Monday, May 4, 2009

INCITE! / Speak / Cyberquilting Strategy Session

Notes from April 21st 8pm conference call between members of INCITE!, Speak and Cyberquilting on structuring the strategy session to take place at the 2009 Allied Media Conference, July 17-19.

Your feedback is necessary! I know I didn't get everything so if you have more notes or context to add, please do.
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Check-in

What SPEAK has been up to:
Hosted last year's conversation with INCITE! (the first time we were Speak in public). Recorded our CD after the AMC and are now selling it! speak's vision of rwoc hub online intersects with cyberquiltings media justice patch, incites blog, and ravens eye. Listening parties.
What INCITE has been up to: Many chapters and affiliates using media (ywep research zine, creative interventions, mamis of color rising zines). Working on an Incite! blog: should it be for internal comm, resource sharing, or external rwoc organizing convergence point? we knew it must be deeply connected with woc bloggers + existing work, then began thinking of something like indymedia site, with collective posting and editing.
What CYBERQUILTING has been up to: The different patches are media justice, ending violence against woc, building a new day. Be Bold Be Red. Tested out the video-conferenceing technology, learned alot. The visibility of seeing people in real-time was electrifying. Have been experimenting with the technology. Adele and Fallon travelled to SA Assoc of Women's Rights in Development to do a CQ session. practiced saying what u have, what u need, and how we can collaborate to make it --> got 1st grant Using what you have to build what we need collectively. Got a grant to do a CQ training in Chicago. Not about creating new work, but nurturing work that's already happening. Working towards regional trainings in the 5 cities. -love letters sent to all woc orgs we <3 -cyberquilting sessions at home to see what ppl have and need locally-how to connect to incite and speak: media justice component

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INCITE! - Speak - Cyberquilting - RWOC Community Organizers and Media Makers Strategy Session

Goal this year: strategizing around shared online spaces

> How do we build solid structures of communication?
> How to assess the skills we have in our community - and how to share them.
> How do we create safe spaces to bring up issues within our own "safe spaces" as women of color?
>Generational issues with the Internet and its possibilities
>Not only Can you build community online, but, Can you build community through media?

2 main categories of rwoc online media we're talking about:
-1- the media we as woc organizers use/want to use media to relate to each other
-2- the media we want to put out into the world to represent us

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3 hour skillshare
90 min strategy session
a later meal-time caucus

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for the 90 min strategy session:

Begin by presenting the definition of radical women of color media in some creative way

We want to use the definition of radical women of color media from last year as a foundation for the conversation this year. Last year there was about an hour of abstract conversation about why corporate media is fucked up. It's not necessary to dwell on what corporate media does, let's focus on empowering our people as media makers. The small group visioning sessions were much more clear and concise.


Have people give introductions

Breakout where people come up with the topics they want

Small groups

Synthesize

Closing

3 comments:

lex said...

Hey loves,
I am so excited about this strategy session!!!! One thought..and I think this may have come up on the call...is that while we want to be organic about what we discuss in the session and have it be participant led...it is also our job to create a useful container so that the 90 minutes are productive for us...it's a rare opportunity for us to be in the same room!!!!!
So I would suggest that some goals we might have for the end of the session are related to the projects we want to collaborate on.... on the call we mentioned:
i. creating a media outlet that projects a radical womyn of color analysis as a news source to the world (through the INCITE site...through Raven's Eye (www.raveneye.org)? Do we use cyberquilting to edit and create it?
ii. we also mentioned a priority of figuring out how we as womyn of color organizers and media makers can stay in effective communication with each other across space...overtime without depending on national gatherings (or to supplement our rare and precious face-time). i understood that cyberquilting was interested in taking the lead on this...setting up ways for WOC orgs to stay connect to each other using new (and old) media....

excited for the next call!!!!!
love,
lex

Nadia said...

hey everyone,

i am really excited to be in this conversation with ya'll :)

on the call we talked also about the need for the strategy session to be accessible to youth and people without familiarity of "radical women of color" analysis- this can be achieved by holding the skillshare prior to and partnering with the youth and kids track to make it intergenerational and allow everyone to get comfortable with each other and explore the analysis in a tactile way thru media making. then by framing the conversation with the visual collective definition of rwoc media.

Jenny Lee said...

I totally agree with Lex that we can identify a couple of topics to anchor the break-out discussion part at the end, while still leaving some open space for new topics to emerge.

And it will also be really fresh to have the skillshare taking place prior to the strategy session to break the ice and build informal relationships with each other first before getting into heavy strategizing together.