The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house: queer craft theory as a central vehicle for reimagining social order

March 29, 2016
7:00 – 8:30 PM
Southern Exposure
Limited to 15 participants, register at Eventbrite (At capacity? Email C.A. Greenlee at [email protected] to be added to the waitlist and be eligible for pre-registration for future R.A.T.T. nights)

How can educators* use the classroom as a site for gender liberation? How can we create tools that challenge the intersections of oppression? How can we wield our craftwork as a central vehicle for reimagining social order in the K-12 public classroom?

This hands-on workshop lecture explores ways that qtpoc (queer and trans people of color) craftivism (craft and activism) can be wielded to produce counter-narratives of queer and trans liberation struggles. Through crafting an interactive, tactile, nonlinear timeline, participants will examine how history is often reproduced and redesigned, yet how it has the potential to be resisted and reimagined. By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to implement a project inspired by the gender transformative and qtpoc craftivist pedagogies presented.

Participants will walk away weaving stitches into the heart of these questions: What would the world look like without gender? What would the world look like if we embraced more genders than two? What are our ideas for gender liberation?

*This role is defined broadly and subjectively, and includes teachers, youth service providers, afterschool educators, art teachers, alternative school educators, art non-profit educators, and more.

Required reading/viewing:

• L.J. Roberts, "Put Your Thing Down, Flip It, and Reverse It: Reimagining Craft Identities Using Tactics of Queer Theory," in Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics
• The Pain and Empowerment of Choosing Your Own Gender: Alok Vaid-Menon (video)

Additional reading/viewing:

• José Esteban Muñoz, "Introduction: Performing Disidentifications," in Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics
• Crochet Jams
• Audre Lorde, "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House," in Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
• Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria (video)

Moe Ortañez is a Bakla/Trans Pin@y Craftivist who was raised in Daly City, California. He is continually inspired by his family of Filipino freedom fighters, migrants, day laborers, cooks, musicians, and artists. Currently, Moe is a Program Coordinator and community educator at LYRIC. Before joining LYRIC, he received 3 bachelors degrees in visual studies from California State University, Sacramento, focusing on issues of race, gender, and sexuality in contemporary art and culture. He has worked in cross-cultural education for the past six years at the PRIDE, Women’s and Multi-Cultural Centers at CSU-Sacramento, where he cultivated a consciousness for transgressive, social justice education – the practice of crafting more intentional, interdisciplinary and equitable frameworks with youth. Recently, Moe has worked in the San Francisco Unified School District with elementary and middle school youth on programs that celebrate and practice gender trans-formative learning. Moe organizes with comrades from Anakbayan East Bay, Teachers 4 Social Justice, Green Art Workshop and the GLBT History Museum. His favorite things in the world are hanging out with his little brother, bell hooks, and everything by Pedro Almodóvar.

Radical Art Theory Nights are conversations about art theory, art history, or research-based art practices that reflect on narratives of the historically marginalized. Visiting writers, curators, and artists contend with both current and canonized concerns, critically engage with texts, and lead open community discussions.

Radical Art Theory Nights are facilitated and organized by C.A. Greenlee in partnership with Southern Exposure’s Artists in Education program.