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- Wednesday, April 1, 5:30-7:30 PM<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Cactus Club, 2496 S. Wentworth Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53207<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Free & open to the public; no registration required<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nC21’s Story Cart program invites you to join Katie Waddell, C21 Managing Director, for the April 2026 edition of the Cactus Book Club. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cactus Book Club meets on the first Wednesday of the month from 5:30-7:30 in the back room at Cactus Club. Each month a different community organization, collective, mutual aid group, or business chooses a book and recommended bookseller, then leads the discussion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The April selection, Attensity! A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement<\/em><\/a> by The Friends of Attention, expands upon the attention activist manifesto championed by C21’s partners at the Strother School of Radical Attention<\/a>, and offers an opportunity for the attention activism-curious to explore why our attention matters, how to choose attentional agency over digital enthrallment, and why awareness is even better with friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
C21’s recommended bookseller is Boswell Book Company<\/a>. Mention Cactus Book Club at checkout to receive a 10% discount!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nResources<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Check out our Slow Digest<\/em> post about Attensity!<\/em><\/strong><\/a> for a teaser. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don’t have time to finish the book before April 1? Fill in the gaps with the Strother School for Radical Attention\u2019s \u00a0Toolkit for Attention Activism<\/a> <\/strong>and their Attention Lab podcast<\/a><\/strong> on Apple Podcasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nAbout<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
About Attensity!: A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
“We all feel it: something is seriously wrong. Our attention\u2014that essential ability to give our minds and senses to the world\u2014is being trapped, gutted, and sold out from under us by an industry of immense technological and financial power. The heedless exploitation of this vital capacity by a handful of tech companies is harming us all, reducing our very selfhood to that which can be quantified, bought, and sold\u2014and shaking the foundations of our democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To push back against this \u201chuman fracking,\u201d we need more than individual willpower or isolated efforts. We need a movement<\/em> of collective resistance. Such a movement is beginning to bloom, and in this radical, first-of-its-kind guide, The Friends of Attention show us how to join the fight. We meet welders, nurses, poets, and surfers, all of whom are engaged in attentional practices. We learn to seek out sanctuaries\u2014theaters and museums, houses of worship, dance parties\u2014where together we can take refuge from the frackers. Attention Activism takes our apocalyptic present, turns it on its head, and reveals new vistas of human flourishing.
Drawing on a rich legacy of critical intellectuals and the creative wisdom of diverse traditions, Attensity!<\/em> calls on us to come together to defeat the greedy dehumanizing forces of brute instrumentalization\u2014and re-enchant the world.” Read on…<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Friends of Attention<\/strong> is a collective of activists, artists, and thinkers. Three editors and long-standing “Friends” helped Attensity! <\/em>take shape: D. Graham Burnett is the Henry Charles Lea Professor of history of science at Princeton University. Alyssa Loh, a filmmaker, co-directed the short film \u201cTwelve Theses on Attention.\u201d Peter Schmidt is the Program Director of the Strother School of Radical Attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nAbout Cactus Club<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Cactus Book Club<\/a><\/strong> (CBC), organized by Cactus+<\/a>, meets on the first Wednesday of the month from 5:30-7:30 in the back room at Cactus Club. Each month a different community organization, collective, mutual aid group, or business chooses the book and recommended bookseller, then leads the discussion. CBC covers sociopolitical fiction and non-fiction, with a focus on works by women, LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and\/or otherwise under-published groups. Members don\u2019t have to finish reading the book to attend. All book club meetings are free. Registration is not required. 18+.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nAbout Story Cart: Attention<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Story Cart<\/strong><\/a> is a mobile story collection program that travels to community spaces and engages Milwaukeeans in conversations about their lived experiences. Our Story Fellows craft questions related to the current C21 research theme<\/a>, record participant responses to those questions, and add them to our Story Cart digital archive (forthcoming). Supported by the Wisconsin Institute for Citizenship and Civil Dialogue<\/a>, Story Cart\u2019s current run introduces Milwaukeeans to practices of radical attention. From September 2025 through May 2026, our community Story Fellows will lead workshop pop-ups throughout the city and will record discussions with participants about the experience of paying attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tApril 1\t\t<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t @ \t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t5:30 pm\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t – \t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t7:30 pm\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n