Community Newsletter: 3 weeks of Local Economy
Welcome to the latest edition of our community newsletter. You're getting this email because you signed up in the little box at the bottom of our website at some point. (Note to members: much of this information comes in your member newsletter, and you can unsubscribe to this one, if you want.)
Before we get into it, we've got two things open to all that you should know about. On Friday afternoon, we've got Romi Hall of East Oak Bouquets popping up, selling flowers! 2-4pm (or sell out). On Saturday, Chestnut Bakehouse is popping up with some delicious stuff. That's gonna be from 10:30am to 1:30pm (or sell out). This is their very first pop-up. Get in on the new-new thing now.
~~~
It has been three weeks since we opened. Painted Leopard has been serving really, really good coffee. Members have come in and gotten totes and broadsides and made membership cards. We've had eleven (11!) events ranging from a handful of kids playing a tabletop roleplaying game to a packed house to hear about the rule of law in the United States and Poland. We've heard new work from Thao Nguyen and had Mac Barnett induct us into the church of Margaret Wise Brown. We've given away cactuses and had Good Luck Bakery pop up. Coyote Media has circulated in the house, and the Oakland Review of Books has hosted editorial meetings.
Most importantly, for both of us, is that we've met so many people in the community, members and non-members alike. And everyone has been kind and interested and fun (well, except those two guys, but they're the exception that proves the rule). Thank you so much to everyone who has come by or joined. And thank you, too, to those neighborhood guides who, as they peeked in through the curtains, explained Local Economy to a friend who was asking, "What is this place?"
The circle continues to expand. Memberships are open. You can join today or whenever you want.
~~~
We've got a whole second wave of events that you can register for, with more on the way soon. Here's 10 things on tap:
Oct 28 midday: Tuesdays Together freelancer meetup. Cherlyn Wagner hosts a monthly daytime potluck for creatives to get help with their work and build community
Oct 28, 6pm: Jeff Chang on his new Bruce Lee book, Water Mirror Echo. Bruce Lee, if you don’t know, spent a crucial period of his early years in Oakland. Chang is also the author of several other celebrated books including Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop and We Gon’ Be Alright.
Nov 2, 3pm: Poets Emilie Lygren, Deema Shehabi, and Marilyn Hacker celebrate new books. Lygren’s second book is Once I was a stone. Shehabi and Hacker co-authored Water to Water: Gaza Renga.
Nov 4, 6pm: Botanical Drawing with Hannah Hirsekorn. Hirsekorn is both a tattoo artist an master gardener. (And you should have seen the drawings they did last time. Gorgeous work.)
Nov 5, 6pm: Bookseller Holiday Preview. Brad Johnson from East Bay Booksellers and Stephen Sparks from Pt. Reyes Books tell you what to buy. They have opinions!
Nov 11, 6pm: Oakland Garden Club: Introduction to Liberation Ecology with Sue Pierre. Pierre is a soil ecologist who is rethinking the intellectual ecosystem of science itself. She's the founder of Oakland's Critical Ecology Lab. Their mission is "to create novel processes and spaces for communities of people with scientific and generational knowledge to destabilize oppressive systems and fight back against escalating social and planetary disaster." See her now before the Macarthur committee!
Nov 12, 11am: Storytime for Caregivers with Ruth Whitman. Patricia Zaballos brings you a literary series that’s for the caregivers, not the cared for. Toddlers an babies welcome, but not required. This month Patricia will be talking with Ruth Whippman, author of Boy Mom: Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity.
Nov 12, 6pm: Thread Therapy Lap Loom Weaving Workshop. That Art Party's Naomi Peña brings you this special class. In a world obsessed with productivity, weaving asks us to be patient. In a culture of instant everything, it invites us to create slowly. Thread by thread, row by row, there's something deeply therapeutic about watching something beautiful emerge beneath your hands.
Nov 15, 1pm: Heyday's Colors of California. For this event, Heyday associate publisher (and poet and LE member) Marthine Satris is bringing together three Heyday folks to discuss our California colors (poppy orange, dark oak green, etc). Sara Calvosa Olson is a member of the Karuk tribe, photographer, food writer, and plant friend based in Marin. Obi Kaufmann is the author and illustrator of the wonderful and strange California Field Atlas, among other guides. And Sophie Wood Brinker is a young star, who wrote and illustrated Heyday's forthcoming Birds of Santa Cruz. After the conversation, there'll be some interactive color play.
Nov 20, 6:30pm: Sex Change and the City with Tuck Woodstock & Soleil Ho. Coyote Media co-founder Soleil Ho interviews Tuck Woodstock, creator of the Gender Reveal podcast, about the new book he co-edited, Sex Change & the City, an anthology featuring 45 trans and queer perspectives on “Sex and the City.”
That's it. Stay tuned for more from Jenny Odell, Liam O'Donoghue, Rena Tom, Jasmine Guillory, Tracy Clark Flory, Amanda Montei, Annalee Newitz, Ben Gucciardi, and more.
