Local alternatives series

Guest Post by Michal Osterweil

Chapel Hill and the surrounding areas are filled with organizations, groups and businesses that are experimenting with and practicing alternative ways of living on a daily basis. Whether as a collective bookstore, a cooperative living community, bio-fuel collectives, or experiments in public television, we are all working to make the world a better place, not only through protest and opposition, but through different ways of going about our daily lives and work. We are in effect enacting social, economic and ecological alternatives both within and against the current status quo.

Too often, however, we do so without recognizing how many others are out there doing similarly amazing things. We miss out on the potential learning and growth we could all gain from one another if we told our stories and thought together about the possibilities, problems and goals of our projects—both individually and collectively as part of a larger movement and community.

The Internationalist bookstore would like to invite anyone interested—and specifically those who are already part of, or identify with, such movements and projects—to join us as we begin a monthly series in which local groups will be invited to share and exchange ideas based on our diverse experiences, hopes and knowledges.

Please join us for:
AGAINST THE GRAIN: networking local alternatives
A series hosted by Internationalist Books

our first event:
June 1 at 7pm, 405 W. Franklin St.
Leif Forer from the Piedmont Biofuel Collective (www.biofuels.coop)

Leif will discuss both his own experiences and current projects with the Piedmont biofuel collective, as well as do a brief presentation on what biofuels are, where they're appropriate, how we get them, how we use them, what laws and regulations effect them, and who's using them.

Leif has been in the world of biofuels educating, organizing, designing, building, and producing for 7 years. His interest is in creating sustainable, locally-based, owned and controlled, renewable energy infrastructures.

Michal Osterweil is on the Board of Internationalist Books and Community Center.