Using diaries as our central focus, this cross-genre course will dive into the politics and power of voice, outsider art, and how to engage in more vulnerable art-making. We’ll examine diaries by Lou Sullivan and Anais Nin, Jafar Panahi’s film This Is Not A Film, Marlee Grace’s Instagram dance-a-day movement project, Neither’s diaristic album trauma, Bhanu Kapil’s Ban En Banlieue, and others in order to attempt to answer the following questions: Who gets to/is asked to be vulnerable in public spaces? How do diaries change shape when they move from private to public? How can we honor our own diaries and our selves?

Participants will come away with a collected diary they’ve written themselves, as well as a zine of entries from each participant. A public event will conclude the workshop, during which we will do a brave thing: Treat Our Diaries As Real and Valid Literature By Presenting Them Out Loud In Front Of People!