Welcome to the No Labels No Walls Festival 2022

Join the festival online and locally worldwide on
3. & 4.11.2022

Let’s come together and enjoy talks, movies, performances from people to people around the world. This year we are celebrating transformations. How can we transform ourselves, how can we transform our environment, how can we transform the whole world? Join the festival to find out the diversity of transformations coming from South-Africa, Finland and USA.

You can join the online festival for free everywhere from our website www.nolabelsnowalls.net or from our wide network of social media channels. You are invited to join us live, or chat with us in any platform before, during and after the festival. Join the No Labels No Walls movement today here.

Scuba Diving with Leila!

Wednesday 2.11.2022
17.00 Finland / 3pm UK / 11am New York / 8am PST

Join Leila from the UK as she talks about how scuba diving changed her life! Leila is now a certified open water scuba diving and is so proud of her accomplishment.

CNF – Community Neglects the Facts

Thursday 3.11.2022

20.30 Finland / 6.30pm UK / 2.30pm New York / 11.30 AM Los Angeles

Join CNF – Community Neglects the Facts, the oldest performing and recording hip hop group from Finland, to explore how they transformed time and space during one chilly day in Helsinki. CNF released their 13th album (community) in 2022 and they want to offer a fresh take on their single ”Booth” to the worldwide audience. CNF travels from 1990 to 2022 with a song that encapsulates the limited and limitless freedom of the corona pandemia into a poetry about mental, physical and social environments and transformations. Find out where the band got lost in the process of transforming the band without selling out. Deeper into where the core of the soul is. Where the home is. Where we are a (community).

Read more and listen to CNF here: https://www.cnf.fi

TheatreWorkers Project

Thursday November 3rd 2022

9pm Finland / 7pm UK / 3pm Eastern / 12pm PST

TheatreWorkers Project strives to transform public understanding of who formerly incarcerated people are. We do this by providing opportunities for members of the carceral and reentry communities to express their stories through theatre, movement and writing. We work to break isolation through artistic transformative justice practices. We will be expanding our services when we begin a new theatre program with teen moms at three continuation high school sites beginning in January 2023.

Through this screening of PHOENIX, a theatre piece written and performed by members of the Francisco Homes residential reentry community, and the panel discussion with the artists that will follow, we hope to expand the audience’s understanding of who the participants are, breaking the isolation felt by men whose identities have been stigmatized due to serving life sentences.

Read more about TheatreWorkers Project: https://theatreworkersproject.org/

Soundz Of The South

Thursday 3.11.2022

10pm Finland / 8pm UK / 4pm Eastern / 1pm PST

In this event, Soundz of the South(SoS) transforms a public bus into a creative space for conscious awareness raising activity. The bus takes workers and school students downtown from Khayelitsha. The trip is about an hour long, traveling from the most impoverished communities to the “wealthy” “world class city” Cape Town.

The performance remembers the killing of 34 mineworkers in Marikana 16 August 2012 by a collusion of the State and Multinational mining corporations.

Read more about the Soundz of the South here: http://soundzofthesouth.blogspot.com/

Abraxa Teatro & POSTIT-33

Thursday 3.11.2022

11.30pm Finland / 9.30am UK / 5.30pm New York / 2.30 Los Angeles

Abraxa Teatro is a Theatre company from Rome, Italy. Theatre participated the first No Labels No Walls Festival in Helsinki 2019 and now they are back creating a masterclass in Peru together with an Italian clown group POST-IT 33. They are showing a scene of their masterclass where they are creating animal characters that relate to each other through physical actions and vocal sounds.

The choice of the animal and the type of actions show the characters that can be aggressive oppressive but also kind tolerant etc.

This can result in the experimentation of different characters that can reach an awareness of one’s way of acting in daily life and possibly be able to change one’s behavior for the better.

POST-IT 33 shows a video called: Comunicazione vecchio stile

Read more about Abraxa Teatro: https://www.abraxa.it/
Read more about POST-IT 33: https://postit33produzioniteatrali.webnode.it/

Social Sports 4 All

Friday 4.11.2022

2pm Finland / 12am UK / 8am New York / 5am Los Angeles

How can we transform communities through sports? Can we develop wellbeing through creating networks of people and organizations collaborating with creating movement(s) together. Social Sports 4 All is a joint project of Finnish and Greek organizations developing a new model for community building through Walking Football and Adventure Therapy. Can we increase understanding through easy-to-read material? Can we become community sports coaches and train others to join the action? Hear about the news and join the mission to move people, hearts and environments into better condition. The project is coordinated by Kukunori, The Central Association of Culture and Wellbeing in Finland and Panagia Evagelistria in Athens Greece. The event is coming live from the Walking Football event in Myyrmäki, Vantaa in Finland.

Read more about Kukunori International Action here: https://www.kukunori.fi/eng/

Transforming Your Confidence and widening your Connections!

Friday 4.11.2022

3pm Finland / 1pm UK / 9 am New York / 6am PST

Join Alastair Minty to discuss how does it feel to be a Care Leaver in Scotland? What about the issue of inclusion if you are a disabled person (including Learning Disability or Autism)?

This short video features members of a Care Leavers Group that has been working on what makes sense for themselves, as well as sharing and supporting each other to explore Rights and Equalities issues.

The poem that is read out is one written by group members.

This project is supported by Life Changes Trust and In Control Scotland. To find out more email [email protected] or [email protected]

The Strindberg Laboratory

Friday 4.11.2022

8pm Finland / 6pm UK / 2pm New York / 11am Los Angeles

Join The Strindberg Laboratory as they share their event “Together In September” that they held in Los Angeles CA that brought people together! The idea behind the event was to transform an historical landmark in Los Angeles by bringing communities together through theater and art! Join us to hear more about the event and the puppet production they performed at the event. See you there!

Read more about The Strindberg Laboratory: https://strindberglaboratory.com/

Fionnathan

Friday 4.11.2022

9pm Finland / 7pm UK / 3pm New York / 12.00pm Los Angeles

Join Fionn and Jonathan Angus = Fionnathan to explore how they transform the world through their work, music and passion. Fionnathan exists to have fun and change the world, to trouble your understanding of ability, to reveal superstars in our midst, and to prove that, in fact, we are the people we’ve been waiting for.

We share our stories of audacious creativity and abiding optimism with the masses, opening one heart at a time. Through music, live presentations, videos, and visual arts, we seek to collaborate with diverse people who are passionate about what they do. We playfully engage with the world of celebrity and pop culture. And we are seriously into social justice and conserving natural habitats. With this project, we hope to achieve three primary goals:

to win for Fionn an excellent life, while documenting and sharing the journey
to inspire and support other people in achieving their own dreams
to shift the societal paradigm, so that unique and alternately-gifted people are celebrated

Through example, we show that the best way to support one another is in loving interest: that’s how each one of us shines.

Fionn and Jonathan Angus are living in Ireland and they are also Citizen Network Ambassadors. Read more about Fionnathan here: https://www.fionnathan.com/

The Home is the Heart of Shared Living:
Kirk Hinkleman and Louise Blackwell

Friday 4.11.2022

10pm Finland / 8.00pm UK / 4.00pm New York / 13.00pm Los Angeles

Kirk Hinkleman is Director of Creative Design and Wellness at Life Works Supported Living, Inc. Co-Author of “Intentional Teaming: Shifting Organizational” and Co-Creator of the Liberty Plan, a person centered planning process, Kirk is committed to realizing the highest potential in people. “The first step is awareness. What do I see? What do I sense? What do I feel? From awareness comes our ability to see what is happening and make a choice. For myself, and Life Works as an organization, the choice is simple and important. What we see is a System designed to serve itself, perpetuating isolation and segregation. We choose not to become segregation and isolation. We choose not to replicate services precluding people from living lives of distinction and purpose. We choose to lead from an emerging future of possibility, while tapping into our inner source of knowing…following our hearts and manifesting that which we seek in the world.“

Nick and Marshall first met in a supportive relationship back in 2017. After forming an authentic relationship, encompassed in dignity, love and respect, Marshall and Nick decided to live together in 2018. It has been a transformational experience for both of them. Marshall reflects “Nick has a spiritual soul. He acknowledges that I am a part of him and he is a part of me. We are ‘usos’ or brothers. I gain so much from Nick’s wisdom.” Nick identifies as a Peaceful Warrior, with a mission to “Bring people to the light.” As a light keeper, Nick attracted Marshall into his life. The reciprocal wisdom present in their relationship is a guide for the two of them as they walk their shared spiritual path together.

Join Kirk Hinkleman to watch a movie about Shared Living and talk about how this will transform lives and communities everywhere.

Read more about Life Works Supported Living, Inc. https://www.lifeworks-sls.com/

We will continue with another video and conversation from Louise Blackwell

“We had approached Maggie/John and Christine as Maggie truly speaks from the heart and has shared her experiences of sharing her home and life with others in the past, she speaks to eloquently and often makes me cry (in a good way !) She truly shares her life and her family life with John and Christine. Maggie and her husband are busy with 3 daughters – all teenagers Maggie is also an emergency foster parent and has taken in numerous children and youth into her home (short stay). John and Christine are always invited and part of family celebrations and events. Prior to Christine moving in about 5 years ago, she led a very transient lifestyle, was never in a home for more than a couple of years, moved around the province a lot and also experienced homelessness and extreme poverty for some of this time. She found John and then Maggie and the rest is history as they say. Maggie is very supportive and also very real with them both. This is a great relationship all around, John has a child of his own from a different relationship and he gets to experience and observe family life, the ups and the downs at times. I could go on….it’s just a fantastic family all around.”

About Louise Blackwell

I have worked with posAbilities since 1995 (I don’t count the years anymore.. J) and oversee our Shared Living department and have done so for about 15 years.

We have seen the department grow and morph over time from just myself to now working with a great team of 5 coordinators.

I believe we face similar challenges as other parts of the world do and often have to take a step back, breathe and remember why we are here and do the work we love to do. The above story and video remind me very clearly about this. We are faced with pressures of recruitment, retention, funding, and ever increasing oversight from funders who remind us of compliance with standards, vacancies (we don’t have vacancies…we are not a hotel) and a lack of creativity to support people with complex support needs.

When the fit and match is right .. it is amazing to watch what happens and how everyone learns, grows and experiences the world.

Read more about PosAbilities https://www.posabilities.ca/

The New York Alliance for Inclusion and Innovation (NY Alliance) and its American and international partners are excited to announce : Home is the Heart of Shared Living: An International Gathering in combination with No Labels No Walls Festival 2022.

What Is Shared Living? Shared living arrangements, in which persons with and without disabilities live together and share their lives, have emerged as an alternative to highly controlled and regulated congregate living models. Experience shows that shared living can disrupt hierarchical relationships and promote authentic relationships between people with and without disabilities. It redefines staff:client boundaries that can promote inequality and frequently offers more stable, predictable, and spontaneous environments than congregate models. It can increase the control people with disabilities have over their lives and decrease the complexity that comes with congregate settings. The NY Alliance and its international partners want to spread the news about shared living, its potential benefits and its contrast with more traditional settings.

Read more about The Home is the Heart of Shared Living -event here: https://nyalliance.org/HHSL_Gathering

Riku and Dominique

Friday 4.11.2022

11pm Finland / 9pm UK / 5pm New York / 2pm Los Angeles

Join Riku Turpenein from Finland and Dominique Beltran from Los Angeles as they share their love of music! Riku and Dominique connect together and build community showing that music binds us all together!

In 2022 we are celebrating together with New York Alliance and the Home is the heart of shared living webinar. The webinar invites us to think how we can share lives, care and develop communities where we are more equal, more attached to each others without structural or social exclusion. Let’s come together to transform the world into a shared home for everybody. Read more and join the Home is the heart of shared living event here: https://nyalliance.org/meetinginfo.php

No Labels No Walls is an art, culture and citizenship movement supported by the worldwide Citizen Network and The Strindberg Laboratory from Los Angeles USA.

Citizen Network connects over 1,000 active citizens in 34 different countries and 246 diverse groups and organizations around the world. Citizen Network supports Self-Directed Support Network, Universal Basic Income UBI Lab Network, Neighbourhood Democracy Movement and Citizen Network Research. No Labels No Walls belongs to the CitizenFest community of events together with Festival of Debate in Sheffield in England and We Are One in Scotland. Read more and join the Citizen Network here: www.citizen-network.org/join

Check our meetups here! -> https://citizen-network.org/news/save-the-date