Tania Ehret

Revolutionary program empowers girls with media literacy and activism skills

taniaehret — Tue, 20 Dec 2016 13:55:48 +0000

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

#HerDigitalVisions is an afterschool program that works with self-identified girls, building media literacy skills in order to better establish power in an online world.

In this social media age where the youth demographic is expected to be proficient in all media platforms and propel this technological evolution at an unprecedented rate, it truly matters who continues to take up space and whose voices are at the table.

If young people, particularly marginalized and underrepresented voices, "don't have the skills to use online, they don't have a voice in society," said Megan Ryland, program coordinator of #HerDigitalVisions, a project of B.C.-based organization Access to Media Education Society (AMES).

Take down centuries of bloody money with Decolonize Now!

rabble staff — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 14:38:29 +0000

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Amai Kuda, Kimalee Phillip, and Amy Desjarlais from Decolonize Now! discussed decolonizing social movements and the urgency of revolutionary change in education.

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What would a truly ecologically sustainable economy look like?

rabble staff — Tue, 13 Oct 2015 15:00:28 +0000

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Who is really benefiting when we speak about economic growth? David Suzuki and Peter Victor discuss economic strategies and the environmental movement at a panel in Vancouver.

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For anarchism and Indigenous resistance: Checking in with Medicine Groove Trio

taniaehret — Thu, 11 Jun 2015 06:34:16 +0000

It's been a while since I visited the importance of claiming space for radical politics in art, and the importance therein, of art as a tool for positive change. In my search for examples of this kind of art in practice, I came across Medicine Groove Trio -- founded by French musician Jean Michel Wizenne -- a band created on the principles of anarchism and Indigenous resistance, and moulded by the founder's experiences within Lakota Sioux family. I corresponded with Wizenne to ask a few questions about their work.

1. What is the mission of Medicine Groove trio?

#FierceVoices launches in Vancouver

taniaehret — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 02:39:52 +0000

On Wednesday, March 25, women and allies gathered despite the rain, at Heartwood Community Café, to hear speakers chat about women's representation in media, and create media engagement tools. This was the first in the #fiercevoices women and media series, organized by rabble.ca and Women Transforming Cities (WTC).

The evening was kicked off by founder and editor of gender-focus.com, Jarrah Hodge, as well as popular radio personality and writer, Jen Sookfong Lee. They both spoke of their personal experiences as women involved in media in various capacities. They also provided an overall analysis of female representation.

Heartwood Community Café provides social change through social space in Vancouver

rabble staff — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 23:17:17 +0000

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

The Heartwood Community Café has launched the #ourheartwood campaign to highlight digital storytelling from its community and inspire social change.

Radical social change initiatives can form just about anywhere, inspired by a complex set of interlocking barriers and systems, designed to keep us apart. But these initiatives grow in more depth and with so much more light, when they have elements of community gathering to replenish and refill our human need for care.

Enter: social spaces, such as Heartwood Community Café in Vancouver, that act as a satellite for social movements and all forms of organizing to bloom.

Searching for media democracy amid mainstream corporatocracy

rabble staff — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 16:02:48 +0000

Monday, November 10, 2014

We need media democracy! Luckily Media Democracy Days were held this weekend where everything from the digital divide to the politics of representation were discussed.

I cannot remember the last time I watched or listened to a mainstream news outlet and actually felt more informed, more engaged and more like an empowered member of a mass citizenry, instead of feeling cheated, disillusioned and enraged at whose voices were repeated over and over again.

Probably because that has never happened.

Last Friday, Nov 7, kicked off Media Democracy Days (MDD). Founded in 2001, this annual event (now expanded into a weekend) celebrates independent and democratic media in Canada.

Save the Salish Sea: Celebrating the growing culture of resistance

rabble staff — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 14:56:19 +0000

Monday, August 11, 2014

The Save the Salish Sea gathering in Vancouver this weekend reminds us that activism can be a person with a megaphone, a person on stage or a person celebrating the culture of resistance.

Creating a vibrant community of widespread resistance begins in your own backyard. Or more accurately, on the unceded Indigenous territory that we in Vancouver reside.

Organized by the Tsleil-Waututh Nation Sacred Trust, the Third Annual Save the Salish Sea Summer Gathering at Cates Park/Whey-ah-Wichen, Sunday Aug 10, set out to demonstrate a legacy of activist culture, in preparation for a continued fight ahead against further oil and gas development and the frontline communities most affected by it.

Smash the system with Granny Power

taniaehret — Sun, 18 May 2014 19:25:38 +0000

Picture a group of militant anti-war activists occupying the office of your local recruitment centre. They're arrested and taken away. Chances are, the immediate image in your mind is not that of older adults, especially older women. This stereotypical image is precisely what the Raging Grannies, are setting out to challenge.

Evan Greer and Anne Feeney bring radical tunes to B.C.

taniaehret — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 02:42:33 +0000

I've done a lot of pontificating on the importance of taking back public space and building community, as a form of radical activism, in and of itself. Varying strategies in engaging communities, of all levels, make for more leverage and accessibility in mass mobilization. Music and art are an incredibly important component of this. Not everyone will have the same motivation to lead a march or organize a protest, but art opens up the door for more people to become activists.

This is where rabble-rousers Evan Greer and Anne Feeney come in.

Recipe ideas during your vegan challenge

Vegan Challenge — Sat, 19 Apr 2014 21:40:06 +0000

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Dinner with Goebbels: Come out to a new and original political theatre production

taniaehret — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 01:09:40 +0000

This month, The Red Sand Castle Theatre will be showing Dinner with Goebbels, the dinner party for three figureheads of propaganda, now in its third run.

The play, a production of Act 2 Studio Works, part of a program for older adults at Ryerson Univeristy, was written by first-time playwright Mark Leith. Leith states that the production was motivated by the way in which Edward Bernays, the American nephew of Sigmund Freud, influenced Joseph Goebbels (Hitler's Minister of Propaganda) during the Holocaust.

The Double Rainbow Dodgeball League: Creating inclusivity in team sports

taniaehret — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 02:03:16 +0000

For anyone who has felt isolated and/or disenchanted by the heteronormative and zealous methods of high school phys ed, alternatives do exist.

Co-organizers Coree Tull and Kathryn Best set out to start the league as lovers of the game who were interested in trying to create a safe "sport space" for all genders and allies that is queer and trans positive. The league is a drug- and alcohol-free non-profit community that focuses on inclusivity and fun, rather than aggression and competition. In fact, the most experience you need have is elementary school gym class!

Coree and Kathryn assert that the league practices community collaboration by the principles of being "respectful, supportive and accessible to as many people as possible."

Doing it together

taniaehret — Sun, 19 Jan 2014 23:45:40 +0000

When I look back on my upbringing amid a small bible belt town in southwestern B.C., it's become more and more of a jumbled vignette; feelings of alienation and bitterness, and that of sorrow. Sorrow because I gave up.

As soon as I could, I ran off into the sunset of the city, in a black and white haze of righteous politics. Perhaps like all eager and idealistic young agitators, I imagined it so simply.

1. Meet other activists. 2. Develop a perfect little radical community. 3. Make everything better.

And possibly in a similar vein to many people reading this, I was not immune to the sneaky little dark spots known as burn-out and disillusionment.

'Corporations in our Heads' explores exploitative corporate culture and consumer awareness

Kaitlin McNabb — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 14:17:22 +0000

Friday, December 6, 2013

Interactive play 'Corporations in our Heads' wraps this weekend in Vancouver after weeks of touring and asking audiences to examine their relationships to corporate culture.

Everyone has at least one moment of magnitude -- at what may be a workshop, a talk, a film, a concert or a play -- when they arrive unprepared, or perhaps exhausted and late. Much to their own bewilderment, however, they leave with great insight, validation or perhaps a newly-formed outlook through which they see culture and the finite resources of its structures.

This bewilderment ending in insight is the best way to sum up the mission behind Corporations in Our Heads, the interactive play from Headlines Theatre about people's relationships to corporations.