Civic Responsibility
Building Safe, Kind, Resilient Communities
Burners know how to turn the world upside down in fun and interesting ways. But we also know how to co-create safe, supportive events and spaces that positively impact the world.
During a difficult year Burners brought Civic Responsibility to the fore by supporting their local communities, finding ways to gather safely, and making their communities kinder, stronger, and more resilient.
“Burning Man Project recognized a need for an internal group that could provide expertise and guidance as we looked to the potential of resurrecting BRC in 2021. To meet this need the Emergency Services Department created the BMP COVID-19 Task Force, a small but mighty group of medical and epidemiology specialists who met regularly to discuss the newest science and trending data, and then regularly shared their findings.”
– Kate Gonnella, Chief of Emergency Services
“Responsabilité Civique. What do you need to create a burn after a pandemic? When do you know it’s safe (enough) to do so? We asked these questions to our community, then we got more than 50 people raising their hands to be part of the event organization. That was a magical, engaging, respectful and empathic burn.”
~ Arno Robin, L’OsstidBurn Co-organizer, Quebec
A Little Piece of Home
Early in 2021, Burners Without Borders (BWB) contributed to the creation of Pedacito de la Tierra (A Little Piece of Home), a documentary starring migrants at a shelter in Nogales, Mexico. Architecture professor Ronald Rael sparked the collaboration between BWB, the migrants, and humanitarian aid nonprofit Alight with his plan to co-create a traditional mud oven at the shelter. Chef Kai Schoenhals came on board with fellow Burner filmmakers to document the project, and the film Pedacito de la Tierra came to life.
This celebration of home, food, and community culminated in an extraordinary global film premiere. Residents of the shelter used the oven to prepare a meal, while chefs and Burners cooked simultaneously in their own kitchens. All came together virtually to share a globally distributed meal, film premiere, and conversation.
“What’s poignant about this project is that we’re not creating something new, but rather looking at folks doing really great work already and figuring out what skills our community has to enhance and enliven that experience. It’s bringing in the chefs and the artists and the musicians and filmmakers, and really just saying, ‘These are the gifts that our community has to offer.’”
– Christopher Breedlove, Director of Civic Activation