Editor’s note: Due to the approaching winter storm, Ocracoke Alive has postponed the weekend activities to future dates TBD. This includes the soap workshop and baking class on Saturday and games at the library on Sunday. We will update if more events are canceled due to the storm.
Ocracoke Alive on Monday, Feb. 2, will host the first of eight discussion-based, creative workshops about the island’s long-term future.
David Tweedie and Hannah Aronson, a master of city planning student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will facilitate the sessions that will run from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Mondays, Feb. 2, 9, 16, 23, March 2, 9, 17 and 23, in the Deepwater Theater.
“This is not a technical planning meeting or commitment to any project, but a space to think boldly, share ideas and explore unlimited possibilities for Ocracoke’s future through collaborative community visioning,” Tweedie said.
As a child, Hannah used to visit Ocracoke with her parents Margaret Mackinnon and Bob Baldwin, who still visit every summer.
With experience in Massachusetts, Virginia, Hawai’i, Japan, New Zealand and Micronesia, Hannah is researching how coastal communities envision and plan for climate change. Hannah’s final thesis project will be the development of a community-driven framework for Ocracoke based on ideas shared during the series.
Her project is based on a two-step approach to planning: first, community envisioning of ideal futures (workshop series); then, grounding community visions in available resources and realities (planning framework).
Each week explores a different theme or scenario about the island’s possible futures.
The first workshop will serve as a brainstorming session to identify potential topics and themes and the last workshop will reflect and close out the series.
Hannah hopes to visit in person for the last session and share back some ideas for a community planning framework.
The workshop hopes to explore:
Different themes and scenarios about Ocracoke’s possible futures
- Discussion of creative concepts, emerging technologies and lessons from other coastal communities in the U.S. and abroad
- A focus on local voices and ideas, not predetermined plans
Example questions the workshops will explore:
How have other coastal communities adapted to climate change?
- What would it mean—socially, culturally, emotionally—if the island ever faced difficult decisions about its future?
