#TaborSpace

[purry]

Alright kids. The time has come! To announce! My dear bud Zulema Renee Summerfield and I are facilitating a generative writing salon! This January! Read all about it! Sign up! Spread the word! Come form islands with us.

https://www.creationisland.com/ and follow us on Instagram @creationisland

[lizyerby]

Flyer I did for a Portland zine symposium fundraiser and rad event!

[urbanadventureleague]

Flashback to BikeCraft 2011! Photo by @tomas_quinones BikeCraft is noon to 6 PM Saturday and Sunday (Dec 15 and 16) at @taborspace While I’ll be lacking the floppier hair, Greg Nortonesque mustache, and posters, I’ll still have plenty of comics, zines, postcards, buttons, and Society of Three Speeds memberships for you to check out! And yeah, I’ll probably be wearing a tie. #bikecraft #bikecraftpdx (at Taborspace) https://www.instagram.com/p/BrY6Bu9lOLX/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=udxb8vhigf5

[adorableinpdx]

Thank you to @forischoir and @katesattler for the amazing opportunity to have a read through of one of my unpremiered choir works! It already sounds so much better! (at Taborspace) https://www.instagram.com/p/B501xNrhRRp/?igshid=amvxl9k04wlv

[theadventurepro]

Thank you to the Everything Conference team for inviting me to lead play + connection adventures this weekend! What a grand plan - to get 100 multipotentialites - from all over the world - in a safe space together to share, learn and grow together! ❤️ . . . #multipod #adventure #connect #play #learn #grow #fun #share #collaborate #travel #portland #oregon #findyouradventure (at Taborspace) https://www.instagram.com/p/B2h7vWOhUTD/?igshid=1ndvhljohrsxe

[novelnoviceya]

You might say I'm a wee bit obsessed with Laini Taylor's Strange the Dreamer, but honestly, I'm surprised I don't have more merch for this series yet. (All candle shops are tagged in the photo!) . . Laini's new book, NIGHT OF CAKE & PUPPETS is in stores now, and she and her husband Jim Di Bartolo will be talking about it & signing books this Friday at 7pm at Taborspace in Portland. Who else will I see there? . . #FrenchieFantasySeptember - Bright . . #strangethedreamer #welcometoweep #weep #lazlostrange #lainitaylor #yalit #bookstagram #bookstagramfeature #bookstagramfeatures #bookish #bookishglee #bookishfeatures #booknerd #booknerdigans #bookblog #bookblogger #pnwreaders #bibliophile #bookphotography #instabook #reading #bookishlyunique  #epicreads #ireadya #fiercefeatures #bookstagrammer

[pdxecologists]

Hello everyone, We are so excited to announce that "resilience giant" Dr. Lance Gunderson will speak in Portland August 9th at Taborspace from 6-8pm.  He is the co-editor of "Panarchy" and is the chair of the board for the Resilience alliance and has been researching and communicating about using a resilience framework to understand social-ecological systems.  Portland Ecologists Unite! and Society for Ecological Restoration NW have teamed up to present this unique evening.  After the lecture we will have a chance to connect and build our own resilience(!) to the sounds of Broken Pipe Jones and some beers from Hopworks brewery.  Thank you to SERNW and EMSWCD for their financial support and for Friends of Trees being our fiscal sponsor!! We will have a signup sheet online soon and send that information your way.  Mark your calendars!

Bio: Lance Gunderson is a systems ecologist who is interested in how people understand, assess, and manage large-scale ecosystems of people and nature.  He worked as a research ecologist for National Audubon Society (1977-78), as a botanist for the US National Park Service in south Florida (1979-89), and as a research scientist at the University of Florida (1992-98). He was the founding chair of the Department of Environmental Studies at Emory University and is a Professor in that department.  He is Co-Editor in Chief of Ecology and Society. He has been involved in environmental assessment and management of large-scale ecosystems, including the Everglades, Florida Bay, Upper Mississippi River Basin, and the Grand Canyon/Colorado River

Abstract of Talk: Recent assessments by legal, social and ecological scholars of six regional scale water systems (Columbia River, Klamath River, Middle Rio Grande River, Central Platte River, Anacostia River and the Everglades wetlands) all suggest a common historical pattern of crisis, adaptation and transformation. All systems went through development phases that created infrastructure and policies aimed at controlling the water to meet a set of human water supply needs.   Such successful control led to a decline in ecological resilience, resulting in a series of environmental surprises. Such crises were followed by lurches in adaptation and learning, in which new institutional and governance structures emerged.  Such adaptive forms of governance appear to be a robust way of integrating science, law and policy to confront the uncertainties of climate change.      

[cnrgcommons]

This Friday, June 22, Program Evaluation Event: Learn and Connect!

The Oregon Program Evaluators Network (OPEN) presents: Emerging Evaluators: Student and Early Career Poster Symposium!

When: Friday, June 22nd, 2-4pm

Where: Taborspace: 5441 SE Belmont St. Portland, OR 97215

Why: 13 talented student and early career evaluators have prepared posters on unique evaluation projects, theories of evaluation, or current evaluative partnerships in the community. Come support our early career evaluators while networking and engaging in professional connection with fellow OPEN members, students and educators as well as those interested in learning about program evaluation.

This event is perfect for those that are seasoned evaluators, or just interested in learning more about the field. An informal atmosphere to speak with professional evaluators as well as learn about different approaches.

The cost is free, RSVP required to attend:  https://oregoneval.org/events/

[jovebelle]

A little Literary Lesbian Love at Taborspace in Portland!

A little Literary Lesbian Love at Taborspace in Portland!

This past weekend I was lucky enough to be invited to Portland, OR by Lori L. Lake for an event called Literary Lesbian Love, an idea originated by author Louisa Kelley. Behind the scenes, Shawn Marie Bryan did a great job pushing word out on social media, Our own Jove Belle wove her stellar magic on the banner for the gig as well as reading some delightful stuff. In total, seven readers…

[televisedbirdwatching]

Retrofit Ep. 3: De-Branding your Church’s Rec Room

This week my roommate pointed me towards Taborspace, a community meeting room and coffee shop in Southeast Portland. Taborspace is a part of the Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church. They operate a coffee shop, Bell Tower Coffee, with a large public community room. In addition, Taborspace offers up various church rooms for rent for a modest fee- between $20 and $100 an hour- for nonprofits to hold meetings, for people to teach classes, or for neighborhood associations to meet. If you can prove 501c3 status, you get a discount on the hourly rate.

Taborspace/Bell Tower Coffee has a separate entrance from the main church.

I’m always skeptical of any place that calls itself a place for community engagement. A few months ago I wrote about Bike Rack Brewing and the 8th Street Public Market in Bentonville, mostly to highlight the fact that it’s rare when a place actually pulls it off. “Community Engagement” is so overused a term it doesn’t seem to signal anything important anymore (see also: “empowering” and “sustainable”).

And yet, Taborspace seems to really pull it off. They serve as a valuable community resource just by offering up space for use- a critical and oft-overlooked ingredient in community building. If you’re trying to get a new nonprofit off the ground, where else can you arrange a meeting with 10-15 other people? With free parking and a room for a whiteboard? Would a meeting like this be welcome in any other coffee shop environment? Where else can you rent a commercial kitchen  for $30/hour? Taborspace meets a critical need just by providing space to use- space that is foundational to any community building endeavor.

Churches are a ubiquitous part of the American town’s building language- and every church is practically the same. There is probably some sort of rec-room and probably some sort of stage. There might be a kitchen. There might be a sunday school classroom; or there might be a few. And yet, these spaces go unoccupied and unused most days of the week. Taborspace provides a reason for these spaces to be used.

The main room at Taborspace is like every church front room you’ve ever been in. Stained glass windows. The kind of carpet specifically chosen for high-traffic areas, in that particular shade of blue that hides most stains. At one table, parents congregate as their kids go to some sort of music class. Somewhere, someone’s toddler has already found a tambourine. There are plenty of other people working on laptops, like me. Two older men play cards.

It’s not a church...but it’s still a church.

It’s unlike any other coffee shop I’ve been to in Portland. There’s no secret handshake required to get the wi-fi password- it’s written on the community bulletin board. There doesn’t seem to be any pressure to turn a table. I don’t think there would be any hassle if you didn’t make a purchase. It’s a welcoming place, and interestingly secular in attitude. Church iconography is limited. The stained glass windows mostly show geometric patterns.

The coffee is good; really good. Called Bell Tower Coffee, it’s staffed mostly by volunteers, there to learn job skills. Bell Tower Coffee is proud of the places their baristas have been hired away to. It wasn’t until later I learned that I should have ordered the chai: called One Stripe Chai, it’s made in-house and has earned enough of a following to be sold and used at a few other coffee shops around town. Bell Tower Coffee could easily have been an afterthought- instead it’s a worthwhile coffee shop in its own right.

Taborspace is interesting to me as an example of a space that’s been leveraged into something useful. Mt. Tabor Presbyterian could easily have let their church rooms sit empty. Instead, they chose to create a separate and secular non-profit organization and rent out the rooms, only hoping to make enough money from coffee and rental fees to recoup costs. It’s a win-win for the church and for anyone trying to start a business who needs wi-fi access, or a new nonprofit needing a place to hold meetings.

Interestingly it’s a retrofit in name only- no big changes were made to the church rooms. But it’s a retrofit that enables the kind of activities that build strong communities. Don’t get me wrong- it’s definitely a church. But there’s none of the expected church-pressure.

We’re lucky to have something like Taborspace here in Portland. It makes me wonder how many other churches across America could be retrofit in such a way. How many square feet of usable church space sit empty 6 out of 7 days a week? How many churches would be OK with secularizing their space and opening it to the public for these 6 out of 7 days?

[microcosmpub]

Microcosm in Your Town

Pssst if you hadn’t heard, we’re going to be tabling at a bunch of upcoming events all around the US. Here’s our current schedule, subject to change.

June 16-17: Portland Pride Festival July 21: RAGBRAI, Iowa July 25-29: We’ll have our bookstore set up at the glorious battlefields of RollerCon, Las Vegas August 1-2: We’ll be tabling at the Alternatives peer support conference in Washington, DC August 17-19: Why Not Fest, Minot, ND September 15: Find us at the Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair September 16-19: We’ll have our bicycle book and t-shirt pop-up shop up at Walk Bike Places in New Orleans October 20-21: We’ll be selling our vegan-iest goods at NW VegFest in Portland November 10: Microcosm and Elly Blue Publishing will be tabling at our favorite literary event of the year, Wordstock in Portland December 15-16: BikeCraft, TaborSpace, Portland, OR

If you’re going to be at any of these, stop by and say hi! We’d love to meet you. 

[urbanadventureleague]

Currently: Set up for sales at #bikecraftpdx Come on by! We’ll be here today and tomorrow (Saturday and Sunday) from noon to 6! Lots of awesome stuff besides my things! (at Taborspace) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bra9OQ3FsXr/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=15zcwk7ruw4g2

[babybluesconnection-blog]

In the Thick of It

In the Thick of It

Join Baby Blues Connection for this free, literary event! Sunday, September 10th at Taborspace, 3-5 pm. Check out the Eventbrite listing here and the Facebook event here. Invite friends and family to join you. Share with your colleagues. About the event: An afternoon full of stories of postpartum depression, anxiety, and psychosis from the women who lived them. We are not alone in this darkness.…

[pdxyogini]

And for No Reason by Hafiz And For no reason I start skipping like a child. And For no reason I turn into a leaf That is carried so high I kiss the Sun’s mouth And dissolve And For no reason A thousand birds Choose my head for a conference table. Start passing their Cups of wine And their wild songbooks all around. And For every reason in existence I begin to externally, To eternally laugh and love! When I turn into a leaf And start dancing, I run to kiss our beautiful Friend And I dissolve in the Truth That I Am. #Grateful #Yoga #IntegratedMovementTherapy #IMT #roses🌹 #flowers #summer #garden #sky #SerenitySaturday #hafiz #poetry #poem #latergram (at Taborspace)

[novelnoviceya]

Here's a #ThrowbackThursday to my STRANGE THE DREAMER #StyledByBooks shoot from earlier this year. If you live in the Portland, OR area, Laini Taylor & her husband Jim DiBartolo will be discussing their new book NIGHT OF CAKE & PUPPETS, an illustrated companion novella to the DoSaB series, on Friday, September 15th, 7pm at Taborspace. A Children's Place will be selling books! Who will I be seeing there? . . #FrenchieFantasySeptember - Woodland (I took this picture *in the woods* ... that counts, right?) . . #strangethedreamer #lainitaylor #welcometoweep #NNStyledByBooks #bookishfashion #yalit #thenovl #bookstagram #bookstagramfeature #bookstagramfeatures #bookish #bookishglee #bookishfeatures #booknerd #booknerdigans #bookblog #bookblogger #pnwreaders #bibliophile #bookphotography #instabook #reading #bookishlyunique  #epicreads #ireadya #fiercefeatures #bookstagrammer #tbt

[comeonchemicalss]

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at Taborspace