The Backbone Campaign will hold an unusual benefit this Saturday designed not only to raise money, but also to boost the Island’s endorphins and appetite for social change as well.
The event, dubbed “Chocolatada — Celebrating Ripples & Making Waves,” will feature an array of well-known Island performers. But the biggest star of the night will be a special, drinkable chocolate concoction, imported from Toronto.
According to Backbone’s Executive Director Bill Moyer, the idea for the benefit came from Chocosol, a group of Toronto-based community activists who run a bicycle-powered kitchen where they turn direct-trade Oaxacan beans into delicious, stone-ground chocolate.
“Their process avoids anything that would damage the intoxicating properties of the chocolate,” explained Moyer, who added that Chocosol has sent Backbone Campaign a 10-pound box of its flavored, sweetened and unsweetened chocolate, with precise instructions for brewing a drinkable potion.
Moyer hopes Islanders will come out to the event not only to indulge in chocolate but also to engage in dialogue about their hopes for a better future.
Eyvind Kang, Jessika Kenny, Ela Lamblin and Steffon Moody will be on hand to entertain, and the evening will also feature aerial performances by Martha Enson and Esther Edelman.
There will also be live and silent auctions and opportunities for attendees to have holiday portraits taken with one of Backbone’s giant puppets, Snowflake the Polar Bear.
Proceeds will support Backbone’s ongoing efforts to organize stewardship and green jobs on Vashon, make Washington a coal-free zone, continue the fight for universal health care and provide activism training across the country.
“Chocolatada” will take place from 7:30 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21, at Open Space for Arts & Community, and is an all-ages event. Tickets, $20, are available at Books by the Way, Vashon Bookshop and www.brownpapertickets.com. To reserve a table for eight ($160), call (206) 408-8058. To find out more about the Backbone Campaign, visit www.backbonecampaign.org.
