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Come to the Studio this Sunday!
I hope to see you this Sunday for our potluck from 1-4 pm. Following this weekend, we will begin regular studio time on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of each month for personal projects open to all skill levels. Scroll to the articles below for examples of some of the things students have done in the studio in the past. If you ARE a past workshop participant, consider bringing something you made here. It would be a lot of fun to share these, especially if a lot of time has passed. If there's interest, we can bring people in on Zoom as well. Reply to this email to let Kim know if you'd like to do that.
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POTLUCK: Sunday, Sept 28th, 1-4 pm pacific
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CREATIVE COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS
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2nd & 4th Sundays Ongoing 1-4 pm pacific
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Kim or Michelle will be on hand to teach or support projects. The Vandercook letterpress, Griffin etching press, and other equipment are available for printmaking and bookmaking. The studio is also suitable for various drawing and painting techniques and collage. Michelle's skills as an experienced paper maker and textile artist can be tapped. Our Internet connection is available for media projects. Does your creative work take some other form? Come anyway and show us! Bring ideas or just explore!
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RSVP to receive Kim's phone number to use if the gate is closed when you arrive. If you already have the number, RSVP is appreciated but not required.
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There is no fee for community workshops. We work on a gift economy basis, and hope you'll support us in ways that feel right for you, whether financial, participatory, or both.
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What Can You Make at the Studio?
People have made such varied projects at the studio, yet we don't have pictures of most of them. Here are some. If you have others, please share!
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Below is a mailing sent out by Jared just before the City of Oakland began the Easter 2023 eviction of Wood St. It includes two letterpress printed panels, one double sided photo card, and one digitally printed insert. Jared worked at the studio to write and design the mailing, with a plea to stop the eviction and value and work with the people living there. The weekend before the eviction began, Jared was up the entire night addressing over a hundred envelopes. He mailed it to City leaders, and in some cases to people across the world.
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The posters below were created using plates that were originally made for previous projects. Workshop participants repurposed them for their own posters. These plates and many more are available to play with, and we can show you how to use them!
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We would love to feature more, but could use your pictures. Please send them in!
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The Testimony Project is a series of very short stories, describing what has been witnessed by people offering support and advocacy for houseless people, or by the people themselves who have been unhoused.
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Losing people, Finding People
On a recent hot day, I set out with a friend to deliver water, ice, and fruit to some of the unhoused communities near me. At our second stop, the person who normally receives the water and makes sure it's shared with the many others around him, was gone. Not just him, but all of his area was completely emptied and swept clean as though a city crew had been there. But the area immediately adjacent on both sides looked as it always had, drawing a stark straight line between the grouping of shelters and the now bare pavement. Stunned, I asked the woman sitting nearby where he went. He's gone, was all she could say. She had no other information.
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As we were placing water, a cooler of ice, and strawberries there, I noticed another woman on the opposite corner. I approached her, and discovered she was from a group we normally bring water to, which had been swept the week before. We were wondering where they went, and were thrilled to now find at least some of the former group accounted for. We left water and ice and strawberries with them also.
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Often after sweeps, people go missing, and their former neighbors don't know if they're ok or not. Recently, we learned that two bodies were at a local coroners that were thought to have been unhoused people. They seemed to be from an area where we knew a lot of unhoused people, and so we try to find out who is missing. The coroner could only release that information to the family of origin, not anyone's street family, or even to service providers who may be responsible for locating them for resources. So we asked in the communities, but no one knew, because everyone is scattered, and many people they used to live close to have disappeared and they don't know where they went.
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Back to the water delivery, before we finished talking with the people we were happy to have just found, a man came up and stood near my car. He seemed like he wanted to talk to me. He was a veteran, and showed me his VA card and asked if he could have water too. While I gave him some, he shared that he had stage 4 cancer and needed to get to a medical appointment at the VA, which was in another city, the next day and had no way of getting there. We all got in the car and drove to the nearby station where I bought him a train ticket. I asked him about his time in the service. He showed me a foot long scar from being bombed in one country, and an equally large scar in another place from being shot in another country. Now, with stage 4 cancer, he was sleeping in a tent. I asked if he wanted to be in housing or medical respite and he emphatically exclaimed YES!! I asked if the VA would connect him with that when he went in for his appointment. He said they would not.
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With his permission, I collected information I would need to see if there was anything I could do through my contacts to try to help him, but I don't know if he'll be helped or not. There is a shortage of medical respite options. They are generally only supposed to be for 90 days, and it's rare to be able to move into permanent housing from there. As one administrator explained to me a couple of months ago, for every thirty people who time out of medical respite while still in dire medical need, there are maybe two permanent spaces available, and she and her staff have to pick which two get it.
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We left him to find someone who had reached out to us the day before - an unhoused mother and child who seemed to be in crisis, especially in the heat. We had a cooler of ice for them, water, and strawberries, of course, and were ready to learn more about their situation and try to connect them with some help. We spent a long time looking, but didn't find them. Eventually we dropped off the supplies with another community that we hadn't met before, who immediately began distributing what we brought to other people in need around them who they knew to be especially vulnerable in the heat.
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Active Love: A Change in Operating System
Guiding Principles 4-5
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4. We are Interdependent Beings
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All of us need all of each other. We have different strengths and weaknesses and are meant to work together in order to live our best lives. Independence does not lead to freedom, but rather to isolation, struggle, separation from your core self, condemnation of others, and ultimately violence in some form. Freedom happens through interdependence, which like love, justice, and peace, requires relationship.
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5. Spirituality Connects Us
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Living “the law is love” is a spiritual practice, conscious of our relationship with each other and all Being. It is fully inclusive, and we are interdependent with each other and all of Life. People of different faiths can enter into this practice together, without losing their culture, stories, and languages. Love, relationship, justice, peace, allow us to experience the richness of each other’s expressions together. There is, however, a need to recognize harmful beliefs that may be associated with one’s religion, which condemn and separate. Look carefully, tenderly, prayerfully at such teachings and discern, what does Love ask of you?
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Studio Use, Joining In, Supporting
Studio rental time is available. Reply to this email to make arrangements. If you'd like to join our work, reply to this email to let us know. If you'd like to contribute financially to keeping this work going, you can use the button below. We are a 501c3 organization and are deeply grateful for your support.
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Wish List for Pop Up Legal Clinic
We are in the process of planning pop up legal clinics for unhoused people. We will be bringing these clinics to the streets where people are living. Can you help us with some supplies? Either new or used is fine: We need:
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- Folding tables (4-5)
- Folding chairs (8-10)
- Canopies (2)
- portable printer with scanner
- hot spot
- clip boards
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Recipients of this new mailing include past donors and workshop participants, members of Braided Bridge, participants of Homebridge Connect, people familiar with the starting of Braided Bridge, and a couple of close friends. If you are on this list and didn't want to be, please do feel welcome to unsubscribe and accept my sincere apologies. –Kim
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