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In an e-ffort to widen the discussion in my class, or, if you will, to open the windows, here's my post from my Evergreen State College course blog (Radical Poetry, Politics & Pedagogy).  It's a reading list and ahead of that a brief summary of the discussion we had during last week's lecture.  We're working with two primary texts at moment, Oppen's Of Being Numerous and Ranciere's The Politics of Aesthetics.   If any of you have anything to say on agency and identity in relation to the readings below (the start of a series of readings on this strand of a poetics of "witness"), feel free...

Below are the readings due by Weds, along with some non-required materials (suggested readings).  This time a little longer, but not as dense/difficult.  Enjoy.

Why the experimental poem? asks Joan Retallack. Poetics has affirmed, undermined, complicated, and otherwise wrestled with any shared concept of identity and/or selfhood (from last week: Oppen's struggle to articulate the constructed and multiple "self" as opposed to the "freely autonomous and essential Self").  The constructed identity in the world of catastrophe (catastrophe, in part, constructing our conception of who we take ourselves to be) is taken up by Nonsite Collective, as is the invisibility of both a) what/who it is that, at least in part, constructs us, and b) of individuals and whole groups of people--the "ghosted," "occulted," "marginalized" subjects and their (our?) ideas, desires, and needs.  If the "self" is more complicated than it appears to be, then so too the function(s) of art (poetry, prose, etc).  And if our arts are more complicated (not just in terms of "nuance" but also in terms of "problematic") than they may appear, then so too is the notion of who is author/artist, as this is one identity of an already "numerous" (Oppen) identity that goes into "who I am (we are)."

Note how thick our ideas are already, and how many materials--written and otherwise--we've looked at that have made these ideas so thick or rich.  This is one way we can think about text arts--as generating these questions in ways perhaps unique, say, as sensuous materials for which these questions aren't just "cognitive" but bodily, sensorial, etc.  We'll unpack these ideas further both thru making more "art" and thru taking in, or "remaking" more "art" (thru continuing our aesthetic practices).  We'll also see how they play out viz.pedagogical practices.  That is, if the author/reader binary breaks down, and the "art"/"non-art" binary breaks down, then certainly this relates to Freire, and to Ranciere, and to Nonsite--all pedagogical models differing but sharing in a desire to rethink the "teacher/student" binary, or opposition.  

More fundamental questions arise: why difficult poetry?  Why desire these complications, contradictions, and in some cases, collapses, in the first place?  Especially if they seem to "work"? Do they work?  Does the lecture-seminar mode we are in right now work sufficiently?  Is sufficiency the goal?  If not, what is?  Maybe it works for me, but does it for person X?  Is there a difference in viewpoint, generally (in our class) here that can in part be "gendered"?  That is, maybe taking gender inequalities into account will shed light on why sufficiency might not be EVERYONE'S goal, or experience?

We'll build on what we discussed last Wednesday, discussing how the re-narration of what an "author" can be and how "identity" might be constructed, this time looking thru the lens of translation--the concept of translation and the wider application of the processes that allow us to translate.  This is yet a different frame or lens through which to peer, different from Nonsite's concepts of the site and the nonsite, yet very, very related.

READINGS FOR WEDS:

Kent Johnson, Notes on Notes on Translation  HERE

Rachel Zolf, Tolerance Project  HERE and HERE

Joan Retallack on Experimental Poetry  HERE

George Oppen: Of Being Numerous 1-22  HERE 

Wiki Article on The Kootenay School of Writing  HERE

Re-Read the Nonsite Collective Draft Proposal  HERE

OPTIONAL/SUGGESTED READING

Charles Bernstein on Oppen's Of Being Numerous  HERE

Translation in Performance  from XPoetics  HERE

Poet Rae Armantrout Interviewed (writing as politics as pedagogy)  HERE

95 Cent School: Social Poetics/Aesthetic-Politico Practices & Poetry

From Susana Gardner of all things Dusie Press, many things Black Radish Books Collective, & uncountable other things, sends me this (wishing I could go, but due to teaching schedule, unlikely).

Students in my class, and those in the Olympia area who have been to PRESS events, etc: do read this post, & if interested, please feel free to contact me--obvious affinities here, etc.

This is a one time email. If you are interested in future updates, please reply to address above or or join the 95 Cent Skool facebook group:http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=300963159304&ref=mf


***

The 95 Cent Skool is a 6 day long experimental seminar that will be offered in Oakland, California, July 26-31, 2010. It is convened by Joshua Clover andJuliana Spahr. It will explore the possibilities of poetry writing as part of a larger social practice, at a distance from the economic and professional expectations of institutions. We believe a dozen people sitting around a table can’t ruin poetry, but that costs, professional context, mythologies of individual genius, and client/service-based models can — and in our own experiences teaching in pay-to-play writing programs, often do.

Our concerns in these six days begin with the assumption that poetry has a role to play in the larger political and intellectual sphere of contemporary culture, and that any poetry which subtracts itself from such engagements is no longer of interest. “Social poetics” is not a settled category, and does not necessarily refer to poetry espousing a social vision. It simply assumes that the basis of poetry is not personal expression or the truth of any given individual, but shared social struggle.

The 6 days will feature:
•    Morning discussion groups lead by Juliana and Joshua
•    Two guest speakers: one on the political economy and one on ecology
•    Afternoon group and/or collaborative writing sessions
•    Dinners and drinks at a nearby bar

The 6 days will not feature:
•    Workshops led by a “master poet”
•    Agents or editors who will advise your work into publication
•    A Richard Wilbur Celebration Night
•    Instruction in reciting poetry to bring out the emotional content of the poem

The final program will be available later in the Spring.

Each participant will be asked to contribute up to 1% of annual gross income as their 95 cents exclusively towards operating expenses. The workshop leaders and as many other organizers as possible will donate their time. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. Email us if you’ve got questions about how much you can pay. We will also help in finding free housing for any participants in need.

The program is open to any interested participant with any level of prior engagement with poetry. This program is not affiliated with any institution of higher education and no transferrable institutional credit will be offered. There is no application fee, but space is limited. Please send a note indicating interest and experience to 95centskool@gmail.com

Please feel encouraged to re/post this listing to your blog or otherwise redistribute. If you would like to receive further information about the 95 Cent Skool, please email the address above, or join the 95 Cent Skool facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=300963159304&ref=mf The 95 Cent Skool will happen with the support of Small Press Traffic and 'A 'A Arts.

Thank you very much,

the 95¢ Skoolers —

Where's Wolach Been? Language & Thinking 2009

Photo: Team Thinking in 1st annual Language vs. Thinking Whiffle Ball Game.  Featured: Kythe Heller, David Wolach, Marie Reagan, Stephen Cope, Becca Chace, Tim Casey, Thom "the flasher" Donovan.  Not featured: Peter Tranchtenberg, our lovely 3rd baseman, who ran off to meet with students before end of the game, tied 7-7.  Also not featured: team Language, who are too lame to be featured.

Some of you probably didn't wonder: where's David been?  If you called, or emailed, or you spent hours day after day pondering where I've been--short answer: teaching another year in Bard's Language & Thinking program.  

FOR EVIDENCE, check out my FLICKR PHOTOS HERE

It was another year of incredible faculty solidarity, forming deep connections and reconnections, and, of course having regular epiphanies in the classroom, co-learning with a great group of students.  Our faculty's collective sense of wonder, and our constant care for one another, is extraordinarily rare.  It's born of a collaborative, interdisciplinary spirit, of empathy, emergent love.  I think we're all aware that this unique constellation of crazy artists in the woods, and the extraordinary ways in which we interact, is very much due, in part, to Joan Retallack's bringing us together in the first place, allowing the wildness and risk to be part of the pedagogy.  

Our workshop (our class), I already miss.  The students that I learned from and with (in no particular order), I owe them many things, not least of which my deepest gratitude: Matt, Alexia, Sophie, Caroline, Minghan, Catherine, Raygun, Ethan, Kristin, Owen, Keaton, Kerk, Iliana, and Mihir.  Now, exhausted, back in NYC before flying off to the West Coast, I have nothing but lovely memories, and a shitload of photos to share.  So, indulge me.  Take a look.  My flickr photos above.  Other (better) photos below.

--Wednesday evening faculty party

photos by Catherine Talyor

--David's workshop's student reading/matriculation party

--Monday evening's faculty reading, in honor of Joan Retallack

photos by Lily Gruton-Wachter

--The morning after...

photos by Lilly Gurton-Wachter