June News - Collective Healing from Collective Harm

 Hello Good People!

 

The project I have been hard at work on for the last six months (!!!) reaches fruition at the end of June: The Healing Justice Practice Space at the 2012 Allied Media Conference (AMC). The Healing Justice Practice Space is an all-gendered, all-bodied space for practicing and receiving healing and health care. In our second year at the AMC, we will offer all participants at the conference massage therapy, energy work, community acupuncture, herbal therapy, counseling, first aid, art therapy, dance, yoga, counseling, and more! We will also offer progressive and radical health care practitioners from across the country the opportunity to network, support, and share resources with one another for creating accessible health care in their communities.

 

It is incredibly exciting to play a critical role in bringing healing justice into the national network/community of the AMC - there is a growing recognition across the social justice movement that achieving justice requires intentional space for collective healing, because social injustice is a form of collective harm. There is also a growing recognition of the manifold ways that we experience and then hold oppression and injustice in our bodies and in the bodies of our communities. It's as clear as the epidemic incidences of diabetes in poor communities. It's as subtle as the hidden scourge of depression and addiction in middle income and wealthy communities. Racial, gender, and economic injustice and disparity compromises the health and well-being of all members of society, whether or not they are directly impacted by those disparities.

 

The Allied Media Conference is one of the most inspiring and transformative gatherings I have the privilege to attend, particularly because it brings together a true diversity of communities who are impacted by injustice, and who are using media in innovative ways to organize and transform their communities. I strongly recommend attending if you can, and info on how to do that is below. If you can't come and jam with us, you can support scholarships for many of the amazing healers who are coming to work in the Healing Justice Practice Space. In return for your support, you get a collection of immune power powders - delicious herbal medicine can be used in water, teas, and smoothies, to build, enrich, and boost your immune system. I already ordered mine!

 

Happy summer to you. As we move into the next phase of 2012, I am filled with great hope and steely dedication. Witnessing the re-election of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, and the growing hostility and polarization as fear-filled social conservatives attempt to permanently ban gay marriage here in Minnesota, I am settling into my own sense of transformation as the long road. Like my ancestors before me, I am forced to acknowledge the possibility that I may not personally experience the freedom from injustice I am striving for in my lifetime. But it is enough to know that my children might.

 

In this edition of Iambrown:

• The 2012 Allied Media Conference is coming up! (Detroit, MI)
• Renewing Heart & Hope: A Retreat for Social Justice Educators and Trainers (Chelsea, MI)
• Offerings from Love Making Dances (New York, NY)
• Celebrating Thirty Years: Global Somatics Conference and Move- A- Thon (Minneapolis, MN)

 

-----

The 2012 Allied Media Conference is coming up!

REGISTER TODAY

The deadline to register for housing in the Wayne State dorms has been extended to Monday 6/11 at high noon. Make your reservation today!

The full AMC2012 schedule is now live and available for your viewing pleasure.  Explore the new session browser that AMP has been diligently developing with our partners, The Work Department and take in the wonder of this year's 150+ workshops, panels, strategy sessions, tours and caucuses.  This year, in addition to browsing content, you can bookmark sessions and plan your path through the immensity of the AMC.  

We are excited to tell you about the AMC2012 Opening Ceremony.  The Opening Cermeony will feature a three-part panel about storytelling and the fate of the world with presentations by transmedia science fiction storyteller Thenmozhi Soundararajan; writer, filmmaker and social and gender justice activist from Detroit,dream hampton; and Micha Cárdenas, an artist/theorist who works in performance, wearable electronics, hacktivism and critical gender studies.  It will include a tribute to Detroit poet, D. Blair, featuring new works by an incredible lineup of Detroit poets and will close with a performance by the Ruth Ellis Center Voguers and J-Setters.  Make sure you're there, 6pm in the Community Arts Auditorium.  

As you make your travel and housing plans for AMC2012, use the AMPtalk message boards to find carpool collaborators, community housing options and much more.  If you're a Detroiter, interested in opening up your home to fascinating out-of-town AMC participant, be sure to make a post on the housing board.  

Support all of the amazing collaborative fundraising efforts to get our communities to the AMC, by visiting the AMPstore.  If you're a New Yorker, looking for a cheap, fun way to get to the AMC, you can also purchase tickets on the NYC2AMC bus.  

Last but not least, we advise you to get your bowling skills tight and select your karaoke anthem, in preparation for the AMC2012 Bowling, Music & Karaoke Extravaganza, Friday 6/29.  This Friday night party of the AMC will feature performances by Abstract Random, Jeecy and the Jungle and Jöjjön.  

We can't wait to see you in Detroit. 

-----

Renewing Heart & Hope: A Retreat for Social Justice Educators and Trainers

Friday, June 29 & Saturday, June 30, 2012

 

Registration has begun for Renewing Heart & Hope: A Retreat for Social Justice Educators and Trainers. If your spirit longs for rejuvenation, deeper connection with other social justice educators, and the nurture of a beautiful natural setting, we encourage you to join us for this unique retreat. Please help us spread the word by sharing this announcement widely.
 
Facilitating groups and educating for social change can be a source of great energy and joy. This work can also lead to frustration and exhaustion when we experience multiple setbacks or fail to find ways to nourish our bodies and souls. Too often, we become so absorbed in the demands of our work that we grow forgetful of our need for each other. This retreat offers a different way.
 
Imagine if you had time and space to...

• Be with others who share a deep and abiding commitment to social change
• Share with colleagues what is life-giving; what is depleting in this work
• Meet and learn from colleagues engaged in many different realms of social justice education and training
• Name the losses and frustrations in a community that can hold the grief
• Celebrate the breakthroughs with people who can share the joy
• Soak up the beauty of the woods and lakeside property at the Michigan Friends Center.

If your spirit longs for rejuvenation, deeper connection with other social justice educators, and the nurture of a beautiful natural setting, we invite you to be part of this unique retreat.
Facilitator-guides for our time together will be Monique Savage and Melanie Morrison
 
DATES: Friday, June 29 & Saturday, June 30, 2012.  9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. each day.
LOCATION: The Michigan Friends Center in Chelsea, Michigan, has 92 acres of lakefront property. It is 20 miles from Ann Arbor and 60 miles from Detroit. The facility is barrier-free.
COST: $150. Snacks, beverages, and lunch provided each day. Partial scholarships available.

Overnight accommodations are available at local hotels and Bed and Breakfasts.You may also bring a tent and camp for free at the center.
To Register
 
You may register online with a credit card at the Allies for Change website: www.alliesforchange.org, or download a registration form and send it with a deposit. For more information about Renewing Heart and Hope, email Melanie Morrison.
 
About the Facilitators
Monique Savage is director of the Counseling Services at Adrian College and an Allies for Change training partner. As an anti-oppression educator, she has 25 years experience designing and leading multicultural programs throughout the country. Monique has partnered with the Michigan State University Extension diversity training team for the past 15 years and is a frequent presenter at the Leaven Center in Lyons, Michigan. She specializes in issues that impact African American women and is much sought after as a speaker.

Melanie S. Morrison is executive director ofAllies for Change. She is a seasoned anti-oppression educator, activist, and author with 25 years experience designing and facilitating transformational group process. In 1994, she co-founded Doing Our Own Work, an intensive anti-racism program for white people and has co-facilitated this program for 17 consecutive years. She believes it is possible to grow ever more aware of the depth and complexity of systemic injustice without surrendering our capacity for compassion, joy, and hope.

-----

Offerings from Love Making Dances

 

 

Yoga for the Sexual Priestess 
Intro: Sunday June 10, 12 - 2 pm

Learn more and Pay the $30 Class fee online by visiting Zahava's website.

Join a beautiful group of women to connect with the loving sexual embodiment of our souls. This class uses a movement practice to fully express orgasmic openings and invoke pleasure as a devotion to Life. We will engage the skeletal, soul, organ, sexual, chakra, muscular, collective and ancestral anatomies expanding our personal practice into a whole context. Rocking, undulation and vibration are qualities of movement not usually found in a yoga class. We will engage them with vocal toning to invoke transformation. These movements deeply access our life force energy and naturally occur during embodied transformations including orgasm, deep grieving, and soul shaking laughter. Note: the intro classes are clothed.

Benefits:
· Release excess nervous energy to strengthen boundaries & focus
· Enhance trust and respect in your intimate relationships
· Open passionate communication between heart & sex center
· Rejuvenate your sexual & creative nature
· Connect with powerful loving women
 
Who is the Sexual Priestess? How does modern yoga cultivate masculine energy? Read Zahava's OccupyPassion.com blog!

Location: Solstice Studio 68 W 39th st, 3 fl (at Sixth Ave)
   

-----

Celebrating Thirty Years: Global Somatics Conference and Move- A- Thon
July 14-22, 2012

Green River Dance for Global Somatics School for Somatic Movement Education/Therapy, Bodywork and Energy Medicine
2716 E. 26th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55406
Director Suzanne River 
Register On Line at www.globalsomatics.com  

GS Conference Pricing
Global Pass: You can attend the whole conference! $600
Early bird discount $440 if register by June 1 and $500 if register by July 1
Conscious Embodiment: Six morning classes taught by Suzanne River with GS Workbook $300

River Pass: Any five classes (one morning course allowed!) $100
Green Day Pass: $90 for one full day
Drop -in:
9:30-12:30 $60
1:30-3:30 $30
4:00-5:30 $20

Several free events (*starred)

Suggested donation $10 for concerts on Sunday 7/15 and Saturday 7/21

Global Somatics Bodywork Registration required $20-$100

July 14-22 Calendar of Events
Saturday July 14 Global Somatics Spirit  

Sunday July 15 Global Somatics Art 
Monday July 16 Global Somatics Yoga
Tuesday July 17 Global Somatics Dance
Wednesday July 18 Global Somatics Theatre
Thursday July 19 Global Somatics Children
Friday July 20 Global Somatics Activism
Saturday July 21 Global Somatics MOVE- A- THON
Sunday July 22 Global Somatics Bodywork

 Hello Good People!

 

The project I have been hard at work on for the last six months (!!!) reaches fruition at the end of June: The Healing Justice Practice Space at the 2012 Allied Media Conference (AMC). The Healing Justice Practice Space is an all-gendered, all-bodied space for practicing and receiving healing and health care. In our second year at the AMC, we will offer all participants at the conference massage therapy, energy work, community acupuncture, herbal therapy, counseling, first aid, art therapy, dance, yoga, counseling, and more! We will also offer progressive and radical health care practitioners from across the country the opportunity to network, support, and share resources with one another for creating accessible health care in their communities.

 

It is incredibly exciting to play a critical role in bringing healing justice into the national network/community of the AMC - there is a growing recognition across the social justice movement that achieving justice requires intentional space for collective healing, because social injustice is a form of collective harm. There is also a growing recognition of the manifold ways that we experience and then hold oppression and injustice in our bodies and in the bodies of our communities. It's as clear as the epidemic incidences of diabetes in poor communities. It's as subtle as the hidden scourge of depression and addiction in middle income and wealthy communities. Racial, gender, and economic injustice and disparity compromises the health and well-being of all members of society, whether or not they are directly impacted by those disparities.

 

The Allied Media Conference is one of the most inspiring and transformative gatherings I have the privilege to attend, particularly because it brings together a true diversity of communities who are impacted by injustice, and who are using media in innovative ways to organize and transform their communities. I strongly recommend attending if you can, and info on how to do that is below. If you can't come and jam with us, you can support scholarships for many of the amazing healers who are coming to work in the Healing Justice Practice Space. In return for your support, you get a collection of immune power powders - delicious herbal medicine can be used in water, teas, and smoothies, to build, enrich, and boost your immune system. I already ordered mine!

 

Happy summer to you. As we move into the next phase of 2012, I am filled with great hope and steely dedication. Witnessing the re-election of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, and the growing hostility and polarization as fear-filled social conservatives attempt to permanently ban gay marriage here in Minnesota, I am settling into my own sense of transformation as the long road. Like my ancestors before me, I am forced to acknowledge the possibility that I may not personally experience the freedom from injustice I am striving for in my lifetime. But it is enough to know that my children might.

 

In this edition of Iambrown:

• The 2012 Allied Media Conference is coming up! (Detroit, MI)
• Renewing Heart & Hope: A Retreat for Social Justice Educators and Trainers (Chelsea, MI)
• Offerings from Love Making Dances (New York, NY)
• Celebrating Thirty Years: Global Somatics Conference and Move- A- Thon (Minneapolis, MN)

 

-----

The 2012 Allied Media Conference is coming up!

REGISTER TODAY

The deadline to register for housing in the Wayne State dorms has been extended to Monday 6/11 at high noon. Make your reservation today!

The full AMC2012 schedule is now live and available for your viewing pleasure.  Explore the new session browser that AMP has been diligently developing with our partners, The Work Department and take in the wonder of this year's 150+ workshops, panels, strategy sessions, tours and caucuses.  This year, in addition to browsing content, you can bookmark sessions and plan your path through the immensity of the AMC.  

We are excited to tell you about the AMC2012 Opening Ceremony.  The Opening Cermeony will feature a three-part panel about storytelling and the fate of the world with presentations by transmedia science fiction storyteller Thenmozhi Soundararajan; writer, filmmaker and social and gender justice activist from Detroit,dream hampton; and Micha Cárdenas, an artist/theorist who works in performance, wearable electronics, hacktivism and critical gender studies.  It will include a tribute to Detroit poet, D. Blair, featuring new works by an incredible lineup of Detroit poets and will close with a performance by the Ruth Ellis Center Voguers and J-Setters.  Make sure you're there, 6pm in the Community Arts Auditorium.  

As you make your travel and housing plans for AMC2012, use the AMPtalk message boards to find carpool collaborators, community housing options and much more.  If you're a Detroiter, interested in opening up your home to fascinating out-of-town AMC participant, be sure to make a post on the housing board.  

Support all of the amazing collaborative fundraising efforts to get our communities to the AMC, by visiting the AMPstore.  If you're a New Yorker, looking for a cheap, fun way to get to the AMC, you can also purchase tickets on the NYC2AMC bus.  

Last but not least, we advise you to get your bowling skills tight and select your karaoke anthem, in preparation for the AMC2012 Bowling, Music & Karaoke Extravaganza, Friday 6/29.  This Friday night party of the AMC will feature performances by Abstract Random, Jeecy and the Jungle and Jöjjön.  

We can't wait to see you in Detroit. 

-----

Renewing Heart & Hope: A Retreat for Social Justice Educators and Trainers

Friday, June 29 & Saturday, June 30, 2012

 

Registration has begun for Renewing Heart & Hope: A Retreat for Social Justice Educators and Trainers. If your spirit longs for rejuvenation, deeper connection with other social justice educators, and the nurture of a beautiful natural setting, we encourage you to join us for this unique retreat. Please help us spread the word by sharing this announcement widely.
 
Facilitating groups and educating for social change can be a source of great energy and joy. This work can also lead to frustration and exhaustion when we experience multiple setbacks or fail to find ways to nourish our bodies and souls. Too often, we become so absorbed in the demands of our work that we grow forgetful of our need for each other. This retreat offers a different way.
 
Imagine if you had time and space to...

• Be with others who share a deep and abiding commitment to social change
• Share with colleagues what is life-giving; what is depleting in this work
• Meet and learn from colleagues engaged in many different realms of social justice education and training
• Name the losses and frustrations in a community that can hold the grief
• Celebrate the breakthroughs with people who can share the joy
• Soak up the beauty of the woods and lakeside property at the Michigan Friends Center.

If your spirit longs for rejuvenation, deeper connection with other social justice educators, and the nurture of a beautiful natural setting, we invite you to be part of this unique retreat.
Facilitator-guides for our time together will be Monique Savage and Melanie Morrison
 
DATES: Friday, June 29 & Saturday, June 30, 2012.  9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. each day.
LOCATION: The Michigan Friends Center in Chelsea, Michigan, has 92 acres of lakefront property. It is 20 miles from Ann Arbor and 60 miles from Detroit. The facility is barrier-free.
COST: $150. Snacks, beverages, and lunch provided each day. Partial scholarships available.

Overnight accommodations are available at local hotels and Bed and Breakfasts.You may also bring a tent and camp for free at the center.
To Register
 
You may register online with a credit card at the Allies for Change website: www.alliesforchange.org, or download a registration form and send it with a deposit. For more information about Renewing Heart and Hope, email Melanie Morrison.
 
About the Facilitators
Monique Savage is director of the Counseling Services at Adrian College and an Allies for Change training partner. As an anti-oppression educator, she has 25 years experience designing and leading multicultural programs throughout the country. Monique has partnered with the Michigan State University Extension diversity training team for the past 15 years and is a frequent presenter at the Leaven Center in Lyons, Michigan. She specializes in issues that impact African American women and is much sought after as a speaker.

Melanie S. Morrison is executive director ofAllies for Change. She is a seasoned anti-oppression educator, activist, and author with 25 years experience designing and facilitating transformational group process. In 1994, she co-founded Doing Our Own Work, an intensive anti-racism program for white people and has co-facilitated this program for 17 consecutive years. She believes it is possible to grow ever more aware of the depth and complexity of systemic injustice without surrendering our capacity for compassion, joy, and hope.

-----

Offerings from Love Making Dances

 

 

Yoga for the Sexual Priestess 
Intro: Sunday June 10, 12 - 2 pm

Learn more and Pay the $30 Class fee online by visiting Zahava's website.

Join a beautiful group of women to connect with the loving sexual embodiment of our souls. This class uses a movement practice to fully express orgasmic openings and invoke pleasure as a devotion to Life. We will engage the skeletal, soul, organ, sexual, chakra, muscular, collective and ancestral anatomies expanding our personal practice into a whole context. Rocking, undulation and vibration are qualities of movement not usually found in a yoga class. We will engage them with vocal toning to invoke transformation. These movements deeply access our life force energy and naturally occur during embodied transformations including orgasm, deep grieving, and soul shaking laughter. Note: the intro classes are clothed.

Benefits:
· Release excess nervous energy to strengthen boundaries & focus
· Enhance trust and respect in your intimate relationships
· Open passionate communication between heart & sex center
· Rejuvenate your sexual & creative nature
· Connect with powerful loving women
 
Who is the Sexual Priestess? How does modern yoga cultivate masculine energy? Read Zahava's OccupyPassion.com blog!

Location: Solstice Studio 68 W 39th st, 3 fl (at Sixth Ave)
   

-----

Celebrating Thirty Years: Global Somatics Conference and Move- A- Thon
July 14-22, 2012

Green River Dance for Global Somatics School for Somatic Movement Education/Therapy, Bodywork and Energy Medicine
2716 E. 26th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55406
Director Suzanne River 
Register On Line at www.globalsomatics.com  

GS Conference Pricing
Global Pass: You can attend the whole conference! $600
Early bird discount $440 if register by June 1 and $500 if register by July 1
Conscious Embodiment: Six morning classes taught by Suzanne River with GS Workbook $300

River Pass: Any five classes (one morning course allowed!) $100
Green Day Pass: $90 for one full day
Drop -in:
9:30-12:30 $60
1:30-3:30 $30
4:00-5:30 $20

Several free events (*starred)

Suggested donation $10 for concerts on Sunday 7/15 and Saturday 7/21

Global Somatics Bodywork Registration required $20-$100

July 14-22 Calendar of Events
Saturday July 14 Global Somatics Spirit  

Sunday July 15 Global Somatics Art 
Monday July 16 Global Somatics Yoga
Tuesday July 17 Global Somatics Dance
Wednesday July 18 Global Somatics Theatre
Thursday July 19 Global Somatics Children
Friday July 20 Global Somatics Activism
Saturday July 21 Global Somatics MOVE- A- THON
Sunday July 22 Global Somatics Bodywork