Queer Ecologies: Ecologies of Care ~ skill share, zine making & collaborations
Sat 17 Jul 2021 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM BST
Meet at The Soanes Centre, E3 4PX
Description
Tickets are free or by donation
From social care; to litter picking; repairing; cleaning; maintaining; forming mutual aid networks, care webs and triangles; improving access, making medicines, attending to needs, building personal resilience and challenging injustice... care can be so many things.
What does care mean to you? What have you learnt about care lately that you would like to share with others? How can care for land and people be integrated, better supported and resourced in Tower Hamlets and beyond? What are the different forms care can take in your experience? And would you like to make a zine* about it?
This exploratory workshop is open to all humans and non-humans who experience the giving and receiving of care. It is a space to connect with others, learn, build local networks, share strategies, look through a microscope, imagine and craft future care ecologies together. If you would like to collaborate further on making this happen please get in touch as there is some budget to support this.
Following this workshop there will be an opportunity to get involved in some local archive digging, to learn together about the histories of care in and around Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park. There will also be a chance to collaborate on co-creating an offering / monument / or tool installed in the park, to honour caretakers of the past, present and future.
We recognise that it can be almost impossible for those giving and receiving care in a full or part-time capacity to attend events like this. If this is you, but you are still keen to join, please do write to hari@compost-mentis.com or call 07941696070 and we can explore options for creating a zoom link, making a recording or covering costs.
*A zine is a DIY publication which looks like a small homemade magazine. It can be a good way to share and circulate ideas, strategies, and writings.
Contact on the day: 07941696070
Skill share - Saturday 17th July, 1-4pm,
Archive Digging - date tbc
Offering - date tbc
***
Queer Ecologies is an artist residency exploring how we live, grow, love, make kin and stand in allyship with the ecosystems we’re a part of. We’re telling new stories about nature and our connection to it, empowering interspecies collaborations, and honouring the inherently queer patterns and relations found throughout nature.
People of all genders and sexual orientations are welcome, with a particular welcome for Sick, Disabled, Queer, Trans, Intersex, Black folks, and People of colour (SDQTIBPOC)
Covid Safety Information:
BEFORE YOU DECIDE TO BOOK
Do not attend sessions if you or a member of your household/support bubble have COVID-19 symptoms. If you develop or display symptoms on the day, you will be asked to leave. Please check your symptoms and whether it’s suitable for you to attend.
Follow government guidance on travelling to the Cemetery Park. Avoid using public transport if possible.
If you travel by bike, we can’t offer indoor storage. You can lock up your bike outside but within the Soanes Centre railings.
ON THE DAY
Please arrive on time and go to the meeting area: in front of the Soanes Centre, E3 4PX, by the entrance on Southern Grove.
You will be asked to wash your hands before you start the activity.
Maintain two metres distance between other event attendees, general park visitors and our staff at all times. Please be respectful of others. The risk you are willing to accept is not the same as what others are willing to accept!
We will design activities to minimise the need for you to be close to each other and share materials. We will provide resources to clean tools if they need to be shared.
The Friends will collect contact information on attendees and they will be provided to national or local government Test and Trace services on request. Apart from Test and Trace, we will treat your data in accordance with our data protection policies.
You will be given instructions on the activities that you will be carrying out, general Health & Safety measures and COVID-19 specific controls. If you do not follow these instructions, you will be asked to leave.
We want to create a space in which it’s ok to remind each other about social distancing, so please don’t take offence if someone asks for a bit more space.
While the Friends have put in place measures to reduce risks, all social and physical interactions carry a risk of COVID-19 infection. If you or a member of your household/support bubble have underlying medical conditions or concerns relating to becoming infected, please carefully consider whether you want to attend this event.
Click here for more information and to view our full COVID-19 policy and data protection policy.
Accessibility Information:
Workshops will have the option of an outside covered area in wet weather. Toilets are not always available onsite; during times when the Soanes Centre is closed you can find the nearest accessible toilet here. We will also provide a toilet map to all event and workshop attendees on the day
All events are reached by compacted crushed concrete or earth paths, with some events taking place on grass alongside a path. Standard walking distances from the road vary from 100-500m, though if arranged in advance a vehicle could also drive onto the site. There will be a range of different seating options available - including rugs, cushions, logs, benches with backs, or chairs with arm rests. Let us know if you have any other specific seating requirements which you’d like us to accommodate.
Please let us know at least 2 weeks in advance if you would like to request BSL or any other interpretation/ translation for this workshop.
We aim to make our events as accessible as possible, and are learning constantly how to do this better. If you would like to let us know about any specific requirements or access needs that you would like us to meet, or offer feedback on our accessibility arrangements, please email hari@compost-mentis.com.
Safer Spaces Policy
- We call it a "safer" space in order to acknowledge that we've been conditioned under white-supremacist, heteronormative, capitalist patriarchy which means we can all bring oppression with us into the room/landscape. However, by working towards these aims we can establish shared values and practices as well as a commitment to accountability models that allow us to openly work with conflict, oppression and silencing.
- In this space, we will call out and interrupt systems of oppression and hate speech including racist behaviour, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, ableism, colourism, bodyshaming/fat-phobia and classism. We ask you all to commit to doing this as well, to working towards this safer space together - a space we are all responsible for maintaining and improving.
- We trust you to know what you need, invite you to share your needs with others or to ask us for support in working that out.
- We expect you to be aware of your intersecting privileges and the ways in which your conditioning might silence, speak-for or make spaces feel less safe for others. We ask you not to speak on behalf of, or over, life experiences that are not your own. Please be mindful of this when you make contributions to collective discussions.
- We practice close, attentive listening and compassionate correction (for example with pronouns etc.)
- We acknowledge that what we bring to an event / workshop / gathering / zoom call is only a small part of who we each are. We therefore don't assume life experience or circumstances.
- We ask that you are accountable for your own wellbeing. This means asking for help if you are struggling, and asking for the protocols you need to feel safe. If for any reason, you are unable to ask for/articulate these, we invite you to check in with the facilitators at an appropriate moment. We are here for you and really want to know what you think and how you're doing!
- We ask for trigger warnings during discussions before sharing any potentially traumatic or violent content that may have a negative impact on someone with similar or different life experiences to you. This means waiting a few moments after the trigger warning to give time for people to step away from the conversation.
- As a species working to - following the sentiments of adrienne maree brown - re-earn our right to live on/with this planet, we work not to be extractive or to express entitlement over the time, value and emotions of other life we share space with, be they human or non-human.
- Finally we are actively working toward a world which is not without suffering, but which has eradicated systemic suffering; that is, systems of power that mean certain groups always suffer more than others. This means we dare to dream big, complexly, pleasurably and together as we work to manifest those Speculative possibilities as contemporary realities.
Location
Meet at The Soanes Centre, E3 4PX