About pages can be merp. This page attempts to keep up with what I'm getting up to and thinking about on a regular basis.
Summer-Early Fall (August/Sept) 2019
What I'm Working OnSOCIAL JUSTICE MINUS DOGMA
Helping facilitate and contribute to an online course and community called Social Justice Minus Dogma. SJMD has been likely the biggest thing that I've never written about (though I'm working on breaking that streak). I care tremendously about the integrity and effectiveness of social justice work and social justice dogma, the unwritten rules and expectations of the social justice community has come to be one of the largest threats facing the progress of this work. The SJMD community, course, and hub all have the ability to help us navigate working towards a model of social justice that is forgiving, dignified, un-dogmatic, and truly lives into the values of the more beautiful world. FACILITATOR CARDS Getting ready to launch Facilitator Cards! This is the first product that I've ever helped create and I'm truly excited about it. We're creating all types of facilitator resources for it and I think they are going to be great. They will be launched as a Kickstarter in November (so visit the website to sign up now to be notified as soon as that goes live!) My favorite thing about creating new things is how much I get to learn from the experience. By writing about facilitation I am learning so much about the little ways we make decisions that seem intuitive or innate but actually can be taught and learned. What I've been WonderingWhat are ways to build a movement that doesn't just orient away from something (orienting away from racism, anti-racism) but also orients towards something more beautiful. What does that thing we are orienting towards look like?
What are the times when is doing the opposite of what we're doing simply recreating the same problem in new form? Example, is moving from a body negative society to a body positive society truly liberation? Or would body neutrality or body non-issue be what liberation would look like? What if healing doesn't have to be scarce? What if everyone gets healing? What does it mean that we use systems of power (sexism, racism, classism) as ways to navigate an inability to tolerate vulnerability, insecurity, and discomfort? What would it mean to try to deplete the energy sources of these things by giving attention to these things? |
Spring-Summer (May-July) 2019
What I'm Working OnThis time of year (especially June-July) I often take a break from concentrated project and gig work to take a break and let my brain rest and do some bigger picture thinking. So instead of taking you through the active projects I'm going to jump straight into what I've been thinking about.
What I've been WonderingWhat would doing social justice education without social justice dogma really look like?
How do we create habits that are helpful for the world we are trying to build? How do people who have been doing social justice work for a while feel about doing the work now? How have things changed? How have things evolved? What does it mean to do diversity, equity, and inclusion work? Who does DEI work leave out? How is DEI work different from work to uplift people who are not victims of discrimination, but are victims of exploitation? What are the ways in which all of us are dehumanized and desocialized, including those of us with 'privilege identities' and how does that keep these systems in place? Formative Resources
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Late Winter (Feb-April) 2019
This was my favorite ever snowsculpture from the snowpocalypse that hit Seattle in early Feb 2019.
[Photo: A snowperson with arms raised in triumph with parking cone for a hat.] Rad graffiti in the bathroom one of my favorite coffee shops in the world from late Jan 2019.
[Photo: Graffiti saying "Walk x Humble, Act x Kind, Love x Justice.] |
What I'm Working OnCreating a train-the-trainer guide for folks who are looking to teach others how to run Safe Zone trainings. [Published!]
Facilitating a trans-inclusion workshop at the American Camps Association conference. Working on a keynote titled: "I Believe Facilitation Can Change the World." for the Association of Experiential Educators Northeast regional conference (giving the talk in April, working on it now). Facilitating a Train-the-Trainer. Preparing camp staff (from around the world!) to deliver a DEI training for their summer camp staff. Working on creating a physical tool for facilitators that I'm really excited about! Writing up the services I want to be offering to the world. Starting on a project about social justice facilitation. Possibly called 'Social Justice Educator School' but name not finalized. What I'm WonderingHow do we keep people in the work and pursuit of creating a more beautiful world when it feels like everything needs to have already changed?
How do we bring people in who think, "this is just the way things are," and they aren't necessarily happy about it, but they also don't know, believe, or have considered how different it could be? How do we change minds without trying to convince someone with data and facts? How do we share stories where no one is the enemy except the system? Where there is no 'bad guy' or 'bad people'. And how do I continue to be part of this conversation and serve the work I want to do. |
Early Winter (Nov-Jan) 2018/2019
Facilitating large group workshop focusing on (1) deepening our understanding of the difference between diversity, inclusion, equity (2) understanding how our identities have impacted us throughout our lives (3) investigating privilege.
Creating curriculum for a Train-the-Trainer that will be training camp staff to deliver diversity, equity, and inclusion trainings for their seasonal summer camp staff. Building a self-guided online course all about how to understand and manage your triggers as a facilitator. When it goes live find it at The Safe Zone Project. Building a new Meg Bolger.com (you're reading it!) Having a LOT of conversations with people about social justice dogma and the things I'm wondering about detailed below. What I'm WonderingI've been doing social justice education for coming up on 10 years now and a lot has changed over those 10 years. One of the things I think that's most dramatically shifted in my world is that the "social justice community" has really gone to some places I'm not excited about. Shame, dragging, voting people off the island for not being "social justice-y enough", contradictory asks, with-us-or-against-us mentality, and a tightening the circle of who is deemed "worthy" of time, attention, compassion, empathy, understanding. And I'm not pointing fingers from the outside, these are all things I've done too.
I'm looking at my work from new eyes, wondering how do I continue to do the work that I love (social justice education) in ways that don't reconstruct or even play on the same field as any of the tools that I think have brought so much harm into the world like dehumanization, isolation, othering, shaming, blame, fear, vitriol. How do I bring more beauty, love, trust, compassion, connection, opportunity, abundance, belonging, knowledge, patience, and understanding into my work and into the world. If you're wondering the same, let me know :). |