TST NYC hosted the first in our new Lecture Series on Friday, August 25th, 2017 at Brooklyn’s excellent Catland Books. Proceeds from this event went to the legal support fund for TST’s Religious Reproductive Rights campaign.
Witch Feminism, a Brief History – Kristen Sollée
Kristen J. Sollée is a lecturer at The New School and founding editrix of Slutist, a sex positive feminist arts and culture website. Her first book, Witches, Sluts, Feminists: Conjuring the Sex Positive was called a “Must Read” by BUST and described in The Guardian as “a whirlwind history of the witch in America and her shared history with sexually liberated women and radical liberationary politics.”
In this illustrated lecture, Kristen J. Sollée traces the history of “witch feminism” from Early Modern Europe to the present. With an eye specifically on female sexuality, she will delve into the links between witches, midwifery, and reproductive rights; the transformation of witch hunting into slut shaming; and the role of the witch in feminist activism and politics over the past century. With art, literature, film and popular culture as a backdrop, this talk will peel back layers of misinformation and misogyny to chart the witch’s development from diabolical sorceress to symbol of sexual and intellectual liberation.
The Black Mass, a Portrait of Rebellion – Sarah Lyons
Sarah Lyons is a witch, activist, and generally spooky person currently living in NYC. She has been studying witchcraft and the occult since she was was just a kid running home from school to watch The X-Files every night. She believes critical, and active engagement with the world around us is fundamental to creating a better society for all. She currently works at Vice.
The Black Mass, The Witch’s Sabbat, the gathering place for the supposed enemies of both church and state during the middle ages and early modern period. While the exact nature or existence of these meetings is a matter of speculation, the spirit of what they represent both as a tool of propaganda, and as a model for revolution is still alive today. By examining the parallels between the rhetoric of yesterday and the legislation of today, we can get a picture of the world that Western Christianity fears, and begin to create that world for ourselves.
Black Magic Among Paris’ Fin de Siècle Literati – Tara Isabella Burton
Tara Isabella Burton completed a doctorate in theology and fin de siècle French decadence as a Clarendon Scholar at the University of Oxford, and has written on religion, culture, and travel for National Geographic, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and more. She is currently the staff religion writer for Vox.com and has lectured on religion and religious history at conferences ranging from Calvin College’s Festival of Faith and Writing to the Theorizing the Web Conference to the Morbid Anatomy Museum.
A story about the early days of sex, drugs, duels to the death, and early celebrity journalism – op-eds alleging sorcery in political and literary opponents — this lecture explores the seedy world of black magic among Paris’s fin de siècle literati – blending scandalous historical anecdote with more general reflections on what made occultism so attractive to 19th century Parisians, and the way in which a burgeoning celebrity culture intensified these magical rivalries.
The Satanic Panic, a Contemporary Look – Lucien Greaves
Lucien Greaves is co-founder of and spokesperson for the Satanic Temple, an international nontheistic religious organization advocating for secularism and scientific rationalism.
In this lecture, Lucien explores the continuation of the Satanic Ritual Abuse panic into the current day and introduces the audience to Grey Faction, a sub-organization of The Satanic Temple dedicated to combating irrational conspiracy theory-based moral panics, modern witch-hunts, and the discredited therapeutic practices that still haunt us from beyond the formally recognized Satanic Panic era.
