Puzzle Writer Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

## About the initiative

Mabuhay Gardens is a storied cultural venue with a legendary history. The building has hosted performances by legends including Louis Armstrong, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Dead Kennedys, Iggy Pop, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, The Specials, Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Herbie Hancock, R.E.M., Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Soundgarden, Bad Religion, Dave Chappelle, and many others. Via CrowdDoing, we are regenerating the Mab as a hybrid cultural ecosystem: live music, dance, comedy, rentals, popup culinary lab, off-peak wellness partnerships, art-walk activations, and solarpunk / regenerative-culture programming.

Regenerative-culture gatherings, solarpunk convenings, climate-adaptation forums, and permaculture networks are building the future-facing culture the Mab's own regeneration is part of — and they need venues that share their values, not just their calendar availability. We're looking for a contributor who can build partnerships with these conveners grounded in genuine alignment, not generic language about sustainability.

## The puzzle

There's a genuinely interesting question at the heart of this role: what actually separates values you live from values you borrow — and learning to tell them apart, in yourself and in others, is fascinating, high-stakes work. Regenerative and solarpunk communities are often wary of institutions that adopt their language without living their values — a venue that talks about regeneration but operates extractively underneath. The puzzle is building relationships that prove, through specifics and follow-through rather than language, that the Mab's own regeneration is a genuine kindred project, not a marketing frame borrowed from a movement it doesn't actually understand.

## What you'll do

You'll tend a defined slice of the regenerative and solarpunk convening partnerships work — enough to build real relationships in your first month, without carrying the whole venture.

- **Convener mapping** — Build a working map of regenerative-culture gatherings, solarpunk convenings, climate-adaptation forums, and permaculture networks whose values and programming needs could be a genuine fit for the Mab.

- **Listening first** — Reach out to conveners and organizers with real curiosity about their gatherings' needs and their own venue values, before proposing anything.

- **Social listening for collaboration moments** — Watch the social media accounts, newsletters, and public communications of regenerative-culture and solarpunk networks to spot upcoming convenings and moments where the Mab could naturally weave in as a collaborator rather than a stranger.

- **Values-aligned program design** — Help shape concepts that reflect the Mab's own regenerative-culture programming honestly — grounded in what the initiative is actually doing, not aspirational language.

- **AI-assisted enrichment** — Use LLM tools to research each network's history, values, and past convening formats so every conversation is specific and credible.

- **Introduction to the producing team** — Bring well-understood relationships to the Mabuhay producing team with full context on values alignment and programming needs, and stay available as a trusted point of contact.

- **Relationship memory** — Keep short weekly notes on what each convener cares about and where the relationship stands — building institutional memory for a movement that thinks in long cycles.

## Who this role is for

We're looking for someone who can contribute meaningfully from week one — not a senior sustainability executive, not an assistant. Somebody with real, demonstrable skill in **at least two** of the following, and curiosity about the rest:

- Regenerative-culture, solarpunk, or climate-adaptation convening and community organizing

- Partnership-building with future-facing or values-driven organizations grounded in genuine alignment

- Deep familiarity with permaculture, regenerative-culture, or climate-adaptation networks and their gathering formats

- Warm, researched relationship-building that reflects real understanding of these communities' values

- Lightweight relationship-tracking discipline (spreadsheets, Notion, Airtable, or similar)

- Comfort with AI-assisted research and relationship-writing workflows (any current LLM tool)

- Genuine curiosity about regenerative-culture and solarpunk thinking as a live intellectual project, not just a set of buzzwords

- Comfort watching social media, community feeds, and newsletters with a listening ear rather than a promotional one

You'll thrive here if you're genuinely embedded in or curious about regenerative-culture and solarpunk thinking, can tell the difference between values language and values practice, and want to help build long-horizon partnerships around a shared future.

## Why do this

- **The problem matters.** Regenerative and solarpunk communities need venues that actually share their values, not ones that borrow their vocabulary. Getting this right builds a genuinely useful home for future-facing culture.

- **The stakes are real.** The relationships you build will shape actual convenings, for actual communities working on real climate and cultural questions. This is not a simulation.

- **The craft is rare, and it will test your own honesty.** You'll be stretched to tell the difference between demonstrated alignment and borrowed language — in the partners you're vetting, and in the Mab's own claims about itself. That kind of clear-eyed discernment, in a space full of greenwashing, is a subtle and valuable skill worth building deliberately.

- **The room is legendary.** You're helping regenerate a venue where legends across music, comedy, poetry, and cultural experimentation performed.

- **You'll work alongside people who care, across a much wider map than this room.** You'll collaborate asynchronously with CrowdDoing's global network of volunteers — people working on wildfire prevention, community resilience, and regenerative agriculture — through shared written updates, shared docs, and async check-ins. You will likely never meet most of them in person, and you'll still learn from how they think. That cross-pollination between wildly different fields is not a side benefit of this role. It's the point.

## Time commitment & structure

- Flexible, part-time, mostly asynchronous

- Ongoing commitment, renewable

- Onboarding via CrowdDoing's standard volunteer orientation

## How to apply

Send a short note (5–8 sentences is plenty) covering:

1. Which 2–3 areas above you can contribute in immediately, with one specific example of past work (a regenerative-culture or solarpunk community relationship you built, a convening you helped produce, a values-aligned partnership you sustained)

2. One regenerative-culture, solarpunk, or climate-adaptation network you'd want to build a relationship with for Mabuhay Gardens in your first month, and why the alignment would be genuine

3. Your available hours per week and time zone

No cover letter theater. Show us how you tell values practice from values language.

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*CrowdDoing is an equal-opportunity volunteer organization. We welcome contributors of every background, geography, and career stage. This is an unpaid volunteer role and service-learning opportunity.*