FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
MEET TO SLEEP

+ I want to build Meet To Sleep. How do I register to participate?

Click on the link below. Register. You will find the option to register as a participant or an organisation.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe1eW0tqURj9ZbSIJqd5fpzklADfDVDfE56zgAY6st0w7HIQw/viewform

+ I have registered to participate in Meet To Sleep, what should I expect next ?

On registering to participate and to build your own, Meet To Sleep experience, you will receive an email confirmation. Your registration includes selecting your geographical location.

Bearing this in mind we could do the following:

Connect you to persons like you who have registered to build this. You will receive a second email and be connected to a new community of fellow Action Sheroes / Theyroes / Heroes Meet To Sleep participants geographically closer to you. Together this group will mutually determine where they wish to build the #MeetToSleep. This could be their first Meet To Sleep or they could have built this previously too. There’s also a chance you might be the only one to have registered from your geographical location.

Share location and site details with you if the Meet To Sleep location is pre determined where you live. In some instances, Meet To Sleep location is predetermined with another feminist organisation and you can show up on site and join the movement.

Share multiple location and site details for you to chose from: In other instances multiple groups have announced multiple sites for #MeetToSleep in the city or place. This allows for a dispersed action happening parallel on the same day, same time across sites. Given the potential of finding a community near you or none and how you feel about this, you are encouraged to amplify the call to action to mobilise more women, non binary persons near you, and or build your ‘own group’ or make this your solo Meet To Sleep experience, if you feel ready for it.

If you are an organisation registering: You can self select a site that is of significance to the community you work with. You will receive event guidelines for participants, coordinators or feminist organisations based on the specifics of your registration form.

Please find guidelines for the following:

Participants here - if you have selected to participant individually

Coordinators here - if you have signed up to volunteer coordinating with Blank Noise from both participant and event management point of view. This includes documentation, coordination, planning, facilitating. There could be more than one person for this role.

Organisations here - if you represent an organisation and are building. We also have a set of audio guidelines in Hindi for coordinators.

+ What happens at Meet To Sleep?

We show up in a public site with our mats and a blanket. We gather, and introduce ourselves briefly. Most are likely to be meeting for the first time. We express our intention for building this and the significance it holds for each of us. We find a spot or meet the rest of the team at the chosen spot. Roll out the mat and sleep. We sleep for 2 hours. (this could vary year to year) At the end of the sleep, we gather in a circle and speak to each other about our experience. We close with shared insights.

+ Why do we Meet To Sleep?

Have you ever taken a nap by yourself in your city park? Have you slept alone, under a tree? If not, this is a start. We fight fear, we have long been taught to carry. We sleep to build a new narrative, that isn’t rooted in fear. We Meet To Sleep enable imagining and desire. Collective imagining leads to collective action. Because collective action is powerful in building new collective memory. Because building new memory builds new association.

+ What does Meet To Sleep, as an idea trying to do, in the larger world?

There are ways to many approaches rooted in defence and threat, in response to feeling safe. We need to shift how we think about safety . Here are some of the pointers linking our intentions behind Meet To Sleep.

Building trust based approaches. Meet To Sleep calls for us to begin a conversation with being defenceless and initiating trust as a start point to building safe spaces.

Assert our right to be defenceless. Meet To Sleep to deal with fear. We fight fear and unlearn it through this experience.

Meet To Sleep brings ‘Action Sheroes’ or 'Action Theyroes' to occupy and claim the words #INeverAskForIt in the body.

We build collective action and new collective memory with both a place and our bodies.

Meet To Sleep calls to organise and mobilise a community to take collective action in solidarity.

Meet To Sleep also calls to talk to fear, to perhaps be a bit uncomfortable, but also to question the discomfort. It invites you to take agency in being uncomfortable enough, in being an Action Shero / Theyro / Hero, because to be vulnerable and defenceless is a birth right.

+ What should I bring to Meet To Sleep?

mat ( important)
blanket (optional)
pillow / cushion (optional)
snack
water
Mosquito repellent
a friend/ a potential Action Shero / Theyro

+ How many people can participate in Meet To Sleep?

As many as would like. 1 or 100 or 1000 or 10000. Step back to imagine all women , girls, non binary persons sleeping under the skies in your city, day or night. With this imagination and projection, ask yourself if you want to extend this invitation to those around you.

+ Can men participate in Meet To Sleep?

The easy answer would be no, because men have largely occupied public spaces already. BUT, the interest to participate, is an invitation to ask, “ why does this speak to you” and let the answer inform the discourse. This allows for an intersectional approach and understanding. For instance if you are transman and Meet To Sleep holds relevance for you, it is yours to make.

Another example is that in India, heterosexual couples have participated in the Meet To Sleep. It speaks differently in an Indian context because of the moral policing of couples in Indian public spaces. The harassment and policing faced by inter faith couples is high. This offers a new context for building Meet To Sleep.

Meet To Sleep asserts our right to be defenceless and if this call speaks to you, your identity, this is yours to make.

We also invite you to use your discretion, and discern intentions. Welcome, but discern.

+ What do I do if I can’t sleep?

It's okay if you can't sleep. It can happen. Try lying down. Try and close your eyes when you can. Listen to the sound of birds, trees, feel the breeze. Feel the ground holding your body. Feel the sun on your face. Count clouds. Count leaves. Rest. Repeat.

Know that your community of fellow Action Sheroes / Theyroes is in visible view. They are with you. You can also go close to someone and ask them if its okay to rest near them.

+ Where will Meet To Sleep take place?

The Meet To Sleep will take place in multiple sites depending on where you are. They are public spaces and could be parks, fields, open grounds, a forest, a street bench, a cave, the hills, a river bank. You can play a role in determining the location and will be connected to someone near you who has announced it. The exact location will not be revealed till the day before for security purposes.

+ Who should I contact to find out where Meet To Sleep is happening in my city?

After registration, you will be connected with a fellow Action Shero / Theyro / Hero near you. Blank Noise will coordinate this with you.

+ Can I bring my child?

Yes! Bring your child with you!

+ What do I do if the park is closed?

Incase you are building the Meet To Sleep at the local park and it is closed on the day of event, you can chose any other site closest to it at that moment. Please also contact your local co-ordinator, whose details will have been sent to you well before the event.

+ Will we be scattered while sleeping?

You can determine your safety and threat levels and make this decision. You can huddle near a fellow Action Shero to feel safer. This is an act of care and tuning into our capacity to care for each other, even as potential co strangers. Check in with the group if everyone feels okay sleeping far apart, or closer. Or, if one person feels they prefer sleeping nearer another. Distance of sleep, posture of sleep, inform us. There is no fixed criteria except every person must be in each others line of vision. The coordinators will also take turns, take care and ensure that the new gathered community can sleep and rest.

+ Will you be taking any documentation from us during the event?

Yes, sleep is protest. Photographs of sleeping Action Sheroes will be taken. Incase you do not wish to be photographed, please wear a red band.

Post event, the group pairs up and takes videos of each other's experience. Documentation is towards sharing a narrative, a collective story, public consciousness and enabling solidarity.

+ Can I be anonymous in my participation?

Certainly. Please mention this at the time of registration.

+ Is there a Dress Code?

There is no dress code. Wear anything you are comfortable, or desire, and come take a nap!

+ What if I want to start a Meet To Sleep event in my locality individually?

If you wish to organise Meet to Sleep in your locality, please contact actionhero@blanknoise.org or call the Blank Noise number 0091.9886840612 for guidelines. We welcome everyone interested to join the collective action and build networks towards building trust in, and asserting equal rights to, public spaces.

+What if I want to bring in the press to promote Meet To Sleep?

You are welcome to do so. Outreach is important. Please introduce the member of the press to us by mail or pass on our number. While we would love for the message of #MeetToSleep to spread, we also request (for security purposes) that you don't share specific logistical details of the event for press and publicity purposes prior to the event.

+ How can I spread the word about Meet To Sleep?

Thank you for asking. Multiple ways - social media networks including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, with the hashtags #MeetToSleep #BlankNoise #ActionSheroes. Invite your friends to join in by sharing the registration form! You can also strategise this on your own - sharing it on the networks you are part of - the college club, the office group, the Resident Welfare group. It could speak to anyone!

+ Where and when is Meet to Sleep happening?

It is a synchronised event across geographies. Every Meet To Sleep is for a minimum duration of two hours, and an average of three. The timings could vary per event days and time zones. The timing could change also as we negotiate risk boundaries, for eg, sleeping in a park at night in a place where it might be, to some extent, normal for women to sleep during the day, but not at night.

+ Which organisations and collectives have partnered to build #MeetToSleep so far?

Akanksha Seva Sadan, Muzzafarpur
Anandi, Godhra,Devgadh Baria, Vadodara, Maliya
Azad Foundation, Delhi
Breakthrough, Delhi
CAFP India, Delhi
Centre for Health and Social Justice, Delhi
Choti Si Khushi, Delhi
CLAAP, Hyderabad
CREA Network
Femme Fridays, Bhopal
Gaurav Gramin Mahila Vikas Sanstha, Shorampur
Girls At Dhabas, Pakistan
Global Concerns India, Bangalore
Gramonnati Sanstha, Mahoba
Hidden Pockets, Bangalore
I Will Go Out, Bangalore
Jagori, Delhi
Kashmir Women's Collective
Kutch Mahila Vikas Sanstha, Kutch
Mahila Mukhti Sanstha, Hazaribag
Malleshwaram Social, Bangalore
Nazariya, Sangli
NLUS, Chennai
NLUS, Jodhpur
Northeast Network, Nagaland
Olakh Foundation, Vadodara
One Billion Rising, South Asia
Plan India +AV Baliga Trust + CASP, Delhi
Radio Active 90.4MHz Community Radio, Bangalore
Red Brigade Foundation, Lucknow
Red Dot Foundation, Delhi
Sadbhavana Trust, Lucknow
Sahas Foundation, Delhi
Sahyogini, Bokaro
Sambhaavnaa Institute, Kandbari, Himachal Pradesh
Sangat, Delhi
Sangram, Sangli
Shaheen, Hyderabad
Sneha Foundation, Mumbai
Social Hike, Bangalore
Srijan Foundation, Hazaribag, Jharkhand
Srijanatmak Manushi Sanstha, Delhi
Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore
VAMP (Sex Workers Against Injustice), Sangli
Vidrohi Mahila Manch (Rebellious Women), Sangli
Vimochana, Bangalore
Where Are The Women, Hyderabad
Why Loiter, Mumbai

+ Where has Meet To Sleep been built in the past?

Meet To Sleep has been built by almost 50 organisational, and feminist allies. It includes networks such as Sangat, CREA, the Why Loiter Movement, Girls at Dhabas and many more. Over 2000 persons have built Meet To Sleep.

It has been built in over 48 places including Agonda, Goa , Bangalore, Bhopal, Bidar, Bijapur, Karnataka, Bokaro, Chennai, Chikmagalur , Karnataka, Delhi, Devgadh, Baria, Gujarat, Dimapur, Godhra, Gujarat , Hazaribag , Helsinki, Finland, Hyderabad, Islamabad, Pakistan. Jaipur, Jammu, Jodhpur, Kandbari, Karachi, Kochi, Kohima, Kolkata, Lahore, Lucknow, Mahoba, U.P., Maliya, Gujarat, Mapusa, Mumbai, Muzzafarpur. Panjim, Patiala, Pune, Sangli, Maharashtra, Shorampur, Srinagar and Vadodara.