Mid Theory Collective

On the Scene: The Utopian Theater Asylum “It’s not just that Chicago has an overwhelming preference for realism, but that even within non-realist plays, the characters are made out to be as real as possible.” The Chicago store…

Catch the ever insightful @marissafenley.bsky.social take stock of contemporary Chicago theatre scene and what it might take to overthrow realism’s tyranny

mid-theory.com/2025/10/09/o...

On the Scene: The Utopian Theater Asylum “It’s not just that Chicago has an overwhelming preference for realism, but that even within non-realist plays, the characters are made out to be as real as possible.” The Chicago store…

For MTC, Marissa Fenley takes the pulse of current Chicago theatre scene, its hunkering for realism, and recent experimental dramaturgies that offer something else.

Final heart lamp meeting today at 5pm ET. Sign up at mid-theory.com/reading/

You could be reading Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq for @mid-theory.bsky.social’s book club! We’re meeting THIS THURSDAY to chat about the book. You don’t have to read the whole thing to attend the meeting!

Sign up here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

If you’re interested in writing and/or reading public scholarship, check out @mid-theory.bsky.social!

Our reading group on NEVADA starts in about two weeks! Get your copy of this brilliant, funny, trailblazing trans novel and join us on October 16th @ 5:30 ET. Sign up here: tinyurl.com/4yj7xj8p

Amazing article illustrations by Carolyn Jao for MTC!

What Was Epic Meal Time? There is nothing new being made here. Just the lingering dreams of 90s and 2000s free-wheeling optimism now rotting from the inside. As it stands, I have only managed to create one film list on my …

For MTC, Ruari Paterson-Achenbach revisits this peculiar cultural artifact and what its "recession-fueled dreams of gluttony" can teach us about present day meat-oriented masculinity.

You can sing up here: tinyurl.com/4wrd78d5

MTC has partnered with Chicago Review for a pitch workshop on October 9 @ 6pm ET. Want to try your hands in public writing, not sure how to approach editors, how to pitch your idea? Join us for a discussion of our respective processes as well as general conversations about best practices.

Hold Up: The Queer Revolutionary Children of Zero for Conduct So much of being disciplined into adulthood is a curtailing of the imagination. In February this year, I watched around thirty kids movies: movies about children, a few movies made for children, an…

For the first installment of our "Hold Up" feature, Sophia Marie Niang revisits Jean Vigo’s 1933 film ZERO FOR CONDUCT and what teaches us about the rebellious lives of children and the possibilities of forging comradely solidarity with them.
mid-theory.com/2025/09/18/h...

Hold Up: The Queer Revolutionary Children of ‘Zero for Conduct’ So much of being disciplined into adulthood is a curtailing of the imagination. In February this year, I watched around thirty kids movies: movies about children, a few movies made for children, an…

“…children’s liberation from adult domination remains as urgent today as it was in 1933. Children continue to be harmed in all the institutions…meant to ‘protect’ them.” i felt so many unnameable emotions reading this piece for my own boarding school self, for all kids enduring tyranny everywhere!

LOVE this film! High time to discover it or watch anew.

Hold Up: The Queer Revolutionary Children of Zero for Conduct So much of being disciplined into adulthood is a curtailing of the imagination. In February this year, I watched around thirty kids movies: movies about children, a few movies made for children, an…

For the first installment of our "Hold Up" feature, Sophia Marie Niang revisits Jean Vigo’s 1933 film ZERO FOR CONDUCT and what teaches us about the rebellious lives of children and the possibilities of forging comradely solidarity with them.
mid-theory.com/2025/09/18/h...

MTC first reading group on the award-winning translated stories HEART LAMP by Banu Mushtaq will take place tomorrow Sept. 18 at 5pm ET. Sign up here:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Disordered Attention Two recent books offer practical recommendations for how we should attend to art amidst the crisis of attention. After Y2K, when the world failed to end, the art historian T.J. Clark spent six mont…

"But what about works that demand more than a 'relaxed distribution of focus,' work that we want to give more of ourselves to?" Nat Hansen (@nathansen.bsky.social) reviews two recent books on art amidst our crisis of attention
mid-theory.com/2025/09/11/d...

I wrote about two recent books that offer advice on how to pay attention to art in the midst of *gestures broadly at everything*

Thanks to the awesome editors at the
@mid-theory.bsky.social
for their interest in this piece, they’re great to work with!

Disordered Attention Two recent books offer practical recommendations for how we should attend to art amidst the crisis of attention. After Y2K, when the world failed to end, the art historian T.J. Clark spent six mont…

"But what about works that demand more than a 'relaxed distribution of focus,' work that we want to give more of ourselves to?" Nat Hansen (@nathansen.bsky.social) reviews two recent books on art amidst our crisis of attention
mid-theory.com/2025/09/11/d...

Oh hey! Mid Theory Collective kicks off its Fall reading group on Thursday, Sept 18! We’re reading the first half of HEART LAMP by Banu Mushtaq! Come join—even if you didn’t read!

MTC is running two reading groups this fall. The first starts later this month. We will be reading HEART LAMP, a collection of short stories in translation and the first meeting is September 18. Get your books now and join us!! Sign up below:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Conjuring the Unplayable But why does anyone film anything? To remember it and, in the case of home viewing, to watch it repeatedly, allowing the images to spread across time like a curse. The same week I began writing thi…

You know it's there, but you can't play it!

For MTC, Emily Naser-Hall revisits the VHS tape and its haunting resurgence in the present. A perfect, perfectly haunted piece of cultural criticism to start off your spooky season 📼

Conjuring the Unplayable But why does anyone film anything? To remember it and, in the case of home viewing, to watch it repeatedly, allowing the images to spread across time like a curse. The same week I began writing thi…

You know it's there, but you can't play it!

For MTC, Emily Naser-Hall revisits the VHS tape and its haunting resurgence in the present. A perfect, perfectly haunted piece of cultural criticism to start off your spooky season 📼

Congratulations to Omar Khalifa and translator Barbara Romain. You can read Khalifa's interview with our contributing writer Omid Bagherli over at MTC!
mid-theory.com/2025/03/06/o...

Tender Excess: A Review of ‘Revathi: A Life in Trans Activism’ From childhood to adulthood Revathi’s radical desires remain anchored in the hard to parse and interwoven vagaries of trans living and dying in the global South. In a fascinating story shared early…

For MTC, Nikhil Pandhi reviews A. Revathi's recent memoir REVATHI: A LIFE IN TRANS ACTIVISM, translated from Tamil by Nandini Murali. A remarkable book about the power of trans-labor and poetics in the world. Happy Women in Translation Month.
@tiltedaxispress.bsky.social

Mixtape #7: Happy Women in Translation Month (2025) August is Women in Translation Month! So for Mixtape #7, we asked critics, scholars, and translators: what are some of your favorite works written and/or translated by women? Here are some of their…

August is Women in Translation Month! To celebrate we asked critics, scholars, and translators: what are some of your favorite works written and/or translated by women? Here are some of their recommendations. We hope you would check out a few of these and celebrate women in translation!

this is the kinda rec list i dream of!! instead of reading the same 3 meh books on every mainstream list, why not do yourself a favor and read some interesting, fresh, weird, possibly out of print works in translation…and celebrate women in translation all year round!

Catch me promoting the @openletterbooks.bsky.social sale and some of my favorite #WiTMonth reads for @mid-theory.bsky.social!

Mixtape #7: Happy Women in Translation Month (2025) August is Women in Translation Month! So for Mixtape #7, we asked critics, scholars, and translators: what are some of your favorite works written and/or translated by women? Here are some of their…

August is Women in Translation Month! To celebrate we asked critics, scholars, and translators: what are some of your favorite works written and/or translated by women? Here are some of their recommendations. We hope you would check out a few of these and celebrate women in translation!

Tender Excess: A Review of ‘Revathi: A Life in Trans Activism’ From childhood to adulthood Revathi’s radical desires remain anchored in the hard to parse and interwoven vagaries of trans living and dying in the global South. In a fascinating story shared early…

For MTC, Nikhil Pandhi reviews A. Revathi's recent memoir REVATHI: A LIFE IN TRANS ACTIVISM, translated from Tamil by Nandini Murali. A remarkable book about the power of trans-labor and poetics in the world. Happy Women in Translation Month.
@tiltedaxispress.bsky.social

Live, Laugh, Lovestruck Books On the Scene is a recurring reportage on a practice-focused cultural or artistic event taking place now or coming up soon. Framed by an awning of technicolor bougainvillea that blooms in defia…

In case you missed it, @maz-do.bsky.social surveys “Cambridge’s most openly horny public space” for MTC: the new romance bookstore on Harvard Square.
mid-theory.com/2025/08/17/l...