Ben Lerner's Current Events Curriculum

Ben Lerner, author of The Topeka School: A Novel, shares his recommendations for our toolkit feature—ways to learn more and stay connected to the conversation—three people to follow, three books to read, and three organizations to check out and support. From journalists who remind us that history often rhymes, to organizations protecting human rights, to books about capitalist theory, Ben Lerner’s current events curriculum turns from novel to nonfiction in order to explain our world of political unrest.

PEOPLE/GROUPS TO FOLLOW

1) Forensic Architecture is an independent research agency through the University of London using media and spatial research and architectural technology to uncover “cases of state violence and violations of human rights around the world.”

2) Masha Gessen is a New Yorker columnist, author, and translator specializing in LGBTQ+ rights and Russian politics. Gessen’s latest book is The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia.

3) Moustafa Bayoumi is an English professor at Brooklyn College, journalist, and author of How Does It Feel To Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America.

BOOKS TO READ

1) History and Obstinacy by Alexander Kluge and Oskar Negt is an “archaeology of labor power” exploring the “capitalism within us” and how genetic memory informs resistance.

2) Mistaken Identity by Asad Haider is part autobiography, part historical analysis exploring the politics of identity, anti-racism, and systematic oppression.

3) The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning and Black Study by Fred Moten provides a break-down of capitalist logic in our current social and political moment through the lens of the Black Radical Tradition.

ORGANIZATIONS TO SUPPORT

1) Make the Road New York provides legal services, transformative education practices, community organizing, and policy innovations to fight against unjust systems and power structures.

2) New York Collective of Radical Educators supports public school educators committed to fighting for social justice in schools and society.

3) Project Rebound is a network of programs through California State Universities providing resources and support to formerly incarcerated people obtaining bachelor’s degrees and beyond.

Ben Lerner has received fellowships from the Fulbright, Guggenheim, and MacArthur Foundations, and is the author of the internationally acclaimed novels Leaving the Atocha Station and 10:04, an essay, “The Hatred of Poetry,” and most recently The Topeka School. His poetry collections include The Lichtenberg Figures, Angle of Yaw, and Mean Free Path. Lerner is a professor of English at Brooklyn College.

Header Image: Joanna Kosinska | Unsplash

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