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Gaia U Shines at 10th Annual Village Building Convergence
 Gaia University was a potent presence at City Repair’s 10th annual Village Building Convergence in Portland, Oregon, May 28th – June 6th. A combined permaculture and natural building conference, giant volunteer work-party and deep exercise in community building, the VBC brings together world-changers from across the country and around the world to share their knowledge and collaborate on local projects. Sites throughout Portland combine urban ‘placemaking’ initiatives with public workshop offerings that run the gamut from eco-roof construction to rainwater catchment to mushroom cultivation. This year’s evening festivities featured a community feast, live music, and presentations from leading ecosocial actionists such as Starhawk, Mark Lakeman and Transition PDX. Also among the keynote speakers were James Stark and Penny Livingston, the founders of Gaia University’s newest regional center, Gaia RDI, and Gaia University Co-presidents, Andrew Langford and Liora Adler.
During the two weeks leading up to the VBC, Gaia U associates gathered for an orientation workshop as well as a 4-day Re-evaluation Counseling Fundamentals intensive. As the VBC began, more Gaia U associates arrived to take part, many of whom attended City Repair’s first ever Village Building Design Course, which ran concurrently with the 10-day event. Participants gathered each morning with veterans of the City Repair Project to discuss the cultural history and social impacts of the urban grid; how to work effectively with local policymakers to legally reclaim underused public space and create community ‘place’; and design strategies for urban community building. In the afternoons the group traveled to VBC sites throughout Portland to apply their new knowledge and aid the local community.
Phoebe Godfrey, A sociologist and Gaia U collaborator from Willimantic, Connecticut, came for the orientation and stayed through the end of the VBC. Godfrey described her experience building a cob wall at the Trillium Charter School in North Portland: "The VBC was my first experience with collective construction. Building something collectively has a very unique quality. Everybody that worked together was embodied in that cob wall we built. That's what I want to create in my community – some kind of community construction project, like the lost art of barn raising. We're at a point in society now where we can barn-raise with people that don't look like us and build a diverse community through sharing the process of building together."
Gaia University associates were not only active participants in the VBC, they were also significant contributors to its content. Nala Walla, having just graduated from Gaia U a week earlier, led several workshops on ecosomatics, the physical exploration of the relationship between our individual and collective bodies to the larger natural systems of the earth. Matt Bibeau, a Gaia U associate currently pursuing a post-graduate diploma was one of the VBC’s central organizers. "The Village Building Convergence offered Gaia U associates an opportunity to recognize the potential for building community and ecological diversity in a city, despite the fragmentation imposed by the urban grid. Gaia University associates came away from the VBC with real inspiration to bring the placemaking strategies they were exposed to back to their communities, and begin to make their own unique contributions towards the social and ecological transformation of cities that needs to occur within our lifetime.”
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Events & Workshops 
