wow, post number 2. i feel like the 2nd post or entry or piece or work is what makes a creative endeavor official. like its one thing to ride the excitement of novelty to get the first push out but will you actually come back to it and follow thru? i say this as somebody for whom the answer to that question has often been "no" so im happy to be here. welcome to my 2nd longest running blog :)
this gets into the who what when where and why of it all.
who
witches.
BUT more specifically, balvida being women-centered means, obviously, mostly women. women who want to spend more of the time intentionally around other women, women who would like to prioritize and practice more sustainable living practices, women who want to live more in connection to the land they're living on. women who love to cook but hate to clean (me) who want to link up with women who love to clean but hate to cook (you?). women who find themselves looking around at the way shit is and know its not ideal. women who just like being around other women. and yes, absolutely, witches. im looking to build a big ass cackling coven of witches. i've got a perfect spot for the fire circle picked out.
im not sure of the source/artist on this photo but it seems to be the cover of "A Tribe of Women" by Kathleen Sweeney. anyway, mood.
of course, one of the main questions im getting is "will men & boys be allowed?" and the answer includes a lot of asterisks that ill get into another time, but essentially the answer is "yes" if they know how to act like they have some damn sense& move like they actually respect the privilege and honor of being allowed around us. and honestly, im guessing the community will end up being mostly like-minded women who arent really interested in having men around too much anyway. maybe we'll have a committee whose job it is to approve any man a community member wants to bring in. i was gonna throw a "lmao" in there but im actually not kidding and its probably the way it should be. "no loose men" is the phrase ive been throwing around which ill def expound on at some point but the bottom line is that sons& significant others of established members with their own spaces (tiny houses) can be accommodated. the details will get worked out along the way but im thinking the living spaces for temporary housing (residencies, guest houses etc) will be restricted to women only. visitors are women only. for the record tho, ive been learning there are definitely some STRICT women-only communes out there -- as in, if you give birth to a son, you gotta go lol-- and.. i get it. i decided against that for a few reasons but i did wanna make yall aware and encourage any woman who is interested in that type of commune to investigate that too. they exist and i actually plan on visiting diff communes with diff policies over the next year.
what
i'll start with the official "mission" statement, a task which i've found both challenging and recurring bc i keep changing it. i haven't seemed to hit the one that makes me go "this is IT" yet. i keep toying with diff variations.
but today, the mission statement is "balvida is a women-centric community with the goal of furthering connection to ourselves, each other, and the world around us". ill be covering more of what each part of that means in coming posts, so ill move onto the more fun part of this shit, which is describing what it'll be like.
balvida is gonna have a bunch of really cool resources and amenities. two pools, an art room, gym, media room, wood/workshop, classrooms, library, greenhouse, gardens producing different herbs, vegetables & fruits, even a smoker's treehouse (so excited to design this one lmao).. im really trying to incorporate a variety of flexible & pretty spaces that can accomodate a lot of different shit. the land is abundant and on top of what's already growing there naturally, there'll be a lot of replanting happening incorporating local varieties of fruits, herbs and vegetables. inside & out, balvida's design and resources are very much going to be a good balance of beautiful and functional.
a large part of balvida will be a tiny-home community comprised mostly of the kind of women described in "who". im really excited about this aspect bc i see this cluster of tiny homes as the foundation of the community, the women who are there on a regular basis and investing in each other over a long period. i also think tiny homes are cool as shit so im excited to learn and share more about that with yall, and the opportunity for customization for each individual speaks to me. like i really cant wait to see what my friends and others come up with for their own spaces lol. and also, a large part of the available funding is being allocated to making these homes available at low & no-cost and with priority on women from the local community.
in addition to offering long-term residency to members, balvida's gonna have a mix of shorter-term residences and guest houses available which im hoping will serve a few purposes. first, it'll make it possible for balvida to offer temporary housing to women in need in the local community. i'll be able to use my experience with helping to provide this as a resource before and i am grateful to be able to include this aspect because i know how needed it can be. balvida will also be able to host small gatherings and retreats for women, which i think is cool cuz part of what i want balvida to accomplish is help introduce this concept to more people who might go on to join or build their own similar communities. and lastly, im hoping to incorporate a short-term residency program where women from around the world can come and integrate for a few weeks or months to learn from the community and share their own passions and knowledge. while this specific community will only be able to sustain a certain amount of women, im also looking at balvida as a kind of incubator for the concept.
also, here is a good place to make it known that none of this is being developed to generate profit for myself or other women involved in building this. there are some different ways the community might generate income, but i am committed to making sure those funds go back to the community in forms like providing free housing for the women there, making it more affordable & accesssible for others to visit, and maintenance/improvements for the community itself.
when
currently in design & preconstruction. expected to break ground by the end of 2024 and the first phase will be done by fall 2025.
where
balvida will be located on the caribbean coast of costa rica. i have SO much to say about how & why costa rica and ill def get to that in a later post but for now, i can say ive been very lucky to have the opportunity to spend much of this year being there and developing partnerships with costa rican women to help bring this into fruition in a thoughtful, intentional way. and while i eventually hope to be involved in helping initiate balvida-like communities all over the world, i ended up in this specific area partly bc of our shared cultural ties to jamaica and im really excited to start somewhere i love and believe a community like this can actually thrive.
why
i believe in women, and i know there's a better way. the time to return to more intuitive, communal, women-centered arrangements has certainly come and i know there's a lot of women, probably including you, who are coming to understand that too. ive been involved in organizing women-centered events, spaces, community and housing for about 10 years now and im convinced that a huge part of healing both individually and collectively is providing women with those kinds of environments to truly just be. ive seen the way the vibe changes up when there's only women in the room and i know the power that holds. i've talked a few times on twitter about avoiding or having to address or just being aware of "the man in the room", which basically refers to the omni &ever-present male force in our physical spaces and minds. it requires all kinds of weird performance & negotiating & navigating & just... it's draining. and i feel so thankful ive been able to experience and help create breaks in that, so balvida is a being built as a space where that dynamic is centered and can flourish more freely. the world will be a better place when all women have space to just be around other women.
so those are the basics. i have a lot of things i wanna talk about but im also interested in what yalls interests in this are so i can get an idea of what ppl are here for. so if you could take a second to answer the poll below, make sure to expand to "see all options" and you can select more than one. i also have plans to start an informal podcast talking to other women about all of these topics and more as theyre relevant. so if youre a woman with something to say, a topic youre interested in seeing discussed, a suggestion of somebody i should connect with or something i should watch/read, anything-- hit me @ info@balvida.online
what are you interested in?
intentional communities/communes
the architecture & design of living & communal spaces
interior decorating
matriarchy as a concept/women-centered living
You can vote for more than one answer.
thank yall for being here. it means a lot to me and i hope this blog will give something to you, too.
the perfect spot for a fire pit.
"You have to act as if it
were possible to
radically transform the
world. And you have to
do it all the time."
Angela Davis
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