gym. We hope you are familiar with her work and know the strip in particular, as it’s a surreal masterpiece – and she’s wonderful, too! Take a look at the strip that accompanies this post and please share this info with anyone whom you think might be interested.
CT. Student wins Essay Competition – Donates Winnings to Breast Cancer Charity
My Words Are My Shelter
Mira Bartók, artist, blogger, and author of The Memory Palace, has started a project to help The Norma Herr Women’s Center in Cleveland, OH. The Center is there for women who have fled domestic abuse, are struggling with substance abuse, or are afflicted by poverty or homelessness. Women at the center are encouraged to empower themselves and part of the empowerment process is keeping a journal. This particular Women’s Center is especially dear to Mira, as it was where her mother sought help, and is now named after her mother.
My Words Are My Shelter, Mira’s project, is aiming to donate a box of journals and pens and pencils for each woman at the shelter. Any proceeds above the cost of the journals will be donated to the Center. If you want to and have the ability to help her out, please visit her blog.
If you would like to find out how to help out women’s and homeless shelters closer to home and are in MA, you can find the shelter near you at the Massachusetts Coalition for Homelessness website.
The Memory Palace
We here at Skytemple are excited to show you our latest project! We’ve been working with Mira Bartók, building a website to showcase her newest book, The Memory Palace.
The memory palace, also known as the method of loci, is a technique of placing information or memories in an imagined spatial context to help in remembering those things. Building memory in this way takes the rememberer on a journey of images and places. Author and artist Mira Bartók in her new book, The Memory Palace, takes her reader on such a journey through her own shattered memories. Mira’s memoir relates the pain of growing up with a schizophrenic mother, and the continued impact her mother had on her and her sister’s lives. Written after Mira had sustained a severe brain injury in a car accident, the book is as much about her story as it is about the act of remembering that story.
The book’s release date is January 11, 2011, so keep a look out for it at your local bookstore (independent booksellers are awesome, find one near you)!
