Solidarity as a Platform : In conversation with Sarah Schulman

What fantasies shape our institutions? What forms of collective action become possible when we embrace the costs of solidarity?

Drawing on Sarah Schulman’s recent work The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity, this conversation examines how cultural institutions and artist-run spaces can move beyond symbolic gestures to enact meaningful–and often risky–forms of solidarity. Solidarity as a Platform asks how institutions might move from symbolic alignment to building the actual structures through which solidarity can be enacted and sustained. At a moment when censorship and political pressure are intensifying, we ask how institutions might confront their own myths, embrace imperfection, and build coalitions capable of real change.

In this conversation, Sarah Schulman joins Kalaija Mallery, Artistic/Executive Director of The Luminary, to explore how institutions can move beyond the fantasies that shape their actions and confront the costs and possibilities of genuine collective action. Together, they’ll consider how artist-run spaces and arts organizations can reimagine their roles in this moment, embracing imperfection, accountability, and coalition building as central to their work.

Sarah Schulman is a novelist, playwright, nonfiction writer, screenwriter, and AIDS historian. She holds an endowed chair in Creative Writing at Northwestern University and serves on the advisory board of Jewish Voice for Peace. The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity is her twenty-first book.

Please note: space is limited. We encourage advance reservations to ensure seating.

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