A talk by writer Taylor Le Melle challenging the mind/body divide by presenting writing as a physical practice.

Please note the earlier than usual starting time for this talk, at 4pm.

1) Shake, shake! Twist, twist! I do not believe in the mind/body split! If it was a manifesto, it would argue that writing must be treated as a physical discipline before it can be a cognitive one. 2) If it was a research paper it would argue that repercussions of the violent mechanisms of extractive capitalism are found at the level of the so-called individual body, which anyway is not limited to the boundary of the skin. 3) If it was unsolicited advice from a biohacker it would suggest that eating breakfast is the least (or most?!) a Western European art student can do to FREE anybody. Hmph. 4) If it came from a spiritually oriented mystic, it might say something like working with transgenerational phenomena living inside the nervous system is a pre-condition for any other concrete or relational concerns.

Taylor Le Melle trained as an art historian and a curator, but she eventually came to her senses and has thus turned to writing. They Set up Parliament in Hell is her most recent novella published by Vleeshal, NL (2026). Other writing includes "Rigour, Not Bound up with Mastery" in Tai Shani's monograph Cosmic Caesious... (2026); "A Wooden Sculpture in Sylvia Wynter's Hills of Hebron" in Vol. 10 of Artes Mundi Journal; “100 Winner.” in Anthea Hamilton's monograph Mash Up (2023); and “Mary Ellen Pleasant: Black Capitalist” a script for Episode 15 of Drapetomaniax: Unshackled History directed by Micheal Harriot (2023). Le Melle has been a Sandberg Instituut Research Fellow (2021-2022) and a Guest Resident at Rijksakademie van Beeldende en Kunsten (2023-2025). She was a founding co-director at not/nowhere in Hackney, London. Her show Harlem Jazz Standard airs on Radio WORM every 1st Thursday at 5pm CEST.

Taylor Le Melle, (Credit: Portrait by Matthew Arthur Williams)

Description supplied by the event organiser.