Radical Pedagogies: Radical Love

Sunday, July 28th (3-5 p.m.)
 
Compound Yellow
244 Lake St.
Oak Park, IL  60302
 
free and open to the public, all ages

above: Umesiyakazi in Waiting by Athi Patra-Ruga. Photo by Hayden Phipps

You're invited to come to the July 2019 edition of the Radical Pedagogies series -- "Radical Love," led by Samina Hadi-Tabassum. In our session, we will talk about Radical Love, an art exhibition in New York City hosted by the Ford Foundation Gallery. The question that will be posed throughout the session is whether love can conquer all and whether we can offer love as an answer to a world in peril.

Radical Love is the second in a trilogy of exhibitions curated by Jaishri Abichandani and Natasha Becker. Through the theme of Utopian Imagination, the three exhibitions in the gallery's inaugural year create a trajectory toward a more just future. The first exhibition, Perilous Bodies (March 4 - May 11, 2019), examined injustice through the intersecting lens of violence, race, gender, ethnicity, and class. Radical Love responds to the first show by offering love as the answer to a world in peril.

Love, in the context of this exhibition, is defined by a commitment to the spiritual growth and interconnectedness of the individual, their community, and stewardship of the planet. Guided by the powerful words of bell hooks, “Were we all seeing more images of loving human interaction, it would undoubtedly have a positive impact on our lives.”

The works in Radical Love are grounded in ideas of devotion, abundance, and beauty; here, otherness and marginality is celebrated, adorned, and revered. Featured artists offer work that is deeply rooted in their love for their own communities and of humanity: Faith Ringgold’s soft sculptures from the 1970s, depicting everyday black folks; Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt’s glitzy installation of the complex intersections of sexuality, class, and religion; artists Lina Iris Viktor, La Vaughn Belle and Jeannette Ehlers, Omar Victor Diop, Bradley McCallum & Jacqueline Tarry make visible ordinary and extraordinary acts of human agency. Employing everything in their arsenal, they create enchanting works that transform disabled, black, brown, indigenous, and queer subjects into protagonists of new narratives of love and redemption.

We will ask you to explore the exhibit online and watch specific videos before coming to the session.

Samina Hadi-Tabassum is an associate professor at Erikson Institute in Chicago. Her first book of poems, Muslim Melancholia (2017), was published by Red Mountain Press. She has published poems in East Lit Journal, Soul-Lit, Journal of Postcolonial Literature, Papercuts, The Waggle, Indian Review, Classical Poets, Mosaic, Main Street Rag, Connecticut River Review, Pilgrimage Literary Journal, riksha, Clockhouse, The Canopy Review, and Souvenir. Her poems were performed on stage as a part of the Kundiman Foundation and Emotive Fruition event focusing on Asian American poetry. Recently she was named a semi-finalist for the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award in Chicago.

This program is part of the Radical Pedagogies series, which happens at Compound Yellow on the fourth Sunday of the month. This series is co-presented by Borderbend and Compound Yellow.