As philosophers and activists Bayo Akomolafe and Marta Benavides recently observed, even though today’s urgent existential threats have been with us for a long time, “today gifts us with the appreciation of a different kind of urgency, one which comes from the realization that the system is not the cause of our problems. They argue that “we are still tethered to the deadening values of consumerism, and have not reclaimed our roles as living co-creators of a society we prefer to live in.”

If you are ready to take up the challenge of world-making, this 90-minute podcast is for you. Led by humour theorist and educator, Dr. Elaine Decker, participants are not invited to fix a broken system, but to embrace their capacities to imagine, create, and embrace other worlds.

The key to this transformation is to understand the disruptive archetype of the TRICKSTER! 

Tricksters/clowns/fools have been documented in every culture on earth – ancient, modern, and even forward in science fiction. Depending on the context, the Trickster is a prankster/entertainer, a leader in the community, an advisor to the king, an inventive problem solver, a communicator among species, a competent manager of personal challenges and trauma, and a brave explorer of new ideas.

Get ready to Transform Tragedy! Undermine Authority! Debunk Dominance! Summon Silliness! Play with Power! Evolve Ignorance! Laugh in the Face of Doom!

In this class we’ll use video, songs, games, puzzles, yoga, jokes and riddles to

(1) demonstrate how Tricksters disrupt our attachments to given realities and make us hospitable to new ones, and

(2) develop in ourselves the Trickster’s 3 crucial qualities – flexibility, imagination, and courage.

We invite you to dispel the myth of separation, strengthen your capacity to celebrate life’s gifts & challenges (both individually and collectively), and to help decommodify and reconstitute the real world.

The times are serious; Let’s laugh!