no point in making myself comfortable. the abstraction, the dream, are as limited for me as the concrete and the real. what to do? show a part of it only? in a narrow mirror, as if it were the whole? mix up a halo with spatters? refusing to bump into walls, bump into windows instead? in the black of night. until i see everything clearly, i want to hunt myself down. – claude cahun
sunday school meets roughly every other sunday for twoish hours at 10am CST/ 11amEST, remotely.
“are all bibliographies a study of surviving something we were only passing through?” bhanu kapil.
sunday school riffs off of the idea of the bibliography, assembling a queer cabinet of angels as our study guides. each sunday we will study a different angel, including poets, photographers, writers, theorists, musicians, artists, activists, and friends of the like, considering none of these practices exclusive from one another. the list goes long…and is ever unfinished*.
sunday school is against mastery. it is for blurriness. research as a way of trembling with the world (glissant). everything i have come to know is because of those who blazed the path before me. because of queer ancestors, because of you and you and you.
sunday school is non-linear. and thinks about the difficulty of making commitments in a landscape of genocide, illness, grief, capitalism, love and the giant weighty and little ordinary tasks of each and every day. this is why each sunday school session is an individual container. no visitor of sunday school will need the experience of the session before or the session after to come and study. you can come once or ten times or every time or for half a session…
the format of sunday school responds to the body of it’s peoples, angels of study, and current social, political, poetic and curious lines of inquiry. sessions may include performative lectures, collective reading time, read alouds, applications of newly learned methodologies, including and especially: what it looks like to embody our studies in practice.
once you join a session, you are considered a member of sunday school and will receive access to the bibliography of materials that inform our studies: digital archives and traces of our learnings, prompts, readings, playlists, etc.
you do not have to identify as an artist or as queer to join sunday school.
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to join sunday school, email sundayschoolwithlee@gmail.com
you can find a current calendar of sunday school here.
simply include the session(s) you would like to attend in the subject or body of your email.
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school runs on a sliding scale basis. no one will be turned away from sunday school for lack of funds. the suggested sliding scale is $25 - $100 for a sunday session. payment options will be provided when you email to join a session including venmo, paypal & zelle. i ask that resources such as property ownership, medical stability, salaried jobs, intergenerational wealth and structural access to wealth be considered. i recognize that many people will/may find themselves at intersections of different circumstance, & should assess and move in a way that makes sense to them. as a white and queer artist, i prioritize offering accessible resources to queer, trans, and artists of color. there is no need to disclose your circumstance when choosing to move inside or outside of this scale.
sunday school begins using the resources and language available and easeful in this current moment. its format and ways are subject to evolve and transform as we all do together. sunday school is facilitated / organized by lee rae walsh (which is hopefully clear if you find yourself here !) i do not consider myself an expert or master of any topic, but my devotion to alternative practices and methodologies of learning, embodying, practicing and research has been developing for over ten years. also, sunday school is no way affiliated with the institution of actual religion. these here are gay gods and sky hymns, sermons delivered from a poet’s tongue. if sunday school piques your interest but isn't your style, you can find opportunity the to work together in other capacities here.
sunday school also accepts donations from those who are not interested in attending but wish to support forms of study that exist outside of the institution and are artist lead. you can venmo @leeraewalsh at any time or email sundayschoolwithlee@gmail.com to inquire about other options and forms of support.
*sunday school has an ever open suggestion box - to suggest an angel for study or provide feedback, fill out this anonymous form.
noteverdone learning. this is the blurry way. the ego dissolves. we rebels against the necessity of things, deep swimming where light touches glittering hot bright, searing a heart-promise that this blurry route is about getting closer, not further away. so close, so close, so close, it all poundsinoneraginghotblurrydesirecoal. soften eyes, what is it you think you are seeing, reading?
what is it you think you know?
(from manifesto as big blurry bloom, in sissy anarchy #2)