past events

Co-sponsored by the Pachamama Alliance and Transition Sebastopol

"This has given me the purpose and drive to change my life. Everyone working for or wanting a better world must see this."
-- JS, Concord, CA

Creating a bold new future.

The Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium is a profound inquiry into a bold vision: To bring forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just human presence on Earth.

You will gain fresh insight about our world, meet like-minded people, find hope and inspiration and leave with clarity how you can help create a new future. If you are ready to explore what this vision means for you, we invite you to attend.

Through dynamic group interactions, leading edge information, and inspiring multimedia, participants of this half-day event are inspired to reconnect with their deep concern for our world, and are empowered to make a difference.

Designed with the collaboration of some of the finest scientific, indigenous and activist minds in the world, the Symposium explores the current state of our planet from a new perspective, and connects participants with a powerful global movement to reclaim our future.

It is an exploration of four questions:

Where Are We? - an examination of the state of environmental, social and personal well-being
How Did We Get Here? - tracing the root causes that lead to our current imbalance
What's Possible for the Future? - discovering new ways of relating with each other, with the Earth and looking at the emerging Movement for change
Where Do We Go from Here? - considering the stand we want to be in the world and our personal and collective impact

If you are ready to be disturbed, inspired and moved to action, and to be introduced to a thriving community of committed cohorts, then join us in exploring the most critical concerns of our times, and discover new opportunities to make a real difference in accelerating the emergence of an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, and socially just human presence on this planet!

The New Dream
The Old Dream is dying. Its demise becomes inevitable as we discover the devastation we’ve caused to our own planet home, as we count the rising cost of our inhumanity to each other and as we see how our current way of living fails to deliver lasting happiness. All of these are the inevitable conclusions of an old dream rooted in acquisition, consumption and putting personal gain above communal good.

The New Dream is emerging! It's community, collaboration; it's life-enhancing and earth-honoring; it's together and for our grand-children, rather than Supersize me Now! So we’re seeing the largest social movement of all time, millions of people and organizations working forenvironmental sustainability, social justice and spiritual fulfillment, three facets of a new dream for humanity and planet Earth.

For more information, contact Mary O'Connor at oconnmar@gmail.com (415-609-9213), 

 Transition Movie Series Night

Fresh the Movie

This screening was scheduled for September 30th, but due to a scheduling conflict, we need to postpone this month's movie night to October! Sorry for any inconvenience and we hope to see you at our September 24th event with Vicki Robin!

Come join us at our next Transition Sebastopol Movie Night or the debut of the documentary film about the Transition movement at the French Garden Restaurant!

About the Movie:
In the film you will see the stories of communities creating their own currencies, setting up their own pubs, planting trees, growing food. You’ll see local authorities getting behind their local Transition initiatives, and get a sense of the scale of this emerging movement. It is a story of hope, and it is a call to action.

The film is the work of director Emma Goude, with production by Smith and Watson, and with input from Transition communities around the world.

Watch the trailer here.

FREE EVENT
donations appreciated

And please support our event hosts by bringing your appetite and ordering some of their wonderful restaurant or bar menu.

Transition Sebastopol is pleased to be co-sponsoring this event, bringing Vicki Robin, Author of Your Money or Your Life to a northern California audience.

Transition - but how?
Insights and Advice from seasoned sustainability activist, and author Vicki Robin
 
We've heard the bad news. Peak oil, peak gas, peak water, peak everything. Climate Change. And as for the economic meltdown, we hear stories every day about people losing their jobs and pensions and savings.
 
What's the good news? Is it that Obama's on the job? That the economy is "coming back"? Or is it what you can do in your personal economy and what your community can do to transition to a way of life that's rich, secure and prosperous - no matter what happens "out there"?
 

Come join us at our next Transition Sebastopol Movie Night at the French Garden Restaurant!

About the Movie:
Since World War II North Americans have invested much of their newfound wealth in suburbia. It has promised a sense of space, affordability, family life and upward mobility. As the population of suburban sprawl has exploded in the past 50 years, so too has the suburban way of life become embedded in the American consciousness.

Suburbia, and all it promises, has become the American Dream.

But as we enter the 21st century, serious questions are beginning to emerge about the sustainability of this way of life. With brutal honesty and a touch of irony, The End of Suburbia explores the American Way of Life and its prospects as the planet approaches a critical era, as global demand for fossil fuels begins to outstrip supply. World Oil Peak and the inevitable decline of fossil fuels are upon us now, some scientists and policy makers argue in this documentary.

The consequences of inaction in the face of this global crisis are enormous. What does Oil Peak mean for North America? As energy prices skyrocket in the coming years, how will the populations of suburbia react to the collapse of their dream? Are today's suburbs destined to become the slums of tomorrow? And what can be done NOW, individually and co

Watch the trailer here.

Come join us at our next Transition Sebastopol Movie Night at the French Garden Restaurant!

We are once again inviting special guests to join us in our post movie lively discussion!

Special Guest: Barry Vesser, Deputy Director at the Climate Protection Campaign. Sonoma County's Climate Protection Campaign is at the forefront of innovative Climate Change Education and Action, such as their Community Action Plan! Barry will join us to update us on local and national climate issues and opportunities as well as answer some of your questions and ponderings associated with "The Inconvenient Truth."

About the Movie:
Director Davis Guggenheim eloquently weaves the science of global warming with Mr. Gore's personal history and lifelong commitment to reversing the effects of global climate change.  A longtime advocate for the environment, Gore presents a wide array of facts and information in a thoughtful and compelling way.  "Al Gore strips his presentations of politics, laying out the facts for the audience to draw their own conclusions in a charming, funny and engaging style, and by the end has everyone on the edge of their seats, gripped by his haunting message," said Guggenheim.  An Inconvenient Truth is not a story of despair but rather a rallying cry to protect the one earth we all share.  "It is now clear that we face a deepening global climate crisis that requires us to act boldly, quickly, and wisely," said Gore.

Watch the trailer here.

Official movie web site with great background info here.

~ FREE EVENT ~
donations appreciated

Location:
The French Garden Restaurant
8050 Bodega Avenue, Sebastopol (map)

Come join us at our next Transition Sebastopol Movie Night at the French Garden Restaurant!

We are inviting members of the local electric-powered vehicle community to join us in our post movie lively discussion!

Guests will include:

• Ross Randrup of eMotors and possibly other electric vehicle business owners from the Blue Sky Mall, the former Ford dealership in town (read an article about it here!),
• Dan Smith of the French Garden Farm and its electric tractor conversion project
• and Transition Sebastopol's own Nancy Goddard, electric bike enthusiast and rep for Electric Star bikes.

Who Killed the Electric Car? is a 2006 documentary film that explores the creation, limited commercialization, and subsequent destruction of the battery electric vehicle in the United States, specifically the General Motors EV1 of the 1990s. The film explores the roles of automobile manufacturers, the oil industry, the US government, the Californian government, batteries, hydrogen vehicles, and consumers in limiting the development and adoption of this technology.
(additional synopsis details below).

Watch the trailer here.

You can also visit the Sony Pictures informational site offering facts and figures about electric vehicles here.

FREE EVENT
~donations appreciated

Location:
The French Garden Restaurant
8050 Bodega Avenue, Sebastopol (map)

Come join us at our next Transition Sebastopol Movie Night at the French Garden Restaurant!

We are inviting members of the local CSA & farming community to join us in our post movie lively discussion!

Guests include: Paul Kaiser from Singing Frog Farm, Dan Smith of the French Garden Restaurant & Farm, Nathan Boone from First Light Farm, Laurel Anderson, farm manager at Salmon Creek Middle School.

Screening: The Real Dirt on Farmer John

Follows Farmer John’s astonishing journey from farm boy to counter-culture rebel to the son who almost lost the family farm to a beacon of today’s booming organic farming movement and founder of one of the nation’s largest Community Supported Agriculture farms. The result is a tale that ebbs and flows with the fortunes of the soil and revealingly mirrors the changing American times. At once funny and stirring, what drives the film’s powerful appeal is the way in which it digs up “real dirt” not only about the tragedy of losing our traditional American family farms but about what really makes for an original American life - one lived, on a man’s own terms, in balance with the land, through hardships and unexpected triumphs, with creativity and verve.

Watch the trailer here.

FREE EVENT
~donations appreciated as a screening
fee applies to the showing of this film~

Location:
The French Garden Restaurant
8050 Bodega Avenue, Sebastopol (map)

Please note: The event time has been moved forward to 6pm to allow attendees to leave and attend the Sebastopol Town Hall on Water Conservation at 7pm. Read details of the Town Hall event here.

We're on the precipice of global disasters of our own making that could forever undermine our ability to survive and thrive on this planet. But we're also on the threshold of awesome and entirely unexpected possibilities that could unleash our largely hidden potential.
 
For this to happen, we will need to talk plainly with each other about the seemingly bewildering situation we face, and quickly make some very clear decisions together.

Join Transition Sebastopol and Special Guests Michael Brownlee (Transition Boulder County) & David Johnson (Transition Portland) for this powerful introduction to the inspiring Transition movement, and learn how you can become involved in helping our community to carve out a pathway to freedom from fossil fuel dependence and to develop local resilience and self-reliance in the face of global crises.

Saturday, May 16, Salmon Creek School, 1935 Bohemian Hwy in Freestone

Join Transition Sebastopol for A Celebration of All Things Fermented
A Catalytic Community Celebration Joining Culture with Agriculture

Featuring crafters of the fermented arts, farmers, neighborhood health care & volunteer organizations (such as Transition Sebastopol!!)