LAUNCHING MARCH 21

 The CARE SYLLABUS Advisory Collective Presents

I CAN’T:

FEELING THROUGH
BURDENS OF CARE

To admit the “I can’t,” the theorist Jan Verwoert has suggested, may sometimes be “the only adequate way to show that you care -- for the friends, family, children or lovers who require your presence, or for the continuation of a long-term creative practice that takes its time.” 

Which admissions of limitation, and which textures of refusal are yielding new ways of navigating this current moment of personal and collective exhaustion?

How might the burdens of care (and the process of deciding how we distribute our care) reconfigure binary logics -- like I vs. you, giving vs. taking, publicity vs. privacy, strength vs. vulnerability -- that structure popular discourses of care? 

How is saying "I can't" a privilege? What happens when refusal is not an option, but rather -- because of ableism, ageism, racism, misogyny, classism, homophobia, and transphobia -- a boundary consistently undermined, or a reality regularly enforced?

This module is supported with the help of the Northern Berkshire Cultural Council
and the Mass Cultural Council.