Speaking-in-Relation - Effective Public Speaking

Hybrid Event: Online over zoom and in person in Montreal.

This event is part of the Summer Training Series on Communication for radical transformation 

Description: "Effective Public Speaking" can be interpreted in numerous ways. What I have noticed is that we are "trained" to say what we want to convey, without necessarily learning how to communicate to an audience. Speaking-in-Relation is an exploratory, participatory dialogue in which we learn to notice ourselves in relation to our audience and consider the "fit", the "non-fit", and the "partial fit" that we may sense in terms of "who is in the room" we are speaking in. Speaking-in-Relation does not come from the ego, and it does not come from a script - although you may have a script as a reminder of what you want to cover to the extent it continues to make sense once you are immersed in the presence of an audience.

To "communicate" is to "commune" about our boundaries, about our connections and about the space between boundaries and connections. It takes openness and perennial vulnerability and bravery to honor our own integrity and that of all in the spaces in which we speak. This means in part, that to speak is to listen, to ask questions, to consider letting go of what you thought you might say in order to 'speak-in-relation". You might think this sounds hard, but I suggest speaking any other way generates hardness in space. Speaking-in-Relation is the speaking in the language of deep democracy.

Trainer Bio:
Dr. Leguizamon Grant is a lifelong organizer and introvert. If he comes out of his "shell" to speak-in-relation he wants it to "move an us" that pre-existed or is emergent in the space we share. Dr. Grant is the Executive Director of a national social justice-oriented research, evaluation and capacity building company on Turtle Island, an adjunct professor at Metropolitan State University, and a co-founder of Embody Deep Democracy, which seeks to nourish our shared skills of "being-in-relation" as we work for mutual liberation.

Dr. Leguizamon Grant will be joining the session through Zoom from his home south of the Medicine Line. R4FL coordinators will host the in person dimension of the event in Montreal.

You can attend the training on line, by registering for the zoom link here: https://us06web.zoom.us/.../tZ0udOCorDIiHdyXcdCWoyuIneSbi...

Or you can join us in person in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montreal at:

SHIFT - Centre for Social Transformation, Room LB-145
1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W.
Montreal, QC H3G 1M8 (J.W. McConnell Building).

Please send us an email (researchforthefrontlines@gmail.com) or direct message to let us know if you will attend in person, so we can prepare accordingly.

FB Event Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/1428441051036902

This session is co-presented by Research for the Front Lines, the Climate Justice Organizing Hub, the SHIFT Centre for Social Transformation, and Concordia's Social Justice Centre and University of Ottawa's Laboratory for Engaged Research.