Our Southeast four-day tour of “Running On Local” launched at the Virginia Key GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance, just over the bridge from South Miami to Key Biscayne, on February 22th, 2013.
Stunning. Track that girl down. http://www.amackdavis.com/amackdavis/Home.html
On Saturday and Sunday afternoon we held court at the Sustainability Tent to talk about the re-localizing movement, and whatever else came up.
The Saturday discussion encouraged two sisters to follow their dream and start a kale farm on their father-in-law’s property which had gone dormant and was just waiting for their spark, their initiative. They left ready and able to make it happen.
On Sunday we helped an urban window-sill gardener (a recent transplant from Russia, via Germany to Miami) find sources for heirloom varieties, and that was just one of several simultaneous fascinating conversations.
On Monday we moved on to Orlando for a fabulous evening with John Rife at East End Market and then for supper at the delightful Atherton Market, which you can read about in Lyle’s delightful entry in Energy Blog.
Then we found our way to Savannah, Ga. This was the ‘odd ball’ on our four-day book tour. This “Running on Local’ conversation was taking us from Miami, FL back to Pittsboro, NC, via Orlando and the coast of South Carolina.
Every evening was booked weeks in advance. Except one – Tuesday, February 25th.
It fell between Orlando and Beaufort, SC – and Savannah, GA would have been perfect.
First I began searching in the local food/local economy space. I looked for friends on Facebook and LinkedIn. I googled every phrase about “local and Savannah” I could think of, but found nothing. There had once been an active Slow Food chapter, but their Facebook page said they were looking for new leadership.
It was down to the last week before heading South, and I had gotten nowhere.
Then I came ac
ross my 2014 National Green Pages. Published by Green America, it comes every year, and I have never known quite what to do with it. But that day I checked the index and discovered two listings in Savannah.
The most promising was a coffee shop called The Sentient Bean. Checking their website, I discovered they have live acoustic music, and there was an online form to request to play there.
Perfect.
So I filled it in.
“We’re not a band,” I wrote, “but we’re a dynamic duo that promote local economy. We share success stories and get a lively discussion going on how to do all things local – local food, local finance, local fuel. Carol is a pioneer in the Slow Money movement, and Lyle is a maverick in the alternative fuel space. Both have written books and are great speakers. “
Then I quoted Lyle.
“In a world of doom and gloom,” remarks Estill, “where financial instruments are too complex to understand, and money moves at the speed of light, where governments are struggling to take action, and individuals are at the mercy of faceless global corporations, there are ways to localize all aspects of your life. We know. We’ve done it, and you can too.”
I filled in all the contact information, added a Facebook link to one of other events, and went to bed. The next day I found a reply in my inbox from Kristin Russell, the owner of Sentient Bean.
“Hi Carol,
We’d love to host your tour and I think we’d be a good venue. Joemy is our events manager and she is cc’d at the email above. She will contact you soon to coordinate. I’m afraid I’ll be out of town, which saddens me as I’m very interested in this topic but I’ll help promote it through the farmers’ market and the local food policy council I’m involved with.
Thank you,
Kristin”
Wow. Fabulous. I had struck gold, and great coffee. But the date we were coming through town was now only 6 days away! I didn’t hear from Joemy that day, and I was getting anxious. Then I got a reply. It took a few emails back and forth to confirm the date and time, but we had a booking!
“Good morning Carol,
Alright, you are confirmed for Tuesday Feb 25 at 5pm. I will post it on our website and include it in our events newsletter and events calendar. You are welcome to use the attached press contact sheet to send out the press release.
Please send the link to your facebook event page, and I will share via facebook as well.
Thanks,
Joemy”
By now February 25th was only 4 days out, and I was already at the GrassRoots Festival in Miami!
But I found a quiet spot, got online and went to work. Out went the Press Release to all those media outlets, and Joemy got that Facebook link.
On February 24th we rolled into Savannah. I warned Lyle that we might be the only ones at this gig, but we went on in and confidently set up a table displaying our books. Lyle made friends with an innocent guy on a couch visiting from Missouri, and cajoled him into joining us. That gave us an audience of one.
Then they started to arrive. Two elegant white-haired men who helped start a local farmers market, and Teri, fellow founder and market manager. Folks from the Savannah Urban Garden Alliance. A young woman interested in organic farming, a landscape architect, and a woman in town from Toronto who paid Lyle for a book in Canadian currency. We added an extra table, then another, then another, to fit in about a dozen movers and shakers in the local food scene.
To the roaring of the coffee grinder we managed a fabulous conversation. We got a sense of the local economy movement in Savannah, and we shared what we thought might be helpful.
We sold a few books, and we made an appointment to go check out Thinc Savannah, a cooperative office space, the next morning. Out of that meeting came an offer to bring us back to town for a longer program, possibly as part of a day-long conference in May.
We left Savannah enthralled by the people and the places we had seen.
Lyle says “relentless touring” is the only way you make it as a performer. That means no nights off when you are on the road. No skipping Savannah.
I was pretty pleased with myself for pulling that gig out of my hat. But once I found Kristen, she really earned much of the credit. And then there was that National Green Pages, thanks to Green America.
I have been a loyal member of Green America since back in the 70’s. when it was Coop America. It’s no surprise that they know everyone who’s anyone! Next time I’ll remember to look there first.
The day of the event I had got another email from Kristin:
“Hi Carol,
I’ve promoted via the Farmers’ Market, the local community radio folks, the coffee party, and a couple other progressive social groups. I just posted the poster on the Bean’s Facebook (I think!) which is the first time I’ve ever done that:) I hope you have a great, fun crowd and I’m sure I’ll run into you soon somewhere. Thank you so much for finding us!
Kristin”
And thank you, Kristen.
All that effort for a couple of sustainability vagabonds who were coming through town? Impressive – and I’m grateful.
Kristen is clearly a powerful networker in her community, and I look forward to meeting her. She has a delightful, welcoming coffee shop that serves as a meeting space for folks like us.
Lyle says we got the gig by my “sheer force of will.” I say we are all longing for a more resilient local economy, and when we find each other, we make good stuff happen.
Thank you Savannah.
I hope to be back in your town again soon.
