Writing from the Turtle Disco Zoomshell: Free Downloads
Pandemic Artifacts / / from the Zoomshell
a Turtle Disco Disability Culture Production
Gift PDF: Turtle Disco Pandemic Artifacts from the Zoomshell
We are delighted to share with you this collection that witnesses the pandemic through art and writing created during Turtle Disco Zoomshell offerings. Edited by Petra Kuppers and Stephanie Heit, featuring work by Samar Abulhassan, Marc Arthur, Roxanna Bennett, Beth Currans, Sarah Dean, Jose Miguel Esteban, Elena SV Flys, Raven Kame’enui-Becker, Megan Kaminski, Victoria Lee Khatoon, Denise Leto, Naomi Ortiz, Hannah Soyer, Chanika Svetvilas, and Tracy Veck.
Turtle Disco is dedicated to access; you will find image descriptions with all the art work. These pieces emerged out of community arts practice and are intended to be experienced and enjoyed in the community, freely and widely. Please share this pdf at leisure, being mindful to keep artist credits intact.
Gift PDF: “Online Intimacies and Artful Life in Turtle Disco Zoomshells”
Learn about the lineage and origins of Turtle Disco and the rich engagement of Turtle Disco zoomshell in this chapter by Petra Kuppers in the book Art as Social Practice: Technologies for Change (Routledge, 2022).
Incomplete Archive of Past Turtle Disco Offerings and Satellite Events (incomplete and in progress)
Past Session Descriptions
Contemplative Dance & Writing Practice with Stephanie Heit
Class Sliding scale: free-$30 Suggested Class Donation: $15
Paypal: stephanieheit@gmail.com Venmo: @Stephanie-Heit
In this practice, we will create a laboratory of delight: move in improvisational play engaging with our inner and outer spaces, awaken the senses through freewrites, witness the breath in meditation, tend to self and other taking influence from and connecting through our community of zoom squares. Join us to cultivate creative self-care, communal and individual inquiries, and an embodied, moving writing experience. This can be a rich training ground for touching into and being with the unknown, a useful skill for these uncertain times.
Contemplative Dance & Writing Practice is based on and adapted from Contemplative Dance Practice created and developed at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado by Barbara Dilley, who I had the pleasure to study with for many years. I honor this lineage and appreciate her invitation to adjust this “dancer’s meditation hall” to make it a living, changing thing to meet the moment.
No experience necessary. Please make a zoom space nest equipped with whatever you need for sitting or horizontal meditation (chair, cushion, mat). Bring writing/art materials you desire (journal, pen, colored pencils, etc.). Dress in comfy layers to support movement and stillness.
Starship Somatics with Petra Kuppers
free
In this workshop, we will engage our bodymindspirits as portals, as trance-mobiles that honor pasts and jet us toward speculative futures. In our sessions, we will use improvised movement, dream journeys, sounding, writing, and drawing as our transportation devices: firmly grounded in the sensory immediacy of our beds, sofas, floors and windows, and flying wide to honor ways of being of all kinds. All welcome, grounded in disability culture values.
Queer Dreaming with Petra Kuppers
free
The Turtle Disco women began this series on the anniversary of the Pulse tragedy, as a way to connect ourselves to wider webs of memory and love. Dreamers engage in a 20 minute journey, followed by open writing time. The practice is queer-led, seeks new kin and new responsibilities, and honors many different cultural pathways to lucid/shamanic dreaming (we do not engage in Native American appropriation).
No experience necessary, all bodyminds welcome, disability culture friendly.
Turtle Disco Salon
Fall Salon: Friday, November 13th 7-8:30pm, free
Offerings by Chanika Svetvilas, Naomi Ortiz, and Hannah Soyer
Spring Salon: Friday, April 16th 7-8:30pm
Offerings by Sarah Dean, Raven Kame’enui-Becker, and Petra Kuppers
Join us for this creative sharing of new work in process (poetry, art, studio tour, film, performance, etc. whatever has juice for you now) with a small community of artists. We’ll do a brief personal check-in followed by salon offerings. The people presenting will each have up to 10 minutes to share followed by conversation about the work by the whole group. A supportive place to experiment. Email us if you’d like to present, and also if you’d like to join the group.
Turtle Disco Goes…to the Beach! [in person, outdoors]
Saturday, December 11th 11am-1pm Eastern, free
Jensen Beach Park (4191 NE Ocean Blvd, Jensen Beach, FL 34957)
Come along and move, write, feel between the sun and ocean. Let’s immerse our hands in the sea, cleanse and ground ourselves for the year ahead. Playshop score instructions by Stephanie Heit and Petra Kuppers. Please register ahead of time so we know to look for you! And let us know of any access needs.
Turtle Disco Goes…Crane Dancing! [in person, outdoors]
Saturday, October 23rd 5:30pm Eastern, free
Phyllis Haehnle Audobon Memorial Sanctuary
NE of Jackson, MI on Seymour Rd. Driving directions and more info here.
Turtle Disco Goes…is back with an outdoor interspecies experience. Join us before the sun sets to witness the marvel of sandhill cranes gathering before their trip south. Bring a camping chair or blanket to get comfy. Trail to the viewing area is wheelchair accessible. Please register ahead of time so we know to look for you!
Amoeba Dances with Petra Kuppers
In this workshop, we will listen to and move with sounds we are making with our own breath, in our own home, while being comfortable on a mat on the floor (or in a similar comfortable position for yourself and your particular bodymind). The practice is informed by Pauline Oliveros’ deep listening work, by Continuum Movement, and by Olimpias disability culture practices. We will use our breath to channel sounds through our body, paying attention to the images, sensations and movements that come up as we engage our home space, and the objects inside it. We will then move from experience into creative writing.
Petra’s practice is born out of experiences of physical pain, and it is designed to be accessible to people who live with (different kinds of) pain. Our breath tunnels link us to new and old worlds, to moments that allow us to experience ourselves in difference, in hope, in joy, toward aliveness. We encounter ourselves and our micro-worlds, response-able to minute shifts, desires, and sensual states.
2022
Ypsi First Friday present/breath Gallery Opening
(For more info on all present/breath events visit here)
Friday, May 6th, 2022 free, everyone welcome, no registration needed
22 North Gallery; 22 North Huron, Ypsilanti, MI
5:00pm onward: present/breath community drawing with Petra Kuppers
Let’s see each other as humans in the three-dimensional wild. Come and join 10-min participatory drawing actions. Community performance artist Petra Kuppers invites people to create surreal contour drawings of one another, of dancing participants, and of quietly meditating ones. All materials provided, zero drawing experience necessary, grounded in disability culture values of access aesthetics and experimentation. Enjoy spending a few minutes to look deeply at and witness another human being.
6:30pm Artist Talks with Jennifer Lickers and Chanika Svetvilas
Jennifer Lickers (she/her) is a biracial First Nations artist with ties to both Detroit, Michigan and Six Nations, Ontario. She grew up in the Detroit area. As a child she had little contact with her indigenous family and information about her native identity was formed through old photos of the west and one sided history books. Beliefs of the vanishing race theory started to surface early in her childhood. She often lived in two worlds. During the school year, she spent her time between Dearborn and Detroit. During the summer, she was with her grandparents on Six Nations Reserve in Ontario. The space between two cultures is the focus of her work.
Chanika Svetvilas (she/her/hers) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Princeton, NJ who utilizes lived experience to create safe spaces, to disrupt stereotypes, and to reflect on contemporary issues. She has presented her interdisciplinary work at ABC NoRio, Brooklyn Public Library, Westbeth Gallery, Denver International Airport, Asian Arts Initiative, Islip Art Museum, Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, and more. She is curator for the annual exhibition, Unique Minds: Creative Voices, at Princeton University and presented by the Graduate Student Government Mental Health Initiative. Svetvilas is also co-founder of ThaiLinks and Thai Takes, the first biennial Thai film festival in New York City. For more information, visit chanikasvetvilas.com.
present/breath Symposium Day [in person]
Saturday, May 7th 1:30pm-6:00pm, free
Please register here. Access Notes: Wheelchair access, microphone, various access technologies will be on site. If you require CART, ASL or other access provisions during the symposium events, please inform us at petra@umich.edu by May 2nd, so that we can arrange the exhibit space accordingly.
1:30-2:30 pm Opening in 22 North Gallery. We will engage in welcoming somatic work with Stephanie Heit (independent artist, Turtle Disco, Ypsilanti), and Petra Kuppers (UM, English, Women’s and Gender Studies), followed by a structured conversation about the work that surrounds us, in the presence of artists Jennifer Lickers and Chanika Svetvilas.
2:30-3:15pm Eco Soma Book Launch in 22 North Gallery, book launch for Petra Kuppers\’ Eco Soma: Pain and Joy in Speculative Performance Encounters (University of Minnesota Press, 2022, open access). This book grew with and out of many of the engagements we had in our Eco-Somatics series these past years. How do dream journeys, poetry explorations, science fiction, dinosaur bones, and soft blankets go together? Come over, listen to a reading, and celebrate the book release with us!
4:00-4:45pm Workshop with Jessica Rajko.
In this small workshop we will focus on the palpability—the feeling of our active senses—in interactions with various technologies and apparatuses. Beginning with small, sensory explorations augmented by non-digital technologies such as ear plugs and stethoscopes we will explore the richness of our active, seeking senses. This will transition to similar explorations with custom-made wearable technology bands that unpack various biosensors and methods for making biosensor data legible. This offering is slow and playful—engaging curiosity as an entry point into criticality, particularly around questions of quantification, surveillance, and digital representation(s).
Jessica Rajko is an Assistant Professor at Wayne State University in dance and big data analytics. Her creative research and critical scholarship explores what we learn pragmatically, aesthetically, and ethically, when researchers cultivate spaces of methodological plurality and generative tension between dance and computing fields. Jessica has presented her research at Harvard’s Digital Futures Consortium, UPenn’s Price Lab for Digital Humanities, and University of New Mexico’s ART Lab. She’s also shared her interactive/performative artworks at CHI, Digital Humanities Summer Institute, Electronic Literature Organization Conference, Amsterdam’s OT301, Currents New Media Festival, and the Heard Museum.
5-6pm Closing Performance Sharing with bree gant.
bree gant is an artist and thinker from the westside of Detroit. They studied film at Howard University while gentrification paved over Washington, DC, and moved back to Detroit, when the city filed for bankruptcy, to see the cranes had followed her home. She has held residencies and fellowships with Art Matters Foundation, Kresge Arts in Detroit, Red Bull Arts, People in Education and Detroit Narrative Agency, and exhibits artwork nationally. Some of their most transformative experiences were collaborative, improvisational performances with folk like The Gathering, Visions of the Evolution, and The Fringe Society. bree is currently researching the bodily experience of depending on the bus in the Motor City, binge watching early 2000s science fiction, and probably at a park somewhere dancing in the snow.
present/breath Artist Talk with Jennifer Lickers and Chanika Svetvilas [zoomshell]
Thursday, May 26th 6:30-7:30pm Eastern; free (please register here ) Live captioned.
2021
Turtle Disco Zoomshell Offerings January 2021 (all times Eastern)
Zoomshell Connection with Turtle Disco Kaffeeklatsch
Friday, January 1st 7-8pm; Saturday, January 30th 3-4pm
Contemplative Dance & Writing Practice
Thursday, January 14th 3-5pm
Saturdays, January 9th, 23rd 3-5pm
Amoeba Dances
Saturdays, January 2nd, 16th 3-4pm
Queer Dreaming
Tuesday, January 19th 7-8pm
Crip Magic: Reading/Writing Workshop
Thursdays, January 7th, February 25th 7-8:15 pm
Turtle Disco Zoomshell Offerings February – April 2021 (all times Eastern)
Zoomshell Connection with Turtle Disco Kaffeeklatsch Fridays, February 19th & March 12th 7-8pm Eastern
EcoSomatics University of Michigan Spring Workshop Series
Tuesday, February 23rd 3-4pm Eastern
Fridays, March 12th, April 2nd & April 9th 3-4pm Eastern
Crip Magic Reading/Writing Workshop
Thursday, February 25th 7-8:15pm Eastern
Contemplative Dance & Writing Practice
Saturdays, February 27th & March 20th 3-5pm Eastern
Thursdays, March 4th & March 11th 6-8pm Eastern
4 week Saturday April series begins April 3rd, 3-5pm Eastern
Turtle Disco Salon
Friday, April 16th 7-8:30pm
Satellite events (public but offered and sponsored by other organizations, details below and in registration links)
EcoSomatics Spring Workshop Series hosted by University of Michigan, directed by Petra. All workshops 3-4pm Eastern, free, register for zoom link
Tuesday February 23rd 3-4pm Eastern with Tomie Hahn
Friday March 12th with Aimee Meredith Cox
Friday April 2nd with Meghan Moe Beitiks
Friday April 9th with Edgar Fabián Frías
Description for Tomie Hahn: Arousing Sense, an Ecosomatic Workshop, February 23, 3pm EST Imagine how every choice we make resonates or reverberates into the world. How might our sensory awareness of the time and space we inhabit affect our choices? This workshop dives into this question and offers in-the-moment sensory encounters to spark creativity and insights. The workshop will be contemplative, rejuvenating, definitely uplifting. We will use sensory experiences as a playful sandbox to awaken creativity, to be in our bodies, and to notice time. Here, ecosomatics ushers forth sensibilities of reverberations through time—sensing bodies, multiple identities, connecting in time with environment, and exploring ecofeminist realms. We will play in the echo-so-o-matic sandbox, reflecting vibrations in the virtual… “Oh, was that you? Or me?”
There will be time to share our encounters and creative scribbles. No experience needed!
What you need to bring to the workshop: a glass of plain water, pen or pencil, paper, and curiosity.
Invitation to Share Your Creative Work!
Turtle Disco Zoomshell Notes and Artifacts from Pandemic Times (working title)
Calling all turtle discoers who have participated in any of our zoomshell offerings during these pandemic times. We would like to compile a collection of work written inside of, or inspired by, a Turtle Disco session. These can include poems, fragments, musings, essays, drawings, photographs, scribbles, tangents…you get the idea!
You can also write about how the Turtle Disco Zoomshell offerings have impacted you and your creative practice. For instance, we’d welcome people who have attended the Kaffeeklatsches or the Salons to write up what that experience has been like and what it has meant to you during this time.
Our intention is to witness this past stretch through documentation and tracing of our creative practices. We envision this collection as a way to share and enhance our connections within this community. Our plan is to have both a downloadable online version as well as a limited edition book art project created by Stephanie (all contributors would receive a print version, if they wish).
Submission Guidelines
Deadline: May 1, 2021
Please send us up to 5 pages of work as an attachment (doc or docx). One poem or a fragment or scribble is fine. This means one poem per page, double spaced prose or equivalent. If you have special formatting, please also send a pdf in addition to the doc or docx.
For images/visual work, please send up to 5 high res JPGs or TIFFs.
Email your work to Stephanie and Petra
Subject line: Turtle Disco Submission: your name …i.e. Turtle Disco Submission: Trudi Heit-Kuppers
No formal cover letter needed. BUT in the body of the email please include:
~Bio written in third person, no more than 100 words. Please include your name, pronouns, location, and creative practices.
~If you know the class you wrote or made your work in (Crip Magic, Amoeba Dances, Queer Dreaming, Contemplative Dance & Writing Practice, Zoomshell Connection Kaffeeklatsch, Turtle Disco Salon) and/or the prompt that inspired it, please share that.
~For any visual work, please also send an image description (but we are also happy to make one up ourselves and run it by you, if you prefer).
Turtle Disco Zoomshell Offerings, April 2021 (all times Eastern)
Crip Magic Reading/Writing Workshop
Friday, March 26th, 7:30-8:45pm
EcoSomatics University of Michigan Spring Workshop Series
Friday April 2nd & April 9th 3-4pm Eastern
Contemplative Dance & Writing Practice
Saturdays in April: April 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th 3-5pm Eastern
Zoomshell Connection with Turtle Disco Kaffeeklatsch
Friday, April 9th 7-8pm Eastern
Amoeba Dances
Wednesday, April 14th 7-8pm Eastern
Turtle Disco Salon
Friday, April 16th 7-8:30pm
Turtle Disco Zoomshell Offerings May 2021 (all times Eastern)
Contemplative Dance & Writing Practice
Saturday, May 8th 3-5pm Eastern
Thursday, May 27th 6-8pm Eastern
Crip Magic Reading/Writing WorkshopFriday, May 14th 7:00-8:15pm Eastern
Zoomshell Connection with Turtle Disco KaffeeklatschFriday, May 28th 7-8pm Eastern
Satellite events (public but offered and sponsored by other organizations, details below)
For local turtles: outside event
Our Layers of Identity, a community art exhibition (including work by turtles: Petra, Stephanie & Beth Currans)
Opening reception, First Fridays Ypsilanti, Friday, May 7th, 6:00pm Eastern
Location: outdoor stage at N. Washington St. Downtown Ypsilanti, Michigan
Come participate in Petra’s project (shared in the spring Turtle Disco Salon)
Present/Breath
Look for the red chairs set-up close-by to the reception. circa 6:00-7:00pm Eastern
Let’s look at one another again – freed from Zoom screens and lonely living rooms. Let’s see each other as humans in the wild. Come and join 20-min outdoor participatory drawing actions. Local community performance artist Petra Kuppers will invite three people at a time to create surreal contour drawings of one another. All materials provided, zero drawing experience necessary.
These engagements offer ways to re-engage three-dimensionally, see others in the world, retrain our eyes and our curiosity. Enjoy spending a few minutes to look deeply at and witness another human being.
Turtle Disco Zoomshell Offerings June 2021 (all times Eastern)
Zoomshell Connection with Turtle Disco Kaffeeklatsch
Friday, June 11th 7-8pm Eastern
Contemplative Dance & Writing PracticeSaturday, June 19th 3-5pm Eastern
Thursday, June 24th 6-8pm Eastern
Amoeba DancesTuesday, June 29th 3-4pm Eastern
Satellite events (public but offered and sponsored by other organizations, details below)
For local turtles: outside event
present/breath: participatory drawing action with Petra Kuppers, a Turtle Disco eventFriday, June 4th, 6-7pm, link here
outside 22 North Gallery, 22 N Huron St, Ypsilanti free
Let’s look at one another again – freed from Zoom screens and lonely living rooms. Let’s see each other as humans in the wild. Come and join 10-min outdoor participatory drawing actions. All materials provided, zero drawing experience necessary. Look for the red camping chairs!
These engagements offer ways to re-engage three-dimensionally, see others in the world, retrain our eyes and our curiosity. Enjoy spending a few minutes to look deeply at and witness another human being.
present/breath will culminate in an exhibit at 22 North Gallery in May 2022.
MELT/Movement Research:Starship Somatics with Petra Kuppers (on zoom)
Monday, July 26th-Friday, July 30th, noon to 1pm Eastern, $50
Registration and Info Link: https://movementresearch.org/event/16020
In this workshop, we will engage our bodymindspirits as portals, as trance-mobiles that honor pasts and jet us toward speculative futures. Over our week together, we will use improvised movement, dream journeys, sounding, writing, and drawing as our transportation devices: firmly grounded in the sensory immediacy of our beds, sofas, floors and windows, and flying wide to honor ways of being of all kinds. All welcome, grounded in disability culture values.
present/breath: participatory drawing action with Petra Kuppers, a Turtle Disco event
Friday, June 4th, 6-7pm, link here
outside 22 North Gallery, 22 N Huron St, Ypsilanti free
Let\’s look at one another again – freed from Zoom screens and lonely living rooms. Let’s see each other as humans in the wild. Come and join 10-min outdoor participatory drawing actions. All materials provided, zero drawing experience necessary. Look for the red camping chairs!
present/breath will culminate in an exhibit at 22 North Gallery in May 2022.
Turtle Disco Zoomshell Offerings October/November 2021 (all times Eastern)
Crip Magic: Reading/Writing Workshop with Stephanie & PetraThursdays, October 28th
Turtle Disco Zoomshell Kaffeeklatsch
Fridays, October 29th 7pm Eastern, November 26th 7pm
Starship Somatics with Petra Kuppers
Thursday, November 18th 7-8pm Eastern
Contemplative Dance & Writing Practice with Stephanie Heit
Saturday, November 20th 3-5pm Eastern
Starship Somatics with Petra Kuppers
Thursday, November 18th 7-8pm Eastern
free
In this workshop, we will engage our bodymindspirits as portals, as trance-mobiles that honor pasts and jet us toward speculative futures. In our sessions, we will use improvised movement, dream journeys, sounding, writing, and drawing as our transportation devices: firmly grounded in the sensory immediacy of our beds, sofas, floors and windows, and flying wide to honor ways of being of all kinds. All welcome, grounded in disability culture values.
Turtle Disco Zoomshell Offerings December 2021 (all times Eastern)
Crip Magic Reading/Writing Workshop [zoomshell]December 2nd 7-8:15pm Eastern
Turtle Disco Goes…to the beach! [in person, outside]Saturday, December 11th 11am-1pm Eastern
Zoomshell Connection with Turtle Disco Kaffeeklatsch [zoomshell]Friday, December 17th 7-8pm Eastern
Contemplative Dance & Writing Practice [zoomshell]Saturday, December 18th 3-5pm Eastern
Starship Somatics [zoomshell]Tuesday, December 21st 7-8pm Eastern
Turtle Disco Goes…to the Beach! [in person, outdoors]
Saturday, December 11th 11am-1pm Eastern, free
Jensen Beach Park (4191 NE Ocean Blvd, Jensen Beach, FL 34957)
Come along and move, write, feel between the sun and ocean. Let’s immerse our hands in the sea, cleanse and ground ourselves for the year ahead. Playshop score instructions by Stephanie and Petra.
Please register ahead of time so we know to look for you! And let us know of any access needs.
2020
Winter 2020 Turtle Disco Offerings
Mondays: Kundalini Yoga & Meditation 7-8:30pm
Tuesdays: Contemplative Dance & Writing Practice 6:30-8:30pm
Saturday: Turtle Disco Goes Hands-On 1:30-3:30pm; Feb 15 (see description for location)
Sundays: Amoeba Dances 11am-1pm; Jan 26 & March 15
Turtle Disco Goes Automotive 2-4pm; Feb 23 (see description for location)
Queer Dreaming 11am-1pm; Jan 12 & Feb 16
Gong Bath 8-9pm; Jan 19, Feb 16, March 15
Class Descriptions
Kundalini Yoga & Meditation with Stephanie Heit
Purple Third Eye Kisses: Intuitive Powers
Mondays 7-8:30pm
January 13 – March 2, March 16 & 23
Suggested donation: $15/class
Cultivate your intuition and manifest your dreams in this new year. This series will focus on the third eye to increase the panoramic view of your life and all of its possibilities. We will utilize meditation, yoga postures, breathwork and live gong relaxation to balance and strengthen your system. Each class will offer simple tools and self-care resources you can take into your daily life to help you thrive.
Turtle Disco Kundalini is queer/disability led and embraces queerdalini and feminist principles. LGBTQ+ folk welcome, inclusive language, disability culture friendly, no experience necessary. We strive to make a safe space for all bodyminds and gender expressions.
Community Yogi Tea offered after each class.
Contemplative Dance & Writing Practice with Stephanie Heit
Tuesdays 6:30-8:30pm
January 14 – March 3 (no class February 4th)
Suggested donation: $15/class
In this practice, we will create a laboratory of delight: move together and apart in improvisational play, awaken the senses through freewrites, witness the breath in meditation, tend to self and community. Take a mini-retreat with this practice to cultivate creative self-care and inquiry.
No experience necessary, all bodyminds welcome, disability culture friendly. Bring writing/art materials you desire (journal, pen, colored pencils, etc.). Dress in layers to support movement and stillness. Cushions available.
Amoeba Dances hosted by Petra Kuppers
Sundays 11am-1pm
January 26, March 15
free
Let’s dive into our senses. We encounter ourselves and our micro-worlds, response-able to minute shifts, desires, and sensual states. Let’s pour our bodyminds across Turtle Disco, and tune up like jellyfish. Small movements on the floor, followed by writing.
Radical access: let’s explore together what works for us. Ramp access, hypoallergenic doggie on the premises, queer/trans friendly, neurodiversity friendly.
Turtle Disco goes… Hands-On A Playshop with Petra Kuppers
Saturday, February 15th 1:30-3:30
Location: Hands-On Museum, 220 E Ann St, Ann Arbor
Museum Entrance Fee: $12.50
Turtle Disco goes… Automotive A Playshop with Petra Kuppers
Sunday, February 23rd 2-4
Location: Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Center, 100 E Cross St, Ypsilanti
Museum Entrance Fee: $5.00
In this series of fieldtrips, Turtle Disco goes drifting in museums and other local public spaces. We meet, engage in sensory delights, and focus our attention in different performance modes. We’ll do some freewriting in between. Accessible to all. Free, apart from entrance fee. We usually have coffee or so in-between or afterward: this is a social occasion as much as a creative exploration.
Sunday Kundalini Gong Bath with Stephanie Heit
Sundays 8-9pm
January 19
February 16
March 15
Suggested donation: $15/class
Join us for an evening of sound healing and rejuvenation to prepare you for the week. We will do some movement and meditation to ready the body for relaxation and then sink into the healing power of the gong. (No swimsuit needed or water involved!)
Turtle Disco Kundalini is queer/disability led and embraces queerdalini and feminist principles. LGBTQ+ folk welcome, inclusive language, disability culture friendly, no experience necessary. We strive to make a safe space for all bodyminds and gender expressions.
Community Yogi Tea offered after class.
Queer Dreaming with Petra Kuppers
Sundays 11am-1pm
January 12, February 16
free, new participants welcome
The Turtle Disco women began this series on the anniversary of the Pulse tragedy, as a way to connect ourselves to wider webs of memory and love. Dreamers engage in a 20 minute journey, followed by open writing time. The practice is queer-led, seeks new kin and new responsibilities, and honors many different cultural pathways to lucid/shamanic dreaming (we do not engage in Native American appropriation).
No experience necessary, all bodyminds welcome, disability culture friendly. No sage or other scents.
SPECIAL EVENT: International Contemplative Dance Practice Day
Friday, March 13
3-5pm
Free
Join us here at Turtle Disco in company with folks all over the world as we celebrate Barbara Dilley’s birthday and the wonderful form she created. We will plumb the bounds of kinesthetic delight through meditation, movement, writing and improvisational play. Tend to self and community in this mini-retreat to cultivate creative self-care and inquiry.
Free, no experience necessary, all bodyminds welcome, disability culture friendly. Bring writing/art materials you desire (journal, pen, colored pencils, etc.). Dress in layers to support movement and stillness. Cushions available.
“Not too much expectation of anything. Not trying to change anything. Being here with others, others who do this. It’s a worthy discipline.”
-Barbara Dilley, from This Very Moment
March 11, 2020 Turtle Disco In-Person Events Suspended
Dear Turtles,
Here at Turtle Disco we feel it’s time to tuck into our respective shells for this next stretch. We want to honor our mission to cultivate creative self-care, communal inquiry, connection, and awareness in a disability culture framework. As a disability led space that hosts turtles of all shells, we want to be responsible and as safe as possible in the midst of Covid 19. We are not just concerned for our own health but for that of our community, especially the elders, immune compromised, and other people more vulnerable to illness.
For those reasons, we are suspending our regular classes until further notice. Instead, we are working on putting into place some alternative ways of being together.
Many of you have seen on Petra’s account on Facebook her experience with being sick and unsuccessful attempts to get tested for covid. During this stretch of self-quarantine, we’ve had daily skype dates with a dear poet friend that have been a boost to all of our spirits. As Michigan moves into a culture of social distancing, we’d like to offer a weekly online Turtle Disco Tea. This would be a time to hang out together, catch up and chat and ameliorate some of the loneliness and isolation people may be feeling. We’ll be in touch with the specifics soon.
In the meantime, take good care of yourself and each other. Invent fun lyrics to sing to as you wash your hands. Paint your shell a new color. Plan your spring garden.
Please feel welcome to reach out to Petra or Stephanie with any questions. We love our Turtle Disco community and feel this is the best course for the present moment.
In love and creativity,
Stephanie and Petra
Gut Botany Reading LIVE from Turtle Disco!
Saturday, March 21st (tomorrow) 9:15pm EST
Petra will read from her new poetry book, Gut Botany, just out from Wayne State University Press.
Turtle Disco Kaffeeklatsch
Tuesday, March 24th 5:30-6:30pm; Friday, April 17th 7:00-8:00pm; Friday, April 24th 7:00-8:00pm; Saturday, May 2nd 11:00am-12:00pm; Saturday, May 16th 11:00am-12:00pm; Friday, May 22nd & May 29th 7:00-8:00pm; Saturday, June 6th 11am-12:00pm; Saturday, June 20th 11am-12:00pm; Friday, June 26th 7:00-8:00pm;
Share a coffee/cake/tea virtually while making introductions and checking in with one another. Our focus will be on art-making, art-practice, how to stay creative in viral times. Join us to connect, check-in, and exchange about our creative lives during viral times. Low-key community space with a small group. Just email us if you’d like to join, and we’ll send you the link and password. Meetings are no longer than one hour and are free.
Solarpunk and Disability: A Zoom Reading with Petra Kuppers, Tuesday March 31st, 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern, as part of a generative Solarpunk and Speculative Fiction class at Washington State University, hosted by DJ Lee.
Zoombombed event:
Greetings,
Thank you to everyone who showed up tonight for the reading. It was cut short, unfortunately, in case you tried to join in later….I’m taking the cue from Trudi and literally shaking my body to shift out of that nightmare space.
Here is a note from Petra:
Sorry, you all, we got zoom-bombed, alas, and we had to abandon it… and it was (marginally) interesting in science fiction terms (as well as physically assaultive and really upsetting), what kind of insults people threw out – “Make America Great Again” ink, and all that kind of stuff (reminds me of the time when Tucker Carlson used my Queer Eco-Arts course description and headshot to talk about the 10 worst professors in the USA). Quick death of internet art sharing utopia :(.
It’s shaky: lots of racist, abelist, sexist and homophobic stuff coming our way. We are taking a break right now, everybody grounding themselves, and then we will have a 15 minute free-write to mine the experience, and write our way out/into new trajectories.
I don’t want to expose anybody to this kind of stuff. At the same time, I don’t think that community participatory art (including solarpunk and disability culture) and vetting go together… dunno what the answer is here. Right now, trying to lose the adrenaline of the assault.
Best, Petra
May 28, 2020 Turtle Disco Kundalini Update
Greetings!
I hope this note finds you and yours healthy and finding resources to navigate these viral times. I’ve missed you and our Turtle Disco community (though have enjoyed connecting ethereally with some folks through the Turtle Disco zoomshell hour…next one, tomorrow, Friday at 7pm EST).
I wanted to share this letter with the wider Turtle Disco web. I originally sent this to people who have been in my Kundalini Yoga & Meditation classes and Kundalini Gong Baths. In the fall, when we start in person or through zoom, my class offerings will be changing. I’ll no longer be teaching Kundalini Yoga (or as I’m supposed to write it: Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan). This has certainly been a fraught decision, especially as I’ve chosen to discontinue my personal kundalini yoga practice as well for now. This is a practice I’ve held dear for the last 15 years since I was introduced to it in massage school. I’m grateful for all the support and joy it has given me. I’ve been incredibly honored to share and practice with so many of you.
[Content Note: In the next paragraph, I share a bit about the context of my decision, which could be disturbing.]
I already spent a lot of energy parsing “the teachings” to eliminate the homophobic parts, the sexist/misogynistic parts, the gender essentialist parts. I made a point to note that my classes embraced queerdalini and feminist principles, used inclusive language and was disability culture friendly to create as safe a space as possible. In the wake of the recent memoir, Premka by Pamela Saharah Dyson, kundalini yoga is in a metoo moment with countless allegations of Yogi Bhajan as a sexual predator, serial rapist, groomed girls, sent children away to abusive schools etc. etc. and the systemic cover up and denial for decades within the Kundalini Yoga organization. Also, it appears that Yogi Bhajan lied about his own history and the origins of kundalini yoga and made up many of the mantras, kriyas etc. (I’m all for people creating forms, but the issue here is that he sold it as something else). I feel there is only so much parsing I can do without compromising my own integrity and artistry.
This shift away from kundalini yoga, for me is an invitation to step into myself in a deeper way as a teacher and artist – to follow my own instincts, utilize my experiences and training in multiple creative lineages, and to hold close the desires and capacities of the people in the space. I’m incubating ideas for new class offerings that play with vibration, movement, breath, writing, plant/animal/other landscapes, meditation …I’m not sure what it will all look like, but I’m leaving the field open for now to experiment. I do plan to continue a gong bath offering without the kundalini framework but with open gentle movement, meditation, and sounding. I’ll still be offering Contemplative Dance & Writing Practice, and Petra will have her beautiful offerings.
I’d love for you to join Petra and me in the fall at Turtle Disco or in the Turtle Disco zoomshell. I’d also love to hear any ideas or desires for specific offerings. I certainly respect and support whatever route your creative life and practice takes you on; if you wish to continue kundalini yoga, there are a growing number of teachers in our area.
Thanks for your time and attention in reading this letter. Please feel welcome to contact me with any comments, questions, exchange.
In love & creativity, Stephanie
Turtle Disco Zoomshell Offerings September/October 2020 (all times Eastern)
Zoomshell Connection with Turtle Disco Kaffeeklatsch Friday, September 18th 7-8pm
Contemplative Dance & Writing Practice Saturday, September 19th 1-3pm
EcoSomatics Symposium Offerings from Petra & Stephanie Saturday, September 26th 3-5pm (details on whole symposium here)
Turtle Disco Salon Thursday, September 24th 7-8:30pm (rescheduled to Friday, November 13th 7-8:30pm)
Crip Magic: Reading/Writing Workshop Thursday, October 22nd 7-8pm
Session Descriptions
Zoomshell Connection with Turtle Disco Kaffeeklatsch
Friday, September 18th 7-8pm Eastern, free
Join us to connect, check-in, and exchange about our creative lives during viral times. Low-key community space with a small group. Just email us if you’d like to join, and we’ll send you the link and password. Meetings are no longer than one hour and are free. These were started in the early days of the quarantine and continue to be a harbor for tender creative exchange.
Contemplative Dance & Writing Practice with Stephanie Heit
Saturday, September 19th 1-3pm Eastern
Sliding scale: free-$30 Suggested Donation: $15
In this practice, we will create a laboratory of delight: move in improvisational play engaging with our inner and outer spaces, awaken the senses through freewrites, witness the breath in meditation, tend to self and other taking influence from and connecting through our community of zoom squares. Join us to cultivate creative self-care, communal and individual inquiries, and an embodied, moving writing experience. This can be a rich training ground for touching into and being with the unknown, a useful skill for these uncertain times.
Contemplative Dance & Writing Practice is based on and adapted from Contemplative Dance Practice created and developed at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado by Barbara Dilley, who I had the pleasure to study with for many years. I honor this lineage and appreciate her invitation to adjust this “dancer’s meditation hall” to make it a living, changing thing to meet the moment.
No experience necessary. Please make a zoom space nest equipped with whatever you need for sitting or horizontal meditation (chair, cushion, mat). Bring writing/art materials you desire (journal, pen, colored pencils, etc.). Dress in comfy layers to support movement and stillness.
Turtle Disco Salon
Thursday, September 24th 7-8:30pm Eastern, free
Join us for this creative sharing of new work in process (poetry, art, studio tour, film, performance, etc. whatever has juice for you now) with a small community of artists. We’ll do a brief personal check-in followed by the salon offerings. The people presenting will each have up to 10 minutes to share followed by conversation about the work by the whole group. A supportive place to experiment. Email us if you’d like to present, and also if you’d like to join the group.
Crip Magic: Reading/Writing Workshop
Thursday, October 22nd 7-8pm Eastern
free or by donation
In these generative writing sessions, we will read one or two contemporary poems together, discuss them, and then engage in writing, led by prompts provided by Stephanie and Petra. This is not a sharing or feedback-driven workshop: it’s a place to immerse ourselves in craft in connection with social justice discourses, and to get to writing (disability-led, but not exclusive to disability topics or disabled writers).
Online EcoSomatics Symposium (Main Sponsor: University of Michigan Think/Act/Tank) Symposium begins Tuesday, September 22 with offerings through Tuesday, October 6
live remote captioning for all events, free
Find below the offerings from Stephanie & Petra. For all the details on the whole symposium, many events open to the public, please visit: https://petrakuppersfiction.wordpress.com/ecosomatics-symposium/
Please register by September 15th
Saturday, September 26th 3-5pm Eastern (3-4 with Stephanie, 4-5 with Petra)
Water Bodies States of Mind with Stephanie Heit
In this hour-long workshop, we will explore and tune into the water in our own bodies, using this element to become aware of, hone, and sometimes shift our states of being. We’ll choose water forms to embody from saliva to oceans through movement, sound, and writing/drawing. Hydrate yourself with this practice that offers bodymind support, care structures, creative inquiry, and fluid intelligence vital to thrive in our changing world. This workshop originates from my personal experience as bipolar and the grounding/altering properties of water. The ability to change energetic/physical/spiritual states and to move or flow between feelings is a resource that water in its many forms models as a way to navigate present/future uncertainties. This practice is offered as a portal to embrace and explore a full range of water and bodymind states, acknowledging that water can be a vehicle and site of violence, ancestral drowning, division as well as an arbiter of connection, buoyancy, joy. Please make a zoom space nest with room to move and rest. Have on hand water and writing/art materials you desire (journal, pen, colored pencils, etc.). Dress in comfy layers to support movement and stillness.
Amoeba Dances: Tunneling Open with Petra Kuppers
In Amoeba Dances, we listen to and move with sounds we are making with our own breath, in our own home, while being comfortable on a mat on the floor (or in a similar comfortable position for yourself and your particular bodymind). Our practice is informed by Pauline Oliveros’ deep listening work, by Continuum Movement, and by Olimpias disability culture practices. We use our breath to channel sounds through our body, and respond in movement – tiny or large, whatever is appropriate to us. My practice is born out of experiences of physical pain, and it is designed to be accessible to people who live with (different kinds of) pain. Our breath tunnels link us to new and old worlds, to moments that allow us to experience ourselves in difference, in hope, in joy, toward aliveness. We encounter ourselves and our micro-worlds, response-able to minute shifts, desires, and sensual states. I use this practice as the basis for movement/writing workshops in Turtle Disco, a disability-led somatic writing studio in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
Turtle Disco Zoomshell Offerings October-December 2020 (all times Eastern)
Crip Magic: Reading/Writing Workshop
Thursdays, October 22nd & December 3rd 7-8pm
Zoomshell Connection with Turtle Disco Kaffeeklatsch
Fridays, October 23rd, November 20th & November 27th 7-8pm
Contemplative Dance & Writing Practice
Thursdays, October 29th, November 5th & 19th 6-8pm
Saturdays, November 14th, 28th, & December 5th 3-5pm
Turtle Disco Salon
Friday, November 13th 7-8:30pm
Satellite events (public but offered and sponsored by other organizations, see links for more info and registration info)
Eco Soma Amoeba Dances Saturday, October 24th 11am-11:50am (free, part of the Embodiment Conference)
Geopoetics in Practice Event Monday, October 26th 3:30-5pm free
Amoeba Breaths/Tunneling Wednesday, November 4th 7:30-9pm (free, part of the Venti Journal workshop series)
Turtle Disco Zoomshell Offerings December 2020 (all times Eastern)
Zoomshell Connection with Turtle Disco Kaffeeklatsch
Fridays, December 11th 7-8pm, December 25th *special time 2-3pm
Contemplative Dance & Writing Practice
Thursday, December 17th, 31st 6-8pm
Saturday, December 26th 3-5pm
Amoeba Dances
Saturday, December 19th 3-4pm
Queer Dreaming
Tuesday, December 22nd 7-8pm
2019
Winter Class Descriptions
Contemplative Dance & Writing Practice with Stephanie Heit
Tuesdays 6-8pm
January 15 – February 26
Suggested donation: $84 for seven week series; $15/class
In this practice, we will create a laboratory of delight: move together and apart in improvisational play, awaken the senses through freewrites, witness the breath in meditation, tend to self and community. Take a mini-retreat with this practice to cultivate creative self-care and inquiry.
No experience necessary, all bodyminds welcome, disability culture friendly. Bring writing/art materials you desire (journal, pen, colored pencils, etc.). Dress in layers to support movement and stillness. Cushions available.
Kundalini Yoga & Meditation with Stephanie Heit
Winter Fire
Thursdays 7-8:30pm
January 17 – February 28
Suggested donation: $84 for seven week series; $15/class
Stoke your inner light in this class series to support you through the winter months. We will utilize meditation, yoga postures, breathwork, mantra and live gong relaxation to balance and strengthen our systems. Each class will offer simple tools and self-care resources you can take into your daily life to help you thrive.
Turtle Disco Kundalini is queer/disability led and embraces queerdalini and feminist principles. LGBTQ+ folk welcome, inclusive language, disability culture friendly, no experience necessary. We strive to make a safe space for all bodyminds and gender expressions.
Community Yogi Tea offered after each class.
Amoeba Dances/Open Dive hosted by Petra Kuppers
Sundays 4-6pm
January 13, February 17
free
Let’s dive into our senses. We encounter ourselves and our micro-worlds, response-able to minute shifts, desires, and sensual states. Let’s pour our bodyminds across Turtle Disco, and tune up like jellyfish.
Radical access: let’s explore together what works for us. Ramp access, hypoallergenic doggie on the premises, queer/trans friendly, neurodiversity friendly.
Queer Dreaming with Petra Kuppers
Sundays 4-6pm
January 20, February 10
free, new participants welcome
The Turtle Disco women began this series on the anniversary of the Pulse tragedy, as a way to connect ourselves to wider webs of memory and love. Dreamers engage in a 20 minute journey, followed by open writing time. The practice is queer-led, seeks new kin and new responsibilities, and honors many different cultural pathways to lucid/shamanic dreaming (we do not engage in Native American appropriation).
No experience necessary, all bodyminds welcome, disability culture friendly. No sage or other scents.
Turtle Disco Material Practice with Petra Kuppers
Sundays 4-6pm
January 27, February 24
free if it’s hard to pay, $10 materials donation appreciated
These sessions take place in Turtle Disco’s new underground Materials Studio, accessible via stairlift. The practice might involve felting, mixed media, or other table-based work, inspired by a disability culture theme, often incorporating found material. Register to find out what we are doing on any particular day, and to hold your spot: only 3-4 spaces. If you want to use your hands to craft and play, as well as visit and have tea, join us. Basic materials are provided but bring your own if you have them.
Sunday Kundalini Gong Bath with Stephanie Heit
The following Sundays 8-9pm
January 13, 27
February 10, 24
March 17, 31
April 7
Suggested donation: $11/class
Join us for an evening of sound healing and rejuvenation to prepare you for the week. We will do some movement and meditation to ready the body for relaxation and then sink into the healing power of the gong. (No swimsuit needed or water involved!)
Turtle Disco Kundalini is queer/disability led and embraces queerdalini and feminist principles. LGBTQ+ folk welcome, inclusive language, disability culture friendly, no experience necessary. We strive to make a safe space for all bodyminds and gender expressions.
Community Yogi Tea offered after class.
Spring Series (see class descriptions above)
Tuesday: Contemplative Dance & Writing Practice 6-8pm, March 12 – April 23
Thursday: Kundalini Yoga & Meditation (class description below) 7-8:30pm, March 14 – April 25
Sunday: Amoeba Dances March 24 / Queer Dreaming March 31 / Materials Practice April 7 // 4-6pm
Sunday: Kundalini Gong Bath 8-9pm, March 17, 31; April 7
Kundalini Yoga & Meditation with Stephanie Heit
Experience the Rainbow: Chakra Power
Thursdays 7-8:30pm
March 14 – April 25
Suggested donation: $84 for seven week series; $15/class
Let’s tune up and tune in to these powerful energy centers that offer us vast resources for self-reflection, understanding and for realizing our full potential. We will utilize meditation, yoga postures, breathwork, mantra and live gong relaxation to balance and strengthen our systems. Each class will offer simple tools and self-care resources you can take into your daily life to help you thrive.
Turtle Disco Kundalini is queer/disability led and embraces queerdalini and feminist principles. LGBTQ+ folk welcome, inclusive language, disability culture friendly, no experience necessary. We strive to make a safe space for all bodyminds and gender expressions.
Community Yogi Tea offered after each class.
June offerings
Sunday, June 9 at 8-9pm
Kundalini Gong Bath
Please join us this Sunday to relax and rejuvenate with the healing sounds of the gong.
Thursday, June 20at 7-8:30pm
Celebrate the solstice in a special Kundalini yoga class focusing on meditation.
Community time and yogi tea offered after each session.
Fall/Winter Turtle Disco Offerings (descriptions above)
Monday: Kundalini Yoga & Meditation 7-8:30pm (course description below)
Thursday: Contemplative Dance & Writing Practice 6-8pm
Sunday: Amoeba Dances 11am-1pm; Kundalini Gong Bath 8-9pm
Queer Dreaming; Salamander Lair (course description below)
Kundalini Yoga & Meditation with Stephanie Heit
Surfing the Aquarian Wave ~ Steady in Stressful Times
Mondays 7-8:30pm
September 30 – December 9 (no class November 11 or December 2)
Thursday, November 14th 3-4:30pm
Suggested donation: $15/class
Come learn to surf the waves of chaos and stress so relentless in our world today. This series focuses on ways to soothe and fortify your nervous system and increase your capacity to navigate and mitigate stress. We will utilize meditation, yoga postures, breathwork and live gong relaxation to balance and strengthen your system. Each class will offer simple tools and self-care resources you can take into your daily life to help you thrive.
Turtle Disco Kundalini is queer/disability led and embraces queerdalini and feminist principles. LGBTQ+ folk welcome, inclusive language, disability culture friendly, no experience necessary. We strive to make a safe space for all bodyminds and gender expressions.
Community Yogi Tea offered after each class.
Salamander Lair Material Practice with Petra Kuppers
dates by arrangement, contact Petra if you are interested
free if it’s hard to pay, $10 materials donation appreciated
These sessions take place in Turtle Disco’s new underground Materials Studio, accessible via stairlift. The practice might involve felting, mixed media, or other table-based work, inspired by a disability culture theme, often incorporating found material. Register to find out what we are doing on any particular day, and to hold your spot: only 3-4 spaces. If you want to use your hands to craft and play, as well as visit and have tea, join us. Basic materials are provided but bring your own if you have them.
Satellite Event: Frog Island Reading Series
featuring Elinam Agbo, Petra Kuppers, Stephanie Heit
Sunday, October 6th 6:30pm
Tap Room, Ypsilanti, Free
Eco-Arts Think/Act Tank
Thursday, November 21st
11-12.30 Turtle Disco Goes Jurassic. A Playshop with Petra Kuppers. Natural History Museum, University of Michigan
6-8 Contemplative Dance and Writing Practice with Stephanie Heit
Riverside Arts Center, Studio Two, 76 N Huron St, Ypsilanti
Friday November 22nd
2-4.30, Sound Wandering Workshop with Rebecca Caines, Regina, Canada
Dance Studio, Riverside Arts Center, Ypsilanti
6-8, Gallery Visit Riverside Arts Center Gallery, Ypsilanti
Way Opens Exhibit, a disability arts and culture exhibition (ASL provided) (performances start at 6.30)
6:30 Performance Bree Gant & Amber DiPietra
Riverside Arts Center Off Center Space, Ypsilanti
Bree Gant, Detroit: Otherlogue. A performance exploring the relationship between ritual and mental health for Black womenfolx
Amber DiPietra, Florida: The Opposite of Evolution Dance Studio. Humans, manatees, embodiment, somatics, disability, sensual labor
Thursday, November 28, 2019
Turtle Disco Love Bale 11am-1pm Free
On this day of gratitude, join us in creative practice with an emphasis on rejuvenation and connection. We’ll warm up with some movement play exploring reach and pull – in and out of our turtle shells, in an amoeba dance. Sink into a beautiful meditation for abundance followed by creative writing and/or art making. Then a movement witness exchange followed by a gong bath.
Turtle Disco Love Bale Dinner 5pm doors open; dinner at 6pm
Join us for an evening to celebrate this holiday of gratitude with good company and food. This is a collaborative dinner so let’s put together our ideal feast. We’ll supply vegetarian sausages, brussel sprouts, chocolate tofu mousse, and various beverage options. Who wants to bring mashed potatoes? Cranberries? Green beans? Dessert? Whatever your favorite dishes are? Non-vegetarian stuff is fine. Keep in mind there are some gluten free folks in the group. If you have any other specific food needs, let us know in the comments. We’ll also need folks to help with clean up (many tentacles make…an octopus!). You may want to bring some tupperware for leftovers. Also, please let us know if you have anyone else that would enjoy coming and we can add them to this invite (or just write a plus one in the comments). If you can, RSVP by Monday, November 25th so we all can have a rough count for shopping. (And if you are a last minute yes, we are here with open arms).
Satellite Event: Monday, December 2nd and Tuesday, December 3rd
Disability Arts and Culture Symposium at Eastern Michigan University
Check out the full schedule here for keynotes, workshops, panels…many by turtles!
Performances on Monday night at Riverside Arts Center
Satellite Event: Sunday, December 8th
Frog Island Reading Series 6:30-8:30pm
*Note location: Tap Room, Ypsilanti
with a full line-up of writers from the fall line-up (including Petra and Stephanie)
2018
Turtle Disco Salon: Carla Harryman ~ Artifact of Hope
Saturday, January 13
7:30pm
free, please RSVP by emailing petra@umich.edu
Turtle Disco is delighted to host Carla Harryman for our first salon in celebration of her new chapbook Artifact of Hope (Kenning Editions, 2017). Join us for this intimate reading and discussion followed by a reception.
Artifact of Hope is an epistolary essay combined with the documentary remains of a post-Occupy project, one beginning in a wish to situate a collective dialogue in creative readings of Ernst Bloch’s The Principle of Hope. The artifacts that comprise the majority of the essay take the form of daydreams, letters to students, a conference paper, citations, and various writings by those who attended Harryman’s workshops and seminars at the Oakland Public School in 2013 and, two-years later, at the Pratt Institute. Harryman views these venues as aspects of concrete utopias, however fragile and impermanent.
Carla Harryman has authored nineteen books of experimental poetry, prose, essays, and plays. Her work begins in a radical exploration of the sentence and its non/narrative performative capacities, developing in the context of the West Coast Language Writing scene of the 1970s and 1980s as well as in text-based performance and interdisciplinary collaboration. Harryman has received numerous awards including a fellowship from the Foundation for Contemporary Art; grants from the National Performance Network and Opera America, Next Stage; awards in poetry from the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation and the Fund for Poetry, and the NEA Consortium Playwrights Commission. She is a Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Eastern Michigan University, and she serves on the summer faculty of the MFA Program of the Milton Avery School of the Arts at Bard College.
Please RSVP by emailing petra@umich.edu, and join us to celebrate Carla Harryman, Kenning Editions, local collectives and concrete utopias.
Access Notes: Ramp access, hypoallergenic doggie on the premises, queer/trans friendly, neurodiversity friendly, let us know of additional access requirements.
Special Workshop on MLK Day
Kundalini Yoga and Meditation: Creativity in 2018 with Stephanie Heit
Monday, January 15
7-9pm
free (please bring a small offering: an apple, a poem, a dollar…)
Let’s celebrate the power of dreams and creativity and set our intentions for the new year in this special workshop that utilizes Kundalini yoga, live gong relaxation, writing, and drawing. We will practice a yoga kriya to open our creative channels and then map our creative desires for 2018 onto the page. Visualize rainbow colors moving up your spine, chant the mantra for creative consciousness and set yourself for a year of creation and joy.
No experience necessary, all bodyminds welcome, disability culture friendly, gender neutral language.
Community Yogi Tea offered after workshop.
Winter Classes
Mondays 7-8:30pm Kundalini Yoga & Meditation with Stephanie January 22 – February 19
Tuesdays 4-6pm Contemplative Dance & Writing Practice with Stephanie January 16 – February 13
Wednesdays 12:15-1:15pm Amoeba Dances with Petra January 10, 17, 31
Fridays 12-2pm Queer Dreaming with Petra January 12, 26; February 9; March 9, 16; April 6
Sundays 8-9pm Kundalini Gong Bath with Stephanie January 28, February 18, March 18, April 8
Kundalini Yoga & Meditation with Stephanie Heit
Let it Shine!
Mondays 7-8:30pm
January 22-February 19
Suggested donation: $60 for five week series; $15/class
Stoke your inner light and shine in this class series to support your bodymind through the winter months. We will work with meditations, yoga postures, breathwork and live gong relaxation to strengthen the endocrine, immune and nervous systems. Each class will offer simple tools and self-care resources you can take into your daily life to help you thrive.
No experience necessary, all bodyminds welcome, disability culture friendly, gender neutral language.
Community Yogi Tea offered after each class.
Contemplative Dance & Writing Practice with Stephanie Heit
Tuesdays 4-6pm
January 16-February 13
Suggested donation: $60 for five week series; $15/class
In this practice, we will create a laboratory of delight: move together and apart in improvisational play, awaken the senses through freewrites, witness the breath in meditation, tend to self and community. Take a mini-retreat with this practice to cultivate creative self-care and inquiry.
No experience necessary, all bodyminds welcome, disability culture friendly. Bring writing/art materials you desire (journal, pen, colored pencils, etc.). Dress in layers to support movement and stillness. Cushions available.
The Olimpias Creativity Sessions: Amoeba Dances with Petra Kuppers
Wednesdays 12:15-1:15pm
January 10, 17, 31
Cost: donate an amount appropriate to you and your circumstances into our entry basket. Once a month, we’re giving what accumulates to a local queer, feminist or anti-racist organization in Ypsilanti and surrounds. Let’s nourish our communities as well as ourselves.
These somatic classes start with a short movement warm-up. Then, we’ll dive into our senses, exploring bodily boundaries on our yoga mats and under colorful blankets. We encounter ourselves and our micro-worlds, response-able to minute shifts, desires, and sensual states. We end on solo processing — writing, drawing, or moving — before we close our time together. Let’s pour our bodyminds across Turtle Disco, and tune up like jellyfish.
Radical access: let’s explore together what works for us. Ramp access, hypoallergenic doggie on the premises, queer/trans friendly, neurodiversity friendly.
Queer Dreaming with Petra Kuppers
Fridays 12-2pm
January 12, 26
February 9
March 9, 16
April 6
free
The Turtle Disco women began this series on the anniversary of the Pulse tragedy, as a way to connect ourselves to wider webs of memory and love. Dreamers engage in a 20 minute journey, followed by open writing time. The practice is queer-led, seeks new kin and new responsibilities, and honors many different cultural pathways to lucid/shamanic dreaming (we do not engage in Native American appropriation).
No experience necessary, all bodyminds welcome, disability culture friendly. No sage or other scents.
Sunday Kundalini Gong Bath with Stephanie Heit
The following Sundays 8-9pm
January 28
February 18
March 18
April 8
Suggested donation: $11/class
Join us for an evening of sound healing and rejuvenation to prepare you for the week. We will do a short yoga set to ready the body for relaxation and then sink into the healing power of the gong.
No experience necessary, all bodyminds welcome, disability culture friendly, gender neutral language.
Community Yogi Tea offered after class.
The Olimpias Creativity Session: Amoeba Dances with Petra Kuppers
Wednesdays 12:15-1:15pm
January 10, 17, 31
Cost: donate an amount appropriate to you and your circumstances into our entry basket. Once a month, we’re giving what accumulates to a local queer, feminist or anti-racist organization in Ypsilanti and surrounds. Let’s nourish our communities as well as ourselves.
These somatic classes start with a short movement warm-up. Then, we’ll dive into our senses, exploring bodily boundaries on our yoga mats and under colorful blankets. We encounter ourselves and our micro-worlds, response-able to minute shifts, desires, and sensual states. We end on solo processing — writing, drawing, or moving — before we close our time together. Let’s pour our bodyminds across Turtle Disco, and tune up like jellyfish.
Radical access: let’s explore together what works for us. Ramp access, hypoallergenic doggie on the premises, queer/trans friendly, neurodiversity friendly.
International Contemplative Dance Practice Day
Tuesday, March 13
4-6pm
Free
Join us here at Turtle Disco in company with folks all over the world as we celebrate Barbara Dilley on her 80th birthday and the wonderful form she created. We will plumb the bounds of kinesthetic delight through meditation, movement, writing and improvisational play. Tend to self and community in this mini-retreat to cultivate creative self-care and inquiry.
Free, no experience necessary, all bodyminds welcome, disability culture friendly. Bring writing/art materials you desire (journal, pen, colored pencils, etc.). Dress in layers to support movement and stillness. Cushions available.
To register, email Stephanie: stephanieheit@gmail.com
“Not too much expectation of anything. Not trying to change anything. Being here with others, others who do this. It\’s a worthy discipline.”
-Barbara Dilley, from This Very Moment
Spring Kundalini Community Potluck
Sunday, March 25
6-8:30pm
Free
Please join us for meditation, potluck, community and to celebrate the arrival of spring! We’ll be doing a group meditation at the beginning but feel free to come by any time. I\’ll make lentil soup and have yogi tea. Please bring a vegetarian offering to share.
Turtle Disco has cushions/yoga mats for six folks for the short meditation, but feel free to bring whatever supports you need. Also, please note we have a dog. Turtle Disco doggie Trudi is a shihtzu-poodle mix, non-shedding and hypo-allergenic, but just an fyi for those with allergies. She has been known to tune in.
Spring/Summer Session 2018
Kundalini Yoga & Meditation with Stephanie Heit
Spring into Infinity
Mondays 7-8:30pm
May 7, 14, 21 (Next session: June 11-July 2)
Suggested donation: $36 for three week series; $15/class
Let’s connect to our deepest potential and utilize the spring energies to support our own fruition. We will utilize meditation, yoga postures, breathwork and live gong relaxation to experience and deepen our relationship with our own divinity and to strengthen the aura, the eighth chakra. Each class will offer simple tools and self-care resources you can take into your daily life to help you thrive.
No experience necessary, all bodyminds welcome, disability culture friendly, gender neutral language.
Community Yogi Tea offered after each class.
Contemplative Dance & Writing Practice with Stephanie Heit
Tuesdays 4-6pm
May 8-29; summer session June 12 – July 3
Suggested donation: $48 for four week series; $15/class
In this practice, we will create a laboratory of delight: move together and apart in improvisational play, awaken the senses through freewrites, witness the breath in meditation, tend to self and community. Take a mini-retreat with this practice to cultivate creative self-care and inquiry.
No experience necessary, all bodyminds welcome, disability culture friendly. Bring writing/art materials you desire (journal, pen, colored pencils, etc.). Dress in layers to support movement and stillness. Cushions available.
Queer Dreaming with Petra Kuppers
Fridays
May 4: 12-2pm
May 11: 1-3pm
June 15; June 22
free
The Turtle Disco women began this series on the anniversary of the Pulse tragedy, as a way to connect ourselves to wider webs of memory and love. Dreamers engage in a 20 minute journey, followed by open writing time. The practice is queer-led, seeks new kin and new responsibilities, and honors many different cultural pathways to lucid/shamanic dreaming (we do not engage in Native American appropriation).
No experience necessary, all bodyminds welcome, disability culture friendly. No sage or other scents.
Sunday Kundalini Gong Bath with Stephanie Heit
The following Sundays 8-9pm
May 6
June 10
July 29
August 19
Suggested donation: $11/class
Join us for an evening of sound healing and rejuvenation to prepare you for the week. We will do a short yoga set to ready the body for relaxation and then sink into the healing power of the gong.
No experience necessary, all bodyminds welcome, disability culture friendly, gender neutral language.
Community Yogi Tea offered after class.
Kundalini Yoga & Meditation with Stephanie Heit
Bloom into Infinity
Mondays 7-8:30pm
June 11 – July 2
Suggested donation: $48 for four week series; $15/class
Let’s connect to our deepest potential and utilize the summer energies to support our own fruition. We will utilize meditation, yoga postures, breathwork and live gong relaxation to experience and deepen our relationship with our own divinity and to strengthen the aura, the eighth chakra. Each class will offer simple tools and self-care resources you can take into your daily life to help you thrive.
Turtle Disco Kundalini is queer/disability led and embraces queerdalini and feminist principles. LGBTQ+ folk welcome, inclusive language, disability culture friendly, no experience necessary. We strive to make a safe space for all bodyminds and gender expressions.
Community Yogi Tea offered after each class.
Special Turtle Disco Satellite Event
Petra Kuppers ~ Ice Bar: Disability Culture Writing
Thursday, June 21
7pm Aut Bar Patio, Common Language Bookstore
315 Braun Court, Ann Arbor
free
On the first day of summer, Petra Kuppers will read short stories from her new collection, Ice Bar. Visit with post-apocalyptic science fiction and psychedelic fantasy, featuring a cast of queer, vulnerable, beautiful characters. Disability becomes an invitation to new lives, new stories, new opportunities.
Copies available at our local LGBTQ Bookstore, Common Language
Almost fall class schedule (find descriptions of classes above)
Monday: Kundalini Yoga & Meditation 7-8:30pm
Tuesday: Contemplative Dance & Writing Practice 6-8pm
Sunday: (twice monthly in September & November) Queer Dreaming 11am-1pm
Sunday: (monthly) Kundalini Gong Bath 8-9pm
Kundalini Yoga & Meditation with Stephanie
Bridge to Bliss
Mondays 7-8:30pm
September 10 – October 8
Suggested donation: $60 for five week series; $15/class
A strong, clear heart center bridges the energy between the lower and upper chakras increasing our capacity to love, self and other, to heal and to connect. Tend your heart center in this class series dedicated to this important organ and energy center. We will utilize meditation, yoga postures, breathwork and live gong relaxation to balance and strengthen your system. Each class will offer simple tools and self-care resources you can take into your daily life to help you thrive.
Turtle Disco Kundalini is queer/disability led and embraces queerdalini and feminist principles. LGBTQ+ folk welcome, inclusive language, disability culture friendly, no experience necessary. We strive to make a safe space for all bodyminds and gender expressions.
Community Yogi Tea offered after each class.
Celebration of Compassion
Thursday, October 4th at 7pm FREE
Join us for chanting a mantra in honor of Guru Ram Das’ Birthday. This Sikh Guru was known for embodied humility, service and deep devotion. People call on this energy for guidance, healing and protection.
We will chant for 31 minutes followed by community yogi tea and snacks. Come as you are. All welcome.
Amoeba Dances/Open Dive hosted by Petra
Saturday, November 3
3-5pm
free/donation
Let’s dive into our senses. We encounter ourselves and our micro-worlds, response-able to minute shifts, desires, and sensual states. Let’s pour our bodyminds across Turtle Disco, and tune up like jellyfish.
Radical access: let’s explore together what works for us. Ramp access, hypoallergenic doggie on the premises, queer/trans friendly, neurodiversity friendly.
Kundalini Yoga & Meditation
Immune Boost / Cold Bust Series
Mondays 7-8:30pm
October 22 – December 10
Suggested donation: $96 for eight week series; $15/class
Let’s fortify and optimize our immune systems to take us through the cold and flu season with health and vigor. We will utilize meditation, yoga postures, breathwork and live gong relaxation to balance and strengthen our bodyminds. Each class will offer simple tools and self-care resources you can take into your daily life to help you thrive.
Turtle Disco Kundalini is queer/disability led and embraces queerdalini and feminist principles. LGBTQ+ folk welcome, inclusive language, disability culture friendly, no experience necessary. We strive to make a safe space for all bodyminds and gender expressions.
2017
August 30, 2017 Initial Offerings Turtle Disco Email
Greetings!
Welcome to Turtle Disco, your community arts space located in the College Heights neighborhood of Ypsilanti, MI, whose intention is to cultivate creative self-care, communal inquiry, connection, and awareness. We are dedicated to providing a welcome and supportive environment, grounded in a disability culture framework. Our space is wheelchair accessible.
We’re delighted to share the Turtle Disco fall offerings: Queer Dreaming, Contemplative Dance & Writing Pracitce, Kundalini Yoga & Meditation, Sunday Gong Baths, Olimpias Practice, as well as off site events (join us and Jill Darling for a poetry afternoon at Nicola’s on September 24th) Please find the descriptions and details below. Contact Petra or Stephanie to register for classes and with any questions. Thank you for sharing this with anyone who might be interested.
In creativity and love,
Petra & Stephanie
Turtle Disco CoCreators
Queer Dreaming with Petra Kuppers
Fridays bimonthly 10-12am
free
The Turtle Disco women began this series on the anniversary of the Pulse tragedy, as a way to connect ourselves to wider webs of memory and love. Dreamers engage in a 20 minute journey, followed by open writing time. The practice is queer-led, seeks new kin and new responsibilities, and honors many different cultural pathways to lucid/shamanic dreaming (we do not engage in Native American appropriation).
No experience necessary, all bodyminds welcome, disability culture friendly. No sage or other scents.
To register, email Petra: petra@umich.edu
Contemplative Dance & Writing Practice with Stephanie Heit
Six week series: Tuesdays 4-6pm
October 3 – November 7
Suggested donation: $72 for whole series; $15/class
Four week series: Tuesdays 4-6pm
November 21-December 12
Suggested donation: $48 for whole series; $15/class
In this practice, we will create a laboratory of delight: move together and apart in improvisational play, awaken the senses through freewrites, witness the breath in meditation, tend to self and community. Take a mini-retreat with this practice to cultivate creative self-care and inquiry.
No experience necessary, all bodyminds welcome, disability culture friendly. Bring writing/art materials you desire (journal, pen, colored pencils, etc.). Dress in layers to support movement and stillness. Cushions available.
Kundalini Yoga & Meditation with Stephanie Heit
Surfing the Aquarian Wave ~ Steady in Stressful Times
Six week series: Mondays 7-8:30pm
October 16-November 20
Suggested donation: $72 for whole series; $15/class
This class series focuses on meditations, yoga postures, chanting, breathwork and live gong relaxation to support equilibrium in the nervous system and to work with bodymind states such as anxiety, depression and mania. Whether you are feeling the chaotic nature of the world and/or living with mental health difference, this series offers simple tools as self-care resources you can take into your daily life to increase resilience and joy.
No experience necessary, all bodyminds welcome, disability culture friendly, gender neutral language.
Community Yogi Tea offered after each class.
Sunday Kundalini Gong Bath with Stephanie Heit
The following Sundays 8-9pm
October 15
November 12
December 10
Suggested donation: $11/class
Join us for an evening of sound healing and rejuvenation to prepare you for the week. We will do a short yoga set to ready the body for relaxation and then sink into the healing power of the gong followed by a short meditation with mantra (chanting).
Community Yogi Tea offered after class.
Celebration of Compassion
October 1st at 7pm FREE
Join us for chanting a mantra in honor of Guru Ram Das’ Birthday. This Sikh Guru was known for embodied humility, service and deep devotion. People call on this energy for guidance, healing and protection.
We will chant for 31 minutes followed by community yogi tea and snacks.
Come as you are. All welcome.
Olimpias Practice with Petra Kuppers
The following Saturdays 2-5pm
October 14
November 11
December 9
free
Camille came into being at a moment of an unexpected but powerful, interlaced, planetwide eruption of numerous communities of a few hundred people each, who felt moved to migrate to ruined places and work with human and nonhuman partners to heal these places, building networks, pathways, nodes, and webs of and for a newly habitable world. (Haraway, Staying with the Trouble: 2016: 137)
In these open sessions, let’s explore together how we can connect our collective to the Children of the Compost, using somatic exploration, movement, social sculpture, creative writing, visual work, public markings of any kind.
Open workshop, probably roaming to different sites, all bodyminds welcome, disability culture friendly.
The Olimpias Creativity Sessions:
Amoeba Dances
Wednesdays 12.15-1.15, November 15to December 13 2017
These somatic classes start with a short movement warm-up. Then, we’ll dive into our senses, exploring bodily boundaries on our yoga mats and under colorful blankets. We encounter ourselves and our micro-worlds, response-able to minute shifts, desires, and sensual states. We end on solo processing — writing, drawing, or moving — before we close our time together. Let’s pour our bodyminds across Turtle Disco, and tune up like jellyfish.
Radical access: let’s explore together what works for us. Ramp access, hypoallergenic doggie on the premises, queer/trans friendly, neurodiversity friendly.
Cost: donate an amount appropriate to you and your circumstances into our entry basket. Once a month, we’re giving what accumulates to a local queer, feminist or anti-racist organization in Ypsilanti and surrounds. Let’s nourish our communities as well as ourselves.
Turtle Disco Off Site Events
An Afternoon of Poetry: Disability Culture, Bodies, Landscapes and Love
Readings by Jill Darling, Stephanie Heit & Petra Kuppers (more info here)
Sunday, September 24th 3pm
Nicola’s Books
2513 Jackson Ave., Ann Arbor
Olimpias Asylum Project Workshop (more info here)
Saturday October 7 – Monday October 9, 2017
Sat/Sun 11-4 Mon 3-6
Movement Research
Abrons Art Center / Judson Church
New York City, NY
Olimpias Asylum Project Performance (more info here)
Monday October 9, 2017 8pm
Movement Research at Judson Church
55 Washington Square S, New York, NY
Institute for Research on Women and Gender: New Works, New Questions Series discusses Petra Kuppers’ poetry collection, PearlStitch
Wednesday, November 29th 3pm
U of M Lane Hall
2014 S. State Street, Ann Arbor
June 5, 2017 Welcome to Turtle Disco Email
Greetings!
We had a beautiful time hosting the Queer Poetry Rest Stop at Ypsi Pride. Thank you for your engagement and presence.
Welcome to Turtle Disco, a community arts space in the College Heights neighborhood in Ypsilanti, Michigan co-created by Petra Kuppers and Stephanie Heit to cultivate creative self-care, communal inquiry, connection, and awareness. Turtle Disco offerings include salons, readings, somatic writing, movement, Olimpias workshops, Kundalini yoga, and more. We are dedicated to providing a welcome and supportive environment, grounded in a disability culture framework.
We’ll keep you posted on upcoming workshops and events! This week in a Turtle Disco satellite event:
The Color She Gave Gravity Poetry Celebration
Reading ~ Reception ~ Book Signing
Thursday, June 8th at 7pm
Common Language Bookstore/Aut Bar Patio
317 Braun Ct. Ann Arbor
Please join us on the patio for conversation, refreshments, and poetry about queerness, neurodiversity, and mental health difference. Stephanie Heit will be reading from her new poetry collection, The Color She Gave Gravity. This book and many many others (such as Petra Kuppers’ poetry book, PearlStitch) available at Common Language. Support your local, indie LGBTQ bookstore!
The Color She Gave Gravity (The Operating System 2017) traces longing for connection between women. An ecopoetics of the bodymind, these poems take us inside a dance inside an imaginary city inside sculpted spaces inside the insomniac body inside sister grief inside she. The work emerges from a landscape of somatic engagement and from experiences of psychiatric systems and multiple hospitalizations.
Hope to be with you soon.
with love, Stephanie & Petra