New Classes, A Baby Update & the Rise of Transition Detroit!
January 28th, 2008 The world in which you were born is just one model of reality. Other cultures are not failed attempts at being you: they are unique manifestations of the human spirit. We need more light about each other. Light creates understanding, understanding creates love, love creates patience, and patience creates unity. Inherent within the challenges of peak oil and climate change is an extraordinary opportunity to reinvent, rethink and rebuild the world around us. Greetings Detroit and all those who grace us here! To the great many of you reading this for the first time, thank you so much for joining us! At the Lab, and in our newsletter, we do things a bit differently. When we 'press return' on the first edition of Evolve Detroit on 07.07.07, we decided to do something simple that turned out to be rather revolutionary. We elected to actively ask our readers to take a moment and mindfully interact with us. We put our hearts into our work and invite you to meet us at that same level. We appreciate heartfelt communication and interaction with others and that's what we strive to share here and in all aspects of our business and our lives. Rather than simply blast you with information (with apologies to our Facebook friends) about this event or that happening, all involved with the Lab have elected to engage and share with you all at a deep and meaningful level. We've been blessed by a great deal of media attention and the Lab's been defined as a socially and environmentally conscious business, but for us it is so much more than a business model. It is the way we live and, without dogma or judgment, we posit the return of heartfelt meaningful interaction to our culture. We belive this to be a vital aspect of the change requisite to weather the multiple crises at hand. There exists multiple grassroots communities of entrepreneurs, artists and activists in Detroit who interact within their own ranks at this level, but now is the time expand this type of interaction beyond ourselves. It is time to bring heartfelt sharing into all aspects of our lives and into life on our block, in our neighborhood, into the City Council and the Mayors Office, to our entire region, Lansing and beyond. We know these are tall words, but based upon our findings in what is admittedly an experiment, we think we're onto something.
| Evolve Detroit is a weekly, or as needed, publication produced by the Detroit Evolution Laboratory and dedicated to Health, Joy and Liberation. Subscribers this week: 808! Evolve Detroit is evolving into an online Urban Transition Fieldbook that will help facilitate the development of our community and support the Transition Movement in Detroit. If you are interested in taking an active role in Evolve Detroit we're looking for like-minded organizations, bloggers and artists to get involved. Please contact Gregg Detroit Evolution Laboratory The Detroit Evolution Laboratory promotes Active, Aware, Healthy and Sustainable Vegan and Raw Food Lifestyles in the city. The husband and wife team of Angela Kasmala and Gregg Newsom created "the Lab" in 2007 with the intention to share their talents and raise social, environmental and spiritual awareness. With an invaluable Development Team, a large Volunteer Corps, and the recent addition of partner Alan Scheurman the Lab is growing to meet the needs of our city. The Lab shares classes on Vegan and Raw Food, Yoga, Meditation, Shamanism, and Body Awareness. We also offer Bodywork, Nutritional Counseling and Sustainable Lifestyle Training. We also provide Sustainable Vegan and Raw Food Catering for any sized event. |
So, with that verbose explanation we're honored to ask our new readers and seasoned veterans alike to take the arrival this Evolve Detroit as an opportunity to look at things from a slightly different perspective. Step away from the computer for a moment to fill up a cup or glass of your favorite beverage and as you do so shift your awareness from what you were working on to the present moment. When you return, sit back in your chair and take a few deep breaths and allow yourself to relax into this. If you are not already, consider reading Evolve Detroit in your browser. The intended design and flow of text on the page will make it easier on the eyes. This time around we also invite you to take Evolve Detroit's arrival not only as a break but also as an opportunity to suspend disbelief and step into a space of great potential. As you read below, breathe in all the wonderful things happening in and around the Lab and our incredible city and give yourself permission to mentally explore simple local solutions that can alter massive global threats that many of us are now beginning to know as personal threats. Allow yourself to consider that it is possible to weather the storm at hand and at the same time deepen the meaning of our lives by reaching out to our neighbors and taking care of one another without recourse to class or creed. Most importantly here, we invite you to bring to mind a world where we can do more than simply weather this storm, but by learning to shift our focus and intention, we can empower ourselves as we assist in the empowerment of others. And if that's too heavy handed, that's OK, inclusion is easy when we all take personal responsibility for the level at which we interact with the world around us. So, you can, without judgment, give yourself permission to simply check out how we're all getting ready for our son Aya's arrival and scroll through the awesome events and groups we're involved with and promoting in the city. It's all good, and more than that, we thank you for taking on that personal responsibility because it swings the other way as well, it allows us to sincerely ask those who see the value in engaging with depth to lend a hand and help take these concepts from theory to practice. The Lab has survived thus far because others have asked us if we need help and we have said yes. We have actively sought assistance from our own growing community and our brother and sister communities with whom we are interwoven. Gratitude First, we again want to thank all of our new subscribers and everyone who recently discovered what we affectionately call the Lab. We've been blessed by an great deal of attention by the media, Fox2 News in particular, and we want to thank all of you who have taken the time to look us up and joined us here. Over and over again we state that we would not be here if it were not for each of you. We understand the value and importance of your even minimal attention to the continuation of our work and for this we are extremely grateful. For this we also thank those of you who recently joined us and those who've been around since day one. We thank you for continuing to be present with us and our work. We are honored to share all the changes that we have already been through and the awesome changes on the horizon. We also must thank too many of you to mention by name for having the courage to get involved with the Lab and share a little bit of yourselves and your talents with the community we're growing together. We think that it takes great courage to try new things and reach out to others these days. Thank you all so much! We also must heap great amounts of gratitude on our dear friends Carla and Ward for gifting us their van! Carla's been coming round the Lab since we first opened up and has supported and inspired us since we met. Sadly, our blessings come due to Carla and Ward's decision to head to what appears to be the current Green Mecca of Portland. Of course, in Green Mecca a family doesn't really need a vehicle, let alone two! Their gracious decision to gift us their second vehicle is almost too incredible for us to process. Though we are part of a large community working to change this, Detroit without a car is challenging and when you add business needs and a winter pregnancy into the mix it becomes even more intense. We want to wish Carla and Ward all the best in their new home. Our love and deep gratitude to you and yours! In the same breath and with the same emphasis we must thank our co-conspirator Danielle for the use of her Jeep on and off again for the past 4 or 5 months! Many of you know Danielle from our booth in Eastern Market's Shed 2 in the Fall and our other events. She's easy to spot because she is the one who is always helping someone or taking up the most challenging aspects of a project. The Lab wouldn't have made it through to 2009 without this generous and nearly unheard of level of compassion and concern for Angela, Aya and Gregg and our work here. Thank you so much Danielle, you're cut from rare stuff to be sure! There are also a host of others who has helped us by taking Angela on supply runs, picking things up for us, or making deliveries and we thank you all as well. The effect of your kindness have made all the difference to us here. Finally, though we could go on and on, we want to thank everyone who has visited the Lab in the past few weeks. We're a bit off the beaten path because that's where we thrive and, whether it be for yoga, bodywork or kitchen classes, we thank you for taking the time to find our little sacred space in Eastern Market. It really does mean the world to us! Please check out all our new offerings below and the great classes we just added! Have a wonderful week and know that we all look forward to seeing you soon!
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Angela & Gregg's Toys and Books: Clothing: Baby Personal Care Products: For more fun urban vegan baby info check out Angela & Gregg's baby blog Aya Rising
| Aya Rising! We're pleased to share with our new readers that Angela and I are 9 months pregnant and are joyfully preparing for our son Aya's arrival at the end of February. It has been a while since we have given an update and we are very pleased to share that Angela and Aya are doing very well. The challenges and opportunities pregnancy and child rearing have brought to our pursuit of a healthy, humane, and sustainable lifestyle are utterly monumental. We're blessed to know so many mindful mothers and fathers and want to thanks them for their suggestions and support. For the past few months we have been working closely with our wonderful midwife and are preparing for a water birth here at the Lab. (This of course, brings up logistics that we will get to in an upcoming special Evolve Detroit) Due to our lifestyle and Angela's overall health we have chosen the path of natural childbirth and have sought the most minimal engagement with western medicine possible. We have been very blessed by following this path as it has been very smooth and Angela's nutrition levels have satisfied not only our midwife, which is most important, but also many of our friends in western medicine. Aya's extremely active and seems to be into dancing quite a bit. We've already begun working on spatial development by using vibration and directional chanting, reiki and the like. Thanks to our blurring of the line of work and life, we've already been able to shift our sleep schedule to meet Aya's in utero patterns to ease the transition. We could, like all new parents, go on and on about the incredible rite of passage that is pregnancy so we created Aya Rising, our urban baby blog, to share more and we invite you to check it out. We also want to sincerely thank all of you who have inquired about our baby registry and for your offers of assistance as we prepare for Aya's birth. We're registered at http://www.myregistry.com/ and http://www.target.com under Angela Kasmala or Gregg Newsom. |
Winter Restoration - This is Angela's last official class before Aya's arrival! Announcing Gregg's first class for Men! Register soon as these classes sell out quickly! |
These secrets of yoga are within the hearts of everyone. ~Yoga Rahasya III.29 Yoga sessions at the Lab are always dedicated to the health, joy and liberation of all beings. Special attention is paid to the act of doing yoga in Detroit and sharing the personal change achieved with change in the community. Our classes are taught specifically for the students in attendance. Yoga is first and foremost about the breath and does not refer to our experience or physical flexibility. In the Lab we find common ground daily and practice from that point. Market Saturdays are particularly energetic and our practice reflects and contributes to that energy. What could be better than visiting the market, doing yoga and picking up all your fresh fruits and vegetables? Yoga Schedule: Doors open a half an hour prior to class and are locked promptly at the start of class! All classes begin with Sun Salutations or a similar breath and body warming flow (vinyasa). All classes are an hour and fifteen minutes long. We also make time for individual assistance and discussion after every class. Class Fees: Your Yoga Instructors:
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What Is The Transition Movement? Please join us in Eastern Market's heated Shed 5 on Thursday, January 29th from 7:30 - 9:30 pm, for a very special and important talk with Michael Brownlee of Transition Boulder County. The Transition Movement is proving to be the most inspiring and fastest growing social movement in human history. The Detroit Evolution Laboratory shares its vision whole-heartedly and has already been working to reach many of the same goals, long before we even knew such an organized movement existed. So, what is Transition? Now in all 50 states, Transition empowers communities to squarely face the challenges of peak oil and climate change, and to unleash the collective genius of their own people to find the answers to this momentous question: For all those aspects of life that this community needs to sustain itself and thrive, how are we going to drastically reduce carbon emissions (in response to climate change), significantly rebuild resilience (in response to peak oil), and greatly strengthen our local economy (in response to economic instability that we are so familiar with in Detroit)? Transition Initiatives, designed to achieve relocalization at the community level, represent one of the most promising ways of engaging people and communities in strengthening themselves against the effects of these monumental challenges, resulting in a life that is more fulfilling, socially connected, and resilient. Hundreds of communities around the world are joining together in the fastest-growing social change movement in history, unleashing their collective genius to meet the greatest challenges of our time. Michael Brownlee is co-founder of Transition Boulder County, a non-profit organization whose mission is to catalyze, inspire, encourage, network, support and train communities as the consider, adopt, adapt and implement Transition Initiatives. Transition Boulder County recently became the first Transition Initiative in North America. A catalyst for relocalization - developing community resilience and self-reliance in food, energy, and economy - Michael spearheads the organization's campaign to rebuild community and strengthen economies. This is an awesome opportunity for Detroit's Activist Community to come together and talk Transition. Please join us! Read More About TRANSITION!
| The Power of Community Please consider joining the Lab as we 'road trip' to Ann Arbor to support Transition Ann Arbor who have assisted us greatly in bringing Michael and Lynette to Detroit. If you're interested in Vanpooling with us in the new Lab Van please get in touch asap! Details: We will be showing The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil at Detroit Abides in March! Time: Friday, Jan 30 at 7:00pm Come see an inspiring example of how an entire country pulled together in response to the cutoff of their energy supply. Discussion follows, led by Michael Brownlee and Lynette Hanthorn of Transition Boulder County. About the film: When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Cuba's economy went into a tailspin. With imports of oil cut by more than half - and food by 80 percent - people were desperate. This film tells of the hardships and struggles as well as the community and creativity of the Cuban people during this difficult time. Cubans share how they transitioned from a highly mechanized, industrial agricultural system to one using organic methods of farming and local, urban gardens. It is an unusual look into the Cuban culture during this economic crisis, which they call "The Special Period." The film opens with a short history of Peak Oil, a term for the time in our history when world oil production will reach its all-time peak and begin to decline forever. Cuba, the only country that has faced such a crisis - the massive reduction of fossil fuels - is an example of options and hope.
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| Detroit Abides - A FREE Monthly Sustainability Gathering in Eastern Market |
 | Purposeful (Not Random) Acts of Kindness Please check out Garie's new website We have copies of Garie's book in stock at the Lab for $16 or if you're out of town you can order a copy through her new web page. |
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