An Emerging Guide to How Queering Dreams Holds Space & Time
An Emerging Guide to How Queering Dreams Holds Space & Time
Learn what you can expect at any of the Queering Dreams November Events.
Introduction
As part of our Queering Dreams Co-Creative Process & Applied Dreaming Praxis, we are developing a series of Emerging Guides to help our Co-Creators & Comrades understand, navigate, adapt / iterate, and co-create with us.
Sharing these Emerging Guides as they are developing (and not just in the final form) is central to our values & practices of consent & accessibility. We believe articulating our Queering Dreams mechanics & logistics & processes in clear ways helps others better know if / how they want to contribute / co-create / participate. This is crucial to consent & accessibility because liberation can only come when those who have been most oppressed belong & are welcomed. And for us at Queering Dreams that begins with being as clear as we can be so we can welcome inquiry into how we can be even more welcoming & inclusive.
This also means this Emerging Guide will adapt, grow, change, morph, evolve, and even may be discarded all together when new inquiries reveal new insights into inclusion & equity & belonging.
In An Emerging Guide to How Queering Dreams Holds Space & Time, we share our best dreaming & designing to date about how we create a culture of welcoming belonging that moves us towards our collective liberation (from capitalism & White Supremacy & patriarchy & ableism & colonialism & all oppression & tyranny.) And this Emerging Guide will help you better understand what you can expect at all of our Queering Dreams events coming up in November.
And We, Crystal Mason & Jason Wyman, invite all of you to also dream and inquire about how you hold space & time. What values and practices guide you? What forms do they take? Where are you amidst & amongst it all?
Overview: How is Queering Dreams like a lava lamp?
Welcome to the Evolving Guide to How Queering Dreams Holds Space & Time. This is our best thinking & design to date regarding the flow of space & time during all of our November events & workshops. This will give you a rough sense of what to expect in any of our virtual offerings. Some specifics may change, but the overall culture and praxis remains the same.
Let’s get started!
First, imagine a lava lamp. If you’re having a hard time imagining, here’s an illustration.
Illustration by Jason Wyman.
Notice, there is a base, a glass jar filled with a clear liquid and a colored liquid that do not mix, a light source, and a top.
Well, this entire lava lamp is a single Queering Dreams event! Let’s break it down just a bit so the metaphor is a bit clearer.
The base, that which holds everything together, is our community of Co-Creators and Comrades. They are the foundation upon which every single event is produced.
The glass jar--specifically its size--is the entirety of the workshop from the time we . There’s a standard shape but it can be larger or smaller depending on what exactly we are co-creating.
The clear liquid is all of the space & time available based on the size of the jar.
The colored liquid is all of the comrades who attend our workshop or event.
The light source is our praxis: the energy possible by the practice of our values.
The decorative top, which makes the object pleasing to the eye, represents all of the details that help create ease and understanding of how we hold space & time.
In this metaphor, we--the Queering Dreams Co-Founders & Co-Creators--have crafted our events / offerings / lava lamp with a specific shape, and we are inviting you to join us inside the lava lamp. We are asking to be your guides to space & time when you attend. And we know that consenting to join us requires us being clear beforehand about exactly what you can expect during our offerings / events so you can make an informed choice to join or not.
So...how exactly will we hold space & time during our events?
Great question! And we’ve got answers.
Illustration by Jason Wyman.
The Agenda Breakdown
Basics of Start Times
All events / offerings start with approximately 10-20 minutes of casual arrival. The time listed on Eventbrite is the beginning of the casual arrival.
All events / offerings have a hard start time. We will confirm the hard start time via email to all who register.
Rough Agenda
Ethnographic Introductions -- 1-2 minutes
Co-creators introduce themselves using an ethnography of the HERE & NOW.
Example: Jason Wyman. HERE: I live, create & love on Yelamu, unceded Ramaytush Ohlone Land that Spanish Catholic colonizers named San Francisco. I grew up in what I was told was a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and I am beginning to better know as Očhéthi Šakówiŋ. NOW: It is DATE, TIME in the what is known as the Gregorian Calendar, which is the manner in which I keep time.
Equity Acknowledgement - 2 minutes
We want to acknowledge that our world and our communities are not equitable, nor have they ever been. This pandemic / endemic and the growing movement against police brutality and for Black Lives and the growing movement against pipelines / extraction and for Land Back and the growing movement of strikers seeking to rebalance power, continues to bring into sharp focus how what are often considered historic inequities and injustices, and disparities are actually present realities, especially for Indigenous communities, Black folx, immigrants, disabled folx, transgender and gender non-conforming folx, queer folx, poor folx, displaced folx, and refugees.
We want to offer a moment of reflection, space & time for your own thoughts and feelings before we begin so we can be present to and with each other.
Holding Safer & Braver Space & Time - 5 minutes (max)
We will be engaging in a process of consensus to ensure we can all hold safer & braver space & time together in ways that foster honest, vulnerable, personal, and communal co-creation, meaning-making, and dreaming.
We have FIVE Guides. For each guide, we will
Share it via Slideshow
Read it aloud.
Confirm consensus using:
Thumbs Up - Yes
Thumbs To the Side / Shocked Face - Meh, I’ll go along.
Thumbs Down / Red X - Unsure I can go along with that.
We will only move on to the next Guide once we all have Thumbs Up or Thumbs To the Side.
The Six Guides:
CONSENT: We ask for your consent to be your Guides of Space & Time during the duration of this workshop / event and we invite your autonomy in how you participate within that time & space in ways that feel good to you. This could look / sound / feel like being asked to dream for 10 minutes and just trying it out. Or when asked to share for five minutes, sharing for three minutes and holding space for silence / reflection for two minutes.
CONFIDENTIALITY: We ask for confidentiality so we all can participate fully and freely. This can look / sound / feel like after the workshop talking about what we learned from a certain situation or somebody else's words or ideas shared and not including names or any identifying information. Or even (re)considering what names / identifying information you may share during this workshop.
CARE: We invite people to take care of themselves and their needs / wants / desires and to care for how we tend to our relations. This can look / sound / feel like participating with the camera off. Or taking a break when needed. It also looks / sounds / feels like not offering advice and instead offering care.
COMPASSION: We ask for compassion towards yourself and towards others. This can look / sound / feel like meeting ourselves and each other as we are in the moment & knowing this is not a competition.
CHANGE: We invite change to occur in your & our thoughts, beliefs, positions, identities, and understandings. This can look / sound / feel like having more compassion for yourself and others. Or taking small steps in a direction of realizing your dreams. Or admitting that what you thought you knew might be ill-informed.
COMMUNITY MEDIA: We believe that what we co-create are crucial records of communal dreams / wisdom / insights, and we believe those records should be freely shared for others to witness. We believe this is the power & purpose of community media. Before we begin any recording, we will ask for consent, and anyone can deny or revoke consent at any time.
Opening Circle -- Some Way for All to Call Themselves into Space & Time -- Varies (5-20 minutes)
We open & close in circle because the acts of giving testimony and of bearing witness are acts of vulnerable revelation. We open & close in circle because these acts of vulnerable revelation are powerful and demand space & time to occur. We open & close in circle as a way for people to call themselves & each other into here & now.
Each Opening Circle is different and based on the needs / desires of the Co-Creators.
An Emerging Guide to Queering Dreams Opening & Closing Circles Coming Soon.
Co-Creators Main Content -- approximately 50-60 minutes
This is the main content of the event / offering. This is developed by the Co-Creator with support from Queering Dreams.
Small Breakout Groups -- Guidelines & Methodology
We encourage Small Breakout Groups because we believe it gives space & time for folx to more intimately get to know each other.
An Emerging Guide to Queering Dreams Triads / Breakout Groups Coming Soon.
Large Group Sharing: Affirming Consent for Recording
Queering Dreams values community media. Queering Dreams believes that what we co-create are crucial records of communal dreams, contain easy-to-use tools, and articulate collective actions. Queering Dreams believe those records should be freely shared for others to witness. We believe witnessing communal dreams, sharing tools, and publicly holding ourselves accountable to action amplifies the possibilities of our communal dreams becoming realities.
Share our process of recording:
Confirm a yes / no from each participant about being recorded.
The process after recording is as follows:
Media Release form sent to all for signatures. Must return within 48 hours.
Audio of recording uploaded to Otter.ai for transcript within 48 hours.
Share the recording with proper names within one week.
Confirm consent / edits of transcript from participants with media releases one week after sharing.
At any point along this path, you can withdraw consent.
Publication of materials will not occur until 2022.
Confirm consent to record.
Hit Record & record consent confirmation.
Queering Dreams Announcements - 1 minute
Closing Circle -- Varies by minimum 10 minutes - 20 minutes
We open & close in circle because the acts of giving testimony and of bearing witness are acts of vulnerable revelation. We open & close in circle because these acts of vulnerable revelation are powerful and demand space & time to occur. We open & close in circle as a way for people to call themselves & each other into here & now.
An Emerging Guide to Queering Dreams Opening & Closing Circles Coming Soon.
Basics of End Times
All of our events / offerings have a hard end time, so that if you need to hop off immediately you can. You will receive the hard end time via email after you register.
We also believe in giving 15-45 minutes for a more casual departure should anyone want to hang around, ask questions, or network. The time listed on Eventbrite is the time we will close casual departure.
Holding Space & Time with A Space for Applied Dreaming
Queering Dreams Co-Founders Crystal Mason & Jason Wyman share how they applied this Emerging Guide to their upcoming four workshop series A Space for Applied Dreaming.