[opirgyork] NEXT WEEK: OPIRG-York and CWTP @ York presents DisOrientation 2013: “Art in Rebellion!"

[OPIRG York]

*OPIRG-York and CWTP @ York presents DisOrientation 2013: “Art in
Rebellion!”*

For years on the York University campus, OPIRG-York, its allied
organizations and community members have put together an alternative
orientation week open to students and community members. By bringing
together a wide range of campus and community groups, DisO aims to draw the
links between the many different kinds of political, environmental and
social justice based organizing that exists on campus and in our
communities.

This year’s “Art in Rebellion!” is to be held on and near the York
University campus, from Monday, September 23rd, 2013 to Friday, September
27th, 2013. Throughout the week, OPIRG York, alongside community partner
the Centre for Women and Trans People, is offering a series of amazing
workshops, panels and teach-ins, filled with storytelling, skills-sharing
and art-making. DisO is fundamentally about sharing skills, his/herstories,
and knowledge that demonstrate the vibrant talents and capabilities we all
possess.

*Some of the highlights of the week include:*
*
*
*Keynote address by Sarah Schulman, an avid HIV/AIDS and queer rights
activist;*
*Spoken word workshop facilitated by multi-talented artist, Truth Is;*
*“Freedom Fridayz” finale event, with music, food and many performances.*

If you want to learn about some amazing organizing work being done around
the city, if you want to build networks with other folks that are committed
to fighting for social change or if you just want to join us for some art
fun, come out to DisOrientation 2013! We hope to see you there!

All are welcome! All events are free and wheelchair accessible!!
*More Info:* http://diso2013.opirgyork.ca
*Share on Facebook*: https://www.facebook.com/events/569675093069625

*********************************

*SCHEDULE:*

*Monday, September 23rd 2013*
*
*
*Exploring Migrant Worker Narratives with Justicia *
*Facilitated by: Evelyn Encalada*
*11 a.m.-1 p.m. *
*Room 430, Student Centre *

In this workshop we will critically analyze Temporary Foreign Worker
Programs in Canada as expressions of immigration and labour apartheid. Our
focus will be on migrant farm workers from the Global South who perform
back breaking work in farms and greenhouses across the country to produce
the food we consume. We will contemplate our roles as consumers and allies
of migrant workers and their families by analyzing our very own privileges
and power in this chain of production. The workshop will end with a
creative adbusting activity to make migrant farm workers visible in the
local food production.


*Seeds of Resistance: Breaking Down Privilege & Oppression*
*Facilitated by: Ray Garcia*
*1-4 p.m. *
*Room 430, Student Centre *

Many of us are not aware that we live in a society that benefits certain
people at the cost of other people being denied these same benefits. In
this workshop, we will explore, define and unpack the terms Privilege and
Oppression and the different ways they affect us/and the society we live
in. We will also take a closer look at “Anti-Oppression” and the work that
it often includes – and excludes. Through collective strategizing and art,
we will examine and explore a more wholesome approach (one that includes
accountability, healing, creation and resistance) in the ways we navigate
our own personal journeys in grounding ourselves within these systems and
the different ways we can support each other.


*Know Your Rights Workshop, with Movement Defence Committee*
*4-6 p.m. *
*Room 313, Student Centre*

In this workshop we will outline your legal rights in regards to police
interactions, the basics of what happens upon arrest and, in going through
the court process, and suggest some practical things to consider as you
prepare to go out on the streets. We do this with a solidarity approach and
with a focus on those who are most vulnerable to arrest/criminalization.
The Movement Defence Committee [MDC] is an autonomous working group of the
Law Union of Ontario made up of legal workers, law students, activists and
lawyers which provides legal support to progressive organizations and
activists in Toronto. We recognize that members of oppressed groups are at
higher risk when they encounter the law and we work to provide information
and support that is specific to these groups.


*Tuesday, September 24th 2013 *
*
*
*Wanted: Disability Understood as Red Smoking Hot, *
*Facilitated by: Loree Erickson*
*11 a.m.- 1 p.m. *
*Room 313, Student Centre *

Loree made the internationally awarded short video want. In want, she uses
hot and sweaty moments of entanglement present in genderqueer-crip desire
and an alternative model of personal care to offer a complex and sexy image
of disability. This work also brings forward relationships between systems
of oppression and everyday lived realities. Drawing on reactions to want,
Loree will facilitate a discussion of any of the above topics as well as
what possibilities occur through the production of disability, not only as
desirable but, as red smoking hot!

*
*
*Queer Families: Children's books*
*Facilitated by: juli (a) rivera & AJ Withers *
*2-5 p.m. *
*Rm 307, Student Centre*

This workshop will explore kids books from a critical perspective. We will
talk about what makes a families book and what goes into making them. Feel
free to bring your favourite family book/children's book or books that
might relate to the workshop.

*
*
*HIV Stigma 101 & Prisons*
*Facilitated by: Keisha Williams and Syrus Ware *
*6-8 p.m. *
*Room 313, Student Centre *

Why is HIV seen differently then cancer or other illnesses? Using lived
experience and the context of incarceration/ the legal system’ this
workshop will define and explore the complexities and personal/ systemic
impacts of stigma around HIV.


*Wednesday, September 25th 2013 *
*
*
*Walk the Talk: Effective Self-Expression Through Spoken Word *
*Facilitated by: Truth Is*
*1-3 p.m.  *
*Room 430, Student Centre *

Learn elements and techniques connected with effective communication. While
flexing poetic muscles this workshop will help individuals connect in a
useful and advantageous manner. All exercises are designed to strengthen
power of speech, promote confidence and enhance your ability to communicate
effectively in professional and social circumstances. In addition this
workshop includes an informative, interactive and fun introduction to
spoken word/slam poetry. It also includes a performance by nationally
recognized spoken word artist Truth Is …

Please bring writing utensils.


*“Assata Shakur is Still Welcome Here!” Teach-In *
*Facilitated by: Wangui Kimari and Kimalee Phillip *
*4-6 p.m. *
*Room 307, Student Centre *

On Thursday May 2, 2013, the FBI announced that it was increasing its
bounty for the capture of Assata Shakur (born JoAnne Deborah Byron) from 1
million to 2 million dollars. The agency also included Assata on the FBI’s
Most Wanted Terrorist list, the first time that a woman has ever appeared
on the list.

Assata has written:

“My name is Assata (“she who struggles”) Shakur (“the thankful one”), and I
am a 20th century escaped slave. Because of government persecution, I was
left with no other choice than to flee from the political repression,
racism and violence that dominate the US government’s policy towards people
of color. I am an ex political prisoner, and I have been living in exile in
Cuba since 1984. I have been a political activist most of my life, and
although the U.S. government has done everything in its power to
criminalize me, I am not a criminal, nor have I ever been one. In the
1960s, I participated in various struggles: the black liberation movement,
the student rights movement, and the movement to end the war in Vietnam. I
joined the Black Panther Party. By 1969 the Black Panther Party had become
the number one organization targeted by the FBI’s COINTELPRO program.
Because the Black Panther Party demanded the total liberation of black
people, J. Edgar Hoover called it “greatest threat to the internal security
of the country” and vowed to destroy it and its leaders and activists.”

Join us Wednesday, September 25th, 2013 from 4pm-6pm for a teach-in about
Assata Shakur’s life and her case.


*Anti-Sex Work Oppression with Maggie’s*
*6-8 p.m. *
*Facilitated by: Lux*
*Room 307, Student Centre *

What is Anti-Sex Work Oppression and how does it exist within our
communities? This work shop will focus on explaining whorephobia and how
the broader context of Anti-Sex Work Oppression exists in order to
reinforce racism, classism, abelism and transphobia.

Looking at the functions of Whorephobia and Anti-Sex Work oppression we
will explore the ways in which it works to control everyone sexual autonomy
and sexual and domestic labour.

Maggie’s believes sex workers are the experts in their own lives,
specifically in an environment where the current laws serve to create harm
and present great difficulty in going about our work.This workshop will use
story telling and a short film to express the opinions of many sex workers
while challenging much of the stigma and discrimination we face on an every
day basis.


*Thursday, September 26th 2013 *
*
*
*“Forgotten Genocides”: In Canada & the Congo*
*Facilitated by: Jessica Cook and Bodia Macharia*
*11 a.m.- 1 p.m. *
*Room 313, Student Centre *

The Colonial Nation-State of Canada: Physical, Educational and Legal
Genocide by Jessica Cook

This presentation will be addressing specific aspects of the genocides
committed by historical colonial governments and the Colonial Canadian
Nation-State. Examining examples of physical genocide (such as purposely
infecting Indigenous peoples with foreign decease), the use of education as
a tool for physical, spiritual and cultural genocide, and legal genocide
(for example the Indian Act) that continually exists within Canada.

Genocide in the Congo by Bodia Macharia

This talk will explore the underlying political and historical context of a
genocide that continues to go unnoticed, unrecorded or distorted by mass
media outlets. The speaker will provide a historically deep and
socio-economically relevant perspective on the mass killings in the Congo.

This is a two-part workshop with discussion to follow.

*Exploring Contradictions in Organizing: Workshop with Sarah Schulman *
*2-4 p.m. *
*Room 430, Student Centre*

The role of North Americans in funding and legitimizing the Israeli
occupation of Palestinians is one of the great moral issues of our time. A
blossoming student movement is growing rapidly, and requires a lot of
conversation and communication of political,  emotional and ethical issues.
Join us for an open conversation with Sarah Schulman where we can calmly
and honestly address the questions that come up in anti-Occupation and
queer organizing. Sarah Schulman will share her personal journeys to
activism through their pursuit of the Israel/ Palestine question and work
with participants to hone arguments and explore contradictions.


*KEYNOTE: How Change is Made with Sarah Schulman*
*7-9 p.m.*
*Health Sciences Building, University of Toronto, Room HS610, 155 College
St.*

An author of sixteen books, a playwright and a long-time activist, Sarah
Schulman will weave through her own stories of resistance and her
experiences in organizing spaces in the past 35 years. From her time with
the Lesbian Avengers to her work with the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power
(ACT-UP), from the founding of Housing Works to her more recent outspoken
criticism of the Occupation of Palestine, her talk will center around
discussion of her own work in building inclusive, sustainable movements,
including combatting sexism, homophobia and other forms of oppression in
her organizing work.  How do we learn from the past and use activist
histories to develop future struggles? Join us at Disorientation Week 2013
to explore combating the multitude of oppressions that play out in our
movements and in our lives, and sharing stories for movement and community
building.


*Friday, September 27th 2013 *
*
*
*Art Flash: Hands On Art Workshops*
*1-3 p.m. *
*Facilitated by: Radical Design School *
*Room 430, Student Centre*

This workshop will provide participants with basic knowledge of
button-making, banner-making, silk-screening, and stenciling among many
other do-it-yourself art techniques. This will also be an opportunity to
discuss and envision the ways art can influence resistance on campus and in
our communities.

All materials and supplies will provided, but feel free to bring your own.
Bring any shirts and fabrics that you would like to use for silk-screening.


*Freedom Fridays! *
*6- 9 p.m. *
*Yorkgate Mall, Black Creek Community Health Centre Lobby*
*Music, food, live art and performances! *

A movement rooted in the belief that community can build community. An
initiative of Black Creek Community Health Centre and Jane and Finch
Community Family Centres, The Spot. Freedom Fridays is a platform for
youth, elders, children, parents, artists, local entrepreneurs, educators,
and leaders (all of whom make up community) to organically build a space
that is hospitable to friendship, learning, partnership and fun.

Join us for the September instalment of Freedom Fridays, as we dance, sing,
create art and watch some amazing and talented local performers.

Food and drinks will be served.

(https://www.facebook.com/events/592436837458962/)


-- 
-OPIRG York
--
www.opirgyork.ca
416-736-5724
opirg at yorku.ca



*There are many ways to get involved at OPIRG. Apply to be a working group:
**http://opirgyork.ca/working-groups*
Contact victoria at opirgyork.ca for further information.

*We also have two collectives: *PrOPIRGanda Radio and the Radical Reading
Room. You can contact us about ways to get involved in these collectives:
opirgyork at gmail.com.

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