November 2020 — April 2021
Thursdays, 6pm–8pm
Open to all
Free + virtual program
Call for participation(!)
from the gutter philosopher in residence:
Following every living scholar/artist/activist, i am learning what it means to be digital by default, and to figure out the implications of that for the intimacies of gathering to think together, or what i affectionately refer to as “shooting the shit.” this gutter philosophy free school is a series of exploratory “seminars” in that vein, of trying to figure out what it means to move the intimacies of doing philosophy in-and-from the gutter, into the digital sphere. join me as i think out loud, start to “seriously” share the writing i have been squirreling away, and try to throw together an amorphous group of strangers to explore the textures of struggling in solidarity, of languaging ourselves into existence, and of learning what it means to live by the means of a question. i have some “things” i want to think through with you and i hope you have better things to interrupt me with ;)
—deneige nadeau, gutter philosopher in residence
gutter philosophy free school is free, virtual and open to all. Sessions will not be recorded, and there will be mutual trust that participants will also refrain from recording. Slides, texts, and resources will be collated and distributed to all members at the end of each session. Suggested readings are living collections and all readings are optional—pick what you like, and please bring your questions!
What does it mean for us to gather together to think today about the entanglements of critical thought and material practice with an eye towards justice? How do we lay the groundwork for sharpening difficult questions without imposing answers? How do we stay with(in) our troubled world asserting the pleasure and protest of complexity?
What does it mean to call for a revolution today? How might we define revolution with-in and from the various histories we inherit? What does an arts education offer us for doing the difficult work of justice and how do we continue to intervene to demand better?
What does it mean to define queerness today? What are the implications of that for the ways in which we make art, do philosophy, and engage in activist projects? Can playfulness be an orientation that produces hope in our collective world-making projects? What labours of love test the edges of a praxis of hope?
What does it mean to define queerness today? What are the implications of that for the ways in which we make art, do philosophy, and engage in activist projects? Can playfulness be an orientation that produces hope in our collective world-making projects? What labours of love test the edges of a praxis of hope?
If revolution is “out of order”, what does it mean for us to turn to transformation? Where do we identify as shimmering moments of possibility? How do we re-member the radical histories of artists contesting art power and refuse assimilation or institutionalization in our desires for security?
entanglements TBD we might just read poetry out loud at you as curated by our cats...In the meantime, some things we’ve been contemplating: pickles; walnuts; the liminal; teeth (lost + found); the perils and promises of visibility; Sara Ahmed; pure obstinance; first generation scholarship; compulsory heterosexuality; and of course, Audre Lorde.
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