R+R LAB STUDENT PROJECTS / JOY WORK
*The student group Queer Joy Work in our 2023/2024 program disrupted our language of "projects" - seeking instead to see this collective effort as Joy-work! Joy-Work stuck + will continue to be R+R's frame for future cohorts.
Community Rituals Zine
The Seeding Care: rituals for self and kin zine was lovingly co-created by Becs, Justine, and Marynil. During the creative process, they collectively went through their own journeys of re-membering and re-connecting with practices and tools that help them navigate through this liminal space. Embodying the energies of the Rooted and Rising Lab, this zine aims to gently disrupt and sow seeds of relational care. Several of the crew's original photographs and art pieces have been weaved into the zine!
The rituals are intended to be a gentle wind to carry the reader on the path of exploring and re-membering gentle ways that help them ground and flow through existence. Rituals can be practiced and explored solo or with kin and meant to evolve and adapt to fit the needs and intentions of the reader.
Becs, Justine, and Marynil are very grateful to R+R and those who they walk with for supporting them in the creation of Seeding Care. They hope to co-create more magic in the future!
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At the end of the course, each student received a copy of this zine alongside organic seeds + sewing materials. Scroll through the pdf above.
Third Places
4 students created a Zine featuring Third Places in the Greater Toronto Area. This zine is a carefully curated list of some of their favourite third spaces in the Greater Toronto Area that are accessible at no or low cost. The guide was printed, shared with students and given to local free libraries and cafe resource hubs. They hope the guide helps youth find connection and belonging in community through intentional interactions with sustainable spaces in their built environment.
The Water Group
Group of 4 students: hosted a day along the Humber River with R+R team member Doug Anderson. Doug shared some of his wisdom, and a bit about the work local Indigenous people and friends have been doing to restore the land and culture along the Humber River. In collaboration with OceanWise, students then led a clean-up of litter along the trail, forming friendships as we went. Students also created bookmarks with facts about the Humber River as a take-away.
Regenerative Agriculture
The purpose of this project was to learn, and explore the relationship between urban farming and climate action. Engaging another student who is active in this realm, two students organized a field-trip for themselves and other classmates to visit The Stop’s microgreen farm. They created social media posts documenting their experiences and sharing recipes - engaging a social media expert to learn this skill too!
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You can also engage with these videos on instagram here, here, and here.
Queer Joy & Abundance
4 students: this group explored notions of abundance, and healing from narratives of scarcity and lack. They drew lessons from artists, queer activists and thinkers to inspire their project. This group created a digital altar (in website format) where each student wrote a post on rooting into abundance + created stickers w/ QR codes linking to the site.
Inner Child Affirmation Cards
2 students: each created a drawing and then a hand-made linocut print. They made a print for each student, and an additional print meant to invite students to send a card to someone in their life they’d like to build relationship with; a prompt to spark conversation! Each student received their inner child affirmation cards and an envelope + stamp with their certificate.
Wisdom of Woodbridge
A group of friends joined R+R to explore this project idea close to their heart: their grandparents and peers have so much knowledge about sustainable living (sewing clothes, making batches of tomato sauce at the end of summer). Working against a damage-based narrative of elderly people, students wanted to create a space where the elderly are seen as resource-full. They began collecting videos from their grandparents, and created a website to host their growing work. In the future, they would like for this to build into a project that creates intergenerational community, and shares wisdom.