Amanda believes that the real wealth of Portland is the people who live here, and the environment we share, envision, and create. She is currently seeking election to the Portland City Council, to fill the Commissioner position being vacated by Sam Adams. Amanda is also a longtime City Repair supporter. (More)

Lydia has been building since she first stole her sister’s legos at age three. She operates Flying Hammer Productions, a natural building construction company and facilitates a variety of workshop from mudslinging to carpentry for women. You can usually find her in the mud, wrestling straw bales or just flying around by the seat of her pants... (More)

Since 2001, Jenny has weaved her energy into a variety of community sustainability projects around Portland. With The City Repair Project, she co-founded the Village Building Convergence, facilitated Placemaking projects and workshops in dozens of communities in Portland and across the U.S, co-authored the 170-page Neighborhood Placemaking Guidebook and coordinated City Repair’s T-Horse and VisionPDX projects. Now, as Board member and Placemaking Program coordinator, she is helping City Repair evolve its unique programs for neighborhood transformation.

Last year, Jenny built upon these experiences and developed her own year-long tour of the U.S. and Africa, traveling as a “cross-pollinator” in order to explore the emerging ecosystem of grassroots changemakers, and building momentum through the interactions among the individual components. Now, Jenny has returned to Portland to weave the art and science of cross-pollination into Portland’s vibrant critical mass of changemakers. She is facilitating a year-long project among social justice and ecological changemakers of all types that fosters powerful linkages of communication and understanding without having to formally align organizations in mission, value or language, or create a new coalition or organization. (More)

afrobeat/ funk

Jujuba is an 11-piece Afrobeat and Juju band featuring master talking drum player, Nojeem Lasisi. The powerful and melodic beat from Nojeem’s drum catalyzes pure Afrofunk energy between Jujuba’s horn, rhythm and percussion sections. Nasty lines and soulful solos blare from the four-piece horn section. Bass, keys, guitar and drum kit forge a funky backbone rhythm section. An explosive percussion section with flavors ranging from West Africa, Cuba and Brazil ignite the dance floor. The result: a sound that is irresistibly danceable. Check out Jujuba for more details and our new album...

(members of Signal Path + Surrounded By Ninjas)

Surrounded By Ninjas
create danceable-yet-thoughtful, forward-thinkin-yet retro electronic music that blends composition and improvisation. Pulsating basslines and beats, virtuosic keyboards, and spoken word samples cut by a turntable are augmented by blips, bleeps, and breaks forming a crushingly intense sound experience. Surrounded By Ninjas

VBC8 Core, “The Big Picture of VBC8”