[a 6-week online program via zoom; Saturdays at 12pm EST/9am PDT/5pm GMT+1; begins 11/6]
About this workshop:
After Friendship is the last of Zoe Tuck’s year-long project of reading texts about/around/produced through friendship. Each of the classes has centered on closely reading a particular text. In this class that text is Under the Dome: Walks with Paul Celan by Jean Daive, translated by Rosmarie Waldrop, which chronicles the friendship between poet-translators Daive and Celan. As such, After Friendship carries forward inquiries into the relationship between translation and friendship. Being a memoir composed after Celan’s death, Under the Dome raises questions about the aftermath of friendship. How do we remember lost friends? What is at stake when we memorialize them?
With Under the Dome, we also get to approach the setting of friendship. As Robert Kaufman & Philip Gerard note in their introduction:
“The ‘dome’ of the book’s title refers in the first place to the shade-shelter formed by the trees’ foliage, the ‘foliage’ that, in French and German, among other languages, yields terms that can signify ‘leaf’ or ‘page’: feuille; Blatt. The trees—primarily chestnut and paulownia—that populate the Place de la Contrescarpe in Paris’ Fifth Arrondissement where Celan lives, and in whose streets and cafés Celan and Daive delight to stroll, to think aloud, to work: these trees and their leaves generate—and in turn offer the poet-translators a generative—dome.”
Here is a suggestive opportunity to engage the ecopoetics of friendship. Here, also, we have an opportunity to study urban poetics: how do the shapes of a city and a society dictate the shape of a relationship? If, as Gaston Bachelard writes, “the house protects the dreamer,” what shelters the friend?
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, along with weekly video lectures, lecture notes, and secondary readings, when applicable.
NOTE: The dates for this workshop are: 11/6, 11/13, 11/20, 12/4, 12/11, 12/18 (**no class on 11/27**)
Why friendship: Since friendship is not romantic love or a traditional family tie or a relationship defined by economic exchange, it occupies a queer and potentially liberatory power in our society.
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. This is the final class.
Texts:
Under the Dome: Walks with Paul Celan by Jean Daive, translated by Rosmarie Waldrop. Other readings, including poems by Daive and Celan, will be provided by the facilitator.
About the Facilitator: Zoe Tuck was born in Texas, became a person in California, and now lives in Massachusetts, where she is building the Threshold Academy, a future bookstore and non-traditional educational / performance space. She co-curates the But Also house reading series. Zoe is the author of Soft Investigations(Daisy Mayhem Books 2019) and Terror Matrix (Timeless, Infinite Light 2014). She is currently blogging about books, writing a trans feminine epic poem, and chipping away at an autobiographical novel. Find out more at zoetuck.com.
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.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THIS WORKSHOP TODAY!
**hey friend, did you know? you can click here to support low or no cost participation for others!** (or to become a member, supporting all OS/LL projects and programs!)
