The Language of Tomorrow
The Language of Tomorrow
Joy meets justice, guerilla gardeners, and how to transform the world one playful act at a time
Dear friends,
As adrienne maree brown has contemplated, “Right now we are in a fast river together — every day there are changes that seemed unimaginable until they occurred.” The unbelievable atrocities we either witness or read about paralyze us, numb our senses, and make us doubt what difference we could possibly make. We erect barriers between ourselves and others and often shut down. Yet it is by navigating this swift current together that we can dismantle the walls, and discover collective strength and resilience.
For the longest time, I’ve been fascinated by human imagination and how it can weave our stories of struggles and longings into a healing togetherness. Some call it radical, fierce imagination. To me, this is the language of tomorrow — a language vast enough to encompass all the complexities and mysteries we contain and cultivate a commitment to humanity.
We need language that honors fragility, replenishes and orients us in exploring our lives, relationships, and purpose. The language of tomorrow is our lingua franca, reclaiming kindness, courage, and, very importantly, play! For play is the antidote to control, the remedy for boredom. Play nourishes our minds by planting the seeds for curiosity to grow. It is an embrace of resistance to the hatred and pain that permeate the current state of the world. This month we delve into Playtivism and its power to revolutionize activism with creativity and joy.
Our guest is Samantha Rizzi — a gentle, luminous companion in the exploration of the human nervous system. She shares her story of navigating life with a neurodivergent compass and being a clinical psychologist. Her words are not just revelatory but offer strategies for building warmhearted inclusivity and serving the neurodivergent community. She sheds light on the much-needed shift from viewing autism purely in terms of deficits to appreciating and valuing these inherent strengths.
Read our conversation here.
This newsletter is an invitation to persistent and loving learning about how we can be with each other. Inspired by the concept of guerrilla gardening, I crafted “Seeds for the Language of Tomorrow” – a tiny little guide with ingredients fuelling resistance and joy.
SEEDS
Imagination: New pathways to orient us in these tumultuous times; to help us shift from fear and ego to building a reality based on what we love, hope, and long for.
Emotional liberation: Subscribing to politics of authenticity and honesty. Being open about our feelings, insecurities, and fears is the foundation of deep and meaningful engagement.
Nurturing our brains and bodies: Understanding that what’s happening inside us affects everyone around us is crucial. Seeking help and metabolizing stress help us be present to the suffering and injustice from a place of compassion and love.
Play is how we create new ways of living.
Belonging: Community means people building upon love to make a better society for everyone.
Reverence for Nature: Mother, Home, Teacher, kindest Companion, and Healer — Nature embodies all these roles. It’s time to re-interpret our relationship with it, prioritizing reciprocity of care and reshaping our sense of Self, intertwining it with the natural world.
Soulful conversations: laughter, change of perspective, eyes full of tears, warmth, and vulnerability are all signs of the encounters that change us on a cellular level.
Curiosity, questioning, and courage: tools for immersive exploration of our life on this planet.
May they grow wild!
🪺 Cabinet of Curiosities
𖥧 Playtivism: Revolutionizing Activism with Creativity and Joy
Imagine activism infused with the vibrancy of play and the transformative power of art. Playtivism is a groundbreaking approach coined by Yana Buhrer Tavanier. Far from the conventional solemnity of activism, it leverages whimsical, artistic methods to drive social change and foster hope. Playtivism is not just a methodology but a lifeline for activists battling burnout. By blending creativity and experimentation, it rejuvenates the drive for change and makes activism more inclusive and impactful.
Tavanier's brainchild, Fine Acts, epitomizes this innovative spirit. As a global creative studio, it unites activists, artists, and technologists to craft compelling art and campaigns that tackle pressing social and environmental issues. From public art interventions to engaging installations and inventive board games, Fine Acts’ projects spark new ideas and propel meaningful action.
⚘ Meet Luuk and Jenny, the Guerilla Gardeners of Amsterdam, turning their neighborhood into a verdant sanctuary.
“I’d say everybody should go out and start digging up their street and planting plants”
༄ Leveraging the Power of Your Self-Awareness
Experts from the HeartMath Institute introduce a key technique for achieving brain-heart coherence: slow, mindful breathing through the heart while focusing on positive emotions. They also present their Depletion to Renewal Grid, an insightful tool that helps us recognize which emotions energize us and which drain our energy daily. By noticing what’s happening in our minds and bodies, we can consciously shift our emotions in a positive direction. This exercise is designed to make us more aware of our emotional states, allowing us to understand and change them intentionally.
𖥧 Breathing with the Forest by Marshmallow Laser Feast
What if you could experience life as one of the Earth's largest organisms, vital to an entire ecosystem? How would it feel to support the complex web of relationships within a forest? With this unique interactive online experience, Marshmallow Laser Feast offers you a chance to immerse yourself in the hidden dynamics of the Colombian Amazon's trees and mycelial networks. Guided by the soothing voice of Colin Salmon and surrounded by the natural symphony of birds, moving water, and chirping insects, this sensory journey invites you to explore the seamless cycles of molecular exchange between trees, soil, and sky, blurring the boundaries between yourself and the forest.
𖤣 Movement Power: A Toolkit for Building People Power in a Time of Crisis (Zine)
⸙ Inside the Student Movement that Forced Ireland’s Trinity College to Divest from Israel
𖥧 In this episode of Know Thyself, renowned author Dr. Gabor Maté delves into the topic of disease, mental health, and addiction in our society, bringing to light the significant misunderstanding and lack of open discussion around trauma. He challenges conventional ideas of normalcy and offers insights into healing trauma within a culture that can perpetuate toxicity. He also explores how past traumas influence our subconscious behaviors, emphasizing the role of awareness and compassionate inquiry in the healing process.
⸙ Decoding the EU Elections: Insights from Experts across Europe
Last month, voters across 27 European Union member states participated in this year's EU election, part of a pivotal "super election year." The results are crucial not only for the EU's future but also for Europe's role in a changing global context. Eight past and present fellows of the IWM's Europe's Futures program share their insights on the election's outcome, offering expert viewpoints on its potential to reshape political dynamics in Brussels and beyond.
📖☕Book of the Month
Why don’t we start reading together?
This June, at my favorite local café, at the airport, or on the metro, the book that occupies my time (and mind) is “Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good” by the brilliant adrienne maree brown.
“Our radical imagination is a tool for decolonization, for reclaiming our right to shape our lived reality.”
adrienne maree brown is a scholar of imagination, a scholar of rebellion.
Can justice and liberation be our most pleasurable collective experiences? In the book, she compiles essays, interviews, and poems to guide readers toward radical self-love and pleasure. Drawing mainly from the experiences of Black women, she includes diverse voices, presenting their pursuit of pleasure as both resistance and a path to liberation.
brown covers topics from sex work to climate change and explores how politics can feel good. Each section ends with practical exercises, encouraging readers to rebuild their relationship with pleasure and integrate it into activism, sex education, and personal healing.
Once we experience true pleasure, we can't return to lesser ways of living. Inspired by Audre Lorde’s work on the erotic, she broadens the concept to all aspects of life, arguing that pleasure is fundamental, not a luxury. She demystifies taboo subjects and offers new perspectives on self-love and liberation, blending creativity and lived experience, offering wisdom that educates, empowers, and delights.
🕵Opportunities
European Citizens’ Initiative - an opportunity to become directly involved in the European democratic process, allowing you to have a greater say in EU policies that affect your life.
AU (remote) Salzburg Global Seminar Impact Fellow, Leadership Exchange Asia Project
BE Young European Greens Community Officer (July 14)
CA Carbon Conversations Comms Volunteer
CH Jacobs Foundation Global Senior Program Manager (July 21)
DE Allianz Foundation Werkstudent*in Social Media (July 8)
DK Google News Initiative News Impact Summit: Fighting climate misinformation
FR En Avant Toute(s) Ecoutant·e et Accompagnateur·ice Psychosocial·e
FR Plan International Responsable des programmes humanitaires (July 31)
FR Institut du Genre en Géopolitique Chargé·e de rédaction-analyse
NL Women Engage for a Common Future Project & Financial Administrator for WECF International (July 12)
TH UNESCO Regional Evaluation Associate (October 7)
US International Rescue Committee (IRC) Gender Equity Intern (Aug 23)
💻Free Humanitarians Part-time content creator
💻Women's Link Worldwide Development Associate
💻The New Lede Part-time environmental news reporter
💻Womankind Worldwide Call for Research Consultancy: Her Voice Fund (July 8)
G20 Global Land Initiative Become a Ye! Youth Ecopreneur Mentor (July 7)
Earth Journalism Network Fellowships for Journalists to Cover the UN Biodiversity Conference in Colombia (July 6)
Earth Journalism Network Newly Green: A Course on the Green Recovery and Just Transition for Journalists free
Earth Journalism Network It's a Wash: Reporting on Greenwashing Microcourse free
European Commission Youth4Regions: a program for aspiring journalists (July 8)
World Trade Organization Young Trade Leaders Programme (July 5)
Giving Joy Grants 2024 for Women-led Initiatives (Sep 30)
Pulitzer Center Reporting Grants & Fellowships (Rolling applications)
Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund (IIE-SRF) Fellowship (Rolling basis)
Mongabay Y. Eva Tan Conservation reporting fellowship (Aug 10)
Solutions Journalism Network Climate Peer Network (an open space for journalists to discuss challenges and opportunities and share best practices on climate solutions journalism)
ATLAS Global Summit 2024 🗓️ July 20-21st 🗺️ Online
📚Recommended Reading
Autistic Planet by Jennifer Elder
Different Like Me: My Book of Autism Heroes by Jennifer Elder
Not Even Wrong: A Father's Journey into the Lost History of Autism by Paul Collins
Send in the Idiots: Stories from the Other Side of Autism by Kamran Nazeer
Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism by Roy Richard Grinker
With love,
Iva