Agenda

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 9

[optional] FRIDAY FIELD TRIPS:

• Country Queers: LGBTQ Oral History (9am-4pm | at 28 Vernon St. Brattleboro) - Join the founder and creator of Country Queers, Rachel Garringer, for a session exploring oral history as an organizing medium for rural LGBTQ communities. This session includes hands-on experience creating short oral history pieces.

• Home scale Nose-to-Tail Pig Butchery (9am-4pm | at Rebop Farm) - This session is intended to be a hands-on skill share that holds space for considering the meat we eat in a rural queer context. The bulk of our time will be focused on demystifying the process of butchering a whole pig at home, through hands-on experience parting and using the whole animal, from splitting a side of pork into primal cuts to making sausage and preparing fresh offal. Participants are encouraged to bring in their own knowledge, questions, and personal experience of meat value chains and resilient food systems, and engage with some of the ethical and political implications of their role as meat eaters. The hope is that participants walk away with a more explicit understanding of what it means to them to eat good meat, as well as skills and resources that will enable them to continue developing that understanding beyond this session. Facilitator: Lily Joslin.

• Past and Present: Prisons, Repression & the LGBTQ Community (9:00am-1:00pm | at The Root Social Justice Center)​ - This session will begin with providing historical context for understanding the roots of mass incarceration and also the laws and policies that discriminately incarcerate the LGBTQ community. Then we will introduce and discuss national and local examples that give a picture of the current challenges. After creating a clear and dynamic roadmap of these issues, we will explore possible solutions and ways to transform the system. Facilitators: Nico Amador & Ashley Sawyer.

• Milkweed Farm Experience (10:00am-2:00pm | at Milkweed Farm, 49 Carpenter Hill, Guilford) - Spend the day on queer-owned and -operated Milkweed Farm in Brattleboro, VT with GMC board member, Milkweed Farmer, and Filmmaker of Out Here: Queer Farmer Film Project Jonah Mossberg. You'll complete farm projects together while talking about food justice, farming, rural living, queer farming, and anything else you want!

• The Root Social Justice Center Experience (1:30pm-5:00pm | at The Root Social Justice Center) - Spend the afternoon volunteering at POC-led and -focused space, The Root Social Justice Center. GMC has held many events at The Root over the years and wouldn't be where we are today without their collaboration. Learn about how they're creating POC-centered space in our rural community while completing projects that help continue building the space.

SATURDAY NOV 10

8:30-9:30 AM - registration/welcome (coffee/tea available)

9:30-10:15 - Welcome Circle

10:15-10:30 - break

10:30-12:30 PM - SESSION 1 - read session descriptions & presenter bios here
AREA I - Food & Farming Justice
AREA II - Art & Expression
AREA III - Collective Liberation and Resistance
AREA IV - Intimacy, Relationships, & Self-Care (18+)

12:30-2:00 LUNCH (provided) with optional Affinity tables (we'll suggest some, feel free to suggest others!)

2:00-4:00 - SESSION 2 - read session descriptions & presenter bios here
AREA I - Food & Farming Justice
AREA II - Art & Expression
AREA III - Collective Liberation and Resistance
AREA IV - Intimacy, Relationships, & Self-Care (18+)

4:00-4:15 - Break

4:15-4:45 - Fieldtrip and Saturday Sessions Reportback/Reflections

4:50 - 5:15 - Closing, Announcements, & Group Photo

Dinner on your own

9PM-12AM DANCE PARTY - In town, in Brattleboro, put on by our friends Lily DeValley and DJ Glitterbear of Drag Out the Fabulous!


SUNDAY NOV 11

8:30 AM - coffee/tea available

9-11:00 - SESSION 3 - read session descriptions & presenter bios here
AREA I - Food & Farming Justice
AREA II - Art & Expression
AREA III - Collective Liberation and Resistance
AREA IV - Intimacy, Relationships, & Self-Care (18+)

11:00-11:15AM - break

11:15-11:45- Large Group Session (with breakouts) - choose one conversation (based on checkmarks participants give during the day)

11:45-12:15 PM - Closing circle

12:15 - ​lunch (provided) with optional Affinity tables (we'll suggest some, feel free to suggest others!)

2:00 on - Clean-up, depart

 Registration, Accessibility, Location, and Lodging

Registration

• Registration is full! We do have a waitlist this year. If you would like to be added to the list, email HB.

• You must be registered to attend and we'll post updates when the event is nearly full and at capacity.

• We have reserved 10 tickets for those who are unable to pay the registration fee. If this is you, please email HB to discuss. There is no volunteer requirement for a subsidized ticket.

Accessibility

• If you need an American Sign Language or another language interpreter, please contact HB Lozito by October 9, 2018.

• We will be at the beautiful Hilltop Montessori School in Brattleboro, Vermont. There are all-gender bathrooms available and the location is wheelchair accessible.

• We will have on-site childcare for this year's Summit! There is space on the registration form to let us know if you need childcare and give some details.

• Only service animals will be allowed at the Summit. Please leave all other pets at home (or another safe place!).

• Dietary restrictions and other food-related needs can be shared with us during the registration survey.

  • ​This year, we will be providing a simplified lunch menu. On both Saturday and Sunday we will provide a vegan and gluten-free lunch as well as some items to add on (for example, cheese and sour cream to vegan chili). We will also provide coffee and tea throughout the day. This is a shift from past years! Feel free to contact us with questions.

• We are striving to make this event fragrance-free. GMC will provide unscented soap for our use during the weekend. More information on how and why to be fragrance-free below:

  • Please come without fragrances on your clothes, body, or hair so that members of our community with chemical sensitivities can participate without getting sick. More information about why and how to do this is available here: http://www.therootsjc.org/fragrance-free.html

  • Further Information
    More explanation about chemical sensitivities, and a list of fragrance-free products that are widely available (including many PoC-specific products), can be found at http://eastbaymeditation.org/accessibility/scentfree.html.
    
    Some useful thoughts about chemical sensitivities, fragrances, race and gender can be found at http://www.brownstargirl.org/blog/fragrance-free-femme-of-colour-realness-draft-15 .

• There is space on the Summit registration form to share any additional accessibility-related needs you have with the organizers. We will do our best to reasonably accommodate those needs.

Location

This year, all Saturday and Sunday activities will be at Hilltop Montessori School. If you signed up for a Friday Field Trip, you will be receiving location details shortly!

There is no alcohol or tobacco use on campus. We will share details about walking-distance smoking areas off-campus during the Summit (or can share those with you before as well! Just email for details).

Housing

We are working on a number of different housing options this year including the possibility of offering free group housing. Details on all options are still coming together. We will update this page when we have more information. If you indicate you need housing on the registration form, we'll be in touch!

Additionally, we are encouraging some participant-organized group housing this year. If you are coming from outside the area and need housing, please sign up for the Out in the Open Facebook group (you'll receive details on how to do that after you register) and post your housing needs there. A number of folks are planning to rent AirBnBs or other spaces, and local folks have often housed Summit participants.

Additionally, of course, there are many other area options.