How Queering Dreams Cultivates Belonging in Virtual Space
How Queering Dreams Cultivates Belonging in Virtual Space
Queering Dreams cultivates belonging in virtual space so we can deepen our relations today & into the future in a manner that moves us along our pathway towards liberation. Here some of how we do it.
All we have is each other.
Over the last two years especially, this pandemic has shown us, we can not depend on the old institutions and what many of us accept as normal. There is no going back, and we need not continue to feel isolated, alienated and alone.
Queering Dreams believes in and works to create a better future that engenders intimacy, vulnerability and belonging. A future where dreaming, study and art can help us, our family, friends, neighbors, comrades and co-creators create pathways to liberate us from all oppressive systems and behaviors of domination.
We know in order to make any of this a reality, we need each other. We need places to gather, to share, to have hard conversations, to come to common understandings and to be accountable to one another and to ourselves as we work to make the world we want to live, love and be in.
Due to this pandemic and the coming ones…
Due to the need to work across borders, as artificial as they may be…
Due to the unaffordability of private spaces…
Queering Dreams cultivates belonging in virtual space so we can deepen our relations today & into the future in a manner that moves us along our pathway towards liberation.
And here’s some of how we do it.
We are proud to announce that we are now fiscally sponsored by Independent Arts & Media. This means you can donate to help us co-create spaces for dreaming, study, & art, like our upcoming Virtual Artist Salons for Immigrant Artists.
We state our values.
Equity is the frame that guides our space & time together, and we value consent, confidentiality, care, compassion, change, and community media. We invite & facilitate collective accountability in holding our values through seeking consensus before we begin. Queering Dreams also creates and shares media that clearly states who we are and what we stand for.
We keep it small.
We limit the number of people attending all of our workshops. We do this because we want our comrades to feel seen and heard. Queering Dreams foregrounds consent and care, and we know that by keeping it small we can make space for all to contribute. Having fewer people in our workshops ensures all can participate fully and be witnessed in ways that matter to them.
We make access easy.
We seek to make access easy by asking questions instead of assuming and thinking about access as anything that might create a barrier to attending a workshop. It starts with our registration process (more on that soon!) that asks our comrades to think about their needs, wants and desires and gives them an easy way to express them. All of our workshops are pay what you can so that a lack of funds is never a barrier to attending our workshops. And keeping it small enables us to be responsive to the needs that arise.
We connect generations and cross borders.
Queering Dreams believes the need for virtual gathering will not end anytime soon, so the need to connect and to organize virtually will grow. Even before the pandemic, Crystal & Jason were organizing across borders by connecting generations. They witnessed the power of virtual space to bond peoples that so often are forcefully disconnected. Queering Dreams is deeply committed to continuing to connect generations and cross borders so that we all can be free of oppressive systems and behaviors of domination.
Remain responsive & flexible.
We understand, no matter what our participants say through our registration process about their wants, needs and desires, things change and we can feel quite different on the day of the actual workshop. We also understand when trying to create spaces for intimacy and vulnerability big feelings can come up. Queering Dreams asks for and makes space to take care of ourselves and each other, and also to have compassion for ourselves and one another. Co-hosts are open to change course, to give more time and space because we believe relationships are more important than outcomes.
Please Donate to Queering Dreams
Please help keep our workshops & events going by supporting Queering Dreams with a donation. All of our workshops & events are pay-what-you can. We also offer stipends to those who need & request it.
We are fiscally sponsored by Independent Arts & Media, so your donation is tax-deductible. For more about why we chose IAM & how we handle our financial decision-making, please read our Queering Dreams Financial Praxis.
Want to know more about Crystal Mason & Jason Wyman?
Crystal Mason is on Instagram sharing coloring, camaraderie, and dreams. Soon Crystal will be launching a brand new website featuring their client-based services. Follow Crystal on Instagram to get the most up-to-date information about their art & their dreams.
Jason Wyman is Queerly Complex. Queerly Complex helps weirdos & queerdos find their comrades through making it easy to express their complex feels & radical politics. All with a dash of pink. Check out their online shop, which includes numerous free digi content (and some fabulous tees, totes, and baby stuff too.) You can find them on all social media at: @queerlycomplex.
Next How-To: How Queering Dreams Co-Creates Consensus.
Coming soon.