Normal Life Book Club is a program that contextualizes the issues artist Cassils explores in their exhibition titled Movements. Join us for engaging discussions of Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law by Dean Spade.

In this critical text, Spade challenges conventional understandings of law and justice, revealing how systemic issues affect marginalized communities, with particular attention to transgender individuals.

The Normal Life Book Club will discuss themes such as the intersection of race, gender, and class, the impact of legal frameworks on daily life, and the importance of grassroots activism. We’ll reflect on Spade's insights, share our perspectives, and consider how these questions apply to current social justice movements. Whether you're familiar with critical theory or new to this conversation, all are welcome!

Each Book Club session will be followed by a guided tour of Cassils’s exhibition at SITE SANTA FE, Movements, and accompanied by The Mobile Abolition Library, a visual arts and literacy initiative grounded in an abolitionist framework that takes the form of a library on wheels. The library houses a collection of over 300 books, zines, a seed library, and a portrait archive.

The Normal Life Book Club will be co-facilitated by Rocío Rodríguez of SITE SANTA FE and Kevin Bowen of the Santa Fe Human Rights Alliance.

Schedule:

Saturday, Oct 19, 2024 | 10:00–11:30 AM: Book Club meeting will focus on Chapters 1, “Trans Law and Politics on a Neoliberal Landscape,” and Chapter 2, “What’s Wrong with Rights?”

Saturday, Nov 16, 2024 | 10:00–11:30 AM: Book Club meeting will focus on Chapters 3, “Rethinking Transphobia and Power, Beyond a Rights Framework” and Chapter 4, “Administrating Gender.”

Saturday, Jan 18, 2025 | 10:00–11:30 AM: Book Club meeting will focus on Chapters 5, “Law Reform and Movement Building.”

About Our Partners:

The mission of the Santa Fe Human Rights Alliance Santa Fe (HRA) is to educate, engage, encourage, and celebrate LGBTQ+ inclusion, pride, and acceptance for all people. The Human Rights Alliance was founded in 1993 in response to the defeat of Senate Bill 91, civil rights legislation for lesbians and gay men. Rallying around the enthusiasm of our grassroots crusade, local activists joined together to create this non-profit organization whose primary goal was to end discrimination of all kinds. HRA seeks to build coalitions with groups who will work for the civil rights of all New Mexicans and to develop outreach programming to support the community. In addition to these goals, HRA organizes the annual Santa Fe Pride Festival, held every year at the end of June. Pride Santa Fe is a wonderful event for all Santa Fe citizens to celebrate the unique, diverse, supportive, artistic community that is Santa Fe.

The Mobile Abolition Library is a visual arts and literacy initiative grounded in an abolitionist framework. The mobile collection and its programming is centered in challenging and reimagining the systems of surveillance, policing, punishment, and community care. The intention is to be a community-driven project that raises awareness, inspires critical thinking, and fosters discussions about incarceration’s impact on communities. The project is a collaboration between Bernadine Hernandez and Martìn Wannam of the Fronteristxs collective and Sheri Crider of the Sanitary Tortilla Factory. Additional contributing artists include Delilah Montoya, John-Mark Collins, and Kaitlin Bryson.

This program is supported in part by Creative West and the National Endowment for the Arts.