http://commons.newvillagepress.net/commons Welcome to New Village Commons — a space for sharing news and views about grassroots community building! Wed, 23 Jun 2010 23:49:18 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Dutch Designer Kars Alfrink has been putting Jane Jacob’s urbanist principles into practice the fun way--turning public spaces all across Europe into interactive playgrounds for kids and adults alike. “I was inspired by Jane Jacobs and her thoughts about the emergent, complex order of city life,” said ... http://commons.newvillagepress.net/commons/2010/06/16/whats-the-hubbub/ New Village Press lauds the efforts of the Save Our Prison Farms campaign, launched in response to the recently announced foreclosure of Canada’s six prison farm establishments. New Village author James Jiler, founder of the Greenhouse Project, a “jail to street” horticultural training program ... http://commons.newvillagepress.net/commons/2010/06/02/save-our-prison-farms/                   Crisis is an opportunity for positive change.  With this spirit we look forward to the Toward a Just Metropolis Conference June 16-20, 2010 that New Village is cosponsoring at the University of California Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design. The conference will be a one-of-a-kind convergence of  five well-known national planning organizations, Planners Network, Young Planners Network, the Association ... http://commons.newvillagepress.net/commons/2010/05/26/toward-a-just-metropolis-comes-to-the-bay-area/  "Coloring Outside The Lines: Black Cartoonists as Social Commentators" is a new exhibit coming to the San Francisco Public Library's African American Center, reveals a comic strip's power to transcend the breakfast table as an instrument for social dialogue. The display, opening April 11th, celebrates the work of nine nationally-recognized ... http://commons.newvillagepress.net/commons/2010/04/27/coloring-outside-the-lines/ For those of you fortunate enough to have picked up a copy of By Heart, Poetry, Prison and Two Lives this month, we imagine there are some burning questions lingering in your mind about this uniquely woven memoir. Short of attending one of the live book store readings author Judith ... http://commons.newvillagepress.net/commons/2010/04/20/judith-tannenbaum-hosts-librarything-author-chat/ One of our What We See contributing authors and author of The Battle for Gotham, Roberta Brandes Gratz, was featured on the KPFA 94.1 FM Berkeley radio show "Against the Grain" with host Sasha Lilley. They discussed the 1960s struggle over New York City's future between Robert Moses, the father ... http://commons.newvillagepress.net/commons/2010/04/12/against-the-grain-with-roberta-brandes-gratz/ Our newest title, By Heart by Judith Tannenbaum and Spoon Jackson, has been garnering great reviews! By Heart is one of seven books featured on Midwest Book Review's Poetry Shelf: "Finding a talent and nurturing is the goal of any teacher. "By Heart: Poetry, Prison, and Two Lives" tells the story of Judith Tannenbaum, a ... http://commons.newvillagepress.net/commons/2010/04/05/updates-on-by-hearts-success/ by Louise Dunlap photo by Victor Dlamini An awesome figure in the struggle against apartheid died on Friday, with too little attention from the US Press. Fatima Meer--scholar & writer, biographer of Nelson Mandela, continuing friend of Winnie, strategist and risk-taking activist since her teens--died in Durban at age 81. The South ... http://commons.newvillagepress.net/commons/2010/03/17/in-memory-of-fatima-meer-1928-2010/ photo by Nelson Maldonado-Torres On February 26th-27th, 2010, I attended a free conference called "DECOLONIZING THE UNIVERSITY: Fulfilling the Dream of the Third World College," which took place on the UC Berkeley Campus. The purpose of the conference was to honor UC Berkeley's 40th year of Ethnic Studies, communities of struggle ... http://commons.newvillagepress.net/commons/2010/03/16/reflections-on-decolonizing-the-university/ Last Thursday, a visit to San Francisco's 1:AM Gallery for an urban contemporary art exhibit called "Tabi Tabi Po" changed the way I imagined the spirits that roam the physical and mystical world of the Philippines. The group exhibition features different artists' takes on the kinds of beings that live ... http://commons.newvillagepress.net/commons/2009/12/17/tabi-tabi-po-and-bari-bari-apo-and-what-they-mean/