Thank you to all who have supported Learn as Protest these last few months. Our first reading group happened in January and our next will be March 7th at Trump Tower.
Here is the Google Document of the reading list so far. It includes the names of the readings, several Trump themed syllabi (I so rarely get to use that word) and some readings we hope to get to soon.
And now on to Collage Criticism 4 (in case you like the collage crit, here are the others ONE, TWO and THREE
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Between one exposure and the next, time passes, life goes on and the artist re-encounters his or her altered subject. The Image of Time, Teju Cole, The New York Times
Beyoncé’s verecund pose (veil and all) and obvious fecundity (fruitfully round belly) also distracts from the most striking feature of the “I Have Three Hearts” series: Beyoncé is no shrinking violet, nor a come-hither courtesan. She stares directly at you. She is in charge. Andrianna Campbell, An Art Historian’s Take on Those Beyoncé Pregnancy Photos, Pitchfork
“Baldwin modestly described himself as a witness, a watchful presence on the sidelines of tragedy and heroism, an outsider by virtue of his Northern origins, his sexuality and his alienation from the Christianity of his childhood.” A.O. Scott, Review: ‘I Am Not Your Negro’ Will Make You Rethink Race, New York Times
What I keep trying to point out, to friends, to anyone who will listen, is that too few of us are willing to acknowledge responsibility—not necessarily to accept blame, but to stand up and say, “This thing of darkness, I acknowledge mine.” Our Part In the Darkness, Rabih Alameddine, The New Yorker
“…as though the world of meaning must now be reduced to mimetic jingles: a warfare of hastag virality.” Nato Thompson, “Artists and Social Justice 2016-2020” in “What We Do Now”
A unit so generic, the band does not illustrate anything but itself. Marjorie Welish, The Hermetic and the Everyday: Dan Walsh at Paula Cooper, Artcritical
But nothing ever seems self-indulgent about these texts; each component of the book seems precisely chosen for its relevance to his underlying themes, with a strong emphasis on historical context. But the didactic or polemic or ideological is nestled in something intimate and elegiac. Mira Schor, John Berger 1926-2017, Artforum
As the deep vaults of history are made accessible to everyone via technology, the past has become an alternative present. Sadie Stein We’re Living in a Copycat Culture The New York Times
Books became the map with which I navigated this new world. Junot Diaz, NPR Interview from 2008
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– Jeff Bergman
February 2017
