Well, the first goal for 2010 is to update this site more regularly (or at least, switch it up a bit so that an outdated blog isn’t the first thing you see when you come here! more on website updates later…)

Be Yr Own Hero has decided to go the 501c3 route and get nonprofit status this year. This is a decision based on these factors

1. People will be more likely to donate bicycles to our bike recyclery, Old Spoke’s Home, if they can get a tax deduction.
2. We can apply for grants to help existing and future projects
3. We can be to legit to quit.

hey hey! So I’m excited about this upcoming year. What else do you want to see Wilmington?

Hey, Heroes!

Here’s the schedule for Hero Fest 2009! See you there!

1:00 PM Slow Bike Race / Cycles in a Second: Bike Maintenance Workshop
2:00 PM Be Yr Own Reporter
3:00 PM Hero Voice
4:00 PM Radical Thinking
5:00 PM “Brake” it Down: Community Building through Synchronized Bicycling
6:00 PM Kim Dicso + POTLUCK (bring something yummy!)
7:00 PM Steph. Dig It.
8:00 PM Jehova’s Fitness (San Diego, CA)
9:00 PM According to Oscar
10:00 PM Little Miss Sabotage & The Cornflowers
11:00 PM Captain #1 (Athens, GA)
12:00 AM Fractal Farm
1:00 AM Ponchos From Peru

1:00 PM Zine Swap / Zine Workshop + The Really Really Free Market
2:00 PM Sign Language Workshop
3:00 PM No H8 NC / Safer Communities Action Now
4:00 PM Dumpster Knitting
5:00 PM The 6th Annual Invisible Bike Race
6:00 PM ElfOwl (Boone, NC) + POTLUCK (bring something yummy!)
7:00 PM Pink Flag (Durham, NC)
8:00 PM Fever & The Fallin’ Rain
9:00 PM Homemade Handgrenade (Tallahassee, FL)
10:00 PM Politics of Confession
11:00 PM The Caucasians / Food World
12:00 AM Photoclub
1:00 AM Pavlichenko

Be Yr Own Hero Fest 2009 is September 5-6 (Labor Day Weekend). All events and workshops begin at 1pm and music starts at 6pm.

The Soapbox Laundro Lounge
255 North Front Street
Downtown Wilmington

The birth of a new activist housing collective in Wilmington, North Carolina happened this month of July 2009 when 4 members of the Be Yr Own Hero collective (which organizes Wilmington’s monthly Really Really Free Market, Food Not Bombs chapter, annual DIY fest, and a bike recyclery in the works) moved into a 2-story apartment building downtown. The idea of the building is to turn it into a space where activists, artists, radicals, and anyone with a socially-conscious creative mind can live and build a community. We plan on transforming the vacant land next to the building into community gardens and a workspace for the bike recyclery. We want to beautify this area which sits right at the main exit point out of this city.

Right before we moved in, we organized a clean up day to clean up the empty lot pictured above. It was full of glass, rubble, sand and other goodies. We plan on using this space for community gardens and other beautification projects, home of the bike recyclery and a space to hold the monthly Really Really Free Market and to step up the frequency of Food Not Bombs.

Inside the building, there are 12 one bedroom apartments and one studio apartment. The studio apartment is now the Be Yr Own Hero headquarters where we have a permanent kitchen for Food Not Bombs, meeting space, and future plans for an infoshop, film screenings and other fun things.

If you are interested in moving into this space or want to get involved with the collective, please be in touch: beyrownhero@gmail.com

Bike Hype is an all day bike fest and fundraiser for Hero Fest 2009 and the Wilmington Bike Recyclery. June 7th, Sunday, events start at noon. Jengo’s Playhouse – 815 Princess St. There will be Bike Polo, Rad Bikes, live music, raffle prizes, bike-centric chalk art, a Hero-themed Alley Cat Race, a special screening of the film Veer (about radical bike culture in Portland), followed by Bike Prom (dress yr bike right because two special bicycles will be crowned Bike Prom King and Queen!). The Really Really Free Market and Food Not Bombs will be temporarily relocated to 815 Princess St.

Wilmington’s Really Really Free Market (RRFM) is held on the first Sunday of each month from Noon to 2pm at the Community Action Center located at 317 Castle St (on the corner of 4th st). The RRFM is a temporary market formed to counteract capitalism by building a community based on sharing resources and services. Bring what you don’t need and take what you want! Share a skill: haircuts, bike repair, screen printing, music, etc.

Edith Sneeden is going to go in front of the Wilmington City Council (hopefully on May 19th) to present to them information on why Styrofoam should be banned. Please help by contributing your signature to help convince the City Council to ban Polystyrene.

http://www.petitiononline.com/banstyro/petition.html

The June FUNraiser for Hero Fest 2009 will be BIKE HYPE! This is an all day bike fest centered around an exclusive screening of Veer, an inspiring film about Portland’s radical bike culture, at Jengo’s Playhouse.

To get involved with planning the bike events for the day, visit the forums. An Alley Cat Race, Bike Joust, Bike Olympics, Synchronized Bike Dancing, Bike Prom, you name it!

Hey, Heroes!

Click on FORUMS (above and to the right) to share any ideas you have for Hero Fest and/or FUN-raisers for the fest.

Right now there is a benefit show scheduled for May 2 (Saturday) at the Juggling Gypsy. Have some ideas for this event? Share!

There is also a thread for discussing a Dance Party FUN-raiser. Share yr ideas to help make it awesome!

And don’t forget about submissions for Hero Fest. Click here to submit, or help spread the word by printing out this flyer.