The Burning Man Regional Network plays a key role in the year-round extension of the Burning Man experience, supporting it as a global cultural movement. In cities around the world, Regional Contacts help local Burners connect with each other, while bringing Burning Man principles and culture into their local communities through events and activities, year-round.
Please enjoy the knowledge and ideas shared in the recorded forum sessions below. Consider making a donation to Burning Man Project to support our mission of bringing the culture of Burning Man into the world.
2022 Regional Network Forum: Hello Again!
The 2022 Burning Man Regional Network Forum welcomed community leaders across the global Burning Man community to reconnect and re-ignite inspiration through discussion of how our local gatherings, spaces and projects can be more inclusive, environmentally sustainable and meaningfully connected.
Opening Plenary: 2022 Regional Network Forum: Hello Again!
Burning Man Head of Regional Network, Iris Yee, and Associate Director of Community Events, $teven Ra$pa, offer a welcome and thoughts about “”Hello Again!”” theme. CEO and Burning Man Founding Board Member, Marian Goodell reflects on the Regional Network past, present and future. Education Team’s Karen Jacobs and Siobhan Elliott also share resources to develop leadership skills and find solutions to community challenges.
State of the Regional Network: 2022 Regional Network Forum: Hello Again!
Burning Man Head of Regional Network, Iris Yee, and Associate Director of Community Events, $teven Ra$pa, take a holistic look at the Regional Network as it emerges from the pandemic revealed through reports and conversations with regional leaders across the globe.
Creative Responses to Community Needs: Temple of Tranquility
Caroline Kert “Caroshine”, Boulder Regional Contact, shares how her group will be building the Temple of Tranquility in Boulder, Coloardo to offer collective healing and catharsis.
Creative Responses to Community Needs: Ukraine Humanitarian Mutual Aid Project
Volodymyr Nedogoda, Founder of the Regional Event Magic Forest, shares how he and Burners in Lviv and beyond are coordinating a Mutual Aid Project in response to urgent needs for humanitarian aid in Ukraine.
Burning and BLASTing Our Way to a Healthy Planet, Region by Region
Tim Barry “Ain Frog”, Green Theme Camp Community member, Nils Hohmuth, medical doctor and event organizer at MediMeisterschaften, and Andy Justice “Money Daddy”, Kiwiburn Chair and Treasurer, share how we can make our Regional Events, gatherings, and community spaces more environmentally sustainable, using the Burner Leadership Achieving Sustainable Theme Camps (BLAST) certification program.
Radical Inclusion, Diversity & Equity In Motion
Burning Man Head of Regional Network, Iris Yee, welcomes Black Rock City Rangers Marlon Williams “”Elephant”” and Erik Peters “”Threepio”” to share how the Ranger R.I.D.E. Delegation is building open, inviting and inclusive culture through their team strategies and operations. Participants including organizers of Lakes of Fire and other Regional Events and groups discuss how they’re approaching this journey and share tools that can help put our principles into practice.
Starting Civic Projects: Humanitarian Aid, Temple of Tranquility
Burners Without Borders Program Manager, Molly Rose, hosts Volodymyr Nedogoda, Founder of Magic Forest, and Caroline Kert “Caroshine”, Boulder Regional Contact, Misa Rygrova, Czech Republic Regional Contact, and Steve Maruska “Birthday”, Southeastern Colorado Regional Contact, to discuss how to start a civic project that brings your community together to create solutions to community needs. Projects discussed included humanitarian Mutual Aid and Burners Without Borders Backpacks projects responding to Ukraine, and the Temple of Tranquility, a healing response to traumas experienced by Boulder, Colorado residents.
The Three Burner Life Stages and Community Health
Assaf Katz, Midburn Co-Founder, discusses, “What are the three life stages of a Burner?”, a theory about personal evolution that considers how to assess which life stage you are in, the implications of each stage on the health and longevity of our local Burner communities, and how we can assist Burners in their Burner development lifecycle, making sure our communities develop culturally at a healthy pace.
2021 Regional Network Forum: Emerging, Wayfinding, Igniting!
In June 2021, the Burning Man Regional Network Forum: Emerging, Wayfinding, Igniting was held as an online regathering for all community leaders across the globe to re-inspire engagement in Burning Man culture beyond Black Rock City and strengthen the cultural connections between regional communities after a year of cancelled Regional Events, prototyping COVID-safe interactive art experiences, and pandemic-related isolation.
Regional Network Forum Opening Plenary
Jurgis Didžiulis kicks off the forum with an invigorating musical performance as our communities emerge from a year of pandemic-related distancing and cancelled Regional Events. Burning Man Head of Regional Network, Iris Yee, offers a look back at the creative ingenuity of Burners over the last year of great challenges. Burning Man Arts Project Manager, Kye Horton, also shares opportunities to support art in communities around the world. Keep an eye out for an unexpected bunny appearance!
Where We Have come From: S.M.A.R.T.
Burning Man Regional Contact in Seattle, Tara Fischer (“Mockingbird”), shares an ingenious way Seattle Burners turned lemons into lemonade and created the Seattle Multiverse Actual Reality Trek (S.M.A.R.T.) during 2020 Black Rock City Burn Week.
Where We Have Come From: Afrikaburn
Monique Scheiss, Burning Man Regional Contact in Cape Town, South Africa and founding member of Afrikaburn shares how a gap year in the production of the Afrikaburn Regional Event presented an opportunity to focus on the environmental stewardship of Quaggafontein, the new land gifted to Afrikaburn. The Eco Trip offered a chance to accelerate eco-restoration techniques and systems.
Where We Have Come From: Taiwan’s Turtle Burn
Burning Man Regional Contact in Taiwan, Dale Albanese, shares highlights from Taiwan’s Burning Man community and its official Regional Event, Turtle Burn, held in April 2020.
Where We Have Come From: Japan’s Kairan Burn
Burning Man Regional Contact in Japan, Makiko “Makibee” Oshita, describes how Japan Burners stayed connected with a relay of cardboard Man effigies and handmade gifts through the postal mail, culminating in three online mini-Man burns, and shares plans for the 2021 Burning Japan regional event.
Where Are We Going: What Does it Mean to Be a Burner in 2021?
David Koren (“not that Dave”), Executive Producer and Executive Director of FIGMENT, hosts a discussion about what it means to be a Burner in 2021 with Burners, Marlon Williams, former Assistant Director, Public Sector Innovation, Living Cities; Monique Schiess, founding member of Afrikaburn and a Burning Man Regional Contact in Cape Town, South Africa; Kevin “StuntHubbie” Rowell, disaster relief and recovery worker; Athena Demos, former Regional Contact in Los Angeles and founding member of BRCvr; and Marty Bortz, Common Arts Victoria Secretary and Director.
Cultural Mutation: Harmful or Renewing?
$teven Ra$pa, Associate Director of Community Events at Burning Man Project, hosts a discussion with Diana Monsberger, The Borderland Board Chair; Katherine Hagg (“MokKa”), Burner Embassy Berlin Co-Founder; and Colette Crespin, Director of Virtual Experiences and Kindling at Burning Man Project about how to healthily scale the Burning Man culture, inviting positive mutations of it as it moves and deeper into daily life, without diluting the culture so much that it no longer reflects the culture.
Learning from Codes of Conduct and Consent Committees
Tiya Coleman, Regional Contact in Las Vegas and Meta Regional Committee member hosts Geraldine Bonnard (“KreveTTe”), Nowhere Consent Lead; Corprew Reed (“Zeitgeist”), Black Rock Ranger and Virtual Event Support Team member; and Carly Nix, President of the Firefly Arts Collective’s Board of Directors in discussion about creating a code of conduct for maintaining a healthy, functioning community and how groups like consent committees form and develop processes to uphold community behavioral standards and manage conflict.
Preparing to Re-gather in a Changing World
Kathleen Hoffman, Regional Contact in Sacramento and marriage family therapist hosts Yasin Choudry, M.D., Board Certified Psychiatrist with the Burning Man Crisis Intervention Team; and Verity Owers (“Vee”) accredited counsellor and Founder of Dust 2 Dust; in discussion about how the pandemic has impacted us psychologically, strategies to help prepare for re-entry into the world, and what we might need to consider as we begin planning a return to community organization and the creation of gatherings.
Going on a Regional R.I.D.E.: Radical Inclusion, Diversity and Equity in the Network
Iris Yee, Head of the Burning Man Regional Network, hosts Lorraine Tanner, Director of Afrikaburn, in a discussion exploring core issues of Radical Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (R.I.D.E.), what it looks like in different communities, and ways communities are fostering inclusion through their Regional Events and beyond.
Igniting Inclusion: Community Efforts to Increase Accessibility
Aaron Muszalski (“Slim”), founder of Burning Wish, hosts ClemClem, Nowhere Inclusion Lead; Dani L. Moore (“Rat Lady”), Camp Lead for Mobility Camp; Chris Hainsworth, co-founder of Blind Burners; and Stan Clawson, former Chairman and Ballyhoo Captain for Element 11 in Utah, in discussion about the importance of accessibility as part of the principle of Radical Inclusion and the practical steps the average Burner can take to improve the accessibility of their events, camps, and community spaces.
I Love Burners, But I Hate Burners: Moderating Our Social Media Spaces
Shirley Tipton and Craig Lindahl (“Lion”), Burning Man Hive Labs Moderators, lead participants in a discussion about managing community social media spaces in a way that fosters healthy conversation and balances the tension between Radical Self-Expression, Radical Inclusion, and Civic Responsibility.
Burning on the Other Side of the Pandemic
Justin McGhee, Regional Contact in Sydney and President of Common Arts Victoria, hosts Andy Justice (“Money Daddy”), Kiwiburn Chair and Treasurer; Julia Damrow (“Flying Squirrel”) Kiwiburn Communications Facilitator; Andy Sondalini (“Firecracker”), Kiwiburn Event Manager; Dale Albanese, Regional Contact in Taiwan and co-producer of Turtle Burn; Elaine Kang, Regional Contact in Shanghai; and Francesca Valsecchi and Lalo Lopez, Dragon Burn planners in sharing learnings from the earliest regions to emerge on the other side of the pandemic, including the challenges, opportunities and rewards of re-gathering in person at events held over the last year.
Ruining More Lives Faster: How Do We Build a Better Regional Network
Kay Morrison, Burning Man Project Board Member and Meta Regional Committee Member, hosts a group discussion about how we might build a healthier, interconnected, scalable and joyfully effective global network – one that maintains cultural integrity and stability while scaling, is welcoming and easily accessible to new members, and might interface with other tangential networks in the community (e.g., BWB chapters, theme camps, Regional Event leadership, etc.).
Sustainability is Fun(damental) for a Healthy Future
Francesca Valsecchi, researcher and educator in design and sustainability and Dragon Burn planner, hosts Jo Roberts (“Whisper”), Red Earth Ecology Team Lead; and Stephen Chun (“Ladies and Gentle Man”), Sustainability Project Manager at Burning Man Project in sharing how some regional communities are creating and prototyping greener, regenerative solutions at their events, and how to pursue sustainability with actionable change.
Kickstarting Civic Initiatives
Molly Harpel, Portland Burners Without Borders Chapter Co-Lead and Patrick Noder, Burners Without Borders Sacramento Chapter Co-Lead share local projects and initiatives as examples of how Burners can activate local energy and bring communities together to come up with important solutions to community issues.
The Burning Man Regional Network