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When? Jan 23rd, Thursday, at 6:00-8:00PM
Where? Common Barrack, Droevendaalsesteeg 77

Join us for an immersive evening where sound and music guide as in exploring new ways of imagining the future of our planet. In this workshop we invite you to reconnect with your senses and engage with the transformative power of listening through collective soundscapes and creative expression, we'll explore how listening can inspire action and hope for a liberated future. 

Led by Raziyah, also known as DJ Chinnamasta, the evening begins with a  grounding exercise—a listening practice designed to help us be fully present and attuned to our bodies.  
The central part of the workshop revolves around collective listening. We encourage each participant to bring a piece of sound material— whether a song, poem, diary entry, lullaby, gossip or anything else that resonates with the theme. Together we will share, discuss, and reflect on these sounds as a group. We will end the evening with a DJ set by Raziyah, inviting you to move your body and practice the listening skills cultivated throughout the session.

About Raziyah (DJ Chinnamasta) :
Raziyah Heath is a critic, hater and professional vibe killer. She works as a curator, researcher, programmer, lecturer, DJ and sound artist. She is a curious cat, overthinker, music enthusiast and all-round nerd and is primarily interested in friction, contradictions and controversy. At the moment she mainly delves into sonic realms/dimensions and uses DJ'ing under her alias "Chinnamasta" as her main medium for research and discoveries. Her research mainly delves into different methodologies of being, through sound, sound system culture and her Afro/Indo Caribbean heritage. 

Please keep in mind that there are limited spots so let us know if you can't join anymore via the form or by sending an email to otherwise@wur.nl

Accessibility:
At OtherWise, we strive to make our events as inclusive as possible. However, we acknowledge that this workshop may not be fully accessible to individuals with hearing and listening impairments. For any feedback or suggestions, please feel free to reach out to us. 

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(PLEASE NOTE: THE DATE HAS BEEN SHIFTED FROM THE 19TH OF JANUARY TO THE 8TH OF FEBRUARY)

When?  8th Feb, Saturday at 11:00

Where?  Zone2source, Amstelpark 4, 1083HZ, Amsterdam

What?  The artwork Otterdam was inspired by the return of the otter to Amsterdam after 50 years

or absence. These iconic wetland beings returned to the capital during a period of
unprecedented drought in the Netherlands and Europe, like an omen at a time when it is
becoming clear that we need to radically reimagine our relationship to the water.
For the vast majority of human existence non-humans were highly valued guides. As John
Berger put it: “the domestication of cattle did not begin as a prospect of milk and meat.
Cattle had magical functions, sometimes oracular, sometimes sacrificial, living by voices
we may never hear.” With the otter as a guide, Otterdam is as much a practice as it is a
structure. It's an embodied exploration of wetland gardening, ecology and the joys of
'ottering'

What we'll do:

In this workshop we explore non-human guidance in life, art and gardening. We'll do a few
experiments and discuss non-human guidance, human-animal cooperation.
Writer Paul Kingsnorth described the need for 'humans to rejoin the Great Conversation
among Life on Earth'. This workshop explores living within a much broader horizon, and as
the Elders say, being part of a community starts with tuning in.

We're organizing group tickets to Amsterdam. If you'd like to travel with us without being part of the group ticket that is also welcome :) Lunch served at the site after the workshop. 

Maximum participants: 15, sign up quickly!

Aralez, a grassroots network and organization for Decolonization based in Amsterdam, is facilitating a decolonial activist program in the upcoming months. OtherWise has decided to sponsor 5 students to attend this incredible program. To apply, write an email to otherwisewageningen@gmail.com briefly explaining why you’d like to take this interactive course, and we’ll get back to you! 

What is the Decolonial Activist Program?
The Decolonial Activist Program is part of an educational initiative centered around the Pan-Decolonial Reparations Manifesto, which emerged from Aralez’s annual decolonial reparations conference in April 2024. This manifesto articulates reparatory demands directed towards Dutch institutions and state actors in relation to the global South and former and present-day colonies. The Decolonial Activist Program consists of 5 bi-weekly sessions that offer deeper insights into the history and present-day manifestations of colonialism, as well as concrete strategies and tools to actively contribute to change. Each session blends theoretical knowledge with practical strategies. We offer participatory gatherings that combine lectures, interactive exercises, group discussions and individual reflections.

Additionally, after each session, participants will receive a learning question to reflect on at home, allowing us to learn not only from the sessions but also from each other’s experiences and insights. We encourage participants to commit to the full program, enabling us to delve deeper and build a stronger collective movement.

What is the content of the Decolonial Activist Program about?
The five sessions cover the following themes:

1. Understanding Colonialism through Decolonial Theory and History

2. From Colonialism to Neo-Colonialism: Liberation Movements from the Global South

3. Unpacking Holistic Reparations and Their Application to Our Social Movements

4. Strategies for Change: How Can We Influence Our Social Movements?

5. From Theory to Action: Tools for Organizing, What Can We Do?

More info about the sessions and trainers can be found here.

Dates of the sessions:
26th of January between 13:00 and 17:00 
9th of February between 13:00 and 17:00 
23rd of February between 13:00 and 17:00 
9th of March between 13:00 and 17:00 
23rd of March between 13:00 and 17:00 

Practical information:
*The sessions are bi-weekly and include a total of 5 sessions, we expect participants to be able to join the whole series when signing up.
*The Session will take place in Amsterdam in person.
*Each session will be 4 hours in total, as well as some 2-3 hours prep reading and watching materials for which we will provide a curriculum.

*Participation costs 50 to 100 euro in total, but OtherWise will cover this.

Send an email to otherwisewageningen@gmail.com expressing your interest for the sponsored place!

January 20^th: Critique of the current system: Principles of collaboration.

What is this workshop about?

This workshop will focus on how WUR currently operates, how decisions are made with who we collaborate with as a university, and in particular, identifying key issues with the current system. 

What will we be doing in the workshop? 

The workshop will consist of short keynotes to set the scene, focusing on fossil fuel ties (keynote speaker: Aaron Pereira, Solid Sustainability Research), colonialism and genocide (keynote speaker: Jennifer Veilleux, WUR), and WUR's principles of collaboration (Wageningen for Palestine), before moving into interactive breakout groups. In these breakout groups, you'll be guided by a facilitator to brainstorm about and problematize WUR's current collaboration system. We will then come together to harvest our learnings and discuss how to move forward collectively. Throughout the workshop, there will also be opportunities for connection, as well as for learning about some of the different movements involved at WUR. We will use the insights gained in this workshop as a framework for the next event, where we reimagine the collaboration system.

(more info here)

Read more and sign up here: Core-training Spiritual Ecology - winter & spring 2025

What is Spiritual Ecology?

Spiritual Ecology starts with the acknowledgement that the global ecological crisis, which cannot be separated from the social, economic and political crises, is also the defining crisis of the human species. We are being challenged as a species, to ‘grow up or to get out of the way’, according to Thich Nhat Hanh.

The good news is that the universe is a self-aware creative process, and this pure creative potentiality is in us too. It can awaken and free itself from the limiting identities and illusion of separateness we hold as human beings. We are much larger, stronger, deeper and more creative than we’ve grown accustomed to believing.

This paradigm shift requires of us a decolonizing of our mind, a deeper listening from a more humbled place within how to be a human being for all life to thrive. As the Tibetan Buddhist teacher Akong Rinpoche used to say when travelling with his aid organization through Tibet, “only the impossible is worth doing”.

With the Core-training we offer a practical and transformative journey both personally and collectively. The Spiritual Ecology practices we offer come from indigenous and ancient wisdom traditions, systems theory, neuroscience, Kincentric leadership, the Work that Reconnects, nature connection and engaged mindfulness and compassion practices.

By exploring our experiences inside and in relating to the human and more-than-human world we invite different ways of knowing to access the wisdom in the group. We want to create a space where we can relax, where we can embrace our humanness (being a 'compassionate mess') and support one another in our membership of the group and the larger community of life, finding our own unique part to play in contributing to a better world.

Practical details
6 days in person + 2 online sessions
In person: 15 -16 Feb, 22-23 March, 10-11 May 2025, from 10.00 – 17.30

Online sessions via Zoom: 13th of March & 17th of April 2025 from 19.30 – 21.00 CET
Location: KenKon Training Centre, Nieuwe Kanaal 11, Wageningen.

When? December 19th, 17h-20h

Where? Dance room, WUR clockhouse (https://maps.app.goo.gl/g9ZZqiBim5MC4HYz7)

Unlearning toxic masculinity in ourselves and our activism
On Thursday December 19th the Utrecht based ‘unlearning toxic masculinity’ collective Patriarkraakt will give a workshop at the WUR Activist Academy. 
While we are often focused on changing others, the world and the future, we’ve all internalized unhealthy characteristics of the current system that deeply influence our lives and our activism. One of the main areas where there is a gap between the world we long for and our daily reality are gendered relations and the gendered ways in which we operate. Unhealthy aspects of masculinity and patriarchy continue to be present and even celebrated in personal relations, group dynamics and movement culture.
Whether it is toxic heroic and burnout activism being encouraged, acts of (self)care being invisibilized or downplayed, men taking up too much space, normalizing or not adressing transgressive behavior, etcetera – from intimate relationships to mass movement culture, unhealthy gendered interactions are sadly still too prevalent.
Patriarkraakt works to make visible, discuss and change harmful gender dynamics, and proposes that all activists, groups and movements implement such practices as an integral part of their activism. In this way people get the insights and the tools to start creating the world they’d like to see in the here and now so as to make activism safer, more sustainable and more fun for everyone.

We think all of us have internalised some bits of the patriarchy, but to different degrees. We want to encourage everyone to be open and reflecting on themselves - having a brave space to learn, but also being caring with the painful experiences participants might be reminded of. Although we invite everyone to be part of a 'brave space' in which we can be vulnerable, open and learn, we cannot guarantee a safe space for everyone.