Session 2 Projects, 2009
During Session 2, each camper joins a project group. We spend some time on each of five mornings working together in these small groups (for a total of 9 hours). Towards the end of the week, we devote part of an evening to show-and-tell so everybody can see what everybody else has been up to.
In past years, this page was necessary for campers to make their tentative choices, prior to camp, about which project they wanted to participate in. Now it's just here for fun--campers have already selected their first, second, and third choice via our registration database.
Build a cob prayer and meditation hut with Dawn Smith
Adventuring in the Outdoors with Jasmine Sheldon
Collaboratively write and perform a song with Nathen Lester.
Seasonal Livin'!with Blake Boles
Exalted Yoga with Abbi Miller
Close Encounters of the NBTSC Kind with Grace Llewellyn
Make a Musical with Maggie Levin and Zen Zenith
The Magic of Blue with Tilke Elkins
The Magic of Blue
Led by Tilke Elkins
Since Maya can't come to camp this year, she posed for Tilke's project instead, 3 years in advance, while attending Tilke's and Nick's wedding.
Rare in nature (excepting the sky, of course) and abundant in the human world of synthetic colors, blue is a color that carries a certain mystery with it. But what is blue, really? This project will be a total immersion in the color BLUE.
DAY ONE: What IS Blue?
What’s the difference between a blue stone and a blue feather? Why are there so few blue foods? What makes the sky blue? Are blue eyes really blue? Can people have blue skin? Why would a blue flower suddenly turn pink? Can you make paint from blue baboons? Why do some people always associate the color blue with the number four? How many words are there to describe the color blue?
These and other blue mysteries will unravel before your eyes. Day One is a day of play and experimentation with the color blue (two science experiments, a short scavenger hunt, and a personal exploration of the color blue.)
DAY TWO: The Art of Blue
Just what IS paint, anyway? On this day, we will make two kinds of blue paint: egg tempera paint and bees-wax paint. You’ll learn the trials and tribulations that artists and alchemists have gone through in their search for blue paint, and see examples of several different blue pigments used in the past, including Egyptian blue, the first synthetic paint ever made. You will make your own blue painting.
DAY THREE: Becoming Blue
The Tuareg people are a desert tribe in Africa that has long been referred to as the “Blue People” thanks to the bluish tinge that their indigo-dyed headscarves give their skin. Indigo is a green plant that yeilds a deep and beautiful blue only after undergoing a rather involved fermentation process. If the blue dieties smile on us, we’ll complete the process successfully, and dye cloth blue (and perhaps ourselves as well). We’ll also experiment with indigo body paint, henna’s lesser-known cousin.
DAY FOUR: Blue Collaboration
A Temple to Blue, A Blue Banquet, A Blue Performance, A Blue Transformation? Which will it be? As Devotees of Blue, we will decide together.
WHO MIGHT ENJOY THIS PROJECT
Here are a few descriptive sentences which may or may not apply to YOU:
You are curious about color.
You would like to eat color.
You have always wanted to make your own paint, from scratch.
Your letters have colors.
You like to paint.
You enjoy dipping cloth into steaming vats of color.
You want to be blue. I mean physically, not emotionally.
You suspect that color has hidden secrets.
WHO IS ME
When I was nine I opened a paint factory on a pile of boulders behind a horse barn. This involved using a big rock to smash the most colorful pebbles I could find, then mixing the colored dust with water. I was on to something.
I spent this past year doing forty-two large paintings for a book I wrote all about a girl who lives in a floating house and makes her own paint and eats very colorful food from her roof-garden. So I have been thinking about color a lot, and painting and drawing a lot.
I have spent my life so far in love with both color and the grass-trees-sky-plants-stones-water-animals of the world, and how they feel and look. And how the human way of looking changes them. I also love feeling part of a tribe with a Secret Mission that makes all sorts of extremes and heroic sacrifices completely worthwhile.
Make a Musical
led by Maggie Levin (with assistance from Zen Zenith)
Photo: Maggie's 2007 production of Hair.
When you think of theatre, what springs to mind? Shakespeare? Tennesse Williams? Rent?
To me, the beauty of theatre is that it is so many things, and comes in so many different forms. The theatre I have made has always contained music, and more often than not, has taken the form of a full-tilt-boogie Broadway-style musical.
In this project, we will be working collaboratively to create and perform an original musical. This begins with brainstorming on plots and themes to write a story - real, surreal, or completely fantastical - and playing games that build a "group mind." From there, we'll create scenes, songs, and see what happens! The incredible Zen will be joining us to facilitate the songwriting process.
Theatre-buffs and brand newbies are all welcome - the only requirement is a willingness to jump in and get creative.
Every show I've written and produced has been a different process and has sprung entirely from the spirit of the group, and I can't wait to see what happens here.
Maggie's relevant background/theatre bio: Maggie is the founding artistic director of The Real Theatre Company in New York City. Favorite projects as director include HAIR (The Acorn at Theatre Row; co-produced by writer Jim Rado), Waiting for Godot, The Tempest: Remixed, the short film “Guidance” (Winner of NBC’s “Freaks and Geeks” Film Contest), and Alice Through the Subway System. She is the book writer for the new musical US, with music & lyrics by Peter Gabriel, and co-writer for the Heart musical ALLIES. She is in love with the process of making theatre and expanding her 'theatre family' across the globe.
Photo of Maggie by Arthur Elgort.
Exalted Yoga
led by Abbi Miller
Last year's Frisky Yoga (pictured here) returns with a face-lift! This project will contain the same pizzaz and buoyancy of last year's yoga project, but with a new theme: Chakras. We will focus on these incredible energy channels in our bodies, and learn how to access them, relate and celebrate!
Each class will be focused on a certain Chakra, and all of its delighted accoutrements; emotions, gods and diety's, seed sounds, movements, organs, desires, chants, elements, and COLORS! At each class we will be dressing in accordance to the Chakra of the day! All embraced by a cosmic musical playlist.
Yoga is a beautiful tool for healing, and empowerment. It is a practice through which we can celebrate the body as a temple. Yoga acts as a giant mirror, and allows us to explore our inner workings, strengthen our sense of self, and to connect to the Divine love that we all are, and join in the ecstatic harmony of the universe!
** If you plan on attending this workshop, please bring clothes that are the following colors: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue/Indigo/Violet. **
No yoga experience is necessary, but you MUST have the desire to get groovin' and SWEATY! Come join the big ole' yoga party, peeps!
Abbi's relevant background: Abbi has studied dance
since age 7, and is in love with movement. She began
practicing yoga in NYC at the Laughing Lotus Yoga
Center, and felt a mind-body connection that was
unparalleled in dance. Since then, she has studied
all over the globe from the beaches of Maui to classes
in Korea. She recently completed her training, and is
now a Certified Karma Kids Yoga instructor!
Adventuring in the Outdoors
led by Jasmine Sheldon
There's something incredibly satisfying to me about spending a morning hiking and then lying down in what feels like the middle of nowhere, letting the sounds of birds or wind in the trees or just silence fill the air around me.
Okay, so not every wilderness experience is as serene as that. But I love hiking. I also love exploring new places, figuring out where I am and where I want to go and how to get there. This project is appropriately titled Adventuring in the Outdoors because that is exactly what we'll be doing. We'll spend each day hiking a short/moderate distance near Camp Myrtlewood and focusing on a specific theme in regards to the outdoors. Our themes are subject to slight changes, but will probably be as follows:
Day One: Where am I? Navigating your way from here to there.
Day Two: Can I eat that delicious-looking red berry? Plant identification basics.
Day Three: Help! I have no tent! Making survival shelters.
Day Four: Is that a leaf or a painting? Nature photography for everyone.
We'll spend most of our time together being curious explorers and gaining (or honing) skills from how to use a compass to taking artful photographs of an ant. Basically it's gonna be an amazing five days.
This is a non-committed project, but the more often you come, the more you'll get out of it.
Things to bring if you have them: Digital cameras (especially nice if you have the means to transfer them onto a computer), compass, a small tarp, sturdy shoes to hike in. An adventuresome attitude.
Jasmine's relevant background: My favorite word is adventure. In my life I spend a lot of time exploring and learning about the outdoors. I grew up in a small town in Alaska where I spent my childhood hiking, building forts and playing in the woods. In the years since I have become an avid all weather bike commuter, back country skier enthusiast, backpacker, hiker, rock climber, wanna be white water kayaker, and will jump at the chance to learn new skills and hone the ones I already have by going on outdoor adventures of all kinds. Over the past two years I have been teaching rock climbing to people of all ages through a climbing gym in Seattle and have also been working with a non-profit organization called Passages Northwest both as a mentor for their GirlsRock! program and instructor for their girl's wilderness programs during the summer. I spent 2006-2007 working with homeless youth and young adults in the Seattle area by supporting them in figuring out what they needed in order to lead the lives they wanted to live; I did this by taking folks kayaking, camping, sailing, rowing, rafting, snowboarding, climbing, and bicycling while engaging them in meaningful reflection about their lives. In short I love to be outside and want to share my enthusiasm with you!
Seasonal Livin'!
led by Blake Boles
Are you fast approaching young adult independence but unready to "settle down" and work in a single location? Do you crave travel, adventure, new people, and new places? Do you love the outdoors, working with kids, or ridiculously long road trips? If so, SEASONAL LIVIN' is for you!
In this uncommitted project, you'll gain stories, ideas, and inspirations for living a seasonal, outdoor, on-the-road lifestyle for 3 months or 3 years. Each day of the project will address a different practical topic, including:
* Finding summer and winter work opportunities (e.g. summer camps, backpacking trip leading, national parks, ski resorts, whitewater guiding)
* Finding spring and fall work opportunities (e.g. outdoor science schools, wilderness therapy, cooking positions, cruise ships)
* Planning and executing awesome adventures (both domestic and international), taking advantage of specific seasons (e.g. South America in the winter, Southeast Asia in the spring, Alaska in the summer, California in the fall)
* Creating a temporary home for yourself in a city (e.g. using craigslist to find a room, furniture, and job; starting a small business; staying with friends, family, or couchsurfing)
* Keeping your life in order: managing mailing addresses, credit cards, cars, personal effects, and taxes
* Creating community while on the road
This project is appropriate for any campers with an itch to explore the world and avoid the 9-to-5, 50-week-a-year lifestyle in their early adult years. If you have experience in any of the above listed topics, please join and share your stories! The project will largely be discussion-based. As an uncommitted project, you may drop in for any of the days that you would like.
BLAKE BOLES has been livin' seasonally since 2005. He has worked at multiple summer camps, many outdoor science schools, one ski resort, a few restaurants, and (self-employed) as an academic tutor and Unschool Adventures trip leader. He has lived in San Diego, Portland, San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, Los Angeles, and New Hampshire, and traveled across South America, Western Europe, and every nook and cranny of the west coast.
Close Encounters of the NBTSC Kind
led by Grace Llewellyn
Photo of our very own Adam and Matt, at Grace's recent housewarming party, not an exact replica of "close encounters" project, but... close enough.
NBTSC is, among many other things, a place where profound friendships begin and grow. In our project time together we’ll create a safe haven where we can enjoy sharing ourselves and getting to know each other.
Along the way, we’ll develop skills for expressing ourselves in ways that allow others to really feel who we are, and for listening to others and drawing them out. And we’ll do a lot of fun stuff, such as
· play crazy icebreaking games
· have “show and tell”
· talk about the things and ideas we’re passionate about, and/or about projects we’re working on
· perform for each other
· tell stories from our lives
· have the opportunity to share a few things we usually hide from others
· answer the question “how are you?” in real time ~ a practice that often yields unexpectedly profound results
This project is for you if you love to see others and be seen as you really are, and if you are willing to stretch your comfort zone a little. No need to be an extrovert, but you will sometimes be coached or given suggestions for making deeper contact as you share.
Although everyone will be invited to share openly, you will not be pressured to reveal anything about yourself you don’t feel comfortable disclosing. However, please only sign up if you can respectfully and open-mindedly listen to people who do choose to share intimately about themselves.
No need to bring any special supplies, but you might like to have with you:
~An item for show and tell (a photo, something you made, something you found—anything with a story)
~A creative project you’re working on, and that you’d like feedback on or would simply like to share
~A talent show act – can be the same thing you’re doing for the regular camp talent show, or not.
Grace’s relevant background:
Grace loves getting to know people, and sometimes finds herself too busy at camp to do as much of that as she’d like—hence, she’s carving out these 9 hours of her life expressly for that purpose. The main thing she’ll be bringing to this project is her curiosity about you. She will also be drawing on her background/skills/experience in
~Many many personal growth experiments and workshops, including a lot of seriously hardcore time in radical honesty world.
~Performing as a bellydancer, gradually learning how to connect with an audience, and teaching other performing artists to do the same
~And 45 years of learning from her mistakes and successes in getting to know other humans, and helping them get to know her.
build a cob prayer & meditation hut
led by Dawn Smith
Photos are from our previous years on this project. 
Do you like the feeling of mud between your toes and building new things? What about laughing with friends as you help birth a new small building at Camp Mrytlewood? Come and join us for the Cob Meditation Hut project!
This project was born in 2005 when Dawn's passionate interest and background in Natural Building, crossed over with Camp Myrtlewood's desire for a small back-country hut for prayer and meditation. NBTSC Campers and other volunteers have been hard at work on it ever since--from the rubble trench foundation, to the doors, windows and walls. Last year we finished the cob walls, built and installed the roof rafters, and set the large window in. The hut is nearing completion! Likely tasks we can finish this year
* let's put the roof on!
* or do a finish plaster coat, to bring out the shine and colour inside and out
* a cozy cob bench that curves into the wall
* making and pouring the earthen floor to keep our feet dry clean and happy
Along with finishing the hut, we will explore the principles and reasons behind Natural Building- the way of building with the earth instead of against it. Anyone is encouraged to attend this workshop--no experience necessary!
Check out http:http://www.sgnb.com/see/all for more pictures of cob houses.
Make sure you bring a water bottle, and clothes--ideally including work gloves--that you are comfortable getting muddy in.
Dawn's relevant background: Dawn is a former NBTSC camper (and staffer) and a life-long unschooler. Dawn is currently working at Emerald Earth in northern California building a new community house for a small intentional community. Dawn is crazy geeky about natural building, composting toilets, hot water heating, and living out the vision that we can make the world a better place by building better houses.
Collaborative Songwriting
led by Nathen Lester
Photos are from previous years' editions of the same project.
In this project our group -- in the past usually between ten and fifteen campers -- will learn to play together as a band, on whatever instruments we have available. We will create a piece of music to perform for the camp, with each camper playing a part arranged specifically for their instrument and level of expertise. In the process, we'll hone our playing and listening skills. In the past four years it's been really fun and we’ve had a cool song to perform. Often, the whole camp spontaneously dances while we play!
It is not necessary to bring an instrument but it is helpful. It's not necessary to have any experience playing music with other people. Consider signing up even if you haven't played music before, but be willing to work hard at it for the hours that we have together.
Nathen's relevant background: "I've been playing in bands for over 30 years, and writing music for almost 20 and it's been one of my most consistent sources of joy. It's been especially gratifying to do this music project and help campers learn how to play with other musicians. Some of the participants have gotten inspired to start bands of their own."