Conjurin’ Our Freedom
with Richael Faithful (they, them, theirs)

Conjurin’ Our Freedom is a sacred work space that will use physical movement, storytelling, and guided drum meditation to support participants’ exploration of their liberated selves. This sacred space will be derived, styled and inspired from conjure, the shamanic healing tradition of enslaved people in the US, also known as “root doctoring” and “hoodoo.” Participants will be encouraged to learn the new ways and/or share from their own conjure family practice.

 

Finding Our Voices
with Osprey Huffsmith (they, them, theirs)

This workshop is designed to help you get in touch with your authentic voice–the unedited, pure magic that only you carry. As a community, it’s about reclaiming our right to bring that magic together and sing–not as performance art, but as a collective re-membering of what it means to be human.
We’ll begin with exercises that draw us into our innate sense of rhythm, breath, and embodiment. Next, we’ll share personal stories around the history of our voices. (Have you been invited to make noise, to express yourself, to sing? Or have you been judged, your voice silenced?) Finally, we’ll explore our edges with playfulness and curiosity, and gather together to learn simple songs that help bring about beauty, harmony, and belonging.”

The Tortoise, The Hare, and the Missing Alarm Clock: using intensiveness for good
with Leela Sinha (they, them, theirs)

Are you intense, all-in, no-holds-barred?  You’re an intensive.

Or maybe you love moderation, pacing, care in all things.  You’re probably an expansive.

Intensives often face a lot of challenges.  Who do you know who’s been told they’re “too much?”  Is it you?  A colleague?  A lover?  The head of your local activist group?  Your mom?

So often it’s an accusation.  It’s critical, biting, shaming.

But there’s a better way.

Come to this workshop and find out:

  • if you’re an intensive or an expansive (yay!  either way!)
  • what high and low tolerance are, and when you might be squished, fried, or tempered
  • where that critical perspective on intensiveness comes from (hint: a long time ago)
  • how it impacts both intensives and expansives (um…badly.)
  • the benefits of expansiveness (even if you’re an intensives and expansives frustrate you)
  • the ways in which intensiveness can be an incredible asset (even if you’re an expansive and intensives make no sense to you)
  • and how to love working and being with folks at the other end of the spectrum from you (you knew it wasn’t a strict binary, right?)

We’ll choose a context based on group interests (leadership, relationships, etc), and if time allows we will apply the framework in individual situations.

Material in this workshop is based on the Sinha Intensives/Expansive Framework (SIEF) and more information is available at yourenottoomuch.com.

 

Preemptive Radical Inclusion: holding the multiple truths of oppression and privilege
with CB (they, them, theirs)

I make these assumptions about participants in Gender Camp:

We all want to make the world a better place.

We all want to live in peace, to experience justice and well-being.

We all want to participate in creating justice and well-being for others.

In a social world built on systems developed to maximize and maintain privilege for a few, these are complicated endeavors.

In this workshop we will explore the ways we bear privilege even as we experience oppression in other ways. The complexity of trans* and genderqueer bodies in a world which privileges cisnormativity, whiteness, masculinity, ablebodiedness, middle and upper-class backgrounds and more is a complexity that means we have responsibility to be intentional about how we make space and mindful about when we take space.

Preemptive radical inclusion is an approach to anti-oppression and justice work that takes seriously the multiple realities of our lives. #PRI is a framework for exploring our responsibility as beneficiaries of privilege, to recognize, unlearn and disrupt oppressive structures of power, and to leverage the ways we are privileged to preemptively create space for those who are not.  In order to harness the power of love for social transformation, we engage with tools of critical thought, healthy communication, and commitment to liberation.

This workshop is designed so that people will be able to engage it on many levels. Whether you are new to anti-oppression work for racial liberation and gender equality or are a long time activist, the perspectives and experiences you bring with you into the room will be valuable and honored. #PRI is a framework for, and has a perspective about, creating just, whole and healthy communities. The goal of #PRI is to create Beloved Community.

 

Exploring our identity journeys through Theatre of the Oppressed”  

with Kerri Mesner (ze, hir, hirs)

Join us for an experiential workshop using Augusto Boal’s “Theatre of the Oppressed” activities. Together, we will explore our identity journeys through games and exercises designed to build community. You don’t need to have any theatre experience to participate in this workshop—this workshop is for all levels of experience and varying abilities.

 

Boundaries: Speaking Truth, Meeting Needs, and Releasing Attachments
with Sarah Taub (she, her, hers)

How many of us say “yes” to things we don’t actually want out of guilt or a fear of losing connection?  In many ways, “no” is the most daring and intimate response possible – if I can hear your “no”, I can trust your “yes.”  We’ll practice the skills of self-awareness, transparency, and non-attachment, which help us find the space of mutually desired connection that is available with each person.

 

ZEGG Forum with Sarah Taub and Team

Forum (http://www.zegg-forum.org/index_en.phtml) was created at ZEGG, an intentional community in Germany, and its sister communities as a way of promoting transparency and mutual understanding among community members.

The goal of Forum is to reveal what is alive but not known to all.  The community sits in a circle, forming a stage for one person at a time to stand and show what is true for them.  Facilitators may assist the person (or “presenter”) to reveal themselves more deeply.  Afterward, community members may offer reflections, or “mirrors,” on what they saw.

One of the gifts of ZEGG Forum is that it allows us a space to appreciate every perspective without taking it on as “truth.” Every voice has its own poignancy, its own wisdom, its own truth, that does not negate the wisdom and truth of other perspectives. Allowing all voices to surface and be known can lead to a profound and unexpected integration within a community. We tend to think that events leading to painful experiences and conflicts are bad, because they feel bad in the moment. However, when we open ourselves and compassionately witness what is happening for everyone, these experiences can be gateways to greater closeness, understanding, and love. When conflict emerges, whether or not we are in a formal Forum space, we can choose to listen in this way.  This deep listening sustains and nurtures community life and relationships.