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In @billmckibben's 2007 essay, he wrote that battling collapse might come down to “…hyperindividualism versus community. If we can build a society where a community farm, a community source of energy,... a community bookstore make sense, then we have a fighting chance.”
a “Western European uses half as much energy as the average American. Not because they have some secret technology...but because they’ve built a society along... different lines. Half is a lot. They’ve built...cities that draw people in, not spin them centrifugally out.”
For twelve years, @marthabayne has been doing that in Chicago, in a weekly fundraising dinner that happens every Wednesday at Chicago’s best bar, @hideoutchicago. Cooks come and fill battered crock pots in the back room. There is donated bread and community. Pay what you can.
When I was poor, I relied on @soupbreadchi. Now, I volunteer, so does @apzwald. Weekly donations have raised over $90,000 for soup kitchens & pantries all over this city in its vibrant and diverse 77-neighborhood complexity. In the process we’ve made a community of our own.
If you want to know what fighting collapse looks like, some days it looks like this: imagining a world that you want, an anti-corporate, personally connected, small-scale community of people who know each other and come together to make their city better for everyone.
This year, we’re selling hats. I was tasked with finding printers (woman-owned, local, @liberationpress!, thanks @GreatLakesYard!) and making sure we’d have merch for soup season, which starts back up again on January 8. The design is by a kiddo soup cook.
Here’s a link to the hats. If you buy one with the “share the warmth” feature, we’ll donate a warm, un-branded black hat to a shelter for homeless youth in Chicago that’s close to the bar. https://gumroad.com/soupandbread?fbclid=IwAR1FaYoxrZpJWh4KO5w5lanOvyvHqswJi0GlPWpghXk_hwyPQd-dnlwCAzU
And if you want to come and cook, or donate money, or eat with friends, you can sign up for the newsletter to be kept up to date. We're there every Wednesday evening from January 8 through April 1 in 2020, and we might even have cake. https://soupandbread.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=23cbdaa8ec1ac9c4f14ade05d&id=017a15d678
Finally, if you have read through this whole thread, here is an extra gift for your troubles. @marthabayne, besides being my dear friend, is a remarkable editor and writer. If you want to know more about this city, you should buy her book, The Chicago Neighborhood Guidebook.
Ideally, buy it from @wcfbook or directly from Belt Publishing, link below. She's crafted a love letter to the complex, messy way we build community here in Chicago, and it is required reading. https://beltpublishing.com/products/chicago-neighborhood-guidebook?fbclid=IwAR0rb40yAqNmi-EzCT8KvVhPt5aMvjOh5NxMYCzwZJ4Bg2PklhgAMmPGt4A
And if you want to know more about the most perfect bar in the world, where I perform Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas and sling soup, you can read this essay @marthabayne about the corporate pressure that seeks to reinforce hyperindividualism. https://thebaffler.com/latest/in-the-shadow-of-lincoln-yards-bayne
When I was hungry @soupbreadchi was my soup kitchen. Here's my essay from 2011 on @tikkunonline's blog about the now-out-of-print Soup & Bread cookbook, community, and radical hospitality, which quotes @billmckibben. https://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2011/11/14/soup-bread-the-church-of-the-hideout-cookbook/
When you have enough after years of scarcity, when you are warm and fed in a collapsing world, you have to write a love letter to the people who saved you. @marthabayne @apzwald and @soupbreadchi saved me in dark winters. Keep that work going, buy our hat. https://gumroad.com/soupandbread?fbclid=IwAR1FaYoxrZpJWh4KO5w5lanOvyvHqswJi0GlPWpghXk_hwyPQd-dnlwCAzU
Since this is Thanksgiving, I’m going to remind you all, Dear Readers, that I was raised by a hydrogeologist for the MA EPA who was once a cook at #AlicesRestaurant. I grew up in that kitchen. Community matters. Thank goodness for the freaks that raised me. (This is not them.)
