Monday, October 17, 2016 - Poetics of Fragility

"While in bed, in the depths of the pain I began to experience an extraordinary loving force. I recognised that force as Kali. It kept asking me to die out of what I believed myself to be and be born into something other....I was seduced by the love. The process required me to let go of what I knew and step into unknowing without any cognitive assurance as to what I would discover or have to unlearn."--Mata Lani, codirector of The Poetics of Fragility

In this modern capitalist society we often go thru life taking our bodies for granted, too often disconnected from embodied knowledge. Feminist cultural critic and filmmaker Mata Lani describes the physical and spiritual journey that began when in 1993 with a car accident and head injury. "Until then, my body had been fit and I had taken shelter in my mental attic. Now, I was literally thrown into my body. Even though like other feminists I had theorised the importance of experience, and the centrality of the body to discourses on women and to the social control of women, I had not fully inhabited my own body."

Lani explores these revelations in her new film, THE POETICS OF FRAGILITY, a 63-minute “videocontemplation” about the power and aesthetics of fragility. Shot in the San Francisco Bay Area in September 2015 by co-directors Lata Mani and Nicolás Grandi, the film features internationally renowned scholar-activist Angela Davis, the acclaimed playwright and critic Cherrie Moraga, Nora Cortiñas, the inspiring founding member of Madres de Plaza de Mayo Linea Fundadora, actor-dancer Greg Manalo, feminist performance artists Thao P. Nguyen and Martha Rynberg, theater scholar Jisha Menon, healer Christopher Miles, creative writer Xochitl M. Perales and the young trombone talent, Jasim Perales

On today's Women's Magazine, we broadcast the discussion at an October 2, 2016 screening of the Poetics of Fragility at the Impact Hub Oakland.  Lata Mani, Nicolas Grandi, Angela Davis and Cherrie Morga discussed the film, growing old, fragility and strength and the power of spirituality and the importance of the body for social movements.  

Listen now