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Black Cultural Studies Collective: Wonder/Wander: A Black Feminist Workshop on Cultivating & Protecting Curiosity in Universities with Alicia Lochard (part 2)

  • Friday, March 26, 2021 - 4:00pm to 6:00pm

Location: Zoom


In this two-part workshop we will examine curiosity as an abundant creative resource for scholars and writers. We will explore how capitalist and institutional constraints impose limits on curiosity over time, how these limits restrict imagination and what we consider “valid” evidence in research. Together, we will identify strategies for individual and collective protection of curiosity as a vital research and writing tool.

Guided by the words and works of poets and scholars such as Lucille Clifton, M. Jacqui Alexander, Nikky Finney, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs, we will consider the importance of defending a personal sense of wonder as a long-standing protective strategy within Black feminist political and artistic traditions.

This workshop is timed to correspond with the March 2021 New and Full Moons. Working with the moon’s cycle, we will investigate how observing timing and symbolic cycles found in nature can enable flow in our creative lives and lead to new discoveries in writing and research. Participants will learn how to use their curiosity and intuition to support themselves in their personal research and writing practices. This workshop will be hosted on zoom.

Alicia Lochard is an astrologer and writer. She is the founder of Vetiver Healing Arts. (www.vetiverhealingarts.com) Please send all inquiries to bcscollectiveupenn@gmail.com to contact organizers Kiana Murphy and Amber Rose Johnson for more information.