04/02 – Red Diaper Babies: Childhood in the League of Revolutionary Struggle by Maggie Wong

Session Details
Date: 04/02
Time: 6:30-8:30pm CT / 7:30-9:30pm ET
Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83766146223
Meeting ID: 837 6614 6223

Virtual online session
Closed captions available
Sessions are open to the public
Sessions are not posted online

My recent work, UNITY, explores childhood experiences within the League of Revolutionary Struggle (LRS), a multi-racial revolutionary communist group that operated from 1978-1990 and which raised me and countless others. UNITY imbues the LRS historical record with childhood memories from those who experienced LRS childcare and activities. This work is a creative research approach to an autoethnography of LRS which labors to unpack how revolutionary movement can be a mothering environment. The questions my work poses centers around what is at stake in gathering the stories of children who grew up in the revolutionary left and putting them in juxtaposition with the archive.

How can intergenerational conversations (methodologically) unlock new imaginaries? What is the shape of interviewing and archiving that affords both homage and transformation? What builds sensorial and experiential knowledge, meaning what does a child understand before they know? How can an understanding of childhood attachment be adapted to understanding political movement, evolution, dissolution, and reformation? How is it possible to distinguish “your child” from the children of “the struggle”? What frameworks make that distinction impossible?

Maggie Wong is a visual artist and educator who creates interdisciplinary works focusing on how care, labor, and collectivity shape social space. Her work has been shown at the Chinese-American Museum of Chicago, Mana Contemporary Chicago, Comfort Station, Annas Projects, take care (LA), Temple Contemporary, YBCA, and 99cent Plus, and has been written about in ArtForum and Sixty Inches from Center. Her writing has been published by Yale University Press, Viral Ecologies, The Seen, and the Journal of Art Practice. Her first artist book publication will be published through Orbist Editions and Snake Hair in 2024.

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About the Tanda Program
Interweaving the formats of seminars, book clubs, research groups, and tandas, Tanda is a cohort program that aids individuals with their research and practice through self-directed and collective learning. It is a program providing time and space to gather, share, think and exchange conversations, resources, and knowledge on participants’ chosen topics. Tanda is a program by Chuquimarca.

About Chuquimarca
Chuquimarca is an art library participating in the making and exchanging of art knowledge and language by gathering art books and organizing cohort-led programs. It acquires art books. It supports research through the Tanda program. It supports art writers through the Muña Art Writing Residency. Chuquimarca is based in Chicago.

Visit Chuquimarca.com/tanda for more information.

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Tags: Chicago, Chuquimarca, Maggie Wong, Red Diaper Babies: Childhood in the League of Revolutionary Struggle, Tanda, TANDA: Red Diaper Babies: Childhood in the League of Revolutionary Struggle by Maggie Wong