A PUBLIC THING NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT In November, Shanai and I were part of collaboration that launched A PUBLIC THING - an experimental civic platform that creates open space, in public and in print, for substantive conversation on pressing societal issues. The first APT gathering was held at Peavey Plaza in downtown Minneapolis and addressed financial independence and interdependence. Energized by OWS and the 99% Movement, we created a temporary commons where anyone could ask a burning question and immediately make connections with others in the community who had relevant knowledge, stories, and questions of their own. About 50 people showed up, and we had some great conversations! This gathering became the source of a collectively-authored, beautifully designed, print publication that created space for the conversation beyond the event. With help from an awesome team of organizers, contributors, and editors, we printed 2,000 copies of the newspaper and distributed it for free during the holiday shopping season. It’s also available online at apublicthing.org and in print at our new Works Progress office space at Lake and Chicago. (Come say hello!) We’re looking for a way to continue the project in the spring, and we need your support. If you’ve got a moment, check out our entry to Good Magazine’s 30 Day Challenge on Financial Fitness, and please vote for A PUBLIC THING if you think our idea is a good one! Winning the $500 prize would allow us to host another iteration of APT this spring, connect the program up to the equity work we’ve been doing, and cover our costs for a second issue of the APT newspaper. ↪ CLICK HERE TO VOTE! ↩ There are just 4 days of voting left so we’d truly appreciate it if you help us spread the word! (You can share our entry on Facebook or Twitter directly from the website after voting.) Thank you thank you!
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A PUBLIC THING NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT

In November, Shanai and I were part of collaboration that launched A PUBLIC THING - an experimental civic platform that creates open space, in public and in print, for substantive conversation on pressing societal issues.

The first APT gathering was held at Peavey Plaza in downtown Minneapolis and addressed financial independence and interdependence. Energized by OWS and the 99% Movement, we created a temporary commons where anyone could ask a burning question and immediately make connections with others in the community who had relevant knowledge, stories, and questions of their own. About 50 people showed up, and we had some great conversations! This gathering became the source of a collectively-authored, beautifully designed, print publication that created space for the conversation beyond the event. With help from an awesome team of organizers, contributors, and editors, we printed 2,000 copies of the newspaper and distributed it for free during the holiday shopping season. It’s also available online at apublicthing.org and in print at our new Works Progress office space at Lake and Chicago. (Come say hello!)

We’re looking for a way to continue the project in the spring, and we need your support. If you’ve got a moment, check out our entry to Good Magazine’s 30 Day Challenge on Financial Fitness, and please vote for A PUBLIC THING if you think our idea is a good one! Winning the $500 prize would allow us to host another iteration of APT this spring, connect the program up to the equity work we’ve been doing, and cover our costs for a second issue of the APT newspaper.

↪ CLICK HERE TO VOTE! ↩

There are just 4 days of voting left so we’d truly appreciate it if you help us spread the word! (You can share our entry on Facebook or Twitter directly from the website after voting.) Thank you thank you!

Let the editing/writing/compiling begin! [Photo by Zoe Prinds-Flash]
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Let the editing/writing/compiling begin! [Photo by Zoe Prinds-Flash]

About 50 people dropped by A Public Thing earlier today at Peavey Plaza. You can see some of what we talked about here. What an awesome experience.

Thank you to Sarah Peters, Molly Priesmeyer (Good Work Group), Sam Gould (Red76), Molly Balcom Raleigh, Erik Ostrom and Kate Saturday, Amelia Foster, everybody who led sessions today (Nick, Leah, Jeff, Rose, Rich, Joshua, Molly, and Amber), all of our documentarians (Greg, Zoe, Kate, Lisa, Tristan, and Keith), Rachel Breen (who brought her beautiful Bank of Our Common Wealth to Peavey Plaza), and of course, everybody else who dedicated an early-November Saturday afternoon to open conversation about economic independence and interdependence.

Over the course of the next 2 weeks A Public Thing will create a publication energized and inspired by today’s conversations. Stay tuned!

A Public Thing: Opening space for public conversations. In person and in print. On Saturday, November 5th (Bank Transfer Day) the conversation will be about financial independence/interdependence and how we can create healthier economies for individuals and communities. Learn more about our first gathering here. Here’s how A Public Thing works: A Public Thing gatherings are facilitated using principles of Open Space Technology. Open Space works best when the work to be done is complex, the people and ideas involved are diverse, the passion for resolution (and potential for conflict) are high, and the time to get it done was yesterday. Here’s what will happen: All of the issues that are MOST important to the participants will be raised. All of the issues raised will be addressed by those participants most qualified and capable. A Public Thing publications are co-created by participants at A Public Thing gatherings. Creative documentarians will be embedded in the gathering’s small group conversations to help record and tell the story of what was discussed and generated. A Public Thing collects these stories and documents, and uses them as the basis for a publication to be be designed, printed, and distributed within weeks of the initial gathering. We hope to provide a collectively-authored resource for those interested in engaging these ideas and experiences in new ways. Please help us spread the word. And thank you!
Pop-upView Separately

A Public Thing: Opening space for public conversations. In person and in print.

On Saturday, November 5th (Bank Transfer Day) the conversation will be about financial independence/interdependence and how we can create healthier economies for individuals and communities. Learn more about our first gathering here.

Here’s how A Public Thing works:

A Public Thing gatherings are facilitated using principles of Open Space Technology. Open Space works best when the work to be done is complex, the people and ideas involved are diverse, the passion for resolution (and potential for conflict) are high, and the time to get it done was yesterday. Here’s what will happen: All of the issues that are MOST important to the participants will be raised. All of the issues raised will be addressed by those participants most qualified and capable.

A Public Thing publications are co-created by participants at A Public Thing gatherings. Creative documentarians will be embedded in the gathering’s small group conversations to help record and tell the story of what was discussed and generated. A Public Thing collects these stories and documents, and uses them as the basis for a publication to be be designed, printed, and distributed within weeks of the initial gathering.

We hope to provide a collectively-authored resource for those interested in engaging these ideas and experiences in new ways.

Please help us spread the word. And thank you!

Recently we had friends over to sit around a fire in our back yard. Money is scarce these days, and everyone we know seems exhausted, so we invited a handful of people to take a break with us. We talked about a lot of things, including our jobs or lack of jobs; our families; the art and community projects we were excited about or working on; stories in the local and national news; movies we’d seen recently; the things we were worried about; and what other plans we had for the weekend. Eventually we started talking about the Occupy Wall Street protests spreading across the country. Colin had been closely watching the stories about the protests percolate through the media and social networking sites for weeks, and was feeling invigorated by the possibility that the frame through which many people see our public lives and financial realities might actually be shifting. Others in the circle were less enthusiastic, citing personal experiences they’d had with organizers of protests, some of whom seemed less interested in empowering others or changing systems than in making their own political declarations and propaganda. Hesitations aside, we were all in support of the Occupy movement, and most of us had been to one or two demonstrations in the recent past, or to visit the People’s Plaza. We’d shared news about the movement with friends online, but agreed that the largest impact of this movement on our lives right now was not something happening in public or on Facebook, but in the private conversations around our dinner tables, at work with our colleagues, or in phone calls with our families back home. We were finally able to talk about money and power without feeling ashamed by how little of it we have; or how much debt we’re carrying from credit cards or college; or our health issues and experiences with public assistance programs; or how little we know about the financial system and its inner workings; or our parents and their realities as they age out of the workforce; or the feelings of shame, and fear, and uncertainty that many of us have carried with us into adulthood. We realize now that we’ve been conditioned to think of these things as personal responsibilities and private concerns, as something to hide from view or to struggle through with only our closest friends - and now, with the flood of images and stories from the 99% - we’re finding words to describe how we feel, and are hungry for other ways of participating in this conversation, and in this economy. We have lots of questions for each other, and few venues to gather and talk, to connect with others outside our social circles, and to teach and learn from one another. That’s why a group of us are organizing FINANCIAL ENGAGEMENT // A PUBLIC THING on November 5th. Our goals are simple: to provide a space for public conversation about financial independence and interdependence, and any other questions and ideas that might have emerged as a result of recent events - be they big-picture issues, tactical or strategic, or personal experiences that we want to share with others. We chose to do this at Peavey Plaza because that place has the feeling of a large urban room, with lots of space for smaller, more intimate conversations. It also sits in the shadow of an arts organization (Orchestra Hall) rather than a Government building that some of us have spent way too much time waiting inside. Peavey Plaza seemed a more appropriate venue for this gathering, which we hope will be inviting and inspiring, and generated by the people who attend. We’re doing this on the day that has been designated by some as “Bank Transfer Day” because we see this as an opportunity to take a collective action, and then, to come together to talk, listen, make plans, connect, and to build on the movement that many of us have only participated in online. We’re hoping that afterward, when the conversations have come to a close (for now), people who feel inspired to continue this work in public will walk to the OccupyMN site at the Peoples’ Plaza to take part in activities there; or that they’ll continue the conversations with friends, family, colleagues or neighbors elsewhere, which is also a great outcome! Artists and other documentarians will be embedded in these small group conversations to help record and tell the story of what was discussed and generated. A group of us will be collecting these stories and documents, and using them as the basis for a publicly-generated newspaper that will be designed, printed, and distributed widely on “Black Friday” - the largest shopping day of the year, and the kick-off to the holiday shopping season. For many this time of year is a time of anxiety, worry about money, and also, a time of gathering. We hope to provide a collectively-authored resource for those interested in engaging these ideas and experiences in new ways. The content of this newspaper will be determined by those who show up on November 5th, and the questions and resources they bring to this gathering. If you want to volunteer to be a documentarian at this event, sign-up here. We hope you’ll join us! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us! hello [at] worksprogress [dot] org Thanks to our collaborators on this project: Sarah Peters, Molly Priesmeyer (Good Work Group), and the other artists, designers & writers who are helping out with A PUBLIC THING.
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Recently we had friends over to sit around a fire in our back yard. Money is scarce these days, and everyone we know seems exhausted, so we invited a handful of people to take a break with us.

We talked about a lot of things, including our jobs or lack of jobs; our families; the art and community projects we were excited about or working on; stories in the local and national news; movies we’d seen recently; the things we were worried about; and what other plans we had for the weekend.

Eventually we started talking about the Occupy Wall Street protests spreading across the country. Colin had been closely watching the stories about the protests percolate through the media and social networking sites for weeks, and was feeling invigorated by the possibility that the frame through which many people see our public lives and financial realities might actually be shifting. Others in the circle were less enthusiastic, citing personal experiences they’d had with organizers of protests, some of whom seemed less interested in empowering others or changing systems than in making their own political declarations and propaganda.

Hesitations aside, we were all in support of the Occupy movement, and most of us had been to one or two demonstrations in the recent past, or to visit the People’s Plaza. We’d shared news about the movement with friends online, but agreed that the largest impact of this movement on our lives right now was not something happening in public or on Facebook, but in the private conversations around our dinner tables, at work with our colleagues, or in phone calls with our families back home.

We were finally able to talk about money and power without feeling ashamed by how little of it we have; or how much debt we’re carrying from credit cards or college; or our health issues and experiences with public assistance programs; or how little we know about the financial system and its inner workings; or our parents and their realities as they age out of the workforce; or the feelings of shame, and fear, and uncertainty that many of us have carried with us into adulthood.

We realize now that we’ve been conditioned to think of these things as personal responsibilities and private concerns, as something to hide from view or to struggle through with only our closest friends - and now, with the flood of images and stories from the 99% - we’re finding words to describe how we feel, and are hungry for other ways of participating in this conversation, and in this economy. We have lots of questions for each other, and few venues to gather and talk, to connect with others outside our social circles, and to teach and learn from one another.

That’s why a group of us are organizing FINANCIAL ENGAGEMENT // A PUBLIC THING on November 5th.

Our goals are simple: to provide a space for public conversation about financial independence and interdependence, and any other questions and ideas that might have emerged as a result of recent events - be they big-picture issues, tactical or strategic, or personal experiences that we want to share with others.

We chose to do this at Peavey Plaza because that place has the feeling of a large urban room, with lots of space for smaller, more intimate conversations. It also sits in the shadow of an arts organization (Orchestra Hall) rather than a Government building that some of us have spent way too much time waiting inside. Peavey Plaza seemed a more appropriate venue for this gathering, which we hope will be inviting and inspiring, and generated by the people who attend.

We’re doing this on the day that has been designated by some as “Bank Transfer Day” because we see this as an opportunity to take a collective action, and then, to come together to talk, listen, make plans, connect, and to build on the movement that many of us have only participated in online.

We’re hoping that afterward, when the conversations have come to a close (for now), people who feel inspired to continue this work in public will walk to the OccupyMN site at the Peoples’ Plaza to take part in activities there; or that they’ll continue the conversations with friends, family, colleagues or neighbors elsewhere, which is also a great outcome!

Artists and other documentarians will be embedded in these small group conversations to help record and tell the story of what was discussed and generated. A group of us will be collecting these stories and documents, and using them as the basis for a publicly-generated newspaper that will be designed, printed, and distributed widely on “Black Friday” - the largest shopping day of the year, and the kick-off to the holiday shopping season. For many this time of year is a time of anxiety, worry about money, and also, a time of gathering. We hope to provide a collectively-authored resource for those interested in engaging these ideas and experiences in new ways.

The content of this newspaper will be determined by those who show up on November 5th, and the questions and resources they bring to this gathering. If you want to volunteer to be a documentarian at this event, sign-up here.

We hope you’ll join us! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us! hello [at] worksprogress [dot] org

Thanks to our collaborators on this project: Sarah Peters, Molly Priesmeyer (Good Work Group), and the other artists, designers & writers who are helping out with A PUBLIC THING.