Gender Bender 2017
January 27-29, 2017
Gig Harbor, WA | Harbor Creek Lodge
2928 Point Fosdick Dr. NW, Gig Harbor, WA 98335 | Direct Google Map to Harbor Creek Lodge
*Note! If you simple Google "Harbor Creek Lodge" it may take you to Frogcreek Lodge which is NOT our venue!
Enter the address or use the link above.*
Rideshare Board | Workshop Schedule
Want $10 off your next Recess?
Our longtime direct transfer tool, Dwolla, no longer allows personal to business transfers so we’re now using Square Cash! It avoids credit card fees and helps keep our event prices low. Use this Square Cash link and get $10 for yourself and $10 for Recess on the first $50 you send us. Add Reward code: QHQVWDJ
Our longtime direct transfer tool, Dwolla, no longer allows personal to business transfers so we’re now using Square Cash! It avoids credit card fees and helps keep our event prices low. Use this Square Cash link and get $10 for yourself and $10 for Recess on the first $50 you send us. Add Reward code: QHQVWDJ
Tearing down the patriarchy through theory and through movement
TL;DR: We’ll party all night and spend our days working to make our communities better reflect the values which bring the Recess community together.
This year’s Gender Bender is about confronting and reconstructing our conceptions of gender and sexuality both in theory and in movement. Class material will have a political emphasis and much of it will not be movement-based. We will have discussion-based sessions in which groups collectively develop tactics to bring back to their home communities and we will have dance classes such as practicing non-dominant roles as a way of breaking down binary assumptions in dance and in life.
Recess organizers have come together to radically transform this year’s Gender Bender to be a new and immersive experience to tear down the patriarchy through theory and through movement.
For the last 6 years, recess has produced the gender bender with the hopes of going beyond our normal goals of embodying inclusivity and radical awareness to more directly affecting it. This year we are coming back together with a renewed sensitivity and focus to try to create an event that directly confronts issues of social justice in our community. As organizers work to hold ourselves and our events accountable to pushing our understandings of how we can create spaces which can disrupt systemic disenfranchisement of marginalized voices, this year's Gender Bender has prioritized leadership from Recess' sometimes unheard voices.
We look forward to working through some tough issues and some important content. We also look forward to laughing over communal meals where we can talk about how to make our communities stronger. And of course we are super excited for glamming up, throwing down, and dancing all night to some phenomenal djs.
TL;DR: We’ll party all night and spend our days working to make our communities better reflect the values which bring the Recess community together.
This year’s Gender Bender is about confronting and reconstructing our conceptions of gender and sexuality both in theory and in movement. Class material will have a political emphasis and much of it will not be movement-based. We will have discussion-based sessions in which groups collectively develop tactics to bring back to their home communities and we will have dance classes such as practicing non-dominant roles as a way of breaking down binary assumptions in dance and in life.
Recess organizers have come together to radically transform this year’s Gender Bender to be a new and immersive experience to tear down the patriarchy through theory and through movement.
For the last 6 years, recess has produced the gender bender with the hopes of going beyond our normal goals of embodying inclusivity and radical awareness to more directly affecting it. This year we are coming back together with a renewed sensitivity and focus to try to create an event that directly confronts issues of social justice in our community. As organizers work to hold ourselves and our events accountable to pushing our understandings of how we can create spaces which can disrupt systemic disenfranchisement of marginalized voices, this year's Gender Bender has prioritized leadership from Recess' sometimes unheard voices.
We look forward to working through some tough issues and some important content. We also look forward to laughing over communal meals where we can talk about how to make our communities stronger. And of course we are super excited for glamming up, throwing down, and dancing all night to some phenomenal djs.
Registration is open!
Event Pricing
Scholarship $0-$125*
Low Income $135
Mid-Lower Income $155
Mid Income $215
Upper Income $275
Benevolent Gentry $350
Meal Tickets
Vegetarian / Vegan $25
Vegetarian + One Additional Meat Ticket $50
Vegetarian + Two Additional Meat Tickets $70
Beds
There are a limited number of beds that are available for $60 for the weekend. Dorm style twin size bunk beds, or full, queen and king size private bedrooms are available. Bed selection is available upon completing registration. Camping and indoor camping space is available for all.
*Scholarship does not include meal ticket. Bringing your own food is an option.
Event Pricing
Scholarship $0-$125*
Low Income $135
Mid-Lower Income $155
Mid Income $215
Upper Income $275
Benevolent Gentry $350
Meal Tickets
Vegetarian / Vegan $25
Vegetarian + One Additional Meat Ticket $50
Vegetarian + Two Additional Meat Tickets $70
Beds
There are a limited number of beds that are available for $60 for the weekend. Dorm style twin size bunk beds, or full, queen and king size private bedrooms are available. Bed selection is available upon completing registration. Camping and indoor camping space is available for all.
*Scholarship does not include meal ticket. Bringing your own food is an option.
Tentative Event Schedule
Friday Event Arrival Information: Dinner and opening circle at 7pm. Feel free to arrive anytime after 6pm, Music starts at 9:30pm.
Daily Meal Times: (All heavy on the "ish") 10am, 2pm Lunch, 7pm dinner, midnight late night snack.
Workshops + Skillshares: Sat/Sun: 11am - 6pm
Dancing Fri/Sat/Sun nights: 9:30pm to when we stop.
*SATURDAY NIGHT GLAM OPP!* Bring something to wear that makes you feel totally fabulous! Velvet, silk, work jeans, stretch cotton, endless sequins! The most comfortable pajamas to the most sparkly of gowns are deeply welcome. Things that can be dripped on are highly recommended, pre-dinner glam consultation available upon request.
Monday Noon: We're cleaned up and out of here. We miss you already, thanks for the beauty!
Workshop Schedule
Find it here!
Gender Bender Kitchen Leads, Salimatu and Kim!
A bit about these two badass kitchen babes and the vision they have for this event:
Salimatu is a raw food and vegan chef who throws Nigerian pop-up cafes, cooks for feminist events around the world, and currently runs social practice + culinary events under the handle Invisible Kitchen. She is interested in learning with her body how to celebrate and better feed her communities and herself. She is disinterested in mayonnaise, cinnamon scented pine cones, and patriarchy. When Salimatu was born her mother did not know her sex, did not immediately check, but simply held her for a few minutes to feel her as a person. Salimatu feels deeply that this has shaped how she moves through the world.
Kim is an artist and cook who uses sensitive, culinary tactics paired with lyrical content to offer critical engagement and celebration. Her current projects include Bitch Kitchen—a tactile culinary offering and oral history event series, and Soft Work Kitchen—a project that creates food based on flirtation, intimacy, and the idea that personal aesthetic overlays onto our emotional content. Kim couldn't read until she was ten, so she spent a lot time with form and color before books came into play. She likes book a lot now, but still loves shaping the world with her hands.
Together these two babes are dreaming up a Recess kitchen that will seek to hold a space between the rigorous, cognitive, linguistic work of Gender Bender's days and the embodied, movement based expression of its nights. Their kitchen will be built on poetry and fire, on warm hugs and booty shorts, and supported by the invaluable hands and brains of volunteers and Recess Organizers Patch and Kyle. Their plans include an especially decadent multi-course meal on Saturday so watch out for costuming details and volunteer call-ins as we move closer to eating, moving, and dancing together January 27-29!
A bit about these two badass kitchen babes and the vision they have for this event:
Salimatu is a raw food and vegan chef who throws Nigerian pop-up cafes, cooks for feminist events around the world, and currently runs social practice + culinary events under the handle Invisible Kitchen. She is interested in learning with her body how to celebrate and better feed her communities and herself. She is disinterested in mayonnaise, cinnamon scented pine cones, and patriarchy. When Salimatu was born her mother did not know her sex, did not immediately check, but simply held her for a few minutes to feel her as a person. Salimatu feels deeply that this has shaped how she moves through the world.
Kim is an artist and cook who uses sensitive, culinary tactics paired with lyrical content to offer critical engagement and celebration. Her current projects include Bitch Kitchen—a tactile culinary offering and oral history event series, and Soft Work Kitchen—a project that creates food based on flirtation, intimacy, and the idea that personal aesthetic overlays onto our emotional content. Kim couldn't read until she was ten, so she spent a lot time with form and color before books came into play. She likes book a lot now, but still loves shaping the world with her hands.
Together these two babes are dreaming up a Recess kitchen that will seek to hold a space between the rigorous, cognitive, linguistic work of Gender Bender's days and the embodied, movement based expression of its nights. Their kitchen will be built on poetry and fire, on warm hugs and booty shorts, and supported by the invaluable hands and brains of volunteers and Recess Organizers Patch and Kyle. Their plans include an especially decadent multi-course meal on Saturday so watch out for costuming details and volunteer call-ins as we move closer to eating, moving, and dancing together January 27-29!
Recess makes an active commitment to supporting the needs of often vulnerable and marginalized participants. Because of this, we are prioritizing the needs of some of the most invisible voices in our community, those of survivors of sexual and/or domestic violence and assault. Attendees who have been named as abusers must either be in an accountability process or have completed such a process to the satisfaction of the community. People who have been named as abusers, and who have not been actively pursuing and meeting survivor/community accountability processes, are asked to not attend and may also be asked to leave this event.
Accessibility Information
This is an indoor event with parking available right next to the building. There are a couple steps to the front and back doors and stairs to the main dance space. There are beds and bathrooms available on the main floor.
We'd like to make this event as accessible as possible for people who would like to attend. Please get in touch at recessinformation@gmail.com so we can accommodate your needs.
Accessibility Information
This is an indoor event with parking available right next to the building. There are a couple steps to the front and back doors and stairs to the main dance space. There are beds and bathrooms available on the main floor.
We'd like to make this event as accessible as possible for people who would like to attend. Please get in touch at recessinformation@gmail.com so we can accommodate your needs.
Harbor Creek Lodge
What to Bring to Gender Bender
1. Your own CERAMIC BOWL (soup size, recognizable or with your name on it is recommended), and a CUP/MUG for warm beverages.
2. SATURDAY OUTFIT. Bring something to wear that makes you feel totally fabulous! Velvet, silk, work jeans, stretch cotton, endless sequins! The most comfortable pajamas to the most sparkly of gowns are deeply welcome. Things that can be dripped on are highly recommended, pre-dinner glam consultation available upon request.
3. CLOTHES to be SCREEN PRINTED. Plus a little CASH to donate to the artist. We will be offering custom-prints of N.O. Bonzo's "Smashing Patriarchy is Self-Care" on any clothes you choose to bring. Clothing must be dropped off for screen printing on Friday and/or Saturday morning and will be available for pick-up Sunday afternoon. The inks will be black and white, so bring clothes that will show those colors well. Also keep in mind that textured fabric and seams are hard to print on and often produce less-than-ideal outcomes.
5. BEDDING. *Unless you bought a bed* bring a camping pad, sleeping bag, pillow, anything you need to be cozy for "indoor camping." If you bought a bed, bedding is provided. Bringing your own TOWEL is a good idea too. (Showers at this event!)
6. SNACKS. If you buy a meal ticket we will feed you three meals a day plus snacks, (with vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, and meat options). If you have other allergies or dietary restrictions not communicated through your registration, email recessfood@gmail.com to give us a heads up. It's probably a good idea to bring some of your own food regardless of whether you buy a meal ticket.
7. (Optional!) Items to lend to the SELF-CARE space. We will have a self-care space set up at the event. Got a foam roller or fave book of poetry to make the space lovely? We'll all benefit! Putting your name on things = a great way to ensure they get back to you.
1. Your own CERAMIC BOWL (soup size, recognizable or with your name on it is recommended), and a CUP/MUG for warm beverages.
2. SATURDAY OUTFIT. Bring something to wear that makes you feel totally fabulous! Velvet, silk, work jeans, stretch cotton, endless sequins! The most comfortable pajamas to the most sparkly of gowns are deeply welcome. Things that can be dripped on are highly recommended, pre-dinner glam consultation available upon request.
3. CLOTHES to be SCREEN PRINTED. Plus a little CASH to donate to the artist. We will be offering custom-prints of N.O. Bonzo's "Smashing Patriarchy is Self-Care" on any clothes you choose to bring. Clothing must be dropped off for screen printing on Friday and/or Saturday morning and will be available for pick-up Sunday afternoon. The inks will be black and white, so bring clothes that will show those colors well. Also keep in mind that textured fabric and seams are hard to print on and often produce less-than-ideal outcomes.
5. BEDDING. *Unless you bought a bed* bring a camping pad, sleeping bag, pillow, anything you need to be cozy for "indoor camping." If you bought a bed, bedding is provided. Bringing your own TOWEL is a good idea too. (Showers at this event!)
6. SNACKS. If you buy a meal ticket we will feed you three meals a day plus snacks, (with vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, and meat options). If you have other allergies or dietary restrictions not communicated through your registration, email recessfood@gmail.com to give us a heads up. It's probably a good idea to bring some of your own food regardless of whether you buy a meal ticket.
7. (Optional!) Items to lend to the SELF-CARE space. We will have a self-care space set up at the event. Got a foam roller or fave book of poetry to make the space lovely? We'll all benefit! Putting your name on things = a great way to ensure they get back to you.
Below is our 4in x 6in promo flyer (front: Gender Bender, back: Global House Party). Feel free to print and distribute, or email us if you would like us to snail mail you some to help flyer your local dance scene!