FREEDOM IS INDIVISIBLE: UNITING MOVEMENTS WITHIN OUR WORK AND SELVES
SAN LDN is excited to invite you to an online Discuss & Exchange session with invited guest speakers. Open to everyone interested in the intersection between art & society.
There’s a quote often attributed to Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
Whatever your philosophy on the usefulness of ‘good and evil’ as a dichotomy, something we need to be united on is that oppression needs to end.
And very recently, in the conditions of 2020, this year like no other, something has begun to land in the public conscious, something which many activists, artists, leaders, and communities who work on social justice have been shouting from the rafters for a long time:
THE ONLY THING NECESSARY FOR THE PERPETUATION OF OPPRESSION IS FOR NICE PEOPLE TO DO NOTHING.
On every front, race and white psychosis, capitalist extractivism, the climate crisis, queer and trans rights, public health, gender equality, ableism, consumerist addiction, people are starting to realise that inactivity is complicity, ‘SILENCE IS VIOLENCE’, and we can not compartmentalise our support of any of these movements to one part of our lives, or to one hat that we wear: parent, artist, colleague, community member, friend. 2020 is making known that permeated through each of these roles is either action towards each form of liberation, or complicity. And similarly, permeated through each movement must be action or complicity on the other movements.
And so whilst many are still coming to terms with the uncomfortability and weight of theses truths, we are holding space to put our various compartmentalised roles to one side and ask:
HOW DO WE UNITE AND EMBODY MOVEMENTS WITHIN OUR WORK AND SELVES?
Hosted by Hannah Iheoma Place
Guest Biographies
Analise Sesay (She/Her)
“Another world is only possible if we heal the wounding we all carry from centuries of patriarchy, white supremacy and exploitative economic systems. my objective is to support the growth of a balanced, joyful future and the insights for how we can do that arise as we tend to our trauma, our grief, and the earth. In the space created by deprogramming ourselves from narratives of hierarchy and punishment, we can center love and collective care.”
Analise co-founded and currently directs common healing which began as a popup healing center in south london and now serves as a radical (online) learning space rooted in transformation, self-reliance, and liberation. She serves as a healing artist through transformative energy work, movement-based practices and earth tending. Her research is in black radical education and self-determination.
Molly Lipson (She/Her)
“Though it feels far away now, pre-Covid the climate crisis had become the most trendy and terrifying topic of the day. The threat it presents hasn’t gone away, but if the climate movement’s approach to dealing with it remains ardently focused on capitalism without acknowledging race, it seems impossible to imagine we might ever achieve the system change these movements have been demanding.”
Molly is an activist for justice and liberation and a writer with a background in American studies.
Hannah Iheoma Place (They/Them)
To create a world built on liberation we need bold and defiant imaginations, and the ability to act knowing that we each create this place, not through individual impact, but because our lives are the collective system that is humanity. What I create, research, and write, is about liberation from all systems of oppression. Art is an incredible tool to bolden imagination and draw attention to what we need liberation from, and where liberation is located. Research is vital to understanding the oppressive systems we live in, the power we have, and the paths to liberation. Writing is a beautiful tool bringing imagination and information into relationship so that we can be empowered by knowing that we can take steps towards a liberated world in each lived moment.
EVENT SCHEDULE
(BST)
17:50: YouTube countdown to event opens
18:00: Intro, grounding exercise, and housekeeping
18:10: Poem
18:20: Analise Sesay on movement building within practice
18:35: Molly Lipson on the indivisibility of movements from one another
18:50: Discussion between speakers and host
19:10: Questions taken for speakers from YouTube + zoom participants
19:30: Thank yous and wrap up YouTube live session.
19:40: Intro zoom break out rooms for networking session and conversation.
19:50: Event ends.