2002 News
John E. Lawrence House Concert
December 19, 2002. Guitar virtuoso and Director of the Music Performance Dept. at Washtenaw Community College, John E. Lawrence graced our Common House with a performance of his original works and arrangements of holiday classics on solo guitar. Many smiles and taping feet were seen in the house. Thanks to Michael, who is a student of John's, for organizing.
Our 4th Anniversary Celebration
November 2002. A drumming circle called out Sunward members to mark our 4th year living cooperatively on our land. Songs were song, photos taken, games played, great food and company enjoyed. The transition scroll was read honoring each person who had departed from or joined the community in the past year with a Haiku verse. Silly and mad cap skits were improvised for more homespun entertainment and laughter lingered in the common house living room till the wee hours of the night.
Visions of Utopia Screening
November 11, 2002. Film maker Geoph Kozeny made a stop in his cross country tour to give us a director's screening of his new documentary film, Visions of Utopia: Experiments in Sustainable Culture. The film gave a brief history of 2500 years of shared living, offered insights about what works and what doesn't, explored the "glue" that holds communities together, and profiled 7 very diverse contemporary communities. Geoph participated in a lively discussion after the film with curious Sunwardians and guests. We bought a copy of the film for our common house video library.
Group Process Training
September 2002. Beatrice Briggs, a teacher from the International Institute for Facilitation and Consensus, lead sunwardians and our soon-to-be neighbors from Great Oak Cohousing through instruction on consensus process, a facinating discussion of the role of rank and power in a supposed egalitarian community, and refresher of facilitation skills. We were reminded of the importance of having clear process agreements and skilled facilitators to enjoy great meetings along with the need to train new members in these uncommmon skills. Thank you Great Oak for sponsoring this event!
Halloween!
October 2002. Halloween swept though Sunward with costume parade, games, trick or treating, and scary dance party into the night. The local AFS exchange students came to study Sunwards unique flavor of American culture. A visit by a posse of Plutonian planethood political activists left some wondering how far our invitations really went
The Russians are Coming!
Summer 2002. Sunward is welcoming two Russian teenagers into the community as exchange Students through the American Field Service. Alexey from Moscow and Anton from Orenburg and look forward to leaning about life in the US through the lens of cohousing, their host families, and high school in Ann Arbor. Other exchange students and scholars from Thailand, Finland, Korea, and Sweden have joined us in the past few years, enriching our community and building bridges of cooperation.
Work Party!
August 2002. Valiant Common House maintence honcho Becky organized a fun work party of Sunward members to re-stain our Common House Decks. Good fun and food inspired great effort in the cooperative job of maintaining our community building.
Sunward Welcomes Babies
Summer 2002. The Sunward Cohousing Community is having a 'run' on new members this summer and fall. Three of our couples are welcoming newborns. Rowena and Paul have added Noelani to their family of mom, dad, and brother Kai. At this writing on August 16, Claudia and Doug are expecting their first child at any moment. And in another couple of months, Katie and Mark will have their first child. Another couple, Caren and George are planning to adopt a daughter who has been born in Guatemala. She will join the family which includes brother Zander. For each new child who has joined us, the community members have sewn a quilt. Neolani has already been presented with hers, and the others will also, as they appear. The quilt for the Zander's sister will be the tenth one that the members have made for new members. Each of the families have treasured their token of caring from their community.
May Day!
May 25, 2002. We celebrated May Day to welcome Spring. (yes it's a bit latter than the traditional May 1st celebration but this fit better with our schedules :) Rain slowed things a bit but the parade, cooperative games, May Pole dance, potluck dinner in the common house carried on. The evening was topped off with our famous schelping cart race which provided much mirth and merriment.
Sustainability Homes Tour
May 18, 2002. Sunward was part of the Ann Arbor Sustainable Home Tour, co-sponsored by the American Institute of Architects, Huron Valley Chapter and Recycle Ann Arbor. This was part of a month-long series on Sustaining Ann Arbor: Think Globally, Act Locally in celebration of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Summer 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Changeling Concert
March 1, 2002. Our Common House was graced with the wonderful celtic music of Changeling, Deborah and Karl Clark Colón with special guest Marko Packard. Their fiery dance tunes and songs were woven together seamlessly with laments and had us tapping our toes, dancing in the aisles, and pondering far off tales. A jam session with the band after the show lasted late into the night with sunwardians and guest musicians.
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“Every aspect of our lives is in a sense a vote for the kind of world we want to live in.” -Frances Moore Lappe
