[a 6-week online program via zoom; Saturdays at 12pm EST; begins 2/20]
*Note: STAR FRIENDS is Part 1 of Zoe Tuck’s year-long “Year of Friendship Texts” project — each section of which can be taken independently or as part of your own ongoing engagement**
STAR FRIENDS is the first course in a year-long planned series on the subject of FRIENDSHIP. In this six-week long class, we will focus on an essay by Svetlana Boym on the friendship between political theorist Hannah Arendt and the novelist, critic, and political activist Mary McCarthy. Alongside this we will read, as Boym did, the letters exchanged by the two.
These readings will allow us to approach friendship through the lenses of what Boym calls “diasporic intimacy” and “homoerotic heterogeneity.” In addition to these readings, participants are invited to engage in a regular epistolary practice during these six-weeks, writing letters to friends.
Logistics: We will meet once a week for two hours on zoom, with time divided between discussion of the reading and writing exercises in support of the ongoing epistolary project. Recordings of classes and transcripts will be made available to participants. I will also share weekly video lectures and lecture notes.
The sequence: The classes on friendship in this year-long series are discrete units. Participants need not have taken another of the classes in the sequence. The next class in the sequence, starting in March after STAR FRIENDS ends, will be on Toni Morrison’s Sula.
**Interested in going deeper? Find a longer description of this program here.**
What’s the point of reading and thinking deep thoughts while we descend ever deeper into political and ecological chaos?
I believe that dreaming and contemplating in common are the ground for a deeper and more nuanced understanding of existence and that this more nuanced understanding is the ground for meaningful action in the world.
ALL ACCESS PRICING MODEL / PAY WHAT YOU CAN / COMPARISON COSTS:
Liminal Lab is committed to providing a source of income for our collaborators and facilitators in an increasingly precarious time for culture workers and educators. However, no one will ever be turned away for lack of funds. We ask that those who can pay the suggested price, and/or help cover the cost of scholarship slots in each of our programs by sponsoring other participants.
- Compare the below to the cost for a similar accredited workshop in a university setting (where most of the $$$ goes to institutional bloat): $1035 — we show you this so we can begin to think about wtf is happening in our institutions, where both students and faculty get the short end of the stick.
- At a standard “Market Rate,” at arts orgs: $350*
- Recommended Sliding Scale: $30-50/session → $180-300 for the series
- Precarity Pricing: $10-20/session
- Barter / Volunteer / No Cost Option Available
- Membership / Sponsorship: You may now become a member of Liminal Lab! Which allows you to support as well as participate in this and other programs. By becoming a member, you can also sponsor low or no fee participants in this workshop with a donation of any size.
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to make a donation to support low and no cost participation in our programs for others!
