presented by Robert Sember
January 10th and 20th join us in learning about the history of Popular Education and practicing neighborhood discovery.
Course Description:
Popular education is a process of emancipation and world making that emerges from and is practiced by liberation movements across the world. Popular education puts into action Carl Marx’s assertion that while philosophers aim to understand the world, we aim to change it. In popular education there are no teachers and no learners; we are all teacher-learners or learner-teachers who hold knowledge in community and are united in the struggle for freedom. This seminar on popular education will have three parts: Part 1: A history of popular education and its key actions; Part 2: An introduction to one of the most influential methods to popular education, Paulo Freire’s “thematic investigation”; and, Part 3: Outlining a popular education initiative to support the process of building just and beautiful cities.
Robert Sember is a member of the international sound-art collective, Ultra-red. For twenty years, Ultra-red has investigated how intentional listening practices facilitate political organizing. The collective’s investigations focus on concerns related to (im)migrants’ rights, affordable housing, sexual and gender rights, and anti-racism and anti-poverty struggles. Robert brings to his work with Ultra-red training in cultural studies, medical anthropology, art, and ongoing involvement in the field of public health. He is the co-founder of the Arbert Santana Ballroom Archive and Oral History Project, an initiative by and for members of the African-American and Latino/a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community in New York City. Robert is the recipient of a fellowship with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics. He on the faculty of The New School’s Eugene Lang College and the University of Amsterdam’s Institute on Sexuality, Culture and Society.