Feminist Duration Reading Group: Ni Una Menos – The Feminist Revolution Wants to be Happy

Tue 4 Sep, 7 - 9pm
SPACE Mare Street
Free & all open to all

The September meeting of the Feminist Duration Reading Group focuses on the international resonance of the Argentinian feminist activist movement associated with the collective Ni Una Menos [Not One Less], in a session led by Cecilia Sosa and Lidia Salvatori.

In the context of neoconservative political backlash in Argentina, a new wave of feminist activism has emerged which contests forms of misogynist culture, gender violence and growing cases of femicide. From its start in 2015 Ni Una Menos has expanded rapidly in Argentina and beyond, reaching regions in Latin America and some countries in Europe. It has an especially strong presence in Italy, where the Non Una Di Meno group has emerged.

Drawing upon both movements, the session shows how these non-normative assemblages of bodies, digital technologies and sexuality contribute to develop feminist pockets of transnational subjectivities that challenge normative politics and social bonds. In particular, the meeting explores how contemporary neoliberal forms of vulnerability and loss could act as new ways of transnational empowerment that might suggest a transition from victimisation to joy. This form of feminist activism mostly involves a particular flair for the performative, including forms of visual art, humour, which creates a special atonement of female bodies in the public sphere. Ultimately this festive surplus gives visibility to an unprecedented amalgamation of feminist power, which might become the best weapon against conservatism. The revolution wants to be happy!

Together we will read: 
- Silvia Federici, Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation, 2004 (Introduction)
- Cecilia Palmeiro, “The Latin American Green Tide: Desire and Feminist Transversality,” 2018

Please bring copies with you. No advance reading is required as we will read together, out loud, on the night.

The Feminist Duration Reading Group focuses on under-known and under-appreciated feminist texts, movements, and struggles from outside the Anglo-American feminist tradition. Started at Goldsmiths, University of London, in March 2015, since July 2015 it has been generously hosted by SPACE, 129-131 Mare Street in Hackney.                                                                                     

The group generally meets once a month, alternately on the first Tuesday of the month at 7pm at SPACE, and the first Saturday of the month at 4pm a non-institutional venue. Details of previous meetings can be found on the right-hand panel. 

The Feminist Duration Reading Group welcomes feminists of all genders and generations to explore the legacy and resonance of art, thinking and collective practice from earlier periods of feminism, in dialogue with contemporary practices and movements. It is led by the Feminist Duration Working Group whose current members are Giulia Antonioli, Angelica Bollettinari, Lina Džuverović, Sabrina Fuller, Lily Evans-Hill, Félicie Kertudo, Mariana Lemos, Roisin O’Sullivan, Ceren Özpinar, Sara Paiola, Helena Reckitt, and Justin Seng.  

If you would like to join the reading group mailing list, propose a focus for a subsequent session, or invite us to lead a meeting, please write to feministduration@gmail.com