Help draft a Community Rights Ordinance (CRO) that will give us the tools to reclaim civilian rights and dignity from a police system that elevates police control over citizen rights.   Help us iron out the details.  Bring a mug.

Workshop will be moderated by knowledgeable activist Drew Hendricks, as well as local police victim Scott Yoos.   Kai Huschke will introduce the Community Rights movement via Skype.   

An earlier workshop focused in an environmental CRO (securing the right of nature to exist and thrive), and a later workshop will focus on banning genetically modified organisms in Thurston County.   We will, of course, also welcome your original idea for a CRO! 

All CRO's extend the rights of communities to legislate their own well-being in an environment typically controlled by State and Federal governments.  In this case the Police Union must be considered as well.   We're trying to craft the right Ordinance for our community:  one that will significantly change the power balance and help us achieve goals we care about.

Join the Radical Mycology Collective for a presentation on the many ways to learn from and ally with the fungal kingdom for personal, societal, and ecological health. Concepts of fungal ecology and mushroom cultivation will be tied with the means for creating resilient lifestyles and communities to present a novel worldview based on the cooperative relationships found throughout the fungal kingdom. The fungi decompose old ways of being to create new life infused with resistance and symbiosis. What do the fungi have to teach you?

$5-30 suggested donation
(no one turned away for lack of funds)

New Moon Cooperative Cafe
113 4th Ave W, Olympia, WA

for more info visit:
radicalmycology.com/tour

A free author event at Orca Books (509 4th Ave E in downtown Olympia).

Melany Vorass will be talking about her new book, The Front Yard Forager: Identifying, Collecting, and Cooking the 30 Most Common Urban Weeds.

Her book brings DIY harvesting right to your door, making foraging easy, accessible, and fun for everyone even in the middle of the city or suburbia. From the yard to the parking strip, in city parks or along municipal thoroughfares, food is abundant and free for the taking!

The Front Yard Forager invites all of us to take control of our food by entering into the fun and delicious world of foraging. A concise field guide and recipe book, it showcases the 30 most readily found edible urban weeds. From dandelion to day lily, nipplewort to nettle, and pineapple weed to purslane there's a salad bowl full of fresh edibles just waiting to be collected and put to good use. Each plant profile features an easy-to-use field identification guide, including photographs, as well as where to find the plant and what to do with it in the kitchen. Recipes range from simple and classic to practically gourmet, while introductory chapters and sidebars cover the hows and whys of foraging: ethics, nutritional information, harvesting, precautions, and more.

On Wednesday October 15^th starting at 8:00pm, Harlequin Productions presents a haunted improv show with their celebrated improv comedy troupe, Something Wicked. The Nightmare Before Improv is Something Wicked’s annual Halloween spectacular! Those brave enough to attend can expect frighteningly funny Halloween-themed improv comedy, a costume contest, and an evening of ghostly delights. Guests are encouraged to come dressed up and join the fun as Something Wicked puts the “Ha!” in Halloween. Prepare to laugh yourself…to death!!

      WHO:         Harlequin Productions presents Something Wicked

     WHAT:       The Nightmare Before Improv

     WHEN:       Wednesday October 15^th from 8:00–9:30 PM

     WHERE:     The Historic State Theater – 202 4^th Avenue East, Downtown Olympia 98501

Family Support Center is looking for clothing racks so we can organize our donation room! If you have one you can spare, please email katherinec@fscss.org or bring them to our downtown location: 201 Capitol Way N (corner of State and Capitol Way).

I went to the People's Climate March at Heritage Park today. It wasn't as impressive as New York's, where there were several hundred thousand people in the streets, but it was fun. The Arkestra led the way, playing as they went, some people supplied good signs, and we marched and danced in a little circuit around one corner of the park. There might have been a hundred people there.

I wasn't surprised by the small crowd, since the only publicity I saw for this event came in an email the afternoon before; I think it was sort of tucked into the all day annual International Day of Peace celebration at the last minute. (Some people say that a mass movement like the one for civil rights or women's suffrage is the only way we'll get serious reductions in CO2 emissions; if that's right, we have a ways to go in Olympia.) Maybe the next time it will be thoroughly publicized in advance, and we'll see how many people come then.  

Sherri Goulet took these photos; that's me with the rhino sign...

It starts at 6pm September 20 at the State Capital Museum's Coach House where the Oly Mountain Boys will play their new album White Horse with readings of the literary contributions and a short presentation on the Washington history backdrop of the album. It's a special event for a unique album - don't miss it! ($7 or with purchase of White Horse)

Then you can head on down to Rhythm & Rye where at 9pm the twang continues with Patchy Sanders, The Pine Hearts and The Blackberry Bushes.

Water-wise Plant Sale: Sunday, September 28th, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Interested in enriching your home landscape with affordable, beautiful, and native or drought-tolerant plants?

Join the Native Plant Salvage Foundation for the Fall Water-wise Plant Sale on Sunday, September 28th, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Hundreds of hard-to-find native and drought-tolerant shrubs, perennials, ornamental grasses, and groundcovers will be featured. The event takes place rain or shine at the WSU Extension office at 5033 Harrison Ave NW, (former McLane Fire Station). Call 360-867-2167 or seewww.nativeplantsalvage.org for more details and directions.

Orca Books will host a joint reading by four authors from Bold Strokes Books, an independent publisher of LGBTQ fiction and genre fiction. Dena Hankins, Jeffrey Ricker, David Holly, and Eric Andrews-Katz are in the Northwest participating in the Gay Romance Northwest Meetup in Seattle, and have been kind enough to plan a detour to Olympia.

This event is FREE and open to the public. Orca Books is at 509 4th Ave E in downtown Olympia.