A few days have passed since Friday’s presentation. And, as Katie expressed in her post, the experience has left me reflecting not only on the organization and design of our presentations but also on the design, theory, and practice of Harlot. Personally, Friday’s discussion with the audience was exactly what I needed. In many respects, since I first jumped on board, with a genuine personal and intellectual interest and devotion to the project, I have not really stepped outside of it or forced myself to see the project from multiple views. Some of the issues raised during the question/answer session on Friday forced me to begin that process–an important one, and a timely (kairotic, perhaps) one.
It’s a good time to reflect on what we’ve done so far–what we’ve put into action–and how well it fits with our goals and philosophy. One of the greatest challenges we face (and we were reminded of this on Friday) is gaining interest from and facilitating engagement with the public…and this is central to Harlot. How will we capture the attention of the public? How will we gain their interest and respect? What will make them want to participate and to continue to participate in Harlot?
Though this week we need to focus our attention on revising our presentations for the Fem(s) Rhet(s) conference on Friday, I think when we return, we need to spend more time working with the public on Harlot. We need to talk to more non-academics as we move forward with this project. We need to “go public.”
I guess “If you build it, they will come” doesn’t work in this case, huh?