How to Build a Fire: Community Building

September 27, 2019
8pm

This September, How To Build A Fire is getting back to the project’s core. Our theme is, “community building.” Through the oral tradition, we defy the disconnect that our world demands, and here at HTBAF, we think that is worth some confetti!

At the gallery this month, we will be in and around “Spalding,” the gorgeous installation by Maximiliano Siñani. His work is an exploration of the things that define us and the actions that develop around them. He has developed a confetti-making machine to map the journey of this celebratory mess from Italian Carnival through its migration to South American festivals. In the same way that confetti is now an international symbol of celebration, the Spalding basketball is as synonymous with the NBA as the neighborhood court, leaving traces of connection, community and culture in each bounce.

Human beings strive to build connections and community through actions that are deliberate, conscious. And sometimes those communities are formed completely without thinking. Through small rituals of coffee getting and storytelling, game playing and food eating, we welcome strangers and family alike to build a rhythm of larger, broader connection that holds our smaller individual lives together. Those actions we take to make the glue that builds community — singing in unison and building teams for neighborhood basketball — are the things quiet, local traditions are made of.

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The How to Build a Fire storytelling series was created five years ago by poet Terence Degnan. Each month, a diverse group of individuals share personal narratives centered around a theme. Their stories weave together an illustration of the human experience. This year’s hosts are Christina Marks and Stacie Evans.

How to Build a Fire takes place at Open Source Gallery — a welcoming, nurturing, intimate, safe environment, a participant-driven art initiative that provides space, community and conceptual context for creative play and critical commentary.

Come share space with us, with the neighborhood, with Siñani’s work. Come get some confetti — and stories — in your hair!