"Go big AND go home"
You can have both options!?
I don't know about you but, from what I gather, it seems many people are looking for a space, both physical and ethereal, in which freedom of expression, creativity and love for the purpose of co-creation can roam freely with others of like-mind.
If you feel this, please, read on. You'll get a better sense of the collectives pushing this project through, some history, and some of the research questions I am exploring, of which your voice is integral!
I intend to let my highest Truth flow and I hope you will accept it...
Dearest Manifest community and anyone else stumbling upon this site,
I'd like to take this time share with you some deep visions and insights about one of Toronto's most eclectic, passionate, skillful, conscious communities of which I have had the honour of being apart. The opinions expressed are those a day-dreamer girl who always knew she'd find her place within a beautiful forward-thinking creative group of people. It's been a long road; hasn't it for most? Many people cannot say that they understand what this means, nor do many humans around the world have the opportunity in war-torn, economically-depraved countries or even here in North America. In Romania, my homeland, freidns and family don't fully understand what I am talking about when I mention the awesomeness that ensues with Manifest-type gatherings and the reasons behind them.
Oh, I am so grateful. We have so much to be thankful for; particularly, the deep-seated wisdom within each one of us.
In this last year of 2011, I have learned that COMMUNITY is the key to a future of peace. Peace is a broad, butchered word that has unfortunately lost its meaning to many people. Not here; not within the traveling walls of the Manifest community, formerly known as Radiolaria.
I, along with most of us, can testify to the fact that we have seen, felt, heard, tasted, even smelled peace in its truest and highest form in the 3D. We see it in the art works we create and the internal beauty that shines through us; we feel it in the authentic hugs we give and receive; we hear it in the progressive beats that are at the center of this subculture; we taste is in the organic wholesome foods we eat and share at potlucks, and we smell it the releasing sweat at 5am parties and the sacred sage that surrounds us at a camp fire. Furthermore, we KNOW peace for we remember it deep within us. This sense of Truth about how life was meant to be lived. And though we can't always live in tune with this most high yet ignored truth, we come together for the purpose of healing.
Is this not home? Where else can we go to experience and be allowed to express holistic living? Well, many place across the globe are awakening to this approach and arguably, holistic living has never actually disappeared; only in the modern western post-industrial world have humans drastically altered their perception of life. But in Toronto, I don't know of any other place so, I stay here for now.
Please correct me if I'm wrong or label me as hippie, outcast, mentally ill as society would. I'd rather be developing this Manifest community hub any day, instead of continuing to participate in this nine to five rat-race for paper money. Respect to you if you are involved in this system; I fully acknowledge that everyone is doing exactly what they need to be doing for their highest good. All paths must be respected including this one towards higher Truth (and let's face it, many ancient truths are being revealed in our age) that is paving the way out of the imminent convergence of global crises.
FOOD is another key to the future because it relates directly to sustainable living.
Who's feeding our communities in Toronto? Or rather, who's thinking about these things in the first place? Most people shop at corporate grocery stores and don't take time to think about where their food comes from and why. As the world keeps on turning, the people keep on consuming and digesting more than the food in the package. I'm talking about the massive amounts of natural oil and energy used to produce, package, transport food. I'm also talking about the high amounts of the almost unfathomable amounts and types of chemical additives and food-born contaminants present in our daily mass-consumed foods.
The purpose of this blog is not to educate you or convince you of my opinions; every strong-willed, heart-centered person can search out and educate themselves on this most essential topic.
The fact is that the effects of this unsustainable mode of food consumption are becoming more pronounced, mainly in our bodies, the factory farming industry, and actual and symbolic imbalance between 1st and 3rd world.
So, who's making sustainable community realllly happen in Toronto?
WE ARE and you most likely are too since you made it to this site!!
You manifested Manifest so please, keep reading to learn more about Feed Your City org., Frolick Arts Collective and the Community Arts Practice Program at York. These groups are contributing to this space in meaningful ways, and are part of a larger tapestry of community-based organizations of Toronto.
We're just oozing with potential to create a model of truly holistic and sustainable living for Manifest and the Toronto community at large.
WARNING: the opinions expressed are the visions and hopes of Teodora on her internship quest experiencing and contributing to this holistic organic process of co-creation.
Frolick, an innovative multi-disciplinary arts collective that was birthed out of Feed Your City’s urban agriculture initiative and nurtured in an expanding spiritually conscious sub-culture of Toronto.
Teodora, on her internship will explore critical aspects:
1. Concern for urban sustainable food production, education and propagation
2. Passion to create participatory and transformational theatre in a community arts context
3. Curiosity to understand ‘intentional communities’ that are grounded in emergent holistic approaches to sustainable living.
1. Feed your City
Feed Your City is an incorporated not-for-profit organization, developing initiatives in the field of urban agriculture involving such themes as biomimicry, permaculture, biodynamics and food education. This past summer, FYC played a key role in the development of a 2000-plant species rooftop garden atop the Big Carrot, one of Toronto’s largest and oldest farmer’s market grocery stores, located in the Danforth neighbourhood.
I am, along with a growing number of people, passionate about the need for local organic food choices but knowledgeable of how to implement urban agricultural techniques is scarce. This initiative is part of a growing global movement of technological and scientific innovation and I’m curious to learn about other solutions that are becoming available that address current ecological/environmental, politico-economic, and social challenges. Why is rooftop gardening FYC’s focus and are they developing the latest technologies for most efficient widespread use? What type of research and other skills are necessary to implement these new approaches? Can the average gardener learn to transform his/her own rooftop into a successful harvesting garden? How does FYC share its knowledge, skills and resources? Such topics will be explored for the purpose of understanding how best to educate more people about this innovative and much needed solution.
2. Frolick Collective and Theatre
The Frolick Collective was birthed in Summer 2011 out of FYC’s latest initiative of gathering communities to celebrate through multi-disciplinary arts projects (focus being on theatre), the transformation of unused rooftops into imaginative and practical urban gardens. Frolick’s produced an eclectic version of Shakespeare’s, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to mark the unveiling of the rooftop garden to the community. The six day festivity included the opportunity to socialise while enjoying fresh food, prepared by Frolick members, from the garden’s harvest. Currently, the next show is being written and work-shopped to begin early November, with prospects for expanding their community outreach.
Propagating heirloom seed collections, developing urban eco-systems, gathering local harvests, preparing healthy food, utilizing perma-culture pillars of design to expand multi-disciplinary arts projects, and showing people the ease and splendour of challenging our corporate food sources are among the ways Frolick is now ‘feeding our city’. The connection made with the community at large, through transformational theatre, is the key ‘food for thought’.
I am particularly interested in exploring the use of theatre to catalyze conversation, profound contemplation and potential shifts in audience members’ approach to not only food, but to other essential energy sources of human life such as harmonious community or spiritual relationship with life. Of course, the main goal of using theatre is to entertain! Which different styles/genres of shows succeed in different contexts? Is participatory theatre useful and if so, how can Frolick facilitate a safe, creative, fun environment for audience members to explore? How does Frolick build relationships with new artists and integrate them into the multi-disciplinary goal for the shows? What demographic and class of people is Frolick attracting; if it’s just those who can afford high-end organic produce, how can Frolick reach out and become accessible to disadvantaged communities or to those who are not aware about food security issues. How does Frolick define success? Overall, I will evaluate how Frolick is carrying out its mandate to connect, educate, and inspire communities about the possibility of an emerging ‘Holistic Renaissance’.
3. Intentional Communities
Currently, Frolick is in a transitional move into a ‘live-work’ arts and agricultural incubation centre to concentrate their creative potential. Frolick’s new home base will be the Manifest Community space, located at 262 Geary Ave. Manifest is a major healing-arts, intentional community in Toronto, comprised of a diverse demographic.
My internship with Frolick will naturally include building a stronger partnership with Manifest, of which I can say that I have been associated for over a year.
Manifest members’ unique quality: giant hub of BRILLIANT ARTISTS and/or alternative health practitioners, holistic lifestyle approaches, vernacular arts and innovative sustainable living. Its main resource is its ability to embody its multicultural arts.
I’d like to explore how and why people are organically drawn together centred on a common vision for the future, not majorly defined by culture, tradition, ethnicity, or neighbourhood location. How is this new ‘vision’ manifested effectively, holistically? What model or system is being used or can be applied to the needs/assets of this group? Challenges and obstacles will come up and I wish to discover why and what possible solutions for resolution are available. One solution that I’d like to explore is utilizing theater approaches to strengthen the community’s ability to communicate ideas, emotions, and opinions safely and productively.
Also, I want to place Frolick and Manifest in the larger Toronto landscape by identifying potential allies who are working towards similar goals of sustainability. ‘How can we all work together and strengthen the ‘Holistic Rennaisance’’ is my overarching question- the focus being on community arts organizations and the Community Arts Program at York University.
Feed Your City, Frolick and Manifest, and other allies, are playing an ever more significant role in the development of the individual and collective wisdom that empowers action conducive to holistic transformations in the ecological, social, psychological, and politico-economic environment in Toronto. In this way, these groups are in tune with a growing movement across the globe that is embodying, through various methods, degrees and models, a profound shift in humanity’s current paradigm. Under the assumption that this shift is essential and unstoppable as part of our evolutionary growth, I am intrigued to work with Frolick in order to learn how we can spread knowledge and resources on living harmoniously and sustainably, through attention to local food sources and by means of utilizing theater to catalyze this change. At this point, at least a shift in consciousness about contemplating these vital subjects and implementing or testing out agreed-upon ideas- will be considered a success.
Interested at all in helping develop this research?
Ideas on ANY subject are welcome via email to [email protected]
Let's observe the planted seeds, which are growing at rapid speeds as you read this blog post, and watch them grow.
Be a witness, it's important too :)
Even better, become a member and contribute your success to manifest's evolving co-creative potential.
Go BIG AND go HOME :)
I just hope to inspire, stimulate, and guide creative,open conversations. It is the key.
In Love and Light, The Witty Witness,
Teodora
You can have both options!?
I don't know about you but, from what I gather, it seems many people are looking for a space, both physical and ethereal, in which freedom of expression, creativity and love for the purpose of co-creation can roam freely with others of like-mind.
If you feel this, please, read on. You'll get a better sense of the collectives pushing this project through, some history, and some of the research questions I am exploring, of which your voice is integral!
I intend to let my highest Truth flow and I hope you will accept it...
Dearest Manifest community and anyone else stumbling upon this site,
I'd like to take this time share with you some deep visions and insights about one of Toronto's most eclectic, passionate, skillful, conscious communities of which I have had the honour of being apart. The opinions expressed are those a day-dreamer girl who always knew she'd find her place within a beautiful forward-thinking creative group of people. It's been a long road; hasn't it for most? Many people cannot say that they understand what this means, nor do many humans around the world have the opportunity in war-torn, economically-depraved countries or even here in North America. In Romania, my homeland, freidns and family don't fully understand what I am talking about when I mention the awesomeness that ensues with Manifest-type gatherings and the reasons behind them.
Oh, I am so grateful. We have so much to be thankful for; particularly, the deep-seated wisdom within each one of us.
In this last year of 2011, I have learned that COMMUNITY is the key to a future of peace. Peace is a broad, butchered word that has unfortunately lost its meaning to many people. Not here; not within the traveling walls of the Manifest community, formerly known as Radiolaria.
I, along with most of us, can testify to the fact that we have seen, felt, heard, tasted, even smelled peace in its truest and highest form in the 3D. We see it in the art works we create and the internal beauty that shines through us; we feel it in the authentic hugs we give and receive; we hear it in the progressive beats that are at the center of this subculture; we taste is in the organic wholesome foods we eat and share at potlucks, and we smell it the releasing sweat at 5am parties and the sacred sage that surrounds us at a camp fire. Furthermore, we KNOW peace for we remember it deep within us. This sense of Truth about how life was meant to be lived. And though we can't always live in tune with this most high yet ignored truth, we come together for the purpose of healing.
Is this not home? Where else can we go to experience and be allowed to express holistic living? Well, many place across the globe are awakening to this approach and arguably, holistic living has never actually disappeared; only in the modern western post-industrial world have humans drastically altered their perception of life. But in Toronto, I don't know of any other place so, I stay here for now.
Please correct me if I'm wrong or label me as hippie, outcast, mentally ill as society would. I'd rather be developing this Manifest community hub any day, instead of continuing to participate in this nine to five rat-race for paper money. Respect to you if you are involved in this system; I fully acknowledge that everyone is doing exactly what they need to be doing for their highest good. All paths must be respected including this one towards higher Truth (and let's face it, many ancient truths are being revealed in our age) that is paving the way out of the imminent convergence of global crises.
FOOD is another key to the future because it relates directly to sustainable living.
Who's feeding our communities in Toronto? Or rather, who's thinking about these things in the first place? Most people shop at corporate grocery stores and don't take time to think about where their food comes from and why. As the world keeps on turning, the people keep on consuming and digesting more than the food in the package. I'm talking about the massive amounts of natural oil and energy used to produce, package, transport food. I'm also talking about the high amounts of the almost unfathomable amounts and types of chemical additives and food-born contaminants present in our daily mass-consumed foods.
The purpose of this blog is not to educate you or convince you of my opinions; every strong-willed, heart-centered person can search out and educate themselves on this most essential topic.
The fact is that the effects of this unsustainable mode of food consumption are becoming more pronounced, mainly in our bodies, the factory farming industry, and actual and symbolic imbalance between 1st and 3rd world.
So, who's making sustainable community realllly happen in Toronto?
WE ARE and you most likely are too since you made it to this site!!
You manifested Manifest so please, keep reading to learn more about Feed Your City org., Frolick Arts Collective and the Community Arts Practice Program at York. These groups are contributing to this space in meaningful ways, and are part of a larger tapestry of community-based organizations of Toronto.
We're just oozing with potential to create a model of truly holistic and sustainable living for Manifest and the Toronto community at large.
WARNING: the opinions expressed are the visions and hopes of Teodora on her internship quest experiencing and contributing to this holistic organic process of co-creation.
Frolick, an innovative multi-disciplinary arts collective that was birthed out of Feed Your City’s urban agriculture initiative and nurtured in an expanding spiritually conscious sub-culture of Toronto.
Teodora, on her internship will explore critical aspects:
1. Concern for urban sustainable food production, education and propagation
2. Passion to create participatory and transformational theatre in a community arts context
3. Curiosity to understand ‘intentional communities’ that are grounded in emergent holistic approaches to sustainable living.
1. Feed your City
Feed Your City is an incorporated not-for-profit organization, developing initiatives in the field of urban agriculture involving such themes as biomimicry, permaculture, biodynamics and food education. This past summer, FYC played a key role in the development of a 2000-plant species rooftop garden atop the Big Carrot, one of Toronto’s largest and oldest farmer’s market grocery stores, located in the Danforth neighbourhood.
I am, along with a growing number of people, passionate about the need for local organic food choices but knowledgeable of how to implement urban agricultural techniques is scarce. This initiative is part of a growing global movement of technological and scientific innovation and I’m curious to learn about other solutions that are becoming available that address current ecological/environmental, politico-economic, and social challenges. Why is rooftop gardening FYC’s focus and are they developing the latest technologies for most efficient widespread use? What type of research and other skills are necessary to implement these new approaches? Can the average gardener learn to transform his/her own rooftop into a successful harvesting garden? How does FYC share its knowledge, skills and resources? Such topics will be explored for the purpose of understanding how best to educate more people about this innovative and much needed solution.
2. Frolick Collective and Theatre
The Frolick Collective was birthed in Summer 2011 out of FYC’s latest initiative of gathering communities to celebrate through multi-disciplinary arts projects (focus being on theatre), the transformation of unused rooftops into imaginative and practical urban gardens. Frolick’s produced an eclectic version of Shakespeare’s, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to mark the unveiling of the rooftop garden to the community. The six day festivity included the opportunity to socialise while enjoying fresh food, prepared by Frolick members, from the garden’s harvest. Currently, the next show is being written and work-shopped to begin early November, with prospects for expanding their community outreach.
Propagating heirloom seed collections, developing urban eco-systems, gathering local harvests, preparing healthy food, utilizing perma-culture pillars of design to expand multi-disciplinary arts projects, and showing people the ease and splendour of challenging our corporate food sources are among the ways Frolick is now ‘feeding our city’. The connection made with the community at large, through transformational theatre, is the key ‘food for thought’.
I am particularly interested in exploring the use of theatre to catalyze conversation, profound contemplation and potential shifts in audience members’ approach to not only food, but to other essential energy sources of human life such as harmonious community or spiritual relationship with life. Of course, the main goal of using theatre is to entertain! Which different styles/genres of shows succeed in different contexts? Is participatory theatre useful and if so, how can Frolick facilitate a safe, creative, fun environment for audience members to explore? How does Frolick build relationships with new artists and integrate them into the multi-disciplinary goal for the shows? What demographic and class of people is Frolick attracting; if it’s just those who can afford high-end organic produce, how can Frolick reach out and become accessible to disadvantaged communities or to those who are not aware about food security issues. How does Frolick define success? Overall, I will evaluate how Frolick is carrying out its mandate to connect, educate, and inspire communities about the possibility of an emerging ‘Holistic Renaissance’.
3. Intentional Communities
Currently, Frolick is in a transitional move into a ‘live-work’ arts and agricultural incubation centre to concentrate their creative potential. Frolick’s new home base will be the Manifest Community space, located at 262 Geary Ave. Manifest is a major healing-arts, intentional community in Toronto, comprised of a diverse demographic.
My internship with Frolick will naturally include building a stronger partnership with Manifest, of which I can say that I have been associated for over a year.
Manifest members’ unique quality: giant hub of BRILLIANT ARTISTS and/or alternative health practitioners, holistic lifestyle approaches, vernacular arts and innovative sustainable living. Its main resource is its ability to embody its multicultural arts.
I’d like to explore how and why people are organically drawn together centred on a common vision for the future, not majorly defined by culture, tradition, ethnicity, or neighbourhood location. How is this new ‘vision’ manifested effectively, holistically? What model or system is being used or can be applied to the needs/assets of this group? Challenges and obstacles will come up and I wish to discover why and what possible solutions for resolution are available. One solution that I’d like to explore is utilizing theater approaches to strengthen the community’s ability to communicate ideas, emotions, and opinions safely and productively.
Also, I want to place Frolick and Manifest in the larger Toronto landscape by identifying potential allies who are working towards similar goals of sustainability. ‘How can we all work together and strengthen the ‘Holistic Rennaisance’’ is my overarching question- the focus being on community arts organizations and the Community Arts Program at York University.
Feed Your City, Frolick and Manifest, and other allies, are playing an ever more significant role in the development of the individual and collective wisdom that empowers action conducive to holistic transformations in the ecological, social, psychological, and politico-economic environment in Toronto. In this way, these groups are in tune with a growing movement across the globe that is embodying, through various methods, degrees and models, a profound shift in humanity’s current paradigm. Under the assumption that this shift is essential and unstoppable as part of our evolutionary growth, I am intrigued to work with Frolick in order to learn how we can spread knowledge and resources on living harmoniously and sustainably, through attention to local food sources and by means of utilizing theater to catalyze this change. At this point, at least a shift in consciousness about contemplating these vital subjects and implementing or testing out agreed-upon ideas- will be considered a success.
Interested at all in helping develop this research?
Ideas on ANY subject are welcome via email to [email protected]
Let's observe the planted seeds, which are growing at rapid speeds as you read this blog post, and watch them grow.
Be a witness, it's important too :)
Even better, become a member and contribute your success to manifest's evolving co-creative potential.
Go BIG AND go HOME :)
I just hope to inspire, stimulate, and guide creative,open conversations. It is the key.
In Love and Light, The Witty Witness,
Teodora