US Social Forum Day 2

Filed Under events, race, ussf, workshops

Wow. Being here in Atlanta right now is like being around 10,000 of some of my favorite UUs. I actually have run into a number of UUs - some of whom I saw at GA! Small world. I love how I can talk to all of these people who understand things like the “gender binary” system, history of race and class in the USA, and current resistance movements.

I’m enjoying myself - there is so much to learn! And it warms my heart to see so many people of color here. There are many activist UUs and Portlanders, but they are mostly white. Sometimes I forget how many diverse groups of people of color are working together on issues. Even in the midst of typical, petty human dramas, there is solidarity here - the likes of which I have never personally witnessed.

This event has more workshops than GA - 975 programs!!! But there are really only 3 time slots per day (10:30, 1:00, 3:30). In the morning there is a daily opening (8:30) and at 6pm there is a plenary. It’s very different to be here with no role to play, as a total unknown, but it means I can just go to what purely interests me, stay up late, take breaks and maybe even sleep in a little.

Yesterday I attended the first half of plenary for the Social Forum. It was split into two sections: the first half addressing issues of the Gulf Coast, and the second half about the military and prison industrial complexes.

What is going on in New Orleans is absurd. One point a speaker made is that recovery is not “slow” as described in the media, but it is about the privatization of the area. Golf courses and expensive condos replacing public housing, etc. I could go on and on, but I want to keep this post of moderate length. UU congregations that want to send groups down to New Orleans need to be mindful of two things:

Mississippi needs work too!
If you are going to send anyone down to the Gulf Coast, you should be working in collaboration with existing, locally based groups that are approaching reconstruction in anti racist and anti classist ways. There are lots of resources (including within the UU community) for addressing both of these points. The UUSC has been working very hard to be accountable to the folks it seeks to serve.

Earlier in the day I attended a workshop put on by the Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (of NYC). We did a lot of work with imagery and using our bodies to express obstacles we have in relation to activist work. We used imagery again to be creative about ways to overcome those obstacles. It was hard for me to put myself out there in front of others, as I’m naturally reserved, but it was very joyful and loosened me up (emotionally).
The second workshop I attended was titled Teaching with Freire and the Feminists in the 21st Century, and I got some really good things out of it. There was a focus on adult literacy, and creating space for dialogue with humility and reflexivity. This event really underscored for me the challenge of teaching AS an act of radical liberation. So much of education is managerialism and - as many of the teachers in the room lamented - standardized testing. Which leads me to the third workshop I took which was called Teaching the People’s History to Kids through Fun and Play.

The instructor(s) didn’t show up (we have no idea what happened to them), so we attendees opted to facilitate the workshop ourselves, discussing education, history, and teaching techniques. I’m not a teacher, but as an unschooler, I’m very interested in theories of education. I’ve also done a lot of facilitating and volunteer teaching, from ESL tutoring to Muslim Sunday School, where I taught Islamic history to kids for years. Most of the other people in the room were educators, and it suddenly became even more apparent to me how oppressive parts of educational system is. One teacher in New York spoke about how recess and nap time had been taken out of the lower grades - including kindergarten. There were attempts to diagnose one five year old boy in her class with ADD - and she was fighting against this because all he wanted was to play! What the ?!* I felt badly for many of these teachers, who are striving to include radical ideas in a system that is so very, very conservative.

Okay, end of report from yesterday!

Comments

One Response to “US Social Forum Day 2”

claire on June 29th, 2007 7:26 pm

all of that sounds like frickin’ sweet learning experiences. such great workshops (or your workshop choices anyway)

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