On October 16, 2008 we hosted our FIRST fabulous Pecha Kucha event! The presenters and topics are below. 

Get info on the current / upcoming event!

Mark Barroso:  “A Theme Park in Chatham County”. Mark is a Chatham County filmmaker/provocateur who, inspired by national Republican politicians, sold out all of his principles and joined forces with a national developer to bring a European theme park to Chatham County. Details of this public/private venture will be revealed for the first time at pecha-kucha.

Gary Phillips:  Sol y Sombre: Courtyards and Courtyard Houses in Mexico
Courtyards are literally “an enclosed space open to the sky,” but they are also a house to mystery and astonishment, sorcery, silence and beauty. This presentation, with photographs taken during several strolls in small towns of central Mexico, will trace architectural and social elements in these transformational spaces.
Gary Phillips is a businessman and poet who does a little shaman work on the side. He lives in a dirt house in Silk Hope and keeps an office in Carrboro. He was once a
commissioner of Chatham County.

Jerry Stifelman: “REVEALING THE VIRUS THAT FEEDS HUMAN BEINGS’ DISAPPOINTING AND TRAGIC CAPACITY TO LIVE ARTIFICIAL LIVES BASED ON THE EASY OPIATE OF MASS ASSUMPTION”
Jerry Stifelman is founder and creative director of The Change, a brand creation and design agency that only works with entities that make the world fairer, greener, and truer.  Before this, he was a consummate creator of bullshit, having devised campaigns and strategies for leading disseminators of manufactured “cool” like MTV, Puma, Reebok, Mountain Dew, Sprite, and Jeep. Change accomplices include Larry’s Beans, Co-op America, Southern Energy Management, Eastern Carolina Organics, Mozilla, Encounter Earth, and Canaan Fair Trade. He also used to make films.

Jenni Crouse Heartway: “Games Children Play”
Enter the sacred space of some of Chatham County’s youngest residents: the woods surrounding Community Independent School.   Postponing belief and engaging in imaginative play is part of Jenni’s day to day as a teacher at CIS.  She will be sharing photos of her young friends and the amazing games they create in the outdoor spaces surrounding their school.

Trace Ramsey:  “Franchise Anarchism and the Creation of Really Really Free Markets”
Trace lives in Silk Hope, NC with his partner Kristin. He works at the Eastern Carolina Organics and is actively engaged in supporting local and organic farms through his work and personal life.  Trace has been involved with community gardening, Community Supported Agriculture, Food Not Bombs, housing collectives, bike recycleries, Really Really Free Markets, and just about every radical DIY project you can think of.  Trace loves to dumpster dive, so let him know if you are going; he is a digger and not a surface snob.  Trace recently finished his first book, an anthology of his zine Quitter.  His book is handmade, a continuation of the DIY ideology he tries to inspire in others.  Trace is not a talker.

K.C. Kurtz:  “Aesthetic Functionalism and the Architecture of Wholeness”
In what feels like a former lifetime, K.C. Kurtz was a student of human potential.  His studies and degrees in psychology and religion set him up perfectly for a satisfying career in construction.  A founding member of the Triangle-based Red Dirt Natural Builders, K.C. has recently completed a Master’s degree in architecture, is a member of d r i f t, a virtual design collaborative, and now works for BuildSense/Studio B Architecture, where he helps design and build sustainable homes in the New Vernacular idiom.’

John Parker:  “Community” John is a native to the Piedmont and works to be a good steward of his time, talent, and resources in order to help strengthen communities. He spends time coaching and supporting everyday people, entrepreneurs, and leaders from all walks of life.  He encourages everyone to stay awake and nurture an open mind, a good heart, and a wild imagination, while practicing radical love, organizing life, and working for the greater good.  John and Easter have 3 children, Lila (5), James (2), and Sawyer (7 months).  They live in Raleigh, close to both of their extended families.

Geoffrey Neal:  ”how about this space over here?”

there’s this guy who used to go to all these places and used to write all this stuff and then he stopped for a while and now he seems to be starting up again and we all think that’s going to be swell (especially if he learns to stop taking it all so seriously….sheesh)

Lyle Estill:  “Scale of Me” In a world of incomprehensibly difficult situations like peak oil, climate change and financial instruments that not even Wall Street understands, I prefer to trade in the scale of me.