“Only by multiplying our circles of care will we achieve the infrastructures necessary to build a caring society.”

(The Care Collective, 2020)

From the Hearth, is a six-part poetry and spoken word workshop series, that expands our circles of care to embrace the journeys, stories and connections we share as humans. We guide both new and experienced poets through the art of storytelling and finding an individual voice that celebrates collective memory and belonging. We discuss why our stories are important, do exercises in expression and inspiration and think about community and collaboration. This series is facilitated by Billie the Kid who is a K’ai Taile Dené and Nehiyaw spoken word poet and storyteller. 

The series covers themes such as 1. Why our stories are important, 2. What is a story?,  3. The Poet’s Toolkit, 4. The responsibility of the Storyteller, 5. Home and Inspiration and culminates with 6. Community and Collaboration.

All are welcome and no experience is required. Participants can register for individual workshops, or join the full series.

“Only by multiplying our circles of care will we achieve the infrastructures necessary to build a caring society.”

(The Care Collective, 2020)

From the Hearth, is a six-part poetry and spoken word workshop series, that expands our circles of care to embrace the journeys, stories and connections we share as humans. We guide both new and experienced poets through the art of storytelling and finding an individual voice that celebrates collective memory and belonging. We discuss why our stories are important, do exercises in expression and inspiration and think about community and collaboration. This series is facilitated by Billie the Kid who is a K’ai Taile Dené and Nehiyaw spoken word poet and storyteller. 

The series covers themes such as 1. Why our stories are important, 2. What is a story?,  3. The Poet’s Toolkit, 4. The responsibility of the Storyteller, 5. Home and Inspiration and culminates with 6. Community and Collaboration.

All are welcome and no experience is required. Participants can register for individual workshops, or join the full series.

“Only by multiplying our circles of care will we achieve the infrastructures necessary to build a caring society.”

(The Care Collective, 2020)

From the Hearth, is a six-part poetry and spoken word workshop series, that expands our circles of care to embrace the journeys, stories and connections we share as humans. We guide both new and experienced poets through the art of storytelling and finding an individual voice that celebrates collective memory and belonging. We discuss why our stories are important, do exercises in expression and inspiration and think about community and collaboration. This series is facilitated by Billie the Kid who is a K’ai Taile Dené and Nehiyaw spoken word poet and storyteller. 

The series covers themes such as 1. Why our stories are important, 2. What is a story?,  3. The Poet’s Toolkit, 4. The responsibility of the Storyteller, 5. Home and Inspiration and culminates with 6. Community and Collaboration.

All are welcome and no experience is required. Participants can register for individual workshops, or join the full series.

AGNES Program: Open Secret features artists Parastoo Anoushahpour (19 + 20 January), Kriss Li (9 + 10 February), Sharlene Bamboat (9 + 10 March) and Sofía Gallisá Muriente (5 + 6 April). The series of screenings and workshops take its departure from Fred Moten’s words that “poetry investigates new ways for people to get together and do stuff in the open, in secret,” and evokes cinema’s capacity to condition spaces for gathering. The double maneuver of opacity and transparency inherent in cinema’s making sets the precedent for this sort of investigation embedded in collaboration. 

Sofía Gallisá Muriente is an artist whose research-based practice resists colonial erasures and claims the freedom of historical agency, proposing mechanisms for remembering and reimagining.

SCREENINGS:

Celaje  (2020) oscillates between intimate chronicle, dream and historical document. Combining images in Super 8 and 16mm, hand development techniques and original music by José Iván Lebrón Moreira, the piece weaves together an elegy to the death of the commonwealth project of Puerto Rico and the catastrophic times we survive. 

The Envoy “explores the legacy of colonialism with contemplative nuance, through lingering shots of the onetime home of Rexford Tugwell, an American economist who was appointed the governor of Puerto Rico by F.D.R., in 1941. The elegant, modernist residence is now listed on Airbnb.” (The New Yorker)

AGNES Program: Open Secret features artists Parastoo Anoushahpour (19 + 20 January), Kriss Li (9 + 10 February), Sharlene Bamboat (9 + 10 March) and Sofía Gallisá Muriente (6 + 7 April). The series of screenings and workshops take its departure from Fred Moten’s words that “poetry investigates new ways for people to get together and do stuff in the open, in secret,” and evokes cinema’s capacity to condition spaces for gathering. The double maneuver of opacity and transparency inherent in cinema’s making sets the precedent for this sort of investigation embedded in collaboration. 

Kriss Li is a multimedia artist who creates films, installations, and conceptual projects that explore structures of power. These works investigate the foundational divisions and hierarchies that maintain our social order—the ways these systems condition us in spite of our intentions, and the hidden sites of possibility that we can exploit towards greater collective capacities. Kriss’s artistic practice is informed by extensive engagement with community organizing, especially at Prisoner Correspondence Project, a volunteer-run solidarity initiative for LGBTQ prisoners. Their work has been shown globally, including screenings at DOC NYC (USA), International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (Germany), Vancouver International Film Festival (Canada), and Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival (Germany).

This program features an artist talk and screenings of select short films by Li.