Joint book event and conversation with I. Augustus Durham celebrating Wrong is Not My Name and Stay Black and Die

Join us for a conversation at Smack Mellon between Erica N. Cardwell and artists Miatta Kawinzi and Madjeen Isaac on the occasion of their solo exhibitions. The conversation will explore the overlapping themes of home, diaspora, and inheritance excavated within each artists’ respective practices and exhibitions.

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FEMINIST GIANT and The Strand Book Store’s feminist book club returns in May after a hiatus and I am thrilled to announce that I’ll be conversation with writer and educator Erica Cardwell for a discussion of her new book Wrong Is Not My Name: Notes on (Black) Art.

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A celebration in honor of the publication of Dreaming of Ramada in Detroit and Wrong is Not My Name

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A reunion gathering with the Freedom Scholars at the New School and the Civic Engagement and Social Justice program on occasion of the publication of my book.

Evergreen Brick Works presents a summer evening reading on the trails in Don Valley Brick Works Park, featuring writers Erica N. Cardwell, Phillip Dwight Morgan and Jacqueline L. Scott. Centred on narratives of memory, migration and belonging from the Black diaspora, the authors will read from new and recent works in the ravine that surrounds Roots (2021–2022), a large-scale, outdoor photographic installation by Toronto-based artist Sandra Brewster. Situated at the back of the Brick Works site, Brewster’s images document the area’s plant life and explore the long history of Black presence in the urban wilderness.

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In this panel discussion, local contributors will discuss the impacts of the toxic drug supply, criminalization, and stigma across varied contexts in the GTHA: Brianna Olson-Pitawanakwat of Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction describes her experience working in parks and shelters; Rhiannon Carruthers shares their expertise working on safer drug use and partying with students and youth; and Carlyn Zwarenstein discusses the personal and political stakes of the overdose crisis and its connections to the proliferation of prescription opioids. Moderated by writer and educator Erica Cardwell.

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To celebrate the exhibition Projects: Ming Smith, Erica N. Cardwell moderates a panel of Gabrielle Civil, Kenturah Davis, and Shala Miller. These interdisciplinary artists will discuss Smith’s work in relation to optics/opticality, the blur, light and shadow, and (in)visibility. Each artist will select a photograph from the exhibition as an entry point for exploration of their own practice, activating and responding to the photograph with their own visual, sonic, or poetic offering. The panelists highlight the hybridity of Smith’s practice, which often explores the role of music, dance, and writing.

This program is one in a series in support of Projects: Ming Smith that seek to expand the discourse on Smith’s practice beyond existing art-historical, curatorial, and cultural-theory frameworks. In focusing on the blur, that which is just beyond the grasp of our touch and eyes, that opacity, privacy, and fugitivity characteristic of Blackness, we hope to reframe how we sense and perceive image and movement as captured through Smith’s photographic lens.

This event is a collaboration between the Studio Museum in Harlem and MoMA.

read more: https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/8718

The Poetics of Criticism invites a gathering of Black femme critics to be in conversation about the contours and nuances of contemporary arts writing at the museum. Dually inspired by the unfiltered framework of Lois Weaver’s The Long Table format and the beautifully discursive, intersectional ebbs and flows of Black feminist kitchen table sessions, the Poetics of Criticism is curious about the evolving role of the Black femme critic. Our participants begin with our audience. What questions will you ask of us? Invited guests include: Darla Migan, Jessica Lynne, Ayanna Dozier, Re’al Christian, Erica N. Cardwell, and Lee Ann Norman. Each guest will share a brief sampling of their work, as an offering to the table. Our gathering maintains that elements of critical writing that are often cast aside - curious, intuitive, experiential. Consider this a Kitchen Table session. Let’s gather and share.

EVENT REGISTRATION: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-poetics-of-criticism-tickets-469491099517

“I teach myself in outline”: Audre Lorde’s Pedagogy
April 9, 2019 - 8pm

Location: Wendy's Subway 
379 Bushwick Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11206 

“I teach myself in outline” gathers scholars, writers, and educators who have spent time in Audre Lorde's archives and gleaned from it a nuanced picture of her life as a teacher. The wealth of syllabi, lesson plans, course notes and student papers found therein offer an intimate look at this dimension of Lorde's work, which has yet to be studied in greater depth. The event will include readings from the archive as well as an interactive pedagogical activity informed by Lorde's teaching philosophy.   

This event draws from Miriam Atkin and Iemanja Brown’s recently published chapbook, “I teach myself in outline,” Notes, Journals, Syllabi & an Excerpt from Deotha, released in 2018 by the Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative. Atkin and Brown are joined in conversation by Erica Cardwell, Christina Olivares, and Conor Tomás Reed.

“I teach myself in outline”: Audre Lorde’s Pedagogy is co-sponsored by Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative and the Center for the Humanities at the Graduate Center, CUNY.

2:30-3:30pm: POC Zinemaker’s Roundtable
Lead by Pooja Desai, Aurora Diaz, Nadya Agrawal, Mehr Sharma and Erica Cardwell

All POC makers to the front. This roundtable will engage POC zinemakers and programmers in a pay it forward conversation: facilitators will introduce their community work and engage participants in the room about vehicles of support within the POC zine community. The goal is for participants to walk away having identified meaningful partnerships that lead to collaborative relationships after the zinefest. Note: This workshop is meant for POC-identifying folks only.