Congreso Aagil 2018

Organizers in Mexico just hosted 200+ folks from 9 countries at the first international ALC Conference! They held 2 days of events in San Luis Potosi, and I was grateful for the invitation to share and bear witness.

Saturday morning was inspiring. Leon and Gabo shared music, Becka shared her story and why-SDE-is-world-transforming in her keynote, and then Alex shared about his experience with SDE (“informal”) PhDs. I savored their filling my brain, then took a break and went to play with kids while folks went to breakout sessions.

With all the network reset work I’ve done in the past year, it’s sometimes felt like I’ve been doing a lot of talking. Necessary and intentional and in collaboration…but still. A lot. Refreshingly, most of my time at the conference I got to spend listening. As the day flowed on, I got to listen to Nabori teach adults then share some of his work. I listened to Alex Aldarondo describe what our bodies know. I listened to a kid describe tag rules and another describe her “Frozen” backpack. I listened to the quiet space Ruben opened, and to people listening inside themselves for what they really want. I listened to an infant. To some birds. To the hum of so many voices separately together, in a language I’m just starting to get the hang of.

I appreciated how similar to a day at my ALC it felt. Of course, our 2nd floor East Harlem space is very different as an environment than the lawn and terrace of a museum in central Mexico. But the ebbs and flows around me, the people with relaxed focus working to create their unique days within the day we shared…they felt just like home.

Sunday I joined Ruben and Alex to answer questions. We were asked what an ALC is, how days look, what our relationships with parents are like, how we document, how we build community…lots of those kinds of fun queries that often come up at info sessions and trainings. I’ve answered them all more times than I can count, but it’s always interesting to hear how other people answer. Extra interesting this time was being on stage, communicating through a generous friend’s live translation, listening to two men I admire share what they’ve learned starting and visiting centers, holding the awareness that most of my experience has been that of growing and caretaking the single community I’m rooted in to this day. (Here’s a video of me talking…and there’s a bunch of other great videos on the Facebook page for Centros de Aprendizaje Ágil. )

After I got off-stage, my day turned into a series of one-on-ones. I connected with folks who wanted to talk about women’s voices, babies, racism, the US, dragonflies, plant medicine, power struggles, sharing leadership, tools, tech, history, mud-puddles, menstruation, tag, rap, teens, food, world-changing, colonization, facilitation…soooo many things. For blips between those sessions of company-sharing, I listened in on the program. The kids’ panel was AMAZING. The short talks from Leon, Abi, Edgar, and Nabori (who also blew us away with his music) drew excited crowds. There were clusters of people on the lawn, under tress, around tables. They were everywhere: connecting, sharing, and playing.

As the sun set, the conference-goers trickled out. Our closing circle was sizable, and it certainly was nowhere near the size it would have been at mid-day. We shared hugs and gratitude. We collected our many, many post-its. Then I maybe, definitely cried a little at how far this project has come, and we all headed off into the night.