Pandemic Salon: On Gifts
I’m delighted to be talking about Free Money and Free Words at The Pandemic Salon: On Gifts this Saturday, December 19, online from 12:00-1:15 ET. Other salon guests will include Lewis Hyde, Pablo Helguera, and Joseph Winters, with music by Noah Smith.
Watch the recorded salon on Vimeo
The Pandemic Salon
The Pandemic Salon, moderated and curated by Dannielle Tegeder, began in early quarantine to host weekly discussions on topics related to the pandemic, such as memorialization, anarchy, illness, isolation, architecture, secrets, and more. The Salon creates an opportunity to bring together artists, writers, thinkers, and other creative minds to discuss selected topics in an informal, online environment. While on lockdown, the Salon has connected a global audience of over 600 participants from over 40 countries. Discussions begin through presentations grounded in disciplines including philosophy, classical music, poetry, science, and art. The Salon’s cross-disciplinary openness creates a sense of community across countries, dismantling hierarchical structures often seen in traditional forms of institutional discussion and showcasing.
On Gifts
As the holidays approach, gifts are on everyone's mind. But does our culture of commodification change how we value giving? The speakers in this month's Salon will address the inherent humanity of the gift and how it effects our understanding of ourselves and one another.
Other speakers will include:
Lewis Hyde, an author and educator who taught at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, for nearly 30 years, will discuss his seminal work The Gift and the reticence of Felix Gonzalez Torres. Early in his career, Hyde received a National Endowment for the Arts grant to do research in Mexico. During that time, he began studying the anthropological history of gift economies, which became the starting point for The Gift. Hyde has received research support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Lannan Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Getty Research Institute, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. In 1991, he was named a MacArthur Fellow.
Pablo Helguera, a New York-based artist working with socially engaged art and performance, will discuss Shaker gift-songs. Helguera’s work focuses in a variety of topics ranging from history, pedagogy, sociolinguistics, ethnography, memory and the absurd. His work as an educator intersects with his interest as an artist, making it reflective of issues of interpretation, dialogue, and the role of contemporary culture in a global reality. The former Director of Adult and Academic Programs at MoMA, Helguera is now a assistant professor at The New School.
Joseph Winters, the Associate Professor of Religious Studies and African and African American Studies at Duke University, will discuss The Gift, and Death, of Blackness and the dichotomous thinking about Blackness in America. His interests lie at the intersection of Black religious thought, African-American literature, and critical theory. Winters' project expands conventional understandings of Black religiosity and Black piety by drawing on resources from Af-Am literature, philosophy, and critical theory. His research examines how literature, film, and music (especially hip hop) can reconfigure our sense of the sacred and imagination of spirituality.
The Salon will also feature music by:
Noah Smith, an American songwriter and country artist, will perform one of his "Gift Songs". Smith walks the line between Country and Rock n Roll with a vivid, ambitious pace derived from native roots and roadworthy storytelling. He is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He has received numerous accolades, including 2017 Cincinnati Entertainment Award Winner for Best Singer/Songwriter.