University Times

A new monthly forum born of the Occupy Pittsburgh movement will feature Pitt faculty members Marcus Rediker of history and Jackie Smith of sociology at its next event, set for tomorrow, Feb. 10, at The Union Project, 801 North Negley Ave., East Liberty.

The informal discussion series, “Occupy Your Mind Pittsburgh,” which bills itself as “part teach-in, part salon,” features artists, activists and intellectuals in a variety of formats and locations on the second Friday of each month.

In addition to presentations by Rediker and Smith, tomorrow’s event, “Challenging Inequalities: Historical and Global Dimensions of the Occupy Movements,” will feature photographs by artist and Occupy Pittsburgh activist Paradise Gray and a reading of poetry by Pitt graduate student Rebecca Mertz. Socializing begins at 7 p.m. with the program at 7:30 p.m.

The monthly gatherings are coordinated by Smith and political science faculty member Michael Goodhart in conjunction with Carnegie Mellon history faculty member Roger Rouse, Franciscan University theology faculty member Patricia Donohue and local artist Chris Rauhoff.

Goodhart said the impetus for the gatherings came not long after Occupy Pittsburgh’s initial rally and march last October.

The Occupy Your Mind concept emerged as Goodhart and colleagues pondered what they as scholars could contribute to other events associated with the Occupy movement.

“The occupy metaphor invites multiple interpretations of what it means to occupy: both to be occupied with the questions that are so important but also just to inhabit that space which, in our culture, is not always a space people are comfortable inhabiting,” he said.

“Our feeling was there are so many big, substantive issues that are invoked by Occupy … we felt like it would be useful if there were some forum for learning and talking in a way that wasn’t directly linked to planning and decision-making,” he said.

Occupy Your Mind’s initial event, held Jan. 13 at Space Gallery, Downtown, drew about 130 people, Goodhart said. The forum featured artist Susanne Slavick, poet Terrance Hayes and Occupy Wall Street think tank members Tim Weldon and Lily DeFriend.

“The big question initially was, is there a desire for this?” Goodhart said. “We were really encouraged by the turnout because it was more people than we had anticipated. It’s clear that it’s tapped into something, so we hope we can keep doing this.”

Future topics include “Art as Politics” March 9 at Bricolage Theater, Downtown, and a presentation by sociologist Leslie Sklair as part of an environmentally themed forum April 13 at a location to be determined.

Details will be posted at www.occupyyourmindpgh.net and www.facebook.com/OccupyYourMindPGH.

*

The discussions are open to anyone who wants to come, Goodhart said. “You really don’t have to have any particular degree of knowledge. You just have to be interested and concerned with these issues and that’s it. We really want it to be an open invitation and we hope people get interested and get informed.”

He added, “One of the ideas of Occupy Your Mind is to bring together activists and artists and academics and get them in a dialogue.”

At the initial event, “you clearly saw a bunch of different demographics,” Goodhart said. “It was clear we had people there who hadn’t participated in other [Occupy] things before.”

Smith, who is active in Occupy Pittsburgh’s outreach working group, said, “Occupy itself is not a membership organization. People flow in and out. Occupy Your Mind is even less. It’s a name that goes on some events that happen and it’s done in cooperation, in partnership. …  Lots of people who turn up are people who are part of the outreach working group or other working groups within Occupy. Lots of them aren’t.”

In addition to the value of the discussion that comes out of conversation among people with different perspectives, the gatherings encourage networking to connect people “who might not be totally plugged into Occupy Pittsburgh but want to be involved,” she said.

*

The events aren’t designed for people merely to listen to a one-way conversation, Goodhart said. Participants are encouraged to bring snacks to share during informal social time at the beginning and during a break in the program.

Smith noted that the events reflect values espoused by the Occupy movement. Locations are selected to highlight “spaces that are doing things that Occupy’s about — not commodified — to share art and culture,” she said. “We encourage sharing ideas, food and community and not have it be a commercial, structured kind of activity. What the movement is about is modeling alternatives to the dominant culture.”

Goodhart said, “We build into each event a more structured opportunity for a conversation that includes everyone who’s present. The presenters are there to start the conversation. But it’s a conversation we ultimately want everyone to take part in.”

Smith said the academics’ contribution is to provide a framework to help people understand the connections among individual issues. “It’s not just Marcellus shale questions over here, and transit questions over there and corporate questions over here. We’re seeing all these connect together and having some kind of sense about it. To the extent that there’s a longer-range goal … it’s to push that conversation to a level where we can try to make sense of those connections.”

—Kimberly K. Barlow