upcoming // what's germinating
i have the privilege of planning ahead, at least a little bit — here's how i plan to use it (with audio version)
hello lovely readers,
I hope you are finding ways to stay as centered, resourced and connected as possible through these transitional months. My heart and hugs go out to everybody who is directly impacted by these most recent violences, in Venezuela, Iran, Minnesota and across the world — it seems everywhere we turn, there is another front to fight on — and the people are rising to these occasions in such beautiful and powerful ways!
I’m curious, what practices are supporting you and your constellations of people lately?
What’s bringing you moments of joy or wonder, helping you remember to take a breath?
I’ve been trying to cook (and share) a lot of spicy and colorful foods to combat Berlin winter blues — doing my best to really taste each bite, to not take for granted that these ingredients made it all the way to my kitchen, to be a good steward of these nutrients in how I spend my time.
While the gregorian calendar year was turning over, I have been mostly holed up and hermitting — planting seeds for some things I hope will sprout when spring arrives, lifewilling. 🌱
📆 No time or interest to read details? Head here to see what’s coming up!
Otherwise, here’s a little (erm, maybe big) update on what is germinating in me.
focusing my energies
Over the last weeks I’ve taken stock of the many ways my precious life energy is being throttled and zapped, so that I can hopefully use my toolbox of somatics and reflection practices to help me redirect more of that energy away from the violent systems of modernity that are killing us all, and into the regeneration of our movements and the worlds we want to build.
One of the ways I hope to do this is through my facilitation praxis. After many years of working primarily in collective structures, for the time being I will work in a “solo polyamory” sense — partnering and collaborating with some brilliant, principled, badass people with whom I am building things together on a project basis, yet I will be operating as an independent (yet always interdependent!) practitioner.
I’ve realized I need this flexibility for right now, as I continue to revive my health and finances, while still hospicing aequa (more below). That said, I am a collective babe at heart, and I can feel my heartstrings already pulling gently towards cooperative futures — but it might be a little while yet.
For this coming cycle, I plan to focus on these pillars:
power-critical facilitation and process design for groups, collectives and organizations, especially through my Collective Compass workshops
I will host an intro workshop for this work a few times this year, Sustainable Collective Organizing Practices. First one planned for Feb 15th (15:00-18:00, in person, with access option to join online). Let me know if you’re reading this and would like a fully online version.
conflict transformation support, accountability-as-carefor interpersonal as well as group/collective/team processes
and continuing with hosting the Big Beef & Beyond workshops on “transformative ways of tending to harm in our communities” — this work is together with the amazing Bryony Beynon
Personal Compass workshop series — a redesign of the much-loved Life Architecture community learning and action series, this 4-month programme invites participants to collectively imagine and practice living in ways that are more alive with what we truly care about. This will be a space to practice economies of mutuality and interdependence, rather than scarcity and singularity. Starting in March, will meet once a month for 4 months, with support prompts and resources for in-between. Online with option for a couple in-person meetups for those in Berlin.
NEW! Countercultures of Care* programme — a practice community for folks who work in facilitation roles (or want to), or who work with/in collective contexts, including a monthly skillshare facilitated by myself with inputs from the group and sometimes guests, as well as a body of training resources to expand our capacities in facilitation, understanding it as practice vital to collective worldbuilding. Staring in March, runs through December, with a break in August. Online. (*Name pending. What do you think? It’s a reference from Let This Radicalize You.)
TBC pillar: Reflections Silent Meditation and Dance Retreat — after an absolutely beautiful pilot edition in December for the winter solstice, it’s not yet clear if we will organize a second edition, due to capacities within our team. I hope somehow we can manage — we really see the power of this particular type of container! This power was soooo evident when attending Wednesday’s Ripples of Reflections gathering — the venue (ikii, a listening bar) was packed to the gills with people coming together to meditate (guided using a recording from our wonderful retreat teacher, Noon Baldwin), followed by extra-cozy and heart-stirring musical selections from ophélie, Menishu and Nono Gigsta. It was so special to reunite with many of the retreatants as well as new connections in this soft space!
You can read some of Nono’s reflections on the Reflections retreat in their latest newsletter.
Composting aequa
Although the space has been handed over in September to The Black SW Collective (hello, Ashawo Café!), aequa as an organizational body is still there, quietly — like a forgotten, overgrown garden that will need some love and detoxing before being handed back to the earth. There is still quite a bit of bureaucratic, financial, technical, intellectual and embodied bizness to be done in order to move on with integrity.
So over Feb/Mar/Apr, one more pillar of focus for me will be finishing up what I’ve been calling “Project Compost” — asking,
How can we lovingly process what happened in and through the aequa body, in order to return its nutrients to the soil of Berlin community and movement organizing?
In addition to all the boring stuff, there are plans for some exit interviews with key players, as well as a collective zine, complete with zine-launch and fundraiser at Refuge Worldwide to pay off some remaining debts...
MARCH 28th, daytime!
Save the date!
Thank you to everyone who has been involved with aequa for your patience for me to arrive at place where I can facilitate this holy work of hospicing the project with adequate care.
🌱
aequa Radio on Refuge Worldwide
I will also continue my beloved monthly radio show, aequa Radio — every third Wednesday from 14:00-16:00, live from the (new!) Refuge studio in Neukölln.
The focus of the show is on worldbuilding during collapse, accompanied by music that moves me and fuels the movements we are discussing. I love to highlight ideas, people and projects that are DOING THE DAMN THING when it comes to midwifing new and beautiful worlds into being while we try our best to topple empire and kick our addiction to modernity in the process.
If you have any ideas or inspirations for folks and initiatives you think I should feature on the show, please share! Keywords: abolition, relational practice, care organizing and mutual aid, solidarity and gift economies, shaking ass, degrowth, community defence, street somatics, popular education and re-expanding our ways of knowing/learning, transformative justice, relational rigor, joyful militancy, hospicing modernity and decolonial futures…und so weiter!
Next episode is Wednesday, January 21st, featuring Solisur Berlin. Tune in!
🌱
communications / social battery management
One of the ways that I tended to slide myself into the burnout pipeline these last years was by managing far too many communication channels across far too many initiatives. In order to try to put more of my labor into the things that matter most to me, I will be “narrowing” (lol) my online comms related to my work to the following channels:
Website. Currently sarjlynch.notion.site, this will change within the coming months to sarj.cc and will try to centralize comms there — I just need time, money and will to set it up! For now, you can find all upcoming events here: http://sarjlynch.notion.site/upcoming/
Newsletter. I’ve decided to combine my two newsletters into one. From now on, all my updates will live here at joycast.substack.com. I will headline posts with “upcoming” that share new offers, so those of you just interested in that can look out for those letters and skip the babbling. I’ll do my best to include an audio version as often as I am able.
Aaaand of course, over here, you also have the option of giving a monthly pledge. Each subscription helps me feel more secure and more resolved to continue in this work instead of applying for more random jobs. Thank you so much to those who have offered their generosity so far. (That said, the same content will be available for all subscribers, regardless whether paid or not.)(At some point I would like to integrate my newsletter directly into my website so I can divest from substack, but will stay on this platform for at least a little while longer while I sort out some other bits!)
Telegram. What was previously the aequa updates channel will soon change name and be used to announce events, gatherings, workshops, retreats and other shindigs that I am participating in in some way.
Instagram. Puhhhh. Yes, I want to divest, but I’m not quite stable enough, income-wise, to leave this space that so much of my work comes from. For now, follow the @_aequa_ account if you want updates about my upcoming workshops and archived radio shows. For this to work, I’ll be needing your help to get the account un-shadowed, so please add the account to your favorites so you see every post (it won’t be much), and if you do see @_aequa_ posts and stories flow through your data deluge, algorithm-style, please interact with them. In between making these posts, I plan to delete the app from my phone, so won’t be active in dms.
🌱
Phew, that was a helluva lot! But I tend to learn and work best when I am doing so out loud, with accountability, feedback and support from my peeps. So if you made it this far, hot damn, thanks for reading.
Take care of yourselves and each other out there.
With much revolutionary love,
Sarj
Hi! I’m Sarj (they/them), a very curious facilitator and community care organizer based in Berlin. I love dreaming new realities and practicing utopias with people who believe another world is possible, and are doing the work to make it happen.
Learn more about my practices here.
I’m also the co-initiator and executive director of aequa —
a Berlin-rooted community of practice for social equity, solidarity and mutual support.