Ann Arbor Committee for the Community Commons

09/18/2022

PEACE DAY CELEBRATION! Join us!
Wednesday September 21, 2022
Ann Arbor Community Commons, Library Lane and Fifth Avenue. ("Library Lot")
United Nations 2022 Theme: End Racism / Build Peace
PREPARING 8 AM - Noon
Tai Chi, yoga,
Salutations to the Four Directions
OPENING Noon - 1PM
Bell ringing. .
Speakers. Land Acknowledgement, leading to Land Return.
"What does Peace look like to a Native American, Potawatomi?"
GROUNDING 1-2 PM
Gardens tour with volunteers members of the Green Team
Public Art tables: Murals design, Big Visions, Peace Poles, Memorial Marker
Playground - "Chalking" - Make a Mark with a Message!
AFTERNOON 2-3 PM
Speakers.End Racism, 5Rs of Righting a Wrong.
Recognition, Repair, Restoration, Reparations, Reconciliation.
"What does Peace look like to people of African descent, in Ann Arbor, after slavery?"
AFTERNOON 3-4 PM
Build Peace. "Wars of the World:" Peace Tables for discussion on desired topics.
Ukraine, Middle East, Latin America, Nukes, Vietnam, Pipelines, Poverty, other
CLOSINGS 4-5 PM
"Show and Tell" Good Works in our Communities.
Student Renters Campaign: "What would Peace be like for University Students?"
Bi-Centennial 3rd Century theme, "Fostering a culture of peace and non-violence".
Open microphone speaking.
CLOSINGS 5-6 PM
Memorial grieving making a place, peace pole plantings, peace book closing
Closing words.prayers, sermons and more.
EVENING 6-9 PM
Music, Dancing, Friendship
Recycling, Zero Waste
CLEAN-UP 10 PM
Sponsored by the Ann Arbor Community Commons Initiating Committee
www.annarborcommuntycommons.org
organizing contact: Alan Haber. [email protected]. 1-734 657 8083

11/04/2021

**Sunday, November 7th 2-6pm** Live music with Stacey Murray "Soul Songstress", the Eli Heinen Jazz Quartet, K Michael Joseph - KMJ Music Underground and others. Words from State Representative Yousef Rabhi, Peter Linebaugh, P Deisha Myles and others. RoosRoast Coffee, pastries from , friends from the All Peoples Planet Parade and others will also join us. See you on the Commons next to the Downtown Library...spread the word!

04/11/2019

EARTH DAY WEEK OPENING DOWNTOWN ANN ARBOR[
on the old “Library Lot,” new “Center of the City Commons,” 5thAvenue & Library Lane
Sunday April 21 noon to 9 PM Earth reverent talk, music and fun for Easter afternoon and evening.
Monday April 22…official Earth Day all over the world 11AM to 9ish PM in Ann Arbor
Opening Inauguration of the Center of the City Central Park and Civic Center Commons
picnic-ing and socializing ...It is Spring….hoping for warm and sunny days
speakers, musicians, artists and poets
environmental and earth conscious organization exhibits
healthy local foods
family and child friendly play area
Possiblequestions from the soap boxand at talk tables
>> Earth Day History, since 1970
>> Ann Arbor climate change actions
>> cleaning water
>> decentralized water and electric utilities
>> permaculture convergence
>> nuclear power/Fermi 2 dangers
>> local food system
>> peace on earth/ 2020 clearer vision
>> piece of earth on which to live/ affordable housing
>> Festival of Ideas all over town: report
Visions for the commons: art exhibits and drawing tables..beginning and continuing a community wide spiritual “vision quest” for what is the heart of our town
and how best to manifest it in the Center of the City Commons, Central Park and Civic Center..looking back 7 generations and further, from the wheres we settler immigrants came and to the first people who were here before us, and all the stories mingled here, and looking forward 7 generations, and more aspiring to a culture of peace and non-violence for the children of the world, and looking all around now, including everyone who has heart in this town and cares, what is the best we can do in the center of our city? ...opening a public process “suggestion box”
and likely>>> Drumming and Dancing for Mother Earth and all of us...into the Earth Day evenings
***********************************************************************
Earth Day Week, Closes at the Leslie Science Center, Sunday April 28, 2019
************************************************************************
sponsored by Megiddo Peace Project, with
Ann Arbor Committee for the Community Commons, Public Citizens of Washtenaw, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Library Green Conservancy, Conscious Cafe...others being invited…
all welcome. Contact: [email protected], [email protected] 734 657 8083, www.peacetable.org
PLEASE BE IN TOUCH WITH ANY PARTICIPATION OR CONTRIBUTION YOU CAN OFFER
**************************************************************************************************

At the time of the Vietnam war, towards the end, in February 1975 there were long talks about the shape of the “Peace table” then Alan Haber build a peace table that would be receptive to all outstanding questions. It took the image of the receptive in the “Book of Change” known as the I...

04/06/2019

****************************************************************************************************************************

EARTH DAY WEEK OPENING DOWNTOWN ANN ARBOR[
on the old “Library Lot,” new “Center of the City Commons,” 5thAvenue & Library Lane
Sunday April 21 noon to 9 PM Earth reverent talk, music and fun for Easter afternoon and evening.
Monday April 22…official Earth Day all over the world 11AM to 9ish PM in Ann Arbor
Opening Inauguration of the Center of the City Central Park and Civic Center Commons
picnic-ing and socializing ...It is Spring….hoping for warm and sunny days
speakers, musicians, artists and poets
environmental and earth conscious organization exhibits
healthy local foods
family and child friendly play area
Possiblequestions from the soap boxand at talk tables
>> Earth Day History, since 1970
>> Ann Arbor climate change actions
>> cleaning water
>> decentralized water and electric utilities
>> permaculture convergence
>> nuclear power/Fermi 2 dangers
>> local food system
>> peace on earth/ 2020 clearer vision
>> piece of earth on which to live/ affordable housing
>> Festival of Ideas all over town: report
Visions for the commons: art exhibits and drawing tables..beginning and continuing a community wide spiritual “vision quest” for what is the heart of our town
and how best to manifest it in the Center of the City Commons, Central Park and Civic Center..looking back 7 generations and further, from the wheres we settler immigrants came and to the first people who were here before us, and all the stories mingled here, and looking forward 7 generations, and more aspiring to a culture of peace and non-violence for the children of the world, and looking all around now, including everyone who has heart in this town and cares, what is the best we can do in the center of our city? ...opening a public process “suggestion box”
and likely>>> Drumming and Dancing for Mother Earth and all of us...into the Earth Day evenings
***********************************************************************
Earth Day Week, Closes at the Leslie Science Center, Sunday April 28, 2019
************************************************************************
sponsored by Megiddo Peace Project, with
Ann Arbor Committee for the Community Commons, Public Citizens of Washtenaw, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Library Green Conservancy, Conscious Cafe...others being invited…
all welcome. Contact: [email protected], [email protected] 734 657 8083, www.peacetable.org
PLEASE BE IN TOUCH WITH ANY PARTICIPATION OR CONTRIBUTION YOU CAN OFFER
**************************************************************************************************

At the time of the Vietnam war, towards the end, in February 1975 there were long talks about the shape of the “Peace table” then Alan Haber build a peace table that would be receptive to all outstanding questions. It took the image of the receptive in the “Book of Change” known as the I...

11/05/2018

Support your local Democratic Party—Vote Yes on Proposal A!

Since 2010, the Ann Arbor Democratic Party has passed three resolutions in favor of "keeping the Library Lot in public ownership and developing it for public use," developing a "commons or town square in the Center of the City," and noting that "selling or leasing of the Library Lot to any private parties would irreparably harm the citizens of Ann Arbor and that no sum of money could recompense the citizens for the loss."
Keep public land in public hands—Catch the Blue Wave and Vote Yes on Proposal A!

11/05/2018

A Vote for the Commons is a Vote for the Future

Across the street from the bus station and adjacent to the public
library the commons will bring together the wisdom of the past with
the people from all over the county, if not the state, if not the
country, if not the world. Knowledge and mobility meet. Our knowledge
grows as we move. They are consolidated when we stop, when we stop to
think, and then to talk.

That is the commons.

Across from the bus station adjacent to the library.

The commons is part of our past and it must become part of our future.
There are no two ways about it. The discommoned present has brought
us bad water or no water, homelessness, little health care, bad foods,
a future of war, and planetary warming. Insecurity, want, and illness
are the consequences. Fear has become the overall feeling.

In the past: look to the Longhouse, look to the Civil War amendments,
look to the New Deal, look to the social gospel, look to Magna Carta,
look to the Psalms, look (smile) to the cooperation of trees
(“arbor”), look to Occupy.

In the future: the commons is where the old may bowl, youngsters
skateboard, a place of action and activity. A place of gathering, of
assembly (like the Athenian agora of antiquity), a place of theatre, a
place of music, a place simply to rest your weary bones from a day on
your feet, a place to fill your bowl. Above all, a place to launch
the future.

In the old days what you’d call the commons was near the court-house,
the location of dispute and contention of individualists and
privatizers. In our future the commons is the place of renewal and
defense against the well-to-do thieves who steal the land and asphalt
it block by block. The result? Fires in the west, floods in the
east, or the Anthropocene.

The commons is where we preserve ourselves as an actual community, and
take perhaps a breath of fresh air. Yeh, that’s why it’s called
community, Ann Arbor. (Get it?)

Vote for the Commons.

Peter Linebaugh.

YES on Proposal A