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Queer Movement Days are back for you !

published on 24 September 2023

Come and join us for a weekend of networking, sharing practices and building together. Various workshops and re-creative moments will be on offer to cross-check our views and questions on the different issues that cross our daily lives as activists and members of collectives.

These Queer Movement Days are an opportunity to develop tools and question our realities as activists and community workers and volunteers.

What is it?

A think-tank, a moment of reconnection for associations, collectives and activists directly or indirectly concerned by the realities and issues of lgbtqia+.

When is the event?

Friday 13 October from 5pm

Saturday 14 October from 10am to 6.30pm

Sunday 15 October from 10am to 4.30pm

Several simultaneous workshops that you can choose from according to your wishes/needs.

Who should attend?

Any association that is a member of a Lgbtqia+ coupole federation, as well as any organisation active in the socio-cultural field in the Brussels Region, whether you are an employee, volunteer, administrator or supporter.

Activists and community members who are not part of an association or collective are also welcome.

All registrants will share the values of tolerance, respect for diversity, inclusiveness and constructive, sympathetic listening. Oppressive language and behaviour will not be tolerated. In the event of non-compliance, participation will be cancelled.

What for?

The aim of this event is to

– reinforce or question practices around issues related to gender and sexual minorities ;

– develop networking and knowledge of the RainbowHouse federation’s associations and collectives, and possibly create synergies;

– promote a better understanding of concepts, realities and semantics;

– get together in a safe space and take the time to think about acting together outside the daily hustle and bustle.

Practical info?

Taking place at Les Grands Carmes, 22 rue des Grands Carmes, 1000 Brussels. The LGBTQIA+ multidisciplinary centre opened in September 2022. www.grandscarmes.org

The workshops take place on Saturdays from 10am to 6.30pm and on Sundays from 10am to 4.30pm.

A number of events are taking place in and around this annual creative hub. Friday 13 October, with the “Rainbow for a Job” afternoon for job seekers and partners. In the evening, with the opening of the “Activ’elles” exhibition from 6pm, which will run throughout the weekend.

There will be a concert on Saturday evening: “Those we lost”. The bar area (in the courtyard) will be open all weekend long.

Catering:

A solidarity food-truck will be on hand for lunch on Saturday and Sunday. The bar will be serving a varied menu throughout the weekend.

Le Ralliement des Fourchettes is a network of social restaurants in Brussels that fights against food insecurity and defends access to quality food for all as a fundamental right. In March 2022, the Ralliement des fourchettes became a fully-fledged ASBL with a Foodtruck Solidaire offering quality meals at various locations in Brussels in a festive and friendly atmosphere, at low prices. Responding to the needs of members of our communities, the Foodtruck will also be present at the Grands Carmes on a weekly basis this winter.

Inscription / Inschrijving:

– Non-members of the federation: €17 per day including lunch + coffee breaks

– Federation members: Free + 2 drinks tickets.

– Participation in a workshop: €5

-Concert saturday night : from 10€ – Booking here :

Workshops must be attended by at least 5 people to be confirmed.

Registration should not be an obstacle to participation. Please indicate this when you register.

Please register by 7 October using the following form: https://forms.gle/T5ebA7HWgS9V2Mu4A

or by email to info@rainbowhouse.be (02/503.59.90).

The event is organised by the Rainbowhouse Group, which includes RainbowHouse Brussels, InQlusion and RCP.

with the support of Cocof as part of the Rainbow Visibilities project (Friday evening exhibition)

with the support of the Federal Secretariat for Equal Opportunities (Rainbow for a job)

with the support of the City of Brussels (Queer Mov’ days)

Program

Friday 13/10

Rainbow For a Job:

Rainbow for a Job is an employability support project offering mentoring and training for lgbtqia+ researchers. The project also seeks to encourage socio-professional integration by organising events and analysing and making recommendations to remove barriers to employment for lgbtqia+.

From 2 to 6pm: Job Day and networking opportunities for employers and job seekers.

At 3.45pm (Great Hall) a round table will address the issue of safe spaces in the workplace.

-Talk at 8pm (Grande Salle): “The visibility of lesbian projects and associations in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation”.
With Activ’elles and other people and associations involved.

3 speakers will be present:
Diana Vos, lesbian videographer and photographer.
A member of activ’elles, an association that organises events for lesbians.
Camille Kervella, an architect by training who works on queer architecture and has also written a dissertation on the subject of queer spaces.

The exhibition

From Friday 6pm to Sunday 6pm.

October is the time for artists’ tours of different towns and cities. To showcase the talents of members of the Activ’elles association, a lesbian trail will be held at the Grands Carmes over the weekend.

Since 2003, the activ’elles association has brought together personal initiatives organised on a voluntary basis, ranging from sport to social evenings and other cultural, fun and friendly activities by and for women who love women.

Saturday 14/10

-Workshop 1: Saturday 14/10 – 10am to 1pm (Aquarium)

Help with structuring projects from a social economy perspective. Workshop with Coopcity (centre for social and cooperative entrepreneurship in Brussels).

Come and try out an initial approach to structuring your project. Do you have a project focused on the needs of the LGBTQIA+ community and are you open to (re)thinking your project in terms of the principles of the social economy? Then this session is for you. Come and discover the guidelines that will help you structure an idea for an entrepreneurial project, using a framework specially designed by COOPCITY.

-Workshop 2: Saturday 14/10 – 2 to 4 pm (Aquarium)

Food aid is a fast-growing sector, but what are we talking about? And how do you get access to quality food when you can’t afford it? Are food aid and the right to food the same thing?

To try and answer all these questions, we are offering an interactive workshop to help you understand the issues surrounding food insecurity in the Brussels region.
Led by the Fédération of Social Services – FdSS

Update: cancelled

-Workshop 3 : Saturday 14/10 – 16h30 to 18h30 (Aquarium)

The senior citizens’ game of goose.

Are you a senior citizen or do you live with one and wonder about your future? Then come and play the rainbow goose game, where we’ll give you an insight into the issues facing LGBTQIA+ older people and the care sector. Sexuality and intimacy are often still taboo. Seniors don’t always dare to be themselves and often take refuge in the closet.
An opportunity to meet and understand the work of RainbowAmbassadors.

-Workshop 4: Saturday – 14/10 – 10am to 1pm (Mezzanine)

The governance of associations, the role of coordinations and links with Council of Boards. Tools and ideas to support the complex work of coordinating non-profit organisations and the mental burden of this multi-tasking and highly varied role.

Moderated by Valérie Galloy, from Open The Window-Cesep, accompanier and coach for associations.

-Workshop 5 : Saturday – 14/10 – 2 to 4 pm (Mezzanine)

Tools and practices to counter the anti-genre. The rise of conservative trends and actions heralds a strengthening of the struggle. How can we respond to and manage arguments that run counter to our inclusive and progressive actions?
Facilitation: Forbidden Colors en Genres Pluriels

– Workshop 6: Saturday 14/10 – 16h30 to 18h30 (Mezzanine)

Writing workshop by Thérèse et Isabelle, in partnership with Activ’elles (on lesbian themes). In choosen mixity.

-Workshop 7: Saturday 14/10 – 10am to 12pm (Grande salle)

Self-defence workshop. Questioning your relationship with your opponent and body holds with Tran Dinh, a specialist in the discipline.

Starting at midday

UPDATE 06/10 QUEERAVANE CANCELLED

The Queeravane will be on hand on Saturday afternoon to help participants question their gender identity and expression. A no-holds-barred makeover.

The Queeravane is a militant queer awareness-raising project. Interactive, educational and cultural, it’s open to everyone. By queer, we mean the deconstruction of gender norms and sexualities in the political sense, i.e. challenging the dominant heteronormative and patriarchal model.

At night : the concert

20h30 – DAS HAUS presents “Those we lost” with Matteo Haizmann

Sunday 15/10

-Workshop 9 – Sunday 15/10 – 14 to 16h (Aquarium)

Intersectionality in associations: cancelled

-Workshop 10 – Sunday 15/10 – 10am to 12pm (Mezzanine)

Developing positive communication in the media. Let’s get away from the victim posture (discrimination, illness, etc.) and explore a different narrative that we can offer in our dealings with the media in our day-to-day work with voluntary organisations.
Moderator: David Lallemand, communications consultant

Worshop 11 – Sunday 15/10 – 2pm to 4pm (Mezzanine)

Les mots du contre-pouvoir – A little feminist, anti-racist and militant dictionary

Language evolves, words change as we use them, and no dictionary, no matter how cheerful, can be a static object.

Do you like playing with words? Do you like to use language to better include, to better name, to better express our world? Together, we’ll leaf through the book before putting it back to work. Each participant will be able to appropriate a concept, absorb it and then collectively share their own definition. We can also, individually and collectively, imagine other words, point out new uses, define new concepts and thus offer new possibilities for naming to take the opposite view of the language of the dominant.

By the Centre Librex

-Workshop 13 – Sunday 16/10 – 2pm to 4pm (Grande Salle)

Introduction to surveying and gesticulated conferences as tools for animating and expressing collective experiences.

By the Front FéministeS of the Réseau Ades