Can we talk about allyship?

Powered by Beetroot Consulting, with the live launch of this month's episode of The Root Podcast, recorded with Christopher Owen.

Allyship has become the comfortable word for wanting to do good. In this Respectfully… conversation, Christopher Owen asks whether the word is enough, or whether it lets people perform solidarity without ever redistributing anything. We move from allyship to co-liberation: from being a good ally to doing the material, sometimes costly, work of change.

So, respectfully… can we talk about it?

This is a real conversation about allyship. It is also about:

• allyship as an insufficient frame
• allyship as performance
• co-liberation
• communities versus movements
• intersectionality without flattening people
• inclusion language versus liberation language
• solidarity as behaviour, not identity
• risk and redistribution
• respectability and hiding
• truthfulness over acceptability

The evening begins with a podcast discussion that opens up the theme and surfaces the key tensions, questions and lived realities. Lauren Gibson and Cynthia Birikundavyi then open those ideas out with attendees, creating a wider conversation where people can reflect, respond, add texture, challenge carefully and build on what has been said.

If you want to watch the discussion, if you want a lecture, if you want to find out 'the answer', you will be disappointed. This room is being deliberately shaped for a different kind of conversation. Made for participation, for enough room, for honesty.

At the end of the evening, Christopher Owen will be invited to press the big blue button and launch this month's episode of The Root Podcast live, together, in real time. Our room will choose to move the conversation out of the margins and into public space.

For anyone who has been asked to be an ally, anyone tired of being allied to, and anyone who wants solidarity to mean behaviour rather than a badge.

Info: Guests can arrive, grab picky bits, herbal tea or alcohol-free cocktails, and settle into the space. This opening half hour gives people time to land, connect, decompress if needed, and get a feel for the room before the main conversation begins.

Info: The main event opens with a short introduction to The Root Podcast and why Beetroot makes long-form conversations that give more room to nuance, lived experience and the things that get flattened elsewhere. We then move into this month's theme: Respectfully… can we talk about 'allyship'? This section includes the episode trailer, the conversation with Christopher Owen, and a hosted discussion with the room exploring the realities behind the theme: allyship as an insufficient frame, allyship as performance, co-liberation, communities versus movements, intersectionality without flattening people, inclusion language versus liberation language, solidarity as behaviour, not identity, risk and redistribution, respectability and hiding, truthfulness over acceptability. This is a hosted conversation rather than a panel.

Info: There will be some time to chat to others in the room, before the evening ends with the launch moment. Christopher Owen will press the big blue button, launching this month's episode of The Root Podcast live in real time with everyone in the room.

Event venue & nearby stays

Avesta Hair Ltd, 112 Phoebe Street, Salford, United Kingdom

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