Popular Education, Community Organizing and Cooperative Economics ft. PODER Emma
This year’s Second Annual Robert Swann Lecture will feature Andrea Golden of Poder Emma, a community ownership and cooperative development organization of Asheville, NC . Andrea will deliver her lecture, “Community Not For Sale: Popular Education, Community Organizing and Cooperative Economics,” on Saturday, March 30th, at 3:00 pm EDT. The lecture takes place in the Barn at Race Brook Lodge in Sheffield, MA, and will be followed by a Q&A.
About the Robert Swann Lecture Series:
This series was inaugurated in 2023 in honor of Robert Swann, founder of the E. F. Schumacher Society, now the Schumacher Center for a New Economics. Bob Swann brought the pragmatic skills of a builder to his lifelong commitment to community and decentralized economics as a pathway to peace and ecological harmony. His 1960s civil rights work led to an effort to secure land for African-American farmers, serving as a model for the Community Land Trust movement.
Later on, in the Berkshires, Swann continued his work as a pioneer and advocate of Community Land Trusts as well as local currency initiatives— democratic tools for place-based economic transformation. The Swann Lectures provide a platform to those who embody Bob’s practical activism and who lead by example, advancing community-based economic transformation toward a just and regenerative future.
DINNER RESERVATIONS AT THE STAGECOACH TAVERN
Saturday, March 30th
3-4:30pm
In the Barnspace at Race Brook Lodge
864 South Undermountain road ( AKA Rt 41 ) Sheffield, MAThis Event is Free to the Public
Race Brook Lodge is a hidden gem in The Berkshires, at the foot of Mt. Race and a short hike from the Appalachian trail. The yoga & event barn at Race Brook is simultaneously rustic and sublime, steeped in hundreds of years of New England history. The Stagecoach Tavern is unpretentious fine dining, exquisite farm-to-table cuisine in a relaxed atmosphere. Much of the food is sourced from Race Farm, right on the property!
Andrea Golden is a popular educator deeply committed to cooperative economics and building collective power. She is Co-Director and founder of PODER Emma Community Ownership, co-founder of Cenzontle Language Justice Cooperative as well as Dulce Lomita mobile home park cooperative, where she lives in western North Carolina with her partner and three children.
PODER Emma develops community ownership and works to stop gentrification and displacement in the Emma neighborhood outside of Asheville, North Carolina. Asheville’s development patterns have put mobile home communities in the crosshairs for displacement. In the face of this pressure, the Emma community has built a flourishing cooperative ecosystem that includes four worker cooperatives, four mobile home park cooperatives, and a real estate cooperative with 25,000 sq. ft of commercial property, totaling nearly 20 acres of permanently protected land and a total community investment of over $6 million.
Andrea and her neighbors’ dedication to place, and the cultivation of a sense of belonging, identity and culture have allowed for solutions that prove that, when community comes together, people can transform their lives for themselves and future generations.
More recently, PODER Emma has expanded to include a Worker Owned Cooperative Network, with four area worker-owned enterprises engaging in peer learning in areas including open book management, coaching supervision, and policy development. done A member of the national community wealth cooperative Seed Commons, PODER Emma’s loan fund has invested over $2 million in community-owned cooperative assets in the Emma neighborhood.
Come join us for the first four Wednesdays in May, 3-8pm, to experience the magic of Race Brook Lodge. Each session, led by Melanie “Poppins”, will be themed around incorporating elements of nature into our weekly theme craft, and will include programming with music, movement, and storytelling.