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Queering DIY:
EmbroideryEmbroidery 101101
It’s time for Queering DIY SESSION 3! (:
This is the third installment of Queering DIY: an interactive, co-created skills-sharing event for adults with bigger dreams than capitalism can supply.
The Activity for this session:
We will be connecting the dots in the survival skill of hand sewing for clothing repair and decoration by going through Hand Embroidery 101: Basics, Stitches, and Uses, with time for starting personal projects and troubleshooting first time issues in a supportive community setting.
Needles, hoops, and floss (thread) will be available and free for use!
Your teacher for the day will be Florence Tyler, MPH (:
Topic of Discussion:
Sewing, mending, and fortifying; finding new ways to see beauty in what we have.
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Supplies you'll need
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FAQFAQ
What is QueeringDIY?!
Queering DIY is an interactive, co-created, skills-sharing event for adults tired of adulting but who refuse to give up. We’re here, we’re queer (queer as in the 'Others' of the Others, not limited to gender or sexual preference!), and we’re learning and practicing life & survival skills together. Each gathering, there will be an Activity and a Discussion topic, with the intention of transmuting stagnant energy by:
- Focused group processing; stretching our imagination & expanding our comfort zones
- re-connecting w/ the age-old ritual of gathering communally to learn skills together, and make things with our hands.
- help us to feel more able, and less alone!
What supplies do I need for this event's activity?
- Something to write on
a notepad, some paper, your phone. Something you can take notes with, that you won't easily lose (pen & paper, or the notes app on your phone also works) - Something to write with
pen, pencil, a keyboard... whatever will allow you to write down your ideas freely - Your thinking cap, and an open mind
...it can't hurt (:
What if I don't have some of those supplies?
Don't trip! When you RSVP, let us know what materials you still need, and we'll pick up (or crowd source from other participants) those materials for you before the event, in exchange for a donation of $5-$10 when you arrive (:
OR you can volunteer to help with documentation, clean up, or note-taking as your energetic investment in co-creating the evening! (Let us know what you decide, when you RSVP.)
Is this a class?
No. It's a gathering of folks who have dreams, and want support with figuring out how to get them accomplished. While Lo has some experience facilitating spaces, we are not claiming to be experts at anything here. There will be questions and food for thought to help guide us through the process of connecting the dots, and perhaps you have some experience you'd like to contribute... part of the purpose of these sessions is to get used to the idea of figuring things out *together*. It's also been proven that doing things with our hands activates more areas of our brain than using most other parts of our body, so by writing out our ideas while we brainstorm/discuss, will ideally help us come up with better ideas! (:
I like snacks. Will there be snacks?
Snacks and drinks will be done potluck style. Feel free to bring anything you'd like to share!
Keep in mind, we're capping it at 10 people. We're asking that people try to RSVP at least 48 hours before the event, so folks who volunteered to bring snacks can be notified know how many people are coming, along with any dietary requirements.
Can I bring extra supplies to share with the group?
Yes! Please do! If you have supplies you want to share, please let us know when you RSVP so we can update the group's collective inventory for the evening. If you bring things like pens or pencils to share, you can of course take those back home with you at the end of the night!
Can I tune in virtually?
Great idea! We're working on setting this up, so if you're interested in tuning in via live stream, still RSVP so we can send you the link to join once its ready!
Do I have to be queer to attend?
LO here, speaking for myself— first and foremost, as a nonbinary, neuro-spicy, uterus-having, queer 3rd-culture kid, for me it is and has been, a longstanding desire and intention to create, nourish, and protect spaces where people who identify as Queer —and who's very existence as who they are is made to be seen as 'other' and therefore often less safe, less taken seriously, and given less value by the constrictive projections of heteronormative society— can feel and affirm that they are indeed valued, made a priority, and comfortable to be fully themselves. But that said, even some queer spaces can be very binary in their thinking and treatment of people within their own supposed community. Queer life, as all life, is layered.
That said— what is queer? Who is queer?
You're considered queer if…
- you are not heterosexual or cisgender
- you identify as queer
- you are neurodivergent
- you are prioritize and/or strive towards liberation
- youʻve had the lived experience of being systemically “othered” — due to circumstances or traits not limited to gender or sexual preference
- you do not subscribe to heteronormativity
- your lived experience challenges restrictive binary thinking
This is not an exhaustive list, but rather a starting point to get our gears turning.
Wikipedia says that “Historically, queer was a word that is referred to something as odd or strange. As the verb form of queer, queering can refer to the act of taking something and looking at it through a lens that makes it strange or troubles it in some way.” That is the effect queerness on society. That’s the energy we are hoping to tap into with these meetups. If we’re trying to dream up a new world, there is a desire to do things different. Perhaps that makes us all a little queer. Perhaps to be “queer” means to think, even live, expansively. So, if you resonate, maybe you are just a lil bit queer. Or maybe a lot. Or maybe not at all. It’s up to you!
The TheoryTheory
Queering DIY is a $Free.99* event, for people interested in co-creating the world we want to live in, where we can all get a little more free than we are now. (Free* with an asterisk because until all of us are free, none of us are free; and even then, everything costs us something.) Every action takes resources. Whether it’s our time, energy, tangible resources, or, money traded for someone else’s.
Community work & programming ‘for the collective’ often falls on the backs of the few who are viewed as having all the responsibility, which can often lead to either burnout or blame, and when they’re unable to do the work, it ends with them. Like Makini Shakur, Administrative Director of BAAANA, said in the documentary, Dope is Death 2020: “I remember telling Matulu this, and I didn’t know that it would be a prophecy…I was like ‘Matulu, if you do everything, no one else is going to know how to do shit… what happens if something happens to you?’”
Living under capitalism has led many of us to feel isolated and burnt out, because we feel we’re going at it all alone; it’s not sustainable. We weren’t meant to do most of this sh*t alone; and that includes things as simple repurposing plastic bags, or as complex as navigating the current world & dreaming up a new one.
We’ve seen many queer spaces become beautiful bittersweet memories, because the organizers got tired, or things got expensive, because it wasn’t sustainable, because despite being a space for community, the maintaining of the space was not a communal effort. We’re trying out this mode of space-making to take a step towards remedying that. What happens if we ALL try doing a thing, making a space, creating an experience, *together*? What happens if we share the learning, the teaching, the responsibility, the imagining, the creation of our own spaces?
To honor the idea that energy is currency, you are invited to join us in practicing viewing communal gatherings as a communal effort. For community gatherings to be sustainable, for spaces to be truly “for” Us, they need to be made “by” us. It’s okay if we don’t know how to do it all. How could we? We aren’t meant to know everything. We each have a piece of the puzzle that creates a bigger picture. Instead of worrying about how to do & be EEAAO, we’re starting in the only place we can: where we’re at, right now. With a drawer full of used grocery bags, an idea for a gathering, and list of what it’ll take to make that gathering happen.
In an effort to divest from capitalism and invest in more energetically-balanced ways of value exchange (and because this isn’t a sponsored event, which most “free” events are), we will consider time, energy, and other non-monetary resources as legitimate forms of currency as ‘payment’ to participate. Because we still live in a world where things cost money, and neither of us personally know anyone who knows how to make tape, scissors, needles, or thimbles (…yet?)— money will still be an acceptable form of energetic exchange, which will be used to exchange for the aforementioned tape, scissors, needles, and thimbles that are needed to do this activity.
