The Bloom Collective » Uncategorized

Soup & a Movie

bloomcollective — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 01:33:53 +0000

Thursday Jan 12
If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front

The Bloom will serve soup and we’ll all write letters of support to Marie Mason. Soup and letter writing: 6:30 p.m., film @ 7 p.m.
At the Bloom, 671 Davis NW in Grand Rapids

$3 – $5 suggested donation

On December 7th, 2005, federal agents conducted a nationwide sweep of radical environmentalists involved with the Earth Liberation Front — an organization the FBI has called America’s “number one domestic terrorism threat.”

IF A TREE FALLS: A STORY OF THE EARTH LIBERATION FRONT is the remarkable story of the group’s rise and fall, told through the transformation and radicalization of one of its members, Daniel McGowan. Part coming-of-age tale, part cops-and-robbers thriller, the film interweaves a chronicle of McGowan facing life in prison with a dramatic investigation of the events that led to his involvement with the ELF. Using never-before-seen archival footage and intimate interviews — with cell members and with the prosecutor and detective who were chasing them — IF A TREE FALLS asks hard questions about environmentalism, activism, and the way we define terrorism.

Watch the trailer :

Ryan Harvey @ The DAAC Sat. Dec. 10

bloomcollective — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 21:18:38 +0000

Step Out, Step Up – Men Against Violence

bloomcollective — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 23:03:38 +0000

Walk with us to support an end to violence. We’ll meet at Rosa Parks Circle, walk to the parking area behind the arena where Dave Battjes was assaulted, stop at Teeny Bikinis, and end at YWCA, with speakers at each location. We’ll look at how gender roles play a part in the problem of violence in our society by focusing on the most common perpetrators, men.

This event is co-sponsored by The Bloom Collective & NOW GR.

Thursday, October 13
6:30PM
Rosa Parks Circle

10th Anniversary of the US Occupation of Afghanistan action planning

bloomcollective — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 20:24:09 +0000

The Bloom Collective is hosting a forum to discuss and plan a community action marking the 10th anniversary of the US Occupation of Afghanistan.

At 7PM we will show the film Million Dollar Militia (22 minutes), a film that critiques the US effort to create an Afghan Army that will provide security if and when the US ever leaves.

After the film we will brainstorm ideas for doing a 10th Anniversary of the US Occupation in Afghanistan action in Grand Rapids.

Tuesday, September 27
7:00PM
Bloom Collective
671 Davis NW
Grand Rapids, MI

http://october2011.org/welcome

http://www.stopwar.org.uk/

http://costofwar.com/en/

Urban Foraging Workshop

bloomcollective — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 14:26:36 +0000

10 a.m. to noon Saturday September 17

Corner of Madison & Burton — look for the market tents!

The Bloom Collective and Our Kitchen Table invite you to stop by the South East Area Farmer’s Market at Garfield Park to learn about the edible plants growing in your backyard and around your neighborhood.

Bring along plants you suspect might be edible for identification.
Share your knowledge about wild edibles.

The Bloom is closed during August

bloomcollective — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 20:38:59 +0000

See you in September!

Movie Screening: Class Dismissed – How TV Frames the Working Class

bloomcollective — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 03:02:57 +0000

7 p.m. Thursday July 21
IATSE Labor Hall
931 Bridge St NW
Grand Rapids, Michigan

Based on the book by Pepi Leistyna, Class Dismissed navigates the steady stream of narrow working class representations from American television’s beginnings to today’s sitcoms, reality shows, police dramas, and daytime talk shows.

Featuring interviews with media analysts and cultural historians, this documentary examines the patterns inherent in TV’s disturbing depictions of working class people as either clowns or social deviants — stereotypical portrayals that reinforce the myth of meritocracy.

Donations are welcome.
The screening will be followed by a discussion.

This event is cosponsored by The Grand Rapids IWW and The Bloom.

View the trailer

Of bikes and cars: Authors stop in Grand Rapids for two Bloom Collective events

bloomcollective — Tue, 24 May 2011 19:27:40 +0000

This story is reposted from GRIID.org

Thurs. May 26 6:30 p.m. Drugs And Daydreams
Sun. May 29 6 p.m. Stop Signs: Cars & Capitalism
The Bloom Collective671 Davis NW (Corner of 5^th & Davis)
Suggested Donation $3 – $5

In the coming week, authors of two very different books make a stop at The Bloom Collective as part of their North American tours. On Thursday, May 26, the Raise the Stakes Tour invites local folks to join Shaun for “an evening of stories and scheming” as he shares and sells hand-made copies of his book, Drugs And Daydreams. On Sunday, May 29, Canadian authors, Bianca Mugyenyi and Yves Engler, facilitate a discussion of their new book, Stop Signs: Cars & Capitalism on the Road to
Economic, Social and Ecological Decay. Both events will begin with a potluck.

Raise the Stakes

Using drugs as a metaphor to describe his sensations during three different bicycle
trips along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, Drugs And Daydreams “lingers in the fringes where the wild clashes with the civilized; those places where conventional notions of geography and travel
give way to a world of one’s own design.” Shaun calls the book part romance and part travel autobiography. He writes, “The most accurate metaphor I’ve heard for travel is comparing it a love affair. A love affair thrives upon shattered rules and shattered roles. Upon a whirlwind that comes by surprise and leaves everything in its path upturned, transformed. A feeling beyond the grasp of science. Beyond the map. This is where I seek to travel. This is how a love affair begins. This is how my story begins.”

Shaun invites local artists, musicians and poets to share their work as part of the program. So, bring your own zines to share, poetry to read, acoustic music to play and art to display. All copies of Shaun’s book on sale that night are made of scavenged materials and hand-bound by the author within individually relief-printed hard covers. He writes, “Maybe living as scavengers can last, I thought. Knowing that not everyone can do this, but if we can, then we have a responsibility to strike at capitalism’s vulnerabilities. And all of our wits and creativities not dulled by numbing work weeks and banal distractions exist for the sake of us living out our wildest dreams, of us putting a stop to those entities that hurt those that we identify with.”

Stop Signs: Cars & Capitalism

Authors Yves Engler and Bianca Mugyenyi are coming to Grand Rapids via Greyhound Bus to present this anti-car road trip story. Born in Uganda in 1980, Bianca Mugyenyi came to Canada as a child, spending parts of her youth in Swaziland, Kenya and England. She is coordinator of Concordia’s Gender Advocacy Centre and was the Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students (Quebec). A Montréal activist and author, Yves Engler has published three books: The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy; Playing Left Wing: From Rink Rat to Student Radical; and (with Anthony Fenton) Canada in Haiti: Waging War on The Poor Majority.

Stop Signs: Cars & Capitalism shows how “the automobile’s ascendance is inextricably linked to capitalism and involved corporate malfeasance, political intrigue, backroom payoffs, media manipulation, racism, academic corruption, third world coups, secret armies, environmental destruction and war.” In short, challenging the domination of cars challenges capitalism.

In a Sept. 2010 article for Counterpunch, the authors wrote, “Nearly three-quarters of U.S.households earning less than $15,000 a year own a car, and in an extreme example of auto dependence, tens of thousands of “mobile homeless” live in their vehicles. The poor purchase cars because there is no other option in a society built to serve the needs of the automobile. If you want to work you need a car. If you want to visit your friends you need a car. Car-dominated transport eats up a disproportionate amount of working-class income. At the same time, the automobile is an important means for the wealthy to assert themselves socially. A luxury vehicle lets the whole world know that you have arrived, both literally and metaphorically.”

Make your holiday weekend more memorable (and less gas dependent) by celebrating bikes and other alternatives to a car-crazy capitalist culture. Bring a dish to pass. The Bloom will provide vegan options.

GASHOLE: Film & Discussion

bloomcollective — Mon, 02 May 2011 16:17:07 +0000

Saturday, May 14 – 3pm at The Bloom Collective

A new documentary that explores the history of oil and sheds light on a secret that the big oil companies don’t want you to know:

There are viable and affordable alternatives to petroleum fuel!

More info at gasholemovie.com

$3-5 suggested donation

Light refreshments will be provided

Raise the Stakes Tour Spring 2011

bloomcollective — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 15:54:39 +0000

Thurs. May 26 6:30 – 9:30 p.m.

Potluck 6:30 The Bloom will provide vegan options. Open “Mic” and Raise the Stakes 7:00—9:30

: Join us for an evening of stories and scheming with Shaun, author of the hand-made book Drugs And Daydreams as he speaks of long-distance bicycle trips and taking ideas and actions beyond the confines of
convention to help strengthen and defend community.Part travel romance, part autobiography of three bicycle trips along large portions of the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, the book uses drugs as a metaphor to describe the sensations of the three different bicycle trips that make up the stories within.

Suggested donation $3—$5. Shaun’s books & zines will be available for purchase.

Bring your own zines to share, poetry to read, acoustic music to play, art to display.

Location: The Bloom Collective 671 DAVIS NW (CORNER OF 5TH & DAVIS) GRAND RAPIDS

Here’s info about the book from Shaun’s website:

Drugs And Daydreams: The Book!

“The most accurate metaphor I’ve heard for travel is comparing it a love affair.

A love affair thrives upon shattered rules and shattered roles. Upon a whirlwind that comes by surprise and leaves everything in its path upturned, transformed.

A feeling beyond the grasp of science. Beyond the map.

This is where I seek to travel.

This is how a love affair begins.

This is how my story begins.”

—

So begins the book…

Drugs And Daydreams lingers in the fringes where the wild clashes with the civilized; those places where conventional notions of geography and travel give way to a world of one’s own design.

From finding a bicycle at a thrift store for $2 and attempting to ride it 1200 miles from the Pacific Northwest to the San Francisco Bay, to creating a home in a vacant building in New York’s Lower East Side, to seeking the lessons found in observing one’s own reflection in the seas of the California coast, the author infuses these stories with a prose that questions where exactly the boundaries of the world that we’re offered ends, and where the anarchic and unpossessable world that lies beyond begins.

Dizzying, both in a sense of seeking one’s place amongst ungovernable landscapes and a culture out of balance, as well as in the often nonlinear voice that frequently transcends and weaves between the seams of place, time and subject.

This book compiles three self-published zines,Drugs And Daydreams, Here Civilization Ceased, and Bring On The Dancing Horses, previously released and distributed on cross-country hitchhiking trips.

—

All books are handbound by the author within individually relief-printed hard covers.