Skool's Out

Juliana Spahr posted an update, on her swoonrocket blog, about the Durutti Free Skool, an “aggregate” school (or should we keep typing “skool”?) consisting of nearly free classes (there’s a $20 tuition) held across the country. The experiment in pedagogy is aimed at the production of knowledge outside of the bounds of educational institutions, as well as at bringing people together to discuss the intersection between poetry and activism:

It's an "aggregate" skool because it is for anyone who has already helped run, or participated in, a Poetry Free Skool this year. Sort of. To recount, we are inviting people to host a Free Skool in their region, of any size larger than two (it should qualify as a conspiracy), which is concerned with Marxist and anarchist poetics. We have recommended two texts (listed below) but that's not a rule, just a proposal. Our commitment is to an interest in thinking about poetry and being a poet and the questions of poetry and social existence from an anarchist and/or Marxist perspective.

We keep saying: we are not trying to get anyone to do this. If you want to have a free skool about gluten, do that. Or do something else entirely. All we are saying is, if you want to do this, we want to do it with you, and help facilitate, and help in whatever ways we are able, and help host a big meetup of everyone who has done similar things.

It doesn’t seem like there’s much, if any, of an hierarchical organization to the school/skool—Spahr’s post is more like an attempt at inspiring similar schools/skools all over the country, with the goal of eventually putting them in communication.