Loving Our Edges
Our 2020 Presenters
Emma Daley and Fuzzy Konner ♥ Beyond Yes and No: Collaborative Consent for Sexier Sex
Beyond Yes and No: Collaborative Consent for Sexier Sex
Do you think of consent as a chore? Are you confused about how it could be sexy? Come learn how to discover shared desires, communicate in sexy ways, and open yourself and others to greater pleasure! Whether you're talking about sex, cuddling, dance, or conversation, our approach to consent focuses on mutual desire to create the most enjoyable interactions possible. This workshop will engage consent as a collaborative process for creating intimacy and pleasure as we practice identifying, voicing, and negotiating desires and boundaries. Regardless of the type of interaction, learning to make empowered choices that reflect what you really want will lead to deeper fulfillment in all aspects of your life!Photos by Sofia Drobinskaya
Emma Delay (they/she)
Emma is a body consent educator, psychotherapist, and occasional math tutor. They co-founded Consent Beyond Yes while completing their Master’s degree in somatic counseling at Naropa University. They have presented on consent and led workshops at universities, national conferences, and Center for a New Culture events. Emma has a background in PreK-12 and post-secondary education and is an Our Whole Lives sexuality education facilitator. When they're not talking about sex, they might be found dancing, journaling, or climbing trees.
Fuzzy Adam Konner (they/them)
Fuzzy is a semi-nomadic educator of consent, contact improvisation, co-ops, and alternative economic and monetary systems. They are a founding member of Consent Beyond Yes, a consent education worker co-op with an orientation toward desire and pleasure. They also work as a freelance web and software developer, a worker co-op consultant with Collective Seeds Consulting Co-op, and the Executive Director of Common Good Washtenaw, a democratic community currency. They currently live in a New Culture community in Arlington, Virginia.
Kristin Masters ♥ Heart Connection
Heart Connection -- Developing Deeper Compassionate Self Witness
While our most important relationship may be with ourselves, most of us fall short in holding ourselves with true warmth. This session will introduce us to accessible frames to find our compassionate witness, take us thru practices that we can find again in the future, to find resonant language to "catch" ourselves (and others) when we fall. We'll also lean into showing bits of ourselves and seeing others as we begin to knit this community.Exercises:
- Are you there?-I'm here An embodied exercise that draws on mini constellations to help us find resources that ring true for us, to be more able to locate our inner resilience when things get rocky
- In large group brainstorm and dyads/triads- playing with and applying resonant language-impossible dreams and nature metaphors
Business as Usual and a Changing Planet
Many of us struggle mightily with the world situation as it is, with climate crisis and all that might mean to humanity. This session will be an embodied exploration in community to notice what's there in each of us as we sit in the junction of business as usual, the great unraveling and the great turning. Kristin will draw on Joanna Macy's Work That Reconnects to face our own way of dealing with the losses we are facing collectively. Expect a session that leaves you feeling freer, more honest and resourced from exploring in community.Exercises:
- An internally focused movement exercise that is narrated by facilitator that walks us thru relations with business as usual, great unraveling and great turning.
- Small group (3-4) open sentences that allow for us to see how despair sits in us, how we act when it isa present and where we draw resilience and resources to strengthen.
Kristin Masters is a certified CNVC Trainer from Santa Cruz, CA who is committed to using the principles of compassionate communication in addressing issues of oppression and power imbalance. Kristin has a long history of leading diversity work, mostly from models based on the work of Ricky Sherover-Marcuse, working as an associate alongside Lillian Roybal Rose for a number of years, following five years active with NCBI (National Coalition Building Institute). Kristin is committed to supporting all of us to step forward as allies and accomplices, most especially other white people to take action in the face of racism. As a leader of Joanna Macy's Work that Reconnects, she offers an invigorating and empowering approach to social change work.
Meghan Quinn ♥ Clarity Breathwork
Clarity Breathwork
In a Clarity Breathwork Community Session, we come together to connect with the most fundamental aspect of life - the breath - in a gentle, circular technique that opens us to new possibilities. Breathing deeply for a sustained amount of time oxygenates the body, soothes the nervous system and helps heal and cleanse the body on a cellular level, affirming greater homeostasis and harmony between body, mind, and spirit. The profound practice of Clarity Breathwork allows for states of inner peace, calm, and relaxation while strengthening the immune system and improving health.By leading us out of the cortical control of the analytical brain, the power of the breath helps us sink-in to the unconscious, primal, and limbic levels of being where true healing can occur. Breathwork can access the energetic undercurrents of past trauma and release stuck emotional and thought patters in a safe and effective way. Breathing reminds us of our relationship with being alive in a body through the reciprocity of inhaling and exhaling, from birth to death. In a Clarity Breathwork practice, we re-connect with our innermost essence, re-membering what is most important to us by expanding our identity beyond an ego-based definition of Self and allowing authentic forgiveness, flow, love, and unity with Life to be our anchor, thus renewing our strength and will to jump up and live again with full clarity.
The session begins with a few prompts to help participants land, get present, and connect with the group. This is followed by a thorough discourse on the breathing technique and experience so that a safe, supportive container is upheld for the most powerful, transformational potential for each group.
Breathers will be lying down for the hour-long breathing portion of the session, so please bring anything needed to be comfortable such as a pad, blanket, pillow, eye mask, handkerchief, etc. A soundtrack of carefully curated music is played during the practice. Additionally, Meghan intuitively plays live instruments and creates sacred sounds to assist the process if/when necessary.
A sound bath with crystal singing bowls is offered at the end the journey, with a gradual, gentle transition out of the experience. There is an opportunity to share in a closing circle to better support integration.
Bring a water bottle and wear comfortable, layered clothing.
No experience required.
Please limit eating to at least 1 hour before the session.
Free emotional expression and vocal sounds are honored in this container with an invitation to have awareness for your fellow breathers. Catharsis is not the goal, yet whatever arises is welcome. Although I bring a trauma-informed approach, this practice is not indicated for people with histories of deep trauma that has never been addressed with previous support. It's also contraindicated for those with severe asthma, cardiovascular disease, recent significant surgeries or injuries, and glaucoma. Please talk to Meghan if you have any questions.
Meghan Quinn
Meghan Quinn is a dedicated healing artist who has trained with countless teachers in various realms of bodywork, metaphysics, health, spirituality, and personal growth in her 16 year career as a healing professional. Grounded, discerning, and sincere, Meghan is a Clarity Breathwork Practitioner, licensed massage therapist, Certified Bowenwork Practitioner, Reiki Master Teacher, sound healing musician, and (soon-to-be graduated) VITA™ Coach. Her skill set addresses the interconnected nature of life through the body, breath, sound, and spirit, and she facilitates, guides, and coaches private clients and groups toward greater integration, embodiment, and empowerment. Woven through her work is Meghan's love for music, wild Nature, dance, tasty teas and elixirs, the investigation of life's mysteries, health & vitality optimization, and creating spaces of beauty and calm for people to retreat to for deep nourishment, spaciousness, support, new possibilities, and awe. After 19 years of calling Eugene, OR home, she's currently on a walkabout of discovery and deep listening, to find the fertile ground on which to plant her roots.
Social Permaculture
Join Jillian and David in an interactive presentation of permaculture - not as “permanent agriculture”, but as “permanent culture” and how that connects with you as stewards of the Network for a New Culture. We will lead you in an exploration of wholistic approach to permaculture in co-creating regenerative culture, where we can have more connection with nature and be better stewards of the world around us. Our exercises will connect with the magic of using nature as a model to see how we are part of ecosystems in all aspects of our lives. This informative and empowering session will leave you with a deepened sense of the ecologies of ourselves and community, and ripe for the next steps on your journey and hope of the abundance that comes with symbiosis.The Medicine Wheel and Dragon Dreaming: Social Permaculture Diversity tools
The medicine wheel helps us to connect with aspects of life that are beyond just doing, and allows us to see patterns of our whole existence. Dragon Dreaming is from the Australian Aborigines who are connected with dream time. Come and have fun exploring human diversity through these two frameworks with an advanced Social Permaculture space-holder, where we will connect with difference in people in creative ways, and become better community members and permaculturalistsJillian Hovey
Jillian has been involved with permaculture and eco communities since the mid 1990s, and has supported people & communities in 40 countries across 5 continents. She is deeply committed to a path of awakening, and supports others on their paths through teaching, coaching, and mentorship. Her work is wholistic, and is a steward of bringing the emotional and spiritual to her space holding. Jillian brings offerings from the Huron as a member of their tribe, and is excited to be at Summer Camp this year.
David Ahlgren
World renown Large Scale Earthworks Designer, Waterflow Choreographer, Land and Human Pattern Researcher, Symbiotic Educator, Holistic Life Coach, budding Lorax, and Friend.David purposes both in research and consulting flow with patterns of nature and the design science/Philosophy of permaculture to develop systems that create an exponential growth of abundance.. David teaches lives and develops patterns on symbiotic abundance. Today David's consulting portfolio includes the design and harmonious water flow of over 36,000 acres of land around the world.
The Persistence of Racialized Privilege in a Multiracial Society
This interactive and experiential session will increase your ability to "see" and understand the construction of race and racial identity, and recognize its necessary connection to and relationship with cultural, educational, legal, political and social dynamics. Recognizing and understanding these relationships we can begin to unpack race and develop the language and skills necessary to engage in more healthy and productive conversations and interactions within, across and between racial categories.
In our day-to-day life, we actively engage in efforts on personal and professional levels, yet still see the persistence of a distribution of privilege related to socially constructed racial categories. Both formal and informal practices, and public and private discourses continue to utilize and depend on perceptions of demarcated and legitimized racial categories and serve to maintain and reproduce a racial hierarchy, despite the increasing multicultural and multiracial character of American society.
Johnny Lake
"I am often referred to as a paradigm shifter. While this is true, I view myself more as a story sharer because, once we share a story, we'll never be strangers again."Dr. Johnny Lake's primary focus is on relationships and the impact and influence of diversity, race and culture on student academic/business performance and achievement.
What's it Like to Be You?
"What's It Like To Be You?" Simply by listening deeply to each other's key experiences on the topic of sexuality and gender, we can all gain a lot of understanding and build bridges between the genders. In this workshop, you will be asked to share and listen deeply to others answering key questions like: "How was your experience of going through puberty and your first period or ejaculation?" "What was your experience of sexuality with the other sex or sexes while you were in high school?" "Share a story of when your boundaries were crossed sexually." The purpose is to initiate discussion, but rather to invite deep listening and greater empathy for each other. We will first break into small groups after each question so that everyone has a chance to share, and then all come together for forum-style shares where the whole group listens to whomever chooses to share.Fred Burks
Fred Burks has been deeply dedicated to spiritual growth and transformation for his entire life. He dove into tantra and energy work over 20 years ago and has since facilitated many engaging, heart-centered workshops around the country helping people to open to the limitless sources of transformative energy available within themselves. His greatest passion now is healing the huge sexual wound on our planet. See www.talksex.us for his website "Let's Talk Sex."He is also a respected spiritual activist on the Internet. See www.peerservice.org for the inspiring and transformational websites he founded and manages. His deepest life intention is to live in service to all beings.
Christine McHugh
Christine McHugh has been working in the field of applied improvisation for the last 15 years in San Francisco and around the country. She leads workshops in change management, team-building, presentation skills, thriving under stress, innovation and the Zen of Improv. With her focus on the design of experiential learning she has led workshops for HAI, Ask.com, Genentech, Kaiser, PayPal, Catholic Healthcare West, and the Coaches Training Institute, among many others. She is a life coach, performer, and teacher and for two years has been touring her solo show, "Parents Must Be Dead" around the U.S. She also directed the viral music video, “Older Ladies” which has over 17 million viewings on YouTube as of this writing and features some NFNC folks. Christine currently lives in Santa Fe, NM and is the President of New Mexico Women in Film.Bringing Pleasure, Consciousness and Integrity to our Relationships with Food
Why do you eat how you do? What values, life experiences and truths shape your choices? In what ways are your food choices aligned with your values, and in what ways are they not? Where do you get stuck? Do you feel you are living food integrity? What does that mean to you? Do you feel you are the author of your food choices - or do you sometimes feel that addiction, compulsion, or negative patterns are driving your behavior?Food is deeply intimate. What you eat literally becomes you. It's also highly political. And the truth is, the modern industrialized food system is the most environmentally destructive force on the planet and a central driver of diseases that kill millions of people every year.
In this respectful, open-hearted workshop, we'll explore the unique life experiences, body wisdom, and perspectives that inform our food lives, and explore the rich dynamics at the intersection of personal freedom and social impact.
Ocean
Ocean grew up in a food obsessed family. His parents, in fact, almost named him kale (before kale was cool!). He's been advocating for healthy, ethical and sustainable food for virtually his entire life. At age 16 Ocean founded a global non-profit (yesworld.org) and for the next 20 years, he led leadership training and community healing events for hundreds of thousands of diverse young activists in 65+ nations. In 2012 he founded Food Revolution Network as an online education and advocacy community that's grown to 500,000+ members. Ocean has written three books including the national bestseller, 31-Day Food Revolution. He's led campaigns to get GMOs labelled, healthier lunches served in schools, and nutrition taught in medical school; and mediated dialogues in which senior leaders from major brands like Coca-Cola, Nestlé, and Unilever found common ground with food activist leaders from organizations like Center for Food Safety, Consumer's Union, and Food Revolution Network. His blog, foodrevolution.org, reaches more than 20,000 people every day. He wants a world with healthy, ethical and sustainable food for all.Amoeba Dance into Non-Verbal Space
What happens when a community of affectionate beings drops into their soft animal bodies and dance together as one? The concept is simple: we'll dance together as a group the whole time! Imagine one big, slow, gentle, group contact improv dance. There will be moments where parts of the amoeba split off into solo dances, duets, or small groups--but everyone will keep returning to the amoeba throughout the session. Note: Amoeba Dance is affectionate and may be sensual, but we do not run sexual energy.
We'll start with an opening circle to establish a safe container, move into a short facilitation to get the amoeba going, and then luxuriate in a long session of connection.
Ecstatic Dance
Ecstatic Dance is a freeform movement jam to a varied mix of organic and electronic beats from around the globe in warm, playful, inclusive community. There's no formal facilitation; the journey is guided by the music. Dancing solo or in connection with others are equally welcome. We'll open with flowing warm-up music, dance through waves of increasing tempo & intensity to reach peaks of ecstasy, and gently land into meditative, heart-chakra stillness. Ecstatic Dance is a movement meditation to drop out of our thinking minds into our bodies, so we hold it free from the distractions of social conversations and photography.Baron von Spirit
Peter Weinstein (aka Baron von Spirit) is a DJ and music remixer in service of movement meditation, drawing on his own longtime practices of Ecstatic Dance and Contact Improv. He's known for his seamless journeys of eclectic and wide-ranging music, and even more so for bringing some of the latest cutting-edge Bass Music. The Baron has DJ'd for 450+ ecstatic dances since 2010. He's the resident DJ at Ecstatic Dance Corvallis, founder of the practice Amoeba Dance, co-founder of Ecstatic Dance Records, and in the regular rotation at "the mothership" Ecstatic Dance Oakland
How would you like to know what's really going on with the people in our community? What could you share that would help you feel more connected and more authentic? "Going Deeper" is about skillful transparency that brings us closer as a community by co-creating a container for self-revelation and compassionate listening, building trust one relationship at a time. Very often it's the things we don't say that keep us from creating deep intimacy; that inhibits new connections from blossoming into friendships. We think we're being kind by not saying what's really going on for us — it's so much easier to say nothing than to take a risk. But those "unsaids" can fester and create distance, and powerful cultural norms help keep that pattern in place. Let's strengthen our power as cultural creators of summer camp! Join us in our daily practice and let's make it a habit to share difficult truths, intimate appreciations, and vulnerable parts of ourselves as we go about our day. Consider the possibility that we have no idea who our closest friends could be once we start sharing at this level.
Facilitated by Debby Sugarman and the Community
Compassion Cadre
Summer Camp is a powerfully transformative experience for
many people. Often we find our buttons get pushed, our self-limiting habits
are upended, and our stories about who are and who we can be in the world
are challenged. Our ideal is to create a community which offers compassion
and support for all campers, especially those who are feeling disconnected,
unheard, or simply overwhelmed by their camp experience.
One of the ways to realize this aim is through the Compassion Cadre Team. This year we will have a team of designated Compassion Cadre volunteers offering support for the week in any of the following areas: empathy and peer counseling, mediation, group process facilitation, and bodywork.If you would like to be a part of the Compassion Cadre Team this summer, please mention this and your experience/training on your registration application. An organizer will follow up with you.
Other Camp Events
♥ Love Pods ♥
Camp is big, with lots of people. Love Pods are small groups that meet most days for intimate sharing and bonding.
In this popular camp event, campers get an opportunity for several spontaneous connections of only 7 minutes duration. This event can promote higher levels of transparency, and the spontaneous nature often facilitates unexpected connections.
♥ Hand on Heart ♥
The HAI favorite exercise... connecting with every single camper, seeing the Angel within all of us.
♥ Aphrodite's Temple ♥
Aphrodite’s Temple is a place for campers to experience the dimensions of sacred sexuality and sexual healing. As in previous years, we'll convert the building on the upper part of the property into a sacred and safe play space for adults who wish to explore healing, intimate touch and the joys of sharing love & pleasure.
♥ ZEGG Forum ♥
The Forum is a group process developed at the German community ZEGG to provide a stage to express your true motivations, deep feelings, ideas and emotions. The Forum helps facilitate transparency, sharing and clarifying unsolved situations of daily life, and it can be a catalyst for one's own personal growth. More info about ZEGG forum may be found here.
Join in as the entire camp explores Open Space principles to self-organize for a day of concurrent events, inspired by your own passions and interests. These Open Sessions events are an opportunity for campers to convene dialogue groups on topics they've been wanting to explore, or create group massages, or do a music jam together. If a group doesn't feel fulfilling, participants are encouraged to move to a new one, honoring their instincts and natural enthusiasm. Bring your ideas and inspiration! Note: Not every camp will have a formal day for Open Sessions, However, there will be times in the schedule where self-organized, camper led offerings can be shared.
♥ Cabaret Show ♥
Here's your chance to show us your special talent. An evening of family fun with music, poetry, singing, stories, dance, skits, and more. Created by all of us!
♥ Lighter Side - as the mood strikes us! ♥
Participants create and perform skits to illustrate humorous events that they have observed or experienced at camp.
♥ Closing Circle ♥
Honoring the experience of the past ten days, we will connect, reflect, and bid farewell to this incarnation of our community.