Open to All | Free to Join | No Registration Required

Join us at BICA School for a casual, come-as-you-are reading group that welcomes everyone—whether you’ve read the text cover to cover or just want to hear what others have to say. We’ll explore critical and curious texts together in a space that values open conversation, listening, and learning.

Read ahead if you can, but there’s no pressure to be an expert—just bring your thoughts, questions, and curiosity.

→ Ngai, Sianne. “The Cuteness of the Avant-Garde.” Critical Inquiry 31, no. 4 (Summer 2005): 811–847.

Why do we describe some things as “cute”? And what happens when the avant-garde—the sharp, strange, and experimental—gets tangled up with the soft, sweet, and small?

In this session, we’ll read Sianne Ngai’s “The Cuteness of the Avant-Garde,” a smart and surprisingly fun essay that explores how aesthetic categories like “cute” shape the way we perceive objects, bodies, and artworks. Ngai digs into everything from Kant to Keane paintings to unpack what cuteness reveals about power, vulnerability, and our deeply weird relationship with things.

Bring your thoughts, your questions, or your love/hate feelings about Sanrio characters. We’re here for all of it.