Engage Game Nights

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Engage Game Nights is a series of activities organized by the Engage Living Lab team, a Concordia University research project funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec.

Overview

Intention

Today’s Engage Living Lab activities foster social support through active listening and creativity. Our aim is to empower participants as full-fledged political subjects (Vergara 2020), and provide them with ways to collectively tackle shared challenges they face in society – for example reclaiming ownership of the mall as a social commons to build collective health. To develop a a scalable model to liven up physical marketplaces as spaces where communities ca develop and nurture social bond and belonging.

Blurb

Version 1 – Game nighs

Play is a natural way to make friends, learn, and experiment. Games provide us with a magic circle where we can explore identities, narratives, belongings and re-create us.

Engage game nights are space-times where we give ourselves the protections and permissions to explore how we could reclaim ownership of our territories (from the marketplace to our selves), where we can reawaken our Inner Child's dreams, awakening to unforeseen possibles, together.

Version 2 – Reviving the Community Role of the Mall

I remember the market place as a convivial space, a place to meet, share, explore and discover. What is left of that today? Do we still dare to dream of a commercial place that binds generations and cultures, that allows us to take care of the most vulnerable, that not only nourishes our bodies but also our souls? What if we imagined the role that tomorrow's market place could play in our health? Join us for a playful exchange where we can share what does matter to our heart.

Faire revivre le rôle communautaire des centres commerciaux

Je me souviens que la place du marché était un espace convivial, un lieu de rencontres, de partage, d'exploration et de découvertes. Que reste-t-il de cela aujourd'hui ? Osons-nous rêver encore à un lieu commercial qui  facilite le lien entre générations et cultures, qui nous permette de prendre soin des plus vulnérables, qui nourrisse non seulement notre corps, mais aussi notre âme ? Et si nous imaginions le rôle que pourrait jouer dans notre santé la place du marché de demain ? Rejoignez-nous pour des échanges ludiques où partager ce qui nous tient réellement à cœur.

Paradigm

We opt for a naturalistic perspective, that is to understand realities as being subjective and contextual (Guba and Lincoln 1982); and critical public health as a theoretical lens, that is to help communities challenge structural barriers to health by transforming social and political structures (Greenhalgh 2009).

We value the quality of cooperation, mutual support, and intergenerational inclusion.

Format

Hybrid 90 min events where participants can share and recognize their mutual experiences, and move towards a common vision.

  • For now online, possibly on Tuesdays, 14:00 to 15:30
  • When spaces reopen, both online and in the mall, possibly on Tuesdays from 18:00 to 19:30 to benefit from all space at the mall.
  • Pilot place: Quartier Cavendish, a mall with around 40 small shops at Côte Saint-Luc, a city with 28% of inhabitants aged 65 or more (profile).

Outcome

People

Hosts

  • Ming Tao, art therapy student in drama therapy
  • Natali Ortiz, art therapist in visual arts
  • Carly McAskill, ...
  • Brock Dishart, social designer, TAG member, EF
  • Fabio Balli, project lead – commons, health, and law, FE (coordinator)

Participants

  • Lennox
  • Lorraine
  • Lisa
  • Joe
  • Freddy

Support

Resources

List of games

Pax: number of players – Min: time of a session – Eas: easy (1) to difficult (3)

Title and link Type Pax Min Eas Aim Comments Source
Commonspoly Board 3-8 You have 20 rounds to use your Welfare and Legitimacy Points for the common good. This is a race against time and you win by turning all goods into common holdings. Do it yourself, EN/FR/ES/PT Fabio
Prototyping a game – Fabio
Dychosim Prototyping 2+ Thematize daily life situations, and encourage participants to discuss their daily habits. Co-created Fabio
Molle Industria Online 1 Reflect on democracy, cities, weapons, phone manufacturing, sex, religion, etc. Fabio
Ncase Online 1 Reflect on anxiety, trust, liberties, mental health, etc. Fabio
Minecraft Online 1+ Players explore a blocky, infinite world and can extract raw materials, craft tools and build structures. Fabio
Flower Online Contemplative game to explore nature and create positive emotions. Fabio
Synergometer Board 3-6 Explore how the way we communicate affect our cooperation. Fabio
Pandemic Board 2-4 45 Your team of experts must prevent the world from succumbing to a viral pandemic. Cooperative Fabio
Duplicate Scrabble Board 3+ Fabio
The Mind Cards 2-4 20 * Play your cards in ascending order without communicating. Timing is key! Feeling based Fabio
Tarot de Marseille Cards Symbolic game Fabio
Exquisite corpse Each person adds a sentence by only seeing the end of what the previous person contributed. Paper and pen Fabio
Bridge Elders
Backgammon Elders
TOPONA Janis ?
Card games Carly
Wordplays
Roleplay Ming
Counting in the dark Ming
Spectogram Ming
It Comes in Waves Online 1 A game prototype about being an essential worker during a global pandemic. Brock
OCG Online 1 10 A game about living with OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). Free/PWYC Brock

Bibliography

Theoretical models

Time structuring

Montrealer psychiatrist Eric Berne (1964), who founded Transactional Analysis, suggests that we structure our time and relationships in six different ways:

Withdrawal → Rituals → Pastimes → Activity → Psychological games → Intimacy.

In a meeting for example, we will start by observing (Withdrawal, least intensity), then say Hello (Ritual), then do small talks (Pastimes), then realize a goal-oriented task (Activity). Developing fulfilling relationships requires however to overcome conflict (Psychological games), that is to shift from dysfunctional ways to obtain strokes (which we do because of the intensity they provide), to the ability to express authentic feelings, and nurture relatedness despite disagreements (Intimacy, most intensity).

An intermediate step between Psychological Games and Intimacy is Play (Cornell 2015). Play introduces more spontaneous and unpredictable interactions than an Activity, and can “foster intellectual and emotional insight with a positive feeling payoff [...]. The shift to play is an effort to capture the intensity and stroke value of the game while introducing a positive interaction in place of a negative payoff” .

Emergence

Emerging Change adapted by Balli. Source and credits:https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5497574

Another concept which ensues from Transactional Analysis is the Emerging Change (Laugeri 2020), a three contracts method to develop healthy dynamics in a team. Laugeri describes two distinct energies in a team : the Planned energy of the team authority (leader or facilitator), driven by the survival of the group in its Environment, hence its performance; and the Emerging energy of the team members, driven by the love for the Activity, hence the quality of relationships. To balance these energies, Laugeri proposes to consider team members as a living entity, and to build a dialogue between the team authority and team members as a group and not as individuals. This transforms the Economy of Strokes (Steiner 1971): the scarcity created by team members competing to get recognition from the authority is replaced by the need for team members to mutually support, and give recognition to each other.

Today, the Emerging Change is mostly used for organizational development (Blattner 2020). Colleagues and I explored its use in neighborhood contracts, and I sketched how we could adapt it to mobilize thousands of citizens to rapidly develop a plurality of solutions to tackle  crises (Balli 2021).

Preparation

Contents moved to Engage Game Nights preparation.

Community events

Promotional flyer

2021 Nov 17 – Game night

Player types

17:00 to 19:00 – Lennox, Lorraine, Ariana, Janis, facilitated by Monica and Fabio

Opening

  • Transition from Postcards from the kitchen
  • Introduction, link to food, narratives

Player typology

  • Different kinds of players: socializers, explorers, achievers, killers (Bartle taxonomy)

Examples of games

Discussion

Closing

2022 Feb 1 – Reviving the community role of the mall

Engage Living Lab activities for February 2022

14:30 à 16:00 ET – Lisa P, Brock, Fabio, Momo, Natali, Ming, Naj

Small talk about astro

Opening

People introduce themselves with a scavenger hunt game

  • Momo – rat – A paper house with many symbols from Loteria (Mexican traditional game). behind each card there is a word, and a phrase starting with "I belong to". This represents everybody in the family, the Mexican culture. "I am the house where I belong".
  • Ming – rabbit – "I am a neckless of ment made of pearls. Little piece of gold, and a sign of apple, which has the same meaning to safe in Chinese."
  • Brock – dragon – Picture which is dusty, a photo I took as a music blogger 10-15 years ago. "I am a photo of an ephemeral moment in time that way beautiful and musical"
  • Lisa – snake – a lizard named Bobby. I used to be so scared of dentist, and I went to it and used to take it from there. "I am not scared of dentists anymore, no more anxiety".
  • Natali – monkey – a dream catcher "I am made from different threads and colours that represent my heritage, coming from a mixed heritage, which is complex, does not fit in any category, it has different seeds, coming from Equator named Tawa". It was made by a French woman in Equator, reminds me of connecting to people through crafts. "I am a complex being made from different threads"
  • Fabio – dog – Tarot card XIII sometimes call death but symbolically also rebirth with the spine as a growing plant. "You may feel apprehensive but I also make space for new possibles, for things to emerge".

Relationship to the mall

What is our relationship to the mall, past & present?

  • Momo – as a person who immigrated the mall was very present in the first years, it was a place where I could feel safe and warmth as I did not have community, now going less and less. Good element to question and reclaim the mall, I try to buy less, go less to the mall, order online, try to reduce exposure of temptation, maybe it is also more convenient to buy online. How do we go around that ? Seeing the mall for a non-commercial purpose, I love it.
  • Brock – What is our relationship to the mall, in the past and now? Can relate to Momo, in high school it was a place to hang out with friends, and in a small city it was the only thing to do. It was an important social space in my teenage years, a community space for me, and then I guess I don't really go, except for clothes.
  • Momo – How to approach people? How will people react? How can we attract different generations without bothering them?
  • Brock – No problem asking if not everything. Maybe everyone is afraid of teenagers.
  • Ming – Feel if they really want to be with friends, maybe they would not go in a mall? Otherwise you know there may be people asking information.  Also in China less and less people go to the mall. I go to the mall to buy less.
  • Fabio – Maybe people buy online because the mall is not bringing any social value? Like children play because of the challenges, the universes they can create?
  • Natali – Would have loved a place to have something to do while mother was shopping as an adolescent. Also the joy to buy regularly just to fill time, have a safe space.
  • Lisa – Used to go with friends, now just to buy groceries. Long time ago went to Wellington centre (Verdun near Douglas Hospital), had art on one floor, cafeteria with healthy food, nice woodworking shop and a store where they sold things they created.
  • Fabio – Disconnect between production and sales vs markets where people share the stories behind the products, with more passion, etc.
  • Momo – Various summer markets it would be greate to have some tables and chairs to eat strawberries, bread... and socialize... with the option to bring or buy a coffee than going inside a mall.

The mall as a social space

What makes us want to hang out in the mall? How do we build a social space in the mall? (structurally, architecturally, etc)

  • Natali – Greens, windows, plants vs feeling enclosed.
  • Momo – Natural light, near metro Longueuil a very small space, white tables, big windows, installations of lights, ...
  • Fabio – Something temporary, maybe twice a week outside, vegetables, flowers, last experience of someone with a positive energy, with signs saying "pay what you feel is right".
  • Ming – A little private, maybe also a design where people can sit in circles.
  • Lisa – Very important too.
  • Fabio – And maybe have a permanence where people can do craft...
  • Lisa – This was in Wellington, with Wellington, cafeteria where people were trained... There is an Art space that helps ex-COVID-19 patients, assisting them with any needs they have (taking off their jackets for them) and practising art together in a group.
  • Fabio – ... yes, a space or event that brings people together to contribute to ease the daily life of individuals... like HackaHealth in Geneva – a similar approach is the open hardware lab. Sensorica, a makerspace / fablab where people have access to material and people knowledgeable to realize their projects.
  • Momo – Even to access a sawing machine that is expensive.
  • Ming – Games in the mall are so different nowadays: In China, there used to be a scavenger hunt TV show in the mall where people had to interact with other mall-goers to find the items on the list. Nowadays, there are video game chairs that do attract a lot of people but they don’t interact with one another.
  • Momo – Before COVID they had a prejudice against kids glued on the screen all day, and then also came on the screen... understanding there is connection behind... technology can also help connect.

Experience of play

What games did you used to play? What do you play now?

  • Lisa – Used to be video gamer, with arcade games.
  • Brock – Used to work at arcades.
  • Lisa – Plays cards with mom and shows some tricks.
  • Natali – Plays cards also with grandmother, bonding with people.

Play and draw

Group activity: Drawing as many objects that start with a particular letter of the alphabet in 1 minute

  • Two rounds : letter H, F

Closing

  • Momo: Lots of fun and past memories around the mall and being younger, and how to use malls and other spaces now.
  • Ming: Good memories of the past, thinking about socializing and games, missing interacting with people.
  • Natali: Fun to play games and not be competitive, mixing talking and playing.
  • Lisa: Had fun and thinking about connection and friends.
  • Brock: Connecting to intergenerational socializing, could talk about on Wednesday group or next week.
  • Fabio: Fun, liked the starting the conversation with the Chinese zodiac signs and seeing where the conversation goes. Proposal to explore Tarot.

2022 Feb 8 – Reviving the community role of the mall

14:30 to 16:00 ET – Lisa P, Brock, Fabio, Momo, Natali, Ming

Opening

  • Small talk: Lisa shared her new job possibility, talked about digital arts

Play with letters

  • Participants act out or describe a word start with certain letter and let the group guess. We played with "T" & "M".

Play and storytelling

  • Mad Libs, together the group created a story

Play and draw

  • 3 adj + 3 nouns game inspired by Momo, where everyone created their drawing based on pumpkin, dog, cactus, smelly, impromptus and slimy.

Drawing a third place

  • Collectively drawing an ideal third place – a space between work and home – on a white board.
    Collective drawing about an ideal third place
    • Brock: Live music or just music in the background. Misses live music.
    • Ming: Circles represent people, sometimes separated by boundaries and sometimes overlapping or engaging with one another.
    • Fab: mostly thought about objects in the space. Theatre, plants, a place to grow things and give back to the community, card games on tables.
    • Natali: Inspired by the Concordia Greenhouse on the roof, having a place with lots of light, community garden, community art. How to have a cozy place?
    • Momo: free coffee. Table, chairs, marshmallows around a fire. Having a big artistic banner.
    • Lisa: chocolate for the marshmallows and coffee. Moose eating an apple. A Van Gogh style painting.
  • Some key elements in the drawing: Starbucks/Local coffee; theater; plants; people as in colorful circles; art; music; whiteboard, card games, fruits, marshmallow...

Closing

  • Ming: Starbucks~
  • Brock: gentle to ourselves
  • Natali: playful creativity
  • Lisa: super fun; taxi divider looks like a police car
  • Momo: digital fun and accessibility, reclaim a physical space vs. digital space; mobile art hives
  • Fabio: local coffee, less pressure; data use vs. ease of use; moving community

2022 Feb 15 – Reviving the community role of the mall

14:30 to 16:00 ET – Ming, Natali, Brock, Fabio, Carly, Naj, Joe B., Lisa P.

Opening

To start, Joe tends to sway more to the formal introduction side and says:

  • Joe: A mathematician who is passionate about changing how we teach math to people. We do not know exact measurements of anything.

Ming introduces a more playful introduction:

  • Ming: a rock that has a mask
  • Brock: gold-flecked obsidian represents mind-body connection, living in an embodied way.
  • Carly: Introduced herself using clam shells to talk.
  • Natali: Small bottle with a seed from Peru inside. it represents where her great-grandmother comes from. It also has a tiny letter with a message she doesn’t remember anymore.
  • Joe: an older scientific calculator for counting. He says he is terrible at counting: “I taught math not arithmetic!”
  • Lisa: Introduces herself as a teddy bear named Willy Zoom who likes to be on Zoom.
  • Fabio: a stone egyptian cat he received one month ago from a friend whose brother died. He likes the way it’s sculpted and the idea of cat makes him think of different lives, elegance and mistery. We don’t always know what cats want from us.
  • Naj: said identity cannot be contained by an object.

Reading of last drawing

Fabio presents the drawing we made last week that shows what we think of when we think of space in a mall. He asked the participants who weren’t there last week to say what they see in the drawing of a third space.

  • Joe: Thinks it’s very interesting to ask this question. He is drawn to the coffee because he likes coffee in the morning. He also likes dogs but doesn’t have a dog because he can’t go out every day with a dog. He gets to see his neighbours dog and says hi to it everyday. He also likes the trees and hopes there are little birdies there too.
  • Lisa: it looks like a dog going for its morning coffee and red cardinals in the tree and it reminds her of the tree Momo sent her with the blue cats.
  • Naj: she sees a beach with a bear dressed as a beach boy. Naj sees a theatre with a bat hanging from it which she thinks signifies that nobody goes to the theatre anymore so it’s like a bat cave. Free coffee/cafe. Naj sees Key West, FL here. She sees waves, an outdoor space, and sunshine.
  • Carly: She sees a dog named Moose or a moose named Dog. Followed the blue arrows on the ground, saw apples but decided not to eat them, saw the campfire and thought about roasting marshmallows, but decided to keep going then had 2-8 troughs of coffee then went on his journey and found a pirate ship but there were no mateys there, then came to the table with cards but there was nobody to play cards with, then went up to the hammock and had a rest there and ate some corn, then read a note/card from a friend, then noticed the tide was getting high again so he went to meet his friend and leave.
  • Ming: Thinking about how we turned Starbucks into a free local coffee place instead.
  • Fabio: felt he naturally drew an outdoor place when thinking of an ideal space.
  • Natali: for her it was an indoor space with plants and other typically outdoor objects.

Elements to add

If we were to add something to this ideal space, what would it be?

  • Joe: would like to add an abacus or calculator to the space. Tells a story about living in Moscow where waiters had an abacus to calculate the cost. He thought this was silly at first until him and the waiter both tried to calculate the bill the fastest, and the waiter did it faster with the abacus.
  • Carly: Envisioning the possibilities of the mall and how we can expand the ELL to take over more of the mall space.
  • Brock: we don’t need to limit what we are talking about when speaking about what the mall and the lab could do because maybe what we learn here in these meetings could change how we operate in the future.
  • Fabio: the importance of places to get together and meeting. These spaces are starting to disappear and we need them.

Malls in various regions

Since we all come from different backgrounds, what is our idea of a mall?

  • Naj: There is no mall where she comes from but the bazaar is an important space of local gathering. The closest thing in MTL is a flea market. Another possible similar space is an arcade. In the bazaar setting each store is owned by one person instead of in a mall where the mall is owned by one business owner - this affects how the space works, what happens in the space. Showed us pictures of Kerman Bazaar Complex in Iran: farmers, villagers, homeless come together. They have been operating for hundreds of years. Lots of items are produced and consumed locally so it isn’t affected by global economic downturns. There are cafes that attract tourists, casual shoppers, etc - all different types of people! There are people here that give out food to the poor, it is organic, it is how the community looks after each other. It is open at all hours, you can go anytime of day. Minimal security/police/military.
  • Ming: There is a space similar to this in her town where people can go no matter if they are rich or poor, a space to have tea. A tea house + noodle shop at the bottom of a mountain. There are also people selling snacks and fruits. You can eat in the morning then go to the mountain to exercise. This is the place we go to instead of the mall. In Changshu, China.
  • Natali: she is also reminded of an example from Ecuador from Ming’s. There is an Indigenous group that are artisans that sell their works in a market. Otavalo, Ecuador. They also sell food, community gathers here. It is nice to see because the Indigenous community can reclaim their roots through these spaces.
  • Naj: There are many places that target young or millennial audiences but none that target middle-aged or older or immigrant communities.
  • Joe: There used to be a market in Montreal near the St. Lawrence (on Prince Arthur) that had many different groups of people (Chinese, Indian...) there and sold different trinkets until the government came in and stopped it. The government can sometimes kill the atmosphere. They tried to move it to Old MTL but it didn’t have the same atmosphere and people tended to just pass it by. He used to go with his wife and stay for 5 hours. People would teach each other dances from where they’re from: Beaver Lake.
  • Naj: 30 years ago there was a Folkloric mall but now it is entirely Concordia buildings. It had artisans, an arcade, fruit shop, etc. The gentrification process in MTL made it unaffordable and it was pushed out. Parks in China with people dancing: why can’t we replicate this model elsewhere?
  • Marché couvert de Montreux
    Marché de la vieille ville de Sion
    Fabio: open marketplace in Montreux in Switzerland. A place where people can walk around, play, gather together with community. Showed some other pictures of the Sion market, Switzerland. Italy is a good example of community taking action and protesting the government to create/maintain social spaces. Example of the Teatro Valle in Rome.
  • Naj: doesn’t understand why the mall owner doesn’t want to make use of space or why artists can’t temporarily rent out a space (vs. signing a lease).
  • Lisa: Thinking of a centre near McGill - wasted space that could be used. Why can’t we use these empty spaces?
  • Joe: We are becoming more and more focused on becoming a money-making system. This is why we have empty spaces, owners want to make profit on the space by getting high-paying clients into the space even if it means the space is empty for a one or two years. We used to spend 7-8 hours a day talking to friends in the mall but now it isn’t like that. It would be nice to use these spaces.
  • Brock: Fantasy Fair in Woodbine Mall in Etobicoke, Ontario - a space for kids to play with rides.
  • Naj: All these spaces are commercial and it’s a shame that you have to have fun in spaces attached to a business - that makes them profit.
  • Brock, Naj, Carly: How can we leverage Concordia as an institution to advocate on behalf of the community against the mall owner to take advantage of the potential community space in the mall?
  • Lisa: NDG used to have lots of activities in the park and lots of people would go.

Closing

Closed out meeting with saying what we take away from the discussion.

2022 Feb 22 – Reviving the community role of the mall

14:30 to 16:00 ET – Lisa, Joe, Freddy, Carly, Janis, Natali, Ming, Brock, Fabio

Opening

Start by introducing ourselves as a place:

  • Joe: likes the globe and doesn’t want to go to Mars. Also acted out Rio de Janiero. Says Brazil is a place of thinkers, not in Rio but in Sao Paulo.
  • Brock: acted out CN Tower and eating. For Toronto, one of the best food cities in the world.
  • Ming: acted out skating and falling down. Spends a lot of time in the skating rink.
  • Fabio: Gave hints (clue 1, clue 2, clue 3 - answer) through photos of Freddy Mercury, Architecture, and Dali. The architecture, people go out at night.
  • Janis: misses the first Arthive at La ruche. Misses a public “home place” where you can go and be with others and you never know who will come.
  • Lisa: acted out a lion jumping through a hoop. Likes drawing clowns and lions.
  • Natali: Acting out hiking up a mountain, a specific mountain, the Andes.
  • Carly: acted out home on lake eerie.
  • Freddy: Loves his apartment, his bed is his favourite place in the world. He has one down pillow that has been great it always stays the same. Doesn’t do anything else in his bed except “just be.” His bed is a sacred space, he doesn’t do any other activities.

Discussion on third space

  • a space inbetween
  • inbetween home and work
  • adding
  • circle with word love
  • people missing (?)
  • idea of third space has power even when not inhabited, example of art hive, feeling the space even just sitting in it
  • a character, colors, know there is somebody behind in the picture
  • energy through handdrawn contents
  • painting about a private space
  • place of rest, sacred in the sense of reenergizing.

Reading of last drawing

Referring to the image from our first conversation, asking Freddy & Janis what they see in this third space?

  • Freddie: intimate table with chairs but the people are missing, looks like a person tied up with an anchor on his head. Plants, music, reindeer, eisel, coffee, theatre (which is good if you’re looking for another persona), trees with apples, and balloons.
  • Ming: realizing that we didn’t put people directly in the photo.
  • Janis: the idea of a third space has power even when no one is there. There is a feeling when we are in a space, feeling the space.
  • Freddie: reminds him of a Van Gogh painting of a bed.
  • Carly: our beds are where we spend the most time in our lives. Where we rest, re-energize, where we do self-care. Everybody has to rest. It is a sacred space (even if Freddy was joking).
  • Joe: Isn’t happy sleeping, he is happy when he’s doing something new. Doesn’t like being solitary.

Collaborative imagination journey

  • Carly: describes a space with wood, cedar.
  • Natali: smells like coffee and fresh baked goods.
  • Ming: the light of the sun shines everything and the whipped cream on the coffee.
  • Fabio: on the roof there is a dinosaur eating ice cream.
  • Ming: I hear the sound of the ocean, waves coming and going.
  • Carly: climbs on dinosaurs back and goes for swim.
  • Lisa: hears the sounds of the birds high up in the sky.
  • Janis: walking slowly through the grass outside of the space, looks down and sees a small rock that you pick up.
  • Joe: He looks at something and wanted to scream but couldn’t scream so he went to his fridge to get ice cream.
  • Natali: chocolate ice cream. Notices materials on the table where she worked on some art.
  • Ming: we start to paint these rocks.
  • Fabio: walks to the riverside, and saw a big tree that is very old, and decided to rest under its branches.
  • Ming: the wind comes and blows the through the leaves.
  • Carly: coming to this tree since she was a child. Her grandfather took her to read. It makes her think of him.
  • Fabio: sees a fire with people coming.
  • Janis: with bags of marshmallows and sticks.
  • Ming: People dance around the fire.
  • Natali: some of them are playing the guitar a song that we all knew.
  • Carly: sings a little song about starfish and coffee, maple syrup and jam.

Emotional aerobics

  • Small exercices to releave and breathe

Feedback on our activities

  • Joe: sad because seing a war again – taking space from somebody – hard to do exercice – with terminal disease, the only thing is to stop having stress – young people should learn how to avoid stress on all situations of life
  • Lisa: (silent)
  • Carly: enjoy going deeper into topics over the events, using our imagination, playing game, without objects, very empowering – reminding the magics in the world, power, possibilities and goodness even when everything is broken
  • Ming: these weeks made me realize that connection is something we need to put efforts in, now that we lost so much connection, this is on the calendar, as an intention activity
  • Carly: to take time is soo powerful, need to get back to basics with reciprocal care, taking time, making time
  • Brock: liked last week showing how an equivalent of a mall looks like in other cultures, and also get excited about what we can do with the knowledge gathered, how to continue and organize, doing some activism, using the space, what we can do in the future because of everyone meeting
  • Janis: such a good thing to envision, it's not so far from reality, for example art hives where people write grants to have a space embellished, costs remain law if seeing the value compared to a commerce space, we should make that happen, and maybe the games can continue with the mall, and have the mall manager come - he watches us in this camera, we have to get him on our side
  • Natali: similar to Brock, our group was smaller, we got to share more intimate stories, everyday was different, sometimes about games, fun times, also nostalgy about the mall, it was nice
  • Lisa: connection is very important
  • Carly: what about taking time for the things you enjoy and take about?
  • Lisa: (silent)... Joe is young at heart
  • Joe: I'm glad to be old, a friend having a disease, too young to die, when you live long you have many happy, sad, ... days we cannot predict but we can enjoy, what will be is a mistery, living in the present
  • Carly: enjoying the moment is really important, maybe a book
  • Joe: I'll ask Lisa to do the drawings
  • Carly: possibilities of deeper imagination, explorations, being playful, nurturing the sense of self
  • Fabio: maybe we don't only leave the world only to our children but also ourselves, a time with a lot of polarization, hard to discuss sensitive topics which can create, and also ofter overwhelming ourselves - glad about the space we created, letting elements emerge, building knowledge, maybe not going deep into very sensitive topics but still spoke about activism, reclaiming places, etc
  • Joe: enjoying the stories, whatever you come up is interesting, to learn how people think - enjoying education and remembering what we learn
  • Carly: open heart, collaborative care, bridging
  • Janis: what would be next? join to build the bigger picture?
  • Joe: cannot join next week
  • Carly: other activities

Closing

  • Carly: calm
  • Ming: warm
  • Brock: warm, nice
  • Joe: tao ?
  • Natali: grateful
  • Janis: hopeful
  • Lisa: grateful, happy, dry looking outside
  • Fabio: relieved
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