Deem Forum Two: Rest, Respect, Reciprocity

For Deem’s second series of forum discussions—a virtual space for us to reflect and expand on the perspectives and conversations presented in print—we focused on three themes that emerged through our second issue: rest, respect, and reciprocity.

We hosted three live online sessions on May 20, June 3, and June 10, in which Issue Two contributors were joined by guests and members of our editorial team. Each session offers a candid take on one of the topics that resonated across the multitude contributions to “Pedagogy for a New World,” with testimonies grounded in personal experience and genuine concerns, hopes, and goals.

Click to watch an excerpt from Session One: Rest with participants Kamra, Antonia Estela Pérez Rojas, and Jessica Lynne.

Rest, as was reiterated again and again in Issue Two, is an essential component of learning and teaching, as well as of intellectual, emotional, and social growth. For our first session, Jessica Lynne led Kamra and Antonia Estela Pérez Rojas in conversation around prioritizing, envisioning, and designing restorative rituals.

“One of the primary observances I’m experiencing in my life right now is that I’m noticing that me having all my needs met, and caring for myself, is translating into me being the healthiest, best lover I can be to all of my beloveds and comrades. If there’s one single gift in the world that I would want to give, it’s that.”

— Kamra

For our second session, we honored the many testimonies shared by our contributors in which respect was emphasized as integral to any situation in which knowledge is being produced and exchanged. Deem co-founder and creative director Nu Goteh guided Ramon Tejada and Elizabeth “Dori” Tunstall in a discussion around defining, expressing, and designing for respect.

Click to watch an excerpt from Session Two: Respect with participants Ramon Tejada, Dori Tunstall, and Nu Goteh.

“Now that I’m creating and finding environments in which I’m not being asked to compromise my soul’s truth, people are relying on me being truthful in order to be able to determine, for themselves, their own truth.”

— Dori Tunstall

Our third and final session addressed the idea of reciprocity—a practice that almost all of the stories within Issue Two named as key to understanding how learning comprises a mutual, and even symbiotic exchange. Felema Yemaneberhan moderated a conversation between Germane Barnes, Justin Garrett Moore, and Joseph Zeal Henry around the significance and practice of reciprocity within design and architecture.

Click to watch an excerpt from Session Three: Reciprocity with participants Felema Yemaneberhan, Joseph Zeal Henry, Justin Garrett Moore, and Germane Barnes.

“Everybody wants to win a commission; everybody wants to design a museum; everybody wants to do a public art project. Nobody wants to be the one who sits on the panel that then picks the other people to do the job, right? For me, that’s always the biggest hurdle.”

—Germane Barnes

Thank you once again to everyone who tuned into and participated in the live streaming of Deem’s second forum. The full recordings of all three sessions, with closed captioning, are available to watch on YouTube.