RiVAL: the ReImagining Value Action Lab is pleased to host a series of boardgame nights to experiment with board games for social justice. Visit rival.lakeheadu.ca/games for more information.

On October 13 we will be playing RISE UP: THE GAME OF PEOPLE AND POWER by the TESA Collective (http://www.toolboxfored.org/project/rise-up/).

No experience is necessary. Please feel free to bring a beverage and a snack to share. We enjoy a little good-natured competition but “winning” is not the objective. Rather, we are interested in exploring how board-games and other forms of participatory learning and tactical frivolity have been and could be used as vehicles to radicalize the imagination and help us think anew about our struggles for social justice. We also believe that play and fun are part of the means and the ends of social justice.

This event is open to the public, but please let us know you’re coming.

RiVAL is a scent-sensitive space – please refrain from using strong chemical and perfume products. RiVAL welcomes people of all ages to most of its events. RiVAL is not a barrier-free space: there are about 20 steps between the PACI building entrance and RiVAL.

RiVAL, the ReImagining Value Action Lab is pleased to host Cassie Thornton’s Feminist Economics Yoga on Tuesdays at noon in room 2002 of Lakehead University’s PACI campus (Law School).

The classes are by-donation, and are open to the public. No one who wants to participate will be turned away. This form of yoga is accessible to people with all types of bodies and most ability-levels. If you have any questions, please contact Cassie below.

The series pairs the theme feminist economics with kundalini yoga.

In short, feminist economics centres feminized practices of care, health and the reproduction of life. It works towards a future economy and political social system based on these values. Feminist economics is not just aimed at people who identify as women: it is for all people who are suffering under the current economic system (whether they are poor or rich). This class is informed by Cassie’s work over the past decade counseling and organizing people with financial trauma, massive indebtedness and economic hardship towards personal and collective liberation.

Kundalini Yoga is a challenging but accessible practice that focuses on coordinated breath and movement. It is designed to heal the nervous system, spine and brain. These are all areas of the body that are affected by the brutal experience of capitalism and the damage done in our efforts to survive it.

The combination of feminist economics with kundalini yoga aims to address the ways that economic issues impact on the body, the mind, and the heart of individuals. The harm they do extends to our whole social world. In each class we aim to think again about our individual experiences of financial scarcity, indebtedness, unemployment (or underemployment, or simply unhappy employment), housing insecurity and our general stress and anxiety. These are all the result of the failed political and economic system we live under. We are not failed people. We can heal and transform this system together.

For more information, visit rival.lakeheadu.ca/yoga

RiVAL: the ReImagining Value Action Lab is pleased to host an open-house on Friday, October 13 from 5-7pm (followed by our regular Games of Empire social-justice board game night).

– Come see RiVAL’s facilities which exist to facilitate community meetings, research-creation collaborations, cooperative learning and audio/video production.
– This event is also the launch of RiVAL’s new VAGABONDS series and the first pamphlet in that series, RiVAL Director Max Haiven’s firey “Towards a Materialist Theory of Revenge: The Lives of Witches.” Haiven will introduce the series and read from the text.
– The artist Cassie Thornton, RiVAL research-creation associate, will also discuss her Feminist Economics Yoga project, which offers ‘free’ yoga classes on Tuesdays at noon at RiVAL (starting September 12).

* This is a casual drop-in event. The formal talk portion will be from 5:30-6pm
* Attendees are warmly invited to stay afterwards and join us for our Games of Empire board game night.
* People of all ages are welcome to attend.
* RiVAL is a scent-free zone.
* RiVAL is sadly not a barrier-free space. There are about 20 steps between the accessible areas of PACI and the lab.