Past the Tower, Under the Tree

Past the Tower, Under the Tree is an anthology of twelve stories of learning in community. Rather than returning to education as qualification, the book asks what teaching and learning might look like “in beloved company,” and follows that question through living rooms, meditation halls, courtrooms, tattoo studios, stages, streets, family histories and artistic practice. Across the collection, learning appears as relational, contingent and shared: something that grows through companionship, apprenticeship, solidarity, memory and repeated acts of attention.

In Marking a Return, learning unfolds through apprenticeship and cultural inheritance. In Singing with Practical Intent, Balamohan Shingade writes from within Hindustani music while refusing its co-option by Hindu nationalism, insisting on a plural and secular tradition joined to projects for social justice. Dominic Hoey’s Want to Travel into Space? turns the Auckland rap scene of the 1990s into a kind of bootleg academy, shaped by experimentation, mutual support, failure and work. Catherine Delahunty’s Getting ‘Qualified’ follows learning outside classrooms, where protest, solidarity, elders and reflection become a practice of political education. Daniel Michael Satele’s chapter asks what kind of community remains possible when artists are made to survive under material deprivation and chronic insecurity.

The reviews help clarify the atmosphere of the anthology. They describe a book of many voices drawn from activism, literature, visual art and music, held together by a strong editorial hand and a close community feeling. What emerges is less a single thesis than a textured collective work: welcoming, reflective and politically alert, with anti-colonial and anti-fascist undercurrents sharpened by the intimacy of the contributions. One review suggests the book works like a quilt, each piece distinct but held in relation to the others.

For this book brunch, we will stay close to that form. Moving through selected chapters and excerpts, we will read the book as a shared space of conversation: a place to think about artistic formation, informal education, political responsibility, cultural transmission and the conditions that allow practices to remain alive. The gathering takes the book on its own terms, following its invitation to approach learning through relation, attention and collective reflection.

Past the Tower, Under the Tree is edited by Balamohan Shingade and Erena Shingade, with contributions by Edith Amituanai, Catherine Delahunty, Mohan Dutta, Dominic Hoey, Areez Katki, Emily Parr, Daniel Michael Satele, Kahurangiariki Smith, Mokonui-a-rangi Smith, Richard von Sturmer, and Terri Te Tau.

Practical

May 31 2026
9h30 - 12h

Timelab (Kogelstraat 34, 9000 Gent)

Wil je graag deelnemen aan dit programma, maar vormt de prijs een struikelblok?
Aarzel niet om contact op te nemen met team@timelab.org, dan bekijken we samen wat de mogelijkheden zijn.

This bookclub is part of our Symbiotic Hospitality program