Read and learn and share together!
Join a Bathers Library reading group!
SCHEDULE
TITLE • Day/Time • Starting Date
Literature of Work • Wed. 5-7pm • 4/22
Infatuation_(Proustian) • Wed. 7-9pm • 4/22
Art Writing/Writing Art* • Sat. 2-4pm • 4/25
Attention in Motion* • Sat. 12-2pm • 5/2
Experimenting with Black Temporality • Mon. 5-7pm • 5/4
Literature of Work • Wed. 5-7pm • 4/22
Infatuation_(Proustian) • Wed. 7-9pm • 4/22
Art Writing/Writing Art* • Sat. 2-4pm • 4/25
Attention in Motion* • Sat. 12-2pm • 5/2
Bodies of Water • Sun. 10-12pm • 5/3
Experimenting with Black Temporality • Mon. 5-7pm • 5/4
Body in Mind* • Thu. 6:30-8:30 • 5/7
Peril in Paradise • Sun. 12-2pm • 5/10
Existential Despair • Sun. 7-9pm • 5/10
The Battle for the Internet** • Sat. 12-2pm • 5/16
Lingering/Use • Sat. • 12-2pm • 5/16
Active Listening Club • Mon. 7-9pm • 6/1
Walking with the Dead • Sat. 2-4pm • 6/6
Zora Exploras • Sat. • 10-12pm • 6/6
Envisioning Futures* • Wed. 6:30-8:30pm • 6/10
Horny on Main • Sat. 12-2pm • 6/13
Upending AI Empire • Wed. 7-9pm • 6/17
Abolishing the (Nuclear) Family • Sun. 12-2pm • 6/21
Calling all Skeletons** • TBD TBD TBD
* = meeting outside Bathers
** = meeting online
DESCRIPTIONS
Abolishing the
(Nuclear) Family
Robyn Johnson
What if society could guarantee care as a universal good instead of making it the purview of the immediate family, which can be fraught and insufficient? Together we’ll read M.E. O’Brien’s Family Abolition: Capitalism and the Communizing of Care and discuss Marxist-feminist critiques of the nuclear family as a product of capitalism used to uphold its structural inequities. We'll also explore the 200-year history of thought informing family abolition, from Charles Fourier's utopian socialism to the 70s gay liberation movement, as a jumping-off point to imagine what collective care can and should look like in the increasing precarity of today's hypercapitalism.
(Nuclear) Family
Robyn Johnson
What if society could guarantee care as a universal good instead of making it the purview of the immediate family, which can be fraught and insufficient? Together we’ll read M.E. O’Brien’s Family Abolition: Capitalism and the Communizing of Care and discuss Marxist-feminist critiques of the nuclear family as a product of capitalism used to uphold its structural inequities. We'll also explore the 200-year history of thought informing family abolition, from Charles Fourier's utopian socialism to the 70s gay liberation movement, as a jumping-off point to imagine what collective care can and should look like in the increasing precarity of today's hypercapitalism.
Robyn Johnson is a writer living in Oakland. She holds English degrees from UC Berkeley and the University of Chicago and is currently researching how domestic spaces can become sites of resistance by challenging patriarchal, sentimental, and capitalist definitions of the home and family. She loves hosting dinner parties with meticulously curated menus and her two very elderly cats.
Active Listening ClubAmar Lal
As we're confronted with an ever-denser sonic landscape of urban and human-made noise in addition to podcasts, music and more, it is increasingly essential to examine not only what we choose to listen to, but how we listen. Each week, participants will read about Deep Listening, Musique Concrete, Sonic Journalism, Acoustic Ecology, Soundscape Studies, environmental noise studies, "functional music" and more, to develop ideas around the active choice to listen. Weekly field recording prompts (no field recorder or experience required) and listening sessions will cultivate not only the concepts behind Active Listening, but also the open and active ears of participants. The group’s activities will culminate in the creation of a collaborative sound portrait.
As we're confronted with an ever-denser sonic landscape of urban and human-made noise in addition to podcasts, music and more, it is increasingly essential to examine not only what we choose to listen to, but how we listen. Each week, participants will read about Deep Listening, Musique Concrete, Sonic Journalism, Acoustic Ecology, Soundscape Studies, environmental noise studies, "functional music" and more, to develop ideas around the active choice to listen. Weekly field recording prompts (no field recorder or experience required) and listening sessions will cultivate not only the concepts behind Active Listening, but also the open and active ears of participants. The group’s activities will culminate in the creation of a collaborative sound portrait.
Amar Lal is a Canadian artist, musician and mastering engineer currently based in Oakland. He runs the studio Macro Sound, recently published his first book of visual art, and previously spent a decade touring internationally as a member of the band Big Ups, while living in New York City. His greatest love is the art, music and food made by his friends.
In this group, we'll read and discuss our favorite art writers, and go out to see and write about art. We'll focus on some classics of the genre and, of course lots of contemporary and local examples. In the end, we'll make a zine of writing we create. This group will be collectively curated—so bring some faves to share!
Justin Carder is a designer, teacher and artist. He is the founder of Bathers Library.
This reading group explores psychogeography, a practice developed by Marxist theorist Guy Debord and the Situationist International to examine how urban environments shape thought, emotion, and behavior under capitalism. Framed as a resistance to alienation in an increasingly digital & automated world, this workshop emphasizes embodied attention as the basis for writing.
Bodies of Water in Asian (American) Lit
Tiny Lei
From rivers of piss and swimming pools to crossing the Pacific, bodies of water play a significant role in shaping the diaspora and the literature we create. Exploring the role of bodies of water and the ways they appear in Asian and Asian American literature, this reading group engages with a small selection of works across the diaspora, and some from the mainland.
Tiny Lei
From rivers of piss and swimming pools to crossing the Pacific, bodies of water play a significant role in shaping the diaspora and the literature we create. Exploring the role of bodies of water and the ways they appear in Asian and Asian American literature, this reading group engages with a small selection of works across the diaspora, and some from the mainland.
Body in Mind:
Drawing connections between the human body and art making Naira Diptee (she/they)
A series of gatherings where we read a selection of books and essays and discuss the human body's role in art, its representation, history, politics, value, nuances, the work associated with it, and how all of that can inform art forms such as life drawing, photography, and performance. What is the role of the body in art making? Can art be made without the body? What are the historical and cultural contexts of human representation in art? How does how we feel about our own bodies inform how we create? What power dynamics are at play in representations of the body, nude or otherwise, and what can we learn from that to create a safer and more enriching community for artists, models, and performers alike?
Drawing connections between the human body and art making Naira Diptee (she/they)
A series of gatherings where we read a selection of books and essays and discuss the human body's role in art, its representation, history, politics, value, nuances, the work associated with it, and how all of that can inform art forms such as life drawing, photography, and performance. What is the role of the body in art making? Can art be made without the body? What are the historical and cultural contexts of human representation in art? How does how we feel about our own bodies inform how we create? What power dynamics are at play in representations of the body, nude or otherwise, and what can we learn from that to create a safer and more enriching community for artists, models, and performers alike?
We will share resources and read various writing on pain, isolation, and grief that follows a new or increased level of disability. There isn't any need to find a clear cut difference between chronic and acute disability. So anyone who feels like it applies to them can join. Possible readings: Susan Sontag - AIDS as a metaphor, audre lorde - the cancer journals, Elaine Scarry - the body in pain and Ann Cvetkovich and whatever else resonates with the cohort.
To build a better world we must first imagine it. Each session we will read and discuss 1-3 different speculative fiction short stories by writers of color. We will cover both content and craft, and work toward writing individual speculative fiction short stories that reflect each participant's vision for a new world (no previous creative writing experience necessary!)
Baylee is passionate about helping people have equitable access to information. They love word games, cookies, and gay tension in tv shows
Existential Despair
Nathaniel Page
The Existential Despair Club performs table readings of dramatic works. We will begin with Attic tragedy, and then move on to modern tragedy according to this particular group's interests. The group may also explore works related to the theory and the history of the tragic form in literature and drama.
Nathaniel Page
The Existential Despair Club performs table readings of dramatic works. We will begin with Attic tragedy, and then move on to modern tragedy according to this particular group's interests. The group may also explore works related to the theory and the history of the tragic form in literature and drama.
Experimenting With Black Temporality Alix Henry
We are going to think about Rasheedah Phillips' exploration of Black and African diasporic conceptions of time in Dismantling the Master's Clock alongside select writings by Octavia Butler. The hope is to expand (perhaps even confirm or complicate) our understanding of world-building and meaning-making through Black temporal frameworks by playing around with the order in which we read books in a series!
We are going to think about Rasheedah Phillips' exploration of Black and African diasporic conceptions of time in Dismantling the Master's Clock alongside select writings by Octavia Butler. The hope is to expand (perhaps even confirm or complicate) our understanding of world-building and meaning-making through Black temporal frameworks by playing around with the order in which we read books in a series!
The internet has dramatically changed the way we address love, romance, dating, and societal interactions and as AI begins to interfere further in these areas, interpersonal dynamics will continue to suffer, primarily at the expense of women. These readings are from feminist thinkers whose work is at the forefront of analyzing the intersection of desire, consent, sexuality, and the internet, along with the ethical dilemmas and questions involved in this. For example, Katherine Angel and Amia Srinivasan analyze the limitations of the way we currently view consent after the #MeToo movement while Jane Ward and Sabrina Strings explore the development of pick up culture and fetishization in heterosexual dating.
Proust works sensuous labyrinths out of the taste of pastries and sound of church bell peals on summer afternoons—what labyrinthine exponent will he raise us to in a tale of love and obsession? Join us this mating season to take in Swann in Love, a self-contained novella within the famous Swann’s Way. We’ll slowly read (most of) the text aloud and then do our own freewriting under the spell of his intricate details. Think private love letters to your sweetie, your god, your 5th grade crush, etc.
Kelly Egan writes from dream, reverie, and long drives. She is the author of three poetry chapbooks—Vagar (forthcoming), Millennial, and A Series of Septembers. She has an MFA from Saint Mary’s College of CA and lives in California’s Bay Area. Find her at kellyjeanegan.com.
lingering / use: an experimental style lab + research club
4o4vv / nkiruka oparah
think an unconventional approach to un/dressing meets fashion theory meets designing for a shared future meets sustainability practices. an anti-algorithm, post-growth space to reimagine our second skins, for SLOWING DOWN to stay with the culture/heritage/lived experiences that inform our wearing/making, and for prototyping ideas with others who share our values while increasing our capacity for failure, uncertainty, error, and ugliness. how can experiments in wearing fashion and a collaborative approach shape how we design future spaces for ourselves and others?
4o4vv / nkiruka oparah
think an unconventional approach to un/dressing meets fashion theory meets designing for a shared future meets sustainability practices. an anti-algorithm, post-growth space to reimagine our second skins, for SLOWING DOWN to stay with the culture/heritage/lived experiences that inform our wearing/making, and for prototyping ideas with others who share our values while increasing our capacity for failure, uncertainty, error, and ugliness. how can experiments in wearing fashion and a collaborative approach shape how we design future spaces for ourselves and others?
4o4vv is the design research studio practice of nkiruka oparah. 4o4vv integrates art, fashion, and identity through an experimental practice rooted in slowness, play, and improvisation. Rather than making new objects, the studio focuses on strategies of deconstruction and repurposing to create unique works while researching ways of building sensuous communal knowledge through sustainable practices and everyday gestures.
Literature of Work Regina Napolitano
We will explore how (mostly) English-language literature discusses (or avoids discussing) workplaces, jobs, social class, and money. We will read nonfiction essays and articles, excerpted novels, and poems about work, the struggle to obtain work, or the struggle against work. Texts will include The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, Revolutionary Letters by Diane di Prima, Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, and essays by Anne Boyer and David Harvey.
We will explore how (mostly) English-language literature discusses (or avoids discussing) workplaces, jobs, social class, and money. We will read nonfiction essays and articles, excerpted novels, and poems about work, the struggle to obtain work, or the struggle against work. Texts will include The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, Revolutionary Letters by Diane di Prima, Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, and essays by Anne Boyer and David Harvey.
How did AIDS change gay literature in the United States? In this group, we will read novels, plays, and poems written between 1980 and the year 2000 to consider how gay writers responded to (and were changed by) the epidemic. Over the course of six weeks, we will consider a range of literary survival tactics, including erotica, political theater, and biomedical poetics. Our reading list includes Jack the Modernist by Robert Glück, “G-9” by Tim Dlugos, Angels in America by Tony Kushner, and Tea by D.A. Powell. Blue Fay is a writer from Southern California. He holds an MFA from UC Irvine, where he served as the poetry editor of Faultline and taught creative writing through the LIFTED prison teaching program. You can find Blue's writing in The Berkeley Poetry Review, The San Francisco Standard, and Ploughshares.
From the internet’s inception in the 1970s, there’s been a lasting battle over who gets to control the digital frontier. On one side of the coin: a utopic, liberatory, collective vision of information and community centered on The People. On the other, a capitalist, colonialist, imperialist, and militarist project (among other "ists"). In 2026, as the masses are more frustrated with the state of the internet (and the companies and governments that rule it) than ever before in history, it’s about time we discuss it. Open to all knowledge levels, this group aims to inform and empower us to answer vital questions about how we connect, communicate, resist—and if The People still have a chance of winning the battle for the internet.
Danielle Leard (they/she) is an organizer, writer, and creative based in East Bay. Holding a BA in the Science, Technology, & Society field from UC Berkeley, she’s taught digital equity, researched technology-facilitated trauma, and is currently working as a Digitization Tech at the Internet Archive. They love people, queer senses of humor, and putting an unrealistic number of library books on hold.
Upending the AI Empire
ria kalluri
The foundations of AI are colonial, and the shape of AI today is a sprawling empire made up of lands, hands, and global grief. Here we'll feel deeply into the continuity — from colonial violence to modern AI — and emerge in global solidarity with all who are refusing to be reduced to nodes in the AI empire.
ria kalluri
The foundations of AI are colonial, and the shape of AI today is a sprawling empire made up of lands, hands, and global grief. Here we'll feel deeply into the continuity — from colonial violence to modern AI — and emerge in global solidarity with all who are refusing to be reduced to nodes in the AI empire.
walking with the dead: insurgence and spiritual warfare
a.L.
a series of readings and discussions on insurgence, revolt, and struggle as rooted in their respective peoples. this will focus specifically on perspectives of spiritual and ancestral veneration. intended to dig deep into sparks of revolt across the globe. b/i/poc encouraged to attend!
a.L.
a series of readings and discussions on insurgence, revolt, and struggle as rooted in their respective peoples. this will focus specifically on perspectives of spiritual and ancestral veneration. intended to dig deep into sparks of revolt across the globe. b/i/poc encouraged to attend!
Let's venture forth into some texts by Zora Neale Hurston. Often controversial, and always interesting, we'll explore her ethnologies on Caribbean and African American traditions, have conversations about Black identity, the myth and meme of black excellence, and how they've shaped our perceptions of Black syncretic spirituality.