| Rochester, NY |
| June 5 - 7, 2003 |
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Well, Grans, it's all over but the memories and a few photos! |
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The Regional Gathering was such a joy, and we are so glad that so many of you could be with us! We had Grannies gathered from Toronto, Kingston, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and -- of course -- Rochester. We ended up being 45 women strong, not including the incomparable Granny D, who was such an inspiration to us all! |
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Thursday night, Rochester's Raging Grannies performed to a full house at one of Rochester's downtown landmark churches. The highlight of the evening was the Keynote address by Doris Haddock ("Granny D"), who encouraged all of us, and all parties, to work in collaboration with the Democrats to get the current Administration out of the White House by 2004! We saw a video of her 3,200-mile cross-country walk, completed in February 2000 at the age of 90, in which she raised awareness for the need to get big money out of politics. Now 93, she's still going strong, and participated fully in all of the Gathering events, including the Saturday morning line dancing!!! (As Granny Rose has already written, you can find out more by visiting <www.GrannyD.com>. The out-of-town Grans joined us on stage for the finale -- the rousing singing of "I Want to be Like Granny D!" |
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The Gathering went off without a hitch, thanks to all the wonderful Rochester Grans who made my job as coordinator ever so much easier! We opened by setting the theme of affirmation and empowerment, and learned special signals to remind ourselves whenever we put ourselves down or attempted to throw away the affirmations that come our way. An icebreaker ("The Big Wind Blows") helped us establish common bonds, and our "Show and Tell" quickly sorted out who was who and what was what. Each gaggle spent about 10 minutes providing information about their group and performing some of their most effective songs. What a hoot!!!! |
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We then divided into two groups for our first workshops by "outside expert" presenters: “Reconnecting with our Power: Hope in Troubled Times” and “Inclusion/Outreach: How Do We Build Bridges to Groups that Share our Vision?" |
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After lunch, we all joined together for a spirited Granny version of the Hokey-Pokey, and then divided into two groups again for a workshop on “Poetry to Uplift the Sagging Activist Spirit" and a round-table discussion on the songs we sing. |
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We got the chance to practice our consensus-building skills in the late afternoon as 45 strong, intelligent, and compassionate women had to make a group decision about where they were going to rage and what they would rage about. One hour later, we set off to sing for campaign finance reform in front of one of the local TV stations. The rage was filmed, but rumor has it that the cameraman had no film in his camera. We never did find our whether or not it actually appeared on the evening news.... |
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We closed the afternoon with a beautiful group ritual celebrating the Women's Peace Encampment established 20 years ago to protest the stockpiling of nuclear weapons at the nearby Seneca Army Depot, and connected ourselves to each other by weaving a web of yarn to the music of Pat Humphry's "We Will Rise." |
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After dinner, those who were still standing visited the Susan B. Anthony House, a Rochester landmark. |
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On Saturday, we got ourselves up and moving by all joining in a line dance, and then went to our workshops: a presentation on "How to More Effectively Transform Hostile Confrontation into Meaningful Dialogue," and a round-table discussion on how each gaggle makes decisions about what to rage about and when and where to rage. We all joined together for the final workshop on "How to be Funny in an Unfunny World" presented by two of Rochester's professional actors/teachers. |
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After lunch, we closed the conference by linking arms and singing together Holly Near's "1,000 Grandmothers." |
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Those who stayed after the official close of the gathering traveled together about an hour to Seneca Falls, the site of the historic Women's Rights Convention, and the setting of the National Women's Hall of Fame and Women's Rights National Park. [By the way, we are organizing a campaign to have Granny D inducted into the Hall of Fame. As soon as the nominating documents are in, we will be contacting you all to write letters of support. Stay tuned....] |
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Words in an e-mail message can't truly convey the feelings that were stirred, the friendships that were made, the understandings that were honed, the commitments that were strengthened. I'll just close by adding my personal thanks to each and every one of you for helping me to accomplish the goals that I had set for myself -- to learn something, to do good work, and to have fun! I truly did!!!! |
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With loving hugs to all, |
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Granny Vicki |
| last updated: 05 DEC 03 Web Granny Designs |