Events By Quarter
Day 1 - MIRROR MEMOIRS: Transmutation: A Ceremony
Amita Swadhin & Jaden Fields
MCC Theater
Day 1 of the Activist Scholar in Residence Series 2-day event
MIRROR MEMOIRS: Trauma, Healing, and Surviving as Tools for Social Justice
Screening followed by a Dinner, Q&A, and Healing Circles
This theater project breaks secrecy and isolation, and uses storytelling and survivor leadership to illuminate the needs and wisdom of survivors and help viewers imagine a different world. From 7:00-7:30, food will be served in the MCC Lounge following the screening, followed by a 30min Q&A unpacking the theater project. From 8-9PM, the night will end with Amita and Jaden's facilitated healing circles, or spaces to process the theater project and its insights on the world that we live in and what we need to do collectively to end rape culture. There will be one circle for survivors of sexual violence, and one circle for allies and accomplices.
Day 2 - MIRROR MEMOIRS: Leave No Survivor Behind
Amita Swadhin and Jaden Fields
MCC Theater
Day 2 of the Activist Scholar in Residence Series 2-day event
MIRROR MEMOIRS: Trauma, Healing, and Surviving as Tools for Social Justice
In this public lecture, Amita and Jaden explore intersectional and abolitionist approaches to the question, "How do we co-create a world without child sexual abuse?"
Coming Home to Ourselves and Each Other: Honoring our Transgender, Nonbinary, Queer, and Crip BIPOC Ancestors Past, Present, and Future
Shayda Kafai and Dr. Pau Abustan
Hybrid: MCC Lounge and Zoom
During this interactive virtual dialogue, Shayda and Pau will share how we found home with ourselves and our transgender, nonbinary, queer, and crip BIPOC communities past, present, and future. We discuss how we co-create disability justice worlds where all can expand into their authentic selves in rooted and interdependent relation with others. By naming who we are, we honor our collective past, present, and future ancestral magic we carry with us. To conclude our conversation, we will invite participants to name who and what brings them hope for thriving futures of collective care and sustainability.
ASL interpretation will be provided, and CART enabled for Zoom attendees.
After the event, we will be raffling off copies of the Sins Invalid Disability Justice A-Z Coloring Book, and Shayda Kafai’s book, “Crip Kinships.”
Speaker Bios:
Shayda Kafai (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Gender & Women's Studies in the Ethnic and Women's Studies Department at California State Polytechnic in Pomona, CA. As a queer, disabled, MAD Iranian femme, she commits to practicing the many ways we can reclaim our bodyminds from systems of oppression. To support this work as an educator-scholar, Shayda applies disability justice and collective care practices in the spaces she cultivates. She is the author of Crip Kinships: The Disability Justice and Art Activism of Sins Invalid (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2021). https://www.shaydakafai.com/
Dr. Pau Abustan (they/siya) centers queer critical race feminist disability justice worldmaking found within youth learning, popular culture animated storytelling, and coalitional activisms. Pau is a queer crip Pilipinx scholar-activist-educator Assistant Professor in the Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at California State University, Los Angeles. https://www.paulinaabustan.com/
Co-sponsors: Commission on Disability Equity, RCSGD, DSP
GOODBYE, SNOWBALL and Dreaming and Reframing Abolition Workshop
Rasel Ahmed, Assistant Professor, Nonfiction Cinema Production, The Ohio State University
MCC Theater/Lounge
Activist Scholar in Residence: Film Screening GOODBYE, SNOWBALL (2023) & Dreaming and Reframing Abolition Workshop w/ the Director, Cinematographer, Editor: Rasel Ahme
In this film, the declining political scenario in the USA leading up to the 2020 election intersects with Sergei's personal journey through his dog's failing health. As the world around him spirals into chaos, Sergei must confront his fear of saying goodbye to Snowball. In this workshop, students will explore the radical possibilities of abolition through a range of filmmaking exercises and activities. No filmmaking experience required.
Film (11 - 12 pm): Inspired by Donna J. Haraway’s ontological question- "When I touch my dog, who do I touch?"- Goodbye, Snowball explores deep and sensitive interspecies entanglement between political activist Sergei Kostin and his beloved dog, Snowball. In this film, the declining political scenario in the USA leading up to the 2020 election intersects with Sergei's personal journey through his dog's failing health. As the world around him spirals into chaos, Sergei must confront his fear of saying goodbye to Snowball.
Workshop (12:30 - 2 pm): Dreaming and Reframing Abolition is a mixed media and hybrid filmmaking workshop to create a short stop motion film (3 min) incorporating research and creative methods to analyze the concept of abolition. In this workshop, students will explore the radical possibilities of abolition through a range of filmmaking exercises and activities. The aim of the workshop is to critically analyze the systemic structures of power, and imagine a world rooted in justice. No filmmaking experience required.
