Navigation |
OPIRG BROCK WEEKLY EVENT NEWSLETTERWe have an amazing line up for Alternative Orientation Week, starting Monday! Please find details below and in the attachment. We encourage you to circulate it far and wide. Hope to see you at some of the fantastic events! Events! Monday September 6th Outdoor Self Defence Workshop: 10-11am & 5-6pm, meet under the Brock Library Tower Campus Eco-Hike: 12-2pm, meet at the OPIRG Office, 1st floor, Student Alumni Centre Tuesday September 7th Vendor Fair: 10-4pm, in front of the Brock Library Tower Documentary Screening "The End of Suburbia”: 8-10pm, OPIRG Community InfoShop, 10 Summer Street (right behind the Pizza Pizza on St. Paul Street) Wednesday September 8th Vendor Fair: 10-4pm, in front of the Brock Library Tower A Night at the InfoShop: 8-10pm, OPIRG Community InfoShop, 10 Summer Street (right behind the Pizza Pizza on St. Paul Street) Thursday September 9th Know Your Downtown Hike: 11-1pm, OPIRG Community InfoShop, 10 Summer Street (right behind the Pizza Pizza on St. Paul Street) Tower Plant Sale: 1-3pm, Brock Library Tower A Night of Improv at the InfoShop: 7-9pm, OPIRG Community InfoShop, 10 Summer Street (right behind the Pizza Pizza on St. Paul Street) Friday September 10th Volunteer Fest: 10-3pm, Jubilee Court Saturday September 11th Board Games in Montebello Park and Vegan Potluck Picnic: 12-3pm, Montebello Park Volunteer Opportunities! InfoShop Volunteers: The InfoShop is a resource for information about social and environmental activism, a local community assistance outlet for information, and a space for volunteer organization and workshops. It houses a zine library, has working group information and is a resource for activist art. The InfoShop is a great place to meet folks interested in social justice and environmental issues - and to connect with your local community. If you are a returning volunteer or would like to take a little of your time each week to help us run the InfoShop it would be great! FreeSkool Educators: The OPIRG Freeskool is a project that is designed to challenge the hierarchical and institutional way learning is primarily conducted in our community. We reject the notion that only some kinds of knowledges are valuable, or that only certain people are 'accredited' enough to share information. We embrace radical accessibility, critical consciousness, and student-centered learning. We are looking for folks interested in hosting a class, be it on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis at the InfoShop. If you’ve got a passion for sharing what you’ve learned send us word. Spanish Speakers for Migrant Workers A PhD candidate from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont. is researching gender. Contact information is at the end of this message if you'd like to participate or offer feedback. Following is a description of her intentions: I am looking for 25 people in the southwestern Ontario area (from Toronto to Windsor) interested in participating in an interview with me at a location and time chosen by the participant (keeping in mind safety, privacy, and scheduling). I am willing to travel anywhere in the area Why I want to know: What I will do (and not do) with the information: Who I would like to interview: What to do if you're interested:
Alternative O-WeekMonday September 6th Outdoor Self Defence Workshop: 10-11am & 5-6pm, meet under the Brock Library Tower Campus Eco-Hike: 12-2pm, meet at the OPIRG Office, 1st floor, Student Alumni Centre Tuesday September 7th Vendor Fair: 10-4pm, in front of the Brock Library Tower Documentary Screening "The End of Suburbia”: 8-10pm, OPIRG Community InfoShop, 10 Summer Street (right behind the Pizza Pizza on St. Paul Street) Wednesday September 8th Vendor Fair: 10-4pm, in front of the Brock Library Tower A Night at the InfoShop: 8-10pm, OPIRG Community InfoShop, 10 Summer Street (right behind the Pizza Pizza on St. Paul Street) Thursday September 9th Know Your Downtown Hike: 11-1pm, OPIRG Community InfoShop, 10 Summer Street (right behind the Pizza Pizza on St. Paul Street) Tower Plant Sale: 1-3pm, Brock Library Tower A Night of Improv at the InfoShop: 7-9pm, OPIRG Community InfoShop, 10 Summer Street (right behind the Pizza Pizza on St. Paul Street) Friday September 10th Volunteer Fest: 10-3pm, Jubilee Court Saturday September 11th Board Games in Montebello Park and Vegan Potluck Picnic: 12-3pm, Montebello Park
OPIRG BROCK WEEKLY EVENT NEWSLETTER August 30th – September 5thWelcome to a new year of OPIRG Brock, keeping thoughtful activism at the heart of campus life! Volunteer Opportunities! With the new school year upon us we are excited to have committed volunteers returning and new folks interested in helping out in the many important activities OPIRG Brock is up to. In particular we are looking for: InfoShop Volunteers: The InfoShop is a resource for information about social and environmental activism, a local community assistance outlet for information, and a space for volunteer organization and workshops. It houses a zine library, has working group information and is a resource for activist art. The InfoShop is a great place to meet folks interested in social justice and environmental issues - and to connect with your local community. If you are a returning volunteer or would like to take a little of your time each week to help us run the InfoShop it would be great! Please contact Lisa at opirgbu@gmail.com FreeSkool Educators: The OPIRG Freeskool is a project that is designed to challenge the hierarchical and institutional way learning is primarily conducted in our community. We reject the notion that only some kinds of knowledges are valuable, or that only certain people are 'accredited' enough to share information. We embrace radical accessibility, critical consciousness, and student-centered learning. We are looking for folks interested in hosting a class, be it on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis at the InfoShop. If you’ve got a passion for sharing what you’ve learned send us word. Please contact Lisa at opirgbu@gmail.com Alternative Orientation Week Volunteers: This year we have an amazing lineup shaping up for OPIRG Brock’s Alternative Orientation week. There are a couple areas where we could use some volunteering… Eco-Hike Monday Sept. 6 from 12-2, Campus Eco-Hike: We have a returning volunteer facilitating a hike around Brock’s green spaces, but an additional person to help out is needed. Please contact Lisa at opirgbu@gmail.com Downtown Know Your City Hike Wednesday Sept. 8 from 11-1: We are looking for someone to help a returning volunteer lead new students in an informative hike for folks interested in sustainable and environmentally-friendly local options. Please contact Lisa at opirgbu@gmail.com Night at the Improv Thursday Sept. 9 from 7-9: Do you have experience with Improv theatre? We are looking for people with experience doing Improv to help us facilitate a night of Improv at the InfoShop. Please contact Lisa at opirgbu@gmail.com Events! Free! Documentary Screening – Derren Brown, The Gathering Stop on by for free delicious homemade popcorn and a mind opening film! Discussion of film to follow the viewing. The Gathering was a specially recorded as-live show at a secret location (hidden from the audience) with an invited audience of students from Roehampton University, celebrities, psychologists, psychics, taxi drivers and magicians. It was filmed on 18 May 2005 and broadcast on 29 May. As part of the show Brown recalled streets, page numbers and grid references from the Greater London A-Z map. Also pseudo-psychic "mind reading" and "remote viewing" activities were recreated. During the show, Brown hypnotised the audience as a group and convinced them that for approximately half an hour after leaving the room they would have no memory of the events. Furthermore, the word "forget" was intermittently flashed very briefly on the backdrop throughout the performance. A variety of audience members were interviewed afterward; some of them couldn't recollect anything (but were nevertheless very impressed); brief clips of these interviews were shown. One of the most memorable stunts was getting a London taxi driver to choose a street in London and then choose and mentally drive a random route. This was achieved by drawing a line on a map of London made of stuck together A-Z pages. An envelope, which had been visible onstage throughout the entire show, was then opened. This contained a card listing the page number and coordinate of the destination, an acetate with the route marked on it and a receipt for £8 (the estimated cost of the journey by the driver). He started at Buckingham Palace and ended up at Shepherd's Bush Green, the street where the secret performance took place.
KICK OFF AUGUST IN SOCIAL JUSTICE STYLE BY VOLUNTEERING WITH OPIRGFor OPIRG August means planning and lots of it! We put on our brainstorming hats and start drawing up plans for the fall. This includes what events we want to hold, what campaigns we want to create or become a part of, creating workshops, and doing outreach within our community to see what opportunities exist for collaboration! As you may know if you are a regular visitor to our site, we are a public interest group, which essentially means our communities guide the work that we do. That means YOU can direct the work we do! If there is an issue you are passionate about and think we should create programming around it, or better yet if you want to work with us to create programming, workshops or campaigns let us know. We are always open to ideas and learning new ways of doing things. Here are project we have on the go- we need volunteer help to either get them off the ground or to sustain them.If any of the following projects catch your eye send us an email at OPIRGBU@GMAIL.COM and let us know! THE PROJECTSProject 1: Getting Crafty: We're making an OPIRG radical calender!This is a big project for August; Creating an OPIRG Calendar of Radical Events for 2010-2011!
The calender will be full of radical dates for every day of the year, space to write your phone numbers, a contact list of radical groups around the province, menstrual calendar, info on DIY projects, tips on sustainable living etc, extra note pages, plus much more. If you want to get creative with DIY art, adbusting images for the calendar, or gathering radical dates that should be included, let us know we’d LOVE to hear from you! We don’t think our scene is just an isolated bubble! Radical community spaces are popping up everywhere. You can help us by doing liaison work with rad communities in our region and getting them involved in our calender project! Project 2: Looking for folks to start up a DIY Collective!Wait- what’s this DIY thing all about? The DIY ethic (do it yourself ethic) refers to the ethic of being self-reliant by completing tasks oneself as opposed to having others who are likely more experienced complete them. The term can indicate “doing” anything from home improvements and repairs to healthcare, from publication to electronics. DIY questions the supposed uniqueness of the expert’s skills, and promotes the ability of the ordinary person to learn to do more than he or she thought was possible. Interested?
Other possible projects: -Turning recycled paper and old novel covers into funky notebooks! - Painting murals in the InfoShop! Let’s showcase our artistic talents Niagara! -making our own furniture! -we’re open to ideas! We believe in being the creators of culture rather than consumers. We believe in promoting a just society that supports itself through mutual aid and without hierarchies. We believe in fighting against institutionalized oppression (racism, sexism, ageism/adultism, and homophobia), and we support environmental justice, animal rights, egalitarianism, and human rights. Project 3: Orientation Week PlanningDis-orientation is a week of workshops, discussions, tours and events brought to you by OPIRG.
Originally designed to generate awareness and provide an 'alternative' lens, this tradition has existed to engage new students, with not only the political struggles on campus, but also within the community, and the world at large. A closer look at issues surrounding sexuality, gender, ability, race, student unions, environmental sustainability, polices and ethical purchasing, all comprise a portion of the exciting platter we can display during o-week. We hope you'll take this opportunity to learn and explore ideas with us! What do you think? Come on out and brainstorm new engaging disorientation week events with us. First meeting: This Thursday- July 29th at 6pm in the OPIRG InfoShop on 10 Summer St. If you can’t make this meeting but you are interested in getting involved let me know and I will keep you up to date on the next meeting! Project 4:FreeSkool Fall Classes CALL OUT!!
This means we are looking for eager facilitators! Anyone can facilitate a class on any topic whether they have skills or want to meet up with people that have skills. Send an email to opirgbu@gmail.com to propose your idea.
FreeSkoolThe opirg freeskool is a project that is designed to challenge the hierarchical and institutional way learning is primarily conducted in our community. We reject the notion that only some kinds of knowledges are valuable, or that only certain people are 'accredited' enough to share information. We embrace radical accessibility, critical consciousness, and student-centred learning. As an organization committed to the relationships between research, education and action we urge all participants - teachers and students - to think about how learning and skill/knowledge-sharing without borders will help us foster a more just community. If you are interested in enrolling in a course, please contact Milica at opirgbu@gmail.com. In order to participate enrollment IS NOT required, but it will help each teachers to prepare for their course. All the courses are running out of our community infoshop, located at 10 summer street, unless otherwise noted.
Mondays 4-6pm This class will offer basic french understanding through the uses literature, films and conversation. Students will be exposed to grammar, common french expressions, numbers and basic noun conjugation, and will be encouraged to compose poetry, speeches and other written assignments. French group discussion will be encouraged as the main educational technique! In terms of subject matter, those who attend will be integral in the ongoing structure and themes explored
tuesday at 1pm, (meet on campus, opirg alternative resource centre, room 204 student alumni building) friday at 6pm, (meet at infoshop) sunday at 3pm (meet at the infoshop) start date: June 8th A running course is simply about *enjoying* running / jogging / walking outside. Those who have never run and want to try it, those who have an interest in running a specific distance or speed, and those want other people to run or exercise with are all encouraged to come out. Some people may discover that they f'n hate running - and I'd be happy to help them find exercise that works for them (it's important!). My only rule is that no one is ever left alone at the back. Please wear comfortable clothing and bring a reusable water bottle.
4pm, tuesdays This will entail a series of workshop where we explore different mediums of art and craft. Workshops will include some more traditional crafts - knitting, sewing, embroidery, quilting, macrame, collage but will also explore activist art too – button making, banner making, silk screening, etc.
6-8pm wednesday Love your bike, but don't know much about it other than that it gets you from A to B? Join us for a weekly gathering of bike love! We will learn everything there is to know about your bike - what the different parts are called, fixing a flat tire, fixing your breaks, working with gears, truing a tire, etc!
6pm thursday The speed at which the internet became intertwined with our lives, our infrastructure, and our planet hasn't allowed for public knowledge and legislation to keep up. We're at a point now where mass surveillance and censorship isn't Orwellian fiction but reality. The entertainment industry is moving towards implementing Digital Rights Management schemes that reduce your purchases to rentals. We're losing the ability to take the things we buy and change them, manipulate them, and learn from them without being criminals. We're on the brink of a virtual pollution problem as we pump more and more personal information into the hands of companies that have no legal requirement to manage it safely or allow us to take it back. The goal of this course is to inform at a higher level, and recommend solutions or techniques that are accessible to the average person. Ultimately awareness is the primary objective. The word hacker has been sullied by popular culture to the point where the original meaning is lost. An unfortunate evolution of language that can't be undone at this point. Hacktivism is a prime example of where fear can be replaced with support. Groups like the Cult of the Dead Cow's Hacktivismo arm work to develop tools that can be used by people in countries like China to talk freely without fear of Government intervention. During the student protests in Iran, hacktivists were able to set up secure anonymous relays to let repressed citizens reach out to the world via Twitter and other websites blocked by the Government. Ideally I'd like to cover a smattering of topics: • Censorship, Privacy and Anonymity
8pm thursday The course will go over the basics of playing the guitar. The goal is to get people started on a path that encourages them to teach themselves. I will provide information and lesson plans on strumming, how to tune, read chord charts/tablature, play scales, as well as the time to practice and jam with others. I will also have students write down some songs they would like to try to learn and go over them individually during the designated practice time. I will also create a list of easy songs for students to choose from that we can go over as a class or individually. After the first few weeks, when people are more comfortable with some of the basics, we will start with some slightly more advanced lessons like relative minor chords, picking patterns, barre chords, palm muting, hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, vibrato and bends. CPR - Gregg Gleason
First aid training enables you to deal with injuries and medical emergencies at home, work or play. Basic First Aid covers the basics including how to contact emergency medical services, rescue breathing, and how to treat minor injuries. CPR: teaches how to do CPR and choking procedures for adults and introduces the purpose of an AED and when to use it. CPR (level A) Basic First Aid
saturday at noon learn to listen, collaborate, and share skills. I'm sure we can all shine on solo, and rip it up by ourselves, but can you make beautiful music with other folks too?
first sunday of every month, 2-3pm Are you interested in current events? Philosophical issues? Controversial scientific findings? While magazines, news outlets and the internet are great sources of such information, they often provide no chance for dialogue. The Current Events freeskool allows you the opportunity to discuss your thoughts and opinions in an open-minded forum. Once a month, we discuss a pertinent philosophical or social issue, such the roots of evil, the encroaching boundaries of technology, or the ethics of the Iraq war. Everyone is welcome to attend and alternative perspectives are welcome. Current events will be hosted on the first Sunday of every month, between 2 and 4 pm. Drop on by and bring your opinion along!"
7-9 sundays This course will focus on the relationships between humans and non-human animals with a particular focus on our use of animals as food, clothing and in entertainment. It will draw on discourses of critical animal studies, which seeks to build coalitions between animal rights and feminist, environmentalist and anti-capitalist traditions. To this end, the course will examine the current state of affairs for non-human animals and posit several different rights-based frameworks for understanding why animal rights activists campaign on their behalf. Finally, this course will offer a variety of alternatives for the current status quo, including a discussion regarding the distinction between welfarism and abolitionism. 
|
As our summer