NYLN has many dynamic facilitators, artists, and speakers who are available to facilitate workshops on a multitude of topics. We believe in utilizing popular education – a philosophy of learning used by community activists.

What is Popular Education?

Popular education is a teaching philosophy. It grew out of social change movements where people needed to get others to think critically about what was unfair about the way their community was being treated.

Things we love about popular education (and our workshops!):

+ It is fueled by people power! We believe people are the experts of their experience. We do not have to teach them or pass down the information. Instead, popular educators facilitate a space where people are thinking about things and teaching themselves. People are the experts.

+ It’s hands on. Popular educators use all kinds of tools to get people thinking. (Think: poetry, art, hip hop, movement, storytelling, acting, and more.) Instead of learning from a powerpoint, you learn through activities. You share experiences and interact with other people. That means that every learning experience is different depending on who is there.

+ It’s accessible. Popular educators know that for someone to participate in a workshop, the space must be accessible. Popular educators are flexible and able to change the way they are doing things if it is not working. Popular educators take responsibility for learning about what the community needs. For us, this means always audio describing pictures, captioning videos, using wheelchair accessible spaces, and more.

Workshops NYLN Can Facilitate:

• Tiny Tim and Jerry’s Kid Walked Into a Bar…: Navigating the Mainstream Disability Story
• Planting the Seeds for A Grassroots Disability Rights Movement
• Using Art and Media to Voice Your Power
• Getting at the Roots: Understanding the Way Ableism Impacts People with Disabilities
• Get Free: Self Determination and Me
• The Revolution Will Be Tweeted and Livestreamed: Using Independent Media to Speak Truth to Power
• Our Bodies, Our Desires: Disability and Sex
• That’s So Queer: The Disabled Body And Ways to Crip Up Your GLBT Politics
• College Bound: Preparing for Education After High School
• She Called Me the Devil: Disabled People in Judeo-Christian America
• The Cripple and the Blind Man: Disabled People of Color Organizing For Themselves