Southeast Action Forum

Don’t forget, next meeting, Dec. 1 is our annual Christmas social event.

From marginalarts.com

Labyrinth Reception and Performance Posted on February 2, 2011 by admin Art by Jennifer Anderson Friday, March 4: Reception 5:30-7:30, revue 7:30 p.m. until around midnight,

Metropolitan Community Church

In partnership with the 4th annual Marginal Arts Festival and Community High School, the Metropolitan Community Church of the Blue Ridge will host a spectacle of visual and live art, establishing its role as a local source of community-based art and creative exchange. A group of artists from around the nation, the Roanoke area and the church’s own congregation will exhibit, collaborate, perform and commingle within the church’s maze-like interior.

Within a network of rooms and corridors, Labyrinth’s visitors will find solo exhibits, mixed media installations, live art, musical performances, films, libraries, collections, photo installations, abject ephemera and cross-disciplinary collaborations. Fellowship, autonomy and generosity are ideas integral to both the Metropolitan Community Church, marginal creative communities around the country and the Roanoke arts community in general. These ideas are not the subject of the Labyrinth exhibition and performance, but its lived practice.

The opening reception will include live performances, activities and interactive installations. Friday night performers will include:

Mark Perry of Heevahava
Another Roadside Attraction
The Be Blank Consort
Ben Bennett
Carol Burch-Brown
Ann Kilkelly
Music After Midnight Showcase
No Shame Theatre Showcase
Cathy Fisher
Mo Aulick

Should our towns and cities be built for cars or for people? City Repair sides with the latter. The Portland, Ore. nonprofit helps people organize, design, and implement new, people-friendly visions for their communities—and reclaim the notion of “neighborhood” in the process. Here’s a collection of images of their best work over the years, from revived intersections to community-built picnic shelters to colorful murals. It’s place-making in action…more

Due to budget reductions the city will not be printing and distributing a Municipal Calendar for 2011. Information about city-related meetings and general arts and cultural events will be included in a digital calendar posted on the website, and on news kiosks at all city library branches. Information on scheduled recycling pick-up is available at www.roanokeva.gov/recycling and a link for the 2011 Recycling Schedule is posted on the city’s website . It is in pdf format and should be easy to print out. We should also have some at our next meeting. Please tell your friends and neighbors this important information!

Tinker Creek Greenway connection to begin. Construction should begin shortly on the 650-foot bridge formally connecting the Tinker Creek and Roanoke River greenway trails by crossing the Roanoke River at the Western Virginia Water Authority’s wastewater plant. The remaining work will be the trail construction along the south side of the river to conclude at Underhill Avenue.

The Roanoke River Greenway has brought many runners, walkers and bicyclists to Southeast Roanoke. The designated bike route through the Waverly neighborhood has been used by many people over the last year. Hopefully we will continue to support the city’s efforts and encourage bicycling in Southeast Roanoke by including a bike plan in our neighborhood plan.

Bridge Street Trailhead/Parking Project still in development. The Army Corps of Engineers continues to develop the trail plans from Memorial Bridge Park to Bridge Street.

With the new bulk and brush schedule implemented last July, Solid Waste Management will be able to resume the collection of Christmas trees for recycling this year. Previously this program had ended as a budget reduction measure, but with the new every-other-week schedule, Christmas trees can now be picked up as brush and recycled. Based on the brush collection schedule, Christmas trees will be collected during the weeks of Dec. 26 and Jan. 9.

Adapted from Bob Clement, Office of Neighborhood Services

Southeast Roanoke has been asked to be an example of how neighborhoods can integrate the stories of its neighbors with the talents of local artists and high school students. It’s called the Vexilloid Project.

First…..I am certain you are asking……What is the Vexilloid Project?

The Vexilloid Project is a component of the Roanoke Marginal Arts Festival (March 3-8, 2011) created by Community High School and presented in joint partnership with the Taubman Museum of Art. Vexilloid is a term used to describe vexillary (flag-like) objects used by countries, organizations, or individuals as a form of representation other than a flag such as the vexillum of the Roman Empire shown below:

The Marginal Arts Festival Director, Brian Counihan wants to help all Roanoke’s neighborhoods become directly involved in the festival by helping them design their own vexillum for inclusion in the festival with a goal that each city neighborhood will be represented. According to Brian, “Cultural and Art starts with asking who and where you are. Roanoke is proudly blue collar, Appalachian, urban and rural: a fascinating cultural crossroad. We are the railroad and as linked to coal as Newcastle in England and yet we are a leader in green technology and local foods. Who we are is the most interesting thing about our culture, and yet we have apologized for it for far too long. We can make this a better town to raise our families with art projects like this AND become a cultural beacon for the region.

The City of Roanoke and Virginia Commission for the Arts have enthusiastically funded this pilot project. The Vexilloid Project is looking for neighborhood volunteers to listen to your stories, and to hear the many voices of individuals and communities in your neighborhood. We also want to identify the creative individuals of the neighborhood: the artist and writers, poets, musicians, and crafts people of course, but also the unusual or overlooked eccentrics, the seamstresses, dancers, decorators, enthusiasts, activists and cartoonists. We want to talk to the historians, archivists and honored personalities, as well as troublesome renters, ‘tweens and teens, immigrants, and the homeless. We want as many different perspectives on the notion of “neighborhood identity” that we can get. We want to record the conversations and collect them into a document for public record. The Vexillum will be designed by neighbors, and assisted when necessary from outside, using the documents gathered as a source. We need help in making this a neighborhood project. As many volunteers as possible are needed to gather stories, and collect responses to a few standard questions….”.

Sample Questions to ask:
Q1. How would you describe your neighborhood?
Q2. How do you feel about living in this neighborhood?
Q3. What do you think people don’t know about this neighborhood?
Q4. What is the most important building in the neighborhood?
Q5. Who is the most significant person to live in this neighborhood?
Q6. Who is creative, artistic or eccentric in the neighborhood?
Q7. Where is the neighborhood center, where would you gather?
Q8. What is the most unusual garden/ house or structure?
Q9. What needs to get fixed in this neighborhood?
Q10. What is the best way for you to meet your neighbors?
Q11. What was the most important event to take place here?
Q12. What object, place or thing is/was of special importance here?
Q13. What colors should be on your flag and why?
Q14. What emblems or objects should be on the flag, and why?
Q15. What words if any should appear on the flag, and why?

Please share this information with your membership at your next meeting……..and if your neighborhood would be interested in participating in the Vexilloid Project, contact Brian Couniham at 460-2903, Mark Powell or Ron McCorkle, or by email to brian@communityhigh.net .