EDIT: We now have a full invitation and a map of all the places where gatherings are happening on the Illich at 100 page of the school called HOME website.
Find your nearest Illich gathering
Our friend Jade grew up with Ivan Illich as a regular visitor to her household, sitting around her parents’ kitchen table, teaching together at the institute they started. She found this photograph while cleaning out the garage. Most likely it was taken in Bremen in the late 1990s, when she lived for a while with Ivan, Barbara Duden and Lee Hoinacki in the house on Kreftingstraße described in ‘The Cultivation of Conspiracy’.
This month, Jade has been visiting us here in Östervåla, and before she heads on to the next stop on her European travels, I’m going to sit down with her around this kitchen table and record a conversation about her memories of Illich and his friends.
If you read or listen to my work for any length of time, you’ll soon encounter Illich’s name. He’s one of the handful of thinkers of whom I can say, quite honestly, I don’t know where they stop and where I start. There are people whose words you chew on and digest until their way of seeing becomes a part of you. That’s how it is with Ivan.
Here’s an essay I wrote last year on one thread within the weave of his later writing:
And here’s the story of the time I went looking for his old office at Penn State with his friend and pupil Sajay Samuel:
And here are some more Illich-related posts from Writing Home.
The centenary of Illich’s birth falls on Friday, 4 September. I’ve already heard rumours of various gatherings and commemorations going on in different corners of the world around those dates and throughout the course of this year.
A few weeks ago, I got an email from Ayșem Mert, a political scientist at Stockholm University and one of the friends I’ve made over the years through a shared love of Ivan’s thinking.
“Should we plan something for September in the Red House?” she wrote.
Well, once having read that, it was hard to let go of the thought. So among the other threads I’ve been weaving with over these past weeks, the beginning of a plan has come together.
Maybe this ends up as a convivial dinner with half a dozen of us around the kitchen table, or maybe it’s a day-long event in the old shoe shop, or even something larger. The date we have in mind is Saturday, 5 September, and the location will be here in Östervåla, 50km north of Uppsala, Sweden. The intention is to gather and share stories and talk about the ways that Illich’s work continues to work on us.
Or, as Ayșem puts it, “What remains alive, convivial, troubling, transformative or inspiring in Illich’s thought today?”
We’re going to reach out to people we know around the Nordic countries who have an interest in or connection with Illich, but I thought it was good to bring this forward as a public invitation and see who responds.
There are venues we could use in Östervåla, if this grows into a larger event than the shoe shop space can comfortably hold – and for those travelling from further off, I can check the availability of simple accommodation at the hostel run by our local sports association, or we can always put out mattresses around the place.
For now, if this is sounding like something you are interested in, then I invite you to fill out this little Google Form:
If you’re nowhere near Östervåla, but you’d like to mark the centenary anyhow, then leave a comment on this post and tell us where in the world you are. There’s a line that Illich never wrote down, but I’ve heard it from several of his friends: “The limit of political possibility today is the number of people who can sit around a table and share a meal together.”
So it would feel quite appropriate if there were lots of small gatherings around tables in different places over that weekend of 4-6 September, where friends and strangers meet around the rumour of this thinker and the ongoing resonances of his work. If there are a few people who want to host such gatherings, then I’ll put together a map.
Finally, because the question has already come to me from a few people I have mentioned this to, whatever shape the gathering in September takes, it will be an in-person event with no livestream – but we’re working on a further plan for an online series later in the year, revolving around Ivan Illich and John Berger, whose centenary also falls this autumn.
If you want more news on any of this and you’re not already subscribed to Writing Home, then this would be a good moment to do so.
And please feel welcome to share this invitation along any channels where you thing it will be received with interest.
I’m curious to see what shape this ends up taking – and grateful for all of you who are reading and supporting the work that makes it possible.
DH
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