CampFireConversations

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Camp Fire Conversations 7th, 21st July, 4th 18th August, 8th 15th September

A series of talks and events on community at the intersections of education/ecology/built environment/economics/art and performance. Linking local with international networks informal with formal, extra institutional with institutional, people with animals and plants.

“It is not the number of diverse things in a design that leads to stability, it is the number of beneficial connections between these components” Bill Mollison 1988.

On Wednesday evenings twice a month Spitalfields City Farm will be open for campfire conversations. Spitalfields City Farm is a radical urban green space, abundant with animals, vegetables and joy, which lies at the intersection of the Square Mile, the arts scene and Tower Hamlets - one of the most deprived boroughs in the UK. There is something about a city farm which raises particular questions at this crucial turning point in history - such as our connection with nature, each other, what community might mean, economies and the true meaning of sustainability. The Farm invites anyone to lead a talk or workshop which explores these important questions and/or this specific location.

For those who come and give a talk or a workshop we offer freshly laid chicken and sometimes duck eggs, salad from our garden, a goat milking experience, plants, or a fee. We want to explore the value of things that enrich local life without money and so fresh produce from the farm will be offered as incentive for speakers or if they prefer we will give you a fee raised by charging £3 entry to every guest.On the night we will provide a beautiful salad freshly picked from the farm, a massive salad bowl a fire to gather around

Bring ingredients to add to a big salad made of produce from the farm. The talks and events will take the place we are in - Spitalfields City Farm - as a starting point , exploring what it is like, what happens here. We will also be exploring places from within a 2 mile radius of Spitalfields City Farm on Buxton Street London E1, this includes part of the Square Mile, Bangla Town, Spitalfields and Brick Lane.There will be 3 areas where talks and workshops can take place: 1) around the campfire 2) in the tree house and 3) in the living willow yurt.

The talks run in conjunction with the Street Training course which consists of practical - sessions where we develop our skills and techniques for joyful interaction with self, environment and others in line with Street Training Principles of joy, connection and reciprosity. The Street Training sessions are alternate Wednesdays 16th,30th June, 14th,28th July, 11th,25th August and the 8th of September.

conversations around the campfire at the farm will cover the topics listed below, they are on alternate Wednesdays that's the 7th, 21st July, 4th 18th August, 8th 15th September

7th July Community/connecting people in the city - confirmed speaker Mhairi Weir farm manager

21st July Growing/permaculture/thriving in the city - Laura Stobart farm growing co-ordinator, Heleana Quaterly raw food

4th August Play in the city - Aliah Farm Play co-ordinator, Tassos Stevens from Coney

18th August Economies in the city -Heath Bunting, artist, Eion farm volunteer co ordinator, Micronomics,

8th September art/art activism in the city - Space Hijackers, Cedar Lewisjohn

15th September Animals in the City -Helen farmyard co-ordinator

We are especially interested in the following themes and invite speakers, workshops, writing, partners, events, sound, images, networks etc that engage with them:

Radical geography, spatial justice, play, critical thinking and physical praxis, performance art and live art, education, walking, food growing, street art, biophilia, community, technology, state territorialisation of economic power and deterritorialisation of public space, radio, pedagogical theories, early years education, higher education, communities of enquiry, action research, community education, informal education,free education, art, self institution, cultural and higher educational institutions, institutional psychology, economics,agronomics, micronomics, nanopolitics, informal economies, sport psychology, political activism, skills sharing, permaculture, media art, tactical media and hacking, theatre and acting, invisible theatre, physical theatre, soma, contact improv, clowning, collaboration, feminism, joy, architecture, capoeira, martial arts, music,improvisation sculpted conversations, narrrative and story telling, the imaginary, sense of place, dance, urban intervention, video,

Partners so far

Dark Mountain Project http://www.dark-mountain.net/

Space Studios - Permacultures http://www.spacestudios.org.uk/

Micronomics http://micronomics2010.citymined.org/?lang=en

Julia Voce - Who will pose questions on experience of the poetic body and the physical/philosophical pedegogy of Lispa

There is a link between talking and doing, gathering to talk is a valuable form of doing, if this results in people finding shared goals and then acting on them, so much the better. We all know we are having an effect on our environment but most of the time, unless you snap baby trees in half on the way home from the pub, it's hard to see and feel these effects. The summer School is a Lab to explore how we affect our environment rural or urban as much as it effects us. How are we nurturing our creativity, our community and our environment? let's do it now with what we’ve got! Please get in touch if you would like to attend, contribute, talk etc lottie@malinky.org. These talks run because and in parallel to StreetTraining, a development of UoClimbingClubPart of at Spital Field's City Farm