*cino Work, Education, People, Three Rivers

*culture is not optional partners with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library

$2,500 grant from Three Rivers Area Community Foundation helps provide free books for children in Three Rivers 

THREE RIVERS, MI: *culture is not optional (*cino) announces the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (DPIL) launch in Three Rivers! Each month, the Imagination Library provides an age-appropriate book for every registered child ages 0 to 5 in the City of Three Rivers, absolutely free to the family. The Three Rivers Area Community Foundation (TRACF) awarded *cino a grant to help launch the DPIL. 

TRACF supports effective programs and projects that improve the quality of life within Three Rivers and the surrounding townships, focusing on community improvement, education, health, recreation, and cultural programs. The foundation’s $2,500 grant funds books for each child for the first year. *cino is actively seeking additional support to fund subsequent years, and donors can contribute to the program on *cino’s web site at www.cultureisnotoptional.com/donate.

Improving early childhood literacy with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library creates opportunities for children to thrive and succeed in school, helping their communities grow and prosper. “The mission of *culture is not optional is to work for the flourishing of all in our community through radical rootedness and boundless imagination,” said *cino’s Executive Director Rob Vander Giessen-Reitsma. “We’re excited to partner with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to send books directly to children in our city. Research continually shows that an early introduction to books and reading at home sparks curiosity, wonder, empathy, and cognitive development that leads to later positive achievement. We hope that this partnership will contribute to growing our city’s capacity for imagination for future generations of Three Rivers neighbors.”

The Imagination Library is available to all age-eligible children in the City of Three Rivers. Sign up at www.cultureisnotoptional.com/imagination-library.

About Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library

Since its launch in 1995, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has become the preeminent early childhood book gifting program in the world. The flagship program of The Dollywood Foundation has gifted well over 150 million free books in Australia, Canada, The Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Imagination Library mails more than 1.8 million high-quality, age-appropriate books each month to registered children from birth to age five. Dolly envisioned creating a lifelong love of reading, inspiring them to dream. The program’s impact has been widely researched, and results suggest positive increases in key early childhood literacy metrics. Penguin Random House is the exclusive publisher for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. For more information, please visit imaginationlibrary.com

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*cino Work, Education, Hospitality, Leadership, People, Three Rivers

Apply now for our AmeriCorps VISTA positions!

*culture is not optional (*cino)/The Huss Project is now accepting applications for three full-time AmeriCorps VISTA positions; the deadline is very soon, so apply now! We’re looking for folks who will help us take our work to the next level in the areas of food systems, education, and economic development through the Huss Project, World Fare, and other partners in Three Rivers.

AmeriCorps VISTA

*culture is not optional runs the Huss Project, which is transforming a former elementary school in the rural city of Three Rivers, Michigan into a community hub for growing our capacity for imagination. For the next year, we are building on our efforts to develop a more resilient and just local food system in our rural city, growing our experiential learning opportunities on our urban farm, and expanding our focus to include transportation (specifically a community-run bike shop). We are hiring three positions this year: Farm Eduction Coordinator, Food Distribution Coordinator, and Events & Communications Coordinator. Huss is at the center of a multi-faceted, community-wide effort to strengthen local food systems while providing land-based education, particularly for low-income households and using universal design principles that improve the system for all. In the inner circle of the ecosystem is an urban farm, a neighborhood farmers market, and multiple food distribution programs. These entities are connected to numerous food producers, businesses, civic organizations, and social service agencies throughout the city. Our AmeriCorps VISTA project will help build the capacity for this system to meet the next level of its potential. Experience with activities like social research, community development, event planning, education, program development, volunteer coordination, permaculture design, food systems, non-profits … these are the types of things we’re looking for in people who will thrive collaborating at a high level with a grassroots org in a funky, small, Midwest city. We’re looking for people with solid enough experience to function as peer collaborators in creative design toward significant community outcomes, in a spirit of curiosity, joy, and accountability. Here are four words that are floating around for us at the moment as we search: compassion, collaboration, innovation, and detail-orientation. Visit our listing on the AmeriCorps site to submit your application. Applications are open until August 12, but we’re looking to fill these positions as soon as possible to allow our VISTAs to plan for an August 29 start date. Here are some more details:
  • Application deadline: August 12, 2022
  • Dates of service: August 29, 2022 to August 28, 2023
  • Weekly commitment: Full time, 40 hours per week
  • Compensation: living allowance (just over $12,000/year), plus educational award or end-of-service stipend and health insurance
  • Housing: Reduced-cost housing available ($250/mo. including utilities)
  • Other benefits
  • Apply here!
Thank you for your help in spreading the word and please let us know if you have any questions! We’re really looking forward to this next phase of our community’s work in Three Rivers.
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*cino Work, Building, Education, Organization, People, Three Rivers

Apply for year-round and summer AmeriCorps positions now!

*culture is not optional (*cino)/The Huss Project is now accepting applications for three full-time AmeriCorps VISTA positions and three AmeriCorps Summer Associate positions. We’re looking for folks who will help us take our work to the next level in the areas of food systems, education, and economic development through the Huss Project, World Fare, and other partners in Three Rivers.

AmeriCorps VISTA (full year)

*culture is not optional runs the Huss Project, which is transforming a former elementary school in the rural city of Three Rivers, Michigan into a community hub for growing our capacity for imagination. For the next year, we are focusing our efforts on building a more resilient and just local food system in our rural city.

Huss is at the center of a multi-faceted, community-wide effort to strengthen local food systems, particularly for low-income households and using universal design principles that improve the system for all. In the inner circle of the ecosystem is an urban farm, a neighborhood farmers market, a food distribution program, and a community-run grocery store. These entities are connected to numerous food producers, businesses, civic organizations, and social service agencies throughout the city. The AmeriCorps VISTA Food Systems Innovation Project will help build the capacity for this system to meet the next level of its potential.

Experience with activities like social research, community development, event planning, education, program development, volunteer coordination, permaculture design, food systems, non-profits … these are the types of things we’re looking for in people who will thrive collaborating at a high level with a grassroots org in a funky, small, Midwest city. We’re looking for people with solid enough experience to function as peer collaborators in creative design toward significant community outcomes, in a spirit of curiosity, joy, and accountability. Here are four words that are floating around for us at the moment as we search: compassion, collaboration, innovation, and detail-orientation.

Visit our listing on the AmeriCorps site to submit your application. Applications are open until April 10, but we’re looking to fill these positions as soon as possible to allow our VISTAs to plan for a May 10 start date. Here are some more details:

  • Application deadline: April 10,2021
  • Dates of service: May 10, 2021 to May 6, 2022
  • Weekly commitment: Full time, 40 hours per week
  • Compensation: living allowance (just over $12,000/year), plus educational award or end-of-service stipend and health insurance
  • Housing: Reduced-cost housing available ($250/mo. including utilities)
  • Other benefits
  • Apply here!

Thank you for your help in spreading the word and please let us know if you have any questions! We’re really looking forward to this next phase of our community’s work in Three Rivers.

AmeriCorps Summer Associates

*culture is not optional (*cino)/The Huss Project is also looking for three compassionate, creative, hard-working people to join us full-time for 10 weeks this summer as Americorps VISTA Summer Associates! Applicants should be 18 years of age or older, with a passion for serving our Three Rivers community through urban farming, event planning, and youth engagement. The term runs from June 1 – August 6, with a living stipend of $2,569.70 and choice at the end of the term of an education award of $1,311 or a cash stipend of $345. Housing is not available for Summer Associates. Applications are being accepted until May 7 or until all three positions or filled, so apply today through the AmeriCorps web site!

  • Application deadline: May 7, 2021
  • Dates of service: June 1, 2021 – August 6, 2021
  • Summary of work: Educational programming and physical labor in support the Huss Project Farm, Huss Project Farmers Market, food distribution events, and more
  • Weekly commitment: 36 hours
  • Compensation: Living allowance of ~$2,500 plus educational award or cash stipend
  • Housing: Reduced-cost housing available ($625 for the 10-week term, including utilities)
  • Apply here!
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*cino Work, Education, Fundraising, Organization, People

Support two orgs with one gift this #GivingTuesday!

One of the things we’re all learning from the pandemic is how much we need each other

In 2020, seeing the increased need for food in our community and limited in what we could offer for special events, *culture is not optional / The Huss Project pivoted to focus primarily on fresh food production and distribution. Through our community partners and directly to local households, we distributed more than TWO TONS of free fresh fruits and vegetables.

While the Huss Project worked on food access, one of our neighbors, Geraldine Jaramillo, was continuing her work through Geri’s Resource Center to address barriers to success through advocacy, training, education, and support services.

As an expression of connection and mutual support, the Huss Project will donate 25% of any #GivingTuesday contributions we receive to Geri’s Resource Center. You can give through our Facebook campaign or web site. Facebook will match $7 million in qualifying donations to eligible US-based nonprofits starting at 8 am ET (5 am PT) on December 1, and continue matching until the $7 million match runs out. We also encourage those with enough to share to consider making a contribution directly to Geri’s Giving Tuesday campaign on Facebook.

DONATE NOW!

We look forward to partnering more closely with Geri’s Resource Center once it’s safe to open the new Huss Project Imaginarium to the public, hopefully sometime in 2021. In the meantime, the Huss Project crew is expanding our food access partnerships, participating in trainings, researching, planning, and working on other projects—all of which you can learn more about the Huss web site.

While we hope for an end to the pandemic, let’s all continue to be creative and alert to both the needs and the potential in our communities. Pandemic or not, we need one another to imagine and realize flourishing for all people in our neighborhoods, and we’re grateful for both your good work and your support!

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*cino Work, Education, Event, People, Three Rivers

Witness for Peace: Difference

…oppression dehumanizes everyone. It is dehumanizing to be diminished by comments and jokes, to have our needs ignored, to be disrespected, and to be treated as an object. It is also dehumanizing to be manipulated by our conditioning, to have our perception be rigidly restricted when it comes to realities outside our lived experience, to be prevented from being moved by human suffering, and to be made immune to someone else’s voice. Whatever social memberships we hold, oppressive social conditioning limits our ability to be fully human. It limits our emotional range, reduces the depth of our empathy, and often keeps us from speaking, listening, loving, and living fully.

Letitia Nieto
Beyond Inclusion, Beyond Empowerment

We have curated a series of quotes and writings in a booklet for our Weekly Witness for Peace at the Huss Project; the booklet is given to each attendee as an aid for reflection on what our personal work for peace might look like. We will also publish these pieces throughout the month on our web site.

This week’s reading is an excerpt from “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” in Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider:

Difference must be not merely tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic. Only then does the necessity for interdependency become unthreatening. Only within that interdependency of strengths, acknowledged and equal, can the power to seek new ways of being in the world generate, as well as the courage and sustenance to act where there are no charters. 

Within the interdependence of mutual (nondominant) differences lies that security which enables us to descend into the chaos of knowledge and return with true visions of our future, along with the concomitant power to effect those changes which can bring that future into being. Difference is that raw and powerful connection from which our personal power is forged….

Without community there is no liberation, only the most vulnerable and temporary armistice between an individual and her oppression. But community must not mean a shedding of our differences, nor the pathetic pretense that these differences do not exist.

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*cino Work, Education, Event, People, Three Rivers

Witness for Peace: A Litany for Those Who Aren’t Ready for Healing

Now, we’ve got to have some changes in this country. And not only changes for the black man, and only changes for the black woman, but the changes we have to have in this country are going to be for the liberation of all people—because nobody’s free until everybody’s free.

Fannie Lou Hamer
“Nobody’s Free Until Everybody’s Free”
National Women’s Political Caucus, 1971

We have curated a series of quotes and writings in a booklet for our Weekly Witness for Peace at the Huss Project; the booklet is given to each attendee as an aid for reflection on what our personal work for peace might look like. We will also publish these pieces throughout the month on our web site.

This week’s reading is below:

A Litany for Those Who Aren’t Ready for Healing

by Rev. Dr. Yolanda Pierce

Let us not rush to the language of healing, before understanding the fullness of the injury and the depth of the wound.

Let us not rush to offer a band-aid, when the gaping wound requires surgery and complete reconstruction.

Let us not offer false equivalencies, thereby diminishing the particular pain being felt in a particular circumstance in a particular historical moment.

Let us not speak of reconciliation without speaking of reparations and restoration, or how we can repair the breach and how we can restore the loss.

Let us not rush past the loss of this mother’s child, this father’s child…someone’s beloved son.

Let us not value property over people; let us not protect material objects while human lives hang in the balance.

Let us not value a false peace over a righteous justice.

Let us not be afraid to sit with the ugliness, the messiness, and the pain that is life in community together.

Let us not offer clichés to the grieving, those whose hearts are being torn asunder.

Instead…

Let us mourn black and brown men and women, those killed extrajudicially every 28 hours.

Let us lament the loss of a teenager, dead at the hands of a police officer who described him as a demon.

Let us weep at a criminal justice system, which is neither blind nor just.

Let us call for the mourning men and the wailing women, those willing to rend their garments of privilege and ease, and sit in the ashes of this nation’s original sin.

Let us be silent when we don’t know what to say.

Let us be humble and listen to the pain, rage, and grief pouring from the lips of our neighbors and friends.

Let us decrease, so that our brothers and sisters who live on the underside of history may increase.

Let us pray with our eyes open and our feet firmly planted on the ground

Let us listen to the shattering glass and let us smell the purifying fires, for it is the language of the unheard.

God, in your mercy…

Show me my own complicity in injustice.

Convict me for my indifference.

Forgive me when I have remained silent.

Equip me with a zeal for righteousness.

Never let me grow accustomed or acclimated to unrighteousness.

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*cino Work, Education, Event, People, Three Rivers

Witness for Peace: Love

We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.

Robert Jones, Jr. (@sonofbaldwin)

We have curated a series of quotes and writings in a booklet for our Weekly Witness for Peace at the Huss Project; the booklet is given to each attendee as an aid for reflection on what our personal work for peace might look like. We will also publish these pieces throughout the month on our web site.

This week’s reading is an excerpt from Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by adrienne maree brown:

One thing I have observed: When we are engaged in acts of love, we humans are at our best and most resilient. The love in romance that makes us want to be better people, the love of children that makes us change our whole lives to meet their needs, the love of family that makes us drop everything to take care of them, the love of community that makes us work tirelessly with broken hearts.

Perhaps humans’ core function is love. Love leads us to observe in a much deeper way than any other emotion. I think of how delightful it is to see something new in my lovers’ faces, something they may only know from inside as a feeling.

If love were the central practice of a new generation of organizers and spiritual leaders, it would have a massive impact on what was considered organizing. If the goal was to increase the love, rather than winning or dominating a constant opponent, I think we could actually imagine liberation from constant oppression. We would suddenly be seeing everything we do, everyone we meet, not through the tactical eyes of war, but through the eyes of love. We would see that there’s no such thing as a blank canvas, an empty land or a new idea—but everywhere there is complex, ancient, fertile ground full of potential.

We would organize with the perspective that there is wisdom and experience and amazing story in the communities we love, and instead of starting up new ideas/organizations all the time, we would want to listen, support, collaborate, merge, and grow through fusion, not competition.

We would understand that the strength of our movement is in the strength of our relationships, which could only be measured by their depth. Scaling up would mean going deeper, being more vulnerable and more empathetic.

Photo credit: AK Press

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*cino Work, Education, Event, People, Three Rivers

Witness for Peace: We Need to Learn to Listen

We have curated a series of quotes and writings in a booklet for our Weekly Witness for Peace at the Huss Project; the booklet is given to each attendee as an aid for reflection on what our personal work for peace might look like. We will also publish these pieces throughout the month on our web site.

This week’s reading is an excerpt from Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer:

The Skywoman story, shared by the original peoples throughout the Great Lakes, is a constant star in the constellation of teachings we call the Original Instructions. These are not “instructions” like commandments, though, or rules; rather, they are like a compass: they provide an orientation but not a map. The work of the living is creating that map for yourself. How to follow the Original Instructions will be different for each of us and different for every era….

In the public arena, I’ve heard the Skywoman story told as a bauble of colorful “folklore.” But, even when it is misunderstood, there is power in the telling. Most of my students have never heard the origin story of this land where they were born, but when I tell them, something begins to kindle behind their eyes. Can they, can we all, understand the Skywoman story not as an artifact from the past but as instructions for the future? Can a nation of immigrants once again follow her example to become native, to make a home?

Look at the legacy of poor Eve’s exile from Eden: the land shows the bruises of an abusive relationship. It’s not just land that is broken, but more importantly, our relationship to land. As Gary Nabhan has written, we can’t meaningfully proceed with healing, with restoration, without “re-story-ation.” In other words, our relationship with land cannot heal until we hear its stories. But who will tell them?

In the Western tradition there is a recognized hierarchy of beings, with, of course, the human being on top—the pinnacle of evolution, the darling of Creation—and the plants at the bottom. But in Native ways of knowing, human people are often referred to as “the younger brothers of Creation.” We say that humans have the least experience with how to live and thus the most to learn—we must look to our teachers among the other species for guidance. Their wisdom is apparent in the way that they live. They teach us by example. They’ve been on the earth far longer than we have been, and have had time to figure things out. They live both above and below ground, joining Skyworld to the earth. Plants know how to make food and medicine from light and water, and then they give it away.

I like to imagine that when Skywoman scattered her handful of seeds across Turtle Island, she was sowing sustenance for the body and also for the mind, emotion, and spirit: she was leaving us teachers. The plants can tell us her story; we need to learn to listen.

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Education, Event

Witness for Peace: When Peace Becomes Obnoxious

*cino is hosting a Weekly Witness for Peace at the Huss Project every Tuesday in October and the first Tuesday in November. Each week, people will gather for 30 minutes in silence while reflecting on what is needed in our community for the work of peace. They will stroll the trails, sit down to meditate or pray, walk the labyrinth to grieve, read to guide reflection—whatever it is they need in the moment to connect with those around our city, our country, and our world seeking real, lasting, and robust peace.

We have curated a series of quotes and writings in a booklet that will be given to each attendee as an aid for reflection; we will also publish these pieces throughout the month on our web site. You’ll find the first piece, an excerpt from a sermon by Martin Luther King Jr., below. These readings are a reminder that peace is not simply the absence of conflict, but the lived experience of justice for all in our city—and that working for peace is difficult. For some, these readings may be challenging to encounter; seek to understand your feelings of defense or confusion. For some, they will mirror painful experiences back to you; consider what support you need in order to heal. Reflect on your reaction and what the work of peace in this place might require of you moving forward. 

The silence we provide one another during Weekly Witness for Peace is a recognition that we are committed to doing the hard work of building peace together. It is an act of solidarity with those who are oppressed and those who seek liberation. But it is a very small piece of a larger whole. We hope you find something in your time here that helps you do the work that is yours to do when you leave this place. We need all of our neighbors to work together for the flourishing of our city.

When Peace Becomes Obnoxious

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
March 18, 1956

King delivered this sermon from Dexter’s pulpit the day before his trial for violating Alabama’s anti-boycott law during the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955-56. Below is an excerpt from his handwritten outline for the sermon:

Peace is not merely the absence of some negative force—war, tensions, confusion—but it is the presence of some positive force—justice, goodwill, the power of the kingdom of God.

I had a long talk the other day with a man about this bus situation. He discussed the peace being destroyed in the community, the destroying of good race relations. I agreed that it is more tension now. But peace is not merely to absence of this tension, but the presence of justice. And even if we didn’t have this tension, we still wouldn’t have positive peace. Yes, it is true that if the Negro accepts his place, accepts exploitation and injustice, there will be peace. But it would be an obnoxious peace. It would be a peace that boiled down to stagnant [complacency], deadening passivity.

If peace means this, I don’t want peace:

  • If peace means accepting second-class citizenship, I don’t want it.
  • If peace means keeping my mouth shut in the midst of injustice and evil, I don’t want it.
  • If peace means being complacently adjusted to a deadening status quo, I don’t want peace.
  • If peace means a willingness to be exploited economically, dominated politically, humiliated and segregated, I don’t want peace.

In a passive non-violent manner we must revolt against this peace.

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*cino Work, Education, Event, People, Three Rivers

*cino hosts Weekly Witness for Peace in October and November

“Release the need to hate, to harbor division, and the enticement of revenge. Release all bitterness. Hold only love, only peace in your heart, knowing that the battle of good to overcome evil is already won.”

– John Lewis, Across that Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change

“Peacemaking doesn’t mean passivity. It is the act of interrupting injustice without mirroring injustice, the act of disarming evil without destroying the evildoer, the act of finding a third way that is neither fight nor flight but the careful, arduous pursuit of…justice. It is about a revolution of love that is big enough to set both the oppressed and the oppressors free.”

– Shane Claiborne, Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals

Times of powerful division and anxiety call for powerful expressions of peace and compassionate action. Throughout human history, those committed to the hard work of building peace in community have found hope and strength in simply standing together as one. As a humble expression of peace, each Tuesday in October and the first Tuesday in November, the Huss Project will host a physically-distanced half hour of silence outdoors from 5:00-5:30 p.m.

Participants are welcome to take whatever posture of prayer, meditation, or reverence is most comfortable for them; there is no specific religious affiliation. For those who would like to keep their bodies moving in silence, there will be a couple of short walking paths around the Huss Project property.

Logistics

  • Please park in the main parking lot and visit the blue tent by the main entrance to Huss to check in. Kindly bring a mask to wear at check-in, but feel free to remove masks when physically distanced out on the property during the silence.
  • Silence will be observed outdoors no matter the weather, so please come prepared for the day’s forecast.
  • If you’d like to sit, please bring your own chair or ground covering.
  • A bell will sound to mark the beginning and end of the half hour. If you can only attend a portion of the time, please come!

If your organization would like to be a community partner for this event, please get in touch before September 28. All are welcome to participate in this series of events, in hope and solidarity for a community of flourishing for all.

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