GATHERINGS
virtual care lab gatherings are community-led, public activities that can take the form of a workshop, focused discussion, collective performance, or other format. They are held in an interactive online setting and encourage active group participation.
You are welcome to join us in any of the upcoming gatherings below! Just RSVP through the sign-up link. ︎ You can also lead your own gathering by submitting an idea here.
UPCOMING GATHERINGS:
Inward Organizing (II)
Sat Sept 5 + 12 + 19 @ 11 AM - 12:30 PM PDT | Hosted by Sophie ReiffIn another iteration of this three-week guided lab, Sophie will guide us through critical meditations on ancestry, somatic listening exercises, and foundational tenets of community organizing work to hone and clarify each of our personal code of ethics, so that we can sustainably and safely engage in organizing groups and actions. We will learn to articulate and strengthen our emotional connections to the political issues we care about, become empowered to take action sustainably, explore different perspectives on activism, create networks with each other for mutual support and accountability, and understand how our own organizing work is placed within a deeper history. Registration is full but let us know if you’re interested in participating in the future!
Field Trips
Saturdays @ 2 PM | Hosted by Kenny ZhaoWe’re all spending more time online than ever. But what does effective, healthy, and regenerative gathering actually look and feel like? The [FIELD TRIPS] group led by Kenny Zhao will explore this through weekly visits to virtual communities across the internet. Learn more and participate here.
Letters Together
Wed Sept 23 @ 7 PM | Hosted by sukhpreetIn this collective letter-writing practice, we will learn to focus and express our thoughts to the people we care about through letters, as we navigate these times of stress and separation. Writer and artist sukhpreet will offer guiding prompts and themes to inspire our writing, after opening with a guided meditation. After the gathering, you can continue to use the templates we create to write more letters to friends, lovers, and others in your life. ︎ S I G N U P
Synchronise
Sun Sept 26 @ 10 AM | Hosted by Stephanie WhitelawSynchronise is a guided sound walk and online gathering, connecting us to place through synchronised walking and guided creative response to local landscape. Exploring ideas of pilgrimage through interactive, sense-based activity, we will engage with inner and outer themes of nature. ︎ S I G N U P
at the end of my eyes, you
Sun Oct 25 @ 11 AM | Hosted by PHILTH HAUSA recurring grief performance and collective practice guided by PHILTH HAUS. More info to come ....
Social Dreaming Matrix
Sun Oct 26 @ 11 AM | Hosted by Leslie GoldenbergA collective dreaming session guided by Leslie. More info to come ....
PAST GATHERINGS:
Synchronise
Sun Aug 16 @ 10 AM | Hosted by Stephanie WhitelawSynchronise is a guided sound walk and online gathering, connecting us to place through synchronised walking and guided creative response to local landscape. Exploring ideas of pilgrimage through interactive, sense-based activity, we will engage with inner and outer themes of nature. ︎ M O R E I N F O
Inward Organizing
Sat July 11 + 18 + 25 @ 11 AM - 12:30 PM PDT | Hosted by Sophie ReiffIn this three-week guided lab, Sophie will guide us through critical meditations on ancestry, somatic listening exercises, and foundational tenets of community organizing work to hone and clarify each of our personal code of ethics, so that we can sustainably and safely engage in organizing groups and actions. We will learn to articulate and strengthen our emotional connections to the political issues we care about, become empowered to take action sustainably, explore different perspectives on activism, create networks with each other for mutual support and accountability, and understand how our own organizing work is placed within a deeper history. ︎ S I G N U P
A Center In A Table
Sun July 12, 2020 @ 10 AM PST • 1 PM EST • 7 PM CET | Hosted by Amanda Maciel AntunesJoin us for an online, across-time-zones feast of meals and memories! A Center In A Table is an ongoing performance-video series by artist Amanda Maciel Antunes, bringing together a group of people you may or may not know in the sharing of our collective memories and our relationships with food and one another. Bring a dish that is special to you and related to a past memory, and share that memory at our virtual gathering. Donations will benefit Summaeverythang, a food security community center. ︎ S I G N U P
Sites of Passage
Wed May 30, 2020 3:00 - 5:30 PM PST | Hosted by Lucy KerrIn Sites of Passage, a remote livestream performance, performers exchange recollections of their domestic spaces and experiences and explore their connections through movement. Domestic space becomes a vessel for a shared journey and for bodily empathy – and a diary of the strangely shifting times of physical distancing. This is a durational performance; those watching are invited to arrive and leave at your own time. You can simply observe, or choose to participate from home by following a performance score designed for the audience. ︎ E N T E R S P A C E
Poetry Soup
Wed May 27, 2020 7:00 - 7:45 PM PST | Hosted by Angelina SorokinWe’ll start with a poem, and collect objects and images to make a visual interpretation of what it means to us. Taken together, our individual collections of artifacts will be one unique library. Using our shared ingredients, we will each rearrange them to create a unique visual interpretation of the poem’s meaning to us. We will read the poem together and share our poetic ‘soups’, finding new interpretations and ways to understand it together. ︎ P O R T A L
Re-Member [[Home]]
Sat May 16, 2020 4:00 - 5:30 PM PST | Hosted by Anise S. Hines & Marguerite HemmingsExplore how movement and storytelling can help us re-member what holds us down in times of transition. We will drop into our bodies, loosen up, and express ourselves together. Seeking to get in tune with our bodies’ unique movements, we will learn and share movement practices to return to when we're apart. We will end with a collective discussion to imagine, understand and redefine what is valuable for each of us, finding the way Home into our bodies and understanding what we can build together in the re-imagined future.
Inside Encounters
Sat May 9, 2020 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM PST | Hosted by Lucy KerrYour house is a vessel for memories; the space you inhabit contains each of your days. In this gathering we will explore how our bodies relate to domestic space and to each other, through somatic exercises, recollections, and guided movement improvisations. We will find new ways for our bodies to relate to the shapes, structures and objects of our homes, and make use of text, language, and writing as well. In this practice, we hope to feel each others’ relationships to our personal spaces. Sensing our physical separation, and moving toward virtual nearness.
Urban {Care} Lab
Sun May 3, 2020 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM PST | Hosted by Roundhouse Platform (Brendan Sullivan Shea and Noémie Despland-Lichtert)Roundhouse’s first online Urban Lab invites participants to explore the city from indoors with soundscapes, digital maps, archives and illustration tools. This session will be a guided exploration of our city as a system, body, and organism, and the ways it is perceived, represented, recorded, and imagined.
How do representations and perceptions of a city shift over time? How does our relationship to our cities change in a time of physical distance, and how should we care for our local communities from afar? And how can we integrate care into the ideas we imagine for our city’s future? We will focus on Los Angeles, though participants joining remotely from other cities will be able to consider these questions in the context of their own place. We will learn about untold histories and places, reorient our perceptions and boundaries, and try to see the city’s shape together from indoors.
Resoundingly You
Sun April 26, 2020 10:00 - 10:45 AM PST | Hosted by Hop NguyenIn this sonic journey together, we will use breathwork, vocal toning exercises, and sonic awareness exercises to explore listening, presence, and embodiment. Working from a collectively created intention, we will generate a soundscape together with our own voices, instruments, and environments. We will get in touch with our auditory and tactile sensations, become more attuned to our sensory perception, and explore deeper listening – to ourselves and to each other. Everyone can chime in! ︎ P O R T A L
Dear Friend
Sun April 19, 2020 10:00 - 11:30 AM PST | Hosted by virtual care labJoin us for a long-form letter-writing session. This will be an unguided, independent session during which you can share thoughts or ask for advice from others. Write to old friends and make some new ones! This workshop is free and will take place on Discord.
AND NOT: Authentic Movement
Wed April 15, 2020 7:00 - 10:00 PM PST | Hosted by m kennedy volcofskyAuthentic Movement is a mode of free association of the entire organism. Witnessed by the group – with your own eyes closed – you follow impulses to move (or not), to sound (or not), to speak (or not). The Authentic Movement practice was originated by Mary Starks Whitehouse as part of Dance Movement Therapy. While it has become a creative tool in the live and film arts, it’s not a ‘performance’ workshop. No experience necessary – or possible.