Hospicing Modernity Workshop
Sundays, January 18–February 8 | 4-7pm (CT)
On Zoom
A reading, writing, discussion, and practice workshop based on the book Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism by Vanessa Machado de Oliveira.
“We are living off of expired stories. Stories that expire can no longer dance with you. They are lethargic or stuck, they can’t move things in generative ways anymore, but we often feel we cannot let them go. If we want to get unstuck, we need to put these expired stories to rest. But before that happens we need to receive their final teachings, which are the deepest, gloomiest, and sometimes also the funniest.”
What if collective healing will be made possible precisely by facing—together—the end of the world as we know it? This 4-week series is for anyone ready to experience and observe manifestations of modernity and ourselves within it differently, with more sobriety, maturity, discernment, and accountability. Together, we’ll:
Reimagine how we learn, unlearn, and respond to crisis
Expand our capacity to hold personal and collective space for difficult and painful things
Understand the “5 modern-colonial Es”: Entitlements, Exceptionalism, Exaltation, Emancipation, and Enmeshment in low-intensity struggle activism
Interrupt our satisfaction with modern-colonial desires that cause harm
Create space for change driven neither by desperate hope nor a fear of desolate hopelessness.
Pay-what-you-can (suggested $30-80). No one turned away for lack of funds.
FACILITATORS
B Tornaghi (IT) - born in BraSil, citizen of Earth, B has experienced culture in North America, Latin America, and Europe. Working with Translation & Interpreting (Portuguese, English, and Spanish primarily, though we can also communicate in Italian and French), dancing on land & water since childhood, everything feeds back into Eco-Social-Somatic Research & Practice; always activating curiosity about how movement/dance can help us reconnect with many other ways of thinking & perceiving, allowing our human experience to find and create bridges within the many languages of nature. Nature nurtures. Nurture nature.
B i Tornaghi (IT) - usufruindo do privilégio de experiências de vida nas culturas da América do Norte, América Latina, e Europa, e trabalhando com Tradução & Interpretação (Português, Inglês, e Espanhol proeficiêntes e capacidade de comunicação também em Italiano e Francês), dançando n'água e na terra desde neném, tudo se condensa em pesquisa & Prática Eco-Social-Somática; sempre com curiosidade sobre como movimento/dança pode ajudar a gente a reconectar com múltiplas outras maneiras de pensar & perceber, permitindo que a nossa experiência humana encontre caminhos e crie pontes entre as muitas linguagens da natureza. Natureza nutre. Nutra a natureza.
Thomlin Swan (they/he) is a queer, Jewish artist, organizer, and co-founder of Emergent Seas Great Lakes Storying Collective. Thomlin has been learning from Black and Indigenous Water Protectors and Water Warriors around the Great Lakes about how to respond to and learn from the crises of environmental racism and boom-and-bust collapse. Thomlin is excited to be helping create the 2026 Amerikin Carnival—an all-senses experience in navigating geographic, cultural, and spiritual migratory paths out of isolation and into connection. Thomlin lives in Nahgachiwanong (Cloquet, MN) with their family.