In our globalized world, the basic survival needs of many communities are difficult to manage. Multinational corporations exercise near-total control over the systems that sustain and connect us—from food and clean water to energy and communication. At the same time, natural disasters such as the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile seem to be occurring with more frequency and intensity, while man-made catastrophes like the ongoing economic collapse, the mine tragedy in West Virginia and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill continue to loom.

As we saw with the precarious response from FEMA after Hurricane Katrina, reliance on inept government bureaucracies in times of crisis is a perilous act of faith. In a world fraught with uncertainty, an empowered and resilient local community is the best defense.

How would you and your community react if you suddenly had to fend for yourself?

May's Evolver LA Spore will focus on innovative methods that self-reliant societies are using to achieve local resiliency. We will examine the idea that our leverage point as a civilization is our personal and community growth, and how our community's destiny beacons us to seek new beginnings through art, cooperation, permacultural and basic survival principles. Come join us in building a new story here in LA.

We will be discussing our project with the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation at Hopiland in Arizona where over one thousand trees will be planted just days before the spore!

Evolver Los Angeles is honored to be screening the award-winning short documentary, Dive!, a film about dumpster diving in Los Angeles and the incredible amount of food thrown away in the U.S. every year. The film will be introduced by Director, Jeremy Seifert. We are aslo thrilled to have Torin Dunnavant of TreePeople and Janet Owen Driggs of Metabolic Studios join us to discuss the incredible work they are doing here in Los Angeles. One of Reality Sandwich and Evolver.net's founding member, Jonathan Phillips will also join us as he discusses the future of Evolver.

NiceCream, the nation's first raw vegan ice cream shop, will be serving up their incredible concoctions all night! Founder Mollie Engelhart will be on site and spend a few minutes talking about her product and inspiration. Yum!

SCHEDULE

7:00 - Doors Open
7:15 - Opening Welcome + Baza Novic + Jonathan Phillips E+SM
7:25 - Fruit Tree Planting Foundation Hopiland slideshow
7:35 - Torin Dunnavant, TreePeople
8:00 - Mollie Engelhart, NiceCream
8:10 - Jeremy Seifert + Dive! Documentary
9:00 - Janet Owen Drigss + Metabolic Studios "Strawberry Flags"
10:00 - Resilience RoundTable
10:15 - Q+A
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Founded in 2009, NiceCream Vegan Ice Cream is the brainchild of owner/CEO Mollie Engelhart, striving to offer healthy, vegan, raw treats using local, sustainable, and organic ingredients. Mollie is an avid vegan cook and healthy lifestyle enthusiast. Together with her husband, she embraces the “home to homestead” lifestyle in their suburban Los Angeles home. They grow over 2000 pounds of produce a year, and have over 40 fruit-producing trees all on their 1/4 acre lot.

Born in Tyler, Texas and raised in Colorado, Jeremy Seifert has also spent time in Asia, Africa, and Europe. He has a B.A. in English Literature from John Brown University and a M.A. in Theology and the Arts from Fuller Theological Seminary. He currently works for the San Damiano Foundation, a nonprofit organization that produces films which focus on the plight of the poor and those working to help them. Dive! Is Jeremy’s first film. When he isn’t dumpster diving, Jeremy can be found in Pasadena with his wife, Nuf, and two sons, Finn and Scout.

Local Los Angeles environmental non-profit, TreePeople, unites the power of trees, people and technology to grow a sustainable future for Los Angeles. TreePeople’s mission is to inspire, engage and support people to take personal responsibility for the urban environment, making it safe, healthy, fun and sustainable and to share the process as a model for the world. Torin’s presentation will discuss simple, nature-based solutions that communities can use to transform their surroundings into “functioning community forests.” Torin Dunnavant is the Community Engagement Manager for TreePeople.

Janet Owen Driggs is a curator, writer, artist and member of the Metabolic Studio team. Her recent publications include texts for the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, the Hammer Museum, ArtUS, Art Review, and the anthology Kolibri. As Founding Director of the AIM international festival of time-based media and later as co-director of LA's Raid Projects, Driggs has curated and organized events with, among other institutions: MOCA, Los Angeles; the Santa Monica Museum of Art; and the Hong Kong Art Center. Recent curatorial projects include Performing Public Space (La Casa del Tunel, Tijuana, 2010) and Not A Cornfield, a touring exhibition about the work of Lauren Bon and the Metabolic Studio. The Metabolic Studio is a direct charitable activity of the Annenberg Foundation
 

What is the Metabolic Studio?
Derived from the Greek word for change, “metabolism” is the process that maintains life. In continuous cycles of creation and destruction, metabolism transforms nutrients into energy and matter. Working to sustain these cycles, theMetabolic Studio transforms resources into energy, actions, and objects that nurture life. Led by artist and philanthropist Lauren Bon, it is a studio for practice at the intersection of art and philanthropy. There are two distinct arena's within the Metabolic Studio: Farmlab and Chora. Farmlab is dedicated to the preservation of living things in often-hostile urban environments. Chora supports the intangibles that precede creativity.

Strawberry Flag is a revisionist vision of the American flag as a self-sustaining system. An artwork in the form of a veterans’ program, Strawberry Flag nurtures reclaimed strawberry plants.The harvest will be used to make Veteran’s
Preserves. The preserves will be sold. All funds raised will be used to de-alienate places that are meant for healing on Veterans’ Hospitals.

Act locally:::...:::Evolve globally