Organized by Eric Rogers, Zarinah Agnew

Are we genuinely made happy or even being ethical when we pursue socially-sanctioned modes of pleasure and care? How can we dream bigger than mere ‘self-liberation’ when many are written out of the dominant regimes of desirability? How can we structure desire in order to generate virulent abundance for others, as well as ourselves? Who is systematically deprived of care, affection and kinship (or situated in and held hostage by repressive/constrained fields of care relations), and how can we play a part in producing a less austere, cloistered field of care relations for these and other people? How can we come to desire both our own emancipation, and that of others, deriving pleasure and care from making pleasure and care possible for more and more people? In an era in which sexuality is used to drive consumerism and libidinal energy is channeled by governments, how can we desire the difficult and arduous work of critical thinking, research and logistics involved in imagining alternative futures? How can we build happy lives around resistance and reconstruction? How can we strategically saturate the entirety of austerity-choked, conditional pleasure fields? These questions lie at the heart of Critical Hedonism(s)—a fresh approach to collective life that seeks an affirmative alternative to the binary poles of mindless hedonistic pleasure and ascetic rejection of enjoyment.

Join us for an evening of learning followed by a lively discussion! Doors at 8pm, talk begins at 8.30pm on the dot. Suggested donation is $5. We provide free in house childcare at all our events, drop us a line if you would like to make use of this service :)