Spring 2017 Workshops

Craftypants! with Kelly T

Most of my Real Grownup Job is making stuff with kids. In this workshop, I’ll have supplies & expertise to make a variety of toys, journals, catapults, hand-cranked proto-TVs (https://youtu.be/mA3Qw3KiEtk), hand-held portable sundials, 8-16p mini-zines (out of 1 sheet of paper!), leather/fabric pouches/tool-holders, and all sorts of cool stuff. I’ll hang out in the Art Barn & lead one particular project per day. I’ll have a list and/or examples of stuff to make! You can come in for one that sounds good & skip the rest, get your materials together & split, whatever works for you!

Playing with Plays with Samantha

We’ll spend one or two sessions reading some short plays aloud as a group. We’ll then choose our favorites to act out in both serious and silly ways, and see if we feel inspired to design costumes, build set pieces, make props, or otherwise create the elements that go into a full production. Some or all of the participants may want to present a scene at Coffee House, but this is not in any way a requirement for joining the workshop. If you have a favorite one-act or scene, bring copies to share with the group!

An Examined Life with Will

Everyone has a philosophy. Philosophy is a big word that encompasses hundreds, if not thousands, of subdisciplines. At its core, though, Philosophy is about big ideas and questions that are foundational to virtually everything else in a human life: What is happiness and how do I find it? Do I have a soul and if so, how does that even work? How should society be organized?
This workshop is about revealing – often and especially to ourselves – the contents of our own philosophy, questioning and examining them directly, so that we can make choices about them. Each day we will tackle a different philosophical proposition or question; the facilitator has a pile of default options but we will decide together what we’re discussing. An optional element of this workshop will involve larger community involvement, details discussed at our first meeting.
This is a discussion, not a lecture, and not a debate. No prior knowledge of philosophy or philosophical concepts is required.

Art and Chat with April

Do you have an creative project you’ve been meaning to start? Or finish? Would you like a little motivation to do so in the form of other folks doing creative things and chatting in the same place? Or maybe you don’t have a project at all but want to knit or doodle with company. Bring your own project or start something new with the art supplies we have on hand. While we art we’ll talk some about creativity, what it means to each of us, and how we can make more space for it in our daily lives, and maybe work on some collaborative projects.

+1 Fun!

Do you like dice!? Do you like cards!? How about tiny colored wooden blocks that are supposed to represent you in some abstract way in a competition that would never actually play out like it would in real life!? Well I have the workshop for you! Come on down to play some games! Bring your +1 sense of adventure and your potion: suspension of disbelief and join me for some fun.

Note: Any experience gained in game not necessarily transferable to any real world application.

If the workshop you want isn’t listed, this is a DIY conference, so email Coran and tell him about the workshop you want to run!

Here are the Spring 2016 workshops

Creativity, Technique, & Problem Solving: In Theory and In Practice with Rose L: Although primarily a DIY Lets Make Art workshop, we’ll include discussions on the differences and connections between creativity, technique, and problem-solving. Also, art for yourself vs art for others, and the importance of creativity in our day-to-day life *and* for humanity in general. Collaborative projects are greatly encouraged. If anyone is interested in painting or drawing lessons, I can provide that.

Anti-Capitalist Positivism with Will: PLOT TWIST: Let’s talk 99% less about how much we hate the status quo, and fill that space instead with suggestions for an alternative (this is the positivist part) structure to society. Over our time at Spring we’ll examine a variety of alternative systems (or tweaks to systems) that we might wish upon the world instead and then critically examine those suggested systems, looking for weaknesses, dependencies, and what it would realistically take to get us from here to there.; Disclaimer: Your workshop leader is decidedly pro-capitalism and is working on a phd in Law and Public Policy. He has a master’s degree in community planning and development. He’s running this workshop for two reasons: 1) He REALLY would love to understand what a better alternative to the status quo is, and 2) it worked really well during a pilot run at Sputnik.; This will be a moderated discussion workshop.

Acting Like Men, with Kat M, Goshman, Sophie and Sandy: “Carry yourself with the confidence of a mediocre white man.” – Heben Nigatu; This workshop will explore Typical Male Behavior (TMB). We will discuss and practice different aspects of TMB. What you get out of this workshop is the experience of practicing these behaviors and what that entails. This is not about empowerment, and we do not recommend you behave this way after this week. This is NOT a self-improvement plan; it is an experience that will be uncomfortable to you and everyone around you. No men allowed.

Spring Fighter XVI with Coran: Do you like watching epic fight scenes!? Enjoy action movies?! Have you ever seen a fight scene and thought “There is no way I could do that and look that cool.” Well you are wrong! At Spring Fighter XVI you will learn how to fake a punch, fake getting hit and with enough time learn to fake a full fight!; Everyone is welcome, will take into account any previous injuries, no experience required! Bring clothing you are comfortable in moving in, etc. sweats and tee shirts. Feel free to contact me with any questions.

Build Stuff with Cat: Cat is moving into a new apartment immediately after Spring and has a few carpentry/furniture finishing projects to complete! So she’s bringing them with her! Glen Brook has a wood shop and Cat has a decent toolkit, too. Cat’s mostly going to be focusing on her projects: Building a bed frame and two nightstands and refinishing a 19-teens secretary desk. You can come help and learn how to do some of these things! You can bring a project to work on (don’t forget sandpaper–ask if you don’t know what grit you need)!

Games with David: David is going to play games! Come play games with him!

If the workshop you want isn’t listed, this is a DIY conference, so email Jake and tell him about the workshop you want to run!

Here were the workshops for Spring 2015

Daring Greatly with Sarah: In this workshop, we’ll dive deep our personal relationship with fear, our fears themselves, and how we want to transform them. We’ll use the safety and support of the group, Glen Brook, and the Spring community at large to stretch our boundaries, expand our comfort zones, and question our assumptions while compassionately engaging with what scares us. Through discussion, group activities and challenges, and extraordinary feats of derring do, we’ll figure out what it means to be courageous, and hopefully come away with heightened self-awareness and some badass new superpowers we can use in our everyday lives.

Let’s Write a Book with Bryce: Write genre fiction, (Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Steampunk, Post-Apocalyptic, etc) with a fun group dynamic. We can plan the whole piece together and write some each day, adjusting the plan as we go. We likely won’t finish the whole thing, but if there are 5 of us writing two pages a day for 7 days that’s 70 pages. After Spring we can continue working on it over the internet.

DIY Canvas and Leather Adventure with Thor: Tips and tools to create personalized bags, pouches, backpacks and the like. There will be a limited stock of canvas, leather, Velcro, snaps and zips on hand, as well as old bags, leather jackets, and backpacks to deconstruct. Create something new or re-purpose something old.

A Pattern of Patterns with April: A discussion group centered around noticing patterns and habits in our lives, and working to create new patterns and/or change existing ones. This will be a largely informal discussion where we share strategies for changing and creating patterns and habits, talk about changes we would like to make, and encourage each other to follow through and keep the changes up after Spring. Drawing and doodling patterns during the discussion is strongly encouraged. (If this sounds familiar that may be because this workshop also happened at Spring 2014.)

Building Things and Walking in Funny Ways with Lorraine: Stilts and slack line (more description to come).

TableTop RPG’ing with Anthony

In which we explore the collaborative storytelling possibilities of table top role-playing games, in this case using the D&D 5th edition core rules. The workshop will involve character creation (this will be completed on the first day of the workshop), some mini-quests (playable in one session), and ideally a longer quest to fill out the week. Accessible to long-weekenders and full-week Springers, this workshop should serve as an introduction to tabletop role-playing games for the new gamer, and as an exploration of collaborative storytelling for all players.

For those interested, there is some helpful introductory documentation online at dnd.wizards.com (not required reading, but it might help move things along). Also, a snarky webcomic (see alt text) for perspective. I will bring several sets of polyhedral dice, but those who have dice are encouraged to bring them, too.

Games! with Tashin and Will: Inside games! Outside games! Board games! Card games! Frisbee golf! Play all the games! (more description to come)

Be-in with Jake: Not quite sure what to do? Want to do different things every day? Why not do it together?

spring

summer camp for adults

Category Archives: workshops