31 Oct Conflict Transformation Workshop (New York, NY)
This political education workshop will specifically focus on Conflict Transformation
From 12:00 PM until 2:00 PM
At The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Community Center
208 West 13th Street, New York, NY 10011
Presented by the NYC Transformative Justice Hub
We all know that getting through conflict can and does bring people closer together, strengthen trust, aid in creative solutions to larger issues, and generally just help us feel good about each other and ourselves. It can also tear us apart or end relationships. All too often it is the latter, much of the time because we don’t think we have the skills or capacity to deal with the pain of feeling misunderstood or not valued. Conflict transformation is the idea that we can purposefully shift the discomfort we feel when we disagree with or harm each other to something generative rather than annihilating.
Many of us have turned to the ideas of transformative justice to help us visualize how we can take care of ourselves, our friends, and our comrades during experiences of harm; "community accountability" is held up high as a means of working together to make things better. But what if a long term process is not realistic or wanted? What if the concept of a "community" falls apart just when it is most needed, or people just don't have the desire or capacity to address an issue? What if a conflict seems too small to merit such an in-depth process? Mediation and the use of conflict transformation skills can be an option when a longer process just isn't going to work.
In this workshop, we will briefly discuss a model of conflict theory, and focus on skills and role-play practice for participants to gain confidence in their use. Conflict transformation techniques can be used not only in mediation processes, but everyday support for friends and comrades as well as longer accountability processes.
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Bexa Dale is a person working towards making engaging in generative conflict a more realistic option for activists as a means towards supporting and continuing radical environmental, social justice, and political movements.
For the past 7 years, I have practiced mediation and group facilitation at the New York Peace Institute and within anarchist and activist networks, and cooperative living situations. I have trained folx to mediate at Brooklyn and Manhattan's Community Dispute Resolution Centers as a coach, mentor, and instructor of an intermediate level 12-week course, and in the activist context in "Conflict Revolution", a 9-session workshop series in NYC, in addition to multiple workshops for ecological defense groups around the continent. Additionally, I have coordinated with a consistent group of people to support difficult conversations within these communities, and helped to organize and participate in the Conflict Support Teams for seven national gatherings on environmental and prison abolition issues.
Trusted coaches from different aspects of this work will also be supporting the workshop and bringing skills, experiences, and identities of their own.
This workshop is open to everyone!
LGBTQ Center (208 W 13th St.) from 12pm-2pm
If you want to participate in our lab sessions during the later half of the day with your pod/group please fill our our intake form here: https://nyctjhub.com/public_intake.html
The lab serves as a space where people involved in CA processes or those working to develop them can come and get guidance, consultation and space to process.
Lab Time: 2:30pm-5pm