Denver March Meeting Notes

TALers converged March 10th at Hooked on Colfax in the Bluebird District for an interesting discussion with Taj Moore on the  social photography experiment called the “postmodern photosafari.” Postmodern photosafaris are field trips where people go take pictures where they don’t usually think to or have access to.  Past photosafaris include San Francisco’s Chinatown, a research ship, Denver’s own Colfax Avenue, and the Denver Stock Show.

Taj’s work on photosafaris has created some interesting community experiences in which typical perceptions of everyday places and everyday people shift.  A back alley on Colfax becomes a special landscape … a woman gets her photograph taken by 3 different people with varying perspectives at various times of day … something interesting happens with these perspectives. And with a community gallery showing  following the Colfax Photosafari, Taj saw a convergence of community participants  and their loved ones connecting to hear each other’s stories while appreciating the photos.

Taj presented on the Colfax Photosafari in Pecha Kucha format, “a presentation format in which content can be easily, efficiently and informally shown, usually at a public event designed for that purpose. Under the format, a presenter shows 20 images for 20 seconds apiece, for a total time of 6 minutes, 40 seconds (Wikipedia)”. Taj’s version was actually five minutes, but the Q & A period lasted much longer with everyone’s questions and observations.

For more information about the next social photography event on Colfax you can email Taj: taj (a) gmail.com or go to ColfaxLove.com.

Please join us for the next Abundance League gathering in Denver Tuesday, April 14th at Hooked on Colfax, where we’ll share passions, needs, and gifts and hear from presenters Todd Siler, PhD and Scott “The Mayor” Perlman on the realization of their passion project and consultative enterprise Think Like a Genius.

Name: Tess Wolterstorff – spent 2008 on Obama campaign, very intense

Passions: trying to figure out her passions at this point, starting college in Fall
Needs: need health back, good mental state
Gifts: have time, plenty of time, if anyone needs help, she is available.

Name: Christy
Passions: Finding new people to expand her world, figuring out what her next business plan is and how to implement her ideas by breaking them apart – no distractions.
Needs: Wants to meet exciting people and learn exciting things; help her with her passions.
Gifts: Help with little projects, IT skills, energy!

Name: Andrew with nice glasses
Passions: new passion for the outdoors – camping and backpacking. Breathing! Full big breaths – yum yum travel is cool – the unknown traveler … photography
Needs: explore photography further and a forum to do that.
Gifts: wants us to check in with our breathing and walk for 5 minutes

Name: John Shapiro
Passions: how people work together, vs. divide. Starting organization “cooperation”. Cooperativeaction.org
Needs: finding folks to join him in his passion. Wants to get insights on getting things to completion.
Gifts: good at breaking things down, organizing.

Name: Taj Moore
Passions: Abundance League; social networking; photography; post-modern photo safari
Needs: how to make creation of new Abundance League chapters an easier process, specifically want wordpress plugins to work; want to make more money then spend on photography; looking for realtors that sell mountain properties so he can rent cowboy art to decorate
Gifts: can help with project marketing, how to create social networking/meet the right people/create serendipity; can take photos

Name: Susan Coates
Passions: Contact Improvisation—shared weight between people, the personal + group dynamics that manifest in the practice of CI.
Needs: Has helped build a strong CI community, laboratory, etc. in Boulder … but wants to have something close to home in Denver, to be local. Needs to start a Denver lab, to get more people involved in CI in Denver. Needs a massage, like, really bad. Needs infrastructure build around her projects to create ease … facilitators for tAL, people to bring back success stories for tAL.
Gifts: Facilitation of a retreat container for individuals in tAL: how to get back to who you are, grieving process, strategy … whatever is your need in a retreat.

Name: Elizabeth Weiland
Passions: Creating dialogue around issues of importance (Insight Speaker Series – dialogues on world issues)
Needs: Get a job, get paid, get a job that has social relevance, economic engines of turning green in Colorado
Gifts: Business planner/white boarder: help with visionary mapping in order to organize ideas.