We’re honored to host prominent local and national voices at our upcoming Oakland Summer School events. All events are free and open to the public, and we encourage you to share this schedule with your friends! Please note that all events are hosted online using Zoom and space is limited, so please only register for events you actually plan to attend. For questions on accessibility, press inquiries, or any other questions, please email oaklandsummerschool@gmail.com.
Mobile users: Our schedule is organized using tabs. To see each weekend’s events, click the tabs at the bottom of the schedule.
Margit Galanter – New Landing Session
Saturday, November 7th, 3:00 – 6:00pm
This is a space for landing, with self and together. As we have been facing myriad devastations and consequent uprisings, how can a practice of embodiment and receptivity with our surroundings provide a key for just actions in this time? In this virtual workshop, through moving, writing, dialogue, quietude, and time each on our own outside, we will practice living communication with ourselves, the environment, and one another. A place for subtle explorations in liberation, for reinvisioning the somatic experience, for unsettling colonialism, and for finding rooted connections with planet earth.
Monica Mody – Kabir: Mystical Poetry and Hermeneutics
Saturday, November 7th, 7:00 – 8:00pm
This is a talk on Kabir, iconoclastic mystic poet from 15th century India, whose teachings critiqued both religious boundaries and caste hierarchies and continue to resonate for contemporary anti-caste activists. The presentation will explore Kabir’s poetry and influences, different traditions of Kabir, and the challenges of translating him today. A mystical hermeneutics will orient us to the transgressive and transformational dimensions of Kabir’s words and teachings.
Fred Moten and Stefano Harney in Conversation with Chika Okoye and Akande X
Sunday, November 8th, 12:00 – 1:30pm
Join the Oakland Summer School for an afternoon discussion with professors Fred Moten and Stephano Harney on the university, politics, and the undercommons. This discussion will be moderated by Chika Okoye and Akande X.
Keith McHenry – Mutual Aid in the Time of COVID
Sunday, November 8th, 4:00 – 5:00pm
Artist and author Keith McHenry helped start Food Not Bombs in 1980. Using his knowledge from the Food Not Bombs movement, Keith will discuss how people are pulling together and ensuring those left on our streets have food, water and survival gear as the number of unhoused people continues to grow.
The Oakland Summer School is excited to host study groups on a range of political, literary, social, and cultural topics this November. Each study group is free to attend and will meet virtually four times during the month.
Please make a commitment to attend all four sessions of each study group you sign up for. Spaces are limited and we want as many folks as possible to participate, so please sign up for no more than two groups. We will be in touch shortly to confirm your space and send login information and additional details.
Tara Marsden – Decolonization is Not a Metaphor (Mondays 11.9, 11.16, 11.23, 11.30, 6:00 – 7:30pm)
A study group for (diaspora POC) settlers wishing to critically engage with the real political implications of decolonization in the so-called United States. Texts might include: “Decolonization is not a metaphor” by E. Tuck & K.W. Yang, plus excerpts from The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, and more.
Registration for Fall 2020 study groups is now closed. If you’re interested in participating in future study groups, be sure to join our mailing list and follow us on instagram so you can be the first to know.
We could use your help!
Contribute to Oakland Summer School as a volunteer by filling out this form.
THANK YOU for the generous support from Wolfman Books, Pro Arts Gallery, Tamarack, Beauty Supply Arts, The Bookmark, CTRL+SHFT, Calvin Rocchio and Lexi Visco, Kalahati Press, and Southern Exposure! And for the time and energy of all our facilitators, teachers, speakers, and performers.
ACCESSIBILITY varies by venue, but not all spaces are accessible for all needs. The signup form has a place to indicate your access needs, and we’ll do our best to help meet them where possible. Please help us to create a low-scent environment by refraining from wearing heavily scented products (perfumes, strongly scented soaps or deodorants, and so on).