Distant Worlds
Social Justice Storytelling Through Fantasy, SF, & Horror
Welcome!
Art: Djinn Child, "In the Depths", 2013.
Distant Worlds: Social Justice Storytelling Through Fantasy, Science Fiction, & Horror
Saturday, Mar 7, 2015, 03:45 PM
UC Berkeley, Wheeler Hall, Room 202 (second floor)
Today's Goals, Flow, & Rules of Participatory Engagement
Today's Goals:
Have fun!
Create a joyful learning community.
Share strategies for learning & teaching with youth culture.
3:55 - 4:05 Universal Welcome
4:05 - 4:45: 'Play' Station Explorations
4:50 - 5:00: Convergence & Closure
Here’s How We Fly!
Our play space is open and free, so stay as long as you like.
Universal Welcome: Friendship is magic! Knowledge is power! In fantasy, words are magic. Let’s bring our names, gender pronouns, and dreams into the room. Please share your name, gender pronoun, and one or two words that speak to the future you wish to create.
Grab a Galactic Passport & form a guild of 3 to 4 people. Please introduce yourselves, & explore Station Alpha.
Migrate! Move to any of the other stations. We suggest spending 15 minutes per station. Feel free to form larger communities at the play stations; the more gamers, the more fun!
Convergence! At 4:50, all guilds come together to celebrate in community.
You can see today’s alchemy via this url: http://www.smore.com/easpc-distant-worlds. If you leave your work behind, we’ll be uploading it for future generations.
Rules of Participatory Engagement:
Practice sharing power by stepping up and stepping back to invite all people into the room.
Honor people, including their opinions, experiences, and communication styles.
Question people with respect by asking them to rephrase statements you find troubling.
Open yourself to learning and teaching.
Turn off cell phones.
- Turn up the love.
Art: Wangechi Mutu, "Family Tree 3", 2012.
Station Alpha: Assembling Your Space Pack
“Listen, no part of me is more definitive of who I am than my brain.”
- Octavia Butler, Imago
"You are what your creators and experiences have made you, like every other being in this universe. Accept that....”
- N.K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
Quest: Assemble your space pack! As a guild, discuss what traits, talents, privileges, and personal experiences you are bringing on this mission.
Possible Questions:
Communication can be tricky across the cosmos -- so many languages, so many cultures, so many styles of expression! What earthly experiences might ease your encounters and exchanges with sentient creatures from other worlds?
Gravity varies from star to star and ship to ship. How might your body adapt to space?
On Earth, you walked across borders, evaded immigration officers, and devised strategies to thrive despite your legal status in the U.S. How might these experiences of risk, courage, and adaptability aid your travels to faraway worlds?
Station 1: Our Prime Directive
"The Prime Directive is not just a set of rules; it is a philosophy... and a very correct one. History has proven again and again that whenever mankind interferes with a less developed civilization, no matter how well intentioned that interference may be, the results are invariably disastrous." – Jean Luc Picard, 2364
Quest: As individuals and a guild community, develop a prime directive for your galactic travels. Use the provided pens and paper to share your ideas.
Possible Questions:
What are the guiding principles that keep your peoples safe, happy, and free?
How do these principles differ from the many systems and beliefs we encounter on a daily basis on Earth?
How does your prime directive relate to human histories of conquest, colonization, and genocide?
Objects: Pens, Paper, Pencils.
Image: Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 3, Episode 13.
Station 2: Revolution Is Movement
"I will never be what you want and that’s alright, I play my own damn tune, I shine like the moon. And very soon, I’ll soon fly over you."
- Laura Mvula, “That’s Alright” (2013)
Quest: Dance to Laura Mvula’s song and explore the song’s meaning.
Possible Questions:
How does Laura Mvula use SF to share her vision of freedom and justice?
What is the role of music and dance in social justice organizing?
Will the revolution be televised, tweeted, and transplanted to new planets?
Objects: Computer, Video of Laura Mvula's 'That's Alright' (2013)
Station 3: Manifesting the Revolution
Quest: Continue the Typewriter Manifesto or write your own. Please leave your guild’s manifesto for others to read and perhaps continue.
Possible Questions:
Given the reality of mass internet surveillance, how can social justice prevail?
How can social justice movements exist without dogma or hierarchy?
Is our present dystopian? What does the technological future hold for people and our planet?
Objects: Analog writing utensils such as crayons, pens, and pencils. Paper.
Station 4: Care Package to the Cosmos
There’s no place like home! Plus, it gets lonely in outer space! Your bestie on the ship just received a care package from her sweeties on earth. What did she receive and why?
Quest: Look through the care package. Discuss the goodies that would bring you joy, love, and peace as you explore the galaxy. Perhaps even draw it in the suitcase.
Possible Questions:
What do you hope to find in your package?
What might ease and enhance your galactic travels?
What would bring you comfort and memories of home?
Objects: Tea, Lotion, Heart Box, Sage, Stuffed Animal, Octavia Butler novels, Pee Wee Herman doll, Seeds from Seven Continents
Station 5: Your Moral Compass Meets the Cosmos
Any Change may bear seeds of benefit.
Seek them out.
Any Change may bear seeds of harm.
Beware.
- Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower (1993)
Scenario: Your ship is welcomed onto a planet. You are its first human visitors. The planet’s people wish to establish long-term diplomatic relations with Earth, encouraging intellectual collaboration and mating between species. Whether your ship settles or departs, it will come to pass that a parasite results in genetic anomalies in both species and their children, mixed or not. What’s an ethical space traveler to do?
Possible Questions:
Does your ship stay on the planet to seek remedies that benefit all peoples, knowing that everyone is subject to risk, including death?
Do you depart, knowing that you are leaving others to suffer on the planet and could be dangerous to humans you encounter elsewhere?
Or, do you find a third option?
Objects: Pens, paper, pencils.
Convergence + Closure = Dance Party
"I will never be what you want and that’s alright, I play my own damn tune, I shine like the moon. And very soon, I’ll soon fly over you."
- Laura Mvula, “That’s Alright” (2013)
Quest: Dance to Laura Mvula’s song to celebrate our brave future.
So long, and thanks for all the smarts!
About Darshan Elena Campos
Born and raised in the Bay Area, Darshan Elena Campos has taught high school, college, and adult learners at institutions such as Making Waves Education Program and MEEP: Mapping Educational Ecosystems Project.
Art: Djinn Child, "Darshan Elena Campos", 2014
Website: www.darshancampos.org
Twitter: @darshancampos
About Stephanie Der
An active member of fandom, Stephanie Der has tutored different age groups, volunteered as a pregnancy prevention educator for high school first years in Oakland, and worked as a substitute teacher predominantly for elementary school resource students.
Email: sder@alumnae.mills.edu