These Parts Edition
Gaviotas, the 30-year-old solar-powered village in Colombia, has been called a utopia, but in 1965 all it boasted was toxic soil and mosquito-infested forests. Villagers used teeter-totters as generators, built windmills and solar water heaters, and grew food in containers filled with rice hulls washed with manure “tea.” No wonder the drug dealers leave them alone. Alan Weisman, author of the 1998 book Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World, will give the keynote address at the Renewable Energy Fair Saturday at 1:30. It starts tonight and runs through Sunday and includes workshops, tours, demonstrations, and exhibits in seven tents. It’s at the Portage County Fairgrounds, just west of County B and Highway 10 in Amherst, Wisconsin. Admission is $8 per day or $20 for the weekend ($4 per day or $8 for the weekend for seniors and “juniors” 13 to 17). Call 715-842-5166.
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Back in the 1940s, the Kable family of Mount Morris, Illinois, who owned the Kable Printing Company, built their 18-room dream house smack in the middle of the family golf course. The mansion is now an inn, and that’s where Beth Horner, Jim May, Michael Cotter, and Tom Dundee will crash between tale-telling at the KABLE HOUSE STORY-TELLING FESTIVAL Friday, June 25, and Saturday, June 26. Cotter will also lead a workshop called “Storytelling for Real People” Saturday at 9 AM at the Mount Morris Church of the Brethren. The rest of the events take place at the Kable House, near Route 64 and Fletcher in Mount Morris. Admission on Friday is $7, $6 for seniors, $4 for children 8 to 12; on Saturday it’s $10, $9 for seniors, and $5 for the kids. It’s $20 for the workshop. Call 815-734-7297 for more.
JULY
Not many music festivals offer child care, three vegetarian meals per day, safe and pleasant camping, shuttle service from the airport, and “an active peer-support system for recovery and general emotional needs,” but those are just a few of the amenities the 24th Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival extends to everyone except males over ten years of age. The festival runs Tuesday through Sunday, August 10 through 15, at the festival’s grounds outside of Hart, Michigan. Workshops on topics such as fighting fat oppression, Israeli folk dancing, and creative writing are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday; the music starts Wednesday night. This year’s performers include the Murmurs, Jill Sobule, and the Sister Spit Ramblin’ Road Show. Admission is on a sliding scale from $40 to $310. Call 231-757-4766 for registration information and directions.
“Two Continents: One People” is the theme of this year’s Indian Summer Festival in Milwaukee, where participants will re-create authentic Lakota, Menominee, Ho-Chunk, Ojibwa, and Oneida tribal villages. The festival features Zuni, Mayan, and Aztec dancing as well as music, Native American arts and crafts vendors, fireworks, and lacrosse demonstrations. It’s September 10 to 12 at the Maier Festival Park, Chicago Street at Milwaukee’s lakefront. Admission is $6 in advance, $8 at the gate ($4 and $5 for children and seniors). Call 414-774-7119.
