We 'lil bees are off to an extremely busy start to the New Year. Our calendar is jam-packed with up-and-coming completion of the Mesoamerica Resiste graphic, our participation in the counter conferences for both the RNC and the DNC, and a serendipitous opportunity to launch a new graphics campaign about Mountaintop Removal coal mining in the Appalachian Mountains!
Since the Hive is "a buzz" with activity, we are not in a position to plan an all-out work party as we have done in years past. But we still wanna give folks the opportunity to come visit us in Maine!
So...we are setting aside the two weeks before the Blackfly Ball as a time for folks to come help out. If you intend to make the trek, be prepared to: help us gear up for the Blackfly Ball, finish some small projects on the Grange Hall, prepare materials for our upcoming epic tour, and of course get a taste of Maine in the summertime while learning what it means to be a worker bee!
For those who are coming to volunteer with us,
for more info and to let us know you’re coming!
|
...have housing covered while living together with the bees at the Clark Perry House, another beautiful historic building acquired by the collective in 2005...
...have food costs mostly covered while joining in the planning and preparation of delicious, nutritious, vegan meals.
...see the fruits of your labors come to life at the THIRD ANNUAL BLACKFLY BALL,
a gala dress-up dance event for all ages featuring live music from bands across the region... presented in conjunction with the Machias Wild Blueberry Festival
and held at the Machias Valley Grange Hall!! |
Active campaigns include Plan Colombia,
the FTAA, Plan Puebla Panama, the trilogy's finale coloring
book project and soon, new campaign about the Food System.
Each of these has it’s own evolution of production (research, networking,
crafting, fundraising, printing, narrating w/text, and
now revisions and reprinting) and distribution (touring,
presenting, documenting, tabling, promotion, training new
storytellers, mail order, and producing related materials).
This summer, after the PPP poster is completed, we will
begin working on a coloring book version of the three anti-globalization
posters in this series. The bees have now distributed over
55,000 posters, completely by hand (not sold in stores)
over our three years of existence. The graphics campaigns
have been an MONUMENTAL success, and the momentum of our
pollination has now been fully established as a force in
the anti-corporate globalization movement. We’d love
to collaborate with you in these efforts! (help wanted--see
graphics campaigns on wannabee roles page)
| After a year's hiatus from public events, to allow us
space for major building repairs, this summer we will be
continuing our weekly, all ages, free events, film showings
on our huge, homemade movie screen, and occasional concerts & dances.
We will also be setting up a free internet café in
the coming months. Bees and apprentices have a rotating
responsibility to adopt, promote, and host a weekly event.
Help make the Machias Valley Grange a vibrant community
space once again! (help wanted--see events coordinator
on wannabee roles page) |
One way that the hive interacts with the local community,
is a swarm of bees will work with a local organic farmer
or friend-of-the-hive that needs more hands. We do this
in exchange for produce, most of which, because of the
short growing season, is abundant only in July, August
and September. But regardless of the month, we help with
planting, weeding and harvesting, instead of re-inventing
the wheel by growing our own garden. It’s a way for
visitors and apprentices to have a weekly solidarity ritual
with the worms, and other neighbors. In July and August
there are more blueberries than you can imagine needing
to be raked and eaten. September and October is all-you-can-gather
apples
All you can eat networking and paperpushing!
Chip away at mountains of data entry for our kickass ¨Beeswax¨ database
system... Thrill at the excitement of receiving honey from
faraway folks over the internet! Wonder at the amount
of mail we receive every day from surprising places! There
are always poster orders and mailings to do, grantwriting,
and… we
need ongoing expansion of our website! If you got skills
for helping the hive elaborate in cyberspace or fundraisingland,
do tell, do tell… (help wanted--see complete list
of officeworkerbees tasks and distro coordinator on roles
page)
Three years ago, the Hive got a huge donation of hundreds
of gallons of silkscreen ink, a six-station press, and
a letterpress. We’re still just getting started with
setting up this printing equipment, gather more supplies,
and print fabric posters and shirts to distribute with
our other tabling materials. This would be a new aspect
of the hive’s work, and we would love to have folks
with printmaking and silk-screening experience help stoke
this new wing…
As
you may know, the bees are constantly running around to
events far and wide, giving presentations, distributing
posters from our fabulous bike trailer pollination units
at protests, and getting smile-cramps from
tabling. But
in the summer we slow down with that just a bit, and concentrate
more on local craft and agriculture fairs and events around
Maine. We have a big hexagon shaped wooden fair booth that
we haul out and assemble a few times a year, to display
the mosaic work of apprentices as well as the big banners.
These fairs, with their supportive audiences that “check
up on how we’re doin” every year, are a great
way for new bees to gain experience in exhibiting their
craftwork, and interact with the public, in a non-gallery
setting. It’s fun! It’s exhausting! (help wanted--see
autonomous bee coordinator on roles page)
