About

The Feminist Duration Reading Group (FDRG) focuses on under-represented feminist texts, movements and struggles from outside the Anglo-American canon. The group has developed a practice of reading out loud, together, one paragraph at a time, with the aim of creating a sense of connection and intimacy during meetings.

The group was established in March 2015 by Helena Reckitt, at Goldsmiths, University of London, to explore texts from the Italian feminist movement of the 1970s and 1980s. Later in 2015 it relocated to SPACE in Hackney, East London where it was hosted by Persilia Caton until April 2019. From June 2019 to February 2020 the group was in residence at the South London Gallery, where it focused on intersectional feminisms in the UK context (a planned year-long programme that was moved online due to COVID-19).

In 2023 we were one of several groups selected for the eighteen month Residents programme at Goldsmiths CCA, London.

From 2023-2024 FDRG partnered with Cell Project Space developing CEED (Central East European and Diaspora) Feminisms, funded by the British Art Network, with Cell Project Space.

FDRG sessions have been organised with Emilia-Amalia at Art Metropole in Toronto; Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof and HFBK Hamburg, Germany; in London with the Advocacy Academy, Artangel, Barbican Art Gallery, Cell Project Space, Chelsea Space, Chisenhale Gallery, the Drawing Room, Flat Time House, Goldsmiths CCA, Mimosa House, Mosaic Rooms, The Showroom, South Kiosk, Studio Voltaire, Tate Modern, in collaboration with AntiUniversity and the Department of Feminist Conversations, and as part of The Table at the Swiss Church. Elsewhere in the UK we have been hosted by Grand Union and Eastside Projects, Birmingham, esea, Manchester, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea, and Hypatia Trust, Penzance.  A sister group, NW FDRG, was set up in Liverpool by Kezia Davies in 2019.        

Six members of the FDRG - Giulia Casalini, Diana Georgiou, Laura Guy, Helena Reckitt, Irene Revell, and Amy Tobin - organised the two-week long events programme, ‘Now Can Go,’ focused on legacies of Italian feminism, across the ICA, The Showroom, SPACE, and Raven Row, in December 2015.  

The group usually meets once a month, in art spaces and community venues as well as non-institutional venues such as private homes or gardens.

The FDRG aims to create an inclusive trans-positive space. We welcome feminists of all genders and generations to explore the legacy and resonance of art, thinking and collective practice from earlier periods of feminism, in dialogue with contemporary practices and movements.

Working Group

FDRG sessions are initiated by a Working Group. Current members are Beth Bramich, Sabrina Fuller, Taey Iohe, Helena Reckitt, and Dot Zhihan.

Support Group

FDRG activities are supported by a Support Group comprising former Working Group members Lina Džuverović, Mariana Lemos, Katrin Lock, and Ehryn Torrell.

Other former Working Group members are Giulia Antonioli, Angelica Bollettinari, Lily Evans-Hill, Félicie Kertudo, Ceren Özpinar, Sara Paiola, Justin Seng, and Fiona Townend.

Working with the FDRG: A Note for Institutions

The FDRG is run by members of the voluntary Working and Support Groups. We regularly partner with community and arts organizations to offer free events to the public.

The reading group is our collective practice that we enjoy and like sharing with others. Facilitating sessions does of course involve considerable time and effort. We also have running costs for web hosting and communication, invited speaker fees etc.

We understand financial constraints within the cultural sector, but appreciate any contributions that support our efforts.

The FDRG operates an ‘Honesty Box,’ and asks funded organisations to pay what they can.

For organisations who can access funding, we suggest a fee of £300 - £600 per session, depending on the scope of work entailed.  This roughly follows the a-n artist payment guidelines for 1-1.5 days for an artist with seven years professional experience (the FDRG was set up in 2015).

Collaborators and Partners

FDRG sessions have been led by Adomas Narkevicius, Ximena Alarcón-Díaz, Giulia Antonioli, Diana Baker Smith, Fari Bradley, Beth Bramich, Giulia Casalini, Laura Castagnini, Catherine Cho, Leah Clements, Morgane Conti, Lauren Craig, Cinzia Cremona, Galit Criden, Giulia Damiani, Oana Damir, Kezia Davies, Department of Feminist Conversations, Flora Dunster, Lina Džuverović, Lily Evans-Hall, Lucia Farinati, Lynne Friedli, Sabrina Fuller, Diana Georgiou, Rose Gibbs, Valeria Graziano, Laura Guy, Haley Ha, Nora Heidorn, Minna Henriksson, Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyễn, Yurika Imaseki, Taey Iohe, Félicie Kertudo, Alexandra Kokoli, Jessie Krish, Mariana Lemos, Mai Ling, Jet Moon, Gabby Moser, Roisin O’Sullivan, Ceren Özpinar, Frances Painter Fleming, Grace Eunhye Park, Sara Paiola, Raju Rage, Helena Reckitt, Irene Revell, Lidia Salvatori, Elif Sarican, Justin Seng, Something Other, Cecilia Sosa, Amy Tobin, Ehryn Torrell, and Dot Zhihan.

Artists, Writers & Collectives

Sessions have been dedicated to texts and artworks including those by Naadje Al-Aali, Joan Anim-Addo, Floya Anthias and Nira Yuval-Davis, Gloria Anzaldua, Jenn Ashworth, Margot Badran, Khairani Barokka, Chiai Bonfiglioli, Anne Boyer, Brixton Black Women’s Group, adrienne maree brown, Wilmette Brown, Octavia Butler, Sakine Cansiz, Hazel V Carby, Adriana Cavarero, Teresa Hak Kyung Cha, Anne Anlin Cheng, Catherine Cho, Barbara Christian, Lia Cigarini, Eli Clare, Leah Clements, Lauren Craig, Galit Criden, Mariarosa Dalla Costa and Selma James, Maria Puig De La Bellacasa, Leah Clements, Silvia Federici, Leta Hong Fincher, Shulamith Firestone, Lauren Fournier, Ruth Frankenberg, Olivia Guaraldo, Johanna Hedva, bell hooks, Sanja Iveković, Juliet Jacques, Marie Elizabeth Johnson, Jane Jin Kaisen, Jasleen Kaur, AE Kings, Larissa Lai, Teresa de Lauretis, Clarice Lispector, Carla Lonzi, Fereil Ben Mahoud, Alex Martinis Roe, Lea Melandri, Fatema Mernissi, Milan Women’s Bookshop Collective, Trinh T Minh-ha, Adriana Monti, Jet Moon, Antonella Nappi, Astrida Neimanis, Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyen, Abdullah Ocalan, Lola Olufemi, Sue O’Sullivan, Tanja Ostojić, Cecilia Palmeiro, Queer Beograd, Darija Radaković, Raju Rage, Claudia Rankine, Tabita Rezaire, Rivolta Femminile, Lucia Egana Rojas, Sasha Roseneil, Gail Rubin, Suzanne Santoro, Selma Selman, Christina Sharpe, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Rhea Storr, Latif Tas, Miriam Ticktin, Tiqqun, Iris Uurto, Nafu Wang, Kyla Wazana Tompkins, Katri Vala, Vron Ware, Wages Due Lesbians, Wages for Housework, Linda Zerilli.

Contact us

If you would like to join the reading group mailing list or propose a focus for a session, or invite us to lead a meeting, please contact: feministduration@gmail.com 

Website Design by Angelica Bollettinari

CEED Feminisms 1: Decentering Western Feminisms

CEED Feminisms 1: Decentering Western Feminisms

Feminist Duration
2023

Thursday 21 September, 6.30pm-8.30pm

Cell Project Space

This is the first session of the CEED (Central Eastern European and Diaspora) Feminisms reading group, organised in collaboration with Cell Project Space. Together, we look forward to exploring the role of current and historical feminist thinking in constructing cultural narratives of Central Eastern Europe and British Central Eastern European diaspora.

The meeting considers the specificities of Central Eastern European feminisms inflected by postsocialism, continuities in postsocialist and postcolonial feminisms and routes to decentring Western Feminisms. Extracts from Ewa Majewska's Feminist Antifascism (2021), focus the case of postsocialist neoliberal Poland, a ‘semi-peripheral state’ through the lens of the legacy of Polish 1980s trade union-led social movement Solidarność, weak resistance, and public protest, to situate feminism as a political antithesis to fascism. In counterpoint, Madina Tlostanova, Suruchi Thapar-Björkert, and Redi Koobak's ‘Border thinking and disidentification,’(2016) advocates for transversal dialogues and ‘volatile but effective coalitions between postsocialist and postcolonial feminists,’, proposing tools for a feminist practice that escapes the terms of feminism's 'Western' hegemonic centre.

Readings

Together we will read:

- Extracts from Ewa Majewska (2021), 'Introduction: Why Should We Reclaim the Public?,' Feminist Antifascism: Counterpublics of the Common, Verso

- Madina Tlostanova, Suruchi Thapar-Björkert, and Redi Koobak (2016), 'Border thinking and disidentification: Postcolonial and postsocialist feminist dialogues,' Feminist Theory, 17(2), pp. 7-14

 There is no expectation to read the texts in advance as we will read out loud, one person and one paragraph at a time, together. Please bring copies of the texts with you - which will be sent once you register - if possible.

 RSVP and to receive readings

CEED Feminisms

This British Art Network (BAN) research group explores the role of feminist thinking in constructing cultural narratives about Central Eastern Europe and British Central Eastern European diaspora. A series of 5 reading groups, September 2023 - February 2024, will bring together a network of practitioners based in the UK and Central Eastern Europe to distill their research into a published bibliograph and resouce in order to expand upon the concerns and content of each session. 

CEED Feminisms responds to cultural blind spots around prejudice and xenophobia in the UK towards the 'Eastern European' immigrant, sharpened by Russia’s war in Ukraine, and by Brexit. The CEED Feminsims programme aims to open spaces of mutual support, curiosity and learning that oppose the UK's hostile environment.

The CEED Feminisms network comprises over 40 members who joined via an open call. Contributing from varying professional and personal perspectives – artist, migrant, scholar, activist – since May 2023 the network has identified and developed research around focus areas for the programme.

The series launches with three meetings addressing decolonial, postsocialist Central 'Eastern' European feminisms; transnational feminist solidarity in war; and labour and 'East' to 'West' migration.

To learn more about forthcoming sessions, click here. 

The Art Practices and British Central Eastern European Diaspora Research Group is facilitated by by Jessie Krish and Adomas Narkevičius (Cell Project Space), and Lina Dz̆uverović, Sabrina Fuller and Helena Reckitt (Feminist Duration Reading Group). All are welcome to contribute and participate.

BAN is a Subject Specialist Network supported by Tate and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, with additional public funding provided by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. 

To find out more about the CEED Feminisms Research Network, or to discuss your access needs in relation to a reading group session, please contact Jessie Krish: jessie [at] cellprojects [dot] org

Image credits

Darija Radaković, Misplaced Woman, 2015. Courtesy of the artist. Image credit: Mick

Collective brainstorming during CEED Feminisms Info Meeting, Cell Project Space, May 4 2023

CEED Feminims 2: Transnational Feminist Solidarity in War

CEED Feminims 2: Transnational Feminist Solidarity in War
Desire Lines II, led by Lauren Craig

Desire Lines II, led by Lauren Craig