[Radical_childcare] [Fwd: Kid's workshops at Climate Camp 2009]

[feministchildrearing at riseup.net]

hi all, i cant open the google fildsahre as i either dont have an account
or cant remeember it (im so password/account overloaded!)
x


---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Kid's workshops at Climate Camp 2009
From:    workshops at climatecamp.org.uk
Date:    Mon, July 13, 2009 2:09 pm
To:      feministchildrearing at riseup.net
         anaelleb at yahoo.co.uk
Cc:      Maddy at riseup.net
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


Hello there,

I understand that the Radical Childcare Collective will be doing the Kid's
space at Climate Camp this year. We've had some offers for kid's workshops
that I wanted to pass on to you. I'm not sure of what the process is -
should we schedule them in as we see fit or is that something you're doing
around your own activities? Sorry, I'm a bit clueless of how it is going
to work. Nevertheless, here is a spreadsheet of a couple of workshop
offers that have agreed to run workshops for kids (explained in emails
below).

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=tmmyWqhoM-o1rXElOGG1aIg

I hope this helps,

Ag

----------------------------------

Hello Maddy,

Seeds could offer a workshop for kids on consensus decisionmaking. We did
it last year and it was great fun, but it hadn't been very well
advertised, so only had about 10 participants. It would be a mix of
different games that emphasised cooperation and participatory decisions
and we could take a max of 20 kids, I think (!).

Kathrynx



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: rerai org <reraiorg at yahoo.com>
Date: 2009/7/9
Subject: Re: Workshop Offer
To: Beccy Talmy <beccy.talmy at googlemail.com>


 Dear Becc,
Thank you for the  interesting message. It is possible  that  I will run the
workshop the same topic  for the kids.
Best regards,
Brighton Gwamagobe

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Diana Trimble <dianarama at hotmail.co.uk>
Date: 2009/7/10
Subject: RE: Workshop Offer
To: beccy.talmy at googlemail.com


Hi Beccy,

Thanks for your email and I'm glad to know that you are interested. I just
checked the website again and verified the dates as being
August 27th to September 2nd, for the England camp. I can be quite flexible
in terms of availability and number of workshops and duration, especially if
booked sooner rather than later. I would rather do more than less. The only
restriction is that I do not do anything with my voice until after lunch. I
can do movement stuff in the (late) morning.

My workshop(s) can definitely be all ages. One of the fun challenges of
making a loud political point in public is how to be rude (funny rude,
that
is) without being obscene, and so be memorable and quotable whilst not
running the risk of censorship. Kids understand this perfectly as it's
what
they strive daily to get away with in school (!), so having children present
in workshops will be great, and my regular voice workshops are always all
ages too, so I know they find it fun.  Kids will also act as a reminder to
angrier adults present to stop at soft profanities. Pissed is OK, for
example, and as it rhymes with both activist and anarchist, not to mention
twist, persist, resist, catalyst, and the first two syllables of
Conquistador (sort of), it's really useful in lyrics. But I digress.

I would also be willing to do kids-only workshops in addition to all ages,
although I would need a few adult child-wranglers on hand in case they
turn
out to be small assassins that I cannot handle on my own. This would be
great actually, as I could help the kids mould and shape their own words
and
moves into something they really wanted to say. They could not be
dismissed
as mouthpieces of their parents, but rather be empowered as young thinkers
who had devised their own declaration.

Ideally, I'd like to give workshops daily to get the maximum number of
people trained up in some chants and moves and then culminate on a final
day
in a true Austin Powers meets Emma Goldman at Burning Man moment, of getting
everybody whose been to the workshops, and all the people they've since
taught (because that will be part of it) which will hopefully be hundreds
of
people, to congregate and together do an exercise in which we collectively
go from being a swarming mass to a coordinated song and dance routine, by
watching out for and following a few simple cues. Anybody who knows the
routine should be able to count it off and get it going from anywhere, as
long as a few other people are around who know it too, others will soon
catch on. If everybody knows it, it should be cake. It would also be
interesting to experiment with how to achieve this via flashmob or
bluetooth, although I might need some technical help on that one.

In any event, the ultimate objective would be to: to be able to go forth and
recreate this moment/this type of moment in public situations. It's
important to get the right blend of absurdity and beauty while being
serious
and NOT having it be mistaken that we're just all out having fun in the
streets because the planet is dying, whoo-hoo par-tay! This was one of the
critiques of the Drax dance that I noticed in online comments: some people
thought it looked too much like pink-haired hippies having too much fun.
This is a cheap shot but to be avoided. So the exact right attitude is one
of the things I hope to really collaborate with participants on. I think
the
new post-modern political resistance has to kind of be thought of as a
conceptual art-movement, with similiarly revolutionary repurcussions.
Together we have to find a way to convey celebration of creativity and
making protest achingly beautiful, but so that no one could accuse us of
just using the movement as an excuse to have a street party. Sombre joy in
the face of hope at defeating disaster is the mood I'm going for...("but
is
it day or night?", my method-acting friends might ask).

I've already got a viral hand gesture, courtesy of Misty Oldland, and then a
full-body variation of it (think YMCA only CO2 NO) that I adapted with
aerial photography in mind, that I am hoping to spread as well as some
really catchy chants and dances. But the best stuff is sure to come out of
collaboration with participants - that's the main goal. I've got some
research about the Estonian Singing Revolution, Football Chanting, Elias
Canetti's "Crowds and Power", Starhawk's "magical activism", the Black
Power
fist at the Olympics, and other historical and practical examples of
fervour, mood, and public sentiment and even regime change being directed
by
mass occurrences of people's coordinated (peaceful) action.  The role of
song/slogan, physical gesture and visual symbolism can't be overestimated
in
the history of human affairs, from the Swastika to advertising to the peace
symbol. Either in addition to or during my workshops, I would like there to
be an opportunity for all to discuss this history and the tools we can
master from studying it.

Hope to hear from you soon, hope this wasn't too much detail, I figured the
more the better and wasn't certain as to how much I'd gone into on the
original form.

Best wishes,
Diana Rosalind Trimble
www.myspace.com/dianarosa


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ~ wolfe ~ <wolfe.oooo at googlemail.com>
Date: 2009/7/10
Subject: Re: Workshop Offers
To: Beccy <beccy.talmy at googlemail.com>



Hey Beccy

Yeah I know its a tough one doing all the workshop logistics... great that
y'all up[ for it, very exciting...

If you wanna leave one out- oi'd leave the chi kung its weird hippy shit lol
;-)  art will be tricky due to materials, the main one I wanna do is the
meditation, but if the network of engaged buddhists are doing that I'll
happily stand aside...

I can do the meditation and art/perfomance/ritaul/whatever... with kids, but
I'd like to have one or two helpers, so its not just me and the kids for
child protection issues,, to keep them and me safe. Thats important and of
course parents can come.

But I am easy whatever...

whatever helps really, no great need to do any of them but you appeared to
be short of workshops!?

love and riots

wolfe
generosity ~ wonder ~ irreverence ~ anarchy ~ naughtiness