We are currently seeking a new resident at the Cosmic Beauty School, an intentional community in Lawrence, Kansas, focused on the intersections of permaculture, social justice, and holistic health. We have one room available beginning February 1. We are looking for a lease through July with the option to continue on a month-to-month basis after that. Rent and utilities are $360/month.

The Cosmic Beauty School is building and modeling a sustainable shared space in East Lawrence, Kansas, by creating an examined, loving, & cooperative home. For three years now we have been converting an old mixed-use residential/commercial building into a demonstration site for compassionate intimacy, appropriate technologies, radical methods of intensive food production, urban permaculture, sustainable personal relationships, and pro-dignity & anti-oppression social justice organizing.

If you want to…
• Deepen and explore your skills at intimacy and communication,
• Become more personally and communally liberated, sharpen skills ranging from food preservation to mechanical competencies, and realize greater independence from systems based on the exploitation of land, labor, and resources,
• Develop critical thinking and dialogue about the de/construction of gender, ethnicity, class, sexuality, age, and documentation status, and other social identity markers,
• Live in a home with late 20′s-30something year old people who are enthusiastically cultivating this community,
• Share your inspiration to support this home and project taking root and blossoming, benefiting the greater Lawrence community, bio-region, and beyond…

• Emotional maturity. Someone who is actively engaged in pursuits such as personal counseling/therapy, communication skills development, group processing, co-counseling, reflection practice, or some form of “inner work”. Personal interest and dedication to on-going skill building in these areas.
• Someone with experience and skill development living in community, such as: ~2 years of collective living experience; and/or experience working with groups and community organizations, experience with non-hierarchical decision making structures (consensus, spokes council, multi-winner voting)
• People who are interested in physical projects: either already have handy skills, or at least desire to learn and do handy things. Or really good with clerical/data management and personal organization.
• People who have done some self-exploration already and are interested in investing in a place and longer-term relationships. Folks who want a life with a rhythm, some consistency, and deeper intimacy. Folks who are interested in living and working with us for the long haul.

If any or all of this sounds like you, please contact us at cosmicbeautyschool@gmail.com or stop by at 1145 Pennsylvania, Lawrence, KS and introduce yourself! Also, if you know of someone who you believe would be a good fit, please let  us know. We look forward to meeting you.

The second half of the workshop centered on beginning to think about steps we can take in our organizing and communities to break down ableist power structures.  A’ishah named several types of intimacies that we experience; political intimacy – when a person gets your politics, emotional intimacy – when someone effortlessly connects with you on an emotional level.  She added to that list, a term coined by Mia Mingus, access intimacy – the feeling that a person understands your access needs and accommodates them.  The need to cultivate access intimacy was highlighted and she included a frank discussion on the steps many people with disabilities are taking to reclaim their sexuality in a culture that considers them sexless.

This workshop merely scratched the surface of what the Disability Justice Movement seeks to achieve.  The Cosmic Beauty School will be hosting A’ishah for part two of this workshop, as well as expanded workshops in the spring.  As we learn and grow, as a house and as a community resource, we will try to build a revolutionary access intimacy that considers the needs of everyone, not just the most visible.  Please be on the look out for future workshops so that you can be a part of this process.

A’ishah Hils is a queer disabled femme originally from rural south Georgia who has recently settled in Lawrence, KS. She works as a freelance web designer, writer, dancer, and consultant. She has a background in social justice work around disability, LGBT, youth and interfaith issues.

Julia’s all bundled up ready to fill the kitchen with warmth and yummy aromas.

Shannon and David doing acroyoga.

Tj and Jillian playing scrabble with David.

There is an abundance of online resources for raw recipes. Some are more complicated and require ingredients that may be unfamiliar, but preparing raw food does not need to be complicated, expensive or time consuming. Especially if raw foods are new to you, use recipes that have few ingredients (that you are familiar with) and keep it simple! Below are some blogs and other resources for more recipes and more information:

• http://rawon10.blogspot.com/
• http://jonsiandalex.com/media/recipebook/
• http://www.rawguru.com/raw-food-recipes/
• http://www.goneraw.com/
• http://rawfoodsdiet.wetpaint.com/page/Raw+Foods+Diet+Recipes
• http://www.beautifulonraw.com/raw_food_recipes.html

Friday, December 9th 6-8:30pm

At the Cosmic Beauty School (1145 Pennsylvania St.)

*Please register ahead of time by emailing us.  Space is limited.
Let us know if you have specific access needs.
Suggested donation is $10-$20; no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Disability justice is a multifaceted understanding of disability and
ableism that moves away from a rights-based equality model to a framework
that centers justice and wholeness for all disabled people and our
communities. Disability justice centers the voices of those traditionally
marginalized in disability movements, with the understanding that we must
bring our whole selves to our work for liberation.

• How can we move the conversation surrounding disability beyond mere discussion of access and accommodation?
• How can we come to understand our bodies and selves in a way that does not privilege the “normal” and perpetuate cycles of oppression?
• And how can we use this work to grow and transform ourselves and our communities?

 A’ishah Hils is a queer disabled mixed/indigenous femme originally from
rural south Georgia who has recently settled in Lawrence, KS. She works as
a freelance web designer, writer, dancer, and consultant. She has a
background in social justice work around disability, LGBT, sex work,
youth, and interfaith issues, and currently works with the National Youth
Leadership Network, an organization run by and for youth with
disabilities. She co-coordinated the Disability Justice track and Creating
Collective Access and was an adviser for the Healing Justice track at the
2011 Allied Media Conference.  alliedmedia.org/

Beary cute and super smart

Wanna color?

Shannon bobs an apple

And our Tea Party November 1st celebrated our new wood garden, one of the end products of much splitting and stacking!

Jillian, Shannon, Jason and Julia enjoy tea in the wood garden