July 24th SF Refresh Results

457 Participants joined in today's event!


177 people joined us at the Bayview Opera House for breakfast and a trash pick up. Special thanks to the Department of Public Works for providing the trash pick up materials and to Melissa Lareau our lead volunteer, a neighbor who envisioned this project as a way the Bayview could refresh.

53 people joined us at the Free Farm where 50 lunches, where served in addition to an open Cathedral, meditation and yoga onsite throughout the day.


39 people joined us at the Growing Home Community Garden, Where our six youth interns should off the skills they had learned at the garden and taught skill shares throughout the day with the homeless and formerly homeless individuals who run the garden.


188 people joined us at the Hayes Valley Farm to enjoy lots of music (including the Homeless Choir, a circus orchestra, harp therapy, and Lia Rose), gardening classes, vegan food, peer led safer sex and domestic violence recovery skill shares and yoga. Check out photos from the Hayes Valley Farm below.


Relaxing in the garden with organic vegan food


Compost classes


Peer led safer sex class


Yoga


Lia Rose

Join Us Sunday (July 24th)

4705 3rd St - Bayview Opera House - Breakfast and Trash Pickup
8am-10am

Eddy/Gough - the Free Farm
10:00am – 11:00am Open Cathedral - St. Paulus Lutheran Church
11:00am – 12:00pm Yoga (Flow Style) - Linda Leu
12:00pm – 1:00pm Vegan Lunch - Free Farm - The Free Farm - Eddy/Gough
1:00pm – 2:00pm yoga with Linda Leu
2:00pm – 3:00pm Labyrinth Walk
4:00pm – 5:30pm Take TiNa Movement Class - Natalie Johl and James Word


Laguna/Fell - the Hayes Valley Farm
12:00pm – 12:30pm Sana / ukelele (tentative)
12:00pm – 12:50pm Diane Reiki (Tentative)
12:00pm – 1:00pm Yoga for Kids - Lindsey Goldberg - Hayes Valley Farm
12:00pm – 5:00pm Karleen - Hayes Lead - Hayes valley - confrimed
12:30pm – 12:55pm Jack/healing harp
1:00pm – 1:25pm Sana/ukelele (tentative)
1:00pm – 2:00pm All Levels Yoga - Lindsey Goldberg
1:00pm – 2:00pm Fun w/ Herbs with Sam
1:30pm – 2:30pm Singers of the Street - Hayes Valley Farm Fell/Laguna
2:00pm – 3:00pm Edible Weeds w/Sam - Hayes
2:30pm – 4:00pm Vespertine Orchestra
3:00pm – 3:50pm Linda Leu (kids)
3:00pm – 4:00pm safer sex with maria-resched loc/3pm
3:00pm – 4:00pm Fun w/ Herbs with Sam - hayes
4:00pm – 5:00pm All Levels Yoga - Lindsey Goldberg - Hayes Valley Farm
4:00pm – 5:00pm Lia Rose

Octavia/Lily - the Growing Home Community Garden
4:00pm – 5:00pm Garden Skill Shares (watering, irrigation, composting, succulant pocket vertical gardening, weeding, harvesting)

Why I'm Soooo Excited For the Next SF Refresh!

We must have some sort of weather luck because both SF Refresh events have had some great weather. I’m sure it will be just as nice, if not nicer at the next SF Refresh event on July 24^th, 2011. So far, the last SF Refresh Events have been a great collaboration of leaders and workshops, dedicated to teaching valuable skills and providing free whole body care. Workshops have focused on Reiki, massage, yoga, writing, music, life coaching, meditation, compost, sculpture, making succulent pockets, canning, medicinal herbs, and much more. SF Refresh is a time to come together as a community and enjoy a positive, healing, and informational experience inside gardens throughout San Francisco.

At every SF Refresh event that I have attended, I have met some interesting people that have shared some insightful information and helpful methods of healing. At the events, I have been able to connect with some great people that I may not have normally met. At each SF Refresh there are new and returning workshop and skill share leaders, and every time I go, I seem to meet someone new that can teach me something interesting and valuable. Workshop leaders attend SF Refresh in order to share knowledge and skills that they know well. By the end of the day, I always feel that I have learned at least two or three things (if not more) that I can take home with me or share with other people. At the last event I learned how to make vertical gardening pockets and how to can food for preservation.

SF Refresh has been a time in my week to take a break from the normal day to day activities and share a positive experience. As people come together from all walks of life in the San Francisco community, it is great being able to share an afternoon with new people who all share a similar interest of self-health, sustainability and positive existence. This connection and unity from a spontaneous new group is definitely a beautiful thing. It feels great to get outside and be in a space of nature, even in the city. Being in a garden and around plants is very therapeutic in itself, but getting a massage in a garden or doing yoga is very healing and relaxing.

I encourage you to attend SF Refresh to enjoy yourself. If you want a new experience that is fun and interesting, and also therapeutic and informational, these garden events are a great time to check in. SF Refresh is a place to learn valuable information that you can take home and apply to your daily life. With such great resources volunteered by such insightful, talented and dedicated individuals, it is a great opportunity to take advantage of these resources at this one moment in time. SF Refresh is also a place to express yourself through art projects and other creative workshops. I encourage people to join us on Juy 24^th, 2011 at the next SF Refresh to heal yourself and enhance your life. SF Refresh is a great opportunity in the city for our entire community to come together, learn new skills, receive whole body care and experience the healing of nature.

Introducing Lia Rose

Listen to Lia's Music Here

Resonant and compassionate, Lia Rose overflows with a soft articulation of that which makes us all go on. Couple her enormous yet clement tone with a simple honest story to tell, and you will find Lia Rose's newest works.

Having gained some attention fronting oceanic indierock band Built for the Sea, Rose now lets us into her more intimate world with her full-length debut solo album, When You Need Me Most (Release: January 2011).

What this record reveals is a passionate artist with an ear for the beauty in the tastefully adorned austerity of a set of strings, a simple truth; the quiet emotion that binds us all.

197 Participate in the May 21st Event

In the Bayview:

9 volunteers helped pick up trash, recycling and compost in the Bayview. We started our walk and trash pickup at the Quesada Gardens (based at the 1700 block of Quesada near 3rd). Volunteers learned about the proper way to sort trash and picked up more than 25 bags of waste. In addition to making the neighborhood a little cleaner, volunteers chatted with their neighbors and encouraged others to join the effort to keep the Bayview clean. Our next neighborhood trash pickup will start at the barn and orchard at the Bayview Mission and be hosted by the Rev. Nina Pickerell.

Special thanks to the Department of Public Works who supplied us with trash bags, vests, trash pickets, brooms, dust pans and latex gloves. You can report trash for pick up in your neighborhood anytime, by calling 3-1-1 and reporting the location of the trash.

At the Visitation Valley Greenway Garden:
97 individuals enjoyed our jazz festival, held in conjunction with the local merchant association's sidewalk sale. The pictures below feature some of the amazing acts that shared their talents with us that day:

The Otto Huber Trio

Jazzberry Patch

ROCK Korean Martial Arts

Saman

Mad & Eddie Duran

Special thanks to San Francisco Parks and Recreation, the Visitacion Valley Merchants Association and SF Environment for making this event a success.


The Alemany Farm:

Rachel, from the Revel Art Collective taught participants to make seedball, compostible garden gnomes and creatures in the most well attended and creative event of the day.

The gnome makers were so inspired by the process that they ended up making a claymation movie using their gnomes who explored the idea of the rapture that was predicted but did not occur on the day of our event.

Ilyse Magy, SF Refresh Art lead and fellow member of the Revel Art Collective has been collecting stop motion photos and will be showing a film highlighting activities from the first two SF Refresh events at our next event on July 24th. We've heard a rumor that the claymation gnomes video may become available before our next event, so stay tuned!

Jonathon Silverman taught people to make succulent pockets from burlap and grommets.

Judith Dancer led a class on movement, breathing and dance.

Other activities included canning, composting and shape note singing workshops.

Introducing: Anastasia Crosson

Hi, I'm Anastasia Crosson. When I'm not busy attending J-school or writing freelance, I am enjoying good food in the San Francisco Bay Area. Things I love: a good farmers' market, a restaurant that sources locally, producers that promote a sustainable food system, food trucks (and carts!), and good foodie journalism (read: Saveur, Gastronomica, EaterSF, the list goes on). As a 20-something without professional culinary training, I like to think I'm just one example that anyone, even a journalism student on a budget, can develop a relationship with food. One of my favorite culinary exploits is the art of canning, and so Can It You Nit! was born.

Contact me at canityounit@gmail.

Anastasia will be leading a canning workshop at 3pm at The Alemany Farm on May 21st.

Introducing: Jazzberry Patch

Jazzberry Patch

Don Pender, saxophone; Jose Martinez, congas; Hal Solin, drums; Bernie Bagshaw, guitar; Jay R. Witt, piano

Jay R. Witt: piano & electric keyboard (J.R.) is a multi-instrumentalist who grew up and began his music career in Salt Lake City, where he received a jazz emphasis music degree at the University of Utah. There he developed his craft in the midst of musicians and educators assembled from throughout the United States as part of a unique and experimental jazz program comparable at that time to the talent level of the established east coast music programs. After playing full time for several years, J. R. took time off from music to establish a career as a C.P.A. but is once again musically active and performing throughout the Bay Area. He has over 15,000 hours of professional performing experience in private dinner clubs, theaters and other public/casual venues playing with various jazz/rock/blues/pop ensembles and has facility on a dozen different instruments. With Don Pender, J.R. is featured on piano and electric keyboard.

Jose (Manuel) Martinez: congas Don meet Manny on a bridge at lake Merced that Mayer Willie Brown built right before he left office. He was walking one day and heard these wonderful congas sound as if it were floating in the wind. He decided to find out where it was coming from and he went over and saw Manny playing to some music in his headphones. They became friends and Manny has been playing with Don ever since. That was 5 years ago. Manny is from the Dominican Republic and has many years of experience playing Latin music and brings a lot of flavor to the group

Hal Solin: drums Hal got interested in drums at an early age thanks to an uncle who played drums in a band. He took as many music classes in school as possible and started playing gigs right out of high school. Fearing that he would become just another one of those “jazz musicians”, his mother urged him to get a teaching credential and play music during the summers. The credential led to a 39 year career with the San Francisco public school system. The last 12 as associate superintendent. Hal kept his music alive by forming Standard Time, a band that continues to entertain in various venues throughout the bay area. Since retiring he has made music his main focus, studying with noted drum teacher Pete Magadini and playing at every opportunity. He belongs to several bay area groups such as the Starduster Orchestra, The Joe Agro Sextet and West Coast Cool. He also plays regularly with Wanda Stafford and Si Perkoff at the Panama Hotel in Marin.

Bernie Bagshaw: guitar Bernie started playing the guitar at age 10 influenced by rock & roll and folk. He started listening to and playing jazz in high school. He studied music at the College of Marin and San Francisco State University during the 70'. For the past 30 years he worked as an electrician in San Francisco. About 8 years ago he started going to jam sessions in and around San Francisco. He has recently retired as an electrician and is spending most of his time playing the guitar.