Virtual Con 2022 Workshops + Speakers
April 22nd - 24th, 2022
with times
Keynote Session - Community Supported Non-Monogamy: Resisting Isolating Relationships
Ignacio Rivera (they/them) & Aredvi Azad (they/them)
Join us for an interactive workshop to discuss strategies for building resilient, fulfilling, and community-supported non-monogamous relationships. We will unpack harmful relational dynamics and offer tools for resisting isolation and building community. Wondering about healthy patterns of communication, accountability, and sustainable support in your non-monogamous relationships? Let's clarify ways of engaging your community in your (a)sexual and (a)romantic practices.
Ignacio G Hutía Xeiti Rivera (Ig-Nah-See-Oh Gee Who-tee-ah She-eye-tee Ree-ve-Rah), M.A., is a cultural sociologist with expertise in sexual trauma and healing for marginalized populations. Ignacio is a Queer, Trans/Yamoká-hu/Two-Spirit, Black-Boricua, and Taíno activist who prefers the gender-neutral pronoun “they.” They are an internationally known gender non-conforming speaker, educator, writer, and performer with over 20 years of experience on multiple fronts, including economic justice, anti-racist and anti-violence work, as well as mujerista, LGBTQI and sex positive movements. Ignacio is also the founder and curator of Poly Patao Productions, which began 20 years ago and centers the sexual liberation of LGBTQI people of color. Ignacio’s work is influenced by their lived experience of homelessness, poverty, and sexual trauma and is focused on providing educational opportunities that are especially geared toward the sexual liberation of queer women, transgender, multi-gender, gender-queer, gender non-conforming, gender variant and queer people of color. Ignacio is the host of Connecting The Dots, a talk show that paints a holistic picture of how Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) shows up in everyday life and every level of society. Ignacio and their guests discuss ways to take an active role in changing the culture of shame and secrecy that makes CSA possible. As the Founder and Executive Director of The HEAL Project, Ignacio is on a mission to prevent and end childhood sexual abuse through healing the wounds of sexual oppression and embracing sexual liberation. igrivera.com | heal2end.org
Aredvi Azad (uh-Red-vee ah-Zah-d) is a certified sex and relationship coach, and an educator, writer, and speaker who has been producing educational media on gender and sexuality, kink and BDSM, and intersectional approaches to relationship building for the past decade. An Irani-American immigrant, Aredvi is a queer and trans/genderfluid relationship nerd who uses the gender neutral pronoun “they.” Aredvi’s work focuses on identifying patterns of bonding in adults who have experienced childhood emotional and sexual trauma, including generational and oppressive trauma of racism, sexism, classism, and other systems of inequality. As a scientist-turned-sex-educator, Aredvi is a self-proclaimed sexual liberationist working towards a sexually imaginative and expansive world. Aredvi is a Co-Executive Director at The HEAL Project, on a mission to prevent and end childhood sexual abuse through healing the wounds of sexual oppression and embracing sexual liberation. aredviazad.com | heal2end.org
Image Description:
Ignacio is pictured on the left. They are a caramel skin, AFAB, gender fluid, Black-Latinx- Indigenous being. They have very short dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. They are wearing a red and black dress with a diagonal line pattern and red colored glasses. They have a septum piercing and nose ring on the right side. They have a tattoo on their chin, starting at the bottom of their lower lip —a red strip that turns black under the chin and reaches their neck-dent. A spider is at the end of the black line inside the neck-dent. They have a chest tattoo that says “Fluid” and several other arm and finger tattoos.
Aredvi Azad is pictured on the right. They are a genderfluid Irani-American immigrant. Aredvi has short dark brown hair and is wearing stud earrings and a septum ring. They have a brown mole on their right cheek and have a small beard. They are wearing a grey jacket and are standing against a blurred background with a large house plant.
Consent and Communication
Lux Gypsum (they/them)
In this workshop, we will deepen our understanding of what truly *consensual* non-monogamy is. We will first familiarize ourselves with a basic understanding of consent, and then explore what comes up when we apply a framework of consent to non-monogamous relationships. We will share communication tools and practices for navigating ongoing consent and creating agreements in non-monogamous relationships. This workshop will be relevant for folks who are newer to consensual non-monogamy and to folks who have been practicing some version of nonmonogamy for decades. I hope you will leave this workshop feeling confident and empowered in your ability to communicate and co-create the non-monogamous relationships that you and your partners all consent to.
Lux Gypsum is a queer, white, anti-capitalist, non-binary relationship-anarchist who is passionate about communication, conflict transformation, and consent culture. They offer workshops on consent, conflict, and communication, under their brand Hearth Revival. All of their work is informed by their study of Nonviolent Communication, Internal Family Systems, and the Wheel of Consent. You can learn more about what they do at www.hearthrevival.com or by following @hearthrevival on Instagram and Facebook.
Image Description:
Lux is an AFAB (assigned female at birth) gender non-conforming human of Northern European descent. They have light brown hair styled in a mullet with shaved sides and a silver lip ring. They are wearing a dark brown newsy hat and a dark brown vest trimmed with white fur, standing in front of white flowers and looking away from the camera with a sense of hopefulness.
Virtually Polyamorous: Online Communication Tips and Tricks
Stacey Capps (she/her)
Stacey is an engineer with certifications in Zoom, Slack and other online communication tools. She'll discuss best practices for hosting a video call (including video first dates), how to navigate group chats with your polycule, how to use tools like Google Calendar to prevent jealousy outbreaks, and even why pictures of baby animals are better than emojis when chatting with long distance partners. Most importantly, she'll discuss how there is no particular online communication method that is "the right way." The means of communication needs to depend on the style of polyamory and the needs and desires of the people involved. She'll provide tips for how to determine what works for you and what doesn't - and when to communicate that to potential partners.
Stacey Capps (she/her) serves as the Vice President for Open Love NY, a not-for-profit organization serving the polyamorous community in the New York City metro area. She earned a bachelor's degree in Digital Media Studies from the University of Denver. She's been a consultant to Fortune 500 clients requiring auditoriums, video conference rooms, and video broadcast facilities. In her spare time, Stacey is a dungeon master for tabletop role-players and co-hosts a podcast about video games called Party Chat Peoples.
Image Description:
Stacey is a white woman person with long sandy blonde hair. She is standing looking up at the camera with a hand propped on her hip with red rose lipstick and wearing a longsleeve black shirt.
Ready or Not: Insights & Practical Tips on Race in Relationships
Jazz Goldman (they/them) & Coach Lex (he/him)
The workshop is about how quarantine forced conversations about anti-racism and intersectionality in relationships. A blend of dialogue and participation. We will be delving into anti-racism, assessing and accepting one's awareness of racism, learning under pressure (what to do and what not to do), and the more foundational communication skills needed to have these difficult conversations. One of our goals is that that you will walk away with increased self-acceptance and skills to continue learning and growing.
Jazz Goldman is a trans/femme/nonbinary Black & Jewish sex educator, performance artist, yoga practitioner & non-monogamous human being. They have been brought to you from the disco realm, to help you learn new ways to think about the world, bodies & pleasure. They have been active in polyam community since 2006 and sex education since 2011 when they began working at sex positive adult shops and teaching relationship/sex ed workshops. Using an eclectic approach --like gender queer miss frizzle meets afrofuturist space alien, Jazz weaves dance & movement with gender theory, sex ed and music. See what they're up to next at jazzgoldman.com. Find Jazz On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jazzgoldman/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jazz.goldman.1/
Coach Lex is a WASC certified sex coach who specializes in sexual communication in order to create a world where people can speak about sex as comfortably as they speak about breakfast. His work includes individuals, couples, and the polyamorous community, as well as the LGBT and kink communities (GSRD groups). Lex facilitates groups, workshops, and works with clients worldwide.
Image Description:
Jazz is pictured left and is a Black & Jewish person with jaw length black hair, freckles and brown eyes pictured on a grey background. They are pictured with a quizzical look holding their chin with their hand in the 'thinking' position. They are wearing a long sleeve button down black shirt.
Lex is pictured right and is a white man with shoulder length curly dark hair and dark brown eyes. He is slightly smiling wearing a black t-shirt with a black jacket over top with a dark background in the picture.
Microaggressions of Desire
Yoseñio Lewis (he/him) with panel member Sumter Frietag (They/She), artist and activist from Vancouver, British Columbia
Words matter. “And you’re just so articulate” to a black or brown body (“how could you possibly be so eloquent when you’re not white?”). Actions matter. That “I smell something funny” look when a woman walks by (“She must be on her period. Why doesn’t she stay home?”). Seemingly “innocent” actions have major consequences, especially when they are inflicted repeatedly. To this awareness we bring the notion of the Micro-aggressions of Desire and how they can teach us to be ashamed of that which turns us on. We’ll acknowledge the smirks, the looks, the avoidance, the turn aways, the one word responses and how they all can lead us to deny, diminish and delete our desires. When we have clarity on what we’re dealing with, we can then empower ourselves to move past the Micro-aggressions to experience the exhilarating heights of sexual health. Join us as we discover how to navigate the Micro-aggressions, overcome them and claim a sexuality that is rightfully ours!
Yoseñio V. Lewis is a Latino (Panamanian) of African Descent Trans man who has been a social justice activist since he was 13 years old. A health educator, speaker, writer, performer, trainer, facilitator, out poly and kinky person and a spiritual hugger, Yoseñio is a Board Member of TASHRA—The Alternative Sexualities Health Research Alliance. Yoseñio is on the faculty for the Sex Justice Track of the National LGBTQ Task Force Creating Change Conference. He is also a Board Member of the Columbia University/Emory University/San Francisco State University Project AFFIRM Transgender Resilience Study.
Image Description:
Yoseñio V. Lewis is a Latino (Panamanian) of African Descent Trans man with dark brown eyes, long black hair in small braids with a beard and mustache and a mole over their left eyebrow. They are smiling widely and wearing a white button up shirt with thin black stripes on it.
We Do Not Live Single-Issue Lives
Gloria Jackson-Nefertiti (she/her)
Gloria Jackson-Nefertiti (Black, bisexual, autistic, polyamorous, breast cancer survivor, etc.) is very much fascinated by the concept of "Intersectionality," which is why she became interested in teaching this class. Created by Kimberlé Crenshaw, who is an American lawyer and civil rights advocate, "Intersectionality" is what happens when "...multiple forms of discrimination (such as racism, sexism, and classism) combine, overlap, or intersect, ESPECIALLY IN THE EXPERIENCES OF MARGINALIZED INDIVIDUALS OR GROUPS" (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). A Black trans woman is probably the best example of a marginalized person possessing multiple forms of discrimination and oppression that intersect. In this workshop you'll start your journey of learning just how many social identities you may have, as well as how they intersect with each other. (Spoiler alert: The number of your overlapping identities is probably way more than you think!)
Gloria Jackson-Nefertiti (she/her/hers) has long been interested in the idea of "Intersectionality." And when you consider her many intersections and multiple identities (Black, Autistic, Bisexual, Elder, Breast Cancer Survivor, Polyamorous, etc.), this makes total sense! Gloria is a workshop presenter and panelist ("Transcending Shame" and "Polyamory 101: From Threesomes to We-Somes"), as well as a frequent podcast guest. She is also hard at work on her memoir entitled, "A Different Drum: A Black, Autistic, Polyamorous, Mentally Ill, Former Fundamentalist Christian/Cult Member and Breast Cancer Survivor WHO JUST WANTS TO FIT IN."
Image Description:
Gloria Jackson-Nefertiti is an elder cisgender African-American woman with medium brown skin. She has salt and pepper-colored shoulder-length dredlocs, and is wearing a soft green, blue and white headband with flowers on it (whose design is inspired by the Van Gogh painting "Irises"). She's wearing minimal makeup except for some dark brown eyebrow coloring, light blue eyeshadow, and lilac-colored lipstick. She's wearing a gender-neutral gold colored faux fur sherpa jacket over a grey shirt. She's smiling at the camera and showing white teeth, while standing in front of a mint green-colored wall.
Relating with Money: How to Make More Intentional Money Decisions to Reduce Conflict/Positively Affect your Relationships
Mike Pumphrey (he/him)
Mike Pumphrey is a money coach, blogger, and public speaker in Portland, Oregon, who has been working at the intersection of personal finance and emotions for as long as he has had both; that is to say, quite a long time. Through his work, Mike guides people from money anxiety to financial empowerment. He has a passion for helping those who feel ignored by traditional financial media, specifically those in non-monogamous communities. His goal is to get people unstuck and feeling excited and confident about the future.
Image Description:
Mike is a white man with red brown hair and green-gray eyes. His smiling at the camera wearing a grey t-shirt with a black button-up shirt over it with a light blue background.
Money is one of the hardest areas with which to relate. Many of us are more comfortable talking about our sex lives than even mentioning our salary, and a discussion of budgeting
or personal finance is generally not likely to happen in any typical company. And yet, money can affect every aspect of our lives, and money struggles are one of the biggest sources of relationship conflict. The solution isn't to make more money; it's to relate more intentionally. For example, taking the simplest case of a dyad relationship, how do you share money? All in, partially separated, or completely separate? That alone can be a challenging conversation to have, but what happens when we add more people? How do you handle the ethics of money when it comes to nontraditional relationship structures? The talk will discuss both the practicalities of relating with money, but also the emotional results of having a more intentional outlook toward their finances. Attendees will come away with a better understanding of their own money story, attachment style, and needs, and be better equipped to have the hard conversations now so as to reduce relationship conflict in the future.
Fixing Broken Pussy Syndrome
Jazz Goldman (they/them) & Coach Lex (he/him)
The presentation is about dealing with pain in the vagina and on the vulva during intercourse and other sexual acts. We will be delving into dealing with uninformed medical professionals (and bad medical advice), trying alternative healing approaches, trying new and different ways to have and enjoy sex, growing your awareness of your own and your partners body, and finally building your way back to full penetrative sex. We will also touch on the difference between vaginismus and vulvodynia. This is more than advice from an academic perspective. This is real life experience of how we worked around and through these problems.
Jazz Goldman is a trans/femme/nonbinary Black & Jewish sex educator, performance artist, yoga practitioner & non-monogamous human being. They have been brought to you from the disco realm, to help you learn new ways to think about the world, bodies & pleasure. They have been active in polyam community since 2006 and sex education since 2011 when they began working at sex positive adult shops and teaching relationship/sex ed workshops. Using an eclectic approach --like gender queer miss frizzle meets afrofuturist space alien, Jazz weaves dance & movement with gender theory, sex ed and music. See what they're up to next at jazzgoldman.com. Find Jazz On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jazzgoldman/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jazz.goldman.1/
Coach Lex is a WASC certified sex coach who specializes in sexual communication in order to create a world where people can speak about sex as comfortably as they speak about breakfast. His work includes individuals, couples, and the polyamorous community, as well as the LGBT and kink communities (GSRD groups). Lex facilitates groups, workshops, and works with clients worldwide.
Image Description:
Jazz is pictured left and is a Black & Jewish person with jaw length black hair, freckles and brown eyes pictured on a grey background. They are pictured with a quizzical look holding their chin with their hand in the 'thinking' position. They are wearing a long sleeve button down black shirt.
Lex is pictured right and is a white man with shoulder length curly dark hair and dark brown eyes. He is slightly smiling wearing a black t-shirt with a black jacket over top with a dark background in the picture.
Embracing Jealousy
Cee Blossom (she/her)
This event will be a guided, interactive conversation on jealousy. Participants will learn how to use our experiences with jealousy to thrive in non-monogamous relationships. While we may have learned that jealousy is a problem to be overcome, this workshop treats jealousy as a catalyst to fuel our growth and wellbeing.
Image Description:
Cee is a white woman with long curly brown hair. She is smiling at the camera with a gold metal cutout necklace, a black sleeveless shirt pictured standing in front of a wooden fence and lake water and trees in the background.
Cee Blossom is a coach who helps women, men, and non-binary people get confident in their non-monogamous relationships. She has been in polyamorous relationships for nearly a decade, and has worked with dozens of clients to overcome insecurity.
Sexology: The Musical!
Melanie Moseley (she/her)
"Sexology: The Musical!" is a performance piece that explores a wide variety of alternative relationship structures. Following the show, a talk back session allows for participants to ask questions and discuss the topics presented. Show description: A powerful, funny, musical journey from monogamy to polyamory: complete with show tunes. Explore new paths to intimacy – from the agony of jealousy to the joy of compersion, peak inside a triad and hear firsthand accounts of love without limits. Winner of “Best in Show” at the Boulder International Fringe Festival and at PortFringe in 2019, and "Critics Choice" at the Atlanta International Virtual Fringe in 2021.
Melanie Moseley (MA, Theare Arts) is a theatre artist, musician, and instructor. She and her triad run sex-positive and tantra workshops through their company Empowered Pleasure in Portland, OR. Mel has been practicing ethical non-monogamy for more than ten years. Her mission is to “spread the gospel of sex-positivity” through theatre, music, and storytelling to create community, connection, and self-actualization.
Image Description:
Melanie is a white woman with curly sandy blonde hair. She is pictured sitting on steps with her knees up and arms resting on her knees, her head tilted and smiling with hair up in a messy bun with black sunglasses on her head. She is wearing a patchwork long sleeve shirt with a black jumpsuit over it.
Erotic Life Writing: Telling Your Story
Geaux (she/her)
In this workshop you will use creative writing strategies to plot a personal essay, memoir, or other creative expression of sexual healing and liberation. We will move through two exercises together the life chart and life and participants will be instructed on how to complete a “exploding the moment” diagram to organize a specific story they want to tell (in any medium.) Learning Objectives: Objective 1: Evaluate significant themes in sensual, erotic, and/or romantic lives using multiple strategies. Objective 2: Plan a creative memoir project using important life themes.
Geaux taught creative non-fiction for four years to young people. She uses creative nonfiction writing as a great methodology for self-exploration. She has invested time and energy developing versions of her Race, Gender, and Memoir Writing courses into workshops for more mature audiences as well. In this most recent iteration that has looked like the Erotic Memoir Writing workshop.
Image Description:
Geaux (pronounced like Go) is a Black woman with glasses sitting with her legs spread open on top of a bright glowing light fixture and the background is an infinity mirrored corner so that you see Geaux's back reflected on both sides. The photo over all is in grayscale. Geaux is looking up with a powerful expression at the ceiling with her arms spread in a gesture to receive abundance from the universe.
Restorative Relationship Conversations
David Cooley (he/him)
Inspired by Restorative Justice, Restorative Relationship Conversations offers a unique model for addressing conflict and unresolved past events by creating a safe space in which individuals can have difficult conversations. The goal of this workshop is to give participants a process, based on the principles of Restorative Conversations and Non-violent Communication, with which they can start skillfully working through lingering relationship challenges. This workshop will equip its participants with both a proven model for creating a safe container in which to have a hard conversation, as well as the practical and effective communication skills to successfully make themselves heard and seen by their partners.
David's journey towards developing the Restorative Relationship Conversation model began working in the field of Restorative Justice. As a professional Restorative Circle facilitator and trainer, he was continuously struck by the power of dialogue, within a safe and structured container, to radically transform conflict into a tremendously healing process. After his marriage of 10 years ended in divorce, he experienced a personal crisis that left him in desperate need of deep self-exploration. He realized there were still many things he personally needed to work on and develop in terms of his ability to communicate and manage his own triggers in relationship. David's personal process eventually led to the field of Attachment Theory, which inspired him to examine the role attachment issues play in relationship conflict, deepening his understanding of the way unresolved conflicts inevitably resurface and undermine our connections with our partners. This new clarity inspired him to return to the restorative conflict model he had previously used and re-image it as an important tool for helping individuals with lingering relationship wounds to find resolution. Through the Restorative Relationship Conversation model, David is privileged to share his passion for facilitating new and healthier models of conflict resolution that offer legitimate means of reconciliation, particularly in the context of intimate relationships.
Image Description:
David is a white man with short light brown hair and blue eyes. He is slightly smiling with a 5 o'clock shadow, wearing a black beaded necklace & pendant with a chambray button-up shirt against a densely folaged background.
CNM Representation in Film and Television
Teresa Jones (she/her)
This workshop will facilitate a discussion of consensual non-monogamy representation in visual storytelling. An overview of the changing landscape in film and television production with regards to how we tell stories portraying sexuality, nudity, gender diversity and sexual trauma with the inclusion of intimacy coordinators and consultants. Examples will be shared of how community feedback has had a positive impact on how these stories are being told and where improvement is still needed. Group participation and discussion will be encouraged (but optional) with an exchange of ideas on effective community and individual activism that will lead to continued progress towards better representation.
Teresa (she/her) is a filmmaker and IPA (www.intimacyprofessionalsassociation.org) certified Intimacy Coordinator for Film & Television, specializing in content portraying CNM, birth, bondage and sexual/intimate partner violence. Her work is informed by multiple careers that include EMS, birth work, parenting, forensic science and epidemiology research along with her many personal dramas and sexual adventures that were likely fueled by her - until recently - undiagnosed and untreated ADHD. Having been involved in reproductive justice and advocacy work since 2014, Teresa is on a mission to promote consent culture in entertainment and the authentic representation of the vast landscape of sexuality, gender expression, and relationship styles and birthing options as an important part of good storytelling and as a positive example for progress in society at large. In spite of her turbulent start in career, relationships and general adulting, Teresa is grateful to have eventually fumbled her way into the film, CNM, and kink communities; each of which has in their own way, highlighted the strengths of her unique brain wiring while supplying the novelty she craves.
Image Description:
Teresa is pictured smiling in a shoulders up headshot against a dark background, wearing a green cowl neck top. She has light skin, dark brown eyes, an average build, strawberry blonde hair styled in a pixie cut and lots of little silver earrings. Note that her hair changes frequently and will probably be a different length and color by the time you meet her at which point, she will be happy to describe again.
How to be a Trans Ally
Jace C Ryden (he/him) + Michael Trimm (he/him)
In this workshop we discuss what it means to be more than a passive Ally to the Trans and Gender Expansive community, and how to be a more active accomplice. We examine things like microaggressions and language, as well as recognizing privilege. We will be touching on dating, sex, and kink, with potential trans partners, and dismantling some of the common misconceptions therein.
Michael Trimm and Jace Ryden are prominent faces within the Arizona and New Mexico LGBTQ+ communities; Michael has made a name for himself as performer Teddy Michael, has represented the Imperial Court of Arizona, was featured on MTV’s ‘True Life’ in 2009 and 2015, and is an award-winning promoter and pageant owner. He is currently the Director of Operations for the Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico. Jace has been performing as Freddy Prinze Charming since 2005 and is the current Mister USofA MI Classic. A multi-award winner, Jace spends a good part of his time educating folks on sex, and the kink and poly lifestyles, whether it be through the weekly webcast 'Let's Have a Fefe', or during his sex-themed trivia nights. He has volunteered and worked with several organisations around Arizona, including Joshua Tree Feeding Program, Rebel & Divine, GLSEN, and more. Both Michael and Jace have used their platforms throughout the years to educate, fundraise, and be outspoken activists. Their passion for education is evident in the way they seek to teach others about the transgender and gender expansive community through compassion and understanding, and a willingness to open a dialogue.
Image Description:
Michael is pictured left and is a Black man with a beard and mustache and bald. He is pictured standing smiling up at the camera with his arms crossed in front wearing a dark blue long sleeve button-up shirt against a white background. Jace is pictured left and is a white Trans man with closely trimmed red hair, beard and mustache as well as a black ear gage earring. He is smiling and sitting on a stool with one leg propped up and his arm lightly leaning on his left. He is wearing a white button up shirt with a slight pattern, a red and blue striped bowtie and a royal blue suit jacket, jeans with some holes and a silver electronic watch on his wrist.
Level up your Conflict Agreements
Sophie Gamwell (she/they)
This workshop will introduce participants to skills that can help them to fine tune conflict agreements and reduce emotional activation during conflicts. There will be a very brief introduction to the concept of a conflict agreement and why you may want one, but most of the workshop will be dedicated to skills around taking breaks & reducing emotional activation. We will talk about the bio/psycho/social factors that make it hard to negotiate and take breaks in conflict and how we can come to compassionate agreements that take into account all of our experiences. We will talk through options for reducing activation, acknowledging that there is no ‘one size fits all’ way of reducing distress. Drawing from Dialectical Behaviour Therapy crisis survival skills we will lay out some options that folks might want to try out to put them in a position to re-engage more effectively when they experience conflict. Participants will receive a booklet including some exercises to work through and a brief description of the concepts so that they can share these with the people they want to have more productive conflicts with.
Image Description:
Sophia is a fat white woman with blue eyes, asymetric brown hair and red lipstick looking up into the camera. She sitting in a rigid frame active manual wheelchair with her hands on the push rims of her wheels. She is wearing blue jeans and a black top with colorful flowers on it.
Dr Sophia Graham is an academic turned therapist who started learning and then teaching DBT skills in 2016. She has facilitated a group for queer disabled folks that has been running almost all of that time & is immensely grateful to that group for helping her to learn the skills more deeply and shift her approach to many of them. She loves that DBT recognises the negative impact of systemic oppression and oppressive societal norms on our mental health and experience of life. It encourages us to recognise that our distress is caused, but that doesn’t mean we are helpless in the face of it. Self Consent is her passion project – and the work she finds most personally challenging, too. A wise friend once told her “your mess is your message” and she is living proof of concept (thanks Meg John Barker).
It's Not What They Call You, It's What You Answer
Yoseñio Lewis (he/him) with panel members Sumter Frietag (They/She), artist and activist from Vancouver, British Columbia; Dr. Syrus Marcus Ware (He/Him), professor, artist, activist in Toronto, Ontario; Larken Childs (they), student, artist, activist from Baltimore, Maryland.
As individual trans or ENBY (non-binary) people make the life-affirming steps of living the truth of our genders/expressions, we all face the task of doing self-advocacy. We have to inform people of our new name (if there is one), tell them the pronouns we use (if we have them), and often we have to help or even push others to adjust when they don’t immediately come through. This workshop will bring together trans and ENBY leaders to talk about the experience of taking that personal self-advocacy and bringing that same energy to the work of activism on behalf of our whole community. All of us have the power to be a part of this movement, and, in fact, we already have the experience of being activists in our own lives.
Image Description:
Yoseñio V. Lewis is a Latino (Panamanian) of African Descent Trans man with dark brown eyes, long black hair in small braids with a beard and mustache and a mole over their left eyebrow. They are smiling and wearing a white button up shirt with thin black stripes on it.
Yoseñio V. Lewis is a Latino (Panamanian) of African Descent Trans man who has been a social justice activist since he was 13 years old. A health educator, speaker, writer, performer, trainer, facilitator, out poly and kinky person and a spiritual hugger, Yoseñio is a Board Member of TASHRA—The Alternative Sexualities Health Research Alliance. Yoseñio is on the faculty for the Sex Justice Track of the National LGBTQ Task Force Creating Change Conference. He is also a Board Member of the Columbia University/Emory University/San Francisco State University Project AFFIRM Transgender Resilience Study.
Accountability Starts With You
Libby Sinback (she/her) & kyrr kark (they/them)
"It is not possible to engage with other people and not both cause harm and experience harm. How we move through that relationally is through accountability." (me, I said that) Accountability is a popular buzz word in social justice communities, but what does it really. mean to be accountable? What does it mean to hold someone else accountable, and is that even truly possible? In this workshop we will define accountability, what it looks like, and how it impacts relationships, families, communities and culture. We will then talk through how to start practicing accountability and creating a culture of accountability in your intimate relationships.
Libby Sinback is a relationship coach, educator, and host of the podcast, Making Polyamory Work. She is trained in Relational Life Therapy and the Gottman Method and helps people who want to break out of harmful relationship patterns to embrace nourishing, authentic, boundless love in their life. Libby believes love is why we are here and how we heal, and that relationships are at the core of our wellbeing as humans.
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kyrr anna andr kark has fifteen years of professional experience responding to violence, conflict, and abuse. their training includes harm reduction, trauma care, sexual health, and crisis counseling. their organizing home is with No Justice No Pride, and they build family in the atlanta area.
Image Description:
kyrr is pictured left. kyrr stands in front of a brightly colored mural, wearing a large gray sweater, thigh highs, and leather jacket. kyrr is a white person of medium build, and has their hair wrapped in a scarf. To the right of their image is a yellow panel that says "Meet A Speaker: kyrr kark."Libby is a white woman with chin length hair dyed light lavender with bangs. She is laughing with rose-red lipstick wearing a black shirt with buttons on the shoulder and long chain necklace with green foliage in the background.
