I found this podcast with the brilliant Jace Malz very moving. Over the course of the Adaptagen interviews I’ve certainly learned that “outsider” is a common theme amongst facilitators, and maybe even a super power.

This is true in Jace’s story, but it is also a story of self-respect, reclamation and an authentic rebounding of the spirit that is truly inspiring. Jace is the founder of Inbo, a powerful creative learning lab. He runs an advanced facilitator training called “Holding Space” and an open group coaching series called “Misfits.” To learn more visit Inbo at https://www.inbo.ca.

Arin and I have been circling each other for many years, all the way back to the PYE Third Thursday Assemblies if you happen to recall those! We had a lovely first in person encounter at Madhu Shukla's storytelling event in 2018. But it was only in connecting preparing for this podcast that I realized what truly kindred spirits we are! A true facilitation geek; who flowed into her career one lily pad at a time; an artist and a lover of complexity and depth... this is one of the longest podcasts and to be honest it coukd have been three times as long! As you'll hear, Arindita has made some very important innovations in education, experiential ed and community arts. I learned a ton from this podcast, and Im sure you will, too.

Kavya's Bio

Kavya is a media artist and activist with a background in journalism, documentary film, and a BA in Gender and Women's Studies. She is the Founder of Agitate Productions, a media arts collective that focuses on community youth engagement and activism by creating space for stories told through art.

She has worked on a variety of projects centered around community engagement and activism the latest of which has been as an artist facilitator for a community mural project with Art Not Shame and director for the Moving Histories documentary project about stories from her neighbourhood of West Willow Woods in Guelph. She was also a digital storytelling facilitator with the Re•Vision Center for Art and Social Justice at the University of Guelph.

She began the Leaders of Today (LOT) program because of her fundamental belief that young people have meaningful stories to share and the capacity to create change through those stories. Growing up as an immigrant child at 85 Willow Road in Guelph she was raised by her community. They taught her what community responsibility was and that she always had the capacity to create change for and in her community. She hopes through the LOT program to offer this same sense of community to the young people in our city today and support them in sharing their stories and helping them to create the change they wish to see in their world.

Note from Nadia

Kavya Yogananthan is one of the most inspiring youth facilitators I know. I’ve been hearingabout her work with Leaders of Today since we started facilitating together in 2021, and I havebeen absolutely blown away by her ability to create vibrant, intense, deep and joyous spaces foryoung people to express themselves through the arts. Kavya and I run a yearly programtogether for Art Not Shame, called Rest and Resilience, and it’s there that I’ve experienced hergenerous, hilarious and gentle style of facilitation. In this podcast you’ll hear her story, and herincredible storytelling ability, draw all the threads together that led to the inspiration for Leadersof Today.She is currently recording a series of videos for Toolsi that will articulate the methodology forLeaders of Today, for the very first time. I know you’ll find this podcast as riveting and inspiringas I did!

The Adaptagen Podcast is part of the Toolsi facilitation training platform hosted by Nadia Chaney. Go tohttps://facilitate.toolsi.ca

Jonathon (BA, BEd, MEd) sustains NGM’s reputation for reliable and high-quality program delivery within the field of gender justice, and contributes to NGM’s expertise on boys and masculinity through ongoing research, knowledge translation, and advocacy.

He started out as a teacher before realizing that he was uniquely passionate about supporting boys’ well-being and challenging gender-based violence. In 2017, Jake, Jermal and Jason helped him launch the Breaking the Boy Code podcast—now part of the NGM Podcast Network—and a year later, hired him to take the lead on NGM’s youth programming. The rest, as they say, is history.

Jonathon also loves adventure sports and is currently most excited about leading Next Gen Men’s Rite of Passage Expeditions Project, taking masculine-identifying youth on wilderness-based transformative journeys through the waterways of Ontario and the Rocky Mountains.

Contact: [email protected]

Note from Nadia for Johnathon Reed

This podcast with Johnathon is intelligent, insightful and vulnerable. Johnathon’s brilliant and innovative youth work comes from “I know how that felt.” A career built on empathy and a poignant insight into the shadows of gender relations. I’ve mostly known Johnathon in the context of his attendance at trainings I’m running, and I have consistently been blown away by how much I learn from him. Johnathon has a gift for seeing beyond the surface of things (tools, methods, conversations) to the heart of meaning and truly inspired application. With Next Gen Men Johnathon is part of a trailblazing effort to create facilitated online youth communities (discord, podcast, and more) where young people can both be themselves and be inspired to reach beyond the toxicities of online communication. This podcast is generously narrative and full of very practical tips about youth work. For example, how do you create entry points for teenage boys to want to talk masculinity? It’s brilliant, it’s touching and Johnathon talks with the rhythm of a poet. I know you’ll enjoy this one.

The Adaptagen Podcast is part of the Toolsi facilitation training platform hosted by Nadia Chaney. Go to https://facilitate.toolsi.ca

BIO:

Dona is a multidisciplinary facilitator, community organiser, spoken word artist, and cultural worker. Her practice and methodologies are inspired by regenerative patterns within nature, stories of resilience and diaspora, and the expansive and evolving work of what it means to decolonise, to heal, to love, and to seek truth, even in the darkest of places. You can learn more at her website www.donanham.com

NOTE FROM NADIA:

Dona Nham is one of my dearest friends. She is an exemplary community facilitator and in theearly days of our friendship, about ten years ago, she inspired me deeply with her work withSisters-in-Motion, a women’s arts collective in Montreal that she co-founded with Malek Yaloui.Her work is co-arising and co-informed by her active and dedicated gardening practice, herdeep understanding of permaculture and her unfailing focus on justice and equity in communitywork. As an artist she is experimental and generous; in this podcast she will talk about her latestand longest work, a story collecting project about her own ancestors.

Rehana Tejpar, M.ED is a facilitator, leadership coach, mediator & movement artist, supporting leaders and organizations seeking to deepen in connection with their authentic leadership, wholeness, vision and intuition in a holistic way. She brings over 15 years of experience midwifing transformative journeys with individuals and organizations, in their evolutionary movements, and is a founder at Bloom Consulting, strengthening the creative and collaborative brilliance of leaders and teams to move forward wisely and inclusively, together. She is a practitioner of Transformative Coaching, InterPlay, Mindfulness, Authentic Movement, Theatre of the Oppressed, Art of Hosting Conversations that Matter, Sacred Clowning & Dialogue for Peaceful Change. She lives in Montreal with her daughter and husband and collectively stewards land with a collective of humans who are learning how to rewild and heal with nature in Ontario, Canada.

A Note from Nadia:

Rehana Tejpar is a dear friend, and the co-founder and leader of Bloom. Her way of workingcomes from a deeply spiritual and community-minded approach not only to work, but to her whole life. Her personal practices are rigorous and constantly deepening. She carries her bigcommunity and family responsibilities with a dancer’s grace and a childlike sweetness, but alsowith the edge and sharpness of a visionary change-maker (and she’s trained as a clown, sothere’s often a surreal edge lurking beneath!). Rehana has made my life easier and lighter in somany ways, I’m endlessly grateful for her example and her friendship

Claudia Pineda Reyes is a Mexican, queer, and neurodivergent social artist based in Washington, U.S. She has been practicing facilitation for 15 years across a variety of settings with the thematic purpose of advancing healing and liberation. Her family immigrated from Michoacan, Mexico to Chicago, Illinois where Claudia was born and raised. She is a Master in Social Work practitioner and has been trained as a facilitator in restorative justice Community Group Conferencing, the Creative Empowerment Model, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and in leading trainings about social equity. For 8 years, as a direct service practitioner, she provided counseling services for youth and families with a focus on working with people from the global majority, including people who have immigrated to the United States. For 7 years, Claudia has been working with the local government where she is designing and managing a program that works with community organizations to influence government practices and policies.  

Summary

Claudia Pineda Reyes has a gift for working with complexity, discomfort and conflict in group process. In this podcast she shares intimately how she developed these capacities as well as a number of concrete tools and techniques that can be used by facilitators. She asks and answers the question, how do you bring the elephant in the room into the light, and what do you do with it once it is there?

BIO:

Cindy's Bio

In this podcast featuring the magnetic community facilitator Cindy Charleyboy, listeners gain valuable insights into her unique approach to facilitating dream workshops. Cindy shares her experiences, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and playfulness in facilitation, encouraging facilitators to embrace their true selves and create spaces for participants to engage in playful activities. She recounts a remarkable workshop where she facilitated lucid dreaming experiences, demonstrating the profound impact facilitators can have on participants' lives. Cindy also discusses her resources, such as dream reconnaissance and the environment, highlighting the role they play in her facilitation process. Community facilitators will discover new perspectives and practical wisdom to enhance their own facilitation skills through this engaging and thought-provoking podcast. 

A note from Nadia 

Cindy and I met many years ago at the Indigeneyez youth camps. I took one of her dream workshops, and was blown away by her unique style, her quiet confidence, her incredible sense of humour and her taste for the bizarre. I’m excited to share this Adaptagen episode, where I learned so much about where that style came from, and her vision for her facilitation and community work.  

This podcast is about hearing the voice of guidance in your life, and how and when you follow it - or not! hazel bell kowski shares profound and moving stories about how she came to be a “roadie” for a collection of powerful silk screened flags that themselves “hold space,” literally. If you want to reflect on your destiny, your intuition, your teachers and elders, and the sacred livingness of the object world, listen to this brilliant, humble artist whose “first language is colour.” 

bio: 

hazel lives at the edge of the wild pacific northwest woods, with fresh water streaming past, the prints of bear and dog on the ground, the sounds of ravens and eagles overhead; a place which has helped bring her artistic impetus - awe & reverence of the created world - into a sharp focus. The Joy and Ease which comes with seeing and celebrating life naturally uses her training and experience to create expressions of colourful love. 

Beginning with a BFA from Ryerson University, hazel has maintained an inter-arts practice for over twenty-five years, weaving inter-generational storytelling and art-making circles into healing community work, all supported by her unique perspective on connection. She has partnered with groups as disparate as the Toronto District School Board and the Institute of Noetic Sciences, Grassy Narrows First Nation and the Wild Salmon Caravan. She has had the great fortune of training and working with IndigenEYEZ, which has offered her the opportunity to witness the transformative nature of stencilled flags, both in the making of them and in the hanging of them to shape sacred spaces. 

Her art has at its heart the intention of creating kinship among all the creatures of our world.