Imaginary Power, Real Horizons: Dreaming the Enemies’ Nightmares
with Richard Gilman-Opalsky
Date: Friday, November 15, 2024
Time: 6-8pm (Central US Time) / 7-9pm (Eastern US Time)
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Cost: Four options:
(i) $45 for non-members
(ii) $30 for Incite Seminars members (become a member!)
(iii) Donation of your choice, including:
(iv) no cost solidarity ticket if you cannot afford to pay at this time (please email us requesting this option; no need for explanation, no questions asked: inciteseminarsphila@gmail.com).
Registration at bottom of this page.
SEMINAR DESCRIPTION
In this seminar, Richard Gilman-Opalsky presents the central arguments of his new book, Imaginary Power, Real Horizons (AK Press, 2024). This is a seminar for those who dare to dream of a society organized by a different logic than that of capitalism. Gilman-Opalsky will discuss the value of creativity and utopianism in relation to historical struggles for decolonization, emancipation, and revolution. Gilman-Opalsky challenges the notion that imaginary power is cut off from real power, arguing instead that the radical imagination is born from the material conditions of life. He focuses on the imaginary content of abolitionist politics, from slave revolts to present abolitionist targets: prisons, police, and capitalism. In this seminar, we explore and discuss the human imagination as a real, world-creating power.
In this two-hour session, Gilman-Opalsky will present the main ideas and arguments from Chapters 2, 7, 9 and from the conclusion of Imaginary Power, Real Horizons. Those are titled (respectively) “Inversion and Abolition,” “Horizons of a Riotous Epistemology,” “The Practicality of Utopianism,” and “Dreaming Their Nightmares.” Participants who wish to best prepare for the seminar will read those chapters; however no prior reading is necessary. We warmly invite anyone with a general interest in the subject matter to participate in this seminar without any prior preparation.
Richard Gilman-Opalsky is professor of political theory and philosophy in the School of Politics and International Affairs at the University of Illinois. He is the author of eight books, including Communist Ontologies, Imaginary Power, Real Horizons, The Communism of Love, Specters of Revolt, and Precarious Communism.
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