Seminar Winter Semester 2020/2021
MA Kunst Im Context, Universität der Künste Berlin
Thursdays from 10:00 to 12:00 CET
Classroom: upon request
Class materials: upon request
Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1tqtQyglvJfaTsaJwSJ8hW?si=aYaUjCDFTRy5W0TiWK6Ebw
Podcast playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/33pD0U4rxYbDD4eXPN5ZhN?si=7sYULvG1Q6WYDEtn0xQ_EA
Description
Suffering is one of the most fundamental products of coloniality. Within a system designed to establish a hierarchy of subjectivities and enact violent exploitation, the grip of this suffering might at times seem inescapable. Resistance, however, has always flourished; even in the most difficult circumstances, those living at the margins of the colonial world have learned the skills to continuously create new, more joyful futures.
In this course, we will explore the concept of joy as a powerful facet of anticolonial struggle through an engagement with works in art, literature, and music. The semester will be divided into four modules: pleasure/sensuality; body/movement; rest/refusal; and connection/commonality.
Class Code of Ethics
Although this will not be our focus this semester, during our classes we might sometimes touch upon topics related to gendered and racialized violence, which I understand might be triggering for some of you. Please, be aware of that, and let me know if you need to take a breath and a break.
As this is an online class, I will try to include breaks for stretching and going to the bathroom in our sessions. Many of us are now spending our days circulating within a very limited space, and it’s important to be aware of the needs of our bodies. Feel free to join the class in whichever way feels safer and most comfortable to you — snacking, drinking and so on are perfectly ok!
This classroom strives to be a safer space where all students can feel comfortable enough to learn in their own rhythm. This means that racist, sexist, xenophobic, transphobic comments will not be tolerated. Feel free to let me know what is your preferred pronoun; you can write it on your screen name for easy reference.
We are living through extraordinarily difficult times. This course was conceived not only as a theoretical or academic exploration, but also as a space for processing what is happening in the world around us; a way of finding the joy, hope, and community to keep us all afloat. Be kind to yourself and to each other; there is no need for guilt if you don’t manage to read everything in detail before class each week. The theory videos and all the reading material will stay online, so you can work through our class topics at your own pace. Keep your physical and mental health as your top priority.
Week 1 — November 5 2020
Introductions.
Discussion on conditions for study, access to resources, and how to maintain a safe classroom during a pandemic. Distribution of papers/books, access to libraries and online learning platforms. Overviews on structure of the course, suggestions and requests; how to engage with academic writing.
Week 2 — November 12 2020
Decoloniality, Playfulness, Knowledge, and World-Traveling.
Introduction to decolonial thinking. Emotion in research; playfulness and context; history, knowledge, and narrative.
Weekly texts:
LeGuin, Ursula K. “Sur.” In The Compass Rose: Stories, Reissue edition. New York: Harper Perennial, 2005.
Lugones, María. “Playfulness, ‘World’-Travelling, and Loving Perception.” Hypatia 2, no. 2 (1987): 3–19.
Music:
Não Deixe o Samba Morrer — Alcione; Yo Me Llamo Cumbia — Totó La Momposina
Week 3 — November 19 2020
Module I | Pleasure and Sensuality | Erotics, Pleasure, and Sustaining Movements.
The concept of the erotic and the politics of pleasure. Beyond Cartesian dualism and mentalities of scarcity and survival. Erotic as episteme, pleasure as ontology, power as political dimension.
Weekly texts:
brown, adrienne maree, ed. “Introduction.” In Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, Later Printing Edition.,
Lorde, Audre. “The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power.” In Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, edited by adrienne maree brown, Later Printing Edition., 27–35. Chico, CA: AK Press, 2019.
Music:
Chuva, Suor e Cerveja — Caetano Veloso; Pra Fuder — Elza Soares; Fuego — Bomba Estéreo.
Week 4 — November 26 2020
Module I | Pleasure and Sensuality | Food, Affect, and Sensing Worlds
Food justice, rebellion, and sovereignty. Memory, affect, sensuality and pleasure as forms of resistance. The Black Panther Party, Zapatista Liberation Front, Movimento Sem Terra.
Weekly texts:
The Dr Huey P. Newton Foundation. “Free Breakfast for Schoolchildren Program.” In The Black Panther Party: Service to the People Programs, edited by David Hilliard. UNM Press, 2010.
———. “Free Food Program.” In The Black Panther Party: Service to the People Programs, edited by David Hilliard. UNM Press, 2010.
Goffe, Tao Leigh. “Kitchen Marronage: A Genealogy of Jerk.” THE FUNAMBULIST MAGAZINE, October 2020. https://thefunambulist.net/articles.
Music:
Senegal Fast Food — Amadou and Mariam; Feijoada Completa — Chico Buarque; Jollof on the Jet — Cuppy, Rema, Rayvanny; Groundnut — Duval Timothy, Twin Shadow; Cookout — Serena Isioma.
Week 5 — December 3 2020
Module I | Pleasure and Sensuality | The Pleasure of Creation: Border Arte, Healing, and Queer Desire.
Border arte; queer desire; art, spirituality, and healing.
Weekly texts:
Anzaldúa, Gloria. “Border Arte.” In Light in the Dark/Luz En Lo Oscuro: Rewriting Identity, Spirituality, Reality, edited by AnaLouise Keating, Illustrated Edition., 23–41. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press Books, 2015.
cárdenas, micha. “Beyond Trans Desire.” In Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, edited by adrienne maree brown, Later Printing Edition., 1–18. Chico, CA: AK Press, 2019.
Music:
True Trans Soul Rebel — Against Me!; Together Is A Beautiful Place To Be — Nubya Garcia.
Week 6 — December 10 2020
Module II | Body/Movement | The Body as Witness, the Body as Map
Movement as literacy; the joy of ritual and dance; corpo-literacy and corpo-epistemology; mapping the self.
Weekly texts:
Anzaldúa, Gloria. “Geographies of Selves — Reimagining Identities.” In Light in the Dark/Luz En Lo Oscuro: Rewriting Identity, Spirituality, Reality, edited by AnaLouise Keating, Illustrated Edition., 1–8. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press Books, 2015.
Ndikung, Bonaventure Soh Bejeng. “Corpoliteracy — Envisaging the Body as Slate, Sponge, and Witness.” In IN A WHILE OR TWO WE WILL FIND THE TONE: Essays and Proposals, Curatorial Concepts, and Critiques. ARCHIVE BOOKS, 2020.
Music:
Yo Me Llamo Cumbia — Totó La Momposina; Exaltação à Mangueira — Jamelão; Journey in Satchidananda — Alice Coltrane; Life is a Dance — Chaka Khan.
Week 7 — December 17 2020
Module II | Body/Movement | Rehearsing Revolution and the Joy of Not Giving A F*ck
Non-normative bodies, movement, architecture; interstitial spaces and the body as archive; protests as dance and the making of futurities.
Videos:
Arakawa & Gins: Reversible Destiny Lofts virtual tour — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EBTCoa4CMw
Teto Preto — Gasolina: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0XzDN-Gv3A
Farah Saleh — Brexit means Brexit!: https://vimeo.com/258580617
Weekly texts:
Hernandez, Suguey. “Working the Pole: A Conversation with Suguey Hernandez.” In Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, edited by adrienne maree brown, Later Printing Edition., 1–18. Chico, CA: AK Press, 2019.
Osato, Michi, and Una Osato. “Burlesque and Liberation.” In Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, edited by adrienne maree brown, Later Printing Edition., 1–18. Chico, CA: AK Press, 2019.
Saleh, Farah, and Adrienne Hart. “Making Gestures: A Conversation About Dance, Bodies, Space, and Anti-Ableism.” THE FUNAMBULIST MAGAZINE, September-October 2018. https://thefunambulist.net/articles.
Music:
Gloria Groove — Bumbum de Ouro; Tombei — Karol Conka; Move! — Batuk; Give Up The Funk — Parliament.
Week 8 — January 7 2021
Module II | Body/Movement | Joy is a Place: On Moving Collectively Through the World
Migration, presence, and anti-colonial resistance; indigenous solidarity.
Weekly texts:
Gréki, Anna. “The Future Is for Tomorrow.” In The Heinemann Book of African Women’s Poetry, edited by Stella P. Chipasula. Pearson Education, 1995.
Kimmerer, Robin Wall. “In the Footsteps of Nanabozho: Becoming Indigenous to Place.” In Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, 2015. https://www.amazon.com/Braiding-Sweetgrass-Indigenous-Scientific-Knowledge/dp/1571313567.
Raja, Nadya, and Omar Zahzah. “The Scarred Land: Settler Imprints and Indigenous Futures.” THE FUNAMBULIST MAGAZINE, December 2018. https://thefunambulist.net/articles.
Music:
Border Girl — Young Fathers; A Wall — Downtown Boys; Electric Pow Wow Drum — A Tribe Called Red.
Week 9 — January 14 2021
Module III | Rest/Refusal | We Demand The Right To Opacity
Opacity as anticolonial resistance in text and art.
Weekly Texts:
Glissant, Édouard. “For Opacity.” In Poetics of Relation, translated by Betsy Wing. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997.
Pinkrah, Nelly Y. “The Digital Has Been Around for a While.” Contemporary And, July 2020. https://www.contemporaryand.com/magazines/the-digital-has-been-around-for-a-while/
Music:
Final Form — Sampa The Great; Never Change — Obongjayar.
Week 10 — January 21 2021
Module III | Rest/Refusal | We All Need A Break: Striking and Occupation as Anticolonial Resistance
Striking and collective refusals to capitalist exploitation; school occupations in Latin America/Abya Yala; refusing scarce justice.
Weekly Texts:
Chedid, Andrée. “For Survival.” In The Heinemann Book of African Women’s Poetry, edited by Stella P. Chipasula. Pearson Education, 1995.
Glissant, Édouard. “Errantry, Exile.” In Poetics of Relation, translated by Betsy Wing. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997.
Goulart, Debora Cristina, Fernando L. Cássio, and Salomão Barros Ximenes. “School Occupations, Knowledge Production and New Strategies in Defence of Public Education in Brazil.” International Education Journal: Comparative Perspectives 18, no. 1 (April 3, 2019): 34–47.
Videos:
Short explainer about the school occupations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvnOSSQWguQ
Detained students sing for the end of the military police: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWG0y0sA93I
Occupation funk (with English subtitles!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WOdmwfT5Q8
Armand Hammer -- Charms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yPZwezd-w8
Music:
Exú nas Escolas — Elza Soares; Attitude — Bad Brains.
Week 11 — January 28 2021
Module III | Rest/Refusal | Love as Defiance
Love as decolonial refusal, love as defiance; rest as revolutionary practice; self-care and survival.
Weekly texts:
Ndikung, Bonaventure Soh Bejeng. “Defiance in/as Radical Love. Soliciting Friction Zones and Healing Spaces.” In IN A WHILE OR TWO WE WILL FIND THE TONE: Essays and Proposals, Curatorial Concepts, and Critiques. ARCHIVE BOOKS, 2020.
Podcast:
Tricia Hersey (The Nap Ministry) on Rest as Resistance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKRwRcMvu_o
Music:
Creole — Charlie Hunter, Mos Def; Te Quiero Con Bugalú — iLe; Canção Pra Ninar Oxum — Juçara Marçal.
Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln “Tryptich: Prayer, Protest, Peace” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTeacoeAm9o
Week 12 — February 4 2021
Module IV | Connection/Commonality | Resistance and Anticolonial Solidarities
Transnational solidarities; community articulations within occupied land.
Weekly texts:
Davis, Angela Y. “Transnational Solidarities.” In Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement. Haymarket Books, 2016.
Estes, Nick. “Freedom Is A Place: Long Traditions of Anticolonial Resistance in Turtle Island.” THE FUNAMBULIST MAGAZINE, November-December 2018. https://thefunambulist.net/articles.
Ferreira da Silva, Denise. “Mapping Pan-Africanism Onto Blackness: The Continent, The Diaspora, And Beyond.” THE FUNAMBULIST MAGAZINE, November-December 2020. https://thefunambulist.net/articles.
Video:
Danças (2021) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoCPuuvhbdQ
Music:
R.E.D. — A Tribe Called Red, Yasiin Bey, Narcy, Black Bear; El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido — Inti-Illimani.
Week 13 — February 11 2021
Module IV | Connection/Commonality | Listening to the Whispers of the World
Human and non-human relations; learning the language of other beings.
Weekly texts:
Kimmerer, Robin Wall. “Skywoman Falling.” In Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, 2015. https://www.amazon.com/Braiding-Sweetgrass-Indigenous-Scientific-Knowledge/dp/1571313567.
Kimmerer, Robin Wall. “Learning the Grammar of Animacy.” In Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, 2015. https://www.amazon.com/Braiding-Sweetgrass-Indigenous-Scientific-Knowledge/dp/1571313567.
Music:
Canta Minha Terra — Batuk, Annet Nandujja; O Mar Serenou — Clara Nunes.