BADS_lab Culminating Program

BADS_lab (the Black Arts and Decolonial Sciences Laboratory) is a nomadic lab at the edges of art, research, and social practice. For five Sundays this past May, at the Land School, we convened a cohort of twenty creatives around the prospect of generating maroon infrastructures: community-built systems for communicating and cultivating, playful and usable now, resilient when centralized systems fail.

The gatherings centered on the building of a process germ bank, an experimental approach to preserving and sharing knowledge in its most nascent form. We invited each fellow to articulate small germs of their own creative practice: carryable seeds of ideas that other people in other contexts can grow in their own soil. Alongside, we drew inspiration from what was already germinating in the neighborhood around the Land School: the arrivant plants growing in the cracks and vacant lots of the South Side, the autonomous communications infrastructures we installed in the room, the questions surfacing from each fellow's lifeworld. The repertoire that emerged will travel with us in August to São Paulo, and in November to Dar es Salaam.

Please join us on June 20 for an afternoon to engage with the experiment. The format will be a brief introduction to the lab, a round-table with the fellows reflecting on what they brought to the lab and what emerged through it, a short Q&A, and time to encounter the works in the room. Attendees will also receive a lab journal documenting the cohort's process, including the germs produced, the texts that shaped the conversations, the exercises undertaken, and the questions that animated the work

About The Land School

The Land School, a new pedagogical platform at the site of the former St. Laurence Elementary School, proposes a radical model of artistic experimentation and archival stewardship, providing space, time, access, collaborative inquiry, process-driven programming, and performance, all led by an intergenerational cohort of artists, archivists, scholars, craftspeople, cultural workers, and creative organizations invested in culture as a service.

The Land School's Policies and Protocol:

Upon arrival, please enter the building at the entrance on S. Dorchester Ave.

Ride sharing is encouraged as parking is limited. Please be sure to not block the entrances and exits of our neighbors.

Firearms on the premises are strictly prohibited.

No smoking, vaping or incense is permitted inside.

No pets are allowed.

No professional photo/video equipment allowed unless preapproved by Rebuild.

Please be mindful of your neighbors by respecting their personal space and bodily autonomy.

No violence - verbal or physical - will be tolerated. Any attendee creating an unsafe environment will be removed from the premises immediately, at the discretion of the Rebuild staff.

We take the safety our all of our guests seriously. If any guest is found violating these protocols, they may be escorted off the property immediately and will not be welcome to return.

Notice of Photography and Videography

By entering The Land School, you acknowledge and consent to being photographed and/or videotaped. Images and recordings may be used for promotional, archival, or other purposes by the organizers. If you do not wish to be photographed or recorded, please notify a staff member upon arrival. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Thank you for reviewing and honoring The Land School's policies and protocol.

We look forward to welcoming you!