Solidarity Practice: Co-Creating Community Bystanders: Sun Sept 14th

This workshop is for:

People of Color who want to practice, learn & brainstorm about being supportive BYSTANDERS in our/their Communities

What does that mean? Some Examples Below:

Communities:
Digital/Virtual/Online
- During heated back and forths
- When people are wielding their privilege in whack ways
- During hard global/local moments (wildfires, deaths, genocide, phobic anything)

In Person 
- Abuse of power by law enforcement
- Interpersonal harm
- Medical Emergencies
- Community or friend emergencies
- During hard global/local moments (wildfires, deaths, genocide, phobic anything)During hard global/local moments (wildfires, deaths, genocide, phobic anything)
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Why?

I started thinking about how to be a good effective to the person/people who need support bystander through the TOO MANY videos of Black people being murdered by p*lice. And seeing so many people comment: "why did they just stand there?" "why didn't they yell/jump in/stop it?" And like, one obvious answer is fear. But it's also, many of us do not have good "crises reflexes." And sometime are more concerned with being heroes than being in solidarity. So we gotta practice silly!

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How will we talk about this? 

1. We gone get vulnerable (to the extent that you want to of course) by sharing what goes through our minds when we encounter hard and potentially harmful - dangerous shit in our communities
2. We gone get honest - by listing out and mapping who we consider our inner communities, outer communities and further reaching communities (aka our communities by human circumstance) and also naming when things may not our business
3. We gone talk about our capacities: emotional, physical, mental, conflict etc. that impact our ability to be bystanders
4. We gone talk about our unique skill sets 
5. We gone talk about our needs vs the needs of our communities
6. And then we gone put it all together to name what kind of bystanders we are already good at, could practice being, and who we could learn from

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Let's prepare with each other and for each other <333

Layout:

We will do introductions; I will provide context for the workshop. 

We will journal briefly about what being a community bystander means to us

We will talk about the difference being a community bystander and indulging your ego/savoir complex as well as
Actions that will help versus further harm

We will talk about types of community bystanders I listed with room to add to the pot

We will answer the questions and what came up for us in each

We will wrap up in sharing what we will be practicing and what kind of community bystanders when 

Safety:

~ Limited to 24 People

~ Must either verify your insta (with your face) or by a person I know

~ Will receive zoom link day of

Access:

~ Captions

~ Workshop is 3 hours

~ You will receive recording and resources after

~ Do not share recording or resources 

About Your Facilitator:

Rise is a queer Black disabled genderfluid femmeboi; A visual artist, poet, full spectrum (birth/postpartum/grief & loss/abortion) birthworker, yoga teacher, meditation facilitator, gender affirming and trauma informed care and disability justice educator, access consultant and community care worker. 

Rise is deeply invested in disability justice, access, centering wellness for Black queer folk, trauma education, and rest. Also of course! A lover of doing the most.