#UjimaWednesdays | Light Work: Building the People’s Grid | 5.21.25

Month Description:

Our workshops this May, in keeping with our 2025 theme Power, Transformation, and Miracles, center local and small-scale worldbuilding. The Power in Proximity: Small Worlds, Big Shifts focuses on how  intimate spaces, from neighborhoods to collective gardens, shared workspaces to cultural hubs, become powerful sites of resistance, connection, and transformation. In these small worlds, power is not abstract or distant; it is immediate, lived, and deeply personal.

This series invites us to ask: How do communities reclaim power through the creation of shared spaces that reflect their needs, histories, and visions for the future? How can local organizing, mutual aid, and art or culture shape the way we challenge larger systems of inequality and injustice? What happens when communities create and protect worlds that center collective care, autonomy, and mutual respect? We will learn how local, grassroots movements grow from the most personal connections— from relationships and trust that form when communities come together to meet their own needs—and how they can ripple outward to challenge larger structures of power.

Event Description:

During this workshop Greg King of Boston Community Solar Coop will speak to the importance of community ownership of our energy and replicating the cooperative models in Boston and building in other communities. Boston Community Solar is committed to breaking down the barriers to solar energy. With their wide range of investment, subscription and co-op engagement options, they help homeowners, renters, businesses, and communities own our collective solar installations. No matter your financial situation, BCS strives to make solar ownership a reality for all.

Facilitator Bio:

Greg King is an environmental justice and clean energy workforce development consultant with deep expertise in renewable energy and building energy efficiency. Mr. King work involves the intersection of innovation, workforce development and environmental justice. He is one of the founders of the Boston Community Solar Cooperative who is developing community owned solar generation systems that create passive income for members. Membership can be either purchased or earned via active participation in the solar project development process.