Free School News and Weblog

We Filled Up Fast!

admin — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:07:02 -0400

The freeschool has surpassed its limit of 100 participants. We are still welcoming registrations, however, we cannot guarantee food for people who register after July 31st. If you register in August, please come prepared to feed yourself, although we're still going to try our best to feed everyone!

Planning begins in earnest

dru — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:16:52 -0400

Time again, to start planning the 2008 free school. The carpool page has been cleared of old entries, and the registration page has been updated!

Get your session ideas in, or email your thoughts to freeschool [at] fairtrademedia.com

Truro Daily News Coverage

dru — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 11:59:22 -0400

Truro Daily News correspondent Janna Graham wrote a story about the 2007 free school.

(reposted below for archival purposes)

Free School Group Photo

dru — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 19:55:52 -0400

To download the full size version of the 2007 group photo, click here.

Interview: Book Binding

dru — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 15:23:13 -0400

How and why did you learn to bind books, and what kind of binding did you teach at this session?

Interview: Bikes, Gender and the "Limits of Bike Culture"

dru — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 15:09:28 -0400

The title of your session referred to the limits of bike culture. What kinds of limits did you have in mind?

Photos: Screenprinting Free School Shirts

dru — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 00:38:19 -0400

The Inkstorm Collective of Halifax provided free hand-screenings of their original Free School t-shirt logo in the afternoon.

Interview: Politics of Birth Control

dru — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 00:35:09 -0400

During your session, you said that you'd been discussing contraceptive methods since you left your mother's womb. Can you elaborate?

Interview: Camilla Morrow & Heather Scott ("Reconnecting to Life")

dru — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 15:25:59 -0400

In a sentence, how would you describe what it is you were trying to convey to people in this session?

Camilla Morrow: That the pain we feel for what is happening to our planet needs to be expressed and honoured, so that we can begin to have a fresh perspective in order to go forth as a supportive community.

Your session followed the work of Joanna Macy rather closely. When did you discover her work and why did it resonate?

The Smokin' ContraBand, live at the big barn

dru — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 08:07:21 -0400

Interview: Cuban Urban Agriculture

dru — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 19:05:38 -0400

Where did your interest in agriculture and in Cuban strategies particularly, begin?

Pat Kerans: I was a part of a People's Food Commission in the late '70's. I spoke with many farmers and began to realize what a problem we had. I was writing something on globalization and realized what a counter-example the Cubans were setting.

How much time have you spent in Cuba?

Interview: Dealing With Doctors

dru — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 18:53:29 -0400

What was your session about?

Andrea Smith: The title was “When your health fails: Dealing with your doctor.” The idea was to engage in discussion around difficulties that can arise when one tries to access and negotiate the health care system.

What kind of attitude, generally, do you encounter when discussing the health care system in Canada with other people? In your session specifically?

Interview: HCAP and Anti-Poverty Organizing in Halifax

dru — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 18:17:09 -0400

Members of HCAP gave a presentation at last year at the free school. How have things changed or evolved in your work since then?

Jill Ratcliffe: HCAP as an organization has grown and changed quite a bit over the course of the past year. HCAP is growing in membership and our key organizers have become a lot more experienced in political organizing. As a result of our advocacy success we have gained more respect in the communities we organize.

Interview: Reclaim the Airwaves

dru — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 18:07:18 -0400

What kinds of things were discussed at the "reclaiming the airwaves" workshop?

Pierre Loiselle: We covered a lot of ground from various types of radio broadcasters (pirate, campus/community, corporate...), the politics on how the CRTC manages public airwaves, media consolidation, home-made transmitters, and then we went into hands-on training with portable digital recorders and interview tips and techniques. Near the end of the workshop, we discussed individual audio projects that participants would like to do during the summer freeschool.

Interview: Education and Social Change

dru — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 15:20:12 -0400

What kinds of questions did you raise at your education and social change workshop?

Ben Sichel: Our central question was: is it better to work inside or outside the education system in order to promote positive social change? By "the system" we generally mean conventional school systems, standardized curriculum etc. We asked people to describe what kind of learning settings they'd spent the most time in, and what kind of settings they thought had given them the most valuable learning - school? summer camp? anti-oppression organizing?

Food and Discussions

dru — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 15:17:22 -0400

Just photos....

The Food Interview: Meghan MacCulloch and Jason Dionne

dru — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 10:33:28 -0400

As anyone who has attended before will tell you, the food is a big part of the free school experience, perhaps as defining as any session or workshop. Here, in the final ramp-up before the events begin, we go behind the scenes with the people who have been working 15-hour days for the last week, preparing local (call it the hundred metre diet), organic and gourmet feasts for 100+: Meghan McCulloch and Jason Dionne.

What's it like to prepare the food for the free school?

RSS now available

dru — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:06:47 -0400

Free School now has an RSS feed, for those of you who use newsreaders and syndication services. Don't know what RSS is? Go read this, or this.

More Prep: Amphitheatre, Signs, the Database

dru — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 21:07:13 -0400

Above: "I've never been a very good poser": Jeff, building the amphitheatre.

Below: Hillary and Jason consulting Hillary's master spreadsheet, which calculates (for example) how many tablespoons of cumin will be needed on a particular day; oat field warning signs.

Free School is Coming! Free School is Coming!

dru — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 23:09:37 -0400

Above: that's what Meghan looks like most of the time, finding time to cut grass with a scythe and clean up while she and Jason prepare food for 100 for three days.

Free school preparations are an all-waking-hours-affair at the Waldegrave Farm. Piles of wood and supplies have to be moved, stoves and freezers installed, amphitheatres constructed, and most importantly, food for 110+ people has to be prepared.