[a 6-week online program; Mondays at 7pm EST; begins 6/13]
The Crip Lit for Spoonies workshop series is a series of reading group-style writing workshops called “CripLit4Spoonies” that centers literatures of chronic illness and disability. The first CripLit looked at the relationship between trauma and disability. CripLit4Spoonies II focuses on the genre and poetics of writing about one’s own experience of illness and disability as a way of healing and asserting the truth of one’s own experience in the face of isolation, silencing, pathologization, and gas-lighting. Over the course of six weeks, we will read excerpts from works on cancer, chronic pain, gynecological disorders, nervous system disorders, and mental illness. Each week, we will share body scans, no less than 30 minutes of collaborative writing in response to prompts generated by the readings, and our responses and impressions of the readings. The workshop envisions itself as a space to share vulnerability, resources, and care through the shared experience of living as a “spoonie,” or a chronically ill individual.
Each workshop will start at 7pm on Monday nights starting Monday, June 13, 2022. The workshop will take place on Zoom (workshops may be recorded for asynchronous access contingent on participants’ comfort), most if not all readings will be provided on Google Drive, recorded “lectures” and other asynchronous points of access will also be available on Google Drive. Collective writing from each week may be collected and assembled into a zine and/or online publication.
Logistics:
We will meet once a week for two hours on Zoom, with time divided between discussion and reading and writing exercises designed to both critically engage with the texts and produce original writing in any genre using some of the more suggestive questions produced by our readings as prompts. Recordings of classes will be made available to all participants, along with any lectures, notes, and secondary readings when applicable.
Schedule / Session Dates: (June 13, 20, 27, July 5, July 11, July 18)
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Date |
Topic |
Possible Readings |
|
Mon, June 13 |
Introductions, The Genre |
Screening and Response: Jennifer Brea’s Unrest Anna Altman’s “The Consolations of the Illness Memoir” Eleanor Henderson’s “Women’s Memoirs at the Intersection of Chronic Illness, Mental Illness, Addiction, and Trauma” |
|
Mon, June 20 |
Cancer |
Susan Sontag’s Illness as Metaphor Virginia Woolf’s “On Being Ill” Audre Lorde’s Cancer Journals Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air |
|
Mon, June 28 |
Chronic Pain/ Nervous System Disorders/ Autoimmune Disorders |
Elaine Scarry’s The Body in Pain Megan O’Rourke’s The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Pain The Diary of Frida Kahlo Amy Berkowitz’s Tender Points Selections from Nat. Brut.’s Illness Folio Leslie Jamison’s The Empathy Exams |
|
*Tuesday, July 5* |
Gynecological Disorders |
Abby Norman’s Ask Me About My Uterus Susanna Kaysen’s The Camera My Mother Gave Me Selections from Nat. Brut.’s Illness Folio Leslie Jamison’s “Grand Unified Theory of Female Pain” |
|
Mon, July 11 |
Mental Illness |
Stephanie Foo’s What My Bones Know Esmé Weijun Wang’s My Collected Schizophrenias Shira Erlichman’s Odes to Lithium Kay Redfield Jamison’s An Unquiet Mind |
|
Mon, July 18 |
Final Class |
Discussion, Review, Publication Conversation |
Ashna Ali is a queer, agender, disabled, and diasporic Bangladeshi poet, writer, researcher, and educator raised in Italy and based in Brooklyn. They are the author of the chapbook, The Relativity of Living Well (The Operating System, 2022), and their poetry has been published in several journals including Zoeglossia, Nat. Brut., Sun Dog Lit, Kajal Mag, Breadcrumbs Mag, among others. They hold a PhD in Comparative Literature from The Graduate Center, CUNY, teach workshops with Liminal Lab, and teach in Bard College’s Young Writers Workshop summer program. www.ashnaali.com / IG & Twitter: @doctordushtu
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.
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Compare the below to the cost for a similar accredited workshop in a university setting (where most of the $$$ goes to institutional bloat): $1250 — 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.
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At a standard “Market Rate,” at arts orgs: $350*
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Recommended Sliding Scale: $30-60/session → $180-360 for the series
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Precarity Pricing: $10-20/session
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Barter / Volunteer / No Cost Option Available
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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.
REGISTER FOR THIS WORKSHOP TODAY! CLICK THIS LINK TO SIGN UP NOW
hey friend, did you know? you can also click here to support low or no cost participation for others!** (or to become a member, supporting all OS/LL projects and programs!)
