“The difference between poetry and rhetoric is being ready…” -Audre Lorde in “Power”
Thursday August 4th 6pm-9pm EDT. Online.
We have recently heard quite a lot of rhetoric, during an election cycle where (thanks to intentional organizing and horrific acts of harm caught on video) police violence cannot be ignored. And we have continued to see the judicial system offer anything but justice. Due to repeated requests, we are offering another one night webinar on how writers, scholars and artists can respond to police violence in this moment.
This online course is for those of us who are scholars, writers and artists who are figuring out our role in a moment characterized by (a need for) drastic change. This one night workshop draws specifically on ways that Audre Lorde and June Jordan responded to police violence as poets, university teachers and public intellectuals. We need the depth of their legacy right now as much as we ever have.
The class will draw on Sista Docta Alexis Pauline Gumbs’s chapter “Nobody Mean More: Black Feminist Pedagogy and Solidarity” in the book The Imperial University: Academic Repression and Scholarly Dissent (eds. Piya Chatterjee and Sunaina Maira.)
As she says in the chapter itself “This chapter is a meditation on what it means to be nobody in a university economy designed to produce somebody inviduated, assimilated and consenting to empire. Is it possible to instead become nobody in the academic space? Is it possible to align with the illegible oppressed/contemporary subaltern, the falling apart abject nonsubject, inside a university English class?” (Participants in the course will get a pdf of the full chapter to refer to for the class.)
If you, like Audre Lorde and June Jordan, are a writer or teacher or a theorist or a thinker or an activist or a mother or all of these things at the same time, join us for a supportive space where we tap into the the power of black feminist legacy and empower each other (the nobodies that we are) to face this moment.
Get your ticket here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-difference-between-poetry-and-rhetoric-responding-to-police-violence-tickets-26877479264
FAQs
If I did NOT participate in “Nobody Mean More: Responding to Police Violence” a few weeks ago, can I still take this course?
Yes. In fact, part of the reason this course is happening is to accommodate people who wanted to participate in the first course and could not.
If I DID participate in “Nobody Mean More: Responding to Police Violence” a few weeks ago, can I still take this course?
Yes. Although we will be drawing on the same ancestors (Audre Lorde and June Jordan) and the same texts, we will be doing different activities. If you participated in the first class and want to stay engaged in this conversation feel free to join us again.
Do I need to do a lot of reading to be ready for the course?
No. When you register you will get access to all of the texts mentioned, but these are for your continued exploration and you are not required to read them ahead of time.
Why are there a limited number of tickets for an online event?
The online platform that Brilliance Remastered uses for courses enables 50 live users at a time. So there are only 50 tickets for this event. There are also a limited number of free and choose your own donation tickets…which usually go first. If you want to be the first to know about Brilliance Remastered courses
If I change my plans, can I get a refund?
There are no refunds because there are a limited number of spots. If your plans change your offering will be considered a donation to this ongoing work. If you email to let us know, we may offer your spot to someone on the waiting list.