Community Outreach: Women.Design.Build Potluck & Garage Sale June 3, 7-10 PM

Women.Design.Build Potluck & Garage Sale, June 3 2010, 7 - 10 pm Austin, TX - On Thursday June 3, 2010, Women.Design.Build will host an evening of discussion, inquiry and curiosity about learning the trades of design and construction.

Are you curious about learning home improvement, woodworking, or green design methods? Do you have a general interest in design and building but are not quite sure how to get started?

The mission of Women.Design.Build is to provide the women of Austin the opportunity to engage in design and construction activities via workshops and community projects. Before we can move any further, we need to know what the community's design.build interests are. To explore your interests, learn more about our efforts, enjoy homemade eats, and peruse the garage sale items, come to the Austin Green Art Warehouse on the evening of June 3, 2010.

Located on the Austin State Supported Living Center campus, the Austin Green Art warehouse is rich with materials varying from a collection of animal vertebrae to an array of antique machinery. These items will be sold at the event in our effort to continue to build-out the warehouse. The potluck is optional, but feel free to bring your favorite dish.

The community's insight is critical to our development: we ask participants to come inquisitive, enthusiastic, and hungry. This event is free and open to the public.

For more information, please visit www.womendesignbuild.org

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In August of 2009, founders, Christina Mirando and Nicole Joslin met at a community volunteer meeting. The two have been developing Women.Design.Build ever since.

Christina received her B.A. from Hampshire College with a concentration in film and sculpture. She resides in Austin, TX where she works for a local handywoman company.

Nicole received her Bachelors of Architecture from the University of Oklahoma and works as an Architecture Intern for Boka Powell.

Event Details:

Time & Date: Thursday, June 3, 2010, 7 - 10pm
Location: Austin Green Art Warehouse, 2203 West 35th Street, Austin, TX 78703
RSVP: womendesignbuild.eventbrite.com

Indigenous Youth Cultural Arts Leadership Program: Summer Camps 2010

Alma de Mujer Center for Social Change in collaboration with LifeWorks is hosting the Indigenous Youth Cultural Arts Leadership Program. This program is a two-week long summer camp for young girls and boys, focusing on Indigenous life ways, arts, and culture. These summer camps contribute to Austin's cultural diversity by educating future cultural arts practitioners. In addition, camp instructors are local Indigenous artists and other artists of color who contribute to the creative industries of Austin and who understand and live the value of art and culture.


The camps serve children between the ages of 7 to 16, and are fully supervised with expert counselors and instructors. There are no application fees for participants. Drop off and pick up points will be located in East Austin.

Girls' Camp: June 14 - 25, 2010
June 24, 2010 Field trip to the University of Texas
June 25, 2010 Camp performance at Alma de Mujer

Boys' Camp: July 6 - 16, 2010
July 15, 2010 Camp performance at Alma de Mujer
July 16, 2010 Field trip to Volente Beach


The application process opens June 1st; interested folks can email us at almaprograms@gmail.com.

UPDATE: "Chickasaw Women Past & Present" Event has moved

Chukma Chickasaws and Friends of Chickasaws:

Well we have gotten rained out of the wonderful site due to heavy rains there this morning already. The program will go on and will be at the

Grace Community Bible Church
10511 Salt Mill Hollow
Austin, Texas 78750

A map is attached and a more detailed map to the site can be found at:



http://maps.google.com/maps?q=10511+Salt+Mill+Hollow+78750&hl=en&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=10511+Salt+Mill+Hollow,+Austin,+Williamson,+Texas+78750&ll=30.455777,-97.82218&spn=0.027486,0.066047&z=15

There will not be a need to bring chairs. But we will start the Potluck supper at 5pm followed by the presentation of Chickasaw Women Past and Present.

If you have any questions, please call me at 512-258-7919.

If you can not make this event, remember that you are all invited to the Chickasaw Council Meeting at 1pm at 1009 East 11th Street in Austin. It is just off of IS-35.

Hope to see you at both events.

Yakoke,

Gene (Nashoba) Thompson

Chickasaw Storyteller "Chickasaw Women- Past & Present" Speech and Potluck May 15

Chukma Chickasaws and the Friends of Chickasaws:

We will have an rare opportunity on the evening of May 15th to hear Chickasaw Hall of Fame Member Pauline Brown and her Daughter LaDonna - a well known Chickasaw historian and artisan talk about the strong role of Chickasaw Women in our Culture. The event will begin with a pot luck supper, followed by the presentation of the Browns and an opportunity to discuss Chickasaw Women of the Past and Present. The program will be held out doors under a canopy of large trees. Bring your folding chairs and a dish to share. Please RSVP to cccctx@gmail.com by Thurs, May 13th if you will be able to join us.

Additionally, the Browns will be joining us for our next local meeting to be held the next day (May 16th) at the UT Building at 1009 E. 11th Street in Austin. For detailed instructions on how to get there go to http://www.cccctx.org .

Please come join us.

Workshop and Performance Schedule for Momma! I Love You

Workshops for Momma!

Tai Chi 12pm-130pm

How to make essential oils from herbs 12pm -1pm

Free Wellness Screenings 1pm-4pm

Photography lesson 1pm-2pm & 2pm-3pm

Belly Dancing 2pm – 3pm

Songwriting 101 2pm-3pm

Plant walk and craft 3pm-4pm

Five Benefits of Pursuing the Interests You Always Wanted to Try but Never Had Time To 3pm-4pm

Paintings by Alonso Rey 4pm-5pm

Mass Yoga participation by East Side Yoga 5pm-6pm

Performances

Las Rafikis 12:30pm-1pm

Margo Valiante 1pm-2pm

Dawni McCray 2:30pm-3:30pm

Suzanna Choffel 4pm-5pm

We can't wait to see you there! Music, food, dancing and workshops... what an awesome way to spend time with your momma this Mother's Day.

Besitos,

Alma de Mujer Center for Social Change

May 1st Work Day

A few folks decided to spend their May Day here with us at Alma de Mujer and show their love to the land by working on the outdoor stage, tending to the garden, and making structural improvements on the bridge.


It was a beautiful May Day out on the land, and it was wonderful to have volunteers young and old spend the day out on the land with us. Spring has been such a blessing here, with the Medicine Wheel Garden in full luscious bloom. Most exciting to see was the outdoor stage, which had fallen into disrepair, being fixed up by our volunteers in preparation for our Momma! I Love You Festival for mother's day on Sunday May 9. We have been looking forward to this event for weeks, and cannot wait to share our photos and stories!



Some of the volunteers during the day were students with the UT School of Architecture, who came out to offer their knowledge and energy in physically putting in a natural stone and mud ramp on either sides of the bridge entrance, and wire hand railings along the bridge for better support. These students were not afraid to break out a sweat for this project, and Alma thanks them for their time and strength.

There to guide the student architects were two local architects and teachers, founder and director of Women.Design.Build Nicole Joslin, and director of Design Build Alliance Scott Ross. Their expertise was invaluable to the project, while their organizations- focusing on community grassroots building and empowerment- are groups Alma is proud to work along side with.



It was an amazing work day here at Alma, and as always we love and thank our friends and family for taking the time to help us beautify the land for continued use by our animal and human community.