Wednesday June 7th, 6.30pm

For two decades, Bill Moyer, musician, change agent and co-founder of the Backbone Campaign has been providing activists and organisers with innovative techniques for creative protest. Backbone’s tools for “artful activism” include the use of puppets, light projections, human murals, supersized banners and a collection of water-based tactics known as kayaktivism. 

Bill, who is based in Washington State, will be visiting London and at Kairos to explain Backbone’s theory of change. Love Wins! And the Art of War combines lessons from past social movements and the performing arts with grand strategic principles that Bill has borrowed from his Pentagon analyst mentor and applied to nonviolent social movements. 

Friday June 9th, 6.30pm

The commons belong to everybody in society and to everybody equally. They include the natural commons – the land, rivers, sea and seabed, and the air we breathe – as well as the social, civil, cultural and educational commons.

And yet our commons have been systematically depleted, through encroachment (and neglect), enclosure, privatisation, commodification and financialisation. The erosion has accelerated in the past forty years since the neo-liberal economics revolution associated with Margaret Thatcher, and ratcheted up in the period of austerity.

In this talk and discussion, economist Guy Standing, author of Plunder of the Commons and The Blue Commons, will argue that we need a new progressive politics that demands a revision of the commons and compensation for their loss. We’ll also discuss one possible objective, a Commons Charter, and how such a manifesto for reviving common wealth might be achieved. 

Tuesday June 13th, 6.30pm

Fun, participatory workshop with Justine Huxley, co-founder of Kincentric Leadership, to explore how indigenous wisdom and new scientific findings are paving the way for a radical new way to lead.

The indigenous worldview has long seen the more than human world as our kin, and this principle has shaped a way of life that allows all life to thrive. Today, Western leaders are increasingly looking to these world-views as they attempt to navigate the climate and nature crises, while science has made huge leaps in understanding of the umwelts (or distinct sensory realities) of different animals and plants.

Justine will take us on a whistle-stop tour of these exciting new scientific findings that demonstrate the intelligence, interconnectedness and communication skills of the more than human world, and draw parallels with indigenous world-views. We’ll look at the principles of the kincentric approach and how this learning can be applied specifically to leadership, in any context. We’ll explore some shining examples of kincentric leadership in action and then get practical and ask: what might this look like in your community or context? How might you become a ‘kincentric leader’?

Friday June 16th, 6.30pm-11pm

Friday social featuring New York-based Andrew Boyd – veteran prankster, inventor of memes, co-founder of “subvertising” agency Agit-Pop Communication, author of activist manual “Beautiful Trouble” and the recently released tragi-comic “I Want a Better Catastrophe”.

Andrew will share some inspiring examples from his numerous campaigns for social good, before setting us a fun, creative challenge – more details to come – followed by supper at 8pm.

The evening then continues from 8.30 until 11pm in the Constellations Cocktail Bar, which will be running the Pay it Forward, Knock it Back payment system. All are welcome.

Tuesday July 4th, 6.30pm

Philosopher and intellectual historian Sophie Scott-Brown will explore how the traditional roles of the intellectual and the educator need reinventing along with our democracy.

If, as cultural critic Raymond Williams argued, democracy is not merely an outcome but a process in which we must all take part, should we stop thinking of intellectuals as ‘legislators’ of democracy and rather as ‘catalysts’ or ‘organisers’ to inspire social engagement?

Drawing on the work of historical and contemporary thinkers Raphael Samuel, founder of the History Workshop movement, Colin Ward, the everyday anarchist, GDH Cole, the pluralist pedagogue, and bell hooks, the original transgressive teacher – she will propose five principles which underpin the art of the organiser and suggest a few practical ways these principles might be applied in different situations from activist/community groups to educational settings.