Rad Frosh 2011 Workshops!
Saturday September 3rd (2:00 pm -3:30 pm in the SMMU building)
Out of the classroom and into the streets! Student activism in Montreal and beyond
Presented by the Mob Squad Crew at McGill
Description:
Welcome to McGill! A place where you’ll learn, grow as a person, graduate with no debt, and pick up some critical thinking skills along the way… Or is it? Bigger and bigger class sizes and rising tuition fees would suggest otherwise. This workshop will be a space to discuss the problems that exist in universities today, what we would like education to be, and how to act to change universities for the better. We’ll talk about some rad student activism in Montreal and elsewhere, and how to get involved at McGill to reclaim the University for the people.
An Introduction To Food Politics and Resistance in Montreal
Presented by members of Campus Crops, an urban gardening initiative on McGill campus, and the Midnight Kitchen, a Pay-What-you-can vegan lunch service based at McGill.
Description:
Demanding the Impossible?! The Practice and Relevance of Anarchism
Presented by Jaggi Singh
Description:
This workshop serves as an introduction to the thought, history and practice of anarchism. It is intended for frosh who are new to, or curious about, anarchist ideas and practice. In a multimedia presentation and discussion format, this workshop will outline the basic principles of anarchism, from its historical origins, to inspirations and antecedents from diverse cultures and movements.From support work with prisoners, migrants and victims of police brutality, to inspiring insurrections and uprisings world wide, we’ll explore the tangible practice of anarchist values of self-organization, mutual aid, solidarity and autonomous action. We will look at meaningful examples of self-organization and resistance from Kabylie & Chiapas to Mapuche territories & the Iroquois Confederacy, including local examples in Montreal. Whether through anarchism by self-identified anarchists, or “anarchism without anarchists” who practice the values of anarchism in the day-to-day, this workshop will provide a basic overview of anarchist ideas and practice, and the uncompromising struggle against capitalism, state and all forms of oppression. The relevance of anarchist ideas and practice to contemporary movements for self-determination and social justice will be emphasized, as well as the influence of anarchism in day-to-day life
Theatre for activism 101.
Presented by Ponni Arasu
Description:
There is no better way to say what you want to say than drama! Come learn to use theatre as a way to get your point across easily while having a blast yourself. The process of working as a theatre artist, the challenge, love, warmth and camaraderie is unforgettable and its effect stellar. History has shown us this repeatedly. Come and get a taste of what all this drama is about!
Consent and Accountability: An Introduction to Community-Based Responses to Sexual Assault
Presented by Noah Eidleman
Description:
the goal of this workshop will be to provide a space where workshop participants can learn about and discuss issues and ideas related to sexual assault, consent, and the idea that people should be held accountable for acts of sexual assault or non-consent. the workshop will aim to provide a basis for discussion about these ideas by focusing on the idea that everyone has the right to define their own boundaries and, therefore, also make their own call about when those boundaries have been crossed. the workshop will also look at the idea of consent as something which applies to all of our interactions, and will examine the impacts of social and media representations of consent. finally, the workshop will incorporate ideas based on transformative justice to look at what it means to have community-based responses to sexual assault.
Campus Life through Slanted Eyes: Issues of Race in Canadian Post-Secondary Education
Presented by Cassandra Zawilski and Ryan Thom
Description:
This workshop is presented by SSMU Equity as part of an effort to identify and combat issues of systemic racism that directly affect the lives of people of colour on university campuses. The workshop title is inspired by recent anti-Asian media items, including Maclean’s “Too Asian” article, reactions to Amy Chua’s book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother”, and Alexandra Wallace’s ‘anti-Asian rant’ on YouTube. The workshop will use these media items, and the resulting controversy, as a starting point to open up a broader discussion of the academic, economic, and social institutions that act as barriers to People of Colour on university campuses – students, faculty, and staff. The workshop will also briefly look into the history of movements led by students of colour, such as Black and Latino movements on Californian campuses, as well intersections between feminist, queer, decolonization, and anti-racist organizing. Together, we will deconstruct the stereotype of the ‘model minority’, debunk myths such as ‘self-segregation’ and ‘reverse racism’, and devise practical forms of resistance and solidarity for use on campus. Some discussion and explanation of the SSMU Equity Policy and Student Equity Committee will also take place, and students will receive information on filing equity complaints with SSMU.
Sunday September 4th (2:00 pm -3:30 pm in the SMMU building)
Radical Academics: Creating your own degree, creating your own courses, and using your credits to make a difference
Presented by Aaron Vansintjan and Tyler Lawson
Description:
The university is rife with barriers preventing you to study what you want, stopping you from having control over your own education. In this workshop you’ll learn about getting credits for doing extra-curricular work, creating your own courses, the importance of research in activism, and how to be an activist in academia. Through discussions and exercises, you’ll develop some basic tools for getting more out of college than you thought possible, effectively subverting the corporate structure of the university.
Feminism For Today
Presented by Indu Vashist
Description:
This workshop will look at developing relevant and accessible feminist practice that incorporates queer and trans positivity, a class analysis, with an understanding of race and ableism that can be applied in everyday life as well as activist work.
The First Pride Was a Riot
Presented by members of Queer McGill
Description:
Developed by Queer McGill, this workshop will introduce Rad Froshies to queer alternatives to the mainstream gay politics of the Human Rights Campaign or your typical high school GSA. We will critique the framing of battles for “queer rights” and explore their relations to power and privilege in communities marked by various lines of difference – considering not only gender and sexuality but race, class, ability, and others. Is “queer” merely another word for “gay”? How are trans* rights positioned within the broader queer movement? What choices are we really making in debates over hate crimes legislation, HIV/AIDS prevention, and gay marriage? And maybe most importantly, how can you get involved in local queer activism?
Urban Agriculture and Permaculture 101
Presented by members of Campus Crops
Description:
Rooting resistance in urban agriculture and ecologically-based gardening, this workshop will offer the hands-on skills needed to grow your own food in your new home town of Montreal. You’ll learn about permaculture techniques, gardening initiatives in the city, and even build your own self-watering container.
“Our Terrain of Struggle”: Migration and Global Apartheid
Presented by Jaggi Singh, a member of No One is Illegal and Solidarity Across Borders in Montreal
Description:
This multi-media workshop will explore the research and lived
experiences that ground a “no one is illegal/no borders” analysis.
Among the conclusions: all border controls are fundamentally racist;
all nation-states are inherently oppressive; all human beings have the
autonomous right to migrate, to resist displacement, and to return;
and, in opposition to imposed notions of “race” or “community”, we
struggle to assert self-determined identities. In a context of global
apartheid, there are very specific challenges for organizing on a
shifting terrain of struggle that is rooted in the lived reality of
those who daily confront oppression.
In particular, this workshop will acquaint frosh with the context of
migrant justice organizing in the Montreal-area , in an accessible
format to first-year students.
Sex, Drugs, n’Harm Reduction: an intro and how to get involved
Presented by Yun Gao
Description:
What are the consequences of abstinence-only “sex ed” for high school students and the war on drugs? For years, policies for youth on sex and drugs have focused on “just saying no,” something that is not effective. This workshop will explore with participants the pragmatic, progressive, and compassionate approach of harm reduction. We’ll examine how it applies to drug use, sex ed, and sex work, debunk some popular myths about harm reduction, and give participants an intro to the multiple paths that they can take to get involved.
Rad Frosh 2011 Tours!
Sunday September 4th (4:00 pm -5:30 pm in the SMMU building)
From Faubourg à m’lasse to the Gay Village : how pink money isn’t doing it for everyone
Presented by the Montreal Youth Coalition Against Homophobia (MYCAH)
Description:
Queers need more storytellers to remember them their roots and the history of the neighborhoods where they now live. This walking tour aims to revisite the Centre-Sud portion of Ste-Catherine and to claim the necessity of a social development of the gay village, after the economic and touristic development brought it gentrification.
The Turcot: Architectural politics, transportation, and public space in Montreal
Presented by Niko Block
Description:
This will be a walking tour of Montreal’s architectural and transportational politics, focusing in particular on the Turcot Interchange. The Turcot arguably embodies a broad spectrum of political issues affecting urban communities throughout North America: the questions of carbon emissions (their local and global effects), of privately versus publicly oriented infrastructure, of the immediate consequences of highway construction in an urban area, and of housing rights and eminent domain. Perhaps most importantly, the Turcot raises the question of how North American cities are going to deal with their crumbling car-centred infrastructure, largely constructed in the mid-20th century.
Yiddish anarchists, bastard cops, and queer pirates
An incendiary historic walking tour of downtown Montreal
Presented by Aaron Lakoff
Description:
This walking tour will be a slight variation of the walking tour given for rad frosh last year, which was an anarchist history walking tour of Montreal. In this walking tour, participants will be guided through the McGill ghetto, the lower Plateau, and the downtown core. The goal of the walking tour is to expose newcomers to Montreal to the city’s radical history of social movements. The tour facilitator will also point out valuable services in the area, fun places to hang out or party, cheap places to eat, and more importantly, sites which have sparked movements for radical social change.
Montreal Community Bike Tour
*participants will need to bring a bike*
Presented by members of QPIRG Concordia
Description:
An interactive tour of some of the neighborhoods of downtown and southwest Montreal, including Little Burgundy, Shaughnessy Village, St-Henri, Griffintown and Point-St-Charles. Come learn more about popular, queer, and working class struggles in our community, as well as current campaigns against gentrification, car culture and poverty. This tour will last approximately 3 hours.
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Fresh Waves: Radical Radio at CKUT 90.3 FM
Presented by members of CKUT
Description:
Be the media! Participants in FRESH WAVES will be given a tour of CKUT 90.3 FM, McGill’s campus-community radio station, a hub of alternative arts, culture, activism, and citizen journalism. The tour will introduce participants to the station’s resources and to some of the ideas behind people-powered radio. Then, working with experienced station volunteers, participants will create their own radical radio segment on a topic of their choice relating to the theme of FRESH. Any interpretation of the theme is welcome – subjects could be arts, music, culture, activism, environment. The segments will be aired on CKUT at a later date. Come with an idea of a topic you’d like to explore and get ready to get radical at Montreal’s freshest radio station.
