Minnie Bruce Pratt Workshop
Fanzine made during the workshop
ZentralWascherei, Zürich
ZentralWascherei, Zürich
The Minnie Bruce Pratt Workshop was realized with Zoé Lefèvre and the help of Aurélie Dupuis during the anniversary of ZentralWascherei in Zürich. For this moment we decided to enlight the work of the American lesbian poet Minnie Bruce Pratt and read publicly some of her words and poetry. After the reading session we organized a little moment to create fanzines.
Introductive text
“ Hello everyone, thank you all for coming and joining.
Thanks, of course, to Zentral Waescherei for hosting us today.
So, briefly, we'd like to explain : Why we are here and What’s our proposition for today afternoon.
I'm Zoé, and today, along with my friend Chloé, we are proposing this reading to you. Aurélie is also here to assist us with logistics..
First, let's acknowledge that we are architects, and this collective reading is the first we organize and also the first in a series we’d like to reproduce and extend beyond today's venue.
(On that note, any feedback at the end or during the reading will be much appreciated.)
So today, we are trying to cultivate the voice of Minnie Bruce Pratt, to share space and time in remembering this American lesbian poet, writer, teacher, LGBTQ+ activist, anti-racist, anti-imperialist, women’s liberation activist, who passed away in July of this year.
Our proposal for today is to draw upon other events that celebrated her life and work, -cf screen?-
By reading passages/excerpts from her poems and essays.
>>> To Talk about Queer life, Queer love and fighting for solidarity and Liberation against an oppressive system.
One other reason: is that while being a militant/activist figure in the US, she is very little known in Europe. Meaning that her texts are not very much translated, not easy to find, and most of them are out of print.
>> So with this event, we are modestly circulating texts and raising questions about their accessibility.
This tribute is an inclusive space open to all individuals who wish to engage in a moment of collective reading and listening, even and maybe especially if they are not familiar with her work
As a starting point for the workshop, we've selected excerpts from Minnie Bruce Pratt's texts, using the three books we had access to: 'S/HE,' 'Crime against Nature,' and 'Magnified.'
Thanks, of course, to Zentral Waescherei for hosting us today.
So, briefly, we'd like to explain : Why we are here and What’s our proposition for today afternoon.
I'm Zoé, and today, along with my friend Chloé, we are proposing this reading to you. Aurélie is also here to assist us with logistics..
First, let's acknowledge that we are architects, and this collective reading is the first we organize and also the first in a series we’d like to reproduce and extend beyond today's venue.
(On that note, any feedback at the end or during the reading will be much appreciated.)
So today, we are trying to cultivate the voice of Minnie Bruce Pratt, to share space and time in remembering this American lesbian poet, writer, teacher, LGBTQ+ activist, anti-racist, anti-imperialist, women’s liberation activist, who passed away in July of this year.
Our proposal for today is to draw upon other events that celebrated her life and work, -cf screen?-
By reading passages/excerpts from her poems and essays.
>>> To Talk about Queer life, Queer love and fighting for solidarity and Liberation against an oppressive system.
One other reason: is that while being a militant/activist figure in the US, she is very little known in Europe. Meaning that her texts are not very much translated, not easy to find, and most of them are out of print.
>> So with this event, we are modestly circulating texts and raising questions about their accessibility.
This tribute is an inclusive space open to all individuals who wish to engage in a moment of collective reading and listening, even and maybe especially if they are not familiar with her work
As a starting point for the workshop, we've selected excerpts from Minnie Bruce Pratt's texts, using the three books we had access to: 'S/HE,' 'Crime against Nature,' and 'Magnified.'
We will briefly introduce and contextualize each of the books beforehand.
And we'll read together, taking turns to read, following your desire to read or not.
By the end of each reading session, we'll take time to collect your impressions and exchanges on what we've read.
And continue with the next book.
Towards the end, you will have the opportunity to create your own archive of this moment by making a fanzine-like collection of thoughts.
And we'll read together, taking turns to read, following your desire to read or not.
By the end of each reading session, we'll take time to collect your impressions and exchanges on what we've read.
And continue with the next book.
Towards the end, you will have the opportunity to create your own archive of this moment by making a fanzine-like collection of thoughts.
And just so you know, Aurélie here will be collecting live and creating a compiled version for the session that we can also send you by email afterwards if you wish to.
>>> Okay, now a much-needed short introduction to who she was :
Minnie Bruce is a writer and activist who has written at least 10 books of poetry and creative non-fiction. Here is a collection of her poetry books: The Sound of One Fork, We Say We Love Each Other, Crime Against Nature, Walking Back Up Depot Street, The Dirt She Ate: Selected and New Poems, Inside the Money Machine, and Magnified.
Born in Selma in 1946 and raised in Centreville, Alabama, in a segregated State, the life of Minnie Bruce is colored with a will to fight against oppression.
As a very young anti-racist and feminist activist, she came out as a lesbian in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in 1975 while being married and the mother of two young children.
Her books are expressions of the battles she has fought throughout her life, and I will mention a few that bear witness to this life of commitment.
Starting with her perhaps most acclaimed book, 'Crime Against Nature,' focusing on Pratt’s relationship with her two sons after losing custody of them when she came out as a lesbian.
This book was chosen as the Lamont Poetry Selection by the Academy of American Poets and as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 1991.
She was also awarded together with lesbian writers Chrystos and Audre Lorde,
by the Fund for Free Expression to writers “who have been victimized by political persecution.” They were selected because of their experience “as a target of right-wing and fundamentalist forces during the recent attacks on the National Endowment for the Arts.”
Minnie Bruce is a writer and activist who has written at least 10 books of poetry and creative non-fiction. Here is a collection of her poetry books: The Sound of One Fork, We Say We Love Each Other, Crime Against Nature, Walking Back Up Depot Street, The Dirt She Ate: Selected and New Poems, Inside the Money Machine, and Magnified.
Born in Selma in 1946 and raised in Centreville, Alabama, in a segregated State, the life of Minnie Bruce is colored with a will to fight against oppression.
As a very young anti-racist and feminist activist, she came out as a lesbian in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in 1975 while being married and the mother of two young children.
Her books are expressions of the battles she has fought throughout her life, and I will mention a few that bear witness to this life of commitment.
Starting with her perhaps most acclaimed book, 'Crime Against Nature,' focusing on Pratt’s relationship with her two sons after losing custody of them when she came out as a lesbian.
This book was chosen as the Lamont Poetry Selection by the Academy of American Poets and as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 1991.
She was also awarded together with lesbian writers Chrystos and Audre Lorde,
by the Fund for Free Expression to writers “who have been victimized by political persecution.” They were selected because of their experience “as a target of right-wing and fundamentalist forces during the recent attacks on the National Endowment for the Arts.”
She co-authored together with Elly Bulkin and Barbara Smith « Yours In Struggle: Three Feminist
Perspectives On Anti-Semitism and Racism ». And she was a managing editor of Workers World/Mundo Obrero newspaper.
As we can see in this brief enumeration, Minnie Bruce Pratt aligns herself with a practice of intersectional and decolonial feminism, to which, one can add a belief in a transgenerational transmission.
A belief in transmission—both for her own work and the one of Leslie Feinberg—
she never ceased to speak out, transmit, and remain committed until the end of her life.
She fought all her life for others while navigating her own precarity.
She initiated forms of text sharing, notably by weekly posting poems on a Facebook profile.
Her poems responded to the everyday, to what outraged her, and were crafted to be shared. It is in this spirit that we propose today's event, to continue giving life to these texts, to her words.
Any Questions??
As we can see in this brief enumeration, Minnie Bruce Pratt aligns herself with a practice of intersectional and decolonial feminism, to which, one can add a belief in a transgenerational transmission.
A belief in transmission—both for her own work and the one of Leslie Feinberg—
she never ceased to speak out, transmit, and remain committed until the end of her life.
She fought all her life for others while navigating her own precarity.
She initiated forms of text sharing, notably by weekly posting poems on a Facebook profile.
Her poems responded to the everyday, to what outraged her, and were crafted to be shared. It is in this spirit that we propose today's event, to continue giving life to these texts, to her words.
Any Questions??
We now move on to the first book that we invite you to explore together today through the excerpts we have chosen.”