Thursday, November 17, 4:00 p.m.
Lawrence Hall, Room 115, 1190 Franklin Boulevard, Eugene, Oregon 97403
The lecture will also live stream on YouTube.

This lecture will address contemporary strategies for survival, allyship, empathy, and love through the ideas and artists of two recent exhibitions, “Staying with the Trouble” and “OddKin”. In 2016, the eco-feminist Donna Haraway insisted that humans ‘stay with the trouble’ of learning to live well with nonhumans as kin, through practice-based approaches to learning to care for nonhuman others. Echoing the critical ethos found within indigenous knowledge, philosophical practices, and modern science, Haraway advises collaborative approaches to learning to live (and die) together on a damaged Earth. The term “oddkin” rewrites boundaries and stakes the claim that the shape of kinship isn’t a birthright, but a choice. These critical ideas are emphasized in the work of artists like Paula Wilson whose large-scale prints bridge the natural and human worlds culling flora and fauna from her home town of Carrizozo, NM; in MPA’s staging and critique of Mars’ colonization; Cauleen Smith’s “BLK FMNNST Loaner Library, 1989–2019” – painted book covers by Black and queer radical literary theorists; and in Carmen Winant collaborations with Ovulars, a series of workshops held in various feminist and lesbian separatist communes in the early 80s.

Kate McNamara is a curator and educator based in Providence, RI. She currently holds the position of Executive and Creative Director of My HomeCourt, a nonprofit arts organization working with contemporary artists to revitalize city parks. McNamara is also a Curator at Providence College Galleries; administrator at Interlace Grant Fund; and is a Visiting Critic at Rhode Island School of Design and Sotheby’s Institute of Art. McNamara is invested in contemporary art and innovative curatorial practices and recently launched KMM Projects, an alternative art program in Providence. 

This lecture is made possible by the Gordon W. Gilkey Endowed Fund.