The Endless Feminist Reading Group

Within light there is darkness,
but do not try to understand that darkness.
Within darkness there is light,
but do not look for that light.

—Sekito Kisen, “Identity of Relative and Absolute,” 8th Century
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In Madeleine L’Engle’s A Ring of Endless Light, a teen processes the complexity of grief and the confusion of her desires through developing a telepathic connection to dolphins. The titular light is endless in that it contains both life and death, trauma and healing, suffering and joy, not as opposing poles, but as continuous substance. What does the ring of endless light encircle? Darkness? A mirror? An ocean?

In The Endless Feminist Reading Group, we will explore questions of eternity, timelessness, repetition, and relation. Some artists who might join us as guides inside the vastness include: Etel Adnan, Bruce Boone, Courtney Bush, Sean DeLear, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Fanny Howe, Imani Elizabeth Jackson, Benjamin Krusling, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Fred Moten, Adrian Piper, Gabrielle Octavia Rucker, Jackie Wang, Simone Weil, and Simone White.

This reading group will be facilitated by the Poetry Project’s Program Director, Laura Henriksen