ACTIVITIES 1. GIVING THANKS to GAIA, EROS, & the SACRED Three classes and workshops on sacred erotic energy and Gaia theory Sedona Temple, Sedona, AZ (November 26-29, 2009) A Thanksgiving weekend of growth, connectedness, love, and abundance with the author of Gaia and the New Politics of Love. Introductory Lecture on Thanksgiving Day (11/26) @ 7:00 pm Gaia Classes on Friday (11/27) @ 2 pm, and Saturday (11/28) @ 11 am and 3 pm Bonus Writing Class on Sunday (11/29) Experience Gaia as a practice of love and life and as a cosmic health theory with Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, teacher of the arts of loving, keynote speaker, workshop leader. Experience the world & life differently: Turn competition into symbiosis, jealousy into compersion, scarcity into abundance. Learn how this can happen to you and your amorous communities. Links: Sign up for a Magic Thanksgiving Weekend w/ Serena @ Sedona Temple | View Events on Facebook ClassTopics&Descriptions | The Teacher | The Book 2. GAIA, EROS, and the SACRED Three classes and workshops on sacred erotic energy and Gaia theory San Francisco: Nov 14-15; Seattle: Nov 21-22 A weekend of growth and connectedness, love and abundance with the author of Gaia and the New Politics of Love. Experience Gaia and a practice of love and life and as a cosmic health theory, with Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, teacher of the arts of loving, keynote speaker, workshop leader. Experience the world & life differently: Turn competition into symbiosis, jealousy into compersion, scarcity into abundance. Learn how this can happen to you and your amorous communities. Links: Sign up for a weekend @ a city near you: San Francisco | Sign up for a weekend @ a city near you: Seattle ClassTopics&Descriptions | The Teacher | The Book 3. Reading from Gaia and the New Politics of Love Trapezio Cafe/Gallery, 120 Franklin Ave., (near Harrison St.), Nutley, NJ 07100 (Tues, September 15, @ 8-9:30 pm - Tel 973 661 1580 or 973 235 0188) Lambda Literary Award finalist author Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio reads from her provocative new book, Gaia and the New Politics of Love – Notes for a Poly Planet. From a sex-positive, ecofeminist perspective, this book is the first study of love and life that brings together sexuality and global ecology in a comprehensive theoretical analysis of world joy, peace, and health. Links: Trapezio Cafe/Gallery GoogleMap 4. Serena's Blog Page Read the latest posts by Serena @ SexGenderBody Blog (Once or twice a week) Read one of Serena's funny G Tales And remember, 'a world where it is safe to love is a world where it is safe to live.' Links: SexGenderBody / There is no Should 5. EROS & GAIA Or Why Are Bi and Poly Love Good for the Planet? Woodhull Freedom Foundation Washington DC (10-09-07 @ 7-9:00 pm) Author, professor and cultural critic Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD, discusses the politics of love in her new books, Eros (see below) and Gaia (in progress). Dr. Anderlini-D’Onofrio explains why bisexual and polyamorous love practices, with their sharing of emotional resources, create rich and sustainable emotional lives. When practiced on a global scale, this abundance of love produces both personal emotional and global ecological sustainability. Sexual freedom as a human right is the key to unlocking the sustainability made possible by abundant bi and poly love. Links: Woodhull Freedom Foundation Publicity Flyer for Event 6. MEMORY, OUTNESS, AND TRAUMA A Queer Workshop in Life-Writing North Carolina State University - Raleigh (2-19-07 @ 6:00-8:30 pm) This event was sponsored by the office of LGBT Servicea at NCSU with the intent of offering a queer space for students exploring creative writing from personal experience. Narrative life-writing was presented as part of a process of healing from the intensity of traumatic experiences--on both a personal and global scale. The two books used were A Lake for the Heart and Eros, with the former presented as a result of the healing accomplished in the latter. The workshop and reading were integrated to demonstrate the effectiveness of this ongoing process and the awareness generated therein. Queerness was presented as an existential condition accessible to anyone willing to explore one's inner desires, fantasies, and memories related to the erotic and the arts of loving. Students' participation was encouraged by way of yoga exercises designed to acces intimate memories on a cellular level. The process of life writing was presented as a testimonial contribution to the writing of global and local micro-histories. Links: NCSU Office of LGBT Services Descriptive Borchure | A Participant's Comments | Press Release 7. ONE BOOK, ONE BRYN MAWR Taboo Relationships and Erotic Learning Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania (2-21-07 @ 7:30 pm) This activity was sponsored by the Women's Center and the Program in Gender and Sexuality at the women's college of Bryn Mawr. The student community was encouraged to read the memoir Eros and participate in informal discussions held on campus before the author's appearance. As discussions went on, the organizers reported to the author about the main topics of interest. The author prepared her reading accordingly and a quite lively discussion ensued. The conversation focused on situations that are somewhat hidden in queer communities, yet happen all the time, such as love when there is an age gap, when there is a transnational or transcultural gap, and love in connection with teaching and learning. The memoir's successful commingling of genres, including theory, narrative sections, and graphic descriptions of erotic scenes was discussed too. The author referred to Gaia, her book of theory that explains more formally the ideas about love that inspired Eros. The life-writing style of Eros brings out the concept of the arts of loving, which include an infinite variety of teachable skills that involve the whole being. The modern concept of sexuality, on the other hand, can be reductive due to inherent preoccupations with scientific normativity. Links: Article- Taboo Relationships and Erotic Learning | EROS in the News Press Release | Blogging over Eros | Organizer's Comments 8. A BOOK PRESENTATION/LA PRESENTAZIONE DI UN LIBRO A Lake for the Heart/Il lago del cuore Italian Embassy, Washington, D.C. (October 25, 2005 @ 6:30-8:30) This event was featured in the 2005 Italian Language Week held by the Italian Cultural Institute in conjunction with the Italian Embassy in Washington, D.C. It presented the bilingual edition of the collection of lyrical poems Il lago del cuore by the late Italian senator Luigi Anderlini. The author's daughter, Serena Anderlini, and his daughter-in-law, Sanam Naraghi Anderlini, read a selection of poems in relation to images and memories from the life and work of this umique writer, politician, activist, poet, and intellectual whose idealism, integrity, and utopian aspirations were an injection of vitality in all of the areas touched by his work. The reading was followed by a book signing by the translator, Serena Anderlini, and a generous and well-attended dinner hosted by the Cultural Institute's Director, Dr. Martin Stiglio. Links: Italian Cultural Institute, D.C. Event's Descriptive Flyer | Book's Descriptive Flyer 9. TALKING ABOUT ALTERNATIVE LOVESTYLES - Berkeley Plural Loves: Designs for Bi and Poly Living Belladonna Bookstore - Berkeley, CA (March 19, 2005, 3-19-05 @ 7:00 pm) Hosted in the heart of Berkeley, this event focused on the transdisciplinary and transcultutal project of bringing together voices from bi and poly communities around the world. An enjoyable way to participate in alternative lovestyles is generating the books that invite others to understand, relate to, and experiment with them. The collection Plural Loves: Designs for Bi and Poly Living (Haworth Press, 2005) is one such discursive co-creation about bisexual and polyamorous love practices and the subcultures that host them. It includes contributions from Jordan, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Australia, Croatia, Italy, California, Canada, the New York area, and everywhere in between. The collection places today's bi and poly cultures in a global perspective, with wide-ranging historical, social, spiritual, psychological, and philosophical ramifications. It also helps players in these communities see ourselves in this wider frame where the designs of our lives are co-created. Links: Belladonna Sanctuary - Bookstore Descriptive Flyer 10. TALKING ABOUT ALTERNATIVE LOVESTYLES - Manhattan Plural Loves: Designs for Bi and Poly Living Bluestockings Bookstore - 172 Allen St. - Manhattan (June 5, 2005 , 6-5-05 @ 7:00 pm) This event was hosted by Bluestockings Bookstore, a radical bookstore, fair trade cafe, and activist center in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The New York-based author Flavia Alaya introduced the collection Plural Loves to a wide variety of participants. The artist, critic, and workshop leader Betty Dodson read from her contribution to the collection, and the collection's editor did too. A lively conversation ensued which included topics like post-modern sexual identities that can be traversed and are in-flux rather than fixed, queer eroticism and self pleasuring as a form of same-gender love, and other related themes. Links: Bluestockings Bookstore Descriptive Flyer # 1 | Descriptive Flyer # 2