Those of you who have been following my blog since around 2009 will remember that myself and Nikki Pugh once ran a hackerspace in Birmingham called fizzPOP. Actually, calling it a hacker_space_ was a bit of a stretch as we never had our own permanent, access-any-hour space and always relied on organisations such as VIVID, Birmingham Friends of the Earth and Friction Arts for space to hold our fortnightly meetings (thanks!).
Fast-forward to 2012/2013 and a new group of brave people have taken over the running of fizzPOP and, in July 2013, acquired an actual space!
[caption id="" align=“alignnone” caption=“The Family play a sing song. Photo by The Family”]
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On Thursday 5th November I was once again part of The Family for The Event. There’s something I really like about dressing in dungarees - which I haven’t done since I was about 10 - and marching around Digbeth! Other highlights include dropping in on an event about saftey in the community where we rescued some puppets and eating blue food, which tastes loads better than its plain counterpart
Tomorrow I’ll be joining The Family at Birmingham Backpackers in Digbeth to take part in the activities as part of The Event. Ana summarises it all rather nicely:
…we’ll be spending the next 5 days changing our name every 6 hours, wearing hand decorated dungarees, playing thought-stopping games, eating brightly coloured food, asking questions, strengthening our Dantien, collective dreaming, strumming red, yellow, green and blue ukuleles, finding portals, calling rainbows, going to the top, chanting punk meditation, making friends, sleeping in pods, giving out flowers, love-bombing, and having all the fun we can cram into the day.