Strangers Within: Documentary as Encounter

"For the first event marking the publication of the anthology  Strangers Within, we have invited contributors to respond to a recording of Toni Morrison reading her text “Strangers”, written in 1988 and reproduced in the anthology.  Strangers Within  is edited by Therese Henningsen and Juliette Joffé and published by the independent publishing house Prototype, to be launched on 1st October 2022 at Whitechapel Gallery. It explores the idea of  documentary as encounter  through essays, stories, and other responses by filmmakers, artists, and writers. The texts engage with the risks of encounter, unsettling assumptions about the distinctions between host and guest, stranger and friend, self and other, documentarian and protagonist.

Participating artists, writers and filmmakers, including Ruth Beckermann, Xiaolu Guo, Umama Hamido, Andrea Luka Zimmerman and Adam Christensen, will respond to Morrison’s reading in relationship to their own work and/or contributions to the anthology. The event will be moderated by co-editor Therese Henningsen".

My contribution to this event in addition to my chapter was a response to Toni Morrison's essay 'Stranger', a 20 minute performance text reflecting on the idea of the stranger as figure, concept and actual.