Monday — Words Matter — a workshop with Clare O’Connor and AK Thompson
Comments Off on Monday — Words Matter — a workshop with Clare O’Connor and AK ThompsonMonday — 06.02.14 — Words Matter — a workshop with Clare O’Connor and
AK Thompson
CONTENTS:
0. About Monday
1. On Keywords for Radicals
2. About Clare & AK
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PLEASE NOTE:
A fire took place on the ground
floor of our building last month. We
are still being cautious and limited
with what we are organizing in the
space.
We have been told that things are ok
and our floor can be occupied, but
since we are not sure, we write this as
a courtesy especially for those with any prior
lung condition, asthma, or sensitivity.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
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0. About Monday
What: Workshop
When: Monday, June 2, 7:00PM
Where: 16 Beaver Street, 4th floor
Who: Free and open to all
As follow up to the conversation with Silvia, George, and AK Thompson in
the spring and our evening of poetry with Maria Salgado a few weeks ago,
we would like to invite you to a workshop with Clare O’Connor and AK
Thompson.
The question of language, terminology, the words we use and what meanings
we attribute to them remain a critical part of contemporary struggles. We
follow this thread further this week with Clare and AK, delving into an
attempt on their part to revisit the gesture of Raymond Williams decades
ago to compile and investigate the histories of certain ‘keywords’ within
political, cultural, and social thought. How to think this gesture from a
contemporary vantage point? And how to think of this kind of investigation
in the context of our own inquiries and efforts these last years.
Clare and AK have been working on a version of ‘Keywords’ for radicals ,
more on this below. We hope to see you.
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1. On Keywords for Radicals
Keywords for Radicals Workshop and Discussion
With Clare O’Connor and AK Thompson
In Keywords (1976), Raymond Williams devised an indispensable “vocabulary”
of culture and society that reflected the vast social transformations
marking the post-war period. Following Williams, we ask: what vocabulary
might illuminate the social transformations that have marked our own era
and help to reveal the contradictions inherent in the cultural logic of
late capitalism? Moreover, how do these words shape the political
imaginary of today’s radical left?
In this informal presentation and brainstorming session, Editors of the
forthcoming Keywords for Radicals: A Late-Capitalist Vocabulary of Culture
and Society Clare O’Connor and AK Thompson will describe their project’s
objectives and review some of the contested keywords that make up the
vocabulary of contemporary radicals—including “agency,” “accountability,”
“community,” and “revolution.”
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2. About Clare & AK
Clare O’Connor is a Los Angeles-based writer, activist, and musician. She
is former Coordinator of the Ontario Public Interest Research Group
(Toronto), former Editor-in-Chief of the Ryerson Free Press, and
co-founder of the activist training project Tools for Change. Her
publications include the chapter “What Moves Us Now? The Contradictions of
‘Community'” in Whose Streets? The Toronto G20 and the Challenges of
Summit Protest (Between The Lines Press, 2011) and contributions to
Briarpatch Magazine. Between 2008 and 2012, she served on the Editorial
Committee of Upping The Anti: A Journal of Theory and Action.
AK Thompson got kicked out of high school in 1992 for publishing an
underground newspaper called The Agitator and has been an activist,
writer, and award-winning social theorist ever since. Regularly featured
as a speaker in both movement and scholarly settings, he has taught at the
CUNY Graduate Center, York University, and the University of Guelph.
Currently preparing a new monograph on Walter Benjamin, social movements,
and art, his publications include Black Bloc, White Riot:
Anti-Globalization and the Genealogy of Dissent (2010) and Sociology for
Changing the World: Social Movements/Social Research (2006). Between 2005
and 2012, he served on the Editorial Committee of Upping The Anti: A
Journal of Theory and Action.