Absent but Present: Voices from the Writer’s Block

Wednesday, 05/19/2021 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – A book release celebration for Absent but Present: Voices from the Writer’s Block, an anthology from the weekly Writer’s Block poetry workshop at Macomb Correctional Facility. The reading will feature Writer’s Block alumni Kenneth Tello and Victor Walker. They’ll be joined by special guests reading for the poets inside, including Tongo Eisen-Martin, Kim Hunter, Aaron […]

Reading: Asia Johnson & Molli Spalter

Friday, 10/25/2019 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Hamtramck Free School welcomes poets Asia Johnson and Molli Spalter for a reading generously hosted at Office Space Gallery. Asia Johnson, a Detroit native, is an activist and mentor, criminal justice reform soldier, as well as a writer and poet. Her work centers around pain, equality, the carceral state, and the search for fulfillment. As […]

Reading: Jonah Mixon-Webster & Adam Malinowski

Friday, 09/27/2019 @ 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm – Jonah Mixon-Webster is a poet and conceptual/sound artist from Flint, MI. His debut poetry collection, Stereo(TYPE), received the 2017 Sawtooth Poetry Prize from Ahsahta Press, the 2019 PEN America/Joyce Osterweil Award, and was a finalist for the 2019 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry. He is the recipient of fellowships from Vermont Studio Center, Center for African American Poetry and Poetics, […]

Labor, Culture, Production: Labor?

Thursday, 07/11/2019 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Labor, Culture, Production is a four week course/discussion that explores the nexus of labor, culture, and politics; We’ll look at: labor and exploitation in the arts, erasure and displacement caused by the non-profit industrial complex, the progressive facade of contemporary art institutions, and poetry and resistance.   Week one (Thursday July 11, 7-9PM Klinger Studios): […]

Jacques Rancière’s The Ignorant Schoolmaster

Monday, 06/10/2019 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Jacques Rancière’s The Ignorant Schoolmaster describes a theory of intellectual emancipation arising from the provocative claim that any students are perfectly capable of learning any subject effectively regardless of a teacher’s understanding or knowledge of the material being studied. The book presents a radical critique of how western educational methods create and reinforce inequalities of power between […]

Readings in Austerity

Wednesday, 06/05/2019 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – The dictionary defines austerity as “sternness or severity of manner or attitude”. However, we often read about “austerity measures”, “austerity policies”, the impact of “austerity” on this or that, or read about anti austerity protests. Does this mean that Occupy was a protest against a stern attitude, or that stern mannerisms are at the root […]

Reading: Rob Halpern & Cherise Morris

Friday, 05/17/2019 @ 7:00 pm – Join us for a poetry reading and book release with Rob Halpern and Cherise Morris. Doors 7:30, Reading 8p. Rob Halpern lives between San Francisco and Ypsilanti where he teaches at Eastern Michigan University and Huron Valley Women’s Prison. He’s the author of five collections of poetry, including Music for Porn (Nightboat Books 2012), Common Place (Ugly Duckling Presse 2015), […]

Reading Group: Stefano Harney & Fred Moten – The Undercommons

Monday, 04/08/2019 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Mondays at Klinger Studios: 7-9pm 11627 Klinger Studios Text is available for free here. A reading of Stefano Harney & Fred Moten’s book, “The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study.” From the publisher: In this series of essays Fred Moten and Stefano Harney draw on the theory and practice of the black radical tradition as […]

Reading: Tyrone Williams & Lynn Crawford

Wednesday, 07/10/2019 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Hamtramck Free School & Klinger Studios hosts a reading by Tyrone Williams & Lynn Crawford. Fiction and arts writer Lynn Crawford is a founding board member of Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), a 2010 Kresge Literary Arts Fellow, and a 2016 Rauschenberg Writing Fellow. Her work appears in various anthologies (Oulipo Compendium, Fetish, Brooklyn […]

Rally for Yusef Qualls-El

Saturday, 12/01/2018 @ 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm – In conjunction with Kites Above the Razor Wire we are raising awareness for juvenile lifer Yusef Qualls-El, still awaiting resentencing for a sentence that is unconstitutional. This event is organized by Yusef’s family and local activist organizations with support from Hamtramck Free School.

Letters to Prison Writing Event

Saturday, 12/01/2018 @ 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm – Join HFS participants for a letter writing session at the College for Creative Studies, in conjunction with Kites Above the Razor Wire, up now until December 8 at CCS. Paper, pens, envelopes and stamps will be provided by Hamtramck Free School. This event will be followed by a rally for Yusef Qualls-El, a juvenile lifer […]

Pizzapalooza

Sunday, 11/11/2018 @ 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Join HFS and Maxwell Leonard of Max Bread for Pizzapalooza, a pizza building workshop in the HFS Earth oven on Sunday, November 11 from 12-4pm, or until the dough is gone.* We’ll discuss how to build a pizza oven out of earthly materials and how to build a perfect pizza. In August of 2018, a […]

Poetry Reading and Book Launch by the Women’s Huron Valley Poetry Workshop

Thursday, 10/11/2018 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – The Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility Advanced Poetry Workshop presents a reading and a launch of our yearly poetry anthology. Asia Johnson and Karmyn Valentine, two recent workshop poets, will give a reading and Q&A, followed by recorded poems read by each member of the workshop. We will also be launching our 2018 Workshop Poetry Anthology […]

Kites Above The Razor Wire: Art, Poetry, and Messages from Michigan Prisons

Friday, 10/05/2018 – Saturday, 12/08/2018 @ 12:00 am – Kites Above the Razor Wire: Art, Poetry, and Messages from Michigan Prisons Opening October 5, 5-8pm October 6 – December 8, 2018 Valade Family Gallery in the A. Alfred Taubman Center for Design Education College for Creative Studies 460 W. Baltimore, Detroit, MI 48202 Kites – in prison, defined as messages – are forms of communication passed between the incarcerated and […]

Film: Speculation Nation

Tuesday, 07/03/2018 @ 8:30 pm – 10:30 pm – In conjunction with Corktown Cinemas, HFS presents Speculation Nation at Klinger Studios. The global financial crisis that began in 2007 battered Spain. Over a quarter of the population lost their jobs, and hundreds of thousands of people lost their homes. The constitutional guarantee for housing that has been a cornerstone of Spain following the death […]

Imagining A Different City/Llano Del Rio Mapping Rebel Cities

Tuesday, 07/10/2018 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Imagining A Different City/Llano Del Rio Mapping Rebel Cities In this talk spanning sociology, movement theory, and urban practices, Robby Herbst of the Llano Del Rio Collective will introduce the Llano Del Rio Collective’s prefigurative mapping projects and their new Rebel City Los Angeles guide. He will present the ideas behind the guides, the evolution of the collective’s […]

Film: The Hard Earth

Tuesday, 06/05/2018 @ 8:30 pm – Please join us on Tuesday, June 5 at 8:30pm for The Hard Earth, an experimental documentary charting the relationship of five Ukrainians and one Ukrainian American through the 2014 revolution and preceding war. (TRT 1:02:08, HD Color, English and Ukrainian with English subtitles, Directed by Sally Lawton). Film at 8:30, doors at 8:00pm.

Reading: Barbara Henning & Chris Tysh

Wednesday, 05/23/2018 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Join us on Wednesday, May 23 at 7pm (doors at 6pm) for a reading by Barbara Henning and Chris Tysh, followed by music from Emily Rose. This event is hosted in conjunction with the longstanding poetry series, the Woodward Line. BYOB.

Seed + Seedling Exchange

Sunday, 05/06/2018 @ 12:00 am –   SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2 – 4PM SEED & SEEDLING EXCHANGE 11627 KLINGER STREET, HAMTRAMCK Join us on Sunday, May 6 for a seed and seedling exchange. Bring seeds and/or seedlings to exchange/trade with whoever shows up! Share your knowledge and tips and learn from others as we get ready for a prosperous season of growing. In the event of rain, we […]

Film: Finally Got The News

Tuesday, 05/01/2018 @ 12:00 am – In celebration of International Workers Day, Hamtramck Free School and Corktown Cinema present the first in what will become a monthly film series on the first Tuesday of every month. Join us after the film for a discussion with co-director Rene Lichtman and​ Ernie Johnson, Community Liaison for the City of Detroit. Seating is limited. Doors at 7pm. A film […]

Film: Inquiring Nuns

Thursday, 05/10/2018 @ 8:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Two young nuns (Sister Marie Arné and Sister Mary Campion) explore Chicago, from a supermarket to the Art Institute and in front of churches on Sunday, confronting people with the crucial question, “Are you happy?” Music score by Phillip Glass. (Dir. Gerald Temaner and Gordon Quinn, 1968).

Film: Hippie Family Values

Thursday, 04/26/2018 @ 8:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Shot over a period of ten years at a remote communal ranch in New Mexico, Hippie Family Values is an intimate chronicle of a handful of hippie elders, along with their adult children and grandkids (Dir. Seckinger, 2017). For more on this film, and to view the trailer, please visit: https://hippiefamilyvalues.com

Fred Moten’s Black and Blur

Monday, 05/14/2018 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm –   Join Hamtramck Free School and Paul Jaussen for a close reading of Fred Moten’s latest text, Black and Blur. Moten is an exhilarating and challenging interdisciplinary figure, working at the intersection of poetry, theory, black studies, and performance.  For the months of May and June, HFS will host a collaborative reading/discussion of Moten’s Black and […]

Alternative Pedagogy Conference: Resisting Carceral Logic: Strategies for Creating Educational Spaces in Prison

Friday, 03/30/2018 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm – This presentation and discussion will focus on systems of education as they relate to the prison industrial complex; the state of education and arts based programming in Michigan prisons today, strategies for resisting the impediments of carceral logic as it pertains to education behind bars, and collaborative pedagogical processes between incarcerated and non-incarcerated people by […]

The Questions of Curating, Pt. 1

Saturday, 03/10/2018 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm – curating_poster_2 Title:  Workshop – The Questions of Curating Location: MOCAD, 4454 Woodward, Detroit, MI 48201 Contact for registration or further information: Steve Panton, [email protected] ,  313-2089826 Background:  The exhibition provides a unique format for creating a space to discuss important contemporary issues. In this intensive workshop, participants will work through the “questions of curating” to create […]

Writer’s Block Year End Fundraising Campaign

Monday, 12/11/2017 – Sunday, 12/31/2017 @ All Day – Friends, Hamtramck Free School has been working with incarcerated artists and writers since 2012 in a prison outside of Detroit. We never fundraise, are 100% volunteer driven, and are very financially lean as an “organismization.” But the time has come when we need to reach out for support from the local art and activist communities. The Knight […]

Writing in Real Time: Emergent Poetics from Whitman to the Digital

Friday, 04/06/2018 @ 7:00 pm – Paul Jaussen will discuss his recently published book Writing in Real Time: Emergent Poetics from Whitman to the Digital (Cambridge University Press, 2017).  From Walt Whitman to the contemporary period, the long poem has been one of the more dynamic, intricate, and yet challenging literary practices of modernity. Addressing those challenges, Writing in Real Time […]

Film: Free to Learn

Thursday, 03/29/2018 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – 7pm, Thursday March 29 Popps Packing, 12138 Saint Aubin, Hamtramck, MI 48212 Screening of “Free to Learn,” followed by an open discussion on free schools and radical pedagogy. “Free to Learn is a 70 minute documentary by Jeff Root & Bhawin Suchak that offers a “fly on the wall” perspective of the daily happenings at […]

We Don’t Dream Under the Same Sky

9338 Joseph Campau is exhibiting the work of the Writer’s Block April 15 – April 29, 2017 We Don’t Dream Under the Same Sky New art and writing by David Armstrong Jones, Donald Malone-El, Dyson X Slater, Fred Williams, James D. Fuson, James D. Thomas, Julian Johnson, Major Shepherd-El, Maurice Sanders, Raymond Hall, Rolando Hernandez, […]

STS Study Group

Karen Barad’s Meeting the Universe Half Way: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning, Luciano Floridi’s The Philosophy of Information, and Bernard Stiegler’s Technics and Time, 1: The Fault of Epimetheus. These three thinkers demarcate approaches to STS, broadly conceived, and present novel ways of thinking about fundamental ontology, epistemology, in addition to […]

Philosophies of Incarceration & The Incarceration of Philosophy

Friday, 03/17/2017 @ 6:30 pm – Philosophies of Incarceration & The Incarceration of Philosophy 22nd Annual Philosophy Conference Sponsored by the Philosophy Graduate Student Union at Villanova University. March 17–18, 2017 at Villanova University Hamtramck Free School’s Michael Brown, Fred Williams and Kyle Akinyemi Daniel-Bey will be presenting at the 22nd Annual Philosophy Conference at Villanova University (800 E. Lancaster Avenue,Villanova, Pennsylvania). For […]

Technology, Time, and the Limits of the Human

  Technology…what is that all about…is it good or is it wack? From watches to smartphones, windmills to nuclear submarines, human beings have been and will continue to be immersed in technology. This study group will be an ongoing reading/discussion group dedicated to understanding the nature of technology, technological systems, and the impact that technological […]

Poetic Rebellion

Friday, 09/09/2016 – Monday, 09/12/2016 @ All Day – September 9th-12th and Beyond Kinross Correctional Facility, the MDOC and Prisons Across the US and the Globe IN SOLIDARITY WITH OTHER PRISON PROTESTS ACROSS THE US ****UPDATES FROM KINROSS**** True to form, the state has responded with misinformation, suppression and repression. For some, their protests became rebellions. Hundreds of men have been relocated, many to level […]

Chi Kung

Monday, 09/12/2016 @ 6:00 pm – 6:45 pm –   Join B. Harper and Hamtramck Free School for Chi Kung Chi Kung is for health and meditation. The 45 minute session will include gentle exercises (combination of sitting and standing), stretching the ligaments, loosening the joints and relaxing your mind. All ages. Wear loose clothing, flat shoes and bring water. Enter through the wooden gate […]

Detroit Poetry Society

Thursday, 08/04/2016 @ 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm – Poetry & Artist development workshops facilitated by Detroit Poetry Society and hosted by Hamtramck Free School. Thursday, August 4: 7 – 9:30pm. Enter through the wooden gate and then the black side door. Detroit Poetry Society is a literacy and performance-oriented collective founded in Detroit. Hosting seasonal workshops  based around creative writing, performance and social […]

Poetry Workshop with Sheezy Bo Beezy

Friday, 05/20/2016 @ 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Friday, May 20, 5-7pm Klinger Studios 11627 Klinger Studios Workshop by Sheezy Bo Beezy, co-founder of Detroit Poetry Society. A spoken word / word expression workshop. Focused on the process of transforming bad energy into good vibes!

Poetry Workshop with M Jia

Monday, 05/16/2016 @ 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Monday, May 16 5 – 7PM Klinger Studios 11627 Klinger Street “IF YOU LOVE ME, FORGET MY NAME” A workshop by M Jia that focuses on written and performed word as a way to reinvent the self, especially in the light of traumatic or deeply affecting experiences. An experimental workshop involving movement, self-discovery and good […]

Life Drawing Class

Thursday, 05/12/2016 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Thursday, May 12, 7–9pm Join us at Klinger Studios for a life drawing class. Learn to paint or draw the human figure! The duration of poses will vary. Please note: nude models will be used in this class. Please bring your own materials.  

Transformative Justice:  An Approach to Sexual Assault and Intimate Partner Abuse

Tuesday, 06/21/2016 @ 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm – Prisons and the criminal justice system perpetuate violence, fail to support survivors of violence, fail to change offenders, and fail to transform the social and cultural conditions that lead to violence.  Transformative justice is a liberatory alternative to criminalization and incarceration, which relies on community accountability and an anti-oppression framework. This course is a reading […]

Flint Trip

Monday, 02/01/2016 @ 9:00 am – 7:00 pm – WATER AND SUPPLY DROP MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1st BUS DEPARTS PROMPTLY AT 9AM FROM 11627 KLINGER STREET, HAMTRAMCK PLEASE ARRIVE BETWEEN 8:30AM – 9AM WE WILL ARRIVE BACK AROUND 7PM Freeschool is taking a school bus (aka The Mother of Intention) up to Flint on Feb.1st to distribute water and work with groups on the ground there. […]

The NPIC in the D: How “Philanthropy” uses the “Creative Class” to Displace and Erase

Tuesday, 03/01/2016 @ 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm – Tuesday Feb 16th @ 6:30PM 11627 KLINGER ST. HAMTRAMCK This will be a public discussion about the Non-Profit Industrial Complex. The offered readings (pick one… or maybe four) may help generate an earnest conversation about the pitfalls of participation in what others have aptly called the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (NPIC). We hope that in having […]

Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Thursday, 12/31/2015 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm – Attributed as one of the most influential educators of the 20th century, Paulo Freire sought to change educational paradigms from those of subordination to those of collective liberation.  The model which is common in our current educational system- coined by Freire as the “banking model”- is diagnosed by the author as one which reinforces authoritarian […]

Make Way for Progress (A Story of Displacement): Artist talk and conversation with Garrett MacLean

Tuesday, 11/24/2015 @ 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm –   6:30pm at Popps Packing Tuesday, November 24, 2015 Make Way For Progress is a portrait series that focuses on individuals and families being forced from their homes, or their livelihoods, by large institutional forces. In Nicaragua, Chinese billionaire Wang Jing (with the support of the Nicaraguan President) is building a canal that bisects the […]

Kombeat Community Music Production: Introduction and drum machines

Thursday, 11/19/2015 @ 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm –   Kombeat Community Music Production – Dubtramck Internal Organization and Planning prepared by: Blair Arbaugh What is Kombeat? KOMBEAT is a grassroots education program in music production. Secondarily, Kombeat is an analog and electronic DJ equipment retailer and manufacturer. What are your programs? Kombeat: Ofers educational classes to youth, professionals, and elders Fabricates and designs […]

Flip Book Workshop with John Maggie

Saturday, 12/12/2015 @ 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm – December 12, 2015 at 1pm: Let’s make flip books with the flip book master himself, John Maggie. Maggie (b. 1978) is a painter and illustrator working in Detroit. He has exhibited his work at Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Jack Hanley Gallery (NYC), The Heidelberg Project (Detroit), and Telephonebooth Gallery (Kansas City). His publications are included in the Museum of Modern […]

The Visibility of Labor: Artist talk and tour with Tsz Yan Ng

The Visibility of Labor An installation by Tsz Yan Ng 24 October – 14 November Artist’s talk and gallery tour 6pm, Saturday November 14 “The Visibility of Labor” is the latest of a series of installations by Tsz Yan Ng that consider issues of labor in global textile manufacturing through a long-term relationship with Lafayette 148 New […]

A Thousand Plateaus of Cannibal Metaphysics (Reprise)

Saturday, 10/24/2015 @ 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm –   Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari wrote the companion text to Anti-Oedipus, A Thousand Plateaus in 1980. Volume Two of Capitalism and Schizophrenia has impacted various disciplines in both the human social sciences and the arts. Cannibal Metaphysics: For a Post-Structural Anthropology, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro’s long awaited english translation of Metaphysiques Cannibales pushes the creative […]

Premiere of “The Writer’s Block in the Rivera Court”, a film by Katie Barkel

Saturday, 12/19/2015 @ 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm –   The Writer’s Block in the Rivera Court (2015, HD and Super 8mm, 76 minutes) A film by Katie Barkel Saturday, December 19 at 1:30pm at the Detroit Film Theater The Writer’s Block in the Rivera Court is the premiere showing of a new documentary that was filmed at the Writer’s Block poetry reading held in the Rivera Court […]

“Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti”, a film by Maya Deren

Sunday, 09/20/2015 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm – DIVINE HORSEMEN: THE LIVING GODS OF HAITI (1985)  A FILM BY MAYA DEREN (1985, 52 MIN., B&W) TOMORROW, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 DOORS AT 7:30 FILM AT 8PM KLINGER STUDIOS, 1ST FLOOR 11627 KLINGER HAMTRAMCK “Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti journeys into the world of the Vodoun religion, communing with the drums and loa rituals, made by avant-garde filmmaker Maya Deren between 1947-1951. The film […]

The NPIC in the D: How “Philanthropy” Uses the “Creative Class” to Displace and Erase

SATURDAY SEPT 12th @ 1PM 11627 KLINGER ST. HAMTRAMCK This will be a public discussion about the Non-Profit Industrial Complex. The offered readings (pick one… or maybe four) may help generate an earnest conversation about the pitfalls of participation in what others have aptly called the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (NPIC). We hope that in having […]

Fate of the Machinery

Over the past year, artist and documentarian Kate Levy has been mapping the deindustrialization of Detroit through the history of industrial auctions from 1955 to 1999. The project has a personal dimension for Levy since her family built a significant global business as the predominant industrial auction house in the city. In this role they […]

Vote for Hamtramck Free School!

VOTE FOR FREE SCHOOL: TEXT ART2 to 22333 or (747) 444-3548 For the 2015 Knight Arts Challenge People’s Choice Award Detroit For over two years, Free Schoolers have been co-facilitating the Writer’s Block, a poetry and creative arts workshop in the Macomb Regional Correctional Facility. We’ve been selected as a candidate for the 2015 Knight Arts […]

A SciFi film that remained a fiction…kind of: Guattai’s Infra-Quark Universe

  Thursday, October 29 at 8pm at Trinosophes   With the generous support of Terminal Beach, various freeschoolers will be hosting screenings of In Search of UIQ.  A film that traces the development, abandonment, and machinic remnants of Felix Guattari’s unproduced SciFi screenplay Un Amor d’UIQ. Developed after publishing his seminal solo work The Machinic […]

Parade Making Workshop

Make flags, giant flowers and insect costumes at a free all-ages parade-making workshop. Then come back for the Porous Borders Festival May 16 and 17 and join Shoshanna Utchenik and friends and neighbors for the Porous Borders Festival Parade in Hamtramck. No experience necessary! Materials will be provided. “The Porous Borders Festival (PBF) is a two-day public art festival that […]

How to Build a Beehive

Thanks to everyone who came out today for the Free School bee-hive build. Here are some pictures from today’s workshop, facilitated by Christina Barkel and Cyrus Ghaemi. Stay tuned for next week’s workshop (date TBD, but probably May 3) when we introduce the bees to the hive! An email will be sent out about this […]

Memory and the State of the City

  LOCATION: 9338 Joseph Campau Hamtramck MI In this series of discussions we will examine the relationship between memory and the state of Detroit from a psychological, historical and societal perspective. 5pm, Sat April 4: psychologist and psychoanalyst Richard Raubolt will talk about his embryonic research into the relationship between psychic aphasia of “unknown” traumas […]

W.A.W.A.D. Wire Car Workshop

SUNDAY MARCH 22nd: A WIRE CAR WORKSHOP Presented by Chido Johnson Sunday, March 22nd, 2015 3pm at 11627 Klinger Street, Hamtramck, MI This event is free and open to the public. Note: work clothes recommended. Pliers will be supplied but additional are welcome. “Growing up in the 70s and 80s in Zambian townships and rural Zimbabwe, we used to make […]

The Writer’s Block at the Detroit Institute of Arts

The Writer’s Block @ the DIA Join HFS, family members and friends of incarcerated artists SATURDAY, February 28th 1-3pm In the DIEGO RIVERA COURT 2nd level of the DIA Free and open to the public The Writer’s Block is a poetry workshop at Macomb Correctional Facility (more background @HFS).  HFS facilitators and incarcerated artists have […]

Fight Tax Foreclosure

JOIN US @ 11627 KLINGER ST.  FOR A BANNER AND SIGN MAKING WORKSHOP: Saturday 1/24 @ 8pm This year the city has given 61,881 property owners tax foreclosures 36,824 of those properties are occupied 2,570 “possibly occupied”…likely more…estimating 2-3 people in a home… that’s 120,000 people with precarious housing security MCL 211.10 – An Assessment […]

Desert As Dividing Space: Walt Disney to Bill Gates

This will be a joint event between the HFS and 9338 Campau. After the presentation we will discuss if there is interest in a reading/discussion/project group around Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project. “Desert As Dividing Space: Walt Disney to Bill Gates” An artist project by Rose DeSloover WHEN: 7pm, Sunday Feb 1 2015  WHERE: 9338 Joseph […]

The Birth of the Pharmacy and the Art of Mental Disorder

This course runs a slightly more than tangent line to some of the issues of mental health and pharmacology. We will examine the birth of the clinic and the pharmacy from historical and philosophical perspectives, and nervously scratch at the skin of the sociologic of mental health and mental health treatment. We live in a […]

A Thousand Plateaus of Cannibal Metaphysics

Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari wrote the companion text to Anti-Oedipus, A Thousand Plateaus in 1980. Volume Two of Capitalism and Schizophrenia has impacted various disciplines in both the human social sciences and the arts. Cannibal Metaphysics, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro’s long awaited english translation of Metaphysiques Cannibales pushes the creative plateaus beyond the 15 […]

Riot and Revolt: Selections from Alain Badiou’s The Rebirth of History: Times of Riots and Uprisings

“When we revolt it’s not for a particular culture. We revolt simply because, for many reasons, we can no longer breathe” (Frantz Fanon) “In these processes, where the state puts on its most hideous expression, a no less detestable consensus is forged over a particularly reactive conception that can be summarized thus: the destruction or […]

The Writings of Eugene Ionesco

The Writings of Eugene Ionesco is a survey of Ionesco’s work. We will begin with a series of Ionesco’s earlier one act plays. Readings will be accompanied by expository and critical texts by Ionesco himself. Preceding each reading, roles will be assigned democratically to the members of the group. Each reading will be followed by a […]

The Art of Rolling: Skateboarding for Beginners

The Art of Rolling: Skateboarding for Beginners is a workshop for all ages on the art of rolling on a skateboard. Led by artist and pro-skateboarder Greg Fadell, this workshop will take place throughout October on select Saturdays and will encourage participants to think about skateboarding in new ways; beyond tricks and into the world of […]

Flash of the Spirit

Readings from “Flash of the Spirit” 6:30 – 8:00pm Tuesdays September 2 and September 9 Venue: “9338 Campau” Gallery, 9338 Joseph Campau, Hamtramck Description In this course we will read selected sections from Richard Farris Thompson’s influential book “Flash of the Spirit”, with a specific concentration on the Yoruba section. Participants in the course will […]

Youth Open Studios

Every Saturday, 3–5pm at Klinger Street Studios, 11627 Klinger Street, Hamtramck, MI All ages! Sculpture making! Painting! Drawing! More!

Writings From Prison

Writings from Prison is a reading group that will look at a variety of incarcerated voices from around the world. 6pm @ Klinger Street Studios / 11627 Klinger Street June 30, July 7, 14, 21, and 28 “Cell Song” by Etheridge Knight Night Music Slanted Light strike the cave of sleep. I alone tread the red […]

Animism, Totemism, Traditional Gift Economies and “Deep Ecology”

Image courtesy of Saffell Gardner. Tuesdays at 9338 Jos Campau, Hamtramck, MI at 7pm. This course will present and discuss aspects of Native American worldviews, what have become known as “indigenous ontologies,” from historical and ethnographic accounts.  The material will be linked to traditional practices and to the effects of European conquest.  We will be […]

Postcolonial Feminism

Join List Serve for times and locations In this course we will explore some of the key thinkers in Postcolonial Feminist theory. We will examine the writings, poems and films of various women placed under this conceptual umbrella. These women will aid our investigations into the ways that sexism, racism and classism shape the experience […]

₡₳₱I₮₳£ $UNDAY$

   RISE IN GRIME HUSTLE & SHINE DAS KAPITAL Reading Group Sunday Mornings Ever had the desire to spend Sunday mornings reading a thousand plus page book start to finish just for fun? Ever thought to yourself…”Political economy, now that’s a subject I could really get excited about.” Ever wondered what would prompt a filmmaker […]

History From the Ground Up

Image courtesy of Hamtramck Historical Museum. “This is Joseph Campau just south of where the viaduct is today. Dodge Main is on the left. This dates from about 1920,” – Greg Kowalski History From The Ground Up is an exploratory course that mixes investigation of group-selected aspects of Hamtramck’s history with a look at different approaches to interpreting history. […]

Black Feminist Thought

Black Feminist thought provides us with powerful testimonials of brutality, oppression, sexism and racism. Black Feminist work also provides scathing critiques, strength, knowledge, and empowerment. In this class we will familiarize ourselves with the vibrant legacy and brilliant future of Black Feminist writing, poetry and film.  While exploring the works of these women, we will […]

2014 Garden Planning & Transplant Production

MONDAY, MARCH 24, 2014 @ 7PM AT KLINGER STREET STUDIOS 11627 Klinger Street, Hamtramck, Michigan 48212 This class will give a general overview of garden planning, including a look at various plant families and the best time to plant them. We will create a soil mixture for transplant production, and create some transplant starters together. We […]

Silently Seeking the Self: A Workshop on Silence

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 23, 2014 at 3pm and SUNDAY MARCH 30, 2014 at 3pm We typically use verbal language to express ourselves. With this noise, we can lose touch with who we are. This class will be guided in complete silence. Without the hustle and bustle of city living, we will learn from our pulse and […]

The Writings of Bertolt Brecht

FEBRUARY 10th, 17th, 24th + MARCH 3rd, 10th, 2014. This class is an introduction to the writings of Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956). Over the duration of five weeks, we will look at Brecht’s theoretical writings, two of his plays, and handfuls of poems that point to dramaturgical themes he so often emphasized, such as the Verfremdungseffekt (estrangement effect), […]

Of Other Spaces, Heterotopia

DECEMBER 9th, 16th, 30th, 2013 + JANUARY 6th, 13th, 2014 This five week class is a cross-pollinated investigation of other spaces. Pulling from texts and visionary architectural drawings, we will look at centuries of variant trajectories within which humans have articulated other spaces, be it utopia, heterotopia, or other-wise. We will begin with Michel Foucault’s “Des Espace Autres,” […]

A Very Brief Introduction to the Literature of Free Schools / “Radical” Education

NOVEMBER 4th, 11th, 18th & 25th This four week class is intended to provide a brief introduction to the literature of free schools/”radical” education. It will start from Ron Miller’s historical overview of key thinkers and practitioners before proceeding to selected excerpts from diverse writers such as Paulo Freire, Chris Mercogliano, Jonathan Kozol and Henry Giroux. It is not intended as a […]

Painting & Making with Kids at Klinger Studios

Over the past couple months artists at Klinger Street Studios have opened up their workspaces in conjunction with Hamtramck Free School to offer hands-on building lessons and “open-paint” sessions. If you’d like to help HFS organize a youth-related program, e-mail us at [email protected].  Above: A sew and dye workshop in Danielle Karmo’s studio during the […]

Reading of Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle

This class is a reading group centered on discussion of Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle.  We will read the text together as a group during each meeting and discuss the implications of Debord’s analysis for our contemporary situation.