July happenings at Animist Arts
in person salon, online play jams, and a new workshop
The grass is crisping up under the long days of sun, and river water temperatures have gone from Fucking Cold to Sharp Inhale Then It's All Good here in the Cascadia bioregio.
In this newsletter:
Play to Find Out Salon Deep Steep July 22-23rd
New workshop about self intimacy and immersive play
patreon updates- drop in sessions now available
July 22nd-23rd is the Play to Find Out Experience Deep Steep, in-person in PDX
Located at Bridgespace Commons 133 Southeast Madison Street
Facilitated by members of Animist Arts and Participatory Arts Collective
The basic breakdown of the weekend:
Saturday July 22nd daytime : longform practices, meandering through meditation, movement, sound, writing, painting. We will shed and release, shed and release, unwind unwind unwind.
Saturday July 22nd evening: We will have our Play to Find Out Salon! This will be more dynamic, sustainable risk taking. Potluck food and music. People can bring any kind of works in progress art, experiments, or requests. Participatory arts games and structures will be facilitated, possibly by a few chAracTerS!...
Sunday July 23rd: Longform digest, reflect, and integrate. More movement, meditation, writing, and play as we collectively look at what has happened and shown up for us in the time together.
For more information go here
(there may be some discrepancies with descriptions as we hone in the details, we are a nascent collective of artists w/ limited time and chronic health conditions thank you)
Suggested sliding scale donation breakdown and exact timing can be found on the event page, NOTAFLOF
You can RSVP by emailing me (Larissa) at larissakaul@gmail.com, and I will add you to our Participatory Arts mailing list.
*NEW*: Diddling with Distortion: Reworking our inner narratives toward enduring self-intimacy (with Larissa)
Monday July 31st 5:30-7:30pmPST
Developing self-talk, or inner voices that uplift you, clear your perception, and offer wisdom can save your butt. Our inner running narratives are in play almost all the time, and they have very real effects on our physiology and behavior. When we tinker at this level we can clean up major energy drains and thought-noise that makes it hard to listen for and follow what is actually most useful or fun. It is possible to develop inner voices that are so potent they can spark a similar feeling of being heard and encouraged by a trusted external source, a friend, partner, or family member.
In this workshop we will focus our attention on the question: "What are my beliefs and inner narratives about immersive play?" Immersive play refers to the direct experience of both participating and being absorbed in a dynamic set of relationships, where we are receiving ordinary pleasure from unpredictable contact, flow, and consequences, and where we relax the need to assert our separation or become possessive of our experiences of connection. It's the state that reminds us why being alive together is really fucking cool, and you realize you don't care about explaining it. As artists and/or space holders we can develop a lot of beliefs about when, where, how, or why we might engage in immersive play or not. We might associate certain risks with the state itself, forcing ourselves to silo or contain it inappropriately.
We will use meditation, creative prompts, and live feedback to get clear on a few core narratives/beliefs we are running related to immersive play, and then reconfigure them into jewel-like, life sustaining, spine tingling landmarks of wisdom in our thoughtscapes.
Free for all patrons on Patreon, non-patrons can buy tickets here
This workshop will be recorded
What’s happening on Patreon
You Feeling Me Feeling You (L) expressive meditation continues! More or less every two weeks on Tuesday mornings.
Bring settling and coherence to yourself and your networks through the natural celebration of the relationship between things. We enter "expressive meditation" ; movement, sound, stillness, and play sourced from the subtle/energetic. This is a complete practice on its own, but also contributes to a well nourished baseline state that allows us to show up more fully for death clown methods, writing/drawing or really any creative expression, our work as facilitators and practitioners, and more.
Nondual Theater Jam Virtual (part of the Playground tier)
You can now buy drop in tickets to these sessions even if you’re not part of the playground tier on patreon! Requires a minimum of 5 people signed up to run, so sign up early and protect your time.
Weds 7/12 5:30-8pmPST **drop in tickets here
Sunday 7/30 10am-12:30pmPST **drop in tickets here
For July our Nondual Theater Jam Virtual sessions Larissa will help us focus on the principles of Organic Deviance and Ecstatic Restraint. We will build our capacity to enjoy working from Totality, incorporating exiled elements like pain and exhaustion in our expression as opposed to narrow definitions of art or beauty (organic deviance). We will also train in how to ride out intense energy shifts and release without overwhelming ourselves or the collective field (ecstatic restraint).
watch the intro video to organic deviance and ecstatic restraint here
This is Embodied Research guided by nondual (holistic) animist  principles, the roots of creative expression, and play. Devising as  metabolizing, and metabolizing as devising! Varies each month. Training  in light ritual improv, devising, subtle sensing, and co-dreaming. They  will include elements from previous offerings like Deathclown methods,  Social Curious, lay the f*ck down, What Play Be, as well as our combined  training in Viewpoints, Buffon, Butoh, Systemic Constellations, Theater  of the Oppressed, Physical Theater, and more. As always our knowledge  of nervous system health, how organisms learn, and nondual animist  relating will steward everything we do.
*Cut off to sign up is one hour before start time. *