Early this morning I listened to a recently aired episode of This American Life called "Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory." Mike Daisey, a storyteller by trade, travels to Shenzhen, China to learn about the people who make Apple products at the FoxConn factory-- a massive facility that makes a range of electronic products. Mr. Daisey ends up exploring additional factories that make much of we consume here in U.S.
Early this morning I listened to a recently aired episode of This American Life called "Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory." Mike Daisey, a storyteller by trade, travels to Shenzhen, China to learn about the people who make Apple products at the FoxConn factory-- a massive facility that makes a range of electronic products. Mr.Read more
A meadow, a green ribbon, a land river-- a place for releasing, collecting, gathering, tending, smelling, rotting, cultivating. It is a sponge, a filter, the lungs, the liver of this neighborhood.
We had an inspirational afternoon elevated above 11th street on the old Reading Viaduct. More to come...
Finding the fun in decision-making is serious business.
In the past couple of weeks we have played our decision-making game with two groups. Unexpectedly, playing the game led to building far stronger relationships with these organizations. Not only did we learn about the groups but they learned about us and they learned how we came to create the game.Read more
Our new early warning system: The Canary Tool (prototype)
At the Action Mill, we believe in facing hard conversations head on. Sometimes, in the space of those conversations, one of us may have a nagging sense that we are being lead in the wrong direction, or that something is just off in the way we are approaching the problem.Read more
In Spain, Meaningful Action means building a democracy on the street.
Almost exactly a year ago, The Action Mill was in Spain participating in Manifesta 8, a European contemporary art biennial. We were conflicted about participating in a big cultural event that was siphoning money away from local arts institutions, but we decided to try to use the opportunity to investigate how we could work with some of the affected local groups directly. Read more
With sites like Kiva and Kickstarter, microlending has become a term we are familiar with. It is a way of supporting people in poverty and cultural producers (respectively) on an incredibly small scale. Together, however, these small loans are able to make a difference in people's lives, for both the lender and the borrower, without the intervention of traditional funding and lending organizations. Read more
The Fundred Project aims to de-lead New Orleans by changing the exchange rate.
The Fundred Dollar Bill Project was started by artist Mel Chin when he visited New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina. Mel realized that the hurricane was only the latest disaster to hit the city, and he started talking with people about the grossly elevated levels of lead in the soil – levels that are doing serious damage to children every day. Read more
Creating a public park takes years of planning and work. Or, you could use a quarter.
Rebar, A San Francisco art collective, started converting parking spaces into temporary public parks back in 2005. They discovered a loophole in the San Francisco County legal code that leaves open the possibility of occupying a metered space with something other than a car.Read more
The Fundred Dollar Bill Project was started by artist Mel Chin when he visited New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina. Mel realized that the hurricane was only the latest disaster to hit the city, and he started talking with people about the grossly elevated levels of lead in the soil – levels that are doing serious damage to children every day. 
