Complaint Curriculum

I have some more launch events for No is Not a Lonely Utterance: The Art and Activism of Complaining coming up in Nottingham, Sheffield and Manchester next week.

I am glad of any opportunity to share the work.

The book is about sharing the work.

No is Not a Lonely Utterance ends with a “complaint curriculum,” made up of ten activities. Copies of the curriculum will be shared shortly with feminist societies - a double page spread of the first four activities. I have included in this post all ten activities complete with links to references. If you are a reading group and/or complaint collective and/or equality network, and would like to make use of this curriculum, feel free to get in touch with me (complaintstudy@gmail.com). I will be glad to hear from you and might even be able to join in some discussions at least virtually.

So, why end with a curriculum?

When we worked together as a complaint collective in my former institution, we read books together, kick-ass feminist books. I included many of these books in a recommended reading list at the back of The Feminist Killjoy Handbook. Reading alongside complaining helped us to relate the administrative work, which can be tedious and overwhelming, to an intellectual and political project. It helped us to connect our struggles with earlier feminist struggles.

The complaint curriculum is more than a recommended reading list. Complaints can be how we learn about institutions, about ourselves, about each other. They involve so much labour. In the book, I use this image to capture the experience of making a complaint.

Each line can be labour. So yes, it can be heavy going. And messy! And confusing!

The labour of complaint does not begin with the complaint. We have to let something in before we can get it out. That’s why section 1 of chapter 1 is entitled, “Letting it in.” I begin with a simple observation: when people talked to me about their complaints, they would often describe the experience as an internal struggle, or even as an existential crisis. The struggle or crisis was not simply about the need to decide whether to complain. It went much deeper, relating to people’s sense of who they were, their core commitments and values.

By complaining you are expressing the values and commitments as you work them out: what