2010 Full Workshop/Panel Descriptions

program schedule | full descriptions | keynote | performance! | presenter bios

By title, in alphabetical order:

Allies Caucus - (Facilitated by Jonah Cohen)
This workshop will explore the importance of ally work in the queer community of size. We will discuss fat oppression, health at any size, self esteem and explore our own feelings to become even greater allies to people of size.

AQUAPORKO! - (Miss Kelli Jean Drinkwater)
"Aquaporko!" is a Fat Femme Syncronized Swim Team based in Sydney Australia. Learn moves like the corkscrew, the tub, the clamshell and founder Kelli Jean Drinkwater's personal favourite:  the carcrash curve. Practice entry techniques, handstands and leg kicks. Learn to be a chubby fountain! Climaxing in an Mini Aquatic Extravaganza!! Performance on Saturday night. Remember: we are Anti Fat Phobic and Aqua Aerobic! AQUAPORKO!: Throw Your Legs in the Air and wave them like you JUST DONT CARE! Please note participants in this workshop who want to swim should have a basic level of swimming skill but no other special skills required. This workshop is fully gender inclusive and can be adapted for different bodies and abilities. Please bring: Nose Clips!, Goggles, A towel and ideally Pink or Red Swimwear (but whatever you have is fine!).

Belly Dancing for Every/Body - (Miasia)
Middle Eastern Dance (known best in this country as Belly Dance) utilizes isolations of the various parts of the body from the head, neck, and shoulders to the chest, waist and hips to the thighs, knees and feet. Miasia has broken down the movements of the dance, separating upper body from mid-body from lower body to enable each person to take advantage of their unique bodily strengths to perform movements that express their personal connection to the music. This workshop is accessible to people of varying abilities. 

Big Papas, Hefty Mamas: Fat Desire in Butch-Femme Lives - (Sasha T. Goldberg, Jessica L. Giusti)
Please join Sasha T. Goldberg and Jessica L. Giusti for an intimate discussion about Butches and Femmes, Fat, Size,  and Desire. The session will begin with a brief review on how gender, size, and desire have been taught in the mainstream, and will be followed by a discussion about how we Big Papas and Hefty Mamas bend, break, and re-invent these expected trajectories to fit our own desires. Self-identified Butches and Femmes are invited to attend; open to all who wish to participate; hearty appetites encouraged. 

Bump and Grind the Panic Out! - (Laurie)
Learn how to move comfortably and sensually for yourself and others. It's about having fun and feeling hot in your body! In this workshop, participants will learn classic Burlesque moves that will be taught with a sexy routine! Most of the moves can be adjusted for people using mobility devices such as scooters, chairs and canes.

Community meeting - all conference attendees' presence requested
This is our opportunity to meet as a group, hear about the state of NOLOSE as an organization and business at hand, and meet with the Board.

Curves in "All the Right Places": fetish, fat and grotesque - (Jeanette Beal)
Headphones or not, jamming to Mika's "Big Girls You Are Beautiful" song can feel like a glittery, Mercury-inspired hug. A hug until the lyrics start to sink in, that is. Where is the fetish of fat that MIKA refers to and why are we encouraged to seek it out? Is this the brain child of one flaming musician or is there an entire cultural phenomenon dedicated to sexually objectifying 'curves in all the right places,' and are we okay with it? Looking at both pop culture sexualization and the fetish community, we will explore media, art and desire of fat bodies. Grotesque, carnivalesque, empowering, enamoring, participants are encouraged to bring their own bytes of the fat as a sexual object in pop and sub-culture.

Cushion Pushin': An open discussion of fat sex and sexuality - (Taylor, Alicia Wilson)
A co-facilitated discussion for big folks of all genders and abilities to come together in a sex and body positive space to explore what gets them off and how. One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to sex as we discuss communication, sex toys and their materials, fat fucking positions, and more! This is a space for folks to get down and dirty, be candid, ask questions, and get tips on how to make hot sex even hotter!

Declaring our (Fierce Fat!) Erotic: A writing workshop

Disability Caucus - (Facilitated by 'becca w.)
This caucus is space for disabled folks to come together and talk.  The direction of the conversation will be determined by the interests and needs of participants.

Eating Our Words: Surviving in the Fat and Radical Left - (Andie Lyons)
"Radical Politics" can be, and often is, inclusive of a wide variety of social movements - from race consciousness, to environmentalism, to animal rights. And yet, in almost all of these movements, there is an implicit dismissal of fat bodies and politics of size. Even when these concepts are sub-textual, they serve to create a community where the fat radical is left to wonder (more often than not, by themselves, due to the silencing nature of fatphobia in the culture at large) how to maintain their own sanity, personal commitments and self worth in a radical context. This facilitated conversation will provide fat radicals opportunities to discuss the internal struggles faced by living in a highly politicized community that sometimes rhetorically supports fat politics while silently creating a hostile culture. How do we hold fast to our food politics without judging our own motives? How do we continue to be committed to ecological sustainability in the face of political rhetoric that tells us fatness = waste? How do we pull apart the implied (but incorrect) assumption that fatness is inherently connected to capitalism, to wasteful excess, to values we do no support?How can we boldly assert the ways in which our other political commitments are deeply connected with fat liberation? And how the hell do we keep ourselves sane, healthy, and joyful in the midst of all of these difficult questions? Bring your struggles, your successes, your righteous anger and your gleeful engagement with you as we struggle together to create realistic responses, sustainable support networks, and healthy spaces for Fat Radicals to live, make change, and thrive.

Fat Felt Dolls and Puppets - (Stefanie)
This fun, hands-on crafty goodness workshop will focus on making two or three-dimensional fat felt representations. Stefanie will provide felt of all different colors, scissors, thread, needles, hot glue, and some polyfil stuffing (for those that want to make dolls) for people to use to make into whatever kind of fabulous fat person, animal, alien, etc. they'd like. You can then use your dolls/puppets for performance, film, and/or photographs.

Fat Friendly Stretching and Strengthening - (Jessica Judd)
It’s no secret that mainstream exercise classes can be fat-unfriendly due to the fact that many stretches and strengthening exercises are not well-suited for the fat body and most instructors are unaware of how to provide effective adaptations to meet the needs of fat students.  Drawing on years of experience as a fat dancer and dance instructor, Jessica Judd will introduce participants to fat-friendly stretching and strengthening in a fun, energetic, body-positive environment. All exercises demonstrated will be adaptable for all body-types, individuals utilizing wheelchairs or scooters, and for those with various injuries. Participants should wear clothing they are comfortable moving and sweating in and are asked to bring a towel or yoga mat if possible.

FAT LIP Reader's Theatre - (Nancy Thomas)
Fat Lip was a reader theater group that was active from 1981 to 1998.  This workshop will be a short reading of some of the script pieces and a chance for participants to write and read our own fat positive pieces and make our own reader's theater experience.  Come with ideas and a pen and pad to write poetry, short stories, dialogues; any form of expression to address the fun, the stresses, the experiences of being fat queers in this society.

Fat Studies and Thin Privilege - Panel (Sondra Solovay, Esther Rothblum, Deb Burgard, Elana Dykewomon, Elena Escalera, Linda Bacon)
Hear from Fat Studies Reader authors Sondra Solovay, Esther Rothblum, Deb Burgard, Elana Dykewomon, and Elena Escalera as they talk about their essays and how they managed to inspire panic among publishers.  Health At Every Size author Linda Bacon shares a moving, personal discussion of thin privilege in the panic-laden area of nutrition.

Fighting Friendly Fire:  How to Respond When Social Movements We Like Do Things We Don't Around Fatness - (Kathleen LeBesco, Susan Ericsson)
Why do some feminist and critical race scholars insist that the "obesity problem," which disproportionally affects women and people of color, is this week's sign of the apocalypse? Why do some disability advocates throw fat people under the bus when it comes to airline seating access issues? Why do some proponents of sustainable agriculture insist that to be fat is to be the unwitting victim of our messed-up food system? And what are the most effective ways to change the terms of these debates? Kathleen (Katie) LeBesco, Professor of Communication Arts at Marymount Manhattan College and author of Revolting Bodies?  The Struggle to Redefine Fat Identity, and Susan Ericsson, Assistant Professor of Media at Concordia University Chicago, will facilitate a conversation about strategies, academic and activist alike‚ for reframing the discussion. 

Finding Freedom—the Fat Anti-Panic. Meditation for Finding Ease and Kindness in the Midst of it All - (Jeanne Mayer Freebody, Max Airborne)
A crucial part of dealing with The Fat Panic is having good tools to deal with our own (often hidden) beliefs about fat, ourselves, and our bodies. In this meditation workshop we'll learn to use both mindfulness and lovingkindness meditation to discover the gifts of being present, with kindness, to whatever is happening right now. No meditation experience necessary. Beginners are welcome.

Flirting with/out Fat Panic - (Jukie Sunshine)
Just like flirting, this workshop is part talk, part action!  We will discuss the dangers of the scarcity mentality and where this comes from and contextualize it in our dating lives. As a large group, we will talk about sex appeal and expectations and all the different things that means to us.  In smaller groups, we will practice some flirting techniques to take out into the rest of the conference and the world AT LARGE.

Inexpensive DIY Fat Fashion - (Alysia Angel)
A workshop outlining some of Alysia's tried and true methods of making clothes that "don't fit" work for a fat and fabulous wardrobe. This  experience is mostly Femme related clothing-wise but all are welcome and encouraged to attend. In this class we will be taking pieces from our own wardrobe and making them fit our bodies fabulously with very little cost or experience.

In Her Image - (Eileen)
Spirituality is not a usual topic in the fat acceptance arena for good reason. In some traditional religions, Creator is seen as an old white bearded man. Not really an image that is easy to relate to for most of us. What would happen if we transformed that image into something that really represented us? Who would Goddess/God/Creatrix/Spirit be? What would They look like? How would our lives be different if we had a relationship with our own sacred center? This workshop will be part discussion, part wild imagining and part transformational ritual.

Keynote Panel: Click here for full information. Speakers and discussants include Deb Burgard, Charlotte Cooper, Nomy Lamm, Naima Lowe, Galadriel Mozee, and Bianca Wilson.

Letting Go of Fear: Fat Acceptance as a Grief Process - (Jeanne Courtney)
What happens inside us when we begin to let go of fat phobia and the mainstream messages telling us we can and should control our size?   We'll talk about what that letting go can look like during each of five stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, with an emphasis on what the bargaining stage is like for feminists, whose political ideals may not always match the way we feel about our own bodies in the moment. You’ll learn techniques to help you have patience with yourself as you move through these stages and come to love your body exactly as it is.  A mix of information, discussion, and experiential exercises, this workshop is based on the presenter’s article "Size Acceptance as a Grief Process: Observations from Psychotherapy with Lesbian Feminists," published in the Journal of Lesbian Studies in 2008, and on "Love Your Body at Any Size" workshops presented in her private practice and at the National Lesbian Health Conference held at the University of California in San Francisco in 2009.  People of all genders are welcome to come and explore size acceptance as an ongoing process.

Making Our Money Count - (Hannah Martine)
Calorie deprivation is not the only way we’ve been told to make ourselves smaller. We need to reclaim the ability to put ourselves at the center of our financial lives. By voting with our dollars, we can change our lives, our communities, and our world. In this workshop, we’ll cover some of the basics of investing in plain language, talk about how to get your questions answered by your financial advisor, and provide handouts and web resources on financial issues. Do we want to shop at or invest in companies that do not have our health and wellbeing in mind? Hannah thinks not. We’ll also get into where we feel powerful about our money, where we struggle, and how to get where we want to go. The place to start is NOT where someone else thinks you should be; the place to start is right where you are.  

MASTER OF DANCE: the Workshop! - (Tiny and Petunia)
Chubsters Tiny and Petunia bring you: MASTER OF DANCE: the Workshop!. By using their patented Karaoke of Dance (TM) teaching techniques, Tiny and Petunia will lead fatties of all shapes, sizes, and abilities to DANCE GLORY!  Come help fuel the fire first sparked through Master of Dance at NOLOSE 2008! This workshop is the anti-cool: we earnestly celebrate enthusiastic movement of all types, having gotten our freak on in the dismal queer underground of minor midwestern US cities before hitting the coastal proximity to bigger ponds, where every small fish seems to be an aspiring star.  Not us!  We're just here to shake it, however it comes out, and we'll fuck up anybody who tries to stop us.  Please join us.  Shiny outfits, high pants, no pants, and mobility aids encouraged.

Medical Self-Advocacy - (Amanda Piasecki, Leah Strock)
Obtaining quality healthcare as a fat person can be incredibly daunting in the relentlessly fatphobic American healthcare system. Learn some simple tools and techniques to help improve your healthcare experience, share your stories, and exchange health information at this informative workshop. With decades of experience wrangling fat healthcare from both inside and outside the system, cancer survivor Amanda Piasecki and Nurse Practitioner Leah Strock will help you turn around the dreaded doctor's visit.

Mixed-Size Relationship Caucus - (Facilitated by Zoe Femmetastica)
This loosely facilitated caucus provides a space for those who are or have been in a mixed-size relationships. The nature of the discussion will be determined by the needs and desires of those who attend, however potential discussion topics may include: negotiating food/exercise/size decisions and boundaries in a healthy and non-triggering ways and challenging the discrimination and oppression our bigger partners face, including from our own friends, family and community. This caucus is open to those in all formations of relationships: monogamous, poly, non-monogamous and more!

Over 40s Caucus - (Facilitator TBD)

People of Color Caucus - (Facilitated by Tara Shuai, Miasia)
A supportive space for people of color at NOLOSE to mobilize, strategize, debrief, and discuss the intersections of race, fat, and other identities. During this session, we will examine such questions as: How do we sustain ourselves in our multiple communities as fat people of color?  What are concrete and/or visionary ways in which we're building bridges between fat liberation movements and our other communities? What are some strategic directions that we would like to see the fat liberation movement head toward, and what are some concrete suggestions we have about how to get there?

Queer Cabaret: A dynamic evening of cabaret style performances curated and hosted by the unstoppable writer, performer, and hostess Bevin Branlandingham. The event is an evening of performances in a cabaret style, with a dance party to follow.

Queer fatties with access, power, and privilege - (Sarah Doherty)
This workshop is a space to talk about how our experiences with privilege affect how we do fat and queer liberation work and broad-based community building. We'll talk about what it means to partner across communities to build an inclusive and just liberation movement--and spread the flabulousness!

Queer Memoir: In/Visible
Don't miss the West Coast premier of the new NYC based salon series, Queer Memoir, created and hosted by our favorite ex-nun comic Kelli Dunham and playwright extraordinaire Genne Murphy. Queer Memoir is a salon for new work based on a monthly theme, dedicated to memoir-based storytelling. We aim to give voice to our collective queer experiences, and preserve and document our complex queer history.

Religion at Any Size: Does God Care if You're Fat? - (Leah H.)
From Christian weight loss programs that ask “What Would Jesus Eat?” to fat camp for Jewish kids, religions and theology vilify (fat) bodies by teaching that they are evil, gross and must be controlled. Yet there are also religious and spiritual resources that help us resist fat panic, fight for (size) justice and love ourselves and our bodies. As people of size and their allies, how can our self-acceptance and activism be deepened and sustained by faith (in Spirit, god, HaShem, Allah, Goddess and/or other expressions of the divine and holy)? This interactive workshop is open to those of all religious identities and no religious identity—believers, unbelievers and disbelieves welcome. We’ll use art and discussion to ask how our ideas about the divine have been shaped by Fear of Fatness. Join us! We’ll look at and build expansive, fat/size positive theologies.

Rural Radicals - (Adrienne Hill)
Being fat and queer in a small town, or in the suburbs, requires a different set of survival skills than being fat and queer in a city does.  It requires a different way of recognizing your allies and different approaches to activism.  This workshop explores the ways in which rural and suburban activism differ from urban activism.  We will discuss how to approach the intersection of queerness and fatness in non-urban locales, and how the larger fat queer movement (as represented by NOLOSE) can better accommodate the needs of rural and suburban activists. 

Singing as Social Justice - (Nomy Lamm)
The voice is a powerful tool in defending ourselves, voicing our truths, and sharing our essence of being with the world.  In this workshop we will create a non-judgmental space to explore our voices in authentic ways.  With a series of breathing exercises, vocal warm-ups and improvisations, we will learn to be more grounded, self-aware, brave, flexible, and connected to our surroundings. We will explore how these qualities can help us deal with our own oppression, and help us to be good allies to each other. Open to all styles and abilities. 

Super Fat Caucus - (Facilitator TBD)

The Politics of Who We Are - Forum (Geleni, Joe, Gina de Vries, Zoe Femmetastica)
This forum serves as an opportunity for the NOLOSE community to openly and respectfully discuss the current NOLOSE gender policy (which is open to all genders except cis gendered men—people identified at birth as male, raised as male and currently identifying as male) and to determine if it continues to make sense for the activism and world we want to bring about. Questions we seek to collectively address include: 1) What is the NOLOSE community? 2) What are our goals for social change? 3) What are our fears? 4) What are our hopes for this community and for future conferences?

The Real Fat Woman Poems - A Brown Bag Reading (Elana Dykewomon)
First published in 1987 and still fresh, this dynamic poem cycle dives into internalized fat panic and its relationship to external signs, pushing toward coming to terms with enemies within and without, and celebrating our bodies. With a bonus excerpt set in the Albany Fat Swim from Elana's new novel, Risk. Bring your lunch and enjoy!

The Time of Our Lives: Fighting Fat Panic through Fat History, Memory and Culture  - (Charlotte Cooper, Kay Hyatt)
The history of fat activism pioneered by fat dykes/lesbians, bisexual women and transgendered folks predates fat panic by at least two decades. But the current war on obesity means that many of us are disconnected from this amazing body of powerful work. During this workshop we will construct a queer and trans fat activist community timeline, and encourage workshop participants, and people at Nolose in general, to add their histories and memories to it. We will make a zine and archive the materials we produce.

Thriller Dance Workshop - (Sondra Solovay [Zombie Enthusiast and Workshop Mastermind], Deb Burgard [Experienced Undead Lurcher], Matilda St. John [Big Moves Bay Area's Most Necrotic Instructor])
The fat zombie apocalypse is nigh! With fatties receiving death threats (Don't you know your fat will kill you?!) from doctors, the media, and self-appointed experts, is it any wonder we fantasize about haunting these folks from beyond the grave? In this fun and energizing workshop, we'll learn the classic Thriller dance and give new meaning to the term "morbid obesity." Time and venue permitting, we'll also have a chance to perform the dance for other conference attendees. This workshop is accessible for undead of all ability levels.

Trans Caucus - (Facilitated by Joe)
The Trans caucus will be a safe space to discuss the experience of being transgender/two-spirit/third-gender/andro/genderqueer/other. Intersex folks also welcome. This is not a trans 101 group, but rather a meeting of minds and a sharing of spirit. Topics for dicsussion to be determined by caucus attendees.

What about the Children? Panel & Workshop - (Facilitated by Jessica Judd, Dana Rosenberg)
Five fat activists of varied backgrounds will share their unique perspectives about the intersection of fat panic and how it impacts children directly and the work of raising children with healthy a self esteem and positive body image: Marilyn Wann, Dana Rosenberg, Natalie Boero, Matilda St. John, and Jessica Judd. The panel will be followed by a short video showing interviews with kids and parents about fat, being fat and fat discrimination. This will provide us with a common text from which to launch a strategizing session about our next steps to combat these fat-phobic messages.

Working Class Caucus - (Facilitator TBD)

Workshop Fat-cilitation in Schools - (Chelsey Lichtman)
A brainstorming session for people who do workshops in educational environments on topics related to FAT. Let's share ideas, workshop topics, questions, answers and all the rest! Please come to this workshop if you are thinking you want to start doing these workshops or have ideas for workshop possibilities.