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May/June 2005 NW Newsmakers
Community News

5^th Annual Village Building Convergence - Changing the world one neighborhood at a time.

The 5^th Annual Village Building Convergence, or VBC5, will be held in Portland from May 20-29. Now in its fifth year, VBC will be the largest event yet, with 20 projects throughout the city. During the event, communities will transform their public spaces into vibrant community places. VBC5 provides many opportunities to become involved in these projects and to learn more about community building, sustainable living, green construction, and urban permaculture.

VBC5’s projects include a grand entrance for the new Rebuilding Center, an outdoor pizza oven at Portland State University, bird habitat towers in a street right-of-way, an outdoor kitchen at Sauvie Island Organic Farm, and cob benches at DaVinci Arts Middle School. In addition to projects and hands-on workshops, VBC5 will feature evening events, including visionary speakers, performances, community dialogue, music, and a contra dance event.

VBC expresses the profound power of community in action. Through building VBC projects, neighbors come together to create welcoming gathering places. The overall impact ripples throughout the community, strengthening trust, connection, and hope.

For more information about sites, events, and registration, please visit vbc.cityrepair.org/vbc5 or email vbc@cityrepair.org. VBC5 is sponsored by The City Repair Project, SE Uplift Neighborhood Coalition, KBOO 90.7 FM Community Radio, and the City of Portland Office of Sustainable Development.

"Seeds Of Transformation" Conference at 2005 Worldwide Gathering of Humanity's Team

Neale Donald Walsch, Bruce Chilton, Huston Smith, Andrew Harvey, John Naisbitt, Alex Grey and some 20 other distinguished and celebrated thinkers from the worlds of religion, spirituality, science, art and music at a groundbreaking international conference at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, June 3 to 5, 2005.

"Seeds of Transformation: Toward a Spiritual Renaissance in a Time of Fundamental Change" will explore the ramifications of an emerging trend leading to widespread shift in some of people's most sacred beliefs about God, life and humanity. The conference will also serve as the site of the 2005 Worldwide Gathering of Humanity's Team, a non-profit, pluralistic movement. For more information go to www.gathering.humanitysteam.org/gathering/index.html.

Dances of Enlightenment, Sacred Buddhist Dance Comes to Portland!

Prajwal Ratna Vajracharya and his ensemble Dance Mandal will offer a three-day gala event dedicated to Charya Nritya, sacred Buddhist dance of Nepal. Prajwal is the foremost living master of an ancient Buddhist dance tradition that until recently was unknown outside the circles of initiates who perform it. This sacred dance form is one of the religious arts of the Buddhist priests of the Kathmandu Valley, who perform it as part of their esoteric meditation practices, rituals, and celebrations. Technically known as Charya Nritya, which means "dance as a spiritual discipline," this sacred dance form is a meditation discipline, vehicle of bodily and spiritual transformation, and opportunity for an audience to experience a vision of divine beauty.

On Friday, June 3, at 7 p.m. at the Portland Center for Performing Arts, Winningstad Theater, 1111 SW Broadway, Portland there will be an evening of performance entitled Dances of Enlightenment. Tickets are $15 and $20 plus a service fee and are available at PCPA box office (503) 432- 2917. On Saturday, June 4, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m., an introductory dance workshop on Charya Nritya will take place at the World Buddhist Preaching Association Temple located at 1722 SE Madison in Portland. This workshop introduces the theory of the movement style and accompanying visualizations, prayers, and chants. Suggested donation is $25 at the door.

On Sunday, June 5, 2005 at 2 p.m., also at the World Buddhist Temple, Buddhist scholar Miranda Shaw, author of Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism, will present a lecture and slideshow entitled Sacred Females in Buddhist Art and Culture. The talk features slides of rare images that Dr. Shaw discovered during her extensive field research in India and Nepal. Suggested donation is $15 at the door. An exhibition of Sacred Buddhist Art will accompany each event. Dances of Enlightenment is supported in part through a Regional Arts and Culture Council’s project grant.

Prajwal Vajracharya, Dance Mandal Institute, 2235 SE Division, Portland OR 97202
Phone 503-807-5252; Email: prajwal@dancemandal.com Website: www.dancemandal.com

Natural Way: Indigenous Voices

"Wild Earth, Wild Mind, Wild Heart: Experiencing Deep Ecology"- A lecture by John Seed

Ecological ideas are not enough. To effectively serve the Earth and our people we need ecological identity, ecological self. This includes deep ecology practices which empower us as agents of healing change and helps us release the culturally-conditioned, competitive, isolated self. Thus we come home to our interbeing with all of life. Friday, June 17, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. at the Native American Student and Community Center, SW Broadway and Jackson, Portland State University, Portland, OR. Admission is $10 for this special event.

John Seed Workshop: Earth, Spirit, Action Co-sponsored with Audubon Society of Portland

John Seed presents an experiential deep ecology workshop that helps participants dissolve the illusion of disconnection from the living Earth. Using processes synchronous with those used by all tribal peoples throughout time, the workshop will help empower people to action. This gathering also provides tools for practicing deep ecology in daily life.

Friday, June 18, 10:00 – 4:00 p.m. at Heron Hall, Audubon Society of Portland, 5151 NW Cornell Road, Portland. Cost is $60 for 6-hour workshop. (Wear walking shoes and clothing for outdoor weather.)

Registration: Alice Ellis Gaut, aeg@csgpro.com, 503-639-8930

Details at www.earthandspirit.org. See rainforestinfo.org.au for more information about John Seed’s work.

Opening to Life Opens New Studios

The Opening to Life Center has moved from its previous center on Ankeny, into a beautiful 7,500 foot healing center in the Lloyd Center area next door to Franz Bakery at 407 NE 12th Ave. The transformation of the 50s era building has matched the clearing and lightening up process that has happened for the new owners. The new LLC members have a commitment to serve the community and to create a place of beauty and sacred healing for the whole person and a supportive healing environment for the practitioner as well.

The center includes the private practices of each of the member/owners: Shannon Pernetti, Archetypal Pattern Recognition Psychotherapy, Raymond Diaz ND, Spiritual Growth Work, Ken Murphy DC, Chiropractic, Marc Gadoua, L.Ac, Acupuncturist, Ken Goldberg MD, Core Energetics, Kathleen Goldberg LCSW, Core Energetics and the Pathwork as well as the upcoming salon Le Reve owned and operated by Nina Pernetti and Amy Werfel. In addition, there are rental offices in the building for practitioners offering Massage, Counseling, Rolfing, Natural product facials and other healing modalities.

The new Opening to Life Studio sparkles with new wood floors, carpeting, sound system, beautiful lighting with access to kitchenette and local eateries within walking distance for workshops, classes and conferences. There is room for new weekend seminars and weeknight classes. Feldenkreis, Chi Kung, yoga, Core Energetics, drumming circles, astrology workshops are currently scheduled or interested in joining the studio collective.

Information about events and studio rentals as well as leasing office space can be obtained by contacting Opening to Life 503-234-8323 or visiting the website www.openingtolife.com.

Fairy and Human Relations Congress in Hood River

The 5th Annual Fairy and Human Relations Congress will be held on June 24-26, 2005 at the Riversong Sanctuary on the Hood River, about seven miles from downtown Hood River. Some 300 people are expected for this year's event whose focus is education and the celebration of the fairy world. Dorothy Maclean, one of the founding members of Findhorn community will be presenting, along with noted Scottish writer and composer R.J. Stewart. David Spangler who was the director of Findhorn for many years will be the keynote speaker.

  Peter Tompkins, author of The Secret Life of Plants and The Secrets of the Soil will be lecturing on ideas from his most recent book, The Secret Life of Nature, which deals with the convergence of ideas about quantum physics and the fairy, devic and angelic realms. There will be over thirty presenters from around the Northwest and the United States.

 For more information go to: www.fairycongress.com or contact Michael Pilarski at 360-676-7704 or michael@fairycongress.com.

ICTC International Center for Traditional Childbearing

The ICTC presents the Birth Forum Educational Speaker Series, first & third Thursdays at Bradley-Angle House.

Multi-Cultural Presenters will speak on topics focused on infant mortality prevention, pregnancy support, breastfeeding promotion and professional development. Topics are geared toward Midwives, labor & postpartum doulas, childbirth educators, body workers, infant care counselors, community health workers and parents. Upcoming programs include:

Nutrition During Pregnancy and Postpartum with Gail Bear - May 5, 11:30am-1:00pm

Gestational Diabetes and Muslim Pregnant Women with Meya Omar, May 19, 7:00pm-8:30pm

Midwives & Doulas, Guardians of Birth: Midwifery Stories from Guatemala to Oregon with Jennifer Guallardo, Midwife, founder of Andaluz Waterbirth Center, June 2, 11:30am-1:00pm

Exploring Our Own Births, Using Art Exploration as a Tool for Self Discovery with Carol Gray, DEM, LMT June 16 7:00pm-8:30pm.

For further information go to www.blackmidwives.org or contact Shafia Monroe at 503-460-9324