Traction is throwing a salsa party!

Here’s the scoop…

What: Salsa Doble (hips and dip)
When: Sunday August 19

• 6pm salsa-making workshop
• 7pm dance lesson
• 8pm party

Where: the fabulous porch of Parker and Otis (formerly Fowler’s) in Durham
Who: Traction, El Pueblo, El Centro, SEEDS, Locopops and a porchload of your favorite Tractivists
Cost: $10 donation for the workshop or the dance party; get both for $17
Get your tickets here.

Since we’ll be both EATING and DANCING, we’re calling it Salsa Doble (hips and dip). And because it’s Traction, you know you’ll find spicy info about progressive issues — this time it’s immigration, farmworkers’ rights and local food — and ways to take action.
That’s right, local food. It would be WRONG to let peak tomato season pass without making some badass salsa. (Remember, friends don’t let friends buy El Paso.) So we’re throwing a salsa-making workshop. Spaces are limited…

Make a donation and get your tix here.

Hey, you know how you’ve been waiting for just the right occasion to volunteer for Traction? I think this is it. Write to salsa@getTraction.org to get in the mix…
Good food, good friends, good politics, and you’re supporting a great cause. Get your ticket now, and we’ll see you on the 19th!

Don’t know much about biodiesel? Why not open yourself up to a new experience… at a local renewable energy co-op?

Spend an afternoon with your fellow bio-curious Tractivists at Piedmont Biofuels on April Fuels Day… ahem, April Fools Day. We’ll meet in Durham and catch a ride on a biodiesel bus to the local plant to learn more about this alternative energy source.

DETAILS
What: An April Fuels Day Adventure — Tour of Piedmont Biofuels Coop and processing plant
Date: Sunday, April 1st
Time: Bio-bus departs at 11:45am and returns by 5:00pm
Where: Durham –> Pittsboro –> Durham
Cost: FREE! (Donations are appreciated)

We’ll provide lunch from the Chatham Marketplace, plus excellent conversation with other Tractivists during the busride, including two urban transportation planners: Tobin (who, along with Sarah, is co-lead on this event): an alternative fuels planner and Jennifer who does bike / pedestrian planning, plus climate change activists and simply bio-curious folks like me — all free of charge!

Tour time (including the fascinating and closed-to-the-public processing plant) plus lunch will last about 3 hours and we should be back in Durham by 5:00pm. We’ll all walk away with a few changes we can make in our daily lives to help the environment. And maybe some of us will decide to reform our fossil foolish ways and switch to biodiesel!

This excellent fuelish adventure is brought to you by Traction, Greenway Transit and the Triangle Clean Cities Coalition.

Spaces are limited. Contact sarah/at\getTraction/dot\org to reserve your lunch and seat on the bio-bus (or to let her know you plan to meet the group at the plant).

“In 2003 a large plot of land was donated to the NC Cooperative Extension Service to be used for environmental education. This land is located in Durham County off Briggs Avenue south of Durham Technical Community College. We are currently in the process of recruiting interested volunteers to serve on our Advisory Board for the Briggs Avenue NC Cooperative Extension Demonstration Landscape. The advisory board will be instrumental in coming up with a mission statement, program objectives, goals, ideation for Landscape Design, and instrumental in making financial decisions for this project. If you are interested in getting involved in this project please contact Michelle Wallace, Consumer Horticulture Extension Agent @ 560-0526.”

Traction was honored to be part of H K on J, or Historic Thousands on Jones St., on Saturday.
Thousands of North Carolinians gathered in an NAACP-led People’s Assembly and adopted (by roaring acclamation) a bold 14-point progressive agenda:

1. High quality, well-funded, diverse schools for all children
2. Living wages
3. Health care for all
4. Government redress for the Wilmington Race Riots of 1898 and the forced sterilization of black women from 1947 to 1977
5. Same-day voter registration and public financing for elections
6. More funding for historically black colleges and universities
7. Redress for 200 years of discrimination in state hiring and contracting
8. Affordable housing and consumer protection
9. Criminal justice reform including abolition of the death penalty
10. Creation of an environmental job corps for youth
11. Collective bargaining for public employees
12. Immigrant rights
13. More funding for civil rights enforcement agencies
14. Bringing troops home from Iraq

Then we marched to the General Assembly and posted it there for our state legislators to see.

Thanks to Tractivist Robert S., who posted lots of H K on J clips on You Tube! Here’s one featuring several Tractivists on stage, including yours truly…

Traction represented well, with Dave, Celeste, Bria, Anne, Tamara, Brandi, Jim, Adam and many more among the marchers.

Did you take pictures? Post them to flickr and tag them HKonJ and Traction!

Are you aware of how easy it is to reduce your environmental impact while living in the Triangle area?

One quick step is to opt for supporting green power (wind, solar, etc.) from your local electric company. Duke Energy allows you to buy 100kwatt hour blocks for $4/block per month at this link. This option allows for more use of green power generators by your utility company in the increments that you purchase.

For many of us, that means that for less than $10/month, more than 50% of our energy use will be supported by green power, dramatically reducing the amount of CO2 that we pump into the environment. More info is provided here. If you aren’t with Duke Energy, check out NC Green Power to see if your utility company provides this option.

Options for “going green” are becoming more and more accessible! Now it just takes a few dollars a month and few clicks on the internet. I know I’m out of excuses - what’s yours?

Want to do more? Check out Climate Crisis to estimate your environmental impact in terms of tons of CO2/year using their take action calculator. You’ll find many suggestions for other lifestyle changes.

Hey Tractivists,

Join Traction this Saturday, Sept 9th to celebrate our local harvest with a two-part event: a morning conversation about local food plus an evening potluck!

We’ll meet at the Durham Farmers’ Market at 10:30am, talk with Tractivists who know their local food and sustainability issues (your chance to find out about that CSA thing), and do a little shopping for the week. Then we’ll reconvene at 7pm for a community potluck dinner. It will be fun *and delicious* to share what we and our local farmers have grown this summer.

Some Food for Thought:
– The average American meal travels 1500 miles to your table!
–> After I flew to California this spring, I decided Cali was just too far away for my organic veggies. Then I discovered the Durham Farmers’ Market and was hooked. When you come, you’ll find out why!
– Farmers’ markets enable farmers to keep 80 to 90 cents of each dollar spent by the consumer as opposed to only 9 cents by traditional groceries!
– Throughout history, humans have eaten 80,000 plant species — 3,000 of them consistently. Industrial Agriculture has narrowed it to only 8 different crops for 75% of the world’s food!
– Local food means variety, biodiversity and sustainability.
– Wonder why high-fructose corn syrup shows up in almost everything? Uh, maybe it’s the subsidies in the obscure Farm Bill, which dictates the lay of the land (millions of acres of it), the food most Americans eat and therefore our very health! It’s up for debate in 2007.
– Getting a family to quit eating factory-farmed meat will cause a greater reduction in carbon emissions than switching to a hybrid car!

Here in this Fast Food Nation of ours, folks clearly want things to be fast, easy and cheap –- especially food -– and cooking is seen as work. The Slow Food movement is about recovering relationships with food, the land, and community. What’s so powerful is how Slow Food values (buying local, eating in community) can make such an impact on so many important issues: social justice, health care, workers’ rights (Labor Day is around the corner), sustainability, animal cruelty, global warming, family farms, land conservation, and the list goes on.

Put your politics where your mouth is, and join Traction in saving the world, one delicious bite at a time:

Saturday, Sept 9 at 10:30 am
Gather for local food discussion at the Durham Farmers’ Market.
(Optional FREE yoga at 9am)

Saturday, Sept 9 at 7pm
Harvest potluck at Kelly’s apartment
Please bring a home-cooked dish (preferably vegetarian), a plate, and anything else inspiring to share.

Please RSVP for either/both events and for directions to kelly@getTraction.org, and let me know what you’re bringing.

Kindest regards,

Kelly
Tractivist, local food addict and amateur cook

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