Paper short abstract:

In an act of radical bibliography, this performance uses the friendship bracelet to "re-weave" the academic canon. Julia Pollack and Bonnie Mak will invite onlookers to weave, wear, and share bracelets that are emblazoned with references to the work of women in the field of knowledge-production.

Paper long abstract:

This project uses the friendship bracelet as a way to "re-weave" the academic canon, foregrounding the work of women librarians and scholars. Friendship bracelets are handmade macramé bracelets of embroidery thread, intended to be worn as a sign of lasting friendship. Julia Pollack and Bonnie Mak will offer such bracelets, emblazoned with bibliographical references to the work of important women in the field of knowledge-production.

The citations on the bracelets will be in the author-date format of the Chicago Manual of Style; a full list of references will also be provided. The bracelets and the accompanying bibliography index landmark scholarship by women, as well as the invisible work of librarianship, often undertaken by women. As the Librarian performs the weaving of citations on the bracelets before the audience, so too is she hand-crafting a bibliographical canon. The performance thus offers a consideration of the labour of generating an infrastructure for the creation and transmission of knowledge.

Onlookers are invited to help make visible the contribution of women librarians and scholars by wearing these "citation bracelets." Not only does the wearing of the bracelets acknowledge the work of women, but it also serves to help publicize and naturalize such work in unconventional venues outside the academy, such as the restaurant, beach, or airport. In this act of radical bibliography, academic work by women can be brought into contact with other audiences in other spaces, thus broadening and amplifying its reach.