Theatre of the Oppressed

Join us for an afternoon of creative play and deep community dialogue! Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) is a political framework and theatrical method, less about performance and more about creativity, play and exploration. TO engages people in embodied discovery, critical reflection and dialogue and the process of liberation. During this event, participants will be invited to stretch the limits of their imaginations, demechanize habitual behaviors, analyze social and political issues that are important to them and imagine a world of liberation. Take some time away from the hectic year-end and join community members as we laugh, play, explore and address critical issues together. 

For more information check out The Good Work Hour, where Leigh was our guest on the Nov. 22nd.

Theatre of the Oppressed

Join us for an afternoon of creative play and deep community dialogue! Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) is a political framework and theatrical method, less about performance and more about creativity, play and exploration. TO engages people in embodied discovery, critical reflection and dialogue and the process of liberation. During this event, participants will be invited to stretch the limits of their imaginations, demechanize habitual behaviors, analyze social and political issues that are important to them and imagine a world of liberation. Take some time away from the hectic year-end and join community members as we laugh, play, explore and address critical issues together. 

For more information check out The Good Work Hour, where Leigh was our guest on the Nov. 22nd.

Author Heather McGhee on The Sum of Us

**All ticketed seats have been reserved for this event. There will be limited standing room and bar seating available for walk-ins**

A renowned expert on the American economy, Heather McGhee is one of the most brilliant and influential thinkers exploring inequality today. Both her viral TED talk and her instant New York Times bestseller The Sum of Us reveal the devastating true cost of racism—not just for people of color, but for everyone. 

GWI is thrilled to welcome Heather McGhee to Kingston for a talk that springboards off of her book, The Sum of Us. Join us at Rough Draft, where we will gather to hear her reflections on how we can dismantle racist systems and create a vision for our country’s future. The talk will be followed by a Q&A.

The Sum of Us is available for purchase from Rough Draft now! You can stop in to buy a copy in-person ahead of the event or purchase the book online here and receive your copy at the event for signing (you’ll receive an email when it is available for pick-up too).

This free, public event is sponsored by GWI, and supported by Rough Draft and Radio Kingston.

Event Overview:

  • 5:45 – 6:15pm : Check-in, pick up your book, grab a drink/snack, and settle in!
  • 6:15 – 7:15pm : Heather, in conversation with Micah (GWI), will discuss The Sum of Us. They will then open it up to the audience for a Q&A.
  • 7:15 – 8:00pm : Book-signing + mingling!

About Heather McGhee:

An influential voice in the media and an NBC contributor, Heather McGhee regularly appears on NBC’s Meet the Press and MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Deadline White House, and All In. Her opinions, writing, and research have appeared in numerous outlets, including the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Politico and National Public Radio. She currently serves as a Visiting Lecturer in Urban Studies at the City University of New York’s School of Labor and Urban Studies. She has also held visiting positions at Yale University’s Brady-Johnson Grand Strategy Program and the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics.  McGhee is the Chair of the Board of Color of Change, the country’s largest online racial justice organization, and serves on multiple other boards of trustees, including the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Demos. McGhee holds a B.A. in American Studies from Yale University and a J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law. For more, visit www.heathermcghee.com.

Join Engather’s Gift Economy

Engather is a locally-based gift economy platform that reweaves the social fabric of our communities through supportive, joyful human connections. Join to pursue common interests, share skills & resources, and give or get a helping hand. Engather is hosting several events in September for folks to join the platform. We welcome you to attend, learn more about Engather and the gift economy, and connect with fellow community members. Learn more about Engather at https://engather.co/.

Join Engather’s Gift Economy

Engather is a locally-based gift economy platform that reweaves the social fabric of our communities through supportive, joyful human connections. Join to pursue common interests, share skills & resources, and give or get a helping hand. Engather is hosting several events in September for folks to join the platform. We welcome you to attend, learn more about Engather and the gift economy, and connect with fellow community members. Learn more about Engather at https://engather.co/.

Join Engather’s Gift Economy

Engather is a locally-based gift economy platform that reweaves the social fabric of our communities through supportive, joyful human connections. Join to pursue common interests, share skills & resources, and give or get a helping hand. Engather is hosting several events in September for folks to join the platform. We welcome you to attend, learn more about Engather and the gift economy, and connect with fellow community members. Learn more about Engather at https://engather.co/.

Join Engather’s Gift Economy

Engather is a locally-based gift economy platform that reweaves the social fabric of our communities through supportive, joyful human connections. Join to pursue common interests, share skills & resources, and give or get a helping hand. Engather is hosting several events in September for folks to join the platform. We welcome you to attend, learn more about Engather and the gift economy, and connect with fellow community members. Learn more about Engather at https://engather.co/.

Just Transition Primer

Let’s come together online to align understanding and action in support of effective, collective responses to the moment we are living in.

We’ve been through a global pandemic. Soaring prices for housing and food make it increasingly difficult to secure our basic needs. Wildfire smoke and damaging storms are commonplace. Our entrenched political divides are laced with conflict and create a sense of insecurity. How do we make sense of these realities? Where can we glimpse the kind of possibility worth coming together to work for? This workshop provides an opportunity to connect, explore a shared vision of Just Transition, and consider the question: What will it take to build systems centered on care for each other and our shared home? What would it mean for many of us in the Mahicantuck (Hudson) Valley to be focused on social and ecological well-being? Join us online, in community, to deepen your understanding of the Just Transition framework, principles and practices. Through video, reflection, story sharing, and small group discussion, you will:

  • See people from across the country describing aspects of Just Transition
  • Hear how other participants respond to the framework
  • Connect your own experience to extractive and regenerative economic paradigms
  • Gain a sense of the framework, principles and practices, and where they come from
  • Discuss ways you are drawn toward weaving one or more Just Transition principles and practices into your Good Work

Maverick Concerts presents the Dali Quartet

In this free community engagement program presented by Maverick Concerts, the Dali Quartet will explore dance and popular musical influences from Brazil (Villa-Lobos), Venezuela (Angelica), Europe (Arriaga), and the cultural influences from the gauchos, Argentina’s “cowboys” (Ginastera). Through various activities, audiences will learn various rhythmic patterns, dance steps, and the origin of many of these genres and how they relate to and influence Western classical music.

Navigating Conflict: Communication Skills for Working Together (8 of 8)

Are you ready to dedicate some attention to a fresh approach to your working relationships? In this 8-week workshop, we will cultivate our capacity to connect with ourselves and others and practice nonviolent communication skills that can support our working together productively, authentically, and with care, in service of our work towards collective liberation.

*Details on fees, sliding scale, and scholarship options can be found below.*

When we pour ourselves into work we care about, we want to know it matters. We want to know that our collective efforts to bring about needed changes and work toward Just Transition will be fruitful. How disheartening, exhausting, and frustrating it is to see our hard work fall short as conflict slows down the momentum of our work or, worse yet, leads us to step away from collaborative efforts. 

The legacies of a domination paradigm (capitalism, patriarchy, white supremacy, and scarcity to name a few) have left us without the skills we need in order to collaborate effectively and to find generativity in conflict which, on some scale, is inevitable.

Nonviolent Communication (NVC) offers us a toolkit to deepen our own embodied self-connection and build our capacity to relate to ourselves and one another with empathy so that we can show up more fully and authentically to our work in the world. As we begin to unpack the way that domination culture has shaped our very language, we can learn new/old ways of communicating that bring us more deeply into alignment with our values, our purpose, and into connection with one another as we work together to build the world we long for.

During this 8-week, online workshop, we will explore practical strategies for undoing domination in ourselves, our communication, our relationships, and our collaborations. Each two-hour session will include interactive content and practices to engage with real-time examples from your work and life. You will have the opportunity to be paired up with another participant for practice in between sessions. Because a shared experience with colleagues can make it easier to bring this language and these skills into your working relationships, we encourage you to sign up with one or more of the people you work with! This course will support you, and the colleagues and collaborators who join you, to:

  • Understand empathy: what is it and why does it matter in working relationships? How can I listen with empathy and compassion, with others and with myself?
  • Explore NVC as an embodied mindfulness practice 
  • Grow your capacity to tune into body sensations as valuable feedback from your nervous system pointing you towards what matters to you
  • Develop an awareness of and vocabulary for resonant language – including “feelings” and “needs” – and your understanding of the brain science behind why this kind of language works
  • Prepare for difficult conversations, and have more tools for “clean up” afterwards
  • Foster connection while maintaining personal authenticity
  • Identify patterns of domination culture and develop a needs-based orientation that can enable you to undo domination
  • Develop an empathetic listening practice with a buddy between sessions as a foundational tool for resourcing yourself to show up better in conflict and collaboration

This workshop is not meant to be a forum for working through active conflicts with one another, but rather a place to be supported in cultivating the skills that will help us to engage more effectively with conflict in our working relationships.

Navigating Conflict: Communication Skills for Working Together (7 of 8)

Are you ready to dedicate some attention to a fresh approach to your working relationships? In this 8-week workshop, we will cultivate our capacity to connect with ourselves and others and practice nonviolent communication skills that can support our working together productively, authentically, and with care, in service of our work towards collective liberation.

*Details on fees, sliding scale, and scholarship options can be found below.*

When we pour ourselves into work we care about, we want to know it matters. We want to know that our collective efforts to bring about needed changes and work toward Just Transition will be fruitful. How disheartening, exhausting, and frustrating it is to see our hard work fall short as conflict slows down the momentum of our work or, worse yet, leads us to step away from collaborative efforts. 

The legacies of a domination paradigm (capitalism, patriarchy, white supremacy, and scarcity to name a few) have left us without the skills we need in order to collaborate effectively and to find generativity in conflict which, on some scale, is inevitable.

Nonviolent Communication (NVC) offers us a toolkit to deepen our own embodied self-connection and build our capacity to relate to ourselves and one another with empathy so that we can show up more fully and authentically to our work in the world. As we begin to unpack the way that domination culture has shaped our very language, we can learn new/old ways of communicating that bring us more deeply into alignment with our values, our purpose, and into connection with one another as we work together to build the world we long for.

During this 8-week, online workshop, we will explore practical strategies for undoing domination in ourselves, our communication, our relationships, and our collaborations. Each two-hour session will include interactive content and practices to engage with real-time examples from your work and life. You will have the opportunity to be paired up with another participant for practice in between sessions. Because a shared experience with colleagues can make it easier to bring this language and these skills into your working relationships, we encourage you to sign up with one or more of the people you work with! This course will support you, and the colleagues and collaborators who join you, to:

  • Understand empathy: what is it and why does it matter in working relationships? How can I listen with empathy and compassion, with others and with myself?
  • Explore NVC as an embodied mindfulness practice 
  • Grow your capacity to tune into body sensations as valuable feedback from your nervous system pointing you towards what matters to you
  • Develop an awareness of and vocabulary for resonant language – including “feelings” and “needs” – and your understanding of the brain science behind why this kind of language works
  • Prepare for difficult conversations, and have more tools for “clean up” afterwards
  • Foster connection while maintaining personal authenticity
  • Identify patterns of domination culture and develop a needs-based orientation that can enable you to undo domination
  • Develop an empathetic listening practice with a buddy between sessions as a foundational tool for resourcing yourself to show up better in conflict and collaboration

This workshop is not meant to be a forum for working through active conflicts with one another, but rather a place to be supported in cultivating the skills that will help us to engage more effectively with conflict in our working relationships.

Navigating Conflict: Communication Skills for Working Together (6 of 8)

Are you ready to dedicate some attention to a fresh approach to your working relationships? In this 8-week workshop, we will cultivate our capacity to connect with ourselves and others and practice nonviolent communication skills that can support our working together productively, authentically, and with care, in service of our work towards collective liberation.

*Details on fees, sliding scale, and scholarship options can be found below.*

When we pour ourselves into work we care about, we want to know it matters. We want to know that our collective efforts to bring about needed changes and work toward Just Transition will be fruitful. How disheartening, exhausting, and frustrating it is to see our hard work fall short as conflict slows down the momentum of our work or, worse yet, leads us to step away from collaborative efforts. 

The legacies of a domination paradigm (capitalism, patriarchy, white supremacy, and scarcity to name a few) have left us without the skills we need in order to collaborate effectively and to find generativity in conflict which, on some scale, is inevitable.

Nonviolent Communication (NVC) offers us a toolkit to deepen our own embodied self-connection and build our capacity to relate to ourselves and one another with empathy so that we can show up more fully and authentically to our work in the world. As we begin to unpack the way that domination culture has shaped our very language, we can learn new/old ways of communicating that bring us more deeply into alignment with our values, our purpose, and into connection with one another as we work together to build the world we long for.

During this 8-week, online workshop, we will explore practical strategies for undoing domination in ourselves, our communication, our relationships, and our collaborations. Each two-hour session will include interactive content and practices to engage with real-time examples from your work and life. You will have the opportunity to be paired up with another participant for practice in between sessions. Because a shared experience with colleagues can make it easier to bring this language and these skills into your working relationships, we encourage you to sign up with one or more of the people you work with! This course will support you, and the colleagues and collaborators who join you, to:

  • Understand empathy: what is it and why does it matter in working relationships? How can I listen with empathy and compassion, with others and with myself?
  • Explore NVC as an embodied mindfulness practice 
  • Grow your capacity to tune into body sensations as valuable feedback from your nervous system pointing you towards what matters to you
  • Develop an awareness of and vocabulary for resonant language – including “feelings” and “needs” – and your understanding of the brain science behind why this kind of language works
  • Prepare for difficult conversations, and have more tools for “clean up” afterwards
  • Foster connection while maintaining personal authenticity
  • Identify patterns of domination culture and develop a needs-based orientation that can enable you to undo domination
  • Develop an empathetic listening practice with a buddy between sessions as a foundational tool for resourcing yourself to show up better in conflict and collaboration

This workshop is not meant to be a forum for working through active conflicts with one another, but rather a place to be supported in cultivating the skills that will help us to engage more effectively with conflict in our working relationships.