JRS VOLUME #18; ISSUE #03
Burning Man Update: The Jack Rabbit Speaks
Volume 18, Issue #03 THE NETWORK
September 20, 2013
{============================================================} =======================WHAT’S HERE========================== {============================================================}
/ BRINGING THE PLAYA TO THE PLANET
LATEST NEWS:
+ THE BURNING MAN PROJECT – The Portal
+ BLACK ROCK SOLAR – Free The Sun!
+ BLACK ROCK ARTS FOUNDATION – Inspiring Community, Interactive Art & Civic Participation
+ BURNERS WITHOUT BORDERS – International Disaster Relief & Community Initiatives
+ THE REGIONAL NETWORK – The Network
CONNECT WITH BURNING MAN:
+ Burning Man on your favorite social networks
ADMINISTERRATA:
+ Want to unsubscribe from the JRS? Really? OK, here’s how: http://bit.ly/nxU8Gz
{============================================================} ============= BRING THE PLAYA TO THE PLANET!! ============== {============================================================}
**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/**/** Basking in the afterglow of the playa, we know how it is … you wish the rest of the year could be more like Burning Man. This is your best “clip and save” issue of the JRS. Stand by in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1………..
As luck would have it, Burning Man is more than a week in the desert. It’s more than a reunion in the middle of nowhere. It’s a way of life … a way of being in the world. It’s a conscious choice to embody the Burning Man principles in our daily lives and see the world through that lens.
Several non-profit groups have sprung from Burning Man. Some from the organization producing the gathering in the Nevada desert, and many from the communities you’ve created off playa.
What do they all have in common? This stuff (sometimes known as the 10-P’s):
http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/about_burningman/principles.html
Each group has taken principles honed in the desert and applied them to how they do business in the world. In each case their efforts embody gifting, self reliance, self expression, civic engagement, participation, communal effort, inclusion, immediacy, decommodification and leaving no trace. All of these groups are showcasing the 10-P’s in the world year-round.
This special edition of the Jack Rabbit Speaks is dedicated to the: Burning Man Project, Black Rock Arts Foundation, Black Rock Solar, Burners Without Borders and the Regional Network. Each has opportunities big and small, local and global, skilled and unskilled, short term and long, where you can play a part in producing and supporting Burning Man culture all year long.
The Man burns in zero days, if you choose.
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THE BURNING MAN PROJECT – The Portal
http://www.burningmanproject.org
The Project is the nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing Burning Man values, ethos and culture to the world, and our purpose is to take the knowledge and enthusiasm generated in Black Rock City, and use it as a force for positive change.
How are we going about that?
Through deep affiliations and collaborative effort:
With Burners Without Borders we teach individuals and groups how to create civic involvement and grassroots social change. Through the Black Rock Arts Foundation we promote and support phenomenal interactive art projects that provoke civic engagement. And to slake the thirst for more tools … we are not only strengthening our hyper-connected network, but also gathering the accumulated wisdom of our experiences for online and in-person courses that will be available to Burners, non-Burners, wanna-be Burners, individuals of all stripes and politics, businesses and government entities. Education is the catalyst for change and the desire and need to scale the cultural experience and distribution of information has never been greater!
Burning Man needs to go beyond the Black Rock Desert, anyone who’s waiting in line to come or go from the playa knows this fact.
The Project is the portal to scale to the world.
The beginning effort has been significantly funded by the Burning Man event, but that’s not enough to sustain our efforts. Our ambitions are sizable, and surviving isn’t the goal. Changing the world is.
This fall the Project expects to begin considering and hopefully complete the offer from the Black Rock City LLC to absorb the shares and take over the ownership of that endeavor. The event will continue to have growing needs and won’t be able to satisfy the demands of our thriving culture. The Burning Man Project programs must be supported through philanthropic gifts and grants.
Will you help burn a path along with us?
We’ve all poured our hearts and resources into projects for the 2013 playa experience. The number of successful Kickstarter projects was amazing. The art day and night was over the top. The contributions of time and human effort are incomprehensible.
After all this work we’ve just finished creating, burning and cleaning up it isn’t the ideal time to ask for money. However, we must begin making it clear that the merging of the Project with the Black Rock City event production entity is not an endeavor that creates costs savings. It’s a herculean task that needs your help. If a donation isn’t possible in September, please keep us in mind in December. Don’t worry, we’ll remind you.
Know however, that the work of the Project to scale and nurture the Network is happening now, and for those of you that are still going “WOW, damn, I shoulda donated more to the Temple, the Catmandu, the Church Trap, etc, fill in the blank”. NOW is your chance to say “hell yeah, I slacked a little this year, please make this crazy shit happen everywhere. teach us how!” And, we’ll keep getting up every morning going to Burning Man HQ and we’ll kick ass all over the world as we help you all gather yourselves together, create community projects, network your efforts and like minded organizations together, share information and go nuts on making this world a better place.
Whoa, got a little over excited there, gotta sit down for a second.
Seriously…….
A donation of ANY size will help bring the playa to the planet, so you can live every week like it is your favorite week in the dust.
To help support Burning Man Project, please go to: http://bit.ly/BMPdonate
To follow our progress in the Burning Man Project newsletter, please go to: http://bit.ly/BMPconnect
And to volunteer for the Project, please go to: http://bit.ly/BMPvolunteer
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BLACK ROCK SOLAR – FREE THE SUN!
Black Rock Solar celebrated 7 years bringing large scale alternative energy on the playa with an excellent Burning Man 2013 – helping build Everywhere Pavilion, hosting our third annual Solar VIP Tour, and supporting solar powered art on the playa. BRS is especially stoked to have worked on playa from start to finish with Temple of Whollyness and Ichthyosaur Puppet Project to provide clean, renewable energy for their beautiful night lighting. This is the first year the lights of the Temple have been completely powered by solar, and the first time ever a giant marine reptile fossil marionette from the Mesozoic Era has been off-grid.
Residents of Black Rock City may have noticed numerous large solar arrays this year, as well as the thousands of smaller panels on art, along the Esplanade and in the neighborhoods. Solar power isn’t just the wave of the future; it’s the surfboard of the present. Look at the CORE projects and the port-a-potties, at Humouroboros and the AEZ, at your neighbor’s RV. Solar is flourishing in the desert.
Off playa, Black Rock Solar surpassed three megawatts installed (http://www.blackrocksolar.org/news/2013/3-megawatts/) during June. That’s more than 15,000 individual panels on schools, hospitals, tribes and non-profits across the great state of Nevada since our inception in 2007. Upcoming projects include 100 kW for the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe’s Sutcliffe Fish Hatchery, 100 kW for the Walker River Tribe, and two arrays for the City of Lovelock and Lovelock Water District.
Want to support Black Rock Solar but don’t know how? Here are two great ways to show the the love.
BRS has been nominated for the Brian D. Robertson Memorial Solar Fund Award and a chance for important national recognition, and they need your vote to win. It’s easy to vote online and no registration required, just click here: http://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/contest/brian-d-robertson-memorial-solar-fund-award/. The winner exemplifies strong community service values and will be honored at Solar Power International in Chicago on October 21. Did we mention that most of Black Rock Solar’s 63 arrays have been built at no cost to the recipients?
BRS just won a $2,000 Partnership Grant for its work in K-12 education and need to raise another $2,000 to receive the cash. Every dollar you donate will be matched by the Community Foundation of Western Nevada and helps students learn about renewable energy by visiting array sites and experimenting with solar hands-on. Click here (http://blackrocksolar.in-merch.com/catalog.php) to make a tax-deductable donation. Thanks for supporting Black Rock Solar year-round!
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BLACK ROCK ARTS FOUNDATION – INSPIRING COMMUNITY, INTERACTIVE ART AND CIVIC PARTICIPATION
The folks at the Black Rock Arts Foundation (BRAF) are just as inspired, invigorated, and motivated to share their Burning Man experience with the rest of the world as you are. Each year, the BRAF team joins us on the playa to absorb the amazing sights, sounds, and experiences of Black Rock City. And, like you, the staff, Board members and volunteers come home to a default world severely lacking in the transformative creative experiences of interactive art.
BRAF believes all communities deserve art that reflects and addresses the needs, hopes, and dreams of its residents. Through their Grants to Artists and Civic Arts programs, BRAF funds and produces works of public art that create community. Love this vision? Support BRAF! http://www.blackrockarts.org/participate: sign up for their newsletter, make a donation, or become a volunteer.
*** Current BRAF Projects ***
If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area or in Reno, NV, check out their Civic Arts installations:
“Portal of Evolution”, by Brian Tedrick, Reno, NV
“Future’s Past”, by Kate Raudenbush, in Hayes Valley, San Francisco, CA
“Bliss Dance”, by Marco Cochrane, on Treasure Island, San Francisco, CA
“The Bike Bridge”, by Michael Christian and local Oakland youth, Oakland, CA
For more details about the exhibits, visit http://www.blackrockarts.org/current-projects
Each year, BRAF awards grants to national and international artists. These artists and arts collectives are doing amazing things in their communities. See if any are near you, or apply for a BRAF grant for your own project! Visit http://www.blackrockarts.org/grants and learn more and to apply for funding for your project!
***Future BRAF Projects and Events***
BRAF has BIG plans for 2014! First of all, if you’re an artist well-versed in creating large scale work, and are interested in bringing more art to Northern Nevada, consider submitting a proposal to BRAF’s latest, “Big Art for Small Towns” initiative. As Lead Artist for the Phase 2 portion (Phase 1 has already been successfully awarded), you will collaborate with the residents of Fernley, Nevada (one of the small towns you pass through on the way to the playa) to create a public sculpture that expresses this town’s unique character. For more information, visit http://www.blackrockarts.org/2013/06/request-for-proposals-for-fernley-nv-project
“Big Art for Small Towns” was awarded a $75,000 grant from National Endowment for Arts (NEA). This pilot project will evolve into a model of collaboration that will be replicated in cities across the country, and, eventually, around the world!
Coming in October, BRAF is partnering with San Francisco’s de Young Museum, and BRAF artists Sean Orlando (of the “Raygun Gothic Rocketship” and “Steampunk Treehouse”) and Matthew Passmore (of REBAR and “Park(ing) Day”) to showcase these artists’ latest creation, “Urbanauts.” If you’re in the Bay Area, join BRAF for a lively Closing Reception for this fascinating collaborative project. Visit BRAF’s latest newsletter for more information about the exhibit:http://www.blackrockarts.org/2013/09/braf-newsletter-september-2013. For more about the project, visit http://www.urbanautsf.com.
BRAF’s grantees and artists are busy bees! The only way to really keep up with everything they do is to sign up for BRAF’s newsletter, or to follow their blog at http://www.blackrockarts.org/news.
And last, but certainly not least, BRAF’s annual formal event, The Artumnal Gathering is not to be missed. This greatly anticipated “Burner formal” event celebrates our community’s artists and raises funds for BRAF’s future initiatives. Support incredible art projects all over the world, and attend the most fabulous party of the year! Tickets for the Artumnal Gathering go on sale this Sunday, September 15, 2013! Visit http://www.blackrockarts.org to buy tickets and we’ll see you there!
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BURNERS WITHOUT BORDERS – INTERNATIONAL DISASTER RELIEF & COMMUNITY INITIATIVES
http://www.burnerswithoutborders.org
In 2005 Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast right while we were enjoying Burning Man. Within two days, burners raised $42,000 in donations ON THE PLAYA and a team of burners departed immediately post-event to distribute supplies and support the relief effort. Over the next eight months the self described “temple to temple crew”, became the self title “Burners Without Borders” and along the way built two encampments in two communities, gifted more than $1.5 million in construction and debris removal services to residents of Pearlington, Mississippi and directly engaged more than 80 Burner and non-Burner and soon-to-be-new-Burners volunteers in a deeply moving and transformative experience. Who knew we could so easily and organically translate our 10 Principles and desert readiness into disaster relief. But, once we did, we couldn’t stop.
With your support, BWB did it again with Peru, then with Haiti and most recently in October 2012 when Hurricane Sandy devastated homes and businesses in Union Beach, New Jersey, gifting more than $2.5 million in debris removal over five months. Those are the big ones, there are countless smaller endeavors that have been organically nurtured in local communities all over the world.
Today, BWB is active around the planet bringing sustainable solutions to seemingly insurmountable challenges – all thanks to your support and contributions. Do you have a need in your community that needs support? Share your ideas with us and you’ll be put in touch with a network of innovative people who can help make your project a success.
We also offer volunteer opportunities and you’re invited to participate. BWB’s very successful arts and business skills program in Jacmel, Haiti – teaching screen printing, design and entrepreneurial skills to marginalized artists – is looking for help from artists with strong design skills.
You can check out volunteer opportunities in the U.S. and abroad at http://www.burnerswithoutborders.org/
BWB relies on your donations to create extraordinary outcomes in communities everywhere. Please consider making a donation at
http://www.burnerswithoutborders.org/contribute
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THE REGIONAL NETWORK – THE GLOBAL BURNING MAN COMMUNITY
http://regionals.burningman.com (dig that interactive map!)
The Burning Man Regional Network is the year-round embodiment of the Burning Man experience, activating the global cultural movement. In cities around the world, Burning Man has established Regional Contacts http://regionals.burningman.com/main/becoming-a-regional-contact/ whose role is to help local Burners connect with each other, bringing Burning Man principles and culture into their local communities.
Regional groups produce events and activities throughout the year collaboratively with their communities. From simple mixers to multi-day camp outs, civic project, public art events and everything in between, these are intended to create an immediacy of experience and personal connection, encouraging relationships and collaborations enabling people to act more powerfully than individuals alone could dream.
In addition, not everyone has the opportunity to get to Black Rock City. But via the Regional Network more people around the world will have the opportunity to experience Burning Man culture. And, perhaps, it will change their lives too.
You can find a list of each Regional’s Calendar (http://regionals.burningman.com/main/about-the-regional-network/#).
As they are the local representatives of Burning Man, Regional Contacts are carefully screened, interviewed, and selected by members of the HQ staff. Further, they are bound by a Letter of Understanding that expresses their agreement to assume the responsibilities of the role, as well as their commitment to Burning Man’s Ten Principles (http://regionalsadmin.burningman.com/main/about-the-regional-network/10-principles/), which represent the core values that define the Burning Man culture.
Get involved … participate … find and get in touch with your closest Regional Contact today: http://regionalsadmin.burningman.com/regionals/
{============================================================} =================CONNECT WITH BURNING MAN=================== {============================================================}
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The Burning Man Regional Network – connect with Burners in your hometown:
http://regionals.burningman.com
Visit our own Lyceum and engage with published authors, bloggers and thinkers in and around the Burning Man community as they observe and comment on our culture and like-minded cultures around the world:
http://blog.burningman.com
The Official Burning Man Facebook Page:
http://www.facebook.com/burningman
Official Burning Man Twitter Account – All Things Burning Man:
http://www.twitter.com/burningman
Black Rock City Twitter Account – All Things BRC:
http://www.twitter.com/blackrockcity
{============================================================} =================ADMINISTERRATA FOR THE JRS================= {============================================================}
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This collaborative JRS has deep contributions from several bunnies: Our collective experience in individual domains included: Soundtrack of: DJ Lushbunny, DJ Bunny Bill, watching a little House of Cards and calming the squeaking and squawking of a restless cat.
Carry on, peeps!!!