DIY, Skillshare & Activism Festival

by Samuel Bishop - Gluaiseacht Mon Nov 07, 2011 20:23 info at diyskillshare dot org

Subject to change. Please check back for updates

FRIDAY – 19.00 – 21.00

Community World Cafe

The opening event of the Skillshare Festival will be a local community world cafe. A big ideas-storm of positive solutions. This is a chance to discuss the many issues within the community, and explore opportunities for community building.

SATURDAY – 11.00 - 12.30

Dartmouth Square Yoga (first ever indoor session!)

Yoga has been taught in Dartmouth Square for the past two years. This will be the first indoor session, as Dartmouth yoga goes inside to it's winter home for the season. Please bring your yoga mat.

SATURDAY – 11.00 – 13.00

Composting - Paddy

Composting & Wormery Workshop - A hands on workshop on composting techniques and their subsequent applications for people living in the city or in suburbia. We'll be building a small composter out of recycled, commonly found materials. We'll discuss bokashi systems, grow beds and thermcomposting, the workings of composting systems and the animals/bacteria that are useful.

Consensus Decision Making – Parachutes

Consensus decision making is a way of working together as a group that aspires to reach agreements and actions that all parties can support, implement and live with. How do we do this? Why do we do this? What tools can enable this? Is consensus a long tiring struggle or a creative dynamic way to decide things? In this participatory workshop we explore these questions. (2.5 hour workshop)

Storytellling for Social Change – Clare

This will be a practical, hands-on workshop in using visual storytelling and narrative for social change. From story concept through execution to distribution, the workshop will take participants on a two hour jaunt through the creative process. At the end of the workshop participants will have written and produced their own story and blog post.

Workshop will include: How to set up a blog post, Tips on taking images for blog posts, How to integrate imagery and story together to create a bigger picture, Narrative (visual and written) tips and hints, Examples of good visual storytelling for social change.

Participants will need access to their own camera (or iPhone/ Smartphone). Please bring your camera fully charged and a cable for uploading images.

LUNCH 13.00-14.00

SATURDAY – 14.00 – 15.30

Make your own skin care products - Tracey

Learn how to make your own skin care products with all natural ingredients. This workshop will teach you to make a basic moisturising or soothing cream and a range of lip balms using natural ingredients such as herbs, fruits, oils, cocoa butter, beeswax, essential oils etc. Participants get to take home samples for a donation of €4 towards materials.

Ireland's Great Oil and Gas Giveaway – Andrew (Shell to Sea)

At a time of deep economic crisis successive Irish governments have handed over 100's of billions of Irish Oil & Gas reserves to corporations for free. If these resources are exploited Ireland will get no royalties and one of the lowest tax takes on profits in the world. We will be looking at the facts behind this Giveaway, how it happened and how it is being resisted nationally and by local communities who have found themselves in the frontline.

Wordpress Websites - Rob Carr

Building simple websites. Get your Community Group or Campaign web presence up and running.
WordPress is an open source blog publishing application powered by PHP and MySQL which can also be used for content management. It allows simple websites to be produced with a minimum of programming and scripting knowledge. In this workshop, as an introduction to Wordpress, we will create a simple website from scratch.

SATURDAY – 16.00 – 18.00

Managing difficult emotions - Sarah

This workshop aims to introduce you to practical skills for managing difficult emotions in everyday life, using knowledge from a variety of psychological approaches. Emotions are an essential part of our lives and provide numerous functions. This workshop will look at common methods of managing emotions and will explore how some of these may be unhelpful, in order to enhance individuals' awareness of how they tend to manage their own difficult feelings. The workshop will introduce us to more helpful ways of experiencing and managing feelings so as to lessen negative impacts on our lives. This workshop will entail some experiential elements where people will be asked to carry out exercises drawing on their own emotions.

Legal workshop – Eoin (Rossport Solidarity Camp)

In the legal workshop we will go through a role-play of the process of being arrested in a protest situation. The regular laws that Gardaí use against protesters will be discussed, in particular the history of Gardaí dealings with Rossport campaigners.

Book Bloc

Book blocs have been used in recent demonstrations in Italy, UK and the US. Predominantly they have emerged in the line of action of the student movements. We will be recycling the election candidates to create a Book Bloc. Please bring any election posters from the recent elections.

Pirate Radio - Gerald

Learning from Galway's pirate radio station.

EVENING SESSIONS FROM 18.00

SUNDAY – 12.00 – 13.30

Documenting Demonstrations - Paula Geraghty

As a photo-journalist, Paula will be demonstrating the art of documenting demonstrations.

Gardening – Donal (head gardener of Iveagh Gardens)

Gardening, DIY outdoors, make your own Christmas Decorations with a practical wreath making demonstrations, guerilla gardening, veg boxes and general gardening. phew! Donal Raynor is Head gardener of Iveagh Gardens.

Direct Action 1 – Jerrieann (Gluaiseacht)

Workshop 1: Discussion on social change in Ireland and using direct action.

LUNCH 13.30

SUNDAY – 14.00 – 15.30

Dealing with the mainstream media - William

Share useful experiences of dealing with the mainstream media. Get practical advice on writing press releases and preparing for broadcast interviews.

(William Hederman is a campaigner, photographer and journalist. He worked as a journalist and editor at The Irish Times and a journalist at Village Magazine. He has lectured in journalism at DCU. )

Developing the Resilience of our Communities - Davie Philip

A session exploring how to set up a Transition Initiative with Davie Philip from Cultivate.ie and a co-founder of the Cloughjordan Ecovillage where he now lives. Transition is a process designed to bring communities together, facilitate us doing more for ourselves and be able to thrive in these difficult times.

Direct Action 2 – Lenka (Rossport Solidarity Camp)

Workshop 2: Practical aspects of planning and doing direct action safely and effectively.

SUNDAY – 16.00 – 17.30

Social Media - Mark

Exploring how social media can be used effectively.

Food sovereignty - Food action

Exploring what it is, where it comes from, how its made, who makes it, how it can be used and what it means. May contain traces of: Justice, Democaracy, Land, People, Liberty, Culuture, Celebration. Suitable for all.

More events to be added.

Ongoing areas

Bike workshop

A bike workshop will be open on Saturday and Sunday, accessible to everyone. There'll be a few scheduled workshops throughout the day. Bring your bike and learn a thing or two from these bike mechanic maestros.

Kids space – Poppy

The kids space will be up and running all weekend for kids of any age with workshops including growing your own edible plants, making wheat grass people, litter bugs, juggling balls and how to juggle, making prayer flags, a wish tree and more. Work shops will run adlib depending on the participants and requests. Feel free to join in at any time and if you have a skill you want to share please do.

Creative Arts Space & Free Learning Spaces are under development

PLEASE CHECK THE WEBSITE FOR POSSIBLE CHANGES BEFORE THE EVENT! :)