Join us on April 5 at 6 p.m. via Zoom for a discussion of adrienne maree brown's Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good moderated by Courtney Warren (BFA Curatorial Studies '21).
How do we make social justice the most pleasurable human experience? How can we awaken within ourselves desires that make it impossible to settle for anything less than a fulfilling life? Author and editor adrienne maree brown finds the answer in something she calls “pleasure activism,” a politics of healing and happiness that explodes the dour myth that changing the world is just another form of work. Drawing on the black feminist tradition, she challenges us to rethink the ground rules of activism. Her mindset-altering essays are interwoven with conversations and insights from other feminist thinkers, including Audre Lorde, Joan Morgan, Cara Page, Sonya Renee Taylor, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs. Together they cover a wide array of subjects—from sex work to climate change, from race and gender to sex and drugs—building new narratives about how politics can feel good and how what feels good always has a complex politics of its own.
Courtney Warren is a writer, curator and textile artist. She centers her practice in critical theory—with special interest in deconstruction, Lacanianism and queer theory—pleasure and justice. Warren has been a curator for the William Way Center, a podcast host and a featured writer in arts and culture publications. Warren believes it is important to recognize and assert pleasure as a human need, and Pleasure Activism is integral to her practice as a textile artist because it validates her desire to make beautiful objects and activate social change. Within her curatorial practice, the book has given her language to describe experiences and artifacts that are often dismissed as trivial or feminine, such as textiles and crafts.
Moore students—register with your Moore email address for the chance to win a FREE copy of the book!
