The FEMINIST DURATION READING GROUP explores feminisms from outside the dominant Anglo-American canon, welcoming feminists of all genders and generations to discuss the legacy and resonance of art, thinking and collectivity from earlier periods of feminism, in dialogue with contemporary practices and movements. MOUNTFORD GROWING COMMUNITY seeks to strengthen community cohesion and health within Mountford Estate and the wider community through various activities including gardening, growing vegetables , community meals where we can share those traditions and recipe swapping days, and making a community cookbook. It is an inclusive organisation made up of local residents founded by Rose Gibbs.

The event will comprise reading out loud, in turn, as a group, an extract from an Italian feminist text, and a shared exploration of the issues that it raises through gentle and respectful group discussion.

The text describes ‘The practice of doing’ in a chapter which deals with how women who may not share ties of politics, family or friendship can become unified by the shared implementation of a common project to which each has a commitment.

The session will relate the separatist, gender-specific focus of 1970s and 80s Italian feminisms to current considerations of gender fluidity and femme-identification.

The text (provided on the day) is taken from: The Milan Women’s Bookstore Collective, Sexual Difference: A Theory of Social- Symbolic Practice, trans. Patricia Cicogna and Teresa de Lauretis, (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1987)