Next meeting: June 26th, 2:30pm

To become a member email davergar@uncg.edu

Summary:

Situating text and self is a book club that will coalesce during the summer of 2017. This is an experimental educational project that engages with text on gender and sexuality and responding to the material through critical thinking, debating, writing, and performance or object making. Furthermore, the book club will locate and reimagine text found in various establishments in Greensboro, NC. The purpose of this project is to understand how knowledge offered in texts, found in establishments in Greensboro, NC, relate/or dismiss their own understandings. At the core, this project is a critique of knowledge production. Constituents will produce creative responses based on assign readings, bookstore visits, and personal knowledge. Depending on the outcomes of this project the work will be shown in a gallery space, hung in the establishments where the text was found or made into a book/s.

Membership:

This is a two month project that requires participants to engage in reading, discussion, art making, and critiques. We will visit a different book store every two weeks, and in between that time we will discuss assign readings and critique each other’s creative responses. Each member is expected to show up in timely fashion for all meetings.

Reading Guide lines:

Essay:

A reading will be assign every two weeks, which will guide our book search when visiting particular bookstores. Readings will be distributed at the beginning of the week. We will meet again at the end of the week at particular bookstore/library to discuss the reading

Leafing:

After discussing the assigned reading, you will survey books in the store/library that relate to that week’s reading. Keep in mind how the theme in the assign reading relates to you when surveying books. To do this leaf through books whose title connects to what you are looking for. To go over books quickly you will want to read through the table of context first, read bolded text, skim over to find keywords, read conclusions, and spend no more than 2 minutes with each book. Once you have found a few books that relate to you, pick them back up and read the sections you found interesting. Most likely, you will not be able to take the book with you, unless you buy it, so take pictures with your/friends phone of a chapter so that you can read at home.

Store visit guidelines:

We will meet inside the store for book discussions. After discussions we will disperse inside the bookstore to locate books, then meet shortly to discuss our findings. Our critiques and observations can also extend to architectural and interpersonal experience within the site. Write down notes on how the space makes you feel. For example, take note on your navigation through the space, surveillance, placement of books, smells, lighting, workers, and interpersonal communication.

Critiques:

The purpose for critiquing the work we make is to help each other work through creative problems. In other words, critiques will be mainly constructive. However, there will be space to challenge theoretical and conceptual nature of works. We will be using Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process.

Showings:

TBA

Calendar:

June:

Week I (1-4):
-June 4th: Reading & Introduction at GPS

Week II (5-11):
-Meeting at Glenwood Coffee and Books

Week III (12-18) -Critique/WorkShop (TBA)

Week VI (19-25)
-Collect reading at GPS

-Meeting at Edmckay Week V (26-2)

-Critique/WorkShop at GPS

July:

Week VI (3-9)
-Collect reading at GPS

-Meeting at Barnes & Nobles (friendly center)

Week VII (10-16) -Critique/WorkShop at GPS

Week VIII (17-23)

-Collect reading at GPS

-Meeting at UNCG Library Week IX (24-30)

-Critique/WorkShop at GPS

August:

Week X (31-6) Working days

Week XI (7-14)
Show/Mag Distribution/ Object Placement/Happening