2110 Centre and CKUT Form The Dragonroot Project

Groups Aim to Start a Discussion About Gendered Violence

NewsHilary Sinclair — Published November 6, 2012

The project is set to kick off its workshop series on Nov. 7 and run until April 10 with a seminar hosted by volunteers from the Sexual Assault Centre Campaign entitled Sexual Assault Awareness.

“[The workshop is] around consent, boundaries and also switching the emphasis away from putting blame on a person who experiences assault and instead having the message be way more about ‘don’t rape’ than ‘don’t get raped,’” said 2110 Programming and Campaigns Coordinator Bianca Mugyenyi.

CKUT first crossed campus lines and approached the Concordia-based 2110 Centre a year ago to collaborate on the project when they received a grant from Status of Women Canada.

“We decided to join forces and do something where people could not only learn how to make radio, but they’d also have a forum,” said Mugyenyi. “Because the show was meant to be around gendered violence it made sense to be learning about that.”

The project—which is also working alongside community groups such as Filipino women’s organization PINAY and sex worker advocacy group Stella on the workshop series—was opened to the public, placing an emphasis on educating women and girls from marginalized backgrounds, said Mugyenyi.

“We decided to join forces and do something where people could not only learn how to make radio, but they’d also have a forum. Because the show was meant to be around gendered violence it made sense to be learning about that.”
—Bianca Mugyenyi,
2110 Programming and Campaigns Coordinaor

Every other Wednesday, the project holds a radio workshop that teaches participants the technical skills involved with actually producing a show.

The workshops are used as a primer for the content that runs on Dragonroot Radio in the 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. time slot. Different voices are constantly bringing new perspectives to the role of host, and the featured musical guests range from crooner Akua Carson to spoken word artist Moe Clark.

“We’re trying to do it with intersectional analysis, so that when we’re thinking about it and trying to understand it and talking about these things on the radio show, we’re connecting the dots,” said Mugyenyi.

“We’re asking, ‘Why are there all of these inequalities? What social and economic inequalities are leading to each of these individual things?’ and seeing if they’re connected.”