it was a great joy to meet and reconnect with you people on this list, many of you know each other or a friend of a friend that I have tea with, others may be looking forward to the next up coming tea sessions.
Please make time to meet me for tea and lets discuss the upcoming thousand sip tea event, i would like you to be involved, present music or art or simply just attend in such a way that you can invite some friends.
We will be hosting a few private get togethers for those who will be part of the event, this will help us organize and reduce things down to a group agreement of a date for the happening.
Basically, we are calling it "thousand sip tea", and each tea session unfolds into a trunk show to support artists, yoga teachers, grass root punk rock distribution collectives, pottery, weavers, hated skateboarders, tea drunks, rain forest rescue farms and 911 activism by hip hop heads that hate party rappers..... We will be balancing it out with massage, tantra, mantra, teakini love and wisdom that enjoys dealing with the difficult truths as healers that define real culture as people who understand their needs.....
We are going to have fun but yet at the same time, express a way of happening, an awareness and a kind of love that breaks the stereo types, generates inspiration, healing, unity and flips the disconnection back upon the elites who are causing not only all the trouble but the apathy and the unconscious collective as well......
This event will be a tea white out, and since none of the hipster so called conscious and green coffee and tea houses in Boulder have sourced any of the rain forest rescue teas because they are self grasping controlling freaks, we ask that no one visit or support them and instead, come connect with the artists and people; the bioneers and healers that are here for you. We are bringing together various mediums, practices, modalities and sounds in an involution of tea drinking, massage, yoga, sk8 sessions, art sharing and forum.
Each host will have their own vibe, their own twist, a different approach, different crowds, and all will be welcome to explore a variety of teas by visiting the various tea hosts, which may number 20 or more. Then at the end of the day, we will be hosting a regather super food and chocolate pairing party; hosted by the most incredible goddess teakinis in town.
We are not funded by any corporation, we all have various school and jobs if not more than one, or both. We would like to share tea with you for the rest of our lives and will always be hosting tea events across the globe; for you or your friends to connect up with albeit here or at burning man, in japan or ny where ever the karmic spices lead us.... But for now, we send this out as a Camel call to all who care about the planet and future generations of children, to all who want to see peace and unity and love and good times.
Gear up for the upcoming tea sessions, social network for self AND others, create an environment of open communication, share leads, ideas, and stock up on tea!
Meet up with me one on one or schedule a tea session, find out when our next group meeting is and stay with Kabir.
This upcoming 1000 Sip Tea Event is one small step we can take/give to support livelihood programmes which aim to create a strong link between communities and their environment. BY drinking tea sourced by a rain forest rescue network we work on livelihood development in two main areas:
1. Small holder farmers
2. Plant nurseries
Through community training and support we empower people to generate alternative incomes while protecting and restoring native biodiversity.
Small holder farmers
Traditionally an agricultural community, cultivation is still one of the main livelihoods in Sri Lanka. But unsustainable farming practices such as Chena (slash and burn agriculture), intensive farming of small lands, use of chemicals and mono cropping have taken their toll on the health of the land and the local community.
Problems such as pollution of water, soil erosion, poor soil nutrition, poor crop nutrition and a destruction of habitat for native biodiversity have lead to health issues in both human and animal communities and an increase in extinctions in the natural world.
Farmers, often the poorest members of a community, face a range of additional issues such as:
* Loan repayments required to purchase seeds and chemicals
* Rent payments on leased lands
* Lack of proper storage facilities and techniques, resulting in damaged harvests which reduces the market value of crops
* Exploitation by middle men
* High cost of transport to take goods to markets
* Labour shortages during peak season
* Climatic problems due to climate change
Converting to organic farming addresses many of these issues by:
* Conserving natural resources and enabling long-term, productive farming on small land areas
* Restoring ecological functions such as water filtration and pollination
* Setting-up of community seed banks so farmers can reduce the amount of seeds they need to purchase
* Reducing farmer expenditure on items such as chemical fertilizer and pesticides
* Increasing the quality of produce
* Providing income diversification opportunities by designing farm lands using a range of crops
* Teaching farmers how to add value to their products by processing them into pickles, chutneys etc.
* Restoring natural agricultural functions such as soil conservation, which will make farm management easier over the long-term
* Restoring forest cover to protect and conserve native biodiversity
We support farmers in developing more sustainable farming practices by providing training and ongoing support. We also help farmers get better access to local markets through market research and marketing training.
Plant nurseries
Working with communities to empower them to run small businesses is an essential part of helping people support their families. RRI have successfully worked with 5 Community Business Organisation on the south coast of Sri Lanka to help them establish plant nurseries.
The small coffee and tea houses of Boulder have turned their back on the bioneers who are working so hard to support the sustainabilty that unites us as people, connects us as cultures and heals us from superficial diversity forced upon us by greedy corporations and wealthy people that happen to own lots of so called mom and pop shops (coffee and tea houses in town). I am ashamed of the boulder community of small business owners for the most part and have never seen such fear based apathetic people, selfish and greedy like I have never seen.
I had a friend call me up the other day and tell me that he paid over 8$ for a cup of chai and it wasn't even organic!
The least these places could do is source a rain forest rescue tea so we can place our vote everytime we deicide to go out for a cup of tea!
Anyhow, after one year and over 200 tea sessions, we are flipping the script and call out to everyone to host a tea session, rather than come to us. Inviting you to some to us has been important and part of the process, but now, it is time that we flex our collective voice and share with community as our first choice, rather than snobbing our way through the coffee line again and again.
Its nice to take a break from the regular, and by putting this event on the map, we seed fun for years, creating something new to do once a year, like how portlant oregan launched a pillow fight on downtown and 3000 people showed up? One day, our humble little event will take on new meaning and more and more will participate.
But for now, we hope to get about 25 hosts and small groups of tea drunks who will make their way to and from, through and all the way to the final regather super food party.
Hand rolled tea
To add further value we are working with Rainforest Tea Gardens of Sri Lanka to research and develop high-quality, hand-rolled black and green teas. By purchasing the tea from small holders involved in rain forest rescue, and working with community members to process it, we can help build long-term livelihood opportunities. The tea is earmarked for sale on both local and international markets. This is a big deal for many reasons but my personal favorite is that I love sourcing tea from somewhere other than china because I do not like what they did to the tibetans. Sri Lanka teas are very special and they are super earthy. Perfect for making kombucha, quality enough to keep up with any snobby tea collector, and great for home blended chai making!
The weather is perfect to gear up for a cozy home vibe get together, tea house tour, meet up, green drink blitz......
We have a few links to share with you, to inspire tea drinking. for those who need introduced to tea sessions and tastings, spread around this link by a friend that we vibe with in style and sourcing. It will help get people open to the tea thing and give them one to grow on! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6hA6LhxGlg&feature=player_embedded
Stay with Kabir!
It is not about me and I cannot do it alone, but I can say that boulder is filled with many people who are really kind and creative! We are often the ones working our way through school or start up yoga studios or funding punk rock bands, not so much always the owners of these paying gigs.... But we are worthy and we are out there, and I believe we can do much work through tea.
Let me know if you would like to come through for a cup. And or if you have any artist friends that would like to present art, massage, dj or whatever.....
We have about 10 places confirmed to host and are seeking more. We are also organizing artistry, and are sourcing teas.
This event will be about but not exclusive to rain forest rescue teas. We have been sharing tea freely for over a year out of our own pockets, so we are opening the doors for sharing, donations, hosts that can atleast discuss envrionmental issues and social people that are open minded to explore new things, blends, kombucha and more.
Send your website, blogs entries about tea experiences, confirmations about attending, constructive questions, ideas, songs, links and what not. It will help us develop our invite list.
We have several photoshoots completed and I would like to send you some photos, as well as gather any you have taken. Please alert me if you have taken some tea session photos. These photos may help you decide if you want to participate or not, or they may have you communicate with friends if you are going to.
THANK YOU
KABIR
An Interdependent Producer
Preservation of Dying Art Forms, Paper Weavings, and Meditation Silks colored with natural dyes
Namasteelo Music Group
Rainforest Rescue International
Working for a sustainably managed world
http://www.rainforestrescueinternational.org/
CommuniTea Friend Forums and Social Media Hubs:
http://www.facebook.com/dezengo
http://www.facebook.com/people/Teakini-Oolong/100000660061478
http://www.accesshiphop.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11737
Bonsai Yoga
Colorado, Oregon, Cali, Ohio, South/North Carolina, Europe, Japan
http://namayoga.plum.com/andrea-spirit-weaver/i/9587314
Music Distribution
http://www.independentdistro.com/
http://www.thegiantpeach.com/cosinerandomid-involutionvolume112vinyl.aspx
No comments:
Post a Comment