The International Workshop on Youth Organizing will take place in Groningen from 19 to 21 May. Hosted by the Raging Queers Collective, this event will bring together activists, researchers and artists to explore youth politics, well-being and community building through a participatory framework. The workshop is organized into three thematic tracks: Community Organisers; Research and Citizen Science; and Art as Politics.

To register, please fill in the registration form.
Contact: Mónica López at m.lopez.lopez@rug.nl.

Programme

Tuesday 19 May

• 15:30-17:00 Welcome drinks and registration | Fugitive Books
• 17:00-21:00 Queer Under Occupation. Short-films screening and fundraiser for alQaws. Hosted by Sky and Juan Albá | MeetLab - Erlenmeyer Room
  • 17:00-17:20 Welcome drinks, food and fundraiser  
  • 17:20-17:30 Inauguration exhibition by Mo Qasem
  • 17:30-18:00 Introduction to the evening programme by hosts
  • 18:00-20:15 Films screening and post-film discussion, with midway break 
  • 20:15-21:00 Music and fundraiser

Wednesday 20 May

• 9:00-9:30 Registration with tea/coffee | MeetLab - Erlenmeyer Room
• 9:30-10:00 Welcome words by Raging Queers Collective
• 10:00-11:00 Keynote. Alchemising Anger, Transmuting Fear and Dispelling Despondence: Recognising the Strength of our Affective Centres for Liberated Futures. Geetha Reddy, Open University UK
• 11:00-11:30 Break
• 11:30-12:15 Panel. Between Burning it Down and Occupying the Ashes: A Raging Queers Conversation on Organising, Research and Academia. Raging Queers Collective
• 12:15-12:30 Spoken word. Palestinians are unknown under the law. Alaa, writer, organizer
• 12:30-12:45 Spoken word. The Young Artist's Breakings and Imaginings into a New World. Ofure Kitsutsa, artist, Panafrican-British
• 12:45-14:00 Lunch break (packed lunch available at Fugitive Books)
• 14:00-15:45 Parallel tracks: Session 1

• 15:45-16:00 Break
• 16:00-17:45 Parallel tracks: Session 2

Thursday 21 May

9:30-11:00 Parallel tracks: Session 3

• 11:00-11:30 Break
• 11:30-13:00 Parallel tracks: Session 4

• 13:00-14:30 Lunch break(packed lunch available at Fugitive Books)
  • 14:30 All tracks reconvene at MeetLab - Erlenmeyer Room
• 14:30-15:30 Panel. Youth in Gaza: Resistance With Art, Expression and Education. Ahmad Alghariz, Camps Breakerz Crew, Ahmed Matar, Parkour Gaza, and Nour El Alam, Academics for Gaza
• 15:30-16:00 Bodies in the public space: Occupying "the space of appearance". Claudia Salamanca, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia, and Michiel Teeuw, artist, Groningen
• 16:00-16:30 Break
• 16:30-17:15 Takeaway messages by Raging Queers Collective
• 17:15-18:00 Closing act. Dialectics of Erasure: Outcomes of a Participatory Lecture-Performance. Mudar Al-Khufash, University of Groningen

Venues

• MeetLab - Het Paleis | Boterdiep 111, 9712 LM Groningen.
  Our main venue is MeetLab, housed in the cultural building Het Paleis, right next to the Noorderplantsoen in the heart of Groningen. It's easily reachable by bike, bus, and train. Its the main venue for the Art and Research Tracks.
  Website: www.meetlabgroningen.nl
  
  
• Fugitive Books | Korreweg 14, 9715 AA Groningen
  Fugitive Books is an unapologetically queer, anti-zionist and anarchist bookstore in the city of Groningen. Initially operating from a 'bakfiets', it now temporarily resides in the otherwise empty space at Korreweg 14. It offers a carefully curated selection of new and second-hand radical literature, but more than just a bookshop, it's carved out a space for community and fugitive encounters. Fugitive Books is the venue for the Organizers Track.
  Website: www.fugitivebooks.nl 

Registration and Costs 

Participation in the International Workshop on Youth Organizing is completely free of charge.
Thanks to the European-funded project K Reporters and the incredible free labor generously contributed by so many people, we have been able to cover all venue costs, materials, coffee and tea breaks, and lunches for both days of the workshop for all attendees. You don't need to pay anything to join, just show up and engage!

Additional information

• Accessibility: For enquiries relating to inclusion and accessibility, please contact Mónica López at m.lopez.lopez@rug.nl.
• Participation: Attendees may follow workshops across different tracks during the parallel sessions.

Code of Contact 

The following ‘code of contact’ provides a guideline on how we can relate to each other in the workshop spaces. With this, we aim to facilitate meaningful and mindful contact between community members. All persons, part of the Raging Queers collective and participants using these spaces, are committed to abiding by this code of contact, holding themselves and being held accountable. Participants are asked to: 

1. Provide constructive questions, comments, and clarifications during the sessions. Participants may be asked to rephrase when necessary; 
2. Be aware that while the main language of the conference is English, participants are from a diverse array of countries and have different levels of confidence and familiarity with English, particularly academic English. Participants should exercise cooperation and encouragement when language challenges arise; 
3. Be mindful of other participants and speakers when asking questions to enable multiple audience participants to speak, and for all speakers to receive questions; 
4. Respect time constraints outlined in the programme and communicated throughout the conference, including designated presentation and Q&A times, as well as coffee breaks; 
5. Be respectful of participants’ positions and interventions; we encourage the critique of ideas, not of individuals. 
6. Participants come from all walks of life. Do not assume individuals’ identities, gender and pronouns, socio-academic backgrounds, and epistemic or political positions; 
7. Whenever in doubt about preferred pronouns, ask the person what their preferred pronouns are, or use neutral pronouns (‘they/them’) when referring to or talking about a person. Please note, name tags will include preferred pronouns; 
8. When referring to persons with disabilities, avoid phrases like ‘suffers from’ or words like ‘victim’, as well as terms that define disabilities as a limitation. Similarly, avoid using collective nouns (e.g. the deaf) and remember to use person-first language (e.g. a person with a disability); 
9. Request explicit consent to share the work, presentation or personal information of participants (this includes any video recording or photography throughout the conference); 
10. Flag particularly graphic content or potentially distressing content ahead of their presentations with the use of trigger warnings for instance; 
11. Avoid using images that might perpetuate the dehumanization of differently oppressed subjects or turn the suffering caused by various regimes of oppression into a spectacle; 
12. Always name the source of your knowledge (academic or non-academic), as well as provide adequate information about the socio-political contexts the ideas you use come from. 

Photography and Privacy 

At the events, we aim to help capture meaningful moments while upholding the privacy, dignity, comfort and safety of all participants. In case you are to take pictures, videos or audio recording, ensure that you. 

1. Ask for explicit consent, and respect withdrawal of consent at any time 
2. Clearly explain the purpose of the recording and how it may be used 
3. Prioritise group or activity documentation where individuals are not easily identifiable 
4. Honor the preference of any presenter who has requested “no photo or screenshots” in their slides or during their presentation

If you see someone breaching these guidelines, politely remind them or approach an organiser / safety person. 

Anti-Harassment / Red Lines

Harassment or discrimination will not be tolerated. Following is a non-exhaustive list of harassment:  

1. Derogatory or aggressive comments regarding an individual’s identity (including deliberate misgendering); 
2. Derogatory or aggressive comments regarding an individual’s lifestyle practices (including those related to substance use, employment, religion or otherwise); 
3. Violence in all its forms, including but not limited to sexual harassment/sexualised assault, threats, or intimidation; 
4. Personal contact (physical and non-physical) or invasions of privacy (including taking of photos) without explicit consent and/or after a request to stop; 
5. Sustained disruption of discussions or events consisting of non-constructive and abusive criticism towards any individual; 
6. Racist, sexist, ethnocentric, ableist, homophobic, ageist, classist, Islamophobic or otherwise oppressive, intentional or not, behaviour in any form.

* This list extends to both physical and non-physical (digital) spaces to ensure comprehensive protection and respect for all individuals. 

We take all reports seriously, and will treat them with discretion and confidentiality. We are committed to move through conflict through a collective process that is intentional, boundaried, mindful of our respective capacities, and that is grounded in a restorative mindset and approach to conflict that centres our belonging to each other, our interdependencies and relationalities.  

Our visual identity 

The art and visual identity of this workshop were created by @golpedecalor (Eli Verdugo). Art, to us, is never an afterthought. Eli's work proves exactly why.