boost: Nurturing Interdependence Among Humans and the Natural World at HIVES

HIVES is a project hosted at Michigan State University, but "open to the public, including but certainly not limited to: students, non-students, artists, curious parties, larvae, comic-lovers, poets, and all others."

It’s dedicated to developing an understanding of the ways in which matter and beings function in interdependent networks. In his book Brilliant Imperfection, Eli Clare emphasizes how “White Western culture goes to extraordinary lengths to deny the vital relationships between water and stone, plant and animal, human and nonhuman, as well as the utter reliance of human upon human” (Clare 136). Clare offers the disability studies notion of interdependence as a way to undo fantastical narratives of independence and the individual. HIVES is an engagement with hiveminds, relationality, and interdependence across and within animal/human divides.

This November 5-6, 2020 they’re hosting Eli Clare. White, disabled, and genderqueer, Eli lives near Lake Champlain in occupied Abenaki territory (currently known as Vermont) where he writes and proudly claims a penchant for rabble-rousing.

I’ve had the good fortune to hear Eli present six times, and it’s always deeply educational and opens up my brain to new thinking. I'm signing up for these presentations because I need something to look forward to in early November :,)

( agenda and where to sign up )