Each workshop falls into one of three categories: All, Intermediate, Advanced. These designations are just guidelines meant to help you figure out where to focus your time throughout the conference.
You do NOT have to just stick to one workshop track. However, before you dive into a workshop on the prison industrial complex, make sure you have a firm grasp of “power, privilege, and intersectionality.”
Start with “All” level workshops if…
- You are brand new to organizing and activism
- You are new to queer/ trans focused organizing spaces
- It’s been a while since you got a refresher on key terms and foundational ideas, like power, privilege, and intersectionality.
Attend “Intermediate” level workshops if…
- Have a firm grasp of LGBTQ+ terminology
- Have participated in organizing/ activism campaigns before, online or in person
- Understand and could define “white supremacy”
Attend “Advanced” level workshops if…
- You are a youth leader who has delivered (or attended multiple) workshops or courses for queer/trans audiences on any of the following: Organizing strategy
- Arts activism
- Self care
- Safer sex/ healthy relationships for LGBTQ+ youth
- You are a youth leader who is organizing youth in your community for direct action.
Explore the workshops that will be hosted during Rise Up! There will be some minor changes in descriptions and titles added prior to the conference in July.
When you register, you will receive links to that entire day’s workshops. Please note that all workshop times are listed in Eastern Standard Time (EST)
Thursday 1 Jan 1970
12:00 am - 12:00 am An Introduction to Healing Justice
An Introduction to Healing Justice
Healing justice (HJ) is a social justice movement that considers healing and care to be necessary to achieve true liberation from oppression. HJ was created in response to the high rates of burnout, ableism, and depression seen in social justice organizers and activists and explores the question: what would it look like to create movements for liberation that prioritize the wellness and care of everyone involved? This workshop will introduce participants to the history, framework, and principles of the HJ movement; define what “wellness” looks like for marginalized communities; and explore methods of self and community care.
12:00 am - 12:00 am Archival Activism
Archival Activism
[Description coming soon]
12:00 am - 12:00 am Arts/Activism: Visual Change & Strategic Expression
Arts/Activism: Visual Change & Strategic Expression
Organizing spaces — especially those that are youth-centered and youth-driven — often talk about the need to use art as activism. Art has the power to build bridges across differences, heal trauma, and strengthen communities in the fight for equity and justice; art has the power to become the symbols of a revolution. However, in order to create this kind of symbolic movement art, some strategic planning is in order for marginalized youth. Participants will learn how to identify their goals (artistically and movement-wide), find their audience, and pick the most impactful medium. No prior artistic experience is necessary.
12:00 am - 12:00 am Conference Closing
Conference Closing
12:00 am - 12:00 am Daily Open Discussions
Daily Open Discussions
An open, drop-in space for youth to meet one another throughout camp. Hosted on online chat platform, Discord. This is a facilitated space with no set discussion topic.
12:00 am - 12:00 am Daily Open Discussions
Daily Open Discussions
An open, drop-in space for youth to meet one another throughout camp. Hosted on online chat platform, Discord. This is a facilitated space with no set discussion topic.
12:00 am - 12:00 am Daily Open Discussions
Daily Open Discussions
An open, drop-in space for youth to meet one another throughout camp. Hosted on online chat platform, Discord. This is a facilitated space with no set discussion topic.
12:00 am - 12:00 am Daily Open Discussions
Daily Open Discussions
An open, drop-in space for youth to meet one another throughout camp. Hosted on online chat platform, Discord. This is a facilitated space with no set discussion topic.
12:00 am - 12:00 am Daily Open Discussions
Daily Open Discussions
An open, drop-in space for youth to meet one another throughout camp. Hosted on online chat platform, Discord. This is a facilitated space with no set discussion topic.
12:00 am - 12:00 am Daily Peer Support Space
Daily Peer Support Space
An open, drop-in space for youth to receive support from one another throughout the conference. This space will be hosted on the chat platform, Discord.
12:00 am - 12:00 am Daily Peer Support Space
Daily Peer Support Space
An open, drop-in space for youth to receive support from one another throughout the conference. This space will be hosted on the chat platform, Discord.
12:00 am - 12:00 am Daily Peer Support Space
Daily Peer Support Space
An open, drop-in space for youth to receive support from one another throughout the conference. This space will be hosted on the chat platform, Discord.
12:00 am - 12:00 am Daily Peer Support Space
Daily Peer Support Space
An open, drop-in space for youth to receive support from one another throughout the conference. This space will be hosted on the chat platform, Discord.
12:00 am - 12:00 am Daily Peer Support Space
Daily Peer Support Space
An open, drop-in space for youth to receive support from one another throughout the conference. This space will be hosted on the chat platform, Discord.
12:00 am - 12:00 am Environmental Justice 101
Environmental Justice 101
[Description coming soon]
12:00 am - 12:00 am July 17th- 5:00 pm
No workshops in this session.
12:00 am - 12:00 am LGBTQ History
LGBTQ History
[Description coming soon]
12:00 am - 12:00 am Open Studio
Open Studio #2: Art Breakout Space
Hop in the Open Studio space for some low-key, artsy fun! Bring your favorite art supplies and make art and hang out with other Activist Campers. Disclaimer: this is not a formal art class, all skill levels welcome.
12:00 am - 12:00 am Open Studio
Open Studio #3: Art Breakout Space
Hop in the Open Studio space for some low-key, artsy fun! Bring your favorite art supplies and make art and hang out with other Activist Campers. Disclaimer: this is not a formal art class, all skill levels welcome.
12:00 am - 12:00 am Open Studio #1: Art Breakout Space
Open Studio #1: Art Breakout Space
Hop in the Open Studio space for some low-key, artsy fun! Bring your favorite art supplies and make art and hang out with other conference participants. Disclaimer: this is not a formal art class! You don’t have to have any “artistic skill” to join in! (What even is “artistic skill”?)
12:00 am - 12:00 am Opening & Welcome
Opening & Welcome
Rebecca
30-40 minute welcome meeting where camp goals, schedule, and other logistical information are laid out.
12:00 am - 12:00 am Power Mapping
Power Mapping
[Description coming soon]
12:00 am - 12:00 am Power, Privilege, Intersectionality
Power, Privilege, Intersectionality
This workshop provides the language and tools to deepen your understanding of the roles that power, privilege, and intersectionality play out in our lives as young LGBTQ people. We can’t understand intersectionality without understanding its relationship to power and privilege.
12:00 am - 12:00 am Queer and Trans Sex Ed 101
Queer and Trans Sex Ed 101
A workshop for anyone looking for a better understanding of “the basics.” This workshop will cover what consent is (and isn’t!), when and how to use condoms and other barrier methods, and what safe(r) sex really is! This is the high school sex ed you always wished you had -- one that centers queer and trans folks, and actually gives you some useful, actionable info! If you think you’ve already got the basics down (you know how to use a condom, how to obtain active consent, etc.) then check out our sex ed 102 workshop, “______” that focuses on unpacking pleasure, stigma, and QT bodies.
12:00 am - 12:00 am Queer and Trans Sexual Health
The Queer’s Room: The Sex Ed School Won’t Teach You
Are you over the boring healthy class lectures? Do you like to talk about sex? Well, LETS TALK! Join us for The Queer’s Room: The Sex Ed School Won’t Teach You. Sexual Educators Hancie and Carlton will take you on a roller coaster of anything sex. In our workshop, we’ll cover taboo topics like stigma, sex positivity, dating apps, fetishes, and trans sex.
12:00 am - 12:00 am Queer, Trans, and POC Today
Queer, Trans, and POC Today: Live Panel Discussion with SMYAL Staff
Learn more about SMYAL staff, and the unique perspectives they bring in their experiences as queer and trans people of color. Where is the conversation of race in the LGBTQ+ community? Why does it matter? What aspects of that race/ gender/ sexuality intersection are overlooked in our day-to-day lives and what are highlighted? Find out this and more in this interactive panel discussion.
12:00 am - 12:00 am Reclaiming and Redefining Resistance
No workshops in this session.
12:00 am - 12:00 am Speed Friending
Speed Friending
[Description coming soon]
12:00 am - 12:00 am Trans + NB Youth Affinity Group (TGNC youth only)
Trans + NB Youth Affinity Group (TGNC-Identified Youth ONLY)
[Description coming soon]
12:00 am - 12:00 am Trans 101
Trans 101
[Description coming soon]
12:00 am - 12:00 am Transformative Justice
Transformative Justice
Transformative justice (TJ) is a social and political movement that explores the question: how do we respond to harm in our own communities without creating further harm? This question is more relevant than ever, in the wake of the recent Black Lives Matter protests and calls to defund the police. The systems we currently use to deal with people that have committed violence and harm -- jails, prisons, and the police -- only create more violence and harm. In this introductory TJ workshop, participants will explore what “harm” is and learn how our current systems only create more harm; explore community-based solutions for when harm happens instead of relying on jails, prisons, and the police; and engage in an interactive activity to better understand how they can address harm in their own communities.
12:00 am - 12:00 am Value Mapping
Value Mapping
We can’t be effective organizers and activists if we don’t know why we “do the work.” But for so many of us, “why we do the work” is explained by sharing the systems and structures of power and privilege that we want to tear down. But getting rid of something is only half the battle -- what do we want to grow in its place? Through “Value Mapping,” we will work with young activists to explore their future-building potential by defining the values and principles that guide them in their movement building.
12:00 am - 12:00 am Why We Do What We Do
Why We Do What We Do: SMYAL Staff’s Personal Takes on Activism and Advocacy
Jhirbron
A moderated panel of SMYAL staff members from across the organization, as a way to learn more about a) why they chose to professionally support LGBTQ+ youth, what personally motivates them to do this work, and what their hopes are for the future of LGBTQ+ advocacy and activism.
