Elephant in the Room

The Neighbourhood Organizing cohort is back at it!

In September we hosted our very own subvert-a-thon!

An action oriented, immersive, social challenge that brought together folks from all walks of life, to deep dive into the social norms that keep us separate from each other, and work towards actions that could create change on a neighbourhood level. Over two weekends, the team brainstormed, ideated and prototyped ideas that might help delightfully subvert these norms.

Poster for applications into the cohort

In addition to the subvert-a-thon, we also hosted a subversion summit during the week, where people in the community could hear from folks that are doing inspiring neighbourhood focused projects.

With the help of facilitators and mentors who offered support and guidance, the group was exposed to surprise parades, delicious playful meal times, challenges, and prompts for meaningful discussions along the way. In the collaborative spirit of the group we learned that the two main areas we wanted to address were ‘distrust for difference’ and ‘disconnection from place’.

Elephant in the room was one idea that emerged from our prototyping sessions. The goal was to facilitate conversations between lines of difference and invite people to get curious about perspectives different from their own. We hosted these conversations at Trout Lake to begin with and then in collaboration with Convivial Cafe at Leg in Boot Square.

“We're taught to be polite with strangers and avoid disagreements - but keeping our distance can also make us feel a little lonely and disconnected. What if we could invite the elephants we usually avoid, into the room, and practice engaging with strangers in more meaningful ways?”

As people engaged in the space, they were welcome to decide the depth they wanted to go into. We invited them to choose their comfort level using a host of animals as reference points. The mouse level was for those who were feeling shy and wanted to have lighthearted disagreements addressing questions like ‘should superheroes have to pay for all the damage they cause?’ and ‘does fruit count as a dessert?’

At the cat level you were a bit more curious and ready to unpack things like ‘is Vancouver a lonely city?’ or ‘what happens to us after we die?’ and at the tiger level folks could expect to discuss things like ‘should borders should be open for everyone?’ or ‘is colonialism a thing of the past or present in Canada?’. We created a prompt deck with 10 different questions for each level and even offered a ‘fly on the wall’ level if you just wanted to be present and listen to others.

Each guest got a button to indicate their level, a welcome guide which outlined our curiosity guidelines and some questions to ask for deepening conversation. And some tables were hosted by facilitators (elephants) who helped guide conversations. Elephants were also available to step in if any conversations were getting heated and needed to be steered in the direction that aligned with the goals of the space.

From this process we saw a lot of positive interactions! We were met with such enthusiasm and curiosity from people, and there was a really strong energy from most that we need more of this. Some special moments included just how many people wanted to have tiger level conversations, and even when people started as flies, they often turned into something else. We had folks stay for 5 whole hours talking to strangers, and even some who continued long after the event was over.

A participant said that they wanted to recommend to the city that 'tiger' 'cat' 'mouse' icons become a permanent installation in this square for people to continue have these conversations. Another participant thought this was part of a prank show, but appreciated the lack of "hidden agenda". Someone remarked "This is so relevant to what's going on in the world today. People are so siloed already and here you are layering such controversial things on top of it. It's like therapy, teaching you how to be a better conversationalist, teaching you to listen. Forget the strangers, I can't even agree with my wife!" 

We hope to continue having these conversations! So stay tuned for future iterations of this project.