A Gather-in with the International Liberation
and Commonality Reference Persons
Last June, in Seattle, Washington, USA, almost all the International Liberation and Commonality Reference Persons talked about their work at a gather-in for the local RC Community. Below is an introduction to that evening, by Tim Jackins.
I usually begin by giving people a six-minute-each-way mini-session. However, we are in one of those odd circumstances in which we have too much resource. In order to give you a chance to hear from each of these people and to meet with a couple of them, we have to push ourselves forward a little more than usual.
Gathered here are almost all the International Liberation and Commonality Reference Persons of the RC Communities. (cheering) I’m delighted to give you this opportunity to hear from them. They are people who’ve dedicated a large part of their time and minds to thinking about the rest of us and fighting for the liberation of their constituencies.
You probably belong to at least half the constituencies represented here, but tonight you’ll get a chance to meet with only two of them. You get to pick which two. You could choose the two that are most important to you, or the two that are so far down the list that you’ve never gotten there.
First each Reference Person will have two minutes to give you all a picture of how they think about their work. Exposing you to them and their work is one of the best things we could do. We all get isolated by how we’ve been oppressed and hurt, so having a reference point, a light on the struggles we all face, is exceedingly useful.
There is no set order. The leaders will look at each other and figure out who is next. After a first set has had the chance to speak, we’ll have a two-minute-each-way mini-session while the second set comes up.
Then we will meet in smaller groups. Dvora [Dvora Slavin, who organized the event] will tell us how to squeeze all the groups into the spaces we have. You will go off for twenty-five minutes to the group you choose, and after that you’ll have four minutes to sprint to your second choice. The Reference Persons will stay in place, and you will move.