Autumn is on the horizon! We love this time of year, as it feels very chimeric. Transformations abound as humans and nonhumans alike adapt to changing conditions and prepare for the winter. And while we love these months for the cozy sweaters, fall foliage, and seasonal cheer, we also love it for its messy and frantic energy. Spare us the sanitized anthropocentric narrative of a Christian Girl Autumn. Instead, we’re burying our own nuts for winter, becoming creatures and cyborgs and spending our days poking around in trash piles and abandoned lots. Call it Chimeric Girl Autumn (in a chic gender neutral kind of way). Hope you’ll join us!
This fall, we’re continuing our explorations of the chimeric borderlands within us and within our city, with two classes and a series of gatherings. More info below!
Join us! As NYC changes, so do each of us. Explore these changes in yourself and in your home as we think with these four nonhuman neighbors:
Each meeting will take place in Prospect Park (with a visit to a nearby venue to warm up, in the colder months). Come for ancient stories, playful movement exercises, and deep attention to the urban ecology of our city. Hope to see you there!
For writer Donna Haraway, “the difference between machine and organism is thoroughly blurred; mind, body, and tool are on very intimate terms.” We agree! In honor of the 40th anniversary of her iconic text, A Cyborg Manifesto, Kyle’s teaching a class that will take us on a journey of close analysis as well as application to contemporary life. How can the cyborg guide us to better understand the growth of AI, the deployment of high-tech tools by ICE, platformized labor, and more?
Five sessions will take place in Prospect Park on Tuesdays from 6-8pm, September 23 - October 21. Base rate of $300, with scholarship and drop-in spots available. Apply here by September 12!
What is New York City without its beloved – and reviled – creatures? In this course, we attend to the lives of rats, pigeons, and cockroaches, inviting participants to reconsider their relationship with NYC’s wildlife through embodied attention practices of disgust, emulation, and fascination. Participants will attune to the secret lives of NYC creatures through full-body experiences, field observations, and discussions of readings. Each session focuses on the cultural history and ecological role of different vermin, culminating in co-created rituals for our urban neighbors.
We’re returning to again explore disgust and wonder when it comes to NYC’s vermin. This time, we’re teaching with the School of Making Thinking, at Abrons Art Center in the Lower East Side. Four sessions will be on Thursdays from 6-8pm, October 16 - November 6. Tiered Pricing: $45, $120, $220, or $320 + $30 registration fee. Sign up here by October 16!
We hope to see you in the wilds of NYC for some of these offerings this fall – and will be sharing more chances to engage with the chimeric spirit, too. As always, don’t hesitate to reach out if you have an idea, gathering, class, or other collaboration you’d like to explore with us :)
