By Sara Fabian
Running parallel with activities at Evergreen’s Orientation Week, Disorientation Week is an extravaganza filled with a series of events that stand in opposition to common administration narratives.
Organized by The Black Cottonwood Collective, an anti-authoritarian student group at Evergreen, their goal is to provide desired resources and events for the Evergreen community. Organizers in years past have made great strides in providing incoming students with more radical perspectives on what is happening in Olympia.
As Evergreen puts together a comprehensive schedule of lectures and activities to “orient” students to campus. DisOrientation Week is a series of workshops, games, discussions and activities to give alternatives to the school orientation.
This is an effort to provide a space for everyone (not just students) to meet one another, share politics and events, and build strong, healthy bonds. Many of the activities at Disorientation Week inspire students focus on ways to be self-sufficient, without the help of the school administration by means of alternative ways of housing, food, and even shelter. Other activities in this year’s schedule focus on consent, self defense and anti capitalism/anarchism history and tactics.
Volunteers of Disorientation Week use workshops to educate and communicate with new students, they also have many important and useful resources compiled into a DisOrientation Manual.
Consider it as a guide, map, and source of assistance during your time at Evergreen and Olympia. Part anarchist manifesto, the Disorientation Manual is made up of anonymous writing from the Evergreen community ranging from reviews of the local businesses, to reports on political actions happening around Olympia, and examinations of oppressive power structures and how readers can work to dismantle them.
So while Orientation week is on its way, check out Disorientation Week’s set of workshops, social events, shows and other events to welcome you, our student body, into this unique community full of radical history and change.
All events will be in the Student Art Gallery unless otherwise noted. The Student Art Gallery is located on the third floor of the CAB building.
