19.06 Insurgent Love | 17:00 - 19:00

Embodied Practices of Care in Times of Crisis. A workshop as part of the Laboratory of Resistance series.
A workshop as part of the Laboratory of Resistance series: What does it mean to choose softness in contexts shaped by urgency, conflict, and collective exhaustion?
This workshop invites participants to explore softness and care not as private virtues, but as political practices that shape how we live, organize, and relate to one another. In many collective spaces rooted in struggle and resistance, care is often stretched thin, unevenly distributed, or rendered invisible. Trauma and memory mingle with urgency and exhaustion, giving rise to miscommunication, mistrust, and depletion.
Together, we will reflect on how to sustain collective processes without reproducing burnout and alienation; how to approach difference as a space for understanding; and how to cultivate ways of being together that make room for empathetic listening, time, and authentic presence. We will also consider care as the often invisible infrastructure of collective life: what holds things together, what is taken for granted, and what conditions allow care to be shared more justly and sustainably.
Over two hours, the workshop will unfold through guided conversation, situated examples, and small collective practices, opening space to imagine more sensitive and sustainable ways of building the common.

This workshop approaches Arabic improvisation as articulated melodic logic rather than free emotion. Working with three core ajnas, for example, Rast, Hijaz, and Saba, participants will explore how each jins carries its own internal gravity and how ajnas interact through shared pitches, direct leaps, or deliberate friction. The focus is on jins switching as a structural tool, not as an ornament.
Alongside modal thinking, the workshop addresses rhythm as a melodic shaper. Using contrasting iqa‘at such as Maqsum, Malfuf, and Samai Thaqil, musicians will discover how rhythmic density and accent placement alter the identity of a jins, especially through the treatment of the ghammaz or pivot note. The session culminates in a structured group improvisation where all three pillars, ajnas and their interactions and rhythmic thinking, operate simultaneously, followed by a listening-based discussion of what succeeded and what challenged each musician's habits.