It seems that every summer since we started our intern program in Three Rivers a song emerges that captures the spirit of our time together as a group — musically, lyrically or both. In 2010, the song was “Blood” by The Middle East; its uplifting, group-singing chorus was an anthem for us to sing/yell along to during long hours preparing for events.
This summer, a slightly different song has emerged: “Garden of Your Mind,” the PBS Digital Studios remix of Mister Rogers. Among other excellent questions, this piece asks: have you ever grown anything in the garden of your mind? Well … have you?
“Garden of Your Mind” is exactly the kind of spirit we’re hoping to foster with the community development work we’re trying to do in Three Rivers. And Mister Rogers is a perfect role model to look to for inspiration.
The 2012 *cino intern program theme song
Practicing Resurrection 2012 cancelled
After much conversation with our *cino staff and board members, we’ve made the difficult decision to cancel this year’s Practicing Resurrection conference. We’re generally not very good at failing to follow through on things we’ve said we’d do and we were all really excited about having so many wonderful people all in the same place for a weekend this summer, so we’re making this announcement with exceptionally heavy hearts.
However, exceptionally low registration and a number of other sign posts have pointed us in this regrettable direction. We considered going ahead with things anyway, given the wonderful presenters and the registrants on our list already — just have a big party! But realistically, *cino cannot afford to subsidize the gathering, and we also didn’t want to dishonor what our presenters were bringing to the table by having sparse attendance and not being able to facilitate the kind of conversation we were hoping to have during the conference.
Our hope is that we can regroup and reorganize for another event sometime in the future. Thank you for your understanding.
With regret,
The *culture is not optional staff
Huss Future Festival 2012
On Saturday, July 21st *culture is not optional hosted it’s annual Huss Future Fest at the Huss Project in Three Rivers, Michigan. The event included art vendors and installations, musical performances, mural paintings, instrument making, local produce, a fish fry, veggies from Triple Ripple community garden, a media sale, baked goods, a garage sale, face-painting, and much more! Over 300 guests joined us.
Children’s activities were a big hit this year at the festival.
The art vendors caused for a busy hall throughout the day.
A collaborative mural was painted.
Grand Rapids’ CARE closed the day with a set.
Thanks to all who participated. Check out our Future Festival 2012 photo set on Flickr for more great photos from the day. We look forward to seeing you again next year!
