Summer Sessions

How can engaging with historical materials help us locate ourselves in relation to contemporary issues? and to each other? Throughout six 90-minute sessions over the course of six weeks in the months of July and August of 2022, we attempted to answer these questions. Rosine School Summer Sessions encouraged members in and out of the Rosine 2.0 collective to gather together in judgment-free, explorative conversations about six themes, which included Future Histories, Healing and Community Care, Speaking Truth to Power, Pleasure Activism, Harm Reduction, and Gender Justice. 

In each of the Summer Sessions, the group was asked to offer their insights about the Mira Sharpless Townsend archives and how they may relate to more modern or contemporary issues, including each individual’s lived experience. From Rosine Association casebook entries to the poetry of Audre Lorde, from Bayard Rustin’s orations to Mira’s letters to her family members, Summer Sessions sought to explore the archive as site. 

A typical session would begin with a brief icebreaker, and then we would move to an introduction to Rosine 2.0 and to the session’s theme. Using snippets of text or other media from either Mira Sharpless Townsend’s personal or professional interactions, or other archives, such as the Rosine Association casebooks, attendees were encouraged to discuss their instincts about the archives in small groups (Zoom breakout rooms). Then, the group reunited to share individual thoughts. Attendees were prompted with a contemporary offering (video, article, etc.) with a similar theme to the archival offering and were given discussion questions. For our Gender Justice session, we asked, “If you were to create a radical campaign around a gender justice issue that affects you, what would that look like?” Summer Sessions depended upon these open-ended, introspective inquiries to fuel curiosity and conversation.

Discoveries and understandings developed during the sessions inform what we make and save for future Rosine 2.0 projects. Gleanings from each session, or “Key Takeaways,” were shared on our Instagram (@rosine_2.0). Key Takeaways were ideas or direct quotes derived from the sessions, such as, accountability and agency are crucial to harm reduction principles, or gender Justice isn’t enough, we need gender euphoria. For recordings of Summer Sessions, email Olivia.