Lost and Found

My first view of Manchester was quite an inspiring one. Nate took me back to the current Manchester squat, an enormous building that was previously used as a Christian skate park for the community, which had been squatted by some locals and transformed into a social center, called Lost and Found. The week before my arrival Lost and Found had been host to a community art show where artists were free to bring their art to display or create art using the enormous facility. The interior was an art exhibit in itself with graffiti filling the open wall space and the enormous pillar painted like huge tropical trees. The place was buzzing with energy and continued to be filled with new ideas and enthusiasm to make them happen.

Lost and Found became a very popular venue that hosted, among many things, a poetry reading, an amazing concert by a local band, a locally written and directed play that was masterfully delivered before a full audience, and a Halloween party that kept us all awake until lunch the next day. During the day different activist groups held workshops that tapped into the enormous college population of Manchester. I attended a workshop geared at informing people about the upcoming G8 summit in Germany June 2007, another workshop discussing the darker side of the popularity of airplane travel, and yet another where the participants measured their carbon footprint (how much personal lifestyle contributes to the degradation of the planet) and later discussed what things we can do personally to lessen our print on the earth.

Again I was inspired by the communal living situation. The urban twist was something that I found interesting. Feeding at least 8 hungry mouths 3 meals a day without spending a pence was laughably easy. With so many people coming in and out the only issue that arose was that of who was going to clean up after everybody. We handled it well and each contributed some time with a trash bag or behind a broom.