This essay is an assemblage or collage of ideas with a focus on ways of engaging with the complexities of places. The author suggests that engaging complex interwoven features of places requires drawing upon multiple ways of knowing. The author suggests that this is also necessary for the world to pull back from the precipice of many interconnected crises. The essay describes a project to establish a network of places learning together how to engage with complex problems underlying crises. The methods of facilitating the collaboration across this network may have implications for pedagogy and education design.