Semi-Final Program – Session Descriptions
Session Conveners in Order of Appearance
Friday, August 28
Making croissants and pain au chocolats
with Geoff Tanner
Geoff will walk participants through all the steps of making croissants and pain au chocolats from scratch. We'll make enough so that all the freeschoolers can have one. This will be a multiple part workshop with the first session being at 7am. / I've been baking bread for years and have made croissants/poc several times.
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Rooftop Gardens 101 - Growing food in unconventional spaces
with Tim Murphy
This hands-on session will explore the true potential for growing food in our concrete covered cities. Includes a discussion on urban agriculture and its relation to the peri-urban environment, as well as a hands-on workshop during which participants will build their own self-watering containers. / For the past 3 years I have worked as the Sustainability Coordinator for an organization called Santropol Roulant (www.santropolroulant.org). As part of my job I run a large rooftop garden, known for its innovative growing techniques, creative use of space, and impressive community engagement. We grow mostly vegetables in over 225 containers, using a self-watering technique. This year, we expanded the garden by converting a 100-m2 ornamental rock bed into a series of raised beds, using the principles of green roof design.
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Investigative Research on the Web: Skills for Activists and Independent Media
with Tim Groves
Deep digging research can be highly useful for both activists and independent media. Tap into the skills and tools that investigative journalists, private-eyes and hackers put to use for doing in-depth internet research. We will cover how to master the art of crafting a good search, getting valuable information to come to you, and accessing hidden information that Google can't find, through both the deep-web and internet forensics. This workshop is jammed packed from edge to edge, even an expert researcher will learn a lot! /I have been doing investigative research for a variety of groups including OCAP for many year. In the last few years I have attended two conferences on investigative journalism. i have been giving similar workshops for over a year.
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Energy for the Common Man
with David Swan
This will be a practical session about energy from an historic and modern perspective. Topics will include, why is energy important, what is the second law and why should I care? / David is an engineer, teacher and parent who lives in the area.
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Community Engagement Tools and Transition Towns
with Clara Stewart-Robertson and Rachel Caroline Derrah
Clara recently graduated from Dalhousie University with a Bachelor of Community Design, honours, Major in Environmental Planning. During my studies, I designed and installed public art pieces for civic dialogue and participated in countless other experimental collaborative planning projects. For the past three years, I volunteered, interned, and worked for the Cities & Environment Unit to establish the Planning & Design Centre, a collaborative non-profit organization dedicated to making planning a more accessible, inclusive, and vital aspect of the everyday experience. I now find myself on the steering committee for People Plan Toronto and leading the first pilot project for our Community Planning Resource Centre (a very, very new initiative). Rachel has an honours degree in Community Design. She recently attended the Transition Town conference in London, UK. She is working as a planner in Halifax.
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Fruit tree grafting
with Paul Baker
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Maritime Medicinals
with Ashley Crane
Learn about local plants that have traditionally been used for healing on the east coast of Canada. Includes a slide show for species recognition, and a short demonstration on how to make salves, tinctures and infusions. / I have attended similar workshops put on by the MacPhail Woods group at home in PEI, and have applied this knowledge as a landowner, trail groomer, naturalist for PEI Provincial Parks and in working for local watershed associations. I am currently a medical student in Newfoundland, and so have an understanding of the pharmacology of medicinal plants, and am keenly interested in their use in preventative health care.
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The New university project
with Pioneering students: Hugh, Kyle, Nathalie and Mary Beth
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Coffee-Recycling: industrial design to inform social change
with Adam Fairweather
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Tour with the camera (basics)
with Sina Wagner
Basic knowledge about how to choose the framing of a photograph and technical settings. / I've been taking pictures for a long time, and learned about photography by trying different settings. It's just the basics that I can teach, but it's enough for beginners to look behind the different settings the camera offers. I work with a digital SLR camera, but the knowledge could be used for nearly every camera.
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The Dialogue of Desire - sex, under the influence
with Rena Kulczycki
Upon accepting that sexual desire is a natural impulse for many of us, we can begin to explore what that desire means and decide how to facilitate it's satiation or suppression. But as with all things, our decisions come under the influence of many sources. As we are increasingly exposed to and engaged in a multitude of ideas of what is right/wrong, sexy and appealing, how do we decide what is healthy and satisfying? What impact do these influences have and how do we navigate our way through the confusing, conflicting and sometimes overwhelming messages? This discussion group will begin by asking participants to share the messages received, and their sources, over time about sex, sexuality and expression. From there we will explore how those messages have shaped personal beliefs and actions, and how we see them shifting our cultural/social interactions. Finally we'll move onto sharing/creating ideas about how to mediate and maintain a healthy personal and social relationship with our sexuality and desire. / On my 12th birthday, my step-mom gave me a copy of "Our Bodies, Our Selves", and in the few days that ensued, not only did I pour over it's pages, but I brought it to school to share with my friends at recess on the playground. I've been doing the same thing, with only slight variations to the story, ever since. From serving on the Board of Directors for the Planned Parenthood Federation of Canada from age 16 to 20, to hosting a discussion group on "Sex, Gender and Body Image" at SMU 14 years later and a myriad of experience in between, I am the person friends depend on to validate and celebrate sexuality with it's many flavours, and to ask questions - mainly "why?" or "why not?". My experience with the subject has been no less or more than anyone else's, but perhaps different and more focused as I've always felt drawn to the exploration of desire and it's manifestation in expressed sexuality. Most importantly, I'm curious and excited about talking with others, and creating the safe spaces within which we can do so with hopes of fostering a more inclusive and appreciative sex-positive culture.
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Discussion on gender and sexuality
with Amanda Stevens
Potential topics include gender and authority, polyamory, queering heterosexual relationships, feminism and masculine identity, commodification of sex, and myths of romance. / I've been studying gender and sexuality formally and informally for my whole life and talk at length with all sorts of people about it. I've also been facilitating a similar discussion group for women in Halifax for the last two years that meets infrequently. At Free School last year my friend and I led a similar discussion group that we formed just that weekend. It was fascinating and I'd love to continue it more officially this year.
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Saturday, August 29
Ice Cream Making
with Aaron Beale
Learn to make ice cream from scratch. Add ingredients and cook base. Put the liquid base in large cans surrounded by ice and stir. Yuuum. / I've worked for about 5 years making and serving ice cream for a family business. I've done one a small ice cream making workshop for a Katimavic group.
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Learn how to play the Banjo
with Zac Crouse
This would be a small experiential workshop, 2-3 people per 45 min sessions./ Zac is a musician and emerging pop-star, perhaps best known for his role as lead singer in the Halifax band Caledonia.
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Mining resistance and international solidarity - a case study of Canadian company, Goldcorp, in Guatemala
with Kathryn Anderson
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People's Food Policy Project
with Pat Kerans
Any Ideas about changes to Canada's food policy? The People's Food Policy Project is up and running. It is holding ""kitchen table meetings"" to get people's ideas about changes to Canada's food policy. This session will ask you for your stories, your vision of what food policy should be. Your ideas will be fed into the mix of a People's Food Policy for Canada."/ Pat Kerans is on the Steering Team of the People's Food Policy Project; he was a Commissioner on the People's Food Commission during the 1970s.
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Analog Forestry
with Dana Kittilsen
An introduction to a holistic technique for ecology management and biodiversity restoration / I began as an intern and later learned and worked directly with the technique creator in an international development project restoring degraded sugar cane plantations in Cuba.
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It's better to build boys than to mend men
with Ben Sichel
This is a participatory workshop aimed at people who work with boys and young men or would simply like to understand them a bit better. It will include guided discussion as well as some hands-on activities. The workshop is based on a session the facilitator attended with gender specialist David Hatfield / Ben Sichel teaches high school in Dartmouth, N.S. In 2007 he co-led a Free School session entitled "Education for Social Change: Within or Without the system?"
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Solidarity, From Colombia to Palestine
with Waleed Kadray and David Parker
Where does the concept of solidarity come from, and how does it differ from other ways of relating between nations and peoples? This seminar will draw on the facilitators' experiences as an international solidarity activist in Colombia and as a Palestinian-Canadian. It will present various ways that Canadians can meaningfully practice tactics that reflect and support struggles worldwide for self-determination against imperialism, colonialism and neo-liberalism. A priority will be made to emphasize the struggles of those hit hardest by global power relations. We will discuss the dangers of 'activist tourism', or 'tourist activism'. The discussion will also serve as a reflection on current struggles in Colombia and in Palestine, accompanied with colour photos." / David has had years of being involved in international solidarity with Colombian communities, Indigenous communities in Canada, and more recently with Palestinian solidarity groups in Halifax.
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The Joy of Grief
with Roy Ellis
Everybody dies. But increasingly death has been shuffled off into the wings of Western Civilization. Death in our culture is increasingly viewed as a problem. The sad outcome of unhealthy living. We have a poor relationship with fatal illness, we wisk corpses away from families, paint them to look like they are alive, and then insist that everyone celebrate the life well lived. Grief is poorly understood and pathologized by the medical community. What ever happened to sackcloth and ashes? This workshop will overview Western dread of death and how it has been sold down the river by us all. We will consider the benefits of illness, death and grief to the human psyche and discuss the impact of and alternative's to today's commercial death industry."/ I am the Bereavement Coordinator for Capital Health in Halifax. I provide Grief therapy, grief groups and education to the staff across the region.
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Weed Walk
with Jayme Melrose and Silas Magee
Walk through meadow, woods and wet land Eco systems identifying and talking about native, medicinal and edible plants. / Jayme and Silas have a herboligy background through Linnaea farm program. Working our business focusing on planting native and edible plants in the city.
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The Cornerstones of Sustainable Agriculture; Cover-cropping and Crop rotation
with Owen Roberts
A whirlwind tour of the basics of crop rotation, and how to utilize cover crops within a system. No matter the type of farming one intends to engage in, whether a garden or a commercial operation, these are the root teachings of long-term food production. / I am a young farm boy-man who would love to share my experience and knowledge of growing up on an organic farm. All levels of understanding are welcome to help develop an open and insightful discussion.
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Capoeira
with Zak and Kiersten Holden
A physical workshop on the movements of capoeira, another workshop on the philosophy, appropriation of capoeira into new cultures. / Several years of study, current instructor with Dende do Recife capoeira in Halifax.
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Kick-ball
with Janna Graham
I played it during grade school and again, this past year, in new mexico. extremely fun and anyone -- all ages and physical fitness levels -- can play.
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Yoga
with Angela Day
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Sourdough Bread-making
with Jessica Ross
This will be a 2-part bread-making workshop that provides bread to eat for the group and an experience to bake bread for those interested. Logistically the workshop would split into two parts, as there are two parts of sourdough bread making, a session in the evening to make the starter dough that becomes the bread. And then the actual bread making in the morning (12 hours later). I would be interested in talking about some of the fundamentals of sourdough breads and then one recipe. A sourdough rye, I was thinking. "/ I spent the winter in Germany doing a breadmaking apprenticeship in two bakeries.
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Sunday, August 30
Kirtans - Bhakti Yoga in the form of devotional chanting
with Av Singh, Karen Shepard, Shaani Singh, Kaia Singh, and Janice Bush
Kirtans are call-and-response chants (mantras; praises; hymns; etc.) that are sung publicly to help create an atmosphere to remove separateness from each other and from their own divinity...or else it is just an excuse to sing...which is fun too! / Av has been a practitioner of bhakti yoga for over 35 years and grew up singing kirtans as part of his Hindu practice. He will be joined by his family for this session.
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Popular Education - Basics and Tools
with Wilf Bean
Popular education values the wisdom and capacities of average people as the starting point for transformative change. Through a hands-on, "learn to do by doing" participatory approach, learners in this seminar can expect to gain a fundamental understanding of popular education. They will also gain skills and confidence in using several different popular education techniques and tools in their own context. / Popular education has been a passion of mine throughout my adult life. From involvement in the land and cultural rights struggles with the Dene in Northern Canada in the 1970s to teaching and learning with international social justice workers at Coady International Institute since 1987, I have learned, practiced, studied and taught transformative, popular education for social justice in a wide variety of cultures and settings. I believe that popular education approaches are essential part of building a People's Movement adequate to face the environmental, social and cultural crises we now face in the world.
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Photojournalism Techniques: story telling through photos and words
with Stan Moeller
Stan Moeller will share some lessons about getting your message out using photography. / I just retired from 20 yrs. teaching journalism. I taught photojournalism, layout, and news writing and reporting for 20 years at the College of the North Atlantic, Stephenville, NL.
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Deep Democracy: The Art of Working with Groups
with Aftab Erfan
Deep Democracy is an advanced facilitation toolkit for group decision-making and conflict resolution that was developed in South Africa. It focuses on understanding and working with the emotional undertones at play whenever groups of people come together. / Aftab is a PhD student, in community planning at UBC, looking at the application of deep democracy to community work in highly divided neighbourhoods. She currently lives on Waldegrave Farm where she is learning how to be rural.
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The roots of injustice and the fair-trade movement
with Satya Ramen
Satya is the Development Coordinator for the Just Us! Development and Education Society, a non-profit organization based in Nova Scotia that raises public awareness of fair trade and responsible purchasing.
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Introduction to and history of sea kayaking
with Paul Cunningham
This descriptive workshop will introduce participants to some of the gear, actual boats, and safety issues associated with sea kayaking. A short discussion of paddling from prehistory to the present will also be offered. / I have been a sea kayak guide for about 12 years, having guided in Baja Mexico, Alaska, B.C., Yukon, and Cape Breton. I currently work for Rising Tides Expeditions, based in Gabarus, Cape Breton. I have given this talk once before at the Baddeck public library in front of a group of 15 or so.
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Art of Architecture
with Bernd Hermanski
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Saying "Yes" to Anti-Capitalism
with Ted Rutland
Is anti-captialism fundamentally a negative political position or orientation? Is there (then) a need to define a "positive" alternative to an increasingly impossible present? In this seminar (half presentation, half discussion), we will explore how it is that capitalism continues on and how it might, instead, come to a stop. Could it be that our sense of ourselves, our individuality, is created through ideas and ideologies that sustain the status quo? What would it mean for "us" to understand "ourselves" differently? (Who, if not ourselves, would do this?!) Is there not some kind of relationship with people and other living things that somehow precedes our everyday sense of self? Could it be that our most immediate and intimate involvement with the world is an unarticulated "yes" to something other than capitalism -- a "yes" that, for the status quo to continue, has to be transformed into a "no"?/ I think too much.
Transition Communities
It all starts off when a small collection of motivated individuals within a community come together with a shared concern: how can our community respond to the challenges, and opportunities, of Peak Oil and Climate Change?
In response to the twin pressures of Peak Oil and Climate Change, some pioneering communities in the UK, Ireland and beyond are taking an integrated and inclusive approach to reduce their carbon footprint and increase their ability to withstand the fundamental shift that will accompany Peak Oil.
This discussion will include background on the Transition Towns initiative, exciting examples and open dialogue around how we in Atlantic Canada, can take action to navigate beyond today's challenges!