Scenes from an incredible week of conversation, music, old friends, and great mentors. I spent last Thursday - Sunday in Montreal (the best city) at the invitation of the wonderful Will Tilleczek, who organized a fantastic political theory round table on my book at the University of Montreal. One of the things that is so rewarding about working in an interdisciplinary space is getting to engage people who have radically different methodological and disciplinary perspectives on your work, and this conversation was so good I wish I had had it before publishing the final draft. (Luckily all 5 texts will be appearing in print early next year!). While in Montreal, the legendary @smallscaleraph put together a fantastic ensemble of improvisers at a beautiful space that I was very humbled to be part of. Again a testament to the power and beauty of that city and its people, especially its musicians. And who knew I would run across one of my advisor’s most well-known books sitting right there on top of a pile in a great bookstore? Sunday I was back Philly for another fantastic book event at the Philadelphia Public library, in dialogue with possibly my oldest academic colleague Davey Tomlinson, who was right there as so many different parts of this project emerged. Perhaps the biggest deal of all is that the man who started it all for me came down from Easton for the talk. This book project literally started in a 2003 literature seminar at Rutgers with John McClure, and I’ve been figuring it all out for the last 25 years. Getting to see him, now 80 years old and still amazing, in Philadelphia, among all of my oldest friends, closest family, and some of my best dialogue partners—what else can you ask for? We also had our very first honest to God philosophy punisher, who referred to Davey as “the Buddha Professor.”, I got to spend time with my cousin and best friend for his birthday, see my sister and her beautiful kids, and my parents. Last stop: Ted and Hannah’s, where I finally got a copy of Ted’s amazing book (MUST READ). Got back to my amazing partner Claudia and Gracie’s demands for food yesterday. Next up: Clio’s books in Oakland, Monday May 18.
Happiest of birthdays to my best friend since the day I was born, the Don of guitar pedals, conductor and composer of legendary drones AND iconic arpeggios, the man behind @relicmusicshop and a hundred other great projects, cugino mio, @michael_nicosia . Here he is with a couple of the dangest dogs you ever seen. Glad I got to spend the day in Jersey with the best.
Feeling incredibly fortunate to be able to make sounds with magic people. Thanks to @danielwyche for providing a context for all of this. Also thanks to @massyemond and Emily Seguin for the moving opening and farewell to Raymon Torchinsky! Thanks to the few who showed up !
Videos @jesseeckerlin
Seventh Stanine 2026: Fri., 6/12 and Sat., 6/13. Playing Saturday: Daniel Wyche (@danielwyche ). Daniel Wyche is a Chicago-based guitarist, composer, and improviser. Working with a wide range of physical preparations, extended techniques, and pedal instruments, his solo recordings and live performances are characterized by long-form structured improvisations and multichannel guitar. He has been a curator with the Elastic Arts Foundation in Chicago since 2013, where is work has been described as “crucial” by Dusted and “vital” by the Chicago Reader. In March of 2020, Daniel co-founded The Quarantine Concerts in collaboration with Chicago’s Experimental Sound Studio. The series has been widely praised as a model for online/streaming live music. Along with his solo guitar work, Daniel is involved in several ongoing collaborations, most notably the trio of Wyche, Mark Shippy (US Maple), and Ben Baker Billington, as well as new work with longtime collaborators like Patrick Shiroishi, Lake Mary, and many others.. His most recent solo record, “Earthwork,” was released on American Dreams Records in 2021.
Presented by @thecaribbeanisaband and taking place @rhizome_dc . Ticket link in bio.
“A grand menagerie of creative music.”
-The Wire
Hi, I have some exciting things coming up in May/June, and wanted to let friends in Montréal, Philly, the Bay Area, and DC know that I will be in your city next month and I hope to see you at one of them:
Montreal Friday May 1: I’ll be in conversation about my book with some fantastic people at the CCÉAE at the University of Montréal, Friday morning starting at 11am.
Montreal Saturday May 2, playing a great show with a large ensemble with great improvisers and friends. (A few people from the 10-piece ensemble I did at Suomi a few years ago, and some new friends and people I really admire! Fuck yeah Anne-F!) Thanks to Raphaël as always for setting it up. DM for address.
I’m also just in MTL from Friday to Sunday, so if you want to catch up or if there are any good shows, exhibits, etc. going on, let me know!
Philly, Monday May 4: another book event, this time I’ll be in dialogue with one of my oldest friends and favorite scholars, Davey Tomlinson, at the Philly Public library. This will be a super interesting one as Davey is a professor of Buddhist philosophy at Villanova, and it’ll be different perspective on the book than in other talks. Really can’t wait to do this for the (sorta) hometown crowd.
Oakland, Monday May 18th, I’ll be at the wonderful Clio’s books in conversation with Clio’s owner Timothy Don. This is an evening event, 7-9pm, so I definitely hope to see some folks I haven’t caught up with in a minute.
After that, I hope to see some DC folks at Seventh Stanine June 12 and 13, unreal bill and I’m going to lose it at Ian Williams’ set probably.
Hi everyone, Chicago friends, just a quick reminder that I will be speaking about my book this Friday at the Seminary Co-op Bookstore (@seminarycoopbookstores ) in Hyde Park from 4-5pm, alongside one of my great mentors and someone who had a huge impact on this project, Dr. Curtis Evans of the UChicago Div School. A talk at the cop was one of my major goals for this book and a huge honor, so I hope you can make it.
Book Box Book Talk Part 2, this time in alphabetical order. (It is really fun just picking up a book and talking about it for a minute, especially since so many have stories attached to them.)
Update on a book storage project I’ve had in mind for a while now! This is a work and progress and these are prototypes, so they aren’t perfect! Will be doing nicer ones later this year. Check it out, let me know what you think.
@danielwyche will be in conversation with Prof. Davey Tomlinson about Daniel’s new book The Care of the Self and the Care of the Other, an exploration of the overlap between ethical practices of self-change and political engagement, activism, and intervention. Drawing on insights about ancient philosophical practices from thinkers like Pierre Hadot, the book asks how contemporary organizers, activists, and artists, including Civil Rights era figures like Martin Luther King Jr. have understood and acted on ideas about the role of transforming oneself and one’s community while transforming the political world. We will ask, with the help of these figures, just what is the relationship between the care of the self and the care of the other, of others, of the city, and of the world?
🗓️ Monday, May 4
⏰ 6:00 p.m.
Link in bio.
#foucault #audrelorde #buddha #mlk
