Dear fellow educators, colleagues, students, film buffs, lovers of cinema:
Friday Noon Colloquium is the new research-in-progress series hosted by Michael Huffmaster, in the German Studies program, Humanities at UPRM.
The series begins at noon on Friday, October 18 in the lobby area (Sala de Conferencias) of the OF-Edificio de Profesores building at UPRM. It’s wonderful to have this space to share for those of us active in the humanistic and cultural studies research arena. Check the series flier here.
What’s the topic of this inaugural event, you may ask?
The presentation of Amorous Visions, a book proposal for a study of Italian cinema from an ecosexual and Deleuzian perspective. Look above or download the descriptive flier here.
Yes.
This is the project that took me to Connecticut some years ago, when I won the external fellowship of the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute and also received support from the College of Arts and Sciences at UPRM to use it.
This is ALSO, and very significantly, a project that has emanated from the course in Italian cinema that I have been teaching at UPRM over the years, beginning in and around the year 2000. This course has been an inspiration to me and to many groups of students over the years. What does it mean to appreciate, participate, enjoy, observe, learn from, and think about the art of the 20th century that studies the relation of “time, space and movement,” as Gilles Deleuze put it? Students have been my most valuable teachers. From them I’ve learned to look at cinema anew. My study of ecosexual perspectives on Italian cinema is a direct emanation from this experience. It is time to share about it with our local and regional intellectual community.
What is an ecosexual perspective in the study, practice, creation, and appreciation of cinema? How can this kind of perspective relate to Deleuze’s cinema theories? Italian cinema is a particularly fertile terrain for this epistemic inquiry. So many “sheets of the past” emerge from the mise-en-scene of art cinema from Italy. So many personal, intimate scenes invite a reflection on how our amorous lives are impacted by the ecosystems that we live in.
My project has evolved alongside with my contributions to the vibrant ecosexuality movement. In 2015 i was privileged in c-editing the first collection of writings on this topic, an arena of emerging knowledges where nature inspires humans to practice the arts of love. It encourages our amorous expressions to sustain the health and well being of our own and our surrounding ecosystems. A change in metaphors is due. When we treat the Earth as a lover, we become aware of how much we need the blessings of this partner we all share.
We have successfully hosted the first symposium on this topic in the Caribbean last year, and plan a new edition in 2017.
In this presentation, I will outline how my book project on Italian cinema evolved alongside my participation in the ecosexual movement while I also evolved as a a professor and scholar of cinema.
Join us in animating the event. Participate and invite your own students. Below please find more information about the event.
Thank you!
# # # # # # #
Title:
Amorous Visions: Ecosexual Perspectives on Italian Cinema
Presenting a Book Proposal
This presentation traces the evolution of the book proposal Amorous Visions from the idea of teaching a course in Italian cinema from a philosophical perspective while attending the desire of UPRM students to explore the direct connections between a film’s mise-en-scène and its erotic/amorous scenes. The proposal is organized around the philosophy of Deleuze and his study of cinema, as well as the cultural discourses of sexual fluidity and amorous inclusiveness. The proposal benefits from the in-depth study made possible by externally funded research also sponsored by Arts and Sciences at the RUM.
The presentation will be a 20-minute plus 10 minutes for a Q & A session.
It will be done on a laptop with stills and clips.
The format is suitable for a small audience.
About the Author
Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD, is the author, editor and co-editor of Women and Bisexuality (2003), Plural Loves (2005), Eros (2006), Gaia (2009), Bisexuality and Queer Theory (2010), and BiTopia (2011). Her articles have appeared in DisClosure, New Cinemas, Rhizomes, Nebula, WSIF, and VIA. She is the author of The ‘Weak’ Subject (1998), and the co-translator of In Spite of Plato, by Adriana Cavarero (1995). Anderlini-D’Onofrio has spoken about polyamory on Italian public television.
More recently, Anderlini-D’Onofrio has adopted the sacred name of Dr. SerenaGaia. At the helm of the ecosexual movement, she has keynoted at various symposia, and is co-editor of Ecosexuality: When Nature Inspires the Arts of Love (2015), the first collection on this topic. Dr. SerenaGaia is the convenor of Practices of Ecosexuality: A Symposium at UPRM, and is at work Amorous Visions, a study of Italian cinema from an ecosexual perspective.
Dear fellow educators, colleagues, students, film buffs, lovers of cinema:
In the spirit of challenge and renewal at UPRM and in Puerto Rico, the current course in Italian Cinema opens its doors to invite you for a CLASE ABIERTA event.
Please join us on Tuesday, November 1st at 5:30-7:00 PM in Chardon 226, for a presentation from the research project Amorous Visions, followed by a bilingual Questions and Answers period. Look above or download the descriptive flier here.
The course in Italian cinema has been an inspiration to me and to many groups of students over the years. What does it mean to appreciate, participate, enjoy, observe, learn from, and think about the art of the 20th century that studies the relation of “time, space and movement,” as Gilles Deleuze put it? Students have been my most valuable teachers. From them I’ve learned to look at cinema anew. My study of ecosexual perspectives on Italian cinema is a direct emanation from this experience, and has evolved with multiple support from internal and external sources. It is time to share about it with our local and regional intellectual community.
Italian cinema is a particularly fertile terrain for this epistemic inquiry. So many “sheets of the past” emerge from the mise-en-scene of art cinema from Italy. So many personal, intimate scenes invite a reflection on how our amorous lives are impacted by the ecosystems that we live in.
In this invitation, we will present a study of two classics of Italian cinema from the 1970s. Remember The Conformist and The Night Porter? Very ecosexual. Very Deleuzian. Right? If you’re a cinephile, you cannot have missed them. If not, this is a perfect time to meet these two majestic films. Students in the current Italian Cinema group are quite advanced in Deleuzian and ecosexual approaches to cinema. They are excited to welcome visitors and other participants for this special CLASE ABIERTA EVENING. Many of them will surprise you with their participatory questions and observations.
Join us in animating the evening. Participate and invite your own students. Below please find more information about the event.
Thank you!
# # # # # # #
Title:
Ecologies of Love and Toxic Ecosystems:
Lessons from the Holocaust in Cavani and Bertolucci
Abstract
This study analyzes two classics of Italian cinema from an ecosexual perspective. Bertolucci’s The Conformist (1970) and Cavani’s The Night Porter (1974) share a theme: the 20th century Holocaust in Europe where circumstances are extreme and the ecosystems that host people’s lives are replete with toxicity. The study integrates elements of Deleuzian and film theory, political history, the history of cinema, and cultural discourses about fluid and inclusive practices of love like bisexuality and polyamory. It focuses on the relationship between mise-en-scène, or representation of the physical, emotional, interpersonal, and political ecosystems where characters’ lives unfold, and the styles of sexual and amorous expression they deploy in their intimate scenes. Its approach is unique. It empowers a vision of how the energy of love behaves in toxic ecosystems, surviving as love for love or erotophilia. When the auteurs explore the inner landscapes of the films’ protagonists via Deleuzian time-image sequences, the sexual fluidity and amorous inclusiveness present therein become visible as a way to save love for love in the midst of extreme ecological toxicity. In Bertolucci the fear of love prevails: Marcello kills the woman who inspired love in him. In Cavani this expansive sense of love manifests the imagination of a world where “it is safe to live because it is safe to love.” The author claims that Cavani succeeds because her diegetic structure is organized rhizomatically. The inner landscapes of multiple interconnected consciousnesses are made visible in the interlocked time-image sequences of her dyad Max and Lucia.
Note:
The article that corresponds to this presentation will be published in Rhizomes: Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledges, an open-source peer-reviewed journal. It uses numerous series of stills from both films. The conference presentation uses a series of clips. The latter will be presented in a 60-minute format, followed by Q & A sessions.
Stay tuned: In the Spring of 2017 we also plan a more formally organized event about Amorous Visions. It will be widely announced and open to the wider Arts and Sciences community at UPRM, and beyond.
About the Author
Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD, is the author, editor and co-editor of Women and Bisexuality (2003), Plural Loves (2005), Eros (2006), Gaia (2009), Bisexuality and Queer Theory (2010), and BiTopia (2011). Her articles have appeared in DisClosure, New Cinemas, Rhizomes, Nebula, WSIF, and VIA. She is the author of The ‘Weak’ Subject (1998), and the co-translator of In Spite of Plato, by Adriana Cavarero (1995). Anderlini-D’Onofrio has spoken about polyamory on Italian public television.
More recently, Anderlini-D’Onofrio has adopted the sacred name of Dr. SerenaGaia. At the helm of the ecosexual movement, she has keynoted at various symposia, and is co-editor of Ecosexuality: When Nature Inspires the Arts of Love (2015), the first collection on this topic. Dr. SerenaGaia is the convenor of Practices of Ecosexuality: A Symposium at UPRM, and is at work Amorous Visions, a study of Italian cinema from an ecosexual perspective.
Before the second debate I posted: “Vote as if your life depended on it.”
Why?
“This may be the last time you vote if Trump is not defeated. Really? Really! Can you imagine Trump running an election? He will claim that “Mexicans” cannot vote because they are biased against him. He will claim that women are not fit for voting either, but rather for being “grabbed by the &{a9d64f7890d157e71e6efcce19e215a5f853c7f4151cde0b7bf7aada464173f6}#@@*.” It s now or never, folks. Republicans hope he drops out. But we can do better. Let s not miss the opportunity to strongly elect the first president who is a woman. Some might think it’s indirect to come to that position via the “first lady” thing. Let s be honest. If the US had had 42 “first gentlemen” and no first lady yet, don t you think that men interested in political careers would use the “first gentleman” position strategically to access the exposure need to qualify for it? I look forward to a republic where the first “first gentleman” comes into existence. It s about time folks! I’ll trade that any time for a dictatorship where women are “grabbed by the &{a9d64f7890d157e71e6efcce19e215a5f853c7f4151cde0b7bf7aada464173f6}#@@*.” Won’t you? Say YES if you agree. And make sure you vote!”
But I was perplexed after the debate and posted this to Facebook. It generated a long thread you can find here.
People helped me. And finally, what really helped me was looking at the issues. Not sure how to vote yourself? Here are my reflections, and the links.
Post-Debate Reflections
“I’m not sure how to vote. To me it s very simple: get the billionaire class to fund the green economy, get the mass incarcerated out and pay them to produce solar panels, get out of all oil wars, stop all pipelines. It s a simple plan that resolves several problems.
But for any of the main candidates it seems too difficult to grasp.
I want to vote for Hillary but I by far prefer the program of Jill Stein.
Hillary went for the right. She wants to be elected by the Republicans who repudiate Trump.
I don’t think that s very honest or wise.
She did well in the debate. She held her ground, ruffled his feathers well enough. She came across as mature and wise.
Modeled presidentiality in a woman s body, which I like.
But she didn’t talk about police violence, she included fracking as a “transition” to the green economy, and wasn’t clear at all about Isis.
The debate was very narrow. Nobody even mentioned Haiti w over 800 victims of a super hurricane enhanced by global warming.
I don’t think there is much hope.
I like the plan of Jill Stein.
If I could be sure that Trump is defeated i would give my vote to Jill Stein.
Can you help me think through this?”
Many many comments poured in, and what really made a difference for me was looking at the websites where I could educate myself about the issues. I do wish Jill Stein a lot of good things, and I do respect the position of those in the blue states who will vote for her.
For me, as an immigrant, I want my vote to go to a person I can believe in. I acquired this right. I was not born with it. I acquired it by working, not from allowing billionaires to “grab me by the &{a9d64f7890d157e71e6efcce19e215a5f853c7f4151cde0b7bf7aada464173f6}#@@*” and then call me a “gold digger.”
The Issues
Debates may not help. But when you look at the issues, you know there is a difference. Roe and Wade. Marriage Equality. Global Warming. Health Care. Criminal Justice. Green Economy. Many more . . . They’re there. There is a position, a plan.
I need a GOOD reason to vote for a certain candidate. Fear is not enough. If you feel the same, go to the sites too. Educate yourself about the first former first lady ready to become president. Viva the first “first gentleman.” Let’s hope he initiates a long line of men of a gentle nature who proudly support women. And viva Hillary.
Rituals to Bond with the Partner We All Share: The Earth
PROGRAM – Te Amo Playa Azul I Love You 3
When: February 4, 2017, 11 AM 7 PM
Where: Playa Azul, Punta Arenas, Carretera 102, Km 11.6, Joyuda, Cabo Rojo.
This is our basic program for the day:
11 am: Meet and Greet on Playa Azul, Music, Contact Dance
12 noon: Workshops
1. Know and Love the Ecosystem Called Thyself
2. Know and Love your Most Compersive Lover: Earth
3. Know and Love those Who Share this Lover with You: Humankind
Each workshop is about 75 minutes, including teaching, translation, practice, and debriefing. If we start at 12 noon, we should be done by 6 pm, with plenty of break time for connecting, meals, and socializing.
In between workshops: the famous Oxytocin Group Hugs that fill your personal ecosystem with enchantment and loving energy.
Refreshments, foods, water, amenities: on the sidelines and during breaks.
6:00 pm: Invocation of Earth Goddess, Gaia. Vows to Playa Azul: the Ecosexual Bride. Kiss the Bride. Drum Circle.
6:30: Enter the Body of Water: Bathe in the Caribbean Sea
Fun time till exhaustion of creative energy:
Includes watsu, reiki, more dance and drumming, assorted improvised co-creations, aguinaldos, burlesque . . .
–What to bring: your charming selves, a cheerful mind, a lovely smile, an open heart, swim suits, towels, comfort food, water, comfortable beach clothing for workshops time, pillows and soft stuff to find comfort on beach floor, eagerness, participation
–What to expect: magic, beauty, enchantment, love, healing, sharing, company, fun, joy, moderation, respect, continuity, togetherness
–Videographers in action: they may ask you to be filmed and/or interviewed, and it’s up to you to accept
–Once we start the workshops, the group will be formed. We will expect continuity, and admission to subsequent workshops is subject to participation in previous ones. Presence is required. The degree of participation can vary.
Parking: Please park on the street and Access the beach from the callecita to the south of the Condominio Punta Arenas. At the beach, turn right and go toward to oak tree, palm tree, and uva playera trees.
Prácticas de Ecosexualidad y la Educación al Sexo Positivo: Simposio Dos
CALL FOR PROPOSALS – CONVOCATORIA
OPEN NOW – Expires Nov 30, 2016
This event is an EXPLORATION of #ECOSEXUALITY and #SEX-POSITIVITY for the people of Western Puerto Rico, for all interested students, colleagues, community members of UPRM.
• What is #Ecosexuality?
• What is #Sex-Positive #Education?
• Where #Ecosexual#Health and #Love an #Sex-Positive #Education converge?
• How can the #EcosexualMovement and the #Sex-PositiveMovement help us co-create abundant ecosexual health, expression, and love?
• What is the transformative potential of these practices for our ecosystems, our regions, ourselves, and the partner we all share: the Earth?
• How can we bring their excitement and effervescence into our lives, communities, learning practices, and academic discourse?
A bilingual event – Un evento bulingüe Deseas experimentar el simposio de manera mas profunda? Solicita unirte a nuestro equipo bilingüe
Want to experience the Symposium more deeply? Ask to join our bilingual team
These and more questions will be addressed in three days of symposium activities designed to offer a diversity of participating options.
Suggested topics include:
Ecosex, Sex-Positive Ed, and any or all of the following:
Health, diversity, consent, ecology, intersectionality, amorous behavior, relationships, fluidity, inclusiveness, genders, orientations, colonialism, nature, science, the internet, sex work, the adult industry.
Welcome contributions include:
Panels, videos, keynotes, films, dialogues, staged readings, book presentation, poems, songs, workshops, and more.
WHERE/WHEN:
ANNEX TO THE CAFETERIA (aka SALON TARZAN), RUM, FEB 1-3 – 10 AM – 8 PM
Followed by TE AMO PLAYA AZUL THREE and visits to local initiatives on Feb 4-5
Symposium Too is based on Ecosexuality: When Nature Inspires The Arts of Love, Serena Anderlini and Lindsay Hagamen eds. The first world-wide collection of writings on this topic, the book brings together the voices of 30 leaders to converge the multiple energies of the ecosexual movement.
Ecosexuality and Sex-Positivity are global and local movements. We welcome contributors from anywhere they might come. Welcome to Western Puerto Rico, a nature’s paradise in the dry season of February. We support you in enjoying a fun, healthy stay. We regret that we cannot cover travel, accommodation, or ground transportation expenses. We strongly encourage donations that will help us cover homemade meals, tasty and healthy. We will connect you with our generous and helpful welcome team!
Wonder what’s #Ecosexuality, what’s #Sex-Positive #Education? No mystery. Here are some taglines for inspiration:
• The Sex-Positive Movement embraces sexual diversity and expression and emphasizes safe sex and consent. It advocates education to sex and has its roots in the work of Wilhelm Reich.
• Ecosexuals envision the Earth as a lover and Eros as the untapped renewable energy of our time.
• Ecosexuality is the cultural practice that enables our species to reconnect our metabolism to the metabolism of the Earth.
• Ecosexual Love reaches beyond genders, numbers, orientations, ages, races, origins, species, and biological realms, to embrace all of life as a partner with equal rights.
• Make love is the ecology of your life. Love the Earth you make love on.
Abstracts and bios to serena.anderlini@gmail.com. Keep the total under 500 words. November 30 very last day. Make sure you use your favorite language.
This event is part of the multi-clustered project Islas Maravillas: Ecosexuality Education and Extensive Research at UPRM. Interested? Ask us about it.
Join us! Invite your students, colleagues, family, beloveds, neighbors, partners, friends.
SOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook, Twitter, Blog www.serenagaia.org/blog-2/
Dear friends of Gaia and appreciators of Gaia and the New Politics of Love:
We have a wonderful announcement to make.
The book, Gaia and the New Politics of Love has been released and is in print again, available for purchase to everyone who’s excited about it and anyone who might have missed it.
The new aegis under which the book will be made available is 3WayKiss, a non-profit dedicated to research and education in the arts of love.
The text, cover, and price of the book will be unvaried.
Based on continuing interest on the part of our public for this seminal work and the research therein, we at 3WayKiss have decided to keep this book in print. It is a service to the public and to knowledge itself that entails no financial reward.
The book will be available on Amazon.com, on CreateSpace, on Kindle, and possibly on Ingram. The approximate date of release is early November 2016. For those of you who’ve been waiting to get your copy, we have good news. It’s coming!
Follow updates at the Gaia book’s Facebook page here.
As an added gift to the temple of knowledge, an entirely revised take on Gaia is in the works as well. This book is tentatively entitled Gaia 2.0. It will position Gaia theory in the context of the Ecosexual Movement, it will be structured as a dialog, and it will contain a practical guide to the creation of one’s amorous and inclusive consensual Bonoboville.
The process is co-creative. For those of you interested in participating, the Facebook group can be found here.
Thanks to all for your patience in these transitions.
We look forward to all returning and new excited readers.
May Gaia inspire a world where is it safe to live because it is safe to love, a world where love is the ecology of life.
For more information, go to http://drserenagaia.wpengine.com/blog-2/
This post documents the experience that ended the most torturous year in my academic career, 2014-15, and its subsequent effects. The documents I filed at the time are on record in the highest offices of the campus.
When mobbing is legal people will resort to it to attack those weaker than themselves. In Puerto Rico, I learn, the only female governor, Sila Calderon, tried to introduce legislation against it. But. You guessed right: she was mobbed.
When mobbing is legal, people will use ideas and opinions in the public domain to feel that they have permission to act violently against those who represent perspectives different from what those ideas represent.
For example, when I first presented my proposals for hybrid modalities to my department, a pandemonium erupted. Several colleagues started yelling in Spanish, “you’re not qualified,” others started nervously pacing the room to assuage anxiety, others yet tried to ask questions in English and their voices were covered up by the yelling ones. Some female faculty went to the hallway to breathe fresh air. I was cornered on the stage, feeling lynched while the chair fell silent. The proposals were never considered at that time.
I wrote an Affidavit in Spanish that described the scene in minute detail and filed it with the highest authorities on campus. Then I filed another with more background. One year later it was finally possible to consider my first proposal in a calm and respectful manner.
One of the philosophies whose effects are visible in the mobbing I suffered is, as I’ve more recently learned, the philosophy of cercania, nearness, which privileges the local and the presential at the expense of everything else.
On a small island where people are per se afraid of novelty and foreigners, this can be very damaging. The geophysical nature of islands is what creates that sense of being surrounded by waters which makes everything non isleno muffled and remote.
The mobbing I suffered impaired my mental capabilities for quite sometime. It made my body/mind reactive to Spanish, a language I otherwise use quite well, because that’s the language against whose violence I could not defend myself.
For quite sometime, it made impossible for me to sustain the long-term attention required of peer-reviewed research.
Finally, it weakened my personal ecosystem to where I suffered a fall while traveling to Rome, Italy, one of my research arenas where I also visit family, to the point that I fell on top of myself, with the left arm extended under my own weight.
The fracture of the radial head that resulted in the affected elbow turned out to be irreparable. The entire movement of the elbow was at one point blocked. Eventually, some 65-70 percent of this movement was recuperated via Tuina Chinese therapies and India’s Auyrvedic therapies, all at my expense for about $ 7000.
Back view. Limited flexibility of left elbow.
The remaining percentage is not subject to recuperation, orthopedic doctors tell me. The difference can be observed in these images. It is a permanent disability that’s not severe per se, but quite substantial nonetheless.
I am now in the process of having the entity of this disability verified by the authorities, so I can receive the proper protections and respect. I am also observing my own inner transformation as I accept my new body and its mild deformation as a result of my work. It is a humbling and sensitive process.
As I am in this process, I am also tremendously enjoying the new relationship with students made possible by the hybrid modality.
Front view. Limited extension of left elbow.
I love the vibrant discussions when we get together presentially and discuss the texts we’ve read. It’s analytical observation at its best.
And I love how they learn how to learn online as they attend modern history lectures on You Tube and engage in taking complex, probing, soul searching, wide ranging, and profoundly thought provoking tests.
When I teach the Humanities from the Point of View of Love, I want the experience of students in the course to match the universal theme chosen. I’ve practiced that thematic approach for over ten years. Ever since we reformed the course from an all-out canonical, Allan Bloom type of litany of works by the (in)famous “dead white males,” to one that accommodates for the diversity of human experience and endeavor.
I chose the theme of love back then, when we opened up to thematic approaches as recorded in the document at this link. And now with the hybrid modality, that alignment of theme and experience of learning is coming to fruition. Yay!
First Set. Hybrid Section. Students in H-Huma 3112: The Humanities and Love
There are practical advantages as well. How relaxing for my half crippled elbow not to have to gesticulate over and over repeating the same lectures till I sound like a broken record. Students can refer to a standard version and be sure that exams correspond to what’s been really taught!
The series of online lectures on modern history from the point of view
Gaia: The Blue Dot.
of the people and the Earth is available at this link to the entire world. Talk about cercania. It’s a small planet after all! The blue dot.
With my mental joy restored, my creative energies have resurged as well. Amorous Visions is the study of Italian cinema that took me to Connecticut some four years ago. The first chapter came complete in early September, when I felt some peace was achieved around me in relation to my choices. I miss all the foreign colleagues who’ve been bashed to silence or have left for more friendly shores where cercania does not reign.
“Ecologies of Love and Toxic Ecosystems” is perhaps my favorite among all my studies of an academic nature. I contacted the editor of a Deleuzian journal. It’s peer reviewed and open source, my favorite style because it is scientifically reliable and accessible to all.
Folded arms view. Left hand unable to touch shoulder.
She got excited and asked for the submission. I said, “it’s over 14,000 words, are you prepared?” She said “yes.” I sent it. Two days later here’s what I got: “We read your essay with great interest and like it very much!” After one round of blind review, they “intend to include it in the next issue.” Wooow!
I felt: “Well Serena it was worth while to live to be over 62 years old even with a half deformed elbow, and be active in research and scholarship for over 30 years, if you’ve learned your job so well!” “Can the energy of love survive in toxic ecosystems? ” asks the article’s meta-question. The answer is “yes, as it becomes love for love or erotophilia.” They got it. “Your fountain, Serena,” I told myself, “is still pulsating with vital energies.” It was an overdue joy!
The Isla del Encanto where mobbing is legal is full of adventures, academic and not, that reverberate in the distance and presentially with the energies of life around the globe. Can we welcome the energies that will make that encanto sustainable?
As an educator, I love to share knowledge. ABE: always be educating, as my sex-positive educator friends say. Here are my lessons for the day:
I have angels. Mobbing can be avoided when administrations are aware of what it is and how it happens. When I was mobbed, angels sent me a manual about it so I could identify it. The manual is available at this link. Enjoy!
Mobbing results from conflict–unresolved conflict. Conflict can be resolved by applying the process of generating consensus from conflict itself, as explained in the manual On Conflict and Consensus, by C. T. Butler and Amy Rothstein, two founders of the horizontal democracy movement Food not Bombs. The book is available at this link. May it bring the genuine consensus that makes agreements sustainable to our learning communities. Enjoy!
Memories come back. My loving friend C.T. Butler used this book when he came from far away to lead the first retreat the Humanities Department ever had, a two-day, in 2005, or was it 2006? He was an angel from afar I called here to save us as I saw the disarray. I was new. The chair then took the credit. That retreat was really a blessing that energized everyone as the department found its true north and kept the steady direction for a good while.
This time others are planning a retreat, or Coloquio. Humanities, they call it. I feel terribly scared that the scapegoating will continue. I want to duck the attacks and save myself.
Or, I want to be treated like a human being and not a criminal under special surveillance or a scapegoat.
“How would that look like?” you may ask. It will look like a space where the current chair and direction take responsibility for creating safety for everyone. For example: It will look like the event takes place in a space where
They establish a space of communication based in freedom of expression in language choice.
They take charge for openly recording all meetings in the Coloquio and for providing online access to the audiofiles thereof in a timely way?
They take responsibility for publishing all submitted syllabi and other relevant documents to the department’s website well before day of the Coloquio.
“How would that encourage you to participate?” A legitimate question.
I would know that the freedom of expression of ALL those who choose to practice academic freedom will be protected and valued as the essence of what dialogs, or colloquia, are about.
I would know that there will be freedom of expression in ideas as well as in language choice, between, for example, English and Spanish, as we did at that time by virtue of a translator.
I would know that people will put their cards on the table: what are colleagues teaching in their courses, what is the content of their syllabi, how can I study that content as detenidamente (attentively) as my syllabi have been studied when, after ten years of practice that went unobserved, it was found that, lo and behold, the theme I’ve chosen for my approach to the Humanities is Love!
“Is that just for your protection?” Good point.
These measures will, I believe, make the Coloquio safe for all those colleagues who choose to practice academic freedom and not only the “prominent” members whose fears keep the department from evolving. My presence requires them and other genuine educators will appreciate them.
“Hopefully, that’s exactly what will happen.” I’ll stay tuned for this manifestation.
“But education is more than just a bunch of courses. No?”
As a member in good standing of the sex-positive education community and movement, and as a leader in the Ecosexual movement, I naturally also want to bring to students the know how, the skills, the arts to practice love in their lives to the extent that it feels safe and healthy at any given moment to do so.
I can manifest a whole bunch of angels who will fly to our shores to teach the arts of truly conscious and aware consent and negotiation in interpersonal relationships.
I’ve negotiated the exclusive for a special type of event called Practices of Ecosexuality at UPRM. We had a very successful first run last year. This year the call is out for Practices of Ecosexuality and Sex-Positive Education. I get inquiries all the time while we wait for the proper venue to host the event. Do I have to tell them we’re scared of angels who come from far away? I hope not.
This while the millenials–here like everywhere else–speak English better than their professors because they learn online and are branching out through the social media to the entire globe. Would college be a way to scare them about the world? Ridiculous, no? I love the millennials because they are a game-changer generation. They won’t adjust. They’ll make change happen. It’s a pleasure to teach them how, with love.
They tell me the department is seeking its “true north” after a crisis that was endemic, deeply seated, and devastating. In Puerto Rico we’re in a debt restructuring situation where throughout the UPR system we’ve been asked to get rid of expensive red tape and bring our curriculum into the 21st century. The AGB Report is here. Crises are powerful opportunities for change. Are we going to take it? I hope so.
A department that sheds its fears can become capable of imagining a sustainable future for itself. I presented a plan for action when given a chance. It’s available at this link for everyone to access and enjoy.
Instead of being trapped in fear we can be a source of learning for love. Shall we?
Are your listeners feeling numbed by civilized monotony?Are they longing for natural ways to combine sexual health and happiness? #Ecosexuality can jazz them up! Will you allow nature to inspire the arts of love in all your community?
As co-editors and authors of Ecosexuality (2016), we’ve come to appreciate Love + Radio as a show that is intent in co-creating a global vision of inclusive and regenerative love, freedom, and health on Earth.
We have a message that can resonate widely with your community. Ecosexuality is a powerful way to connect more deeply with the partner we all share: the Earth. The first collection on this topic, our book is available in paper and kindle.
We have enjoyed tremendously speaking together about our passion. You’re welcome to check our recent joint interview for Make Love Week.
We have now designed a talk where we speak enthusiastically about our collaborative work and share how we found our source of ecosexual love: EcoSex: A ReLOVEution for the Wild.Check it out. Enjoy!
We write with an offer to speak at your venue. How can we best serve your community? We feel that our message is urgent in the current social and political climate replete with fresh energies of change. In the next speaking season, we will consider keynotes, panels, video conferences, podcasts, and other options that involve long distance and/or physical presence. Which one would work for you? We hope you will extend to us an invitation. Thank you!
In the next few weeks, we are available to talk about this collaboration further. We’d like to discuss how hosting us can benefit your people. Please let us know what possibilities come to your mind, and what questions we can answer for you. We look forward to hearing back soon. We can be reached by email, Facebook, text or phone: Serena 787 538 1680, Lindsay 413 325 3383. Thank you!
I am the convenor of #PracticesOfEosexuality@UPRM, the first symposium on this topic in the Caribbean (Jan 2016 at the RUM). I am happy to release the Call for Proposals for the second edition of this event, #Practices OfEcosexuality@UPRM Too, Feb 1-3, 2017. The theme is Ecosex and Sex-Positive Education. Serving the people of Puerto Rico and co-creating opportunities with sex-positive educators and ecosexual activists around the world. Check the CALL image below. Closes Nov 30. I’m inviting your contributions and input. Download the CALL for Proposals in pdf.
If you’re from the Northern Hemisphere, here’s a chance to break the winter with the paradise of Puerto Rico’s mild spring temperatures of the dry season. The caressing waves of the Caribbean are awaiting you on the shore of Playa Azul. Choose to bring your sex-positive energies to this island in crisis. When ecosexual love is more abundant, more young professionals will choose to stay and co-create a sustainable future.
Bernie Sanders gave the United States and the world a great gift. He modeled the behavior of an honest politician. One who is more interested in the common good that in his power or prestige. This is a very valuable gift because people have lost faith in the idea that politicians can be honest and honorable people. By modeling this Bernie Sanders has rekindled the interest of people in politics, in being active participants in the processes and movements that make democratic systems what they are. This is an amazing gift to his country and the world.
I envision this gift to attract so many people to the polls in November that both dreams can come true: defeating Trump and energizing the 99 percent movement (with all its aggregate movements) so that Hillary will have to govern from the left of center.
I felt a lot of personal sympathy for Sanders when his face appeared on Democracy Now! as Hillary was thanking him. He was moved. She was moved. It was a sincere moment of authentic admiration and empathy. When people trash politicians as crooks, I always tell them it’s not true. I was born to an honest and honorable politician, Sen Luigi Anderlini of Italy, who, like Bernie Sanders, ran as independent in the major party of the left in Italy at the time, the PCI. He was elected in that party. He bought constituencies to that party. But he never carried a card. He was the leader of the Sinistra Indipendente, or Independent Left.
In a system of parliamentary democracy, as opposed to the presidential style of democracy that characterizes the US, my dad’s unique position managed to intermediate between the government party (the DC) and the opposition (PCI) so that the major reforms Sanders advocates today and that Italy needed at that time (the 1970s), could be done.
It struck me how Sanders managed to play the presidential democracy system so well as to acquire this pivotal yet somehow less glamorous position, and did so successfully enough to really shift the perspective of the actual nominee. As an honest politician, my father preferred the legislative branch of government to the executive.
The executive branch requires shrewedness. It requires strategizing and changing positions in the face of forces much stronger than any politician can be. It’s a good position for Hillary. She’s much more accustomed to it. Sanders must have channeled some awareness of this at the Convention. Hence his priceless gift. Modeling honesty as a political figure of such momentum and restoring faith in the process and system. This will call people to the polls in great numbers in November and put the GOP and Trump supporters in great difficulty.
Bravo Sanders. I’ll vote for Hillary. (Or maybe I’ll change my mind and vote for Jill if it really feels SAFE to do so, as I vote in California.) And I hope enough people will show up to elect Hillary and also prove that the Democratic Party has a significant left to recon with.
2015 i was privileged in c-editing the first collection of writings on this topic, an arena of emerging knowledges where nature inspires humans to practice the arts of love. It encourages our amorous expressions to sustain the health and well being of our own and our surrounding ecosystems. A change in metaphors is due. When we treat the Earth as a lover, we become aware of how much we need the blessings of this partner we all share.
