[this post is purely for my own research, collecting pieces of the intricate puzzle that is my birthchart] Where is home? What does it feel ...
9.17.2023
Words for chantier deracine // first time using chatGPT //intuitivehacking
Une propsition est tombé du ciel
The translation goes as follows:
Do you want to take part in a time of exchange and encounter?
==> Chantier Déraciné, the role of the imaginary in our respective struggles.
From 27 September to 1 October 2023.
In Saint-Jean Froidmentel, Loir-et-Cher.
Who will be there?
A dozen participants from the collective.
4 artists.
4 organisers from the Rue des Miracles association.
In a great place to live and meet people, Le Moulin Bleu ⇒ https://lemoulinbleu.org/le-moulin/
What is this work camp?
It's a moment of care and relaxation, a breath of fresh air in our daily lives.
A militant, philosophical and artistic meeting.
We're offering four days of discussions, participatory workshops, popular education and artistic exploration:
- to question the role of the imaginary (individual and collective) in our respective struggles;
-to provoke anarcha-eco-queer-feminist reflection, particularly on our relationship with sensitivity, with WATER and the issues at stake;
- to regenerate the language of our struggles and create common narratives;
- to anchor our utopias in the realities of our struggles.
Who is taking part?
Since 2014, the Rue des Miracles association has been organising stages open to all forms of expression in cultural, struggle and sharing venues in the Île-de-France and Ardèche regions (squats, street demonstrations, etc...)
Since 2018, the association has been organising uprooted work camps, short but intense moments to experiment together with the polyphony of the word Uprooting (uprooting land, living beings, cultures) and more specifically the axis of deconstructing the patriarchal & ecocidal system, from an artistic, philosophical and practical angle.
Three residencies have already taken place, one in 2018 with the philosopher and poet Mustapha Saha around a writing workshop on the notion of uprooting.
The second in 2019, with philosopher Myriam Bahaffou and the La Vulva/Rosae Canine collective of militant herbalists, focused on the creation of rituals, intersectionality, ecofeminisms and feminist herbalism.
And the third, in 2020, was an inter-collective meeting around a space for care and the transmission of knowledge in the Ardèche. Among other things, we tried out a gynaecological self-observation workshop and learned how to make water mint hydrosol using a still.
For this Chantier Déraciné 2023, we'd like to invite members of collectives (feminist, eco-feminist, anarcha-queer, spiritual, fighting for the rights of minorities) who are more or less involved in these areas, to meet at the Moulin Bleu, a shared housing collective and activist centre (1h45 from Paris by train).
It's through popular education and artistic experimentation that we want to link our experiences and keep a record of our exchanges. That's why we've called on 4 artists to lead times of sensory, mental and manual exploration.
Joséphine Javier, a visual artist from Nantes.
Liza Rolli from the Institut Sensibilissimo.
The Lazy Artist, an explorer of laziness.
Lois Zongo, practitioner of Akutuk (traditional water percussion from Cameroon).
What are our intentions?
After an intense and confronting year of mobilisations against pension reform, feminist marches and prides, the dissolution of the earth uprisings, the marches of support following Nahel's assassination... We propose to punctuate this autumn by getting out of the cities and connecting our bodies to the temporality of the living and recharge our batteries.
This workshop will enable us to meet and discuss the following questions:
How can we regenerate our imaginations and create new ones to connect and root our struggles?
How can we create a common narrative?
How can we bring the power of dreams, utopias, the imagination and the imagination itself into our struggles?
These were the words I offered in return:
Peux-tu te présenter en quelques lignes?
Dear everyone,
My name is Tumba (they/them), full time healing human being and partime artist, student, facilitator. Seeing your post felt like a sign of divine timing, and I would be so excited to get the know the space you are creating collectively, exchanges energies and talk about the needs and desires we share.
A bit about me:
What I'm passionate about is facilitating and holding space. Both in performance and workshops I'm interested in finding ways to be in relation to other in all our complexity and softness. Most (if not all) of my work is an exploration of the power of the spoken word as a collective practice of healing. This has happened through guided meditations, conversations, shared meals, movement and other forms of collective ritual. Its something that has its own life, is growing through conversations, and I have a big desire to share in this. On and off the stage, I aim to be a walking offering, a resilient reminder to breathe, to dwell on our gut feelings and the concerns that consume us. Throughout my practice, the thread that connects everything is woven from vulnerable reflection, the magical metaphors hidden in (our) nature and the shared prayer to be seen for who we are.
Other random facts:
Has virgo sun, Saggitarius moon, Gemini rising
Speaks English/Francais/Nederlands/Espagnol
Is lactose and gluten sensitive (but has an unfortunate love for bread + cheese)
Currently I'm staying at a temporary occupation that is in an old monastery in Jette with friends, where we tend to the garden. There's a lot of other artists, asbl's and creative projects starting and here, all thanks to Toestand who is overseeing. Being here in this transitionary state is a beatiful experiment in what collective living can look like. In my practice I hope to gain tools to communicate more vulnerably, build better foundations for care and make this a joyful process also.
As-tu déjà participé à un projet collectif ou un chantier participatif ?
I went to two editions of radical rest, at a fairy space. This gathering was specifically for nonbinary and trans individuals, with priority to vessels of color. This space focused on the power of rest as resistance, so there was not much ecobuilding happening. I am starting a permaculture design course next month and hope to learn more useful skills. My intention for this season is to seek out spaces of community, healing, building as well as deconstructing.
As-tu déjà participé à une expérience artistique (atelier, résidence, création...)
I've been to a writer's residency in paris, Oostende, and other smaller gatherings.I have in the past also facilitater exchanges and workshops around radical rituals and confronting conflict in community. I do see the value more and more of having a space that we own/can call our own, away from the fast-paced rythym of society. Some have been more nurturing then others, but every space I've encountered has watered my growin desire for brave and vulnerable space.
Peux-tu nous en dire davantage?
For me, the true moments of magick happen in between workshops/sessions/meetings in the spaces where we cook, share silence, perform ritual, breathe and integrate/digest together. A residency allows/invites a vacancy, a spaciousness in our minds that allows for subtle reprogramming
Es-tu membre d'une association ou d'une collective ? La.Le(s)quelle(s) ?
Since 2022 I've been facilitating as part of Back2SoilBasics collective, which seeks to make the philosophy of permaculture accessible to marginalized communities in and around Brussels through urban interventions. This translates into workshops, participatory design, collective cooking sessions, foraging and so much more. We start from the conviction that finding connection with nature is a portal to a more spacious society.
We have a permaculture design course (PDC) coming up in brussels starting October. There are still some spots available, if you want to share it with your network!
More on the PDC : https://back2soilbasics.hotglue.me/
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/back2soilbasics/
Peux-tu préciser le(s) féminisme(s) au(x)quel tu t'identifies ? Et où les figures, ressources ( podcast, lecture, film, docu...) qui nourrissent tes réflexions ?
Te considères tu comme une personne privilégiée?
Peux-tu nous partager tes privilèges?
As a racialized, non-binary queer individual, I recognize that parts of my inherent disposition are altered by systemic violonce and generational sicknes( of the mind, body, spirit)
However, ss a mixed-race and lighter skinned black body I do not have the same experiences as my darkskin, transfemme, poor and working class queer and trans siblings.
When it comes to class, I was not raised wealthy but still acknowledge the priviliges I have in parents that are able to support me, as well as being documented in the European country that I live in. I've also had access to higher education and I am fluent in multiple languages.
The fact that I'm sitting here and have access to free time to apply to this wonderful project is a blessing and a privilige in itself.
So yes, I feel extremely rich and abundant in this body I carry with me.
Il y aura des temps libre pour partager des pratiques. Est ce que tu souhaiterais proposer quelque chose ?
Rituals grew from my practice as a spoken word performer, where my voice became a vehicle, transiting through thoughts, often entering a liminal space between limbs and lips. I often felt hypervisible, uncomfortable with the given dynamics between performer and crowd. It left me feeling drained, regurgitating the same poems that retrace family lineage, reopening unhealed wounds. I felt I was sourcing from a well that wasn’t being watered, the performance couldn’t be sustained. The creative container became empty, I became in search for a source more infinite and divine in nature. At a time where I felt so disconnected from my body, I sought for words that could guide me back gently. This was the seed, the start, the first poetic meditation took root.
From there, a lot of my work has been growing organically towards creating spaces of meditation and continuous contemplation through my voice, the words, sound and sensations it carries. It is an ongoing experiment on what can happen within the context of a “performance”, how a stage (a space, not unlike a spec of barren land) can provide a framework of possibility, allowing the observer to enter from a more open minded space.
Mindfulness and meditation, to some, are vague and mysterious concepts that seem to belong to the white, rich and otherwise privileged few. This is far from true, our spiritual and ancestral history is interwoven into our (cellular) memory. It has been a blessing and opportunity to expand and share my spiritual practice with others. I’ve seen what can happen to a space energetically if we decide to ground ourselves and breathe together. I’ve had the pleasure of facilitating rituals before concerts, workshops, festivals and other community events, and every time I’m reminded of the magical potential it holds.
The guided meditations are a sort of poetic reflection on space, on the physical body we inhabit as well as the container of our consciousness (the garden of our minds). It allows me to enter into a state of channeling, guiding souls into their vehicle (vessel) using breath as a base. Words and sounds and melodies can carry us into our bodies, where we enter a trance that traces our worries back to the water, our needs to the weeds, our souls back to seeds. I’m continuously inspired by the way our inner nature is mirrored into our external one. I am interested in exchanging knowledge and understanding from all forms of organic intelligence. I want to learn from mycelium and how they organize, form symbiotic relationships, and how they hold space. I want to serve as a vessel, to allow mother nature and her creations to speak through me; I want to compost these contemplations and use them as fuel for our collective futures.
