EmoTAZ is a not-for-profit annual gathering related to the Vancouver Burning Man community. It is inspired by and shares values with the Burning Man Festival. The participating EmoMen endeavour to create a Temporary Autonomous Zone (TAZ) to stimulate friendship between men as an extended family. The event was based on the idea that, while western women have been redefining their role since the suffragettes, and the role of men changed dramatically after the industrial revolution, there has been little movement in redefining the role of men, or relationship between them. The founder also believed that, while the sexual revolution recognized diversity of sexual preference, men had become divided along lines of orientation; fear of intimacy between all men had emerged. Based on the hypothesis that men build relationship through shared activity, the event includes outdoor activities and workshops to encourage intimate, experiential communication. Workshops have included: wrestling, contact improvisation, djembe drumming, relaxation and tantric massage, several forms of yoga, meditation, a variation of the Glass Bead Game, teamwork including low and high ropes courses, martial arts exercises including jujutsu holds, Nonviolent communication, Intimacy Boundary Discovery and Kecak. A key ritual performed on the last evening each year involves the invention of full tribal markings with black light body paint to a background of electronica, drums and chanting.
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