BE LIKE A POEM, QUASHIE SAID, AND I SAID, OK!
division of labour:
-
tentative presentation outline:
"be like a poem" reocurring
worldmaking~~~
form and content—no form without content, vice versa
aesthetix as a site for worldmaking, as a site for the explication of aliveness, oneness, ethics, encountering, relation, etc.
ethics as/through studying and loneliness - responsibility of the one
the quality of light (lorde), "it matters what matter we use to think about matter" (haraway)
Reducing life, work (?!) to single (yest, most likely, institutional/systematic) instances of violence, death
The beneficial and endemic nature of understanding art through biographic realities
relationship between producing and consuming artwork; responsibility of the reader; reducing to biography or "single instances of violence" be those institutional or otherwise, often systemic
(1) basquiat—how do use produce work from within that awareness of being fetishised, tokenised in the artistic field? how do you produce work knowing it will insert itself into a certain discourse of race and socioeconomic notions?
(2) yahya hassan—the questions above also apply in this case. the responsibility of "representing" a demographic under sociopolitical scrutiny, such as people of middle eastern descent in denmark.
(3) felix gonzalez-torres - clocks; perfect lovers—is gonzalez-torres
"I am cautious of the ways that a turn to the everyday might evoke discourses of personal responsibility as well as exempt an account of the structural; I mean neither the exemption nor the alliance. (As I understand it, there are at least two levels of reckoning—institutional and personal—though these are not always discrete from each other)" (124)
''The quality of light by which we scrutinize our lives has direct bearing upon the product which we live, and upon the changes which we hope to bring about through those lives. It is within this light that we form those ideas by which we pursue our magic and make it realized. This is poetry as illumination, for it is through poetry that we give name to those ideas which are, until the poem, nameless and formless—about to be birthed, but already felt. That distillation of experience from which true poetry springs births thought as dream births concept, as feeling births idea, as knowledge births (precedes) understanding. (Sister Outsider 36)'' pp. 17, 53, 58, 65, 71, 112,133.
''Ethics is the site of self-beholding... self-interrogation is key to a meaningful living practice.'' p. 111
''Aesthetics makes the ethical possible via the invocation of a textual world where a black one can live in a relation of rightness.'' p. 132
Form and content; form as content (form determines content determines form determining content): ''Aesthetics is not a surface matter; indeed, as philosopher Martha Nussbaum explains, “style itself makes its claims, expresses its own sense of what matters. Literary form is not separable from philosophical content, but is, itself, a part of content—an integral part, then of the search for and the statement of truth” p. 132
''Aliveness as oneness and relationality I could read this poem forever and find each time something else of its bewildering aliveness... This is what a poem does: it orients you into openness, into being capable of the openness that is rightly yours.'' p. 138
'The essay as...'
''In “What Makes an Essay American,” Cunningham pushes against John D’Agata’s declaration of the essay as “neutral attempt”...'' p. 95
''I am describing the idea of an essay’s speaker as witness of a self, the speaker's own, on the page.'' p. 96
''The essay as an intimacy of black being, an openness of self-study that is not authority but something wilder and more fragile. I know that the legacy of racial blackness makes it nearly impossible to imagine a black speaker engaged in being without constituting that being as an argument in regard to antiblackness.'' p. 97
''Moreover, Derricotte’s description of delay—the “reverse” of the speaker’s happening—makes us aware of the essay as a habitat of time, where the speaker encounters a past self in a present.'' p. 100
''The essay, this genre of black thinking rendered as a thrilling materiality; the essay as aliveness, as a practice of aliveness that holds ethical implications because it is a deepening of one’s capacity of being.'' p. 105
Be like a poem (immanence and transcendence - ethics as self-interrogation, process of meeting the self and the artist, where both processes (self-interrogation, and artistic production, both forms of poeiesis that determine their own course (product determines process of self-production) are present) (pp. 138-139):
(sorry i'm using this as a notepad, pls ignore):
DET SJETTE OPHOLDSSTED
STATSLØS OG RASTLØS I EN FREMMED MANDS SOFA
MED EN BLØD PAKKE I SKØDET
OG VISIONER FOLK IKKE KAN SE PÅ AFSTAND
DU HAR ALDRIG FÅET JULEGAVER FØR
MEN EN DAG BLIVER DU ANBRAGT
FØRST DET ENE STED SÅ DET ANDET
DU DANSER OM TRÆET SOM EN DANSKER
FÅR TILBUDT SVINEKØD TIL MÅLTIDERNE
MEN ER EN SMULE SKEPTISK
NÆSTE JUL MODTAGER DU ET STATSBORGERRETSBEVIS
UNDERSKREVET AF BIRTHE RØNN HORNBECH
SÅ HVAD SKAL DU LÆNGERE MED EN OMSKÅRET PIK
OG ET SVINEFORBUD
DU ANER DET IKKE
OG SELVOM DU ENDU IKKE ER FALDET HELT TIL RO
ER DET HELLER IKKE EN UNDTAGELSE DET ÅR
DET ÅR ER DER UDSIGT TIL FLERE GAVER
OG MERE PÆDAGOGISK NÆRVÆR
I FORM AF MAGTANVENDELSER I JOHANNES V. JENSENS BY
KOMMUNEN FÅR VEL HVAD DE SKAL HAVE FOR PENGENE
DU ER BEGYNDT AT SPISE BACON
OG TAGER KUN I MOSKEEN
HVIS DIN MOR GIVER DIG PENGE FOR DET
DIN FAR GRÆDER
OG DIN ONKEL RINGER KUN
NÅR DU LAVER RØVERI MED HANS SØN
DINE FÆTRE SER DU HOS PUSHEREN
ELLER GENNEM HEGNET PÅ DJURSLAND
NÅR I SIDDER PÅ HVER JERES AFDELING
OMGIVET AF PÆDAGOGER SOM EGENTLIG ER DØRMÆND
THE SIXTH OPHOLDSSTED (PLACE OF RESIDENCE??))
STATELESS AND RESTLESS IN A STRANGER'S/FOREIGN MAN'S COUCH
WITH A SOFT PRESENT IN (YOUR?) LAP
AND VISIONS PEOPLE CAN'T SEE FROM AFAR
YOU'VE NEVER RECEIVED CHRISTMAS GIFTS BEFORE
BUT ONE DAY YOU ARE PLACED
FIRST ONE PLACE THEN ANOTHER
YOU DANCE AROUND THE TREE LIKE A DANE
BUT ARE A LITTLE SCEPTICAL
(YOU?) ARE OFFERED PORK AT MEALS
NEXT CHRISTMAS YOU RECEIVE PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP
SIGNED BY BIRTHE RØNN HORNBECH
SO WHAT ARE YOU STILL DOING WITH A CIRCUMCISED DICK
AND A PORKPROHIBITION
YOU HAVE NO CLUE
AND ALTHOUGH YOU STILL HAVEN'T QUITE CALMED DOWN
IT STILL ISN'T AN EXCEPTION THAT YEAR
THAT YEAR THERE ARE PROSPECTS OF MORE GIFTS
MORE PEDAGOGICAL PRESENCE/INTIMACY
IN THE FORM OF POWER APPLICATION IN JOHANNES V. JENSEN'S TOWN
THE MUNICIPALITY GETS WHAT THEY WANT FOR THE MONEY
YOU'VE STARTED EATING BACON
AND ONLY GO TO THE MOSQUE
IF YOUR MUM GIVES YOU MONEY
YOU DAD CRIES
AND YOUR UNCLE ONLY CALLS
IF YOU ARE BURGLING WITH HIS SON
YOU SEE YOUR COUSINS AT THE PUSHER'S
OR THROUGH THE FENCE AT DJURSLAND
WHEN YOU EACH SIT IN YOUR OWN DEPARTMENT
SURROUNDED BY PEDAGOGUES THAT ACTUALLY ARE DOORMEN
CHILDHOOD
FIVE CHILDREN LINED UP AND A DAD WITH A CLUB
MASSCRYING AND A POOL OF PISS
WE TAKE TURNS EXTENDING A HAND
FOR THE SAKE OF PREDICTABILITY
THAT SOUND WHEN THE BLOWS HIT
SISTER WHO JUMPS SO QUICK
FROM ONE FOOT TO THE OTHER
THE PISS IS A WATERFALL DOWN ALONG HER LEGS
FIRST ONE HAND AND THEN THE OTHER
TOO MUCH TIME PASSES AND THE BLOWS LAND INDISCRIMINATELY
A BLOW A SCREAM A NUMBER 30 OR 40 AT TIMES 50
AND ONE LAST BLOW IN THE ASS ON THE WAY OUT THE DOOR
HE GRABS BROTHER BY THE SHOULDERS STRAIGHTENS HIM UP
CONTINUES TO BEAT AND COUNT
I LOOK DOWN AND WAIT FOR MY TURN
MOM SMASHES PLATES IN THE HALLWAY
MEANWHILE AL JAZEERA TV-TRANSMITS
HYPERACTIVE BULLDOZERS AND RESENTFUL BODY PARTS THE GAZA STRIP IN SUNSHINE
FLAGS BEING BURNT
IF A ZIONIST DOES NOT RECOGNISE OUR EXISTENCE
IF WE EXIST AT ALL
WHEN WE HICCOUGH THE ANGST AND THE PAIN
WHEN WE GASP FOR BREATH OR MEANING
IN SCHOOL WE CAN’T SPEAK ARABIC
AT HOME WE CAN’T SPEAK DANISH
A BLOW A SCREAM A NUMBER
BARNDOM
FEM BØRN PÅ RÆKKE OG EN FAR MED EN KØLLE
FLERGRÆDERI OG EN PØL AF PIS
VI STIKKER SKIFTEVIS EN HÅND FREM
FOR FORUDSIGELIGHEDENS SKYLD
DEN DER LYD NÅR SLAGENE RAMMER
SØSTER DER HOPPER SÅ HURTIGT
FRA DEN ENE FOD TIL DEN ANDEN
PISSET ER ET VANDFALD NED AF HENDES BEN
FØRST DEN ENE HÅND FREM SÅ DEN ANDEN
GÅR DER FOR LANG TID RAMMER SLAGENE VILKÅRLIGT
ET SLAG ET SKRIG ET TAL 30 ELLER 40 TIL TIDER 50
OG ET SIDSTE SLAG I RØVEN PÅ VEJ UD AD DØREN
HAN TAGER BROR I SKULDRENE RETTER HAM OP
FORTSÆTTER MED AT SLÅ OG TÆLLE
JEG KIGGER NED OG VENTER PÅ DET BLIVER MIN TUR
MOR SMADRER TALLERKENER I OPGANGEN
SAMTIDIG MED AT AL JAZEERA TV-TRANSMITTERER
HYPERAKTIVE BULLDOZERE OG FORTØRNEDE KROPSDELE
GAZASTRIBEN I SOLSKIN
FLAG BLIVER BRÆNDT
HVIS EN ZIONIST IKKE ANERKENDER VORES EKSISTENS
HVIS VI OVERHOVEDET EKSISTERER
NÅR VI HIKSTER EFTER ANGSTEN OG SMERTEN
NÅR VI SNAPPER EFTER VEJRET ELLER MENINGEN
I SKOLEN MÅ VI IKKE TALE ARABISK
DERHJEMME MÅ VI IKKE TALE DANSK
ET SLAG ET SKRIG ET TAL
DYR
JEG RYGER NATUREN FRA MENNESKEHÆNDER
JEG HØRER GUDEN FRA MENNESKEMUNDE
JEG TRÆFFER DYRET I MENNESKEMYLDERET
NYE BEKENDTSKABER VÆKKER GAMLE MINDER
TOLERANCE TRUMFES AF AVERSIONER OG IDIOSYNKRASIER
HOMOSEKSUELLE OG HANDICAPPEDE
STENES MED UNDERHÅNDSKAST
ONDSKABEN HAR STÅPIK
OG ET RØVHUL TILSMUDSET AF SYNDER
KOM MIN KÆRE
DU SKAL BEVIDNE MIN GODGØRENHED
DU SOM OVERLEVEDE DØDEN
BARE FOR AT DØ AF AT OVERLEVE
JEG KOLLIDERER MED DIN OMHU
JEG SMED JERES SMYKKER DA DE ÆTSEDE MIN HUD
JEG GYLPEDE MIG FRI AF BESÆTTELSEN
SKYERNE BAR PÅ NOGET DØDBRINGENDE
JEG BLIVER GENKENDT PÅ EN GOLD KLODE
JEG HAR KAMELATTITUDE I KALIFATET
JEG HAR EN PIKHÅND TIL PØBLEN
JEG GÅR NED AD EN GADE
EN DANSKER DER VIL DANSKE
OG EN STAKKEL DER VIL SKADE
JEG DRATTER I SØVNEN
DRØMMER OM AT MYRDE ELLER MYRDES
JEG VIL BEVIDNE DET
MED ÅND I KROPPEN
ELLER MED BEVIDSTHED UDEN KROP
RUINER RUTINER RITUALER
TIDEN SKRIDER SOM KLITTER
BLADENE BLAFRER MED AURA
JEG HAR ET GODT UDSEENDE
NARCISSIST TIL SKINNEBENET
BEUNDRER MIT SPEJLBILLEDE
VAKLER MED HJULBEN FRA BEHOV TIL BEHOV
TARMEN PRESSER SIG PÅ
JEG GÅR PÅ UDKIG EFTER ET BELEJLIGT STED TIL MIN LORT
JEG BAGER MIT BEGÆR
JEG ER HUNGRIG OG HIDSER MIG SELV OP TIL FØDE
JEG BAGBINDER FREMSKRIDTET
JEG AFKLÆDER HEDONISTEN MED HEDONISMEN
VÆGELSINDET
JEG TROMLER EN TROFAST
MED DEN TROFASTE UTROSKAB
AF NATUR HAR JEG UKRUDT I HJERNEN
OG UKRUDTET GROR PÅ NY
UNDER MINE ARME
UD AF MIN RØV
RUNDT OM OG LANGS AD EN OMSKÅRET PIK
JEG SKÆRER DET NED
OG SPRINGER PÅ HOVEDET LIGE LUKT I HELVEDE
MED AFSTANDEN MELLEM ØST OG VEST
ANIMAL
I SMOKE THE NATURE FROM HUMAN HANDS
I HEAR THE GOD FROM HUMAN MOUTHS
I ENCOUNTER THE ANIMAL IN THE HUMAN CROWD
NEW ACQUAINTANCES JOG OLD MEMORIES
TOLERANCE IS TRUMPED BY AVERSIONS AND IDIOSYNCRASIES
HOMOSEXUALS AND THE HANDICAPPED
ARE STONED WITH UNDERHAND THROWS
EVIL HAS A HARDON
AND AN ASSHOLE SMEARED WITH SINS
COME MY DEAR
YOU MUST WITNESS MY CHARITY
YOU WHO SURVIVED DEATH
ONLY TO DIE FROM SURVIVING
I COLLIDE WITH YOUR CARE
I THREW YOUR JEWELLERY WHEN IT ETCHED MY SKIN
I VOMITED MYSELF FREE FROM THE OBSESSION/OCCUPATION
THE CLOUDS CARRIED SOMETHING LETHAL
I AM RECOGNISED ON A BARREN GLOBE
I HAVE CAMELATTITUDE IN THE CALIPHATE
I HAVE A DICKHAND FOR THE MOB
I WALK DOWN A STREET
A DANE WHO WANTS TO DANE
A POOR THING WHO WANTS TO HARM
I PASS OUT INTO SLEEP
DREAM ABOUT MURDERING OR BEING MURDERED
I HAVE TO WITNESS IT
WITH SOUL IN THE BODY
OR WITH CONSCIOUSNESS WITHOUT BODY
RUINS ROUTINES RITUALS
TIME SLIDES LIKE DUNES
THE LEAVES FLUTTER WITH AURA
I HAVE A GOOD APPEARANCE
NARCISSIST TILL THE SHINBONE
ADMIRING MY REFLECTION
STAGGERING BOWLEGGED FROM NEED TO NEED
THE INTESTINE IMPOSES ITSELF
I AM ON THE LOOKOUT FOR A CONVENIENT PLACE FOR MY TURD
I BAKE MY LUST
I AM HUNGRY AND I WORK MYSELF UP TO FEED
I BIND THE PROGRESS
I UNDRESS THE HEDONIST WITH HEDONISM
THE FICKLENESS
I TUMBLE A FAITHFUL
WITH THE FAITHFUL UNFAITHFULNESS
I HAVE WEEDS IN MY BRAIN BY NATURE
AND THE WEEDS GROW ANEW
UNDER MY ARMS
OUT OF MY ASS
AROUND AND ALONG A CIRCUMCISED DICK
I CUT IT DOWN
AND JUMP HEADFIRST STRAIGHT INTO HELL
WITH THE DISTANCE BETWEEN EAST AND WEST