“Power of Community” Screening and Permaculture Talk

1:03 PM EDT on September 6, 2006

Thursday, September 7, 2006, 7:00 PM

    Inwood Nature Center
    218th Street and Indian Road
    New York , NY 10034
    212-304-2365

The Power of Community Screening and Permaculture Talk with Andrew Phillips

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, oil shipments to Cuba, a Soviet satellite nation, declined to trickle. The impact on Cuba's industrialized and petroleum-dependent economy were disastrous, resulting in staggering declines in the availability of medicine, jobs, transportation, and most alarmingly, agriculture. As famine loomed on the horizon, the communist government relaxed some of its rules and allowed the people of Cuba to development and implement solutions locally, in their communities.

The Power of Community documents the problems ordinary Cubans faced during the "Special Period" of sudden and extreme petroleum scarcity, and the solutions they created for themselves in the face of overwhelming economic odds. It is a story of grace and hope for Western audiences as we begin the transition into our own "Special Period" of permanent global energy decline.

After the film Andrew Leslie Phillips will discuss the problems of climate change and peak oil and talk about the two permaculture classes being held in New York over the coming months.

Aaron Naparstek

AARON NAPARSTEK is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Streetsblog. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Naparsteks journalism, advocacy and community organizing work has been instrumental in growing the bicycle network, removing motor vehicles from parks, and developing new public plazas, car-free streets and life-saving traffic-calming measures across all five boroughs. Naparstek is the author of "Honku: The Zen Antidote for Road Rage" (Villard, 2003), a book of humorous haiku poetry inspired by the endless motorist sociopathy observed from his apartment window. Prior to launching Streetsblog, Naparstek worked as an interactive media producer, pioneering some of the Web's first music web sites, online communities, live webcasts and social networking services. Naparstek is currently in Cambridge with his wife and two young sons where he is enjoying a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. He has a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a bachelor's degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Naparstek is a co-founder of the Park Slope Neighbors community group and the Grand Army Plaza Coalition. You can find more of his work here: http://www.naparstek.com.

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