Moves Toward Relationship

What happens when we begin to notice just how deeply transactional habits shape our relationships — with food, work, community, and one another? And what new possibilities emerge when we practice different moves?

In this interactive gathering, Nicole Civita of otherWise invites participants to explore “Moves Toward Relationship” — small but powerful shifts that help loosen transactional conditioning and open space for deeper connection, shared responsibility, and more life-giving forms of collaboration. Drawing from Civita’s co-authored book *Feeding Each Other: Shaping Change in Food Systems Through Relationship* and her ongoing convening and writing on *Entangled Economics*, this session offers practical ways to recognize where exchange-based thinking narrows imagination and limits collective possibility.

Together, participants will learn to spot transactional patterns in everyday interactions, reflect on how those patterns show up in food systems and community life, and experiment with alternative relational practices — gestures that invite curiosity, reciprocity, and wider, wilder ways of being together. Expect reflective exercises, facilitated dialogue, and hands-on creative exploration in the welcoming, art-centered space of Hard-Pressed.

This event builds on the relational themes of The Gift of Seed gathering, offering an opportunity to deepen the conversation and continue practicing community-rooted ways of living beyond simple exchange.

Open to all — especially those curious about cultivating more connected, trust-based ways of working, growing, and relating in uncertain times.