Defend + Restore is a community-centered daytime event focused on care, strengthening, and the sustainability of physical, mental, and emotional health. Join us to share skills and tactics of self-preservation in the wake of ongoing individual and collective traumas.

Free and donation-based workshops, trainings, and gatherings geared toward self-defense, intervention, strengthening, restoration, and care will be held in Knockdown Center’s backyard. In addition to scheduled events throughout the day, Defend + Restore includes an open-air marketplace featuring vendors who center health, well-being, homeopathic knowledge, and natural materials. Featuring naturally dyed goods by Jennie Maydew, hot sauce, condiments & concoctions by Process Park and more!!

All events are FREE unless otherwise noted!

Schedule:

2 – 4pm
Come early for bystander intervention training with Hollaback
Learn skills of nonviolent interventions to public harassment from cat calls to assault. Hollaback’s comprehensive training teaches you how to to assess your environment, deescalate harassment and find organic points of engagement.
RSVP Here

3 – 8pm
Open-Air Mini-Marketplace
Featuring vendors who center health, well-being, homeopathic knowledge, and natural materials.

3 – 5pm
Channeling Personal Power with Dyani Douze (sliding scale $20 – $40, cash only!)
QTPOC Reiki practitioner Dyani Douze offers 30 minute reiki sessions + Black Angel Card reading.

3 – 4pm
Self Defense workshop with POP Gym
All-ages introductory and accessible foundation to self defense from technique to theory!
RSVP Here

3 – 4pm
Knockdown Center Honey Tasting and Beekeeper Chats
Did you know that Knockdown Center keeps bees? Taste honey fresh from Knockdown’s rooftop hives! Learn about the wonders of the beehive as a fascinating model for collective decision-making. Did you know that 99% of honeybees are female? Beekeepers Caroline Paquita and Vanessa Thill will talk to you about nature’s oldest and sweetest matriarchy.

4 – 5pm
All-level Vinyasa Flow Yoga with Lauren Mulligan ($5-$10 suggested donation)
Donation based vinyasa flow for all levels with music!
RSVP Here

5 – 6pm
Self Defense workshop with POP Gym
All-ages introductory and accessible foundation to self defense from technique to theory!
RSVP Here

5 – 7pm
Oracle Card Readings with Yatta Zoker ($17 – $33 suggested donation!)
Yatta Zoker is a channel/diviner who uses a combination of Black Angel Cards, Tarot, and Life Purpose decks to give comprehensive readings that offer clarity and direction.

Readings are between 15 – 35 minutes and are by suggested donation of $33 for a full spread and $17 for a 3 card spread.

6 – 7pm
Body Technologies for Self-Care Workshop with Jaguar Mary (by donation)
Learn easy, ready-to-use strategies for your continued self-care with foundational practices and meditations that involve breath and movement.
RSVP Here

7 – 8pm
Gesturing Slowly Workshop with Camilo Godoy and Amanda Turner Pohan
Camilo Godoy and Amanda Turner Pohan will guide a slow meditation on physical greeting rituals, reflecting upon the ways in which our bodies are choreographed in society.

Spots still available to participate in the marketplace! To apply, please send information about yourself, organization/company, and what you offer to alexis@knockdowncenter.com.

Additional Details:

2pm
About Hollaback and Agunda Okeyo, Hollaback Facilitator
We at Hollaback are eager to share our bystander intervention training with a public invested in community building and culture change. Hollaback has worked for years on issues of sexual harassment and has long been at the forefront of nonviolent interventions to public harassment from cat calls to assault. At Defend + Restore at Knockdown Center we will facilitate a training that provides reflective strategies to assess your environment, deescalate harassment and find organic points of engagement including the 5 D’s of Bystander Intervention℠.

Agunda Okeyo is Hollaback!’s Bystander Intervention Program educator and trainer. She is a writer, producer, filmmaker and activist born in Nairobi and raised between New York City and the Kenyan capital. Okeyo understands and writes from a global perspective about race, gender, politics, culture, books, film, and comedy. She is published with Salon, The Daily Beast, Indiewire’s Women and Hollywood blog, For Harriet, O Magazine, Okay Africa, NBC and Women’s Media Center (WMC). A panoramic awareness has shaped her professional experience with organizations such as Duara Foundation, Demos: A Network for Ideas and Action, Re:Gender and Cultural Survival. She is lauded for her ongoing production at Caroline’s on Broadway called Sisters of Comedy. She has also produced comedy shows at Ginny’s Supper Club and Gotham Comedy Club. Okeyo has been featured as a rising producer and activist in Time Out New York, The New Yorker, Essence, The Root, Black Enterprise, The Hollywood Reporter, Forbes, NBC, Huffington Post and The New York Times. In 2016 she was named a Progressive Women’s Voices fellow with Women’s Media Center and joined the NYC board of Women, Action and the Media (WAM!NYC). Okeyo also serves as National Communications Chair for the March for Racial Justice in DC, NYC and nationwide this fall.

3pm – 5pm
About Channeling Personal Power and Dyani Douze
30 minute reiki sessions + Black Angel Card reading.

Dyani Douze is a QTPOC Reiki practitioner with a focus in working with anyone that yearns for self-expression and self-acceptance.

(Sliding Scale $20 – $40, cash only!)

3pm & 5pm
About Self-Defense workshops with POP Gym
Come by this FREE workshop to learn some introductory skills that will keep you feeling safe. We’ll be covering the basics: stretching, conditioning, technique, and theory, with the hope that participants will leave with some super useful foundations that will aid them in the day-to-day. Mix that in with some sweat and some movement, and you’ll have an accessible and confidence-boosting good time for all. Whether you are a beginner, or someone with experience, come work it out with us!

Open to all ages! We’ll be moving around, so participants should wear clothing in which they are comfortable stretching and sweating.

POP Gym is a new project, working towards opening a physical space in Brooklyn that offers free self-defense, fitness, and skill share classes 7 days a week. As we continue planning, we invite you to come by any of our events this summer! Our workshops have been described as, “fun”, “holistic” and “empowering”, and for any questions, comments, or inquiries for future workshops for you or your organizations, email us at info@popgym.org

4pm
About Vinyasa Flow Yoga with Lauren Mulligan

Lauren is a trained trauma-informed vinyasa instructor with focus on working with LGBTQIA +GNC and female-identified people. She believes that yoga as an intentional practice of self-care is deeply radical. Yogic philosophy counters contemporary dualistic ideology in favor of one of connection and interconnectedness. Living under capitalist heteropatriachal imperialist conditions means that each of us experience fracturing of the self and separation from others; this is how oppressive structures maintain their power. When we choose to come to our mats, we allow our bodies and minds to enter a space that does not endorse dualism, but rather focuses on synchronization of breath with movement, body with mind, self with other.

This class will be an all-level vinyasa flow class. No experience necessary, beginners and experienced practitioners alike are welcome to come share the space. Moving into our bodies, especially for those of us who occupy bodies that are policed in myriad ways is a step towards healing. This class is donation-based, if you have the means please consider donating, if monetary funds are not available to you at this time, please do come anyway, we want you in this space!

($5 – $10 suggested donation)

6pm
About Body Technologies for Self-Care and Jaguar Mary
Self-care is paramount during times of stress. Finding peace of mind while navigating the whirlwind of city life means that practicing self care is essential. And, since we live in a society that demands our attention and participation in ways we may find challenging at times, it helps if the tools we use are easily applicable and immediately effective. In this self-care workshop, we’ll work with the material that we all share and know; our own bodies. The Body contains an abundance of accessible technologies that can shift us to feeling strong and clear when our minds are disheartened and distracted. These technologies work and can be applied regardless of religious/spiritual beliefs, flexibility, or financial status. During the hour, Jaguar Mary will share some foundational practices and meditations that will involve breath, movement and group communication. You’ll have fun and leave the workshop with some easy, ready-to-use strategies for your continued self-care practice.

Jaguar Mary is a teacher, performance artist, filmmaker and glossolalia vocalist. She started chanting mantras at the age of eleven as a young buddhist practitioner. She created Sacred Circularties, a movement-based meditation experience that took place for six years in Sedona, Arizona and Bali, Indonesia. Jaguar Mary is here for the journey and continues to share and learn spirit and movement-focused experiences through her art and connection with community. Currently, she is a member of the Performance and Performance Studies MFA cohort at Pratt Institute.

7pm
About Gesturing Slowly
Camilo Godoy and Amanda Turner Pohan will guide a slow meditation on physical greeting rituals. This workshop will focus on the communicative function and sensory capabilities of these rituals to reflect upon the ways in which our bodies are choreographed in society. This workshop gently invites you to explore your body and its relationship to others.

Image Credit: Stephanie Acosta

Join us for the debut screening of Gavin Russom’s new film “Black Meteoric Star – No More White Presidents”. The 60 minute film contains a soundtrack by Black Meteoric Star, one of Russom’s aliases. A panel discussion with panelists Kali Holloway, Khury Petersen-Smith and Christopher Danowski will follow the screening.

About the film
“Black Meteoric Star – No More White Presidents” is a multi layered abstract film that I, a White, recently out Trans-Woman completed in January of 2017. For the film I developed what I am calling the “flash film” technique. Initially it was a structural device similar to the chance operations used by composers such as Joh Cage to get out of the practice of creating “slick” edits or “moves” predetermined by overarching institutionalized aesthetic norms. However, as I worked with it I began to discover that the technique, although certainly “experimental”, has more kinship with craft techniques I have practiced such as beading, knitting, weaving and braiding. Although on the surface it could simply be a long form music video for my Black Meteoric Star project it is in fact a complex of evocative and energetic themes gathered around the necessity for abolition and reparations. The themes that are “braided” or “beaded” together include a repetitive meditation on death, an assessment of global capitalism as so overburdened by the karma of the triple legacies of slavery, land theft/genocide and imperialism that it can no longer function, an invocation of several of the Orishas prominent in my path of priesthood in the Regla Lukumi and an exploration of my emerging Trans-Feminine identity. The intention of the film is to open up a territory for exploration and interpretation around our current predicament, allowing the viewer to come to their own conclusions about the specific details and possible solutions, both individually and through discussions with others. In the service of unpacking these themes in a group context I have invited three panelists; Kali Holloway, Khury Petersen-Smith and Christopher Danowski to participate in a discussion of the film following the screening. The panelists and myself will also take questions from the room.

About Gavin Russom
Gavin Rayna Russom is a New York based multimedia artist and composer of electronic music. She has produced some of the most interesting and influential art and music of the last 15 years both in collaborations such as Delia Gonzalez and Gavin Russom, Black Leotard Front and The Crystal Ark and as a solo artist under aliases such as Black Meteoric Star, Hail of Arrows and under her own name. In July of 2017 she publicly came out as Transgender. Much of her work is informed by her deep relationship with the analog synthesizer, a tool she has applied herself to not only as a composer and player but also as a designer and builder since 1999. In addition to recording and performing music she also creates the visual elements for her work including installations, music videos, record covers, costumes, sets and props. Russom is also a member of the groups Arthur Russell’s Instrumentals Directed by Peter Gordon, Sacred Ar†icle and LCD Soundsystem.

About the Panelists
Kali Holloway is Senior Writer and Associate Editor of Media and Culture at progressive news site AlterNet. She is co-curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s MetLiveArts 2017 summer performance and film series “Theater of the Resist,” and producer on the documentary Sunset and the Mockingbird. Previously, she was Director of Outreach and Audience Engagement for the HBO documentary Southern Rites, PBS documentary The New Public and the Emmy-nominated film Brooklyn Castle, and Outreach Consultant on the award-winning documentary The New Black. She worked in production and programming on the long-running PBS documentary film series POV. Prior to that, she was speechwriter for a New York City Commissioner and Deputy Director of Communications for the New York State court system. Her writing has appeared in AlterNet, Salon, The Guardian, TIME, Huffington Post, The National Memo, Yahoo! News, Jezebel, Truthout, Raw Story, xoJane, Google Music, Rhapsody and numerous other outlets.

Khury Petersen-Smith is a geographer and activist who lives in Boston. His forthcoming book, Rocket’s Red Glare: An introduction to U.S. empire (Haymarket, 2019), explores different dimensions of U.S. power on the world stage. His activism is wide-ranging, but has focused in particular on opposing U.S. empire, resisting racism, and solidarity with Palestine. Khury is the co-author of the 2015 Black Solidarity Statement With Palestine, which was signed by over 1,100 Black activists, artists, and scholars.

Christopher Danowski is a media/performance artist based in Phoenix, Arizona. He has written over eighty texts for performance works, and has presented work in living rooms, galleries, and unusual spaces (sometimes in theaters) in Phoenix, Brooklyn, Mérida, Dublin, Berlin and Kraków. He was artistic director of Theater in My Basement from 1999-2013, and now serves as a founding member of Howl Theatre Project. His book of writings, ‘Dog’s Ear’ is forthcoming this spring from Four Chambers Press. He has been teaching performance, theatre, and art in university settings since 2003. In June, 2017, he completed his doctorate from Plymouth University in the U.K. in Art and Media, linking together Afro-Cuban ritual techniques for spirit possession and method acting as transcultural performance methodology.

Join Ugly Duckling Presse for a party to celebrate the release of the 36th and final issue of their long-running poetry periodical 6×6. There will be readings from poets published in recent issues of the magazine and musical performances from some of today’s hottest acts.

Readers
Anna Gurton-Wachter
Anselm Berrigan
Bridget Talone
Chia-Lun Chang
Katy Lederer
Sarah Wang
Ted Dodson
Thibault Raoult
Tony Iantosca
Kristen Gallagher

Bands
Horse Lords
Foamola
Daniel Carter and Loren Connors
I Feel Tractor

About This Issue
6×6 #36 features poems by Anselm Berrigan, Chia-Lun Chang, Cheryl Clarke, Lisa Fishman, Vasilisk Gnedov (translated by Emilia Loseva & Danny Winkler), and Sarah Wang.

Suggested entry fee:
$5 – entry and 1 issue of 6×6
$10 – entry and 3 issues of 6×6
$20 – entry and 6 issues of 6×6 + 6×6 tote bag