On Wednesday, 13 February, at 6 pm, Six chairs books and guest-host Monika Kalinauskaitė will run its TWELFTH Open Reading Group – Clap when you want to! – which is an invitation to read ahead, collectively discuss and support dear bodies of women, of the earthly and the technological, and seek the joy of learning the planetary together. The readings of this session – TEENAGE HEARTBAG – will revolve around teenagers, hearts, intensity, lies of parents and lies told to parents, and other lessons of being feverish.
Teens live in collages – in worlds of posters, influences, principles and accessories, in their speedy planets, thick tears, texting apps, misdemeanors, tribes. It seems as if they don’t sense temperature at all – only heartbeats and concerns, sounds and colors, and their own sharpened, activated bodies. As we stop hanging around, running away from home and pissing in the bushes, we like to presume we grew up. And yet, we are hit with unstable income, nothing for granted, unsolvable inequalities and our own unarticulated emotional potential. Don’t you ever want to re-learn how to chew gum, desire to touch and hate authorities?
In this group we will test annoyance, naivety, love notes and the limits of mutable personality. We live in a society which emphasizes childhood, its importance and innocence, classifying maturing bodies as it sees fit – as rightless babes or proto-grownups, especially when it concerns matters related to young women or fluid gender. So, we ask: what are the modes of inner radicalism which are being neutralized in this way? How can we empower a mutating voice? What do we need to learn from those we are supposed to be constantly moralizing – and how can we confront precarity and oppression through sass, sincerity and provocative love.
Materials are in both Lithuanian and English. Conversations might swing between the languages depending on participants’ mood and preferences.
TO SIGN-UP AND RECEIVE MATERIALS, please write to info@sixchairsbooks.lt; space is very very limited, but, if necessary, we can move around the KAH building.
The session will take place at the bookstore (Kauno Menininkų Namai / V. Putvinskio 56, Kaunas) from 6 to 8 pm. It is free and fresh beverages are provided.
CLAP IF YOU WANT TO!