The University of California Berkeley’s Center for Community Innovation hosted an interdisciplinary symposium on the arts and community development on Friday, January 25th. The one-day conference came from a collaboration of Karen Chapple, Director of the Center and Professor of City and Regional Planning, and Shannon Jackson, Chair of UCB’s Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies. A dozen presenters and nearly one hundred attendees explored the role of the arts in urban revitalization and civic engagement on the neighborhood level. (more…)

The World Social Forum has called a Global Day of Action on Saturday, January 26th. “From your community to the world; from the world to your community” is their slogan. Events include an ACLU conference — Reclaiming Our Civil Liberties — in Massachusetts with Daniel Ellsberg and Rachel Maddow and a three-day Independent Media Strategy Summit in Santa Cruz, California. (more…)

New Village Press is using an innovative form of copyright for our newest publication, Building Commons and Community, called “Creative Commons.” Creative Commons encompasses a spectrum of use rights for intellectual property that range from “no rights reserved” to the unprotected public domain. Offering work under a Creative Commons license does not mean giving up your copyright. It means offering some of your rights to any member of the public, but only on certain conditions. (more…)

Friend Dwayne Parish is a magician with acronyms and specializes in a spoken word poetry that he calls hiphopnotherapy. When you hear it live, it does put you into a trance. Here is a piece he wrote for us as a gift last year and I am happy to have a place to share it. Thank you, Dwayne!

NEW VILLAGE PRESS

Near, if not nearest to the heart of humanity is our dear friend–New Village Press!
Earnestly infusing art into community-building & filling the needs of a world pleading to become
Whole. New Village Press is achieving this goal through the power of the printed picture and word. I’ve heard
Voices rise from the pages of their books. I urge you to look & it’s my wish to introduce you to works they publish. (more…)

Welcome to the New Village Commons! We’re excited to offer an online community spot to share timely tidbits and regular feature articles in between producing our books. We are inviting our authors to contribute news and views, and we extend the invitation to you, our readers, as well. Here are some of the Commons highlights.

Besides this blog, we are launching a monthly magazine – New Village E-Journal. To start the Year 2008 on the right note, the theme of our premiere issue is “Peace: Another World is Possible.” (more…)