So much has happened with us!
We finished our East Coast tour! It was great. Philly Trans Health was a highlight, and there were so many highlights.
We got home September 29 and thought – whoa – we don’t want to stop! So we returned to working at Impact Hub Oakland, a coworking space that is really enlivening. We started debriefing, filling up several whiteboards.
Z: It feels like we have at least 18 more whiteboards of material to release.
And we connected with a social entrepreneur navigator service. They link us to technical support and funding services for free! We are trying to figure out how to scale and sustain the education and activism elements of our speaking tour, because we loved it!
Then we performed at the Moth, a big competitive storytelling event series, in Berkeley. We came in 2nd place!
We then dashed to the invigorating NorCal Permaculture Convergence up north. It was a pop-up EcoVillage at the already established Solar Living Institute. Permaculture is a movement focused on integrating humans and the rest of nature, but has tended to be pretty homogeneous historically. There were some courageous and loving initiatives to diversify, and we added our own “Missing Movements: Disability Justice, Neurodiversity and Mental Health” session the mix. Phew!
We drove back down through the fires in Santa Rosa. We were safe, but sadly many many were not. You can learn more about the recovery from the fires at sonomacountyrecovers.org.
Then we went to COCAP 2017. Focused on community capital, social impact investment and entrepreneurship, a response to SOCAP, it bears it’s own handful of paragraphs at least in another post. In short, we were able to come out strong at a conference titled “Building the WE Economy” and make many joyful connections while keeping it real.
We then got really involved in handing out masks to folks in Oakland because the air quality was terrible. We took a break momentarily to go to the first ever Transcend Retreat at groundswell – a multiracial all-trans healing and empowerment weekend in Mendocino.
So that was 3 more conferences from October 5-15! To add to the 5 from our tour. 10 conferences in 2 months.
We feel a lot of mental pileup that we need to unpack and organize, and at the same time are so grateful for the infusion of energy and connections that have come to us from these galloping weeks. We came out as ourselves to thousands of diverse passionate people and brought the gifts of long-hidden experiences in the multiples movement to a lot of places. Our extroverts got to shine. So filling!
Can be tough to not let it all fade into the rear view mirror upon returning home. It’s up to each activist and reader and community member to keep it alive. And fortunately the seeds come back around. Like just this weekend!
And we connected with a visual designer who wants to help us map out the different concepts in multiple advocacy, from how the stigma operates, to how systems work, to our vast diversity. Very promising.
Meanwhile we are living life, missing friends new and old who are busy or far away, and contemplating future educational opportunities. We are thinking about grad school for 2018, as well as looking into small business accelerators, writing groups, and more. Please feel free to suggest anything in those categories.
We aim to write more now. It feels important to begin to make more time to shape the ideas we carry around. Talking to Nick and others Saturday was a positive reminder to make time to write. Important even when lonely as we push humanity to new awareness, ourselves included. The added camaraderie of 2 months of community building at home and on the road is a resource we will draw inspiration from time and again.
Thanks for joining the ride!