What does parenting queerly mean to you? The Queer Parent Convenings (2021-2024) were online and in person opportunities to share space and to reflect about the intersections of queerness, gender, sex, family-building and belonging with other queer and trans parents through conversation, story-sharing, and art and movement.
What.
The Queer Parent Convenings (QPCs) are an opportunity to connect and share with other queer and trans parents and to explore collectively about how we shape our families and some of what parenting queerly means to you, particularly in regards to gender and sex in family-building. It's story sharing, open conversation, and facilitated exercises, led by facilitators and project leader and dance artist Meg Foley.
The Philadelphia-based QPCs were co-facilitated by Melissa Bingham, Meg Foley, and Izzy Sazak (scroll down for bios) and were hosted in partnership with self-directed education centers Natural Creativity and Wildseeds Learning Community/The Dandelion Project.
We gather, we ask questions, we share (as much as we feel comfortable with), we take time for ourselves and explore together.
The Philadelphia-based QPCs were co-facilitated by Melissa Bingham, Meg Foley, and Izzy Sazak (scroll down for bios) and were hosted in partnership with self-directed education centers Natural Creativity and Wildseeds Learning Community/The Dandelion Project.
We gather, we ask questions, we share (as much as we feel comfortable with), we take time for ourselves and explore together.
"Despite being deep in queer community and having multiple queer friends who are parents, I have never found a space so helpful, comfortable and illuminating as this group. I wish I had this at every stage of family building! Weeks after its ending and I am still bursting with thoughts, questions, revelations. The space made in this group is incredibly special. We now feel like a community. The facilitators are generous and supportive and I feel sure they will do something incredible with these pieces of our lives. I hope that others will find this space and its many offerings so comforting and helpful, that these stories of queer parenting will be less hushed and hard to find now." - participant in Fall 2021 Queer Gestational Parents Group
|
^^^^ participants reviewing, unpacking, and expanding on prompting questions for shared conversation. <<<< we use rocks and fabric for somatic exercises and "soft object partnering" -- exercises for caregivers to center their own sensation and bodily needs and to reflect on the questions with their movement and feeling without the need to name things. Privacy is offered for all physical activity. BELOW are some zine draft pages from the first queer parents group, a group that focused on queer and trans experiences of gender + gestation. <3 |
What sets these Queer Parent Convenings apart is the focus on somatics (how your body feels from the inside out), on creative exploration, and on existing in the questions together. Sharing space and gathering - slowing down time - is the resource exchange.
Some of the prompting questions we work with are: How do you feel seen in your parenting journey as a queer person? // How has your gender evolved in relation to becoming a parent? // How do you teach your child about gender? About queerness? // How does your sexuality and sex-practice relate to family-building? // How do we honor ourselves as queer parents?
Some examples of exercises:
-drawing as a somatic listening practice, to get closer to listening and stay grounded in your body
-exploring the texture, stretch, and sensation of fabric and soft objects as way to get into and ground our bodies
-crafting and conversation
This work is informed by Foley's creative research into using fabrics as body-building and supportive objects and into geology and thinking about queer and trans family as part of Earth's creation story.
The QPCs will result in a queer and trans family zine being produced by the Blood Baby project and intensive cohort participants are invited to contribute their reflections and drawings to the zine and to help build it, if they choose to.
When + Where.
When: We organized Convenings from 2021-2024. We are now developing a new, multigenerational offering that continues elements of the QPCs with The Wild Ride Collective.
Where: Philadelphia, Akron, Bloomington, Denver, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Los Angeles, and online - follow @_bloodbaby for updates.
Where: Philadelphia, Akron, Bloomington, Denver, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Los Angeles, and online - follow @_bloodbaby for updates.
Who.
The facilitation team includes:
The Queer Parent Convenings are conceptualized by Meg Foley, a queer dance artist, educator, and parent who creates performances and somatic-based events, and have been stewarded by Philadelphia-based parent, educator, and artist Linnea deRoche. Their launch was supported by management from Logan Cryer, a Philadelphia-based artist, curator, and administrator. Philadelphia-based for over 15 years, Meg co-runs The Whole Shebang, a studio and experimentation space for artists and facilitators. Meg is the project leader for Blood Baby, and these conversations and energy exchange are at the core of the creative formation of the overall Blood Baby performance project.
- Melissa Bingham is a queer person of color who has lived in the greater Philadelphia area on the lands of the Lenape people for the past 15+ years. She is an unschooling mom of two and Co-founder of Kokuroko Learning Co-op, she also Co-facilities unschooling conversation and healing spaces with parents and caregivers on alternative learning journeys. Melissa is an intentional community builder and Cooperative Developer focused on collective care and wellbeing. She is passionate about solidarity economies and regularly holds mutual aid efforts and asset mapping sessions in support of community wealth building and preparedness. She is an avid student of Kemetic Yoga and Meditation, Shamanic healing modalities and ancient African herbalism and actively practices food as medicine as a raw vegan enthusiast.
- Amber Edmunds is a full spectrum doula, certified drug and alcohol counselor, certified Circle of Security Parenting facilitator and trauma-informed anti-racist yoga instructor. She has completed training as a JJ Way Non-clinical Provider. Amber is a mother of three plus two bonus children. She is Director of civic engagement at MAYA, an organization which has given her one of those vital spaces where women find healing and empowerment by leaning in to one another. She is also involved in several initiatives for racial equity in birthing spaces, including curriculum design and teaching at Duquesne School Of Nursing, the creation of standards of practice for major healthcare systems in western PA, facilitating mindfulness and movement groups at Allegheny County Jail, and is also working to restructure and build out a doula program for those incarcerated at ACJ. Amber is also a co-founder of the Shanga Collective, a partnership of Black birthworkers founded in 2022 to create opportunities and protect the rights and wellbeing of Black Birthworkers. She continues to mentor, support, and work to create opportunities and protect the rights and wellbeing of Black and Brown Birthworkers.
- Pati Garcia is a queer latinx certified Sexological Bodyworker and Certified Professional Midwife. Pati has been involved in revolutionary somatic approaches to feminist body autonomy cultivation from a latinx gender non conforming perspective since 2004.
- Paloma N Irizarry is a Boricua birthworker, performer, creator, and facilitator who feels at home in the unknown and collective problem solving based in Philadelphia.
- Darcelle Lewis is a queer and non-binary feminist and mental health activist from Trinidad & Tobago.
- nat picone (they/them) is a healer, dancer, single unschooling parent of 3 children. they are taino, queer, biawaisa (2spirit), trans, neurodivergent and polyamorous. nat is somatic coach/doula and draws from the many embodiment modalities they have learned over the last 20 years. somatic experience being the bones of their somatic practice which includes movement, breath, tracking, vocal work, visual meditation, sensory awareness, parts work-aka ifs (internal family systems), and body work- reiki and myofascial release. nat finds strength in their own ancestral wisdom and practices passed down from their lineage.
- Izzy Sazak (they/them) is a turkish-colombian-american trans-disciplinary artist, theater-maker, clown, educator and facilitator. they live, work, play and grow, on Lenni Lenape Land (philadelphia). they are an associate artist of Delaware Shakespeare, and a company member of Applied Mechanics; philadelphia’s vanguard experimental theater company. izzy is a queer, genderful, eco-feminist abolitionist migrant, whose art is an investigation and celebration of imagination, magic and belonging as radical forms of resistance, and pathways to decolonizing the mind/body/spirit.
- Michèle Steinwald is a Canadian, feminist, DIY, artist-centered, pseudo-forensic, embodied, community-driven, cultural organizer working in the US.
The Queer Parent Convenings are conceptualized by Meg Foley, a queer dance artist, educator, and parent who creates performances and somatic-based events, and have been stewarded by Philadelphia-based parent, educator, and artist Linnea deRoche. Their launch was supported by management from Logan Cryer, a Philadelphia-based artist, curator, and administrator. Philadelphia-based for over 15 years, Meg co-runs The Whole Shebang, a studio and experimentation space for artists and facilitators. Meg is the project leader for Blood Baby, and these conversations and energy exchange are at the core of the creative formation of the overall Blood Baby performance project.
How.
The Queer Parent Convenings groups will focus specifically on parents’ experience in relationship to gender and queerness.
Some background: prompted by Foley's particular experience of gestation and her gender evolution in a trans family, the first QPC was focused on gestation and expansive and considered non-conforming gender identity and experience. Since the initial cohort, the gatherings have evolved to integrate all paths to parenthood. Gestation may still be a question or a concern, as it is relevant to a parent, but currently all QPCs are inclusive Perhaps it's even a benefit to ask these individuated questions together knowing that queer parenting involves our culture and ALL the ways our bodies are read, perceived, treated and made space for: questions of race, religion, medical trauma, gestation is hard / so is non-gestational parenting, adoption, trans masc and trans femme parenting experiences.
Representing a broad range of kids' ages and parents' is important in gathering a cohort, and our conversations are caregiver-centered.
A $200 stipend is provided for intensive cohort participants.
So far we have had intensive gatherings over an 8 week period and one off sessions -- now we are trying to figure out how to create a drop in structure going forward that is fruitful for and supportive of the participants. Beyond the intensive period, participants are invited to help build a creative document or zine sharing reflections from the cohort experience.
Some background: prompted by Foley's particular experience of gestation and her gender evolution in a trans family, the first QPC was focused on gestation and expansive and considered non-conforming gender identity and experience. Since the initial cohort, the gatherings have evolved to integrate all paths to parenthood. Gestation may still be a question or a concern, as it is relevant to a parent, but currently all QPCs are inclusive Perhaps it's even a benefit to ask these individuated questions together knowing that queer parenting involves our culture and ALL the ways our bodies are read, perceived, treated and made space for: questions of race, religion, medical trauma, gestation is hard / so is non-gestational parenting, adoption, trans masc and trans femme parenting experiences.
Representing a broad range of kids' ages and parents' is important in gathering a cohort, and our conversations are caregiver-centered.
A $200 stipend is provided for intensive cohort participants.
So far we have had intensive gatherings over an 8 week period and one off sessions -- now we are trying to figure out how to create a drop in structure going forward that is fruitful for and supportive of the participants. Beyond the intensive period, participants are invited to help build a creative document or zine sharing reflections from the cohort experience.
Interested?
Fill out the interest form here to let us know. Questions? Email us at bloodbabyproject[at]gmail[dot]com
__________________________________________________________________________________________ Scroll down for FAQs...
__________________________________________________________________________________________ Scroll down for FAQs...
photo by Carmichael Jones
FAQS
What is it?
A cross between a facilitated community forum, story circle, and fellowship group, the convenings are for queer parents to connect with one another around questions of gender, sex, parenting, and family-building. The queer parent convenings will be responsive to the needs and interests of the group and also will bring prompts and topics to the group to reflect on.
Queer gestational parents groups were focused explicitly on gender and gestation and explore the complicated experiences of gender that may arise for folx during pregnancy and subsequent family-building/parenting. Queer parents convenings will unpack broader questions of queer and trans family-building/parenting, sexuality, and belonging, which may include but does not necessarily focus on gestational experience.
Throughout the Queer Parent Convenings, participants will select information they would like to share publicly about their experiences as a queer parent. Some examples of form could be a zine, a picture book, posters or a painting.
The facilitators are trauma-informed, queer- and trans-inclusive birthworkers and community organizers. As part of the group work, guided by the facilitation team, Meg will share some of how she has processed her experience as a queer mom and a gestational parent in a trans family through the somatic and improvisational lens of her creative practice. These guided explorations will be interpretive and focused on the sensation and experience of the participant. This will be accessible, regardless of familiarity with somatic practices.
Resource lists for queer and trans family building will be created collectively by the convenings teams and will be shared with participants for their use and/or sharing with others.
What will the group look like?
Queer Parent Convenings Groups will include a maximum of ten people. We will gather online or in person (as Covid precautions allow if in person). There will be food and childcare, if in person. Groups will be multiracial, gender inclusive, and aim to include a range of ages of parents and/or children.
How will the group spend its time?
Talking, reflecting, listening, group-building, resource sharing, art-making, playing.
Can you tell me about the group that was focused on gestational experience?
This group unpacked and made space for the bodily transformation that happens during gestation, labor, and delivery, especially regarding gender experience and body and identity policing within it. The goal for the separate group was to have more focused conversations about childbirth, medical care for queer parents, and the potential euphorias and dysphorias associated with pregnancy, gender, and queerness.
What will the queer parents convenings group focus on?
Parenting is a practice, of attention, of movement, of relating to yourself, to child(ren), to other family members, and to the world. It is hugely improvisational. What does being queer have to do with being a parent for you? How does queerness or transness or sex-positivity or gender-affirmation or all of the above get woven into your daily rituals of parenting and family-building?
Was the gestational parents convenings group open to participants who identified as trans and/or transitioned after pregnancy?
Yes.
Were partners to gestational parents invited to participate in the gestational parents convenings group?
Yes.
What is expected from the participants?
We ask for people to come to the Queer Parent Convenings groups with open minds and a willingness to share, to explore, and to connect. For Queer Parent Convenings groups that have several meetings, we request that you commit to attending as many sessions as you can and to participating/being present as fully as you can, however that looks for you on that day. That said, we understand life needs may get in the way and that people may need to miss sessions or attend partially.
Will participants be paid to participate?
Participants will receive a small stipend for participating.
What will happen with personal information that participants share?
Personal information and specifics will stay in the room. The queer parent convenings are not a study, nor will people’s personal information be represented in the Blood Baby performance project.
What are the agreements about consent and confidentiality?
We will address group agreements at the start of every convenings session and will practice regular, informed consent. Gatherings will be recorded via Scribe and when gathering online, we may ask to record sessions for participants who are unable to attend.
How do the Convenings relate to the performance project, Blood Baby?
The Queer Parent Convenings is conceptualized under a larger project called Blood Baby. Blood Baby is a multiformat performance project that explores intersecting embodiments of gender, gestation, sexuality, family-building, and queer belonging. Made and performed by a community of queer artists, Blood Baby unpacks queer family experience and our creation stories. Blood Baby is comprised of multiple iterations, utilizing immersive sculpture and dance installation, participatory performance, somatic workshops, storytelling, and video art, and will develop a network for queer parents to connect.
Why "blood" in the title Blood Baby? That maybe brings up some things for me...
Great question! I know the title may carry A LOT for some so I wrote about the origins of the title on my blog here.
You keep using the word “somatic”; what does that mean?
Somatics are defined as the experience of one’s body and sensations from an interior perspective. Sometimes we experience things that we may not be able to easily name because the experience is a sensation, a feeling, a connection, yet the effect of these experiences is very real and may define who we are in a given moment. With Blood Baby we are using that focus to think about how transformative processes (gender, pregnancy, sexuality) play out on our bodies and into our social lives.
Where does the money come from?
Blood Baby is supported by a New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Project Award as well as a National Performance Network Project Creation Fund and Development Fund, the Leeway Foundation, and Bloomington's Indiana University Arts & Humanities Grant. Blood Baby is made possible in part through an NCCAkron Research Residency. We are making Blood Baby in partnership with local queer communities in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Bloomington, Indiana. Our Philadelphia partners are the Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia Family Pride, and Philadelphia Family Pride.
Thank you for reading!
Interested? |
Contact |
More info |
|
Please let us know a bit about you. This link will take you to an interest form, and we will be in touch with updates.
|
Do you have questions or want to connect about this? Please reach out at:
bloodbabyproject at gmail dot com. |
Looking for even more information about Blood Baby? Check out this artist talk from March 11, 2021 with Meg and collaborator Michèle Steinwald.
|