L.O.R.E.
League of Radical Empowerment
The League of Radical Empowerment is the brainchild of our camp co-lead, Leia, who has been a longtime collaborator of Hardware, with experience in various parts of Critical NW Production and Do More Now. Since Hardware’s fix-it skills are not needed in the quite the same way at our Northwest regionals as they are in Black Rock City, we decided to offer participants the opportunity to level up their skills by holding skill-building workshops and crafting opportunities.
Our motto is “Each One Teach One,” and it is important to acknowledge that this phrase originated as an African-American proverb meant to encourage enslaved people to empower each other out of a forced state of ignorance by teaching each other to read and write. We are developing an educational curriculum that highlights Black leaders in education to go along with our camp activities. Until then, a brief reference and bibliography can be found here.
Events
Critical NW 2022 was our first event as we emerged from pandemic isolation, the camp consisted of Pipebomb, Leeny, and Leia. With the help of some of our savvy festival staff, we offered several workshops from our camp on Esplanade:
- Use and Maintenance of Ratchet Straps
- Intro to Laser Engravers
- Power Tools 101
- Heavy Machinery Operation
Critical NW 2023 saw us grow into a camp of 18, combining more Hardware personnel with an exceptional group of people from Camp Dirty Nightie. We built our workshop in the amphitheater area, and offered 2-3 workshops each day, including:
- Beginning Ukelele
- Introduction to Laser Engravers
- Build your own Radio (kits provided courtesy of a grant from INW)
- Build your own LED Night Light (kits provided courtesy of a grant from INW)
- False eyelash application
- Heavy Machinery Operation
- Patch Sewing Hour
- Whack-em Stamps
- Blade Sharpening
- Artsy Fartsy Adult Coloring Hour