Welcome to Passages

Courses, Workshops, Art, Literature, Poetry, Philosophy

Dear Reader,

For the past several years I have been teaching across three to five different public venues at a time. What I noticed is that the same faces kept appearing regardless of where I was teaching. So, I started offering classes here, with a suggested price and pay-what-you-can option. I did this because I believe in making literature, theory, philosophy, psychology, poetry, the humanities, as available as possible. And selfishly because I love to share what I love. I teach courses on what excites me in the hopes that you might find something exciting, too. And I teach the bibliography of what I am writing, interested to open up texts in new ways together. Expanding what I alone can do this past year, it’s been a pleasure to teach with Attempts to Find Robert Musil and descend into Dante’s Inferno with Elias Crim.

The incredible part of this adventure for me is the feeling of community it has forged. In addition to allowing me to connect with readers, I feel we have an ongoing conversation, a place to think together.

So here is what I have done:

Mary Bradish Titcomb, The Writer, 1912

A little history

I launched this Substack as Illuminations during the pandemic to bring a little light in dark times. As we moved out of the pandemic, I rebranded it as Reflections to share a bit of poetry and music and philosophy with you as I began working on my new loneliness project. And now, keeping with my Walter Benjamin themes, and eyes on future aspirations, in its third incarnation I’m calling it: Passages.

Why Passages?

Passages in the literal textual sense that we will be reading many passages together. Close-reading might save the world, I think when I read Virginia Woolf, or Emily Dickinson, or Louise Glück. And passages in the sense that this is a new journey, a new pilgrimage for us to take together into a world of incredible writing and thinking to nourish the spirit, connection, and friendship. And passages as that threshold space between. It is that space in-between where interest, or inter-est as Arendt always fashioned it, may grow.

Spring and Summer Courses and Workshops

Thank you to everyone who filled out the survey. In order of desire: Novels, Loneliness, and Writing Workshop were the most requested classes. So, I’ve put together a spring and summer syllabus for you composed of three classes that revolve around loneliness and solitude. We will begin with Virginia Woolf’s The Waves, then spend six weeks in the literature of loneliness, before reading Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. I’ve also created a small (12 seats only) intensive writing workshop designed for everyone who is curious about what it means to write for a general public audience. In addition to the courses I am teaching, Elias Crim will also continue teaching Dante. And more coming…

• Enroll in The Waves

• Enroll in Loneliness

• Enroll in Thoreau’s Walden

As always, if price is a barrier to any class you want to take, just send me a note and I will send you a pay-what-you-can registration link so you can enroll in the course.

I will send invitations for fall courses in August: Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Dickinson, Georges Bataille, Maurice Blanchot, and others to name a few. Friendship, storytelling, empathy, evil, eros, desire, archives …

And I reserve the right to add a few surprises along the way.

I’m excited for this next chapter with you.

Until soon!

Sam