On a bright dry 4th of July, last Saturday we held a Pooling Party. We thought of this event as a gathering of people to explore the Everdayness of the second year of Flow.Walk.Drag. In short, how can we embed what we learned from walking with Cholera and E. coli last year to sustain and embed radical generosity and wonder into the everyday.
One of our main lessons was the need to check our capacity, recognise the high and low tides in our own bodies when working towards ecological citizenship. We wanted to share thoughts about sharing resources, mutual aid and countering a scarcity mind-set that can set in when we sit in climate grief.
The event was part workshop and part cultivating connections, through imaginings and nourishing ourselves with a shared meal, plus welcoming our Margate partners to Liverpool.
We started with a brief temperature check of our own capacities then gentled gathered into smaller groups around 3 questions, separate but interconnected. These questions were asked in relation to everyone’s individual activities and projects, aiming to share experiences and learn through different perspectives, which can be reflected and applied to our own situations.
- What core element holds your everyday practice together?
- How can we connect our existing pools / capacities?
- What is the story we are carrying?
The first question addresses the source, the main component, and that a project together. For Flow.Walk.Drag. this is water. Water histories, water bodies, water sites, water futures. We had a couple sample of local water to make this substance tangible to everyone.
The second question is being attentive to the existing capacities around us. Who and what is already around us, as none of us arrive alone. Here we mapped our pool to reflection what feeds, nourishes it, what provides rest and care, what enlarges it, and how can we merge our networks?
The third question questioned the stories we hear around us, and wonder if there can be other, better stories to help us make sense of the world. We are inspired by Ursula Le Guin’s Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, one that posits a bag as the first tool, rather than a spear, and asks us reexamine all the hero journey stories we are use to.
After the small group discussions of around 30 minutes, we gathered back again to share the conversations as a wider group.
It is at this point we introduce the ‘wild card’ element. The special sauce that brings a project its uniqueness. For Flow.Walk.Drag. – it’s the queer joy of microbial drag. We closed with everyone offering their own ‘wild card’ to gift to the group.
We were able to digest the morning experience alongside the lunch of salad and spreads – having more relaxed conversations throughout the space at Squash – including the outdoor garden. Our intention was to continue the questions, without feeling pressured to resolve anything. We are swimming in the same waters, looking out for each other while being carried away. We encouraged curiosity, a tiny bit of discomfort and a lot of flow.
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