We are excited and honored to presenting at the 2020 Common Field Convening about the ASSEMBLIES program at NAVEL. ASSEMBLIES is a platform for collaborative research, discussion and creation invested in forms of learning that are cooperative, experimental and process-oriented. Community-led, these learning groups form around a theme, practice or project, and NAVEL provides space, a peer network and resources. At the end of each quarter, the groups are invited to share about their findings during a public event, and their research, projects and presentations are made available online. To name a few, the first rounds of ASSEMBLIES saw groups form around black ethics in rap music, anti-colonial media literacy and revolutionary wealth redistribution.

Join NAVEL’s co-directors, Amanda Vincelli and Michael Holt, alongside former ASSEMBLIES organizer, artist and revolutionary Jennifer Moon to learn more about this model for collaborative practice, knowledge and resource sharing. Be prepared to brainstorm how to organize such groups online, in your home, backyards or organizations, and walk away with a practical guide for initiating ASSEMBLIES within your own community.

Jennifer Moon’s research and life-art investigate organizing systems of all kinds (social systems, institutional structures, power relations, scientific theories, emotional frameworks, etc.) and how these various systems are entangled, co-constituted, performed, and perpetuated through bodies (human, nonhuman, material, immaterial). Drawing from queer life, science, self-help, popular culture, the extremely personal, and fantasy, their work mobilizes potential to reconfigure our relationship to power, to reignite the social and political imaginaries, and to stimulate change beyond binaries, hierarchies, and capital.

Michael Holt is a creative strategist and producer from Portland, Oregon. He is a co-founder and the co-director of NAVEL in Los Angeles. He is the co-host of POWERVERS, a podcast exploring queerness and identity, an independent manager for artists Spenser Theberge & Bret Easterling, producer of Chris Cruse’s infamous underground rave SPOTLIGHT, and serves as performance curator and advisory board member for the Queer Biennial. From 2012-2015, Michael was the Assistant Director of Marketing at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. He received his MA in Performing Arts Management from New York University.

Amanda Vincelli is an artist, strategic designer, cultural programmer, community organizer from Montreal, Canada. She is a co-founder and the co-director of NAVEL in Los Angeles.