Spokane Chapter
Spokane began and continued their Cascadia meetings throughout the month of June. The meetings thus far have been pretty informal and are mostly geared towards getting acquainted with those interested in the idea, as well as working out organizational foundations. For those interested, they meet every other Friday at the Riverside Park by the Post Street Bridge.
More information and directions can be found on our Calendar events page or contact Patrick Adams directly at patsamorionadams@gmail.com
Portland, PSU and PCC Chapters
Growth in the idea of Cascadia continues to grow throughout the greater Portland area and we’re excited to announce new student coordinators at both Portland State University and Portland Community College.
Those interested should contact:
PCC contact Benjamin Bricker: Benjamin.Bricker@pcc.edu PSU contact Ellona: cascadianmycelium@gmail.com or our general Portland coordinator Lumen: lumen@riseup.net
If you’d be interested in becoming a regional coordinator for Cascadia Now! or starting your own chapter, feel free to email cascadianow@gmail.com or our visit our http://cascadianow.org/get-involvedpage.
O’Cascadia New Student Documentary on YouTube:
A CascadiaNow member from Seattle University has released a great 5 minute documentary that provides a nice introduction of the Cascadia movement.
The short educational film by Kelton Sears is about the Cascadian movement, its origins, its ideas, and its presence today. The video features three interviews with members of the Seattle Cascadia Now! chapter from their May 19th meeting.
The video can be viewed at: http://youtu.be/nB7v5TmAYp8
If you would like to get involved with the Seattle chapter, they meet biweekly on every second Saturday, and you can find more information on our calendar page here: http://www.cascadianow.org/ai1ec_event/seattle-cascadianow-meetup/?instance_id=2638
or directly from their website at: seattlecascadiaproject.org
Cascadia Now! Poster, Sticker and Agitprop Campaign
Beginning in Seattle and Portland and spreading wherever people are interested, Cascadia Now! has started an agitprop campaign. 11x17 black and white posters have been spreading through different neighborhoods in Seattle, while stickers, banners and color origami pamphlets have been appearing in various areas around PDX.
Since the campaign has begun, the http://reddit.com/r/cascadia group has been adding about 100-200 members per week, and pictures continue to filter across Twitter and Facebook of folks randomly stumbling across the idea.
It will be our goal to create a public agitprop and art gallery hosted through our website, where everyone will have access to original PDF’s and PSD files, alter, upload and add pictures of the final product in an open gallery. We’ll be working on this in the months to come.
New Cascadia flags are in!
The Doug flag is the symbol of Cascadia and a new batch of Cascadia Flags have arrived.
Those interested should send $23.50 to cascadianmycelium@gmail.com using either Paypal or Wepay.
The flags are 5′x3′ nylon and will be shipped out as soon as possible, except for between the dates of June 19th to 25th. A portion goes to supporting Cascadia Chapters.
Designed in 1994 by Portland native and professor Alexander Baretich, it can increasingly be found in cities throughout the Pacific Northwest and is becoming a common sight at soccer games, occupy protests and of course, on locally made microbrews (among our favorite, the Secession IPA or Cascadian Dark Ale).
The blue of the flag represents the moisture rich sky above and Pacific ocean along with the Salish Sea, lakes and other inland waters. Our home is of continuous cascading waters flowing from our sky and mountains back to the Pacific. Cascadia is a land of falling water from the Pacific to the western slopes of the Rockies and Cascades where water cycles as vapor and then rain and snow to run through creek and river back to the Pacific. The white represents snow and clouds and the green to represent the evergreen forests and fields of the Pacific Northwest. The lone standing Douglas Fir symbolizes endurance, defiance and resilience, named for explorer David Douglas, the first written account of the bioregion as a land of cascading waters and from where our primary mountain range takes its name. All these symbols of color and icon come together to symbolize what being Cascadian is all about.
Last month in Portland Oregon, the World Food Travel Association officially kicked off Cascadian Cuisine, a new initiative focused on the continuing promotion of food found, cooked and created throughout the Pacific Northwest. The conference brought tourism offices, food & drink producers, association leaders, wineries, brewers, chefs and journalists together for a full day of strategic planning & thought leadership, with the goal that the regional awareness will drive consumer consciousness, create jobs, and support responsible and local tourism efforts of communities across the bioregion.
At the meeting, the Association welcomed some of the most fervent food, drink and tourism players in the region to discuss topics such as borders, agricultural hallmarks, local entrepreneurship and sustainability in Cascadia. Erik Wolf, Executive Director of WFTA explained the vision, “At its very core, Cascadian Cuisine is about economic, sustainable and community development – bringing awareness, creating jobs, and preserving communities and the culinary culture of our region.”
