A Vibrant Death Reading Group: Friday 31 May & 28 June

How do we read together a book about death and mourning? 

In this reading group, we read together extracts from ‘Vibrant Death. A Posthuman Phenomenology of Mourning’ (Bloomsbury 2022) by Nina Likke (Distinguished Professor, Gender Studies, Linköping University).  The book chronicles the author’s personal journey through mourning after the loss of her queer life partner, and into understanding the transformative force of death to shift human life into the inhuman. It aims to reframe mourning from a solitary individual experience to a communal practice.

In the reading group, we read together in the effort of staying with the delicate topic of the book and take care of the bodyminds of the readers. Each time, a guest joins the group and supports with their expertise, either touching upon the topic of death and dying, or proposing forms of care for the acts of reading and listening. Additionally, a series of soft sculptures by artist Maike Hemmers are featured in the space of the Art- Science Lab. These colourful textile shapes, filled with pits and sheep wool, can connect to each other and to the human body to provide support and enhance internal physical perceptions (www.maikehemmers.com/). They are available during the group sessions for the readers to use and seek comfort while reading.

A Vibrant Death Reading Group meets at the Art-Science Lab of University College Maastricht (UCM) in Hekenstraat 8, Maastricht on:

• Friday 31 May 2024 15:00–17:00 with Ulrike Scholtes, researcher and educator in bodily awareness, Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, Maastricht (www.ulrikescholtes.de).
• Friday 28 June 2024 15:00–17:00 with Staci Bu Shea, art curator, writer and death doula, Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (https://stacibushea.info/).