FRIENDSHIP
SEA CHANGE GALLERY
PORTLAND, OREGON
JULY 31, 2009
In hindsight, we probably should have called this event FRIENDSHIP PART ONE, as friendship is a topic that Public Social University wants to explore a lot more. People need friendship almost as much as we need food and water, so we should probably talk about it more in inclusive group settings. We can share things about what makes better friendships. We can spend time with the intention of celebrating friendship for the pure enjoyment of it and also so that we can carry what we learn and feel beyond the short-lived experience.
To begin the event, which occurred on one of those magical hot Portland evenings, Public Social University Co-Director Judy Fleming taught attendees how to make friendship bracelets. Friendship bracelets are a great gift to give to friends. Whenever your friends look down at their wrists there's a good chance that they will think of you and how you made such a nice gift with your own hands. Also they are really beautiful, and friendship bracelet making is a great group activity.
Next, Public Social University's other Co-Director, Rozzell Medina, facilitated a panel discussion on Music, Friendship, and the Art of the Mix Tape. The panelists were multimedia artist Chris Johanson, Mississippi Records owner Eric Isaacson, and musician Allan Wilson. Stories were shared and ideas about the relationship and similarities between music and friendship were discovered and explored. A partial transcript of the discussion is forthcoming.
Then, Lola Wilson taught us some hand-clapping games that are fun to play with friends and good for making new friends.
We settled down long enough to write postcards to some of our friends. How good does it feel to receive a real postcard in the actual mail from a good friend? Very good! Pinball Publishing and Redbird Studio were kind enough to donate some great postcards for the occasion.
What we need to do is lift each other up, not hold each other down! To celebrate our friends and to practice saying sincere, complimentary things about them in public, we circled our chairs and had an open mic friendship show and tell. Again, more documentation is forthcoming.
We asked our friends Ally Drozd and Crystal Baxley to come up with a great way to end the evening. Of course they came up with something awesome and fun, because they are awesome and fun.
(Part 2 Coming Soon)
If you are interested in collaborating on a second FRIENDSHIP event, or if there is something you would like to teach at such a Public Social University event, let us know!
