Lumina Soiree

​A soirée, from the French word soir, meaning evening, referred to a gathering held after dark for the exchange of ideas. In the nineteenth century it became associated with the salon, where writers and philosophers met in private rooms to think in company.

​This Soirée returns to that form. It is an evening devoted to questions of femininity and the place of women within society, considered through philosophy, art, literature, and poetry.

​The method is dialectic. A claim is introduced and explored. It is met with response, reframed, extended. The tone of discussion shifts from performativity and antagonism to an open-ended exploration.

​An evening such as this assumes that ideas unfold differently in the presence of others, and that women can gather to reflect on the traditions they inherit and the ones they are in the process of forming.

​Join us this evening at 20 Cornmarket Street, OX1 3EY, where the conversation begins.