In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dada and Surrealism, Michael Lowy and Penelope Rosemont, whose works have defined the Surrealist movement of the second half of the 20th century and into the 21st, talk about surrealist women and Walter Benjamin.

Surrealist Women, lecture by Penelope Rosemont
This year, the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Cafe Voltaire in Zurich and the beginning of Dada, women poets, writers, painters, dancers, even puppeteers need to be remembered for their contributions to these avant-guard movements. Yet their contributions are still neglected and often unknown. Hear about their past and continuing contributions to our expanding ideas sexual liberation, the future of women and the liberation of the human mind from Hannah Höch to Jayne Cortez and beyond.

Walter Benjamin and Surrealism (1929) : "a radical idea of freedom," lecture by Michael Lowy
Walter Benjamin's essay on Surrealism from 1929 is a fascinating piece. The Jewish-German philosopher understood perfectly that Surrealism was not a literary affair, but a revolutionary movement of the spirit. "Since Bakunin, Europe lacks a radical idea of freedom. The Surrealists have it." For Benjamin, the greatest quality of surrealism is "to win for revolution the forces of intoxication."

The Joseph A. Labadie Collection, part of U-M Library's Special Collections, documents the history of social protest movements and marginalized political communities from the 19th century to the present.