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Schedule for Oct. 1, 2016

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Oct. 1, 2016, Garry Oak Room, Fairfield Community Place, 1335 Thurlow Rd.

9:30-10:00 am Arrival, Registration

10:00-10:10 am Welcome w/Anna Malkin, Queerposium Coordinator

10:10-10:25 am Opening w/Metta

10:25-11:00 am Speed Friending / Community Building Exercises

11:00am-12:00pm Dancing For Well Being w/Joanne Cuffe

12:00-1:00 pm Lunch

12:30-1:00pm Introductions from Organizations

1:00-2:00 pm Superqueero Community Counsels: Skills and Strategies w/Robert Birch

2:00-3:00 pm Group Building Using Acupuncture w/Christina Chan

3:00-3:15 pm Break

3:15-4:00 pm Safe Harbour – Nurturing a sustainable base from which to live, love and change the world w/Metta

4:00-4:30 pm Debrief, Visioning, recruit Volunteers and Ideas for next Queerposium

4:30-5:00pm Networking

4:45pm-5:15pm Room Clean up

Full Session Descriptions – Queer Careposium, Oct. 1, 2016

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In Order of Appearance:

Dancing For Wellbeing, with Joanne Cuffe; An invitation to move in new ways, release tension, connect and have fun, through a variety of guided dance activities where each person chooses how they feel like moving and interacting. All abilities welcome; no dance experience needed; “two left feet” is no problem; there is no wrong move.

Joanne Cuffe facilitates dance programs with a dozen local communities, with people ages 3-103+ with diverse abilities, genders, sexualities and backgrounds. They have been teaching dance since 2003 and facilitating groups for 17 years.

Superqueero Community Counsels: Skills and Strategies, with Robert Birch; Rather than history’s scapegoats, what if we saw trans/queer and gender fluid realities as necessary to the well-being of all people and the planet? How then would we look to the skills and strategies embedded in our personal and collective stories for the sources of needed inspirations and actions? Our answers, to be explored in this counsel-workshop, may be found in what Radical Faery poet James Broughton had written on his gravestone: “Adventure, not predicament”

~birch plays in and appreciates the world as a Radical Faerie, a Reclaiming Witch and a doctoral student of the Social Dimensions of Health. He is currently researching how hosts navigate risk during Private Sex Parties (and in so doing potentially amplifying the field of pleasure). He lives on Saltspring Island with his farmer-man of 20 years, CrowDog.

Group Building Using Acupuncture, with Christina Chan Acupuncture is a traditional approach in the prevention of group “burn-out” (especially community, education, social work and public health fields) and helps to resolve tension and conflicts.

This session may address some of the following themes:

  • Self-care and wellness in social, changemaker, activist work and its necessity in longevity and burn-out prevention
  • The significance of group healing and decreasing social isolation
  • Principles of Community Acupuncture as an alternative social health care model and social movement
  • Includes 20-45 min of group acupuncture session (time allowing)

Christina Chan, M.Sc., R.Ac. is a Community Acupuncturist, educator, kung fu freedom fighter and lupus survivor. She has practiced her craft in a variety of settings including at the Vancouver Daytox, the Fernwood Community Centre, AIDS Vancouver Island and Camosun College. Active in the community, she is passionate about using acupuncture as a tool for positive social change through providing outreach, increasing accessibility and bringing the practice back to its traditional roots.

Safe Harbour – nurturing a sustainable base from which to live, love and change the world, with Metta; Metta will share some evidence-based themes of resilience (from qualitative research in Trans communities) along with some more generalized tools and strategies for healthy stress management.

Metta Settled on Salt Spring Island in 2003. After a lot of introspection Metta cultivated a deeper connection with nature, community, meditation and the practice of non-violent communication. While nurturing an increasingly gender queer identity Metta has become a Registered Clinical Counsellor in Victoria and is enjoying a place in the larger Trans community here.

The Schedule at Q Town

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Gather at 1 pm
Q Town is a new Queer and Trans dedicated space at the Victoria Pride Festival. We will be in a fenced off area at the East end of MacDonald Park between the vendors and the food trucks. Within our fenced off area we will have an event tent where most of our workshops will be held. Over the course of the day there will be some Speed Friending and maybe some other community building exercises – time permitting and we will be giving away some FABULOUS door prizes including a draw for two round trip car and passenger tickets on the COHO Ferry to Port Angeles.

1:15 pm Community Picnic
We encourage people to come into the space, have something to eat, meet some new friends, peruse the workshop schedule and pick up tickets for the workshops later in the afternoon. People are welcome to hang out in the “patio” areas on either side of the event tent. In these areas you will find the Show Us Your Pride – Flag Project a collective craft project to decorate our fence and some information from some of our community and non-profit organizations will be on display. You can sign up for the email list for Q Town and for future Queerposium events and be sure to fill out the Community Survey to help onmyplanet.ca develop their online workbook for reducing homophobia and transphobia, Work It Out.

The Workshops
All Workshops are free
Most Workshops last approximately 20-30 mins. The Cuddle Party is a 45 min workshop and time for cuddling is provided after the workshop.
You can pre-register for workshops at: www.victoriapridesociety.org/events (Click on the Q Town poster, Or pick up your tickets during the Community Picnic.
The remainder of the hour is left open for discussion with the workshop leader and among the participants.
If you have a ticket, please be in the event tent 15 mins prior to the beginning of the workshop. All vacant seats will be filled by rush seating at this time.

2:00 pm Before The U-Haul: – Top ten tips on co-habitating and co-parenting.
Family law for queers – Insghts on: legal rights and responsibilities, property/debt division and support, queers having kids, assisted reproduction and fertility law. 


Workshop Leader: Michelle Kinney is a lawyer with Cassels Murray, practicing in the area of family and fertility law. As one of the architects of the BC Family Law Act, Michelle has in-depth knowledge of BC’s family law. Michelle is a member of Fertility Law BC, which specializes in helping people starting a family through assisted reproduction.

2:30 pm Cuddle Party – 45 Mins workshop – In the Cuddle Tent in the Back Patio
Cuddle party is a fun, playful workshop for adults (18+) where you learn to negotiate for healthy nurturing touch. By practicing asking, and through developing skillful boundary setting, you experience getting what you want; honoring yourself and others.
Cuddle Party begins with a forty-five minute workshop so you learn to ask for what you like, say ‘no’ to what you don’t want, and learn to give and receive touch comfortably. This is followed by freestyle, strictly non-sexual cuddling (think hand rubs, back massage, hugs, spooning…) so you can relax, meet new people and explore touch in a fun, safe environment.

Workshop Leader: Tina Dyck is a Certified Cuddle Party Facilitator and has been offering monthly cuddle parties since 2012. She is passionate about supporting people in the art of authentic communication with themselves and others. She finds it deeply liberating to ask for what her heart desires, knowing the receiver of her invitation can take care of themselves and can accept or decline based on their truth.
If you’d like more information please check out www.cuddleparty.com/victoria-bc/
If you have questions please contact Tina at VictoriaCuddleParty@gmail.com
Cuddle Party has a meetup group: Meetup-Victoria-Cuddle-Party and a Facebook page: FB-Victoria-Cuddle-Party

3:00 pm The Reluctant Activist
People often think that activism means protests or chaining yourself to something. But activism is much more. For those who want to make change, but are too tired, old, or non-political, this 20 minute workshop will give you ideas about what you can do to be more involved in your community and address issues that have meaning for you.

Workshop Leader: Michael Yoder: has been involved in the local LGBTQ community since 1981, primarily in HIV community services. Currently, he facilitates the POZitively Connected Program and is a peer navigator with the Vancouver Island Persons Living with HIV/AIDS Society.

4:00 pm Immigration for Queers – A quick introduction to claiming protection as a Convention refugee and the family sponsorship process – With more detailed definitions of a “Convention Refugee” and a “family member” as they relate to the LGBTQ Communities.

Workshop Leader: Darcy Golden of Golden and Golden Law, attended Law School at the University of Ottawa where she graduated with a Juris Doctor in Common Law. Ms. Golden’s legal education includes completing an internship at the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative in Accra, Ghana, a clinical fellowship at the Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto in Toronto, ON and an internship at the Together Against Poverty Society in Victoria, BC.

5:00 pm Guided Meditation: A silent meditation, shamatha means ‘calm abiding’, a sitting and walking practice of paying attention to the breath. Combined with a grounding body-based practice, the meditation is a way to relax and learn the nature of mind.

Workshop Leader:Joyce Rankin, A member of the queer community for 35+ years, Joyce started practicing meditation in 2007. She is qualified to provide initial meditation instruction through the Victoria Shambhala Centre mindfulness training programs.

Here Comes Queerposium…

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An inclusive event for all LGBTTIQQ2SAP folk and the people that love us.
Tickets are available online and in person (cash only). See our Ticket Page for locations.

Check out The Schedule for a full description of the day and The Map for a glimpse at the Bike Route. We’re starting the workshops at 10am at the New Horizons Centre 234 Menzies St.(Victoria, BC) Coast Salish Territories, Lekwungen and Songhees Homelands. Lunch is included and The Queering The Streets Bike Ride and a game of Queer Croquet at the Inner Harbour starts at 1:30pm!! Please join us! Come for the whole day or just for the Bike Ride.

Please wear a helmet!! We don’t want anyone getting a ticket!
(Don’t give them a reason)

• Tix are $15 sliding scale, no one turned away.
• Prizes for the best dressed bike!!!
• The workshop space is wheelchair accessible and will have gender neutral washrooms.
• Contact: hello@queerposium.org for accessibility and transportation alternatives.

PS: This is not the naked bike ride, please wear some clothes 🙂 thx.

After party at The Ledge from 5pm

Queerposium 2013 May 18th

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rainbow_bike
The Queerposium experience is underway. We’ve met a couple of times and know a bit more about what is going to happen on the day. But more importantly we’re engaged in the ongoing discussion about what we want to see happen, how we want to function as a group, and how we go about making sure that everyone feels recognized and welcome at our meetings and at our events. It’s a learning curve for all of us in our own different ways and I think we’re all up for it and happy for the experience to learn about each other and our collective needs/wants/goals/ways of working. There’s still room for your input. If you were hesitant before but still want to join us please do. We’re a pretty friendly group and we’re always open to new ideas. In fact, that’s what makes us tick. Our meeting times will be posted on the website, or you can email us for an update.
And we’ve just started our facebook group at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/309908162470160/ for now it’s an open group.
So far we’ve decided to go on a big bike ride and don’t worry, we’re trying to come up with some fun alternatives for those of you who don’t ride bikes 🙂
There will be some discussions/offerings/workshop type events in the morning, the bike ride with a surprise destination/happening in the afternoon, and some kind of group acknowledgment, wrap up – likely a heart circle at the end of the day. There will be lots of opportunity to dress up and take our proud selves out in public on our bikes!!
And in the works is the possibility of an evening event on the Friday night prior (May 17th) in honour of International Day Against Homophobia. We have programmed our event for the day after (May 18) and see it as a celebratory day for us and our communities. We are working on gaining an official affiliation with the Day Against Homophobia organization.
• We acknowledge that we are on unceded Coast Salish Territories and we’re hoping to have one of our offerings at this Queerposium be about decolonization and what it means for all of us.
• As a group we encourage inclusive, cross-community engagement with a ‘play while learning’ attitude.
• We’ve committed to functioning under the safer spaces guidelines which can be found on our website: https://queerposium.org/home/safer-spaces-guidelines/ – The most important of which are;
-to assume positive intent,
-to be aware of and respect your own boundaries and those of others,
-to be gentle with your reminders and ‘corrections’ and
-to participate in creating and maintaining an open and engaging environment.
• We are pro-accessibility: The space for the morning events is wheelchair accessible and we have someone on our crew that will be acting as a mobility point person to assist people in arranging transportation alternatives before hand, and providing assistance for other mobility issues that may arise on the day.
• Our meetings are held in accessible spaces with gender-neutral single use washrooms.
If you’d like to help out, but can’t come to the meetings consider pitching in by;
-Forwarding our information and our poster when it’s ready to your contact circles.
-Maybe you’d like to volunteer on the day, selling tickets, being a ‘Vibe Watcher’, or doing any number of other tasks that will undoubtedly come up.
-If you have a great idea then email it to us at: hello@queerposium.org
-If you are part of an organization that you think our audience would benefit from consider bringing your information materials to the event for our info table.
-If you think up some other way that you’d like to participate then drop us an email and let us know.
And there’s always future events…..
Maybe we’ll see you/ hear from you soon,
Queerposium