Our assemblies in January-June 2020

11:00 am, June 21 2020

Conway Hall / Online

Speaker: Lots

Poet: Lots

Change of Heart

Happy 7th Birthday, Sunday Assembly! For our first assembly of the year, we will gather to learn how we can make changes for the better, both in our personal lives and in the world around us.

Our main speaker, Margot Raggett, lived the corporate lifestyle in London for 20 years before undertaking a total change of direction at the age of 40. Seeing a poached elephant changed her life forever and set her off on a path to become one of the world’s most successful conservation book publishers. Margot will share that journey during her talk and why having a purpose has given her more satisfaction than climbing the career ladder ever did.

We welcome the return of comedic singer/songwriter Gecko! His album, Volcano, is available on Spotify.

We’ll sing some epic pop tunes together with our live band and hear from the chair of our board, Sarah Morgan, about Sunday Assembly’s plans for 2020 and beyond. And we’ll end by drinking a vat of tea, eating birthday cake, and talking with friends new and old.

Please remember, Sunday Assembly London is free to attend and runs entirely on donations. Please support us if you can to keep it free for those who can’t.

Designed to Care

  • 19th January 2020, 11:00am

As a new decade begins, many of us are thinking about the passage of time. What have we done over the past ten years? What will happen in the next decade? Who will care for us when we’re old?

Our main speaker Julian Siravo comes from the think tank Autonomy. Julian is an Italian-American architect and urban designer. In his work Julian has explored automated construction, post-familial domesticity and socialised care-work. He will talk to us about the crisis of care-work in an ageing population and the solution he proposed to the Valencian Regional Government.

We’ll also have poetry, pop tunes, and pie (well, tea and cake).

Sunday Assembly London is free to attend and runs entirely on donations. Please support us if you can to keep it free for those who can’t.

Misunderstood Mammals

Much like Harry and Meghan, hyenas are in the midst of a PR crisis. Often seen as dim-witted, gluttonous scavengers with a demonic laugh, centuries of literature and folklore have cemented the idea that hyenas are disgusting.

But zoologist Michelle Lindson is determined to set the record straight. Michelle has worked in different areas of environmental science such as animal field work, zoo keeping, and zoo conservation education. Pursuing her interest in nature community work, she is currently the Community Outreach Coordinator at The Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, where she manages their ‘Nature and Us’ project. Since the age of 18 she’s been obsessed with spotted hyenas, and after endless hours spent studying their behaviour in the wild in Africa, she feels their negative reputation is totally uncalled for. In this talk she’ll challenge these misconceptions, and fill us in on the often unknown details of their intriguing lives!

We will also be joined by Robin Lamboll, a physicist researching climate science at the Grantham Institute, Imperial College. The UK’s National Slam Champion 2019 and 2nd place winner in the World Cup of Slam 2019, Robin blends science and language to create truly epic poems and spoken word performances.

(Content Warning: There will be some frank discussion involving animal genitalia!)

Ways we Connect

We all search for connection with other people. It’s hard-wired into us and is essential to our health and well-being. But it takes effort, and it can be painful. We make ourselves vulnerable when we open our hearts and minds to others.

Margot de Broglie, founder of Secret Sunrise London, designs gatherings for people to create meaningful moments that spark real human emotions and inspire them to step into their most authentic selves. In her talk, she will explore the reasons why we need to come face to face with others and make these connections, and demonstrate the power of human connection with some guided exercises.

We have Leonora Nicholson of Unheard coming to share some brilliant poetry with us.

And we’ll celebrate life by singing some of our favourite pop tunes and getting to know each other better over tea and cake.

Paying it Forward

  • 1st March 2020, 11:00am

Our main speaker, Gulwali Passarlay, is the esteemed author of the best-selling autobiography, “The Lightless Sky: A Twelve-Year-Old Refugee’s Harrowing Escape from Afghanistan and His Extraordinary Journey Across Half The World”. Since arriving in the UK in 2007 after being forced to leave Afghanistan as a boy, Gulwali has achieved beyond all odds to become a political campaigner for refugees’ rights, social justice and education. The experience of his journey to the UK shaped his future and inspired an insatiable determination and commitment to raise awareness and make a difference for other refugees.

We will also have poetry by Fiona Stone, sing-along pop and rock songs to celebrate being alive, and a member of the community telling us how they’re “trying their best”. Please stay after for tea, biscuits, and lively conversation with other members of the community.

Synaptic Symphonies

Sunday Assembly Lates is back! We’ve talked about sex (baby), we’ve talked about drugs (and got a lust for life), and now we’re going to round out the unholy trinity of pop culture by talking about rock n’ roll. Zoe Cormier happens to be an expert on all three, having written the book “Sex, Drugs and Rock n’ Roll: The Science of Hedonism and the Hedonism of Science”, published by Profile Books. In addition to being an author, she is a journalist, science writer, broadcaster and public speaker with an academic training in zoology coupled with an upbringing in the music industry.

At our event, Ms Cormier will explain how and why humans are able to create music. Did it give us an evolutionary advantage? Why have all civilisations throughout history made music? And why don’t other animals understand music?

To demonstrate just how amazing music is, we will have a performance by WondRWomN! WondR WomN has been bubbling on the UK’s Hip Hop scene for a while, cultivating her own niche style of rap that heavily incorporates lyricism, soul, and boom bap jazzy production.

Doors will open at 7 and the Sunday Assembly Band will welcome you in with a few tunes to get you in the mood before we kick things off at 7:30. We’ll have some killer sing-alongs and a special performance by the Sunday Assembly Choir.

What Are Machines Learning?

  • 15th March 2020, 11:00am
  • Speaker: Daniel Zoran
  • Performer: Bellatrix

It’s 2020, and we’re living in the future. Smart phones unlock when they recognise our faces, and cars are starting to drive themselves. But sometimes machines, like people, get it wrong. Our main speaker, Daniel Zoran, is a research scientist at DeepMind, the UK based world-leading artificial intelligence company. Daniel holds a PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was a post-doctoral associate at MIT before joining DeepMind. His talk will focus on how we teach machines to see, what we think they might be learning and how, sometimes, they yield unexpected results.

And we welcome Bellatrix, a singer and songwriter who also happens to be a Guildhall-trained double bassist and world beatboxing champion. This unusual and multifaceted artist is always engaged in a diverse range of projects for which she wears a multitude of different musical hats.

We will get your Sunday morning booted up with our usual sing-along pop/rock tunes, an energetic host, and a member of the community coming up to tell us how they’re “trying their best”. Please stay after for tea, biscuits, and lively conversation with other members of the community.

Global Goals

Welcome to our first virtual assembly! Our main speaker is Henry C. Blanchard, who left a boring corporate job to create an adventure sports business, set up a charity in rural Uganda, and travel the world. He now shows others how to do the same.

If our current situation has taught us anything, it’s that we are all in this together, for better or for worse. Everything we do has a real impact on others. Henry’s talk will be about how we can achieve amazing things if we cooperate with one another and work towards a common vision.

Sanderson Jones, our co-founder and a pioneer in the field of Lifefulness, will host this assembly. We will have a special poetry reading by Annie Perez, and Sarah Moore will tell us how she’s “Trying Her Best”. And it wouldn’t be Sunday Assembly without some world-shaking pop and rock singalongs!

How to Have More Fun by Flying Less

  • 19th April 2020, 11:00am
  • Speaker: Anna Hughes
  • Performer: Bellatrix

Could you take a year off flying? In celebration of Earth Day on 22 April, Sunday Assembly invites you to think about your impact on the environment and what changes you can make to slow down the affects of climate change. One of the biggest contributors to our carbon footprint is commercial air travel. A published author of three books about her cycling adventures, lifelong cyclist and environmentalist Anna Hughes talks to us about Flight Free UK, a campaign she started in 2019. Flight Free UK asks people to stop flying for a year to help the environment.

And we welcome Bellatrix, a singer and songwriter who also happens to be a Guildhall-trained double bassist and world beatboxing champion. This unusual and multifaceted artist is always engaged in a diverse range of projects for which she wears a multitude of different musical hats.

Sunday Assembly aims to inspire a sense of community with sing-along pop and rock tunes, an energetic host, and a member of the community coming up to tell us how they’re “trying their best”. Please stay after for tea and biscuits (provided by you!), and lively conversation with other members of the community using Zoom’s Breakout Rooms feature. Everyone is welcome.

Sunday Assembly Dance-Off!

  • 26 April 2020, 12:00pm

Forget Strictly, the next big thing is the Sunday Assembly Dance-Off!

Sunday 26 April should have been the date of the 40th London Marathon. Instead, its organisers have asked charities to create their own #stayathomechallenge based around the numbers 2 and 6. See https://www.twopointsixchallenge.co.uk/ for more info.

We’re inviting you, your family, and your friends, to Sunday Assembly’s Dance-Off Challenge on Sunday 26 April to support us during this tough time.

Join our Dance-Off Challenge: 26 minutes of non-stop dancing from 12pm on Sunday 26 April. It’s just you, your best moves, Zoom, and the rest of Sunday Assembly!

Many Voices, One Song

If you have a voice, you can sing. You don’t need anyone’s permission. And singing is even more enjoyable when done with others. Something powerful happens when we join our voices- we seem to instantly feel a bond of understanding with others. This is why we sing at our assemblies: it brings our community together.

Our main speaker James Sills is a musician, vocal leader, author, and speaker who is passionate about bringing people together to sing. His book, “Do/ Sing” is a celebration of group singing in all its forms, from football stadiums to choirs to campfires. In addition to his talk about singing, he will also give a short demonstration of how people can sing together online as he does with his Sofa Singers.

And we welcome the return of the Sunday Assembly Choir! It was challenging adapting to virtual rehearsals, but Emma Songeur has done a fantastic job of bringing members of our community together for weekly rehearsals.

As always, we will come together to enjoy sing-along pop and rock tunes, an energetic host, and a member of the community telling us how they’re “trying their best”.

Please stay after for tea and biscuits (provided by you!), and lively conversation with other members of the community via Breakout Rooms. Everyone is welcome.

Cool to be Kind

Mental Health Awareness Week begins on 18 May. This year, the theme is Kindness, a value that is at the heart of what we do as a community. Acts of kindness strengthen relationships and unlock our shared humanity.

Tracy Douthwaite, our main speaker, trains businesses to use a sustainable and effective approach to the mental health needs of their employees, increasing understanding and reducing stigma. Her aim is to embed health and wellbeing into the culture of organisations, ensuring happy, healthy workplaces. She will show us how connecting with others and building communities can support our wellbeing through COVID-19 and beyond. And she will talk about the other kind of kindness, self-kindness, which is often overlooked because we sometimes find it harder to do. Prioritising self-care can have a positive impact even in the most challenging of times.

As always, we will come together to enjoy sing-along pop and rock tunes, an energetic host, and a member of the community telling us how they’re “trying their best”.

Please stay after for tea and biscuits (provided by you!), and lively conversation with other members of the community via Breakout Rooms. Everyone is welcome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDQA4yqQ8rs

The Science of Celebration

Take a moment to remember some of the best events you ever attended. What made them special? How did they make you feel? They were probably not the ones at which you consumed food, drink, and entertainment and promptly went home afterward. They were more likely the times when you felt a bond with other people over a shared experience and hung around till you were one of the last people remaining because you didn’t want it to end.

Study after study has shown that our need for human connection is just as essential as our needs for food and shelter. The reason we celebrate together is not to consume substances, but to connect with others. So why do we often engage in unhealthy habits to try to make an experience more ‘fun’? Jacques Martiquet, founder of Vyve, is an expert on the science of celebration, having produced hundreds of substance-free events that focus on providing a unique and memorable shared experience. He will give us some of his science-backed advice for bringing joy to our most joyous events.

Hosted by Anj Cairns, author and creator of communal poems (@wewroteapoem), this assembly will include some of your favourite songs to sing along to, as well as a special performance by The Sunday Assembly Choir, and Gareth Dee from SA Brighton telling us how he is “Trying His Best”.

Please stay after for tea and biscuits (provided by you!), and lively conversation with other members of the community via Breakout Rooms. Everyone is welcome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LITc7ZCFmw

How to Care Intensively

  • 21st June 2020, 11:00am
  • Speaker: Jay Jayamohan

Our main speaker, Jay Jayamohan, is a consultant paediatric neurosurgeon at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, star of two highly acclaimed BBC documentary series following the work of neurosurgeons, and author of the 2020 autobiography “Everything That Makes Us Human”. Jay will tell us what it means to care intensively: advocating for patients who can’t speak for themselves, guiding families through end-of-life choices no one wants to make, helping people feel empowered to make essential, life-changing decisions when there is no time to waste.

Hosted by Stuart Holdsworth, author of the street art blog Inspiring City (who will likely make a few ‘dad jokes’ in honour of Father’s Day), this assembly will also feature poetry by Clare Potter, pop and rock songs to get you up and moving, and community member Jennie Sutherland telling us how she’s “Trying Her Best”.

Please stay after for tea and biscuits (provided by you!), and lively conversation with other members of the community via Breakout Rooms. Everyone is welcome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcYBDfkxQZw

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