Podcast appearances and mentions of Dionne Brand

As a result of Zilla Jones' The World So Wide, slated for publication with Cormorant Books on April 26, 2025, Linda reflects on opera (specifically Verdi's La Forza Del Destino) – historically an elitist art form, but one that Felicity Alexander, the protagonist of Jones' novel, in part challenges and overcomes through the very successes of her career. The trajectory of that career takes a darker turn when she finds herself in Grenada during the 1983 American invasion of that country – not an untimely revisioning of history in view of the current American political situation (27:40; 28:50).Linda also speaks about Verdi's La forza del destino with Renata Tibaldi as Leonore and her father's love for opera (2:15), before she turns to the interview with Zilla Jones to speak about the following:Opera's potential as an artform vs. its polarizing, and its elitism as art form (3:20; 12:30)Arts vs. politics (13:30)Sara Ahmed's What's the Use? (5:00; 6:15)Of what use is art in a time like this? (6:00; 31:45)Shani Mootoo (Season 3, Episode 6, 6:00)Decolonization and racial politics (12:15)The novel as a colonial construct (16:15)Dionne Brand, Salvaging the Wreck (16:03)Robinson Crusoe (16:15)Felicity as mixed-race heroine (17:30; 33:20)Kathleen Battle (18:46; 19:00)Grenada (history of, 20:45, and its “Revo,” 23:10; Red Sky Revolution, 23.20)Jones' research for the novel (24:35)The history of the Panama Canal (27:40)Toni Morrison (31:50)Gender and racialized motherhood (34:10)Felicity (naming of) (39:30) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mike chats with Dionne Brand, winner of a 2021 Windham-Campbell Prize for Nonfiction, about the timely power of José Saramago's Seeing. READING LIST: Seeing by José Saramago, tr. Margaret Jull Costa • Blindness by José Saramago, tr. Margaret Jull Costa • Saramago's Nobel Lecture Dionne Brand is the award-winning author of twenty-three books of poetry, fiction and nonfiction. Her twelve books of poetry include Land to Light On; thirsty; Inventory; Ossuaries; The Blue Clerk: Ars Poetica in 59 Versos; and Nomenclature: New and Collected Poems. Her six works of fiction include At the Full and Change of the Moon; What We All Long For; Love Enough; and Theory. Her nonfiction work includes Bread Out of Stone and A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging. Brand is the recipient of numerous literary prizes, among them the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Toronto Book Award, the Trillium Book Prize, the OCM Bocas Prize, and the 2021 Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction. She is the Editorial Director of Alchemy, an imprint of Knopf Canada, and University Professor Emerita at the University of Guelph. She lives in Toronto, Canada. The Windham-Campbell Prizes Podcast is a program of The Windham-Campbell Prizes, which are administered by Yale University Library's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The Windham-Campbell Prizes Podcast is a co-production between The Windham-Campbell Prizes and Literary Hub. Music by Dani Lencioni, production by Drew Broussard, hosted by Michael Kelleher. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Code Noir, the debut fiction work from acclaimed, award-winning poet, editor, and writer Canisia Lubrin was named a best book of 2024 by CBC and The Globe and Mail. Departing from the “Code Noir” historic decrees in 17th century France which defined the conditions of slavery in the French colonial empire, the book of the same name has 59 linked fictions. In conversation with Dionne Brand, these two literary stars discuss Lubrin's brilliant book, writing in the long shadow of imperialism, and the intellectual and emotional vigour behind each of these stories.

After a seismic event leaves the world shattered, an unnamed narrator at the end of a mediocre acting career struggles to regain the ability to walk on ground that is in constant motion. When her alluring younger housemate, Tala, disappears, what had begun as an obsession grows into an impulse to kill, forcing the narrator to confront the meaning of the ruptures that have suddenly upended her life. The drive to find and eliminate Tala becomes an existential pursuit, leading back in time and out into a desolate, dust-covered city, where the narrator is targeted by charismatic “healing” ideologues with uncertain motives. Torn between a gnawing desire to reckon with the forces that have made her and an immediate need to find the stability to survive, she is forced to question familiar figurations of light, shadow, authenticity, resistance, and the limits of personal transformation in an alienated, alienating world. Darkly comic, deeply resonant, and hallucinatory in tone, An Earthquake Is a Shaking of the Surface of the Earth (Soft Skull, 2024) will appeal to readers of Annie Ernaux, Dionne Brand, and Sheila Heti. Anna's most recent book is Participation. A poet and a translator, Anna has won the James Laughlin Award for her poetry and shared the 2021 International Booker Prize with David Diop for his novel At Night All Blood is Black. A student of plants and herbalism, she is a member of the publishing collective Ugly Duckling Presse and a cofound of Bushel Collective. Recommended Books: Poupeh Missaghi, Sound Museum Renee Gladman, My Lesbian Novel Mari Ruti, A World of Fragile Things  Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is published with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After a seismic event leaves the world shattered, an unnamed narrator at the end of a mediocre acting career struggles to regain the ability to walk on ground that is in constant motion. When her alluring younger housemate, Tala, disappears, what had begun as an obsession grows into an impulse to kill, forcing the narrator to confront the meaning of the ruptures that have suddenly upended her life. The drive to find and eliminate Tala becomes an existential pursuit, leading back in time and out into a desolate, dust-covered city, where the narrator is targeted by charismatic “healing” ideologues with uncertain motives. Torn between a gnawing desire to reckon with the forces that have made her and an immediate need to find the stability to survive, she is forced to question familiar figurations of light, shadow, authenticity, resistance, and the limits of personal transformation in an alienated, alienating world. Darkly comic, deeply resonant, and hallucinatory in tone, An Earthquake Is a Shaking of the Surface of the Earth (Soft Skull, 2024) will appeal to readers of Annie Ernaux, Dionne Brand, and Sheila Heti. Anna's most recent book is Participation. A poet and a translator, Anna has won the James Laughlin Award for her poetry and shared the 2021 International Booker Prize with David Diop for his novel At Night All Blood is Black. A student of plants and herbalism, she is a member of the publishing collective Ugly Duckling Presse and a cofound of Bushel Collective. Recommended Books: Poupeh Missaghi, Sound Museum Renee Gladman, My Lesbian Novel Mari Ruti, A World of Fragile Things  Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is published with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

After a seismic event leaves the world shattered, an unnamed narrator at the end of a mediocre acting career struggles to regain the ability to walk on ground that is in constant motion. When her alluring younger housemate, Tala, disappears, what had begun as an obsession grows into an impulse to kill, forcing the narrator to confront the meaning of the ruptures that have suddenly upended her life. The drive to find and eliminate Tala becomes an existential pursuit, leading back in time and out into a desolate, dust-covered city, where the narrator is targeted by charismatic “healing” ideologues with uncertain motives. Torn between a gnawing desire to reckon with the forces that have made her and an immediate need to find the stability to survive, she is forced to question familiar figurations of light, shadow, authenticity, resistance, and the limits of personal transformation in an alienated, alienating world. Darkly comic, deeply resonant, and hallucinatory in tone, An Earthquake Is a Shaking of the Surface of the Earth (Soft Skull, 2024) will appeal to readers of Annie Ernaux, Dionne Brand, and Sheila Heti. Anna's most recent book is Participation. A poet and a translator, Anna has won the James Laughlin Award for her poetry and shared the 2021 International Booker Prize with David Diop for his novel At Night All Blood is Black. A student of plants and herbalism, she is a member of the publishing collective Ugly Duckling Presse and a cofound of Bushel Collective. Recommended Books: Poupeh Missaghi, Sound Museum Renee Gladman, My Lesbian Novel Mari Ruti, A World of Fragile Things  Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is published with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science-fiction

After a seismic event leaves the world shattered, an unnamed narrator at the end of a mediocre acting career struggles to regain the ability to walk on ground that is in constant motion. When her alluring younger housemate, Tala, disappears, what had begun as an obsession grows into an impulse to kill, forcing the narrator to confront the meaning of the ruptures that have suddenly upended her life. The drive to find and eliminate Tala becomes an existential pursuit, leading back in time and out into a desolate, dust-covered city, where the narrator is targeted by charismatic “healing” ideologues with uncertain motives. Torn between a gnawing desire to reckon with the forces that have made her and an immediate need to find the stability to survive, she is forced to question familiar figurations of light, shadow, authenticity, resistance, and the limits of personal transformation in an alienated, alienating world. Darkly comic, deeply resonant, and hallucinatory in tone, An Earthquake Is a Shaking of the Surface of the Earth (Soft Skull, 2024) will appeal to readers of Annie Ernaux, Dionne Brand, and Sheila Heti. Anna's most recent book is Participation. A poet and a translator, Anna has won the James Laughlin Award for her poetry and shared the 2021 International Booker Prize with David Diop for his novel At Night All Blood is Black. A student of plants and herbalism, she is a member of the publishing collective Ugly Duckling Presse and a cofound of Bushel Collective. Recommended Books: Poupeh Missaghi, Sound Museum Renee Gladman, My Lesbian Novel Mari Ruti, A World of Fragile Things  Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Associate Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is published with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

What does it mean that a life can not only be animated by books but destroyed by them? That a self can be not only made by reading, but unmade by it? Dionne Brand's latest book of nonfiction Salvage: Readings from the Wreck returns to formative texts from her own reading life in order to model […] The post Dionne Brand : Salvage : Readings from the Wreck appeared first on Tin House.

As part of Jewish Currents Live: A Day of Politics & Culture, I moderated a conversation between Adania Shibli and Dionne Brand this September in New York City. Both Dionne and Adania have been on the show individually, and part of why I was hoping to bring them together this way was because of just […] The post Jewish Currents Live : Dionne Brand & Adania Shibli in Conversation appeared first on Tin House.

For this live taping of the literary podcast Between the Covers—recorded at Jewish Currents's daylong event on September 15th and presented in partnership with On the Nose—host David Naimon convened a conversation with renowned writers Dionne Brand and Adania Shibli about contesting colonial narratives. Rooted in their long-standing literary practice and in the demands of this moment of genocide, they discuss the vexed meanings of home, how to recover the everydayness of life erased by empire, and what it means to imagine togetherness beyond the nation-state.This episode was produced by David Naimon, with music by Alicia Jo Rabins. Thanks also to Jesse Brenneman for additional editing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).Texts Mentioned and Additional Resources:Minor Detail by Adania ShibliA Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging by Dionne BrandCivil Service by Claire SchwartzThe Blue Clerk by Dionne BrandAdania Shibli in conversation with Hisham Matar at the 2024 Hay FestivalAdania Shibli in conversation with Madeleine Thien and Layli Long Soldier at the Barnard Center for Research on Women“Writing Against Tyranny and Toward Liberation,” Dionne Brand“Dionne Brand: Nomenclature — New and Collected Poems,” Between the Covers“Adania Shibli: Minor Detail,” Between the Covers“prologue for now - Gaza,” Dionne Brand, Jewish Currents“Duty,” Daniel Mendelsohn, New York Review of Books“A Lesson in Arabic Grammar by Toni Morrison,” Adania Shibli, Jewish CurrentsInventory by Dionne BrandRecognizing the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative by Isabella Hammad“Isabella Hammad: Recognizing the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative,” Between the...

Um episódio gravado na Baía de Paraty durante a FLIP 2023 a bordo de uma escuna. A primeira parte do Poesia a Bordo traz as entrevistas com Angélica Freitas, Tatiana Eskenazi e Laura Wittner. Falamos sobre Dionne Brand, a leitura dos poemas como canções, a poesia no cotidiano, as traduções e os podcast como maneira de aprender uma nova língua. Poemas: a sônia de Angelica Freitas; Clareira de Tatiana Eskenazi; e Sombra de Laura Wittner. Poesia a Bordo é uma iniciativa do Peixe Voador e da Capivara Cultural com apoio do Circulo de Poemas, Laranja Editorial e Toolbox. A celebração contou com os vinhos da Cia dos Fermentados e do Azucar Club Latino. A festa de lançamento desses episódios especiais teve como cenário a linda Casinha dos Círculos de Leitura com leituras de poemas, o vídeo do Poesia a Bordo e um teaser do Peixe Voador com Angélica Freitas. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/peixe-voador/message

In this episode we speak to Pulitzer Prize winning composer and musician Henry Threadgill and the co-author of his autobiography Brent Hayes Edwards. The book we discuss, which was published last year is entitled Easily Slip into Another World: A Life in Music. Henry Threadgill was born in Chicago in 1944. He is one of the most significant and innovative composers of the 20th and 21st Century. In addition to being an award winning composer is an amazing saxophonist and flautist. He also is known for his percussion work, in particular the invention of the hubkaphone, a marimba like instrument made out of hub caps. He has been a leader or co-leader of the bands Air, Ensemble Double UP, Make a Move, The Henry Threadgill Ensemble, The Henry Threadgill Sextett, The Situation Society Dance Band, Very Very Circus, X-75, Zooid and 14 or 15 Kestra: Agg and probably some others I didn't track down.  If we went into all the bands and groups Henry was a part of the list would be three times as long. In recent years Threadgill has established a completely new chromatic system for musical composition outside the confines of diatonic harmony. In 2016, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for In For a Penny, In for a Pound, an album he composed for his sextet, Zooid. He currently lives in New York. Brent Hayes Edwards is a Professor at the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University and the Director of the Scholars-in-Residence Program at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library. So why this episode, it's a bit outside of most of our content here. Perhaps the closest things we've done to a conversation like this would be the dialogue we hosted between Fred Moten & Hanif Abdurraqib or the interview we did with Dionne Brand last year. But although I didn't ask it directly, the guiding question that animated this interview and engagement with Henry and Brent's book for me was: what insights might a truly revolutionary composer have for aspiring revolutionary organizers or for cultural workers seeking to maximize the revolutionary possibilities of their work?  We hope you enjoy this conversation and that it proves as meaningful to you as it was to us. It was a tremendous honor to sit down with Henry Threadgill and Brent Hayes Edwards to discuss their beautiful book which is available now everywhere. Thank you to Aidan Elias for co-producing this episode. If you appreciate the work that we do, as always you can support our work for as little as $1 per month at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism. Our podcast is fully supported by individual contributions of folks like you and we encourage you to join the amazing folks who make it possible for us to bring you these conversations on a weekly basis. 

This week, to strike a celebratory note, an encore presentation of Writers & Company's 20th anniversary special with acclaimed writers Dionne Brand, Margaret Drabble, Deborah Eisenberg and Andrew O'Hagan. They joined host Eleanor Wachtel onstage at the Toronto International Festival of Authors in 2010. *This interview originally aired Oct. 31, 2010.

Listen to author and critic Erica Wagner in conversation with Selby Wynn Schwartz, writer of “After Sappho”, her first novel published by Galley Beggar Press in 2022. Together, they talk about her insatiable appetite for literature as a child and the way it led her to becoming a writer. They also evoke Lina Poletti, Sarah Bernhardt, Virginia Woolf or even Nathalie Barney, the women artists who inspired “After Sappho”, the book in which Selby Wynn Schwartz pays tribute to them.As part of the Rendez-vous littéraires rue Cambon [Literary Rendezvous at Rue Cambon], the podcast "les Rencontres" highlights the birth of a writer in a series imagined by CHANEL and House ambassador and spokesperson Charlotte Casiraghi.Selby Wynn Schwartz, After Sappho, © Selby Wynn Schwartz 2002, first published by Galley Beggar Press, 2022.Quote from the interview "The Galley Beggar Q&A: Selby Wynn Schwartz", © Galley Beggar Press, 2022.Quote from the article "After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz review – in praise of visionary women" written by Lara Feigel, © Guardian News & Media Ltd 2023.© Booker Prize Foundation.© The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2023.© University of Edinburgh.Selby Wynn Schwartz, The Bodies of Others: Drag Dances and their Afterlives, © Selby Wynn Schwartz University of Michigan Press, 2019.© Lambda Literary. © American Society for Theatre Research.Selby Wynn Schwartz, A Life in Chameleons, © Selby Wynn Schwartz, 2023. © Reflex Press. © University of California, Berkeley. © Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. The Great Art Of Light And Shadow: Archaeology of the Cinema by Laurent Mannoni, translated by Richard Crangle. Translation © University of Exeter Press, 2000. Anne Carson, Short Talks, © Brick Books, 2015.Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho, Translated by Anne Carson, © Virago, 2003.© Galley Beggar Press.Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho, Translated by Anne Carson, © Virago, 2003.Assia Djebar, Women of Algiers in their apartments, © Caraf Books, 1999.Assia Djebar, Femmes d'Alger dans leur appartement © Éditions des femmes, 1980.Igiaba Scego, The Color Line, Translated by John Cullen and Gregory Conti, first published in the English language by Other Press in 2022.Igiaba Scego, La linea del colore, first published in Italy in 2020 by Bompiani, © Igiaba Scego, 2020.Dionne Brand, The Blue Clerk: Ars Poetica in 59 Versos. © 2018 Dionne Brand. All rights reserved.Saidiya Hartman, Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals, © WW Norton & Company, 2019.T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting, Bricktop's Paris: African American Women in Paris between the Two World Wars, © SUNY Press, 2015.Alessandra Cenni, Gli Occhi Eroici : Sibilla Aleramo, Eleonora Duse, Cordula Poletti : una storia d'amore nell'Italia della belle époque, © Mursia, 2011.Cordula « Lina » Poletti, Il Poema Della Guerra, © Nicola Zanichelli, 1918. All rights reserved.Virginia Woolf, Orlando, 1928.© LASTESIS© Non Una Di Meno. All rights reserved.

In this episode, Linda chats with Dr. Katherine McLeod about her role in the SpokenWeb Podcast, particularly Short Cuts. The conversation covers so much ground in such a short period! We discuss the following: The Short Cuts podcast (6.20, 9:21, 14.05, 18:47)Women poets, such as Gwendolyn MacEwan, Phyllis Webb (15:27), Muriel Rukeyser, Maxine Gadd, Margaret Atwood (8.22; 8.54; 10:03), Daphne Marlatt (18:55), Dionne Brand (11:23), and Brand with Lee Maracle (a member of the Stó:lō Nation; 12.05; 15:25)Feminist practices of listening (9:20)Holding the sound (11:00) CBC Radio, the history of; women writers and (15:49) and the radio program “Anthology” (16:28) The federal funding body, called SSHRC (4.32; 6.05)Smaro Kamboureli and the TransCanada Institute (16:07)The Director of SpokenWeb, Jason Camlot (2:45, 17:33; 22.03) (see Linda's previous episode with Camlot, who is also a poet, here)CanLit Across Media (17:40)The Women and Words Conference (20:54)We talked about SpokenWeb's beginnings, but here is another example. And, if you're curious, here is a sample of McLeod talking about “holding the sound” in a ShortCuts episode. And if you want to hear the recording of Dionne Brand speaking with Lee Maracle, try going here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Linda reflects on Dionne Brand's magnificent A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging, reprinted by Vintage (a division of Random House) in 2023 - but initially published over twenty years ago. That's the staying power of this particular volume - the "Door of No Return" is a particularly harrowing metaphor and, as Linda notes, there are many expressions that use "doors" in contemporary usage. Just not like this book does! A prolific and accomplished writer and professor, Brand is referring to the Black diaspora vis-a-vis the Black Atlantic slave trade.To set up this discussion, Linda considers her personal fascination with "doors" (consider the gorgeous doors of the Atwater Library in Montreal) and then how they have been used in other works -- like that of Complaint! by Sara Ahmed or The Diamond Grill by Fred Wah or The Door by Margaret Atwood -- and then compares them to how the image is used in Brand's literary text.In the Takeaway, Linda gives a shout-out to the annual Read Quebec Book Fair, that this year is taking place from November 3 to November 4th in the McConnell Building Atrium of Concordia University. Please join her there, where she will be interviewing Catherine Hernandez and Eva Crocker live! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a fair and equal world Toronto-based poet Dionne Brand would be widely recognised as one of the world's foremost practitioners of poetry. Yet, in the UK for instance, her work hasn't always been easy to find. Until, that is, Penguin Modern Classics published Nomenclature: New and Collected Poems in 2023.   Nomenclature is a huge tome – 623 pages long – which collects together 8 of Brand's previous poetry collections as well as a new long form poem which gives the book its title. This is the essential Dionne Brand all gathered together in one place.   Brand's work has a clear-eyed politically-conscious intensity, underpinning her textual experiments and linguistic adventures. She is immersed in the unflinching world of testimony, while looking forward, dreaming of a less hostile tomorrow. She chooses not to wrap human struggles or the human condition in a transcendent glow nor to swaddle in cotton wool memories. In Inventory she writes:   I have nothing soothing to tell you that's not my job my job is to revise and revise this bristling list hourly.   In Lux magazine Brand was described by Sarah Matthews as “resolutely Black, decolonial, internationalist, lesbian, and staunchly, unswervingly leftist. Both her poetry and her activism take that fateful youthful epiphany of realizing the tear in the world, then make it a portal of observance and imagining.”   Dionne Brand was the subject of the SPL's Nothing But The Poem podcast. Our usual host, Sam Tongue, took a deep dive into two of her poems. Both can be found online at the Griffin Poetry Prize website.   THIRSTY FROM VERSO 4   Find out what Sam - and the Friends Of The SPL group - got from the two poems in our Nothing But The Poem podcast.   (KW)

Today's poem is from THIRSTY by Dionne Brand. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “I love the beauty of natural spaces, and will never jettison the sense of sacred communion there, but cities serve as staging grounds for my feelings of agape, the benevolence I feel from and extend to fellow human beings.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp

There may be no writer, no thinker, who has shaped my conversations on the show more than Christina Sharpe. Whether her work is explicitly part of a conversation (in episodes with Ross Gay, Solmaz Sharif, Natalie Diaz, and Dionne Brand, to name a few) or whether her thought and vision provide a foundation and subtext […] The post Christina Sharpe : Ordinary Notes appeared first on Tin House.

[Note: In the episode image the artwork behind Dionne Brand at the podium is by Torkwase Dyson, as is the cover art work for Nomenclature] In this conversation we are thrilled to welcome Dionne Brand to the podcast.  This is a conversation with her new book Nomenclature: New and Collected Poems and also with a number of her lectures, interviews, and dialogues over the years. If we reference something not in Nomenclature we have done our best to include a link to it in the show notes.  We ask questions about themes and ideas we hear or read Brand grappling with in her work, as well as questions that we grapple with in relation to her work. These include questions about time, epistemology, nature, the category of the human, Black thought, spectacle, narrative, capital, imperialism, socialism and liberation. If you find value in this conversation and others we publish, we encourage you to support the podcast at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism, we are 100% supported by our listeners and you can be a part of that for as little as $1 a month. Dionne Brand is a renowned poet, novelist, and essayist. Her writing is notable for the beauty of its language, and for its intense engagement with issues of international social justice. Her work includes ten volumes of poetry, five books of fiction and three non-fiction works. She was the Poet Laureate of the City of Toronto 2009-2012. From 2017-2021 Brand was Poetry Editor at McClelland & Stewart- Penguin Random House Canada. Dionne Brand became prominent first as an award-winning poet, winning the Griffin Poetry Prize for her volume Ossuaries, the Governor General's Literary Award and the Trillium Book Prize for her volume Land to Light On. She's garnered two other nominations for the Governor General's Literary Award for the poetry volumes No Language Is Neutral and Inventory respectively, the latter also nominated for the Trillium and the Pat Lowther. She has won the Pat Lowther Award for poetry for her volume thirsty also nominated for the Griffin Poetry Prize and the city of Toronto Book Award.  Her 2018 volume, The Blue Clerk, was nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award for poetry and the Griffin Poetry Prize and won the Trillium Book Prize. Brand has also achieved great distinction and acclaim in fiction and non-fiction. Her most recent novel, Theory won the Toronto Book Award 2019 and the BOCAS fiction prize. Her novel, Love Enough was nominated in 2015 for the Trillium Book Award. Her fiction includes the critically acclaimed novels In Another Place, Not Here, At the Full and Change of the Moon, and, What We All Long For an indelible portrait of the city of Toronto which also garnered the Toronto Book Award. Her fiction has been translated into Italian, French and German. Dionne Brand's non-fiction includes Bread Out Of Stone, and A Map to the Door of No Return, which has been widely taken up by scholars of Black Diaspora and An Autobiography of The Autobiography of Reading. In 2021 Brand was awarded the Windham Campbell Award for fiction. Dionne Brand has published nineteen books, contributed to many anthologies and written dozens of essays and articles. She has also been involved in the making of several documentary films. She was a Distinguished Visiting Professor at St. Lawrence University in New York and has taught literature and creative writing at universities in both British Columbia and Ontario. She has also held the Ruth Wynn Woodward Chair in Women's Studies at Simon Fraser University. She holds several Honorary Doctorates, Wilfred Laurier University, University of Windsor, Simon Fraser University, The University of Toronto, York University and Thornloe/Laurentian University.  She lives in Toronto and was Professor in the School of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph until 2022. She is a member of the Order of Canada. In every area of her work Brand has received widespread recognition through literary awards, honorary doctorates, and praise by the likes of Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, Kamau Braithwaite, and so many, many others. In the show notes we will include Dionne Brand's full bio which further details her award winning work in poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and film. As well as her distinguished work as an educator, documentary film maker, and poetry editor. Sources: Nomenclature: New and Collected Poems David Naimon's interview with Dionne Brand on Between The Covers Podcast  Adrienne Rich and Dionne Brand in Conversation  Dionne Brand: The Shape of Language (along with Torkwase Dyson)  “I Am Not The Person You Remember” - In Memoriam of MF DOOM with Hanif Abdurraqib “The Oppressed Have a Way of Addressing Their Own Conditions” - On Joshua Myers' Cedric Robinson: The Time of the Black Radical Tradition   Dionne Brand - “An Autobiography of the Autobiography of Reading”  

A fresh take on sounds from the past, ShortCuts is a monthly feature on The SpokenWeb Podcast feed and an extension of the ShortCuts blog posts on SPOKENWEBLOG. Stay tuned for monthly episodes of ShortCuts on alternate fortnights (that's every second week) following the monthly SpokenWeb podcast episode. If you are a SpokenWeb RA with an archival clip to feature on ShortCuts, do write to us at spokenwebpodcast@gmail.com with your pitch. Host and Series Producer: Katherine McLeodSupervising Producer: Kate MoffattAudio Engineer / Sound Designer: Miranda EastwoodProduction Manager and Transcriber: Kelly CubbonARCHIVAL AUDIOCheck the transcript for the timestamps for where this audio appears in the episode and for a map for all of the sounds. Here is a list with links for finding out more about these archival recordings.Katherine McLeod, from ShortCuts 3.1 “Sounds”: https://spokenweb.ca/podcast/episodes/sounds/Katherine McLeod, from ShortCuts 3.9 “Re-Situating Sound”: https://spokenweb.ca/podcast/episodes/re-situating-sound/Archival audio, Dionne Brand, 1988 reading, from ShortCuts 3.3 “Communal Memories”: https://spokenweb.ca/podcast/episodes/communal-memories/Archival audio: Douglas Barbour, from Penny Chalmers (Penn Kemp) at the University of Alberta, February 18, 1977; Douglas Barbour introducing Penny Chalmers (Penn Kemp) at the University of Alberta, February 18, 1977; Douglas Barbour introducing Leona Gom at the University of Alberta, February 21, 1980; Douglas Barbour, from John Newlove at the University of Alberta, March 19, 1981 — all from ShortCuts 3.6 “Listening Communities: The Introductions of Doug Barbour” (guest produced by Michael O'Driscoll): https://spokenweb.ca/podcast/episodes/listening-communities-the-introductions-of-douglas-barbour/Archival audio, Daphne Marlatt, 1970, from ShortCuts 3.4 “Sonic Passages”: https://spokenweb.ca/podcast/episodes/sonic-passages/ Daphne Marlatt interview with Karis Shearer and Megan Butchart played on “SoundBox Signals presents Performing the Archive” an episode of SoundBox Signals that was aired on The SpokenWeb Podcast (co-produced by Karis Shearer, Megan Butchart, and Nour Sallam), clipped on ShortCuts 3.4: https://spokenweb.ca/podcast/episodes/sonic-passages/Interview with Kelly Cubbon, “Talking Transcription: Accessibility, Collaboration, Creativity,” (co-produced by Kelly Cubbon and Katherine McLeod), S3E9 The SpokenWeb Podcast, June 2022: https://spokenweb.ca/podcast/episodes/talking-transcription-accessibility-collaboration-and-creativity/Interview with Kaie Kellough, ShortCuts 3.5 “The Voice that is the Poem”: https://spokenweb.ca/podcast/episodes/the-voice-that-is-the-poem-ft-kaie-kellough/Archival audio, Oana Avasilichioaei, from ShortCuts 3.8: https://spokenweb.ca/podcast/episodes/the-event/Archival audio, bpNichol, November 1968, from ShortCuts 3.2: “What the Archive Remembers”: https://spokenweb.ca/podcast/episodes/what-the-archive-remembers/Archival audio, Phyllis Webb, from ShortCuts 3.7 “Moving, Still”: https://spokenweb.ca/podcast/episodes/moving-still/

Today's guest Dionne Brand, to borrow the words of John Keene, “is without question one of the major living poets in the English language.” Kamau Brathwaite called Brand “our first major exile female poet.” Adrienne Rich described her as “a cultural critic of uncompromising courage, an artist in language and ideas, and an intellectual conscience […] The post Dionne Brand : Nomenclature — New and Collected Poems appeared first on Tin House.

Dr. Debra Thompson (https://www.twitter.com/debthompsonphd (@debthompsonphd)), talks about her poignant, profound and powerful book, The Long Road Home: On Blackness and Belonging, about her journey back home. She weaves together insights on the politics of race and racialization and Black identity while discussing family history, growing up in Oshawa, and her experiences, in academic spaces in Chicago, in Ohio, in Portland, and in Canada. Buy Deb's Book! https://amzn.to/3Sd9BSz (The Long Road Home: On Blackness and Belonging) by Debra Thompson Reading List https://amzn.to/3dsuNW8 (Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route) by Saidiya Hartman https://amzn.to/3LmLT49 (Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval )by Saidiya Hartman https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/community.30714426.pdf?ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A3d8fd838b5e9869bef255c13c3f7e63d (White privilege: unpacking the invisible knapsack) by Peggy McIntosh https://amzn.to/3dqgKQQ (A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging) by Dionne Brand https://amzn.to/3RSLetO (Dear Science and Other Stories) by Katherine McKittrick https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/canadian-journal-of-political-science-revue-canadienne-de-science-politique/article/puzzling-persistence-of-racial-inequality-in-canada/E89DEFD1170245773E2CDDF23ACACE95 (The Puzzling Persistence of Racial Inequality in Canada )by Keith Banting and Debra Thompson Thanks for listening! Get more information, support the show, and read all the transcripts at https://www.academicaunties.com/ (academicaunties.com). Get in touch with Academic Aunties on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/academicauntie (@AcademicAuntie) or by e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com. This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something we may earn a commission. Thanks. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy

Saxophonist Kenny G discusses the documentary Listening to Kenny G, which explores his meteoric rise in the late '80s and early '90s, the backlash that followed and why he's now being embraced by a whole new generation of musicians. Succession star Nicholas Braun reveals some of the similarities between him and his character, Cousin Greg. Award-winning poet, novelist and editor Dionne Brand talks about her Griffin Poetry Prize-nominated book The Blue Clerk, which meditates on the process of writing poetry.

SUMMARYIn the making of ShortCuts, series producer Katherine McLeod often talks about how recorded sound is held not only within archives but also by the work of contextualizing whenever one selects an archival audio clip and presses play. Returning to an audio recording of Dionne Brand played in ShortCuts 2.9 “Situating Sound” (June 2021), Katherine reminds us that the process of unarchiving sound is an embodied one. We listen as bodies to the archive. Moreover, how we choose to contextualize sound impacts any listening to it, and written transcripts too frame our understanding of the audio content. Building upon the most recent episode of The SpokenWeb, “Talking Transcription: Accessibility, Collaboration, and Creativity,” this episode of ShortCuts explores the transcript as another version of holding the sound, while, at the same time, invites a listening to that which exceeds that holding.“...even those that do not hold a wind's impression”- Dionne Brand from Primitive OffensiveEPISODE NOTESA fresh take on sounds from the past, ShortCuts is a monthly feature on The SpokenWeb Podcast feed and an extension of the ShortCuts blog posts on SPOKENWEBLOG. Stay tuned for monthly episodes of ShortCuts on alternate fortnights (that's every second week) following the monthly SpokenWeb podcast episode.Series Producer: Katherine McLeodHost: Hannah McGregorSupervising Producer: Kate MoffattAudio Engineer / Sound Designer: Miranda EastwoodARCHIVAL AUDIOArchival audio excerpted in this episode is from “radiofreerainforest 3 & 28 July and 7 August, 1988” held in Gerry Gilbert radiofreerainforest Collection: SFU Digitized Collections, https://digital.lib.sfu.ca/radiofreerainforest-357/radiofreerainforest-3-28-july-and-7-august-1988.Sound effect is “Automatic tapedeck rewind, fastforward, play” (stecman) Free Sound. 6 January 2017. https://freesound.org/s/376058/.RESOURCESBrand, Dionne. Chronicles: Early Works. Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2011.“Gerry Gilbert radiofreerainforest Collection.” SFU Digitized Collections, https://digital.lib.sfu.ca/gerry-gilbert-radiofreerainforest-collection.Kinesis. Periodicals. Vancouver : Vancouver Status of Women, 1 Sept. 1988. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/kinesis/items/1.0045699.Our Lives. Toronto: Black Women's Collective. Volume 2 5.6 (Summer/Fall 1988), https://riseupfeministarchive.ca/publications/our-lives-canadas-first-black-womens-newspaper/ourlives-02-0506-summer-fall-1988/.“radiofreerainforest 3 & 28 July and 7 August, 1988.” Gerry Gilbert radiofreerainforest Collection: SFU Digitized Collections,  https://digital.lib.sfu.ca/radiofreerainforest-357/radiofreerainforest-3-28-july-and-7-august-1988.“radiofreerainforest 7, 25 August, 1988 and 30 October, 1988.” Gerry Gilbert radiofreerainforest Collection: SFU Digitized Collections, https://digital.lib.sfu.ca/radiofreerainforest-90/radiofreerainforest-7-25-august-1988-and-30-october-1988.“ShortCuts 2.9: Situating Sound.” Produced by Katherine McLeod. The SpokenWeb Podcast. 21 June 2021. https://spokenweb.ca/podcast/episodes/situating-sound/.“Talking Transcription: Accessibility, Collaboration, and Creativity.” Produced by Kelly Cubbon and Katherine McLeod. The SpokenWeb Podcast. 6 June 2022. https://spokenweb.ca/podcast/episodes/talking-transcription-accessibility-collaboration-and-creativity/.

Mission encre noire Tome 33 Chapitre 377. Prendre lieu de Karine Légeron paru en 2022 aux éditions Leméac. Les mains qui courent sur le bois sec et gris, fatigué de vent, de soleil et de sel de la mer pourraient aussi bien appartenir à Kelig Le Floch, à la veuve du capitaine Hugh Talbot Burgoyne ou bien encore à ce fils venu accompagné son père pour disperser les cendres d'un grand-père basque disparu trop tôt. Car voilà, Iels veulent voir cette côte monstrueuse, cette terre d'Espagne, nommée la costa da Morte, sur la côte galicienne, avec son rivage exposé directement à l'océan, là où commence le royaume des morts. Il suffirait, dit-on, de poser son front sur un rocher pour entendre les voix des nombreux naufragé.e.s. Les époques, les identités, les personnages s'agglomèrent et s'entrelacent, en autant de masques, derrière lesquels se dissimulent les sentiments de l'autrice. C'est la voix du passé, qui traverse cette écriture habile et sensible. En Galice ou ailleurs, l'autrice écrit sous influence. Celle des gens et surtout celle des lieux qui charrient des souvenirs: ceux de l'enfance, des paysages marins, ceux qui inspirent, à Montréal, autour du Carré Saint-Louis, ceux qu'on laisse derrière soi, malgré-nous, une maison familiale, un ancien amant. La mémoire s'égarera, sans doute, en quête de rituels à jamais disparu où l'éclat du réel reprend son dû. Érigé dans une perspective géopoétique, ce recueil est une invitation à découvrir nos territoires intimes, à traverser ces endroits qui nous bouleversent, à lutter contre les éléments et pour l'autrice, y puiser une formidable énergie créatrice qui lui fait dire: «Moi, minuscule mais tellement forte, Tellement vivante.» J'accueille, ce soir, Karine Légeron à Mission encre noire. Extrait:« Je suis rentrée. C'est ce que je dis maintenant, que je suis rentrée, comme on rentre à la maison ou chez soi, comme on revient à quelque chose de primordial. J'habite la ville et elle m'habite, nous en sommes là. J'ai parfois le sentiment qu'elle m'occupe tout entière, comme on est habité par une musique indélogeable ou une passion, et qu'elle me définit un peu ; ce sentiment m'autorise à rentrer à Montréal. Mais d'autres jours elle me rejette, et je m'y sens étrangère. Déplacée. Ces jours-là, je n'ai nulle part où rentrer. Je suis revenue depuis près d'un mois et Montréal me repousse. Entre là bas quitté et ici pas encore retrouvé, j'ai l'impression de vivre dans la fissure d'un entre-deux. Je ne retrouve pas ma place, mes repères. Ce qui coulait, fluide, accroche et contrarie. M'assaille, presque. j'avais oublié à quel point tout est bruyant, ici. L'océan ne se tait jamais, lui non plus, mais son bruit est répétitif et apaisant, à l'opposé du vacarme ininterrompu que génère la ville. Tout parle, tout hurle, tout m'agresse.» La revue Moebius 172, dirigée par Jennifer Bélanger et Alex Noël. «Il faut que tu ruines tout» est la citation-thème de ce nouveau numéro. Elle est tirée de L'amour à peu près de Dionne Brand (traduction de Nicole Côté), paru en 2017 aux éditions Triptyque. Comme à son habitude, la revue littéraire québécoise nous prouve encore une fois toute la richesse et la diversité des formes et des écritures d'ici. Si le contexte de la pandémie se débloque doucement, le poids de l'actualité mondiale, et en particulier l'ajout de celui de la guerre en Ukraine, tombent à propos pour encadrer la lecture de cette nouvelle édition. Les imaginaires des auteurices regroupé.e.s dans ce numéro 172 attestent de la gravité d'un monde qui part à vau-l'eau ou témoignent des ruines qui érodent leur quotidien. Que trouve-t-on au milieu des décombres ? Comment survivre aux violences qui nous assaillent encore au présent ? Comment réinventer les liens familiaux ou amoureux sur une terre dévastée? écrire sur les ruines, c'est penser à l'après, c'est aussi faire éclater les cadres établis, comme faire grandir en soi l'insurrection nécessaire pour pasticher rachel lamoureux, présente dans ce numéro. Jennifer Bélanger et Alex Noël sont invité.e, ce soir, à Mission encre noire. Extrait:« ma mère ne sait pas que la solitude qui nous accable est souvent celle que l'on s'est faite. elle ne sait pas que j'ai hérité de ses définitions déficientes, de ses mécanismes mortifères, que j'ai payé très cher des spécialistes afin de nommer en moi tout ce qui venait de là, d'entourer la crevasse d'un ruban jaune, de la condamner comme une zone inhabitable. il est possible, semble-t-il, si l'envie nous prend de vivre, de contourner ces lieux qui nous ont fondé.e.s, d'éradiquer en soi ce qui minait notre identité, car, vraiment, il est difficile de penser que l'on mérite respect et tendresse quand, de soi, l'on ne perçoit que cette béance faite de ressentiment d'inquiétude et de colère. je pensais que j'étais malade, malade de l'esprit, que mon corps déraillait, me trahissait, qu'il devait exister un remède à cela, une chimie du cerveau, une médication, une étiquette, un rien qui saurait justifier ce trouble, cette incohérence, cette aberration que je traînais un peu partout, en classe, au lit, à la table, ce corps de rien brûlant d'une hargne qui m'a fait connaître le sentiment d'injustice hors de toute loi. je suis au-delà de la loi, de l'ordre, je suis un enfant du chaos, car un parent absent est sans autorité, un parent qui n'accourt pas dans les moments de détresse se départit de toute crédibilité dans les moments d'allégresse. un parent qui n'agit pas en parent est illégitime. un parent négligent, avare ou calculateur est un parent destitué. je suis un enfant anarchique, un enfant révolté, à ne pas m'éduquer, l'on a fait grandir en moi l'insurrection.»    

'Yes, we agree that anti-racism is important. Yes we agree that anti oppression is important. Yes, we agree that equity is important. Yes, we agree that sovereignty is important for indigenous peoples in particular and that decolonization is really important but to us, these are tools to get toward a new society, to transform the world in which we live. If I can refer to the panel that we had the other day that led off this conference, to get out of the social historical economic trap that we're currently in, that forces us to compete with each other, that forces us, as Peru ?? was saying, to ignore the land and what the land is trying to say to us, that forces us to treat certain arts as better than others, without truly understanding the artistic standards that some arts products are created to turn. To turn over the Massey Commission and say, you know what, that is the trap that we're also in. These historical institutions that have come out since the 1950s that basically are struggling with relevance this day and age.' (Charles C. Smith)'We hear conversations around this idea of back to normal and I beg to question: was it ever normal before? What's the better? Was it best before? We wanted to have a conversation around the state of how artists and arts organizations emerging out of a pandemic and also what it means in a time of planetary renewal, given also the racial reckoning about renewal that was going on, we felt it that there were assumptions being made about how we would begin again and so we wanted to make sure that we had our different panels and focus around this idea of starting back, but also addressing what was happening to artists and to organizations prior to the pandemic that led to some of the further marginalization of IBPOC artists and the further under sourcing of IBPOC artists so how do we begin to address that so that can be shifted or changed emerging out of the pandemic.' (Kevin A. Ormsby)My conversation with Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario (CPAMO) Executive Director Charles C. Smith and Program Manager Kevin A. Ormsby on Dec 10, 2021 about the Gathering Divergence Multi-Arts Festival & Conference Fall 2021 | Art in the Time of Healing: The Importance of IBPOC Arts in Planetary Renewal. 1 of 6 episodes recorded at this event.  I was honoured when Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario (CPAMO) Program Manager Kevin A. Ormsby asked me to moderate a panel on National Cultural Policy and arts in Response to Climate Change at the Gathering Divergence Multi-Arts Festival & Conference Fall 2021 | Art in the Time of Healing: The Importance of IBPOC Arts in Planetary Renewal in Toronto on December 10, 2021. Later on that day, I caught up with CPAMO Executive Director Charles C. Smith and Kevin to talk about their aspirations for the gathering and the state of IBPOC arts communities. This episode also includes excerpts from their keynote presentation earlier that day about the Living in the Skin I am In: Experiential Learnings, Approaches and Considerations Towards Anti-Black Racism in the Arts publication. Program Manager of Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario (CPAMO), Kevin A. Ormsby is also the Artistic Director of KasheDance, movement coach and Arts Marketing Consultant. The Ontario Arts Council's Chalmers Fellowship recipient (2017), KM Hunter Dance Award Nominee (2016), Toronto Arts Council's Cultural Leaders Lab Fellow (2015) and The Canada Council for the Arts' Victor Martyn Lynch – Staunton Award 2014 recipient for outstanding achievement by a mid-career artist, he has many interests in the creative practice and administration in dance. He has honed his passion for dance, advocacy, writing and education while performing with various companies and projects in Canada, the Caribbean and the United States.charles c. smith is a poet, playwright and essayist who has written and edited twelve books. He studied poetry and drama with William Packard, editor of the New York Quarterly Magazine, at New York University and Herbert Berghof Studios. He also studied drama at the Frank Silvera's Writers' Workshop in Harlem. He won second prize for his play Last Days for the Desperate from Black Theatre Canada, has edited three collections of poetry (including the works of Dionne Brand, Marlene Nourbese Phillips, Claire Harris, Cyril Dabydeen, Lillian Allen, George Elliot Clarke, Clifton Joseph), has four published books of poetry and his poetry has appeared in numerous journals and magazines, including Poetry Canada Review, the Quille and Quire, Descant, Dandelion, Fiddlehead, Anti-Racism in Education: Missing in Action (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives), the Amethyst Review, Bywords, Canadian Ethnic Studies and others.This is one of 6 episodes recorded during the Gathering Divergence Multi-Arts Festival & Conference Fall 2021 | Art in the Time of Healing: The Importance of IBPOC Arts in Planetary Renewalevent from December 8 to 10, 2021 in Toronto.The others are:episode 90, my conversation with dance artist, choreographer, director and embodiment facilitator Shannon Litzenberger and reading her State of Emergence: Why We Need Artists Right Now essayepisode 91, my conversation with Keith Barker, artistic director of Native Earth Performing Arts, including a reading of his new 5 minute Climate Change Theatre Action play, Apology, My at the end of this episodeepisode 92, a presentation (including audience questions) by Santee Smith, artistic director of Kaha:wi Dance Theatre from the National Cultural Policy and arts in Response to Climate Change panelepisode 93, a presentation (including audience questions) by Anthony Garoufalis-Auger from the National Cultural Policy and arts in Response to Climate Change panelepisode 94, a presentation (including audience questions) by Devon Hardy from the National Cultural Policy and arts in Response to Climate Change panelCharles C. Smith and Kevin A. Orsmby, December 10, 2021, Aki Studio, Toronto *END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODESHere is a link for more information on season 5. Please note that, in parallel with the production of the conscient podcast and it's francophone counterpart, balado conscient, I publish a Substack newsletter called ‘a calm presence' which are 'short, practical essays for those frightened by the ecological crisis'. To subscribe (free of charge) see https://acalmpresence.substack.com. You'll also find a podcast version of each a calm presence posting on Substack or one your favorite podcast player.Also. please note that a complete transcript of conscient podcast and balado conscient episodes from season 1 to 4 is available on the web version of this site (not available on podcast apps) here: https://conscient-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes.Your feedback is always welcome at claude@conscient.ca and/or on conscient podcast social media: Facebook, X, Instagram or Linkedin. I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this podcast, including the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation systems and infrastructure that made this production possible. Claude SchryerLatest update on April 2, 2024

My conversation with Laurie Lambert, author of Comrade Sister: Caribbean Feminist Revisions of the Grenada Revolution (University of Virginia Press, 2020). This book asks us to rethink the Grenadan Revolution through the literature of authors including Merle Collins, Dionne Brand, Derek Walcott and others. Lambert's attention to gender offers new narratives through which to consider the relationships between violence, memory, trauma, and colonialism. We talk about her writing process and methods, and about the broader implications of her book to Caribbean historiography.  Alejandra Bronfman is Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies Latin American, Caribbean & U.S. Latino Studies at SUNY, Albany. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My conversation with Laurie Lambert, author of Comrade Sister: Caribbean Feminist Revisions of the Grenada Revolution (University of Virginia Press, 2020). This book asks us to rethink the Grenadan Revolution through the literature of authors including Merle Collins, Dionne Brand, Derek Walcott and others. Lambert's attention to gender offers new narratives through which to consider the relationships between violence, memory, trauma, and colonialism. We talk about her writing process and methods, and about the broader implications of her book to Caribbean historiography.  Alejandra Bronfman is Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies Latin American, Caribbean & U.S. Latino Studies at SUNY, Albany. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

My conversation with Laurie Lambert, author of Comrade Sister: Caribbean Feminist Revisions of the Grenada Revolution (University of Virginia Press, 2020). This book asks us to rethink the Grenadan Revolution through the literature of authors including Merle Collins, Dionne Brand, Derek Walcott and others. Lambert's attention to gender offers new narratives through which to consider the relationships between violence, memory, trauma, and colonialism. We talk about her writing process and methods, and about the broader implications of her book to Caribbean historiography.  Alejandra Bronfman is Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies Latin American, Caribbean & U.S. Latino Studies at SUNY, Albany. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history

My conversation with Laurie Lambert, author of Comrade Sister: Caribbean Feminist Revisions of the Grenada Revolution (University of Virginia Press, 2020). This book asks us to rethink the Grenadan Revolution through the literature of authors including Merle Collins, Dionne Brand, Derek Walcott and others. Lambert's attention to gender offers new narratives through which to consider the relationships between violence, memory, trauma, and colonialism. We talk about her writing process and methods, and about the broader implications of her book to Caribbean historiography.  Alejandra Bronfman is Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies Latin American, Caribbean & U.S. Latino Studies at SUNY, Albany. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory

My conversation with Laurie Lambert, author of Comrade Sister: Caribbean Feminist Revisions of the Grenada Revolution (University of Virginia Press, 2020). This book asks us to rethink the Grenadan Revolution through the literature of authors including Merle Collins, Dionne Brand, Derek Walcott and others. Lambert's attention to gender offers new narratives through which to consider the relationships between violence, memory, trauma, and colonialism. We talk about her writing process and methods, and about the broader implications of her book to Caribbean historiography.  Alejandra Bronfman is Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies Latin American, Caribbean & U.S. Latino Studies at SUNY, Albany. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/latin-american-studies

My conversation with Laurie Lambert, author of Comrade Sister: Caribbean Feminist Revisions of the Grenada Revolution (University of Virginia Press, 2020). This book asks us to rethink the Grenadan Revolution through the literature of authors including Merle Collins, Dionne Brand, Derek Walcott and others. Lambert's attention to gender offers new narratives through which to consider the relationships between violence, memory, trauma, and colonialism. We talk about her writing process and methods, and about the broader implications of her book to Caribbean historiography.  Alejandra Bronfman is Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies Latin American, Caribbean & U.S. Latino Studies at SUNY, Albany. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/gender-studies

My conversation with Laurie Lambert, author of Comrade Sister: Caribbean Feminist Revisions of the Grenada Revolution (University of Virginia Press, 2020). This book asks us to rethink the Grenadan Revolution through the literature of authors including Merle Collins, Dionne Brand, Derek Walcott and others. Lambert's attention to gender offers new narratives through which to consider the relationships between violence, memory, trauma, and colonialism. We talk about her writing process and methods, and about the broader implications of her book to Caribbean historiography.  Alejandra Bronfman is Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies Latin American, Caribbean & U.S. Latino Studies at SUNY, Albany. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/caribbean-studies

My conversation with Laurie Lambert, author of Comrade Sister: Caribbean Feminist Revisions of the Grenada Revolution (University of Virginia Press, 2020). This book asks us to rethink the Grenadan Revolution through the literature of authors including Merle Collins, Dionne Brand, Derek Walcott and others. Lambert's attention to gender offers new narratives through which to consider the relationships between violence, memory, trauma, and colonialism. We talk about her writing process and methods, and about the broader implications of her book to Caribbean historiography.  Alejandra Bronfman is Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies Latin American, Caribbean & U.S. Latino Studies at SUNY, Albany. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

As part two of ShortCuts 2.9 Situating Sound—and as one of the many remembrances of Stó:lō writer and activist Lee Maracle—this ShortCuts explores how the archive remembers and who these memories serve. The audio recording for this episode is a 1988 recording of Lee Maracle and Dionne Brand, recorded for broadcast on Gerry Gilbert's radio program “radiofreerainforest” (Vancouver Coop Radio; SFU Digitized Collections). Building towards Maracle's reading of the poem “Perseverance,” producer Katherine McLeod selects audio clips from this recording in which we can hear feminist placemaking in action.  EPISODE NOTESA fresh take on sounds from the past, ShortCuts is a monthly feature on The SpokenWeb Podcast feed and an extension of the ShortCuts blog posts on SPOKENWEBLOG. Stay tuned for monthly episodes of ShortCuts on alternate fortnights (that's every second week) following the monthly SpokenWeb podcast episode.Producer: Katherine McLeodHost: Hannah McGregorSupervising Producer: Judith Burr AUDIO CLIPSAll audio in this episode is from the Gerry Gilbert radiofreerainforest Collection, held at Simon Fraser University and part of SFU's Digitized Collections. RESOURCESMaracle, Lee. I Am Woman: A Native Perspective on Sociology and Feminism. Vancouver: Press Gang, 1996. Maracle, Lee. Memory Serves: Oratories. Ed. Smaro Kamboureli. NeWest Press, 2015. “radiofreerainforest 3 & 28 July and 7 August, 1988.” Gerry Gilbert radiofreerainforest Collection. SFU Digitized Collections. https://digital.lib.sfu.ca/radiofreerainforest-357/radiofreerainforest-3-28-july-and-7-august-1988 “ShortCuts 2.9: Situating Sound.” The SpokenWeb Podcast, 21 June 2020. https://spokenweb.ca/podcast/episodes/situating-sound/ Taylor, Diana. The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas. Durham, N.C: Duke UP, 2003. Wilson, Michelle. “Forced Migration.” The SpokenWeb Podcast, 6 December 2021. https://spokenweb.ca/podcast/episodes/forced-migration/

Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a Queer Black Troublemaker and Black Feminist Love Evangelist and an aspirational cousin to all sentient beings. Her work in this lifetime is to facilitate infinite, unstoppable ancestral love in practice. Her poetic work in response to the needs of her cherished communities has held space for multitudes in mourning and movement. Alexis's co-edited volume Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines (PM Press, 2016) has shifted the conversation on mothering, parenting and queer transformation. Alexis has transformed the scope of intellectual, creative and oracular writing with her triptych of experimental works published by Duke University Press (Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity in 2016, M Archive: After the End of the World in 2018 and Dub: Finding Ceremony, 2020.) Unlike most academic texts, Alexis's work has inspired artists across form to create dance works, installation work, paintings, processionals, divination practices, operas, quilts and more.Alexis is the founder of Brilliance Remastered, an online network and series of retreats and online intensives serving community accountable intellectuals and artists in the legacies of Audre Lorde's profound statement in “The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House” that the preceding statement is “only threatening to those…who still think of the master's house as their only source of support.” Through retreats on ancestor accountable intellectual practice, and online courses on topics from anger as a resource to transnational intellectual solidarity Alexis and her Brilliance Remastered collaborators have nurtured a community of thinkers and artists grounded in the resources that normative institutions ignore. All of Alexis's work is grounded in a community building ethic and would not be possible without her communities of accountability in Durham, NC the broader US Southeast and the global south. As a co-founder member of UBUNTU A Women of Color Survivor-Led Coalition to End Gendered Violence, Warrior Healers Organizing Trust and Earthseed Land Collective in Durham, NC, a member of the first visioning council of Kindred Southern Healing Justice Network and a participant in Southerners on New Ground, Allied Media Projects, Black Women's Blueprint and the International Black Youth Summit for more than a decade she brings a passion for the issues that impact oppressed communities and an intimate knowledge of the resilience of movements led by Black, indigenous, working class women and queer people of color. Her writings in key movement periodicals such as Make/Shift, Left Turn, The Abolitionist, Ms. Magazine, and the collections Abolition Now, The Revolution Starts at Home, Dear Sister and the Transformative Justice Reader have offered clarity and inspiration to generations of activists.Alexis work with her primary collaborator Sangodare has shown the world a Queer Black Feminist Love Ethic in practice. Over the past 11 years they have nurtured the Mobile Homecoming Project, an experiential archive amplifying generations of Black LGBTQ Brilliance which has consisted of listening tour of the United States (in a 1988 Winnebago!) 7 intergenerational retreats and pilgrimages in the Southeast US, a media and audio archive of many Black Feminist LGBTQ elders and is now in the land stewardship phase of building a living library and archive that serves as an all ages independent and assisted living community of intergenerational learning and love. Sangodare and Alexis are also the co-founders of Black Feminist Film School, an initiative to screen, study and produce films with a Black feminist ethic. Sangodare and Alexis have also collaborated on the exhibition Breathing Back at the Carrack Gallery in Durham, NC and more than 50 visits to campuses, organizations and conferences in the United States. Alexis was honored by the Anguilla Literary Festival as “The Pride of Anguilla,” a small country where her grandparents Jeremiah and Lydia Gumbs played key roles in the 1967 revolution. She identifies proudly as a queer Caribbean author and scholar in the tradition of Audre Lorde, June Jordan, M. Jacqui Alexander, Dionne Brand and many more. She was the first scholar to research in the papers of Audre Lorde at Spelman College, June Jordan, M. Jacqui Alexander, Dionne Brand and many more. She was the first scholar to research in the papers of Audre Lorde at Spelman College, June Jordan at Harvard University and Lucille Clifton at Emory University during her research for her PhD in English, African and African American Studies and Women and Gender Studies from Duke University. She is published in dozens of edited collections and academic journals on topics ranging from black coding practices to queer caribbean poetics, to mothering in hip hop culture. She speaks as a Black feminist expert in a number of films including Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth by Pratibha Parmar.Alexis's poetry and fiction appears in many creative journals and has been honored with inclusion in Best American Experimental Writing, a Pushcart Prize nomination, and honors from the Lucille Clifton Poetry Prize and the Firefly Ridge Women of Color Award. She has been poet-in-residence at Make/Shift Magazine and is currently Creative Writing Editor at Feminist Studies. Alexis's work as a media maker and her curricula for participatory digital education have been activated in 143 countries. Her digital distribution initiative BrokenBeautiful Press, her work as co-founder of Quirky Black Girls and her loving participation in the Women of Color Bloggers Network in the early 2000's established her as one of the forerunners of the social media life of feminist critical and creative practice. Alexis has been honored with many awards from her communities of practice including being lifted up on lists such as UTNE Readers 50 Visionaries Transforming the World, The Advocate's 40 under 40, Go Magazines 100 Women We Love, the Bitch 50 List, ColorLines 10 LGBTQ Leaders Transforming the South, Reproductive Justice Reality Check's Sheroes and more. She is a proud recipient of the Too Sexy for 501C-3 trophy, a Black Women's Blueprint Visionary Award and the Barnard College Outstanding Young Alumna Award. From 2017-2019, Alexis served as visiting Winton Chair at University of Minnesota where she collaborated with Black feminist artists in the legacy of Laurie Carlos to create collaborative performances based on her books Spill and M Archive. During that time she served as dramaturg for the award winning world premiere of Sharon Bridgforth's Dat Black Mermaid Man Lady directed by Ebony Noelle Golden. Alexis is currently in residence as a National Humanities Center Fellow, funded by the Founders Award. During her residency she is writing The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde: Biography as Ceremony (forthcoming from Farrar, Straus and Giroux).Her book Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals is a series of from Marine Mammals is a series of meditations based on the increasingly relevant lessons of marine mammals in a world with a rising ocean levels and part of adrienne maree brown's Emergent Strategy Series at AK Press.In this interview we discuss:Collective CareLoveInterconnectednessAudre LordeMarine MammalsThe BreathLessons we are Learning about LoveDistance and LoveIntergenerational MedicineLove and Care Across DistanceAncestorsMiracles RitualPracticeDevotionReverenceConnect with Alexis Pauline Gumbs on her website or on Instagram @alexispaulinePodcast music by Charles Kurtz+ Read transcript

On this episode of VIEW to the U, Professor Kristen Bos from UTM's Department of Historical Studies talks about her research on Indigenous feminisms, with among other things, considers the past, present, and future of seed beads. These little beads that have been used by Indigenous communities for thousands of years, vary in size but usually measure no more than 5 mm – or for a sense of scale, a bit smaller than a sesame seed – they tell stories, govern lands, and they have even been used as currencies, and on this edition of the podcast, Kristen covers all of this in fine detail, including how seed bead creations can be likened to a virus, how they help frame history, and how seed beads are “a visual reference to colonization,” but also to Indigenous futures. A full transcript of this interview is available at https://uoft.me/7fb. Resources - For more on Professor Bos's work visit her website https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/historical-studies/people/kristen-bos. - Kristen mentioned Indigenous artist Ruth Cuthand's seed bead work: https://www.ruthcuthand.ca/. - Kristen mentioned the article by Professors Eve Tuck and Karyn Recollet: "Introduction to Native Feminist Texts," https://bit.ly/3pTGd90. - Kristen also mentioned the exhibit curated by Lisa Myers: "Beads, they're sewn so tight" https://textilemuseum.ca/event/beads-theyre-sewn-so-tight/. - Kristen mentioned the following books as recommended reading: A Third University is Possible by la paperson https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/a-third-university-is-possible, Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments by Saidiya Hartman https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/605415/wayward-lives-beautiful-experiments-by-saidiya-hartman/9780393285673, and Theory by Dionne Brand https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/564847/theory-by-dionne-brand/9780735274259. - Lastly, the Reservation Dogs series by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi is the TV show she was enjoying lately. Highly recommend! https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/reservation-dogs

ShortCuts is back! Season Three of ShortCuts begins with a listening exercise. We attune our ears to what it sounds like and feels like to hear archival clips ‘cut' out of context. Join ShortCuts producer Katherine McLeod in this exploration of the sonic and affective place-making of ShortCuts as podcast. What kind of creative and critical work can these archival sounds do? On their own, or together as an archival remix? A fresh take on sounds from the past, ShortCuts is a monthly feature on The SpokenWeb Podcast feed and an extension of the ShortCuts blog posts on SPOKENWEBLOG. Stay tuned for monthly episodes of ShortCuts on alternate fortnights (that's every second week) following the monthly SpokenWeb podcast episode.Producer: Katherine McLeodHost: Hannah McGregorSupervising Producer: Judith BurrAudio ExcerptedVoices heard in this episode: Katherine McLeod, Tanya Davis, Ali Barillaro, Muriel Rukeyser, Margaret Avison, Stephanie Bolster, Barbara Nickel, Mathieu Aubin, Dionne Brand, Alexei Perry Cox and Isla, and Phyllis Webb.  All audio has been played on previous ShortCuts on The SpokenWeb Podcast. Try listening to this episode first without knowing whose voices you are hearing. Afterwards, explore the audio that caught your attention. Use the transcript to find the ShortCuts episode that the audio is clipped from, and there you will find the original audio sources listed in the show notes. For a full transcript of this episode, check out the link above.

Start spreading the news! Dr Davy Knittle joins me for a chat about what queerness has to do with cities, why heteronormative architecture can make life difficult for queer people and queer kinship, how poets desire cityscapes, and what all of this has to do with compulsory able-bodiedness and racism. We also talk about our dogs and why we feel the local park can be a great gay space. My favourite bit? Davy reading from Eileen Myles. I think you should hit play now.Texts and people mentioned: Karen Tongson, Relocations: Queer Suburban Imaginaries (NYU Press, 2011)Robert McRuer, “Compulsory Able-Bodiedness and Queer/Disabled Existence” in Disability Studies: Enabling the Humanities, edited by Sharon L. Snyder, Brenda Jo Brueggeman, and Rosemarie Garland-Thomson. Modern Language Association of America, 2002. 301-308. George Chauncey, “Privacy Could Only Be Had in Public': Forging a Gay World in the Streets” in Gay New York, Basic Books, 1994. 179-205. Julie Abraham, Metropolitan Lovers: The Homosexuality of Cities (University of Minnesota Press, 2009) Trans Wellness Conference: www.transphl.org (@TransPHL)Thomas HobbesCalvin & HobbesEileen Myles, “Hot Night” in Not Me (Semiotext(e), 1991). Richard Florida, Cities and the Creative Class, (Routledge, 2005). Dionne Brand, What We All Long For (St. Martin's Griffin, 2008). Patjim Statovci, My Cat Yugoslavia, Translated by David Hackston (Pushkin Press, 2017) Zeyn Joukhadar, The Thirty Names of Night (Simon and Schuster, 2020). One of many studies on the racial wealth gap in the US: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/02/27/examining-the-black-white-wealth-gap/Want to paint the town queer? Why not check out more of Davy's work here (https://davyknittle.squarespace.com/) and follow me on Instagram and Twitter (@Lena_Mattheis).Also, Davy was way too humble to mention this but many moons ago he had a conversation with THE Eileen Myles and you can listen to it here: http://jacket2.org/podcasts/not-me-ness-eileen-myles-and-davy-knittle. Questions you should be able to respond to after listening to this episode:1. How does Davy define the term city? Can you think of different ways to define it?2. Please give an example of heteronormative architecture or urban planning from your own life. How does this example affect queer living? How does it affect other marginalized people who do not identify as queer?3. What is Richard Florida's gay index? Why is it problematic?4. What does Davy say about the relationship between literary and urban studies?5. Can you think of an example of a queer text, film or series that depicts urbanity as central to queer life?

Singer-songwriter Yola talks about the inspirations behind her "genre-fluid" new album, Stand for Myself, and why her music defies categories. Actor Jena Malone discusses her latest film, Lorelei, and how her experience as a child actor has made her more protective of the children she works with on set. Tim "2oolman" Hill of The Halluci Nation (formerly A Tribe Called Red) gives us a musical guided tour through Six Nations of the Grand River, a reserve an hour and a half outside of Toronto. Award-winning poet, novelist and editor Dionne Brand meditates on the process of writing poetry in her Griffin Poetry Prize-nominated book The Blue Clerk.

A fresh take on sounds from the past, ShortCuts is a monthly feature on The SpokenWeb Podcast feed and an extension of the ShortCuts blog posts on SPOKENWEBLOG. Stay tuned for monthly episodes of ShortCuts on alternate fortnights (that's every second week) following the monthly SpokenWeb podcast episode.Producer: Katherine McLeodHost: Hannah McGregorSupervising Producer: Judith BurrAUDIO SOURCESDionne Brand, recording played on radiofreerainforest, 7 August 1988, https://digital.lib.sfu.ca/radiofreerainforest-90/radiofreerainforest-7-25-august-1988-and-30-october-1988.RESOURCES“#101 Renee Rodin.” BC Booklook, 28 January 2016,  https://bcbooklook.com/101-renee-rodin/.“Desire Lines: Mapping the metadata of Toronto arts publishing.” Art Gallery of York University, https://agyu.art/project/desire-lines/.“Gerry Gilbert radiofreerainforest Collection.” SFU Digitized Collections, https://digital.lib.sfu.ca/gerry-gilbert-radiofreerainforest-collection.Kinesis. Periodicals. Vancouver : Vancouver Status of Women, 1 Sept. 1988. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/kinesis/items/1.0045699.Our Lives. Toronto: Black Women's Collective. Volume 2 5.6 (Summer/Fall 1988), https://riseupfeministarchive.ca/publications/our-lives-canadas-first-black-womens-newspaper/ourlives-02-0506-summer-fall-1988/.“radiofreerainforest 3 & 28 July and 7 August, 1988.” Gerry Gilbert radiofreerainforest Collection: SFU Digitized Collections,  https://digital.lib.sfu.ca/radiofreerainforest-357/radiofreerainforest-3-28-july-and-7-august-1988.“radiofreerainforest 7, 25 August, 1988 and 30 October, 1988.” Gerry Gilbert radiofreerainforest Collection: SFU Digitized Collections, https://digital.lib.sfu.ca/radiofreerainforest-90/radiofreerainforest-7-25-august-1988-and-30-october-1988.

In Impossible Stories: On the Space and Time of Black Destructive Creation (Ohio State UP, 2021), John Murillo offers bold new readings of recent and canonical Black creative works within an Afro-pessimistic framework to excavate how time, space, and blackness intersect—or, rather, crash. Building on Michelle Wright’s ideas about dislocation from time and space as constitutive to being Black in America, as well as on W. E. B. DuBois’s theories of temporalization, he reconsiders the connections between physical phenomena and principles, literature, history, and the fragmented nature of Black time and space. Taking as his lens the fragment—fragmented bodies, fragments of memories, fragments of texts—Murillo theorizes new directions for Black identity and cultural production. Combining a critical engagement of physics and metaphysics with innovative readings of Gayl Jones’s Corregidora, Octavia Butler’s Kindred, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Kiese Laymon’s Long Division, Dionne Brand’s A Map to the Door of No Return, and Paul Beatty’s The Sellout, he offers new ways to think about anti-Black racism and practice Black creativity. Ultimately, in his equally creative and analytical responses to depictions of Black people left out of history and barred from spaces, Murillo argues that through Afro-pessimism, Black people can fight the anti-Black cosmos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In Impossible Stories: On the Space and Time of Black Destructive Creation (Ohio State UP, 2021), John Murillo offers bold new readings of recent and canonical Black creative works within an Afro-pessimistic framework to excavate how time, space, and blackness intersect—or, rather, crash. Building on Michelle Wright’s ideas about dislocation from time and space as constitutive to being Black in America, as well as on W. E. B. DuBois’s theories of temporalization, he reconsiders the connections between physical phenomena and principles, literature, history, and the fragmented nature of Black time and space. Taking as his lens the fragment—fragmented bodies, fragments of memories, fragments of texts—Murillo theorizes new directions for Black identity and cultural production. Combining a critical engagement of physics and metaphysics with innovative readings of Gayl Jones’s Corregidora, Octavia Butler’s Kindred, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Kiese Laymon’s Long Division, Dionne Brand’s A Map to the Door of No Return, and Paul Beatty’s The Sellout, he offers new ways to think about anti-Black racism and practice Black creativity. Ultimately, in his equally creative and analytical responses to depictions of Black people left out of history and barred from spaces, Murillo argues that through Afro-pessimism, Black people can fight the anti-Black cosmos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

In Impossible Stories: On the Space and Time of Black Destructive Creation (Ohio State UP, 2021), John Murillo offers bold new readings of recent and canonical Black creative works within an Afro-pessimistic framework to excavate how time, space, and blackness intersect—or, rather, crash. Building on Michelle Wright’s ideas about dislocation from time and space as constitutive to being Black in America, as well as on W. E. B. DuBois’s theories of temporalization, he reconsiders the connections between physical phenomena and principles, literature, history, and the fragmented nature of Black time and space. Taking as his lens the fragment—fragmented bodies, fragments of memories, fragments of texts—Murillo theorizes new directions for Black identity and cultural production. Combining a critical engagement of physics and metaphysics with innovative readings of Gayl Jones’s Corregidora, Octavia Butler’s Kindred, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Kiese Laymon’s Long Division, Dionne Brand’s A Map to the Door of No Return, and Paul Beatty’s The Sellout, he offers new ways to think about anti-Black racism and practice Black creativity. Ultimately, in his equally creative and analytical responses to depictions of Black people left out of history and barred from spaces, Murillo argues that through Afro-pessimism, Black people can fight the anti-Black cosmos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sociology

In Impossible Stories: On the Space and Time of Black Destructive Creation (Ohio State UP, 2021), John Murillo offers bold new readings of recent and canonical Black creative works within an Afro-pessimistic framework to excavate how time, space, and blackness intersect—or, rather, crash. Building on Michelle Wright's ideas about dislocation from time and space as constitutive to being Black in America, as well as on W. E. B. DuBois's theories of temporalization, he reconsiders the connections between physical phenomena and principles, literature, history, and the fragmented nature of Black time and space. Taking as his lens the fragment—fragmented bodies, fragments of memories, fragments of texts—Murillo theorizes new directions for Black identity and cultural production. Combining a critical engagement of physics and metaphysics with innovative readings of Gayl Jones's Corregidora, Octavia Butler's Kindred, Toni Morrison's Beloved, Kiese Laymon's Long Division, Dionne Brand's A Map to the Door of No Return, and Paul Beatty's The Sellout, he offers new ways to think about anti-Black racism and practice Black creativity. Ultimately, in his equally creative and analytical responses to depictions of Black people left out of history and barred from spaces, Murillo argues that through Afro-pessimism, Black people can fight the anti-Black cosmos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

In Impossible Stories: On the Space and Time of Black Destructive Creation (Ohio State UP, 2021), John Murillo offers bold new readings of recent and canonical Black creative works within an Afro-pessimistic framework to excavate how time, space, and blackness intersect—or, rather, crash. Building on Michelle Wright’s ideas about dislocation from time and space as constitutive to being Black in America, as well as on W. E. B. DuBois’s theories of temporalization, he reconsiders the connections between physical phenomena and principles, literature, history, and the fragmented nature of Black time and space. Taking as his lens the fragment—fragmented bodies, fragments of memories, fragments of texts—Murillo theorizes new directions for Black identity and cultural production. Combining a critical engagement of physics and metaphysics with innovative readings of Gayl Jones’s Corregidora, Octavia Butler’s Kindred, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Kiese Laymon’s Long Division, Dionne Brand’s A Map to the Door of No Return, and Paul Beatty’s The Sellout, he offers new ways to think about anti-Black racism and practice Black creativity. Ultimately, in his equally creative and analytical responses to depictions of Black people left out of history and barred from spaces, Murillo argues that through Afro-pessimism, Black people can fight the anti-Black cosmos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

This week we are joined by poet and performer Amy Acre. She has two pamphlets both of which were Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choices, she also won the Verve poetry Prize with a memorable poem called every girl knows, but bigger than that, she is the editor of one of the biggest and wildest small presses in the country, BAD BETTY PRESS. Today we talk about this exert from Dionne Brand’s The Blue Clerk you can download it here https://www.dropbox.com/sh/amriss56owc8jqb/AACM357cp4pdukBknElETOkza?dl=0

A renowned Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, writer and artist, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson has been lauded by many as one of the most compelling writers of her generation, as demonstrated by Islands of Decolonial Love, This Accident of Being Lost, Dancing on Our Turtle’s Back and As We Have Always Done. Now, in Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies, Betasamosake Simpson offers a book of wit, power, generosity and fierce insight or, as her publisher explains, “an act of decolonization, degentrification, and willful resistance to the perpetuation and dissemination of centuries-old colonial myth-making.” In conversation with award-winning poet, thinker and Theory author, Dionne Brand, this episode features two exceptional minds together, in a discussion bound to elevate our intellects and our spirits.

Eric, Kate, and Medaya talk with Kiese about the struggle to buy his work back from the original publisher in order to revise and republish them, an experience that highlights the imbalance of power in the industry and the commodification of a writer's work. The gang also chats about how the intervening years, including the Trump presidency now coming to a close, shaped his revisions.  Also, Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum, author of Likes, returns to recommend Theory, a novel by Dionne Brand.

Eric, Kate, and Medaya talk with Kiese about the struggle to buy his work back from the original publisher in order to revise and republish them, an experience that highlights the imbalance of power in the industry and the commodification of a writer’s work. The gang also chats about how the intervening years, including the Trump presidency now coming to a close, shaped his revisions.  Also, Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum, author of Likes, returns to recommend Theory, a novel by Dionne Brand.

2020 marks the 30th anniversary of Writers & Company. Since we can't celebrate in person, Eleanor revisits the 20th anniversary special with four writers in conversation in Toronto in 2010.

Igbo and Tamil writer and artist Akwaeke Emezi's mesmerising first novel Freshwater was published to universal acclaim in 2018, and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Their second book was Pet, a novel for young adults that raised difficult and pertinent questions about cultures of denial, and was described as ‘beautiful and genre-expanding’ in the New York Times. To mark the publication of their second novel for adults The Death of Vivek Oji, a heart-wrenching tale of one family’s discords and misunderstandings, the London Review Bookshop hosted a live online conversation between Akwaeke Emezi and their editor at Faber, Louisa Joyner.The interview between Leanne Betasamosake Simpson and Dionne Brand referred to in their conversation can be found here: https://reviewcanada.ca/magazine/2018/06/temporary-spaces-of-joy-and-freedom/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Do music and poetry share the same roots? How do you write poetry that embraces complexity, history, beauty and atrocity? How can literature confront the self with the past, and the events that seem out of our control with the urgent need for a new language to understand them? What is creativity, and is there some kind of salvation there? Ben joins poet and teacher Canisia Lubrin for a fascinating conversation at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, where she currently works as writer-in-residence. About the Guest Canisia Lubrin is a writer, editor, critic and teacher. Her work is published widely and has been frequently anthologized, including translations into Italian and Spanish. Lubrin’s debut poetry collection Voodoo Hypothesis was named a CBC Best Poetry Book, longlisted for the Gerald Lambert Award, the Pat Lowther Award, and was a finalist for the Raymond Souster Award. She was a finalist for the Toronto Book Award for her fiction contribution to The Unpublished City: Vol 1 and 2019 Writer in Residence at Queen’s University. Lubrin holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph. Her upcoming book, The Dyzgraphxst, featuring seven inquiries into selfhood, will be published in 2020. Mentioned in this Episode Lesley Belleau, Anishnaabekwe writer from Ketegaunseebee Garden River First Nation (Ojibwe), near Bawating/Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario Kaie Kellough, Canadian poet and novelist based in Montreal Robin Richardson, Canadian poet and founding editor of the Minola Review The Epic of Gilgamesh, a nearly 4000 year-old text from ancient Mesopotamia, widely regarded as one of the earliest surviving pieces of literature "Obama on Call-Out Culture: 'That's Not Activism'", article in the New York Times by Emily S. Rueb and Derrick Bryson Taylor Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography by Roland Barthes A quote from poet Mary Ruefle: "Someone reading a book is a sign of order in the world" The shooting of Philando Castile, July 2016 Dionne Brand, renowned Canadian poet The Quote of the Week “Books leave gestures in the body; a certain way of moving, of turning, a certain closing of the eyes, a way of leaving, hesitations. Books leave certain sounds, a certain pacing; mostly they leave the elusive, which is all the story. They leave much more than the words.” Dionne Brand

A 2018 Festival panel on storytelling brought together four talented writers—Dionne Brand (Theory), Isa Kamari (Tweet), Pierre J. Mejlak (Having Said Goodnight) and Ondjaki (Transparent City)—to discuss their unique styles and non-traditional formats. Philosopher and longtime Festival friend, Wendy O’Brien, moderates the conversation. This episode is produced and hosted by Ardo Omer. Introduction by Director Geoffrey E. Taylor.

Dans cet épisode, c'est la politologue Françoise Vergès qui nous ouvre sa bibliothèque et nous recommande trois ouvrages.Trois livres politiques et engagés, dont un seul en français : De nos Frères Blessés, de Joseph Andras, un roman de la japonaise Yoko Tawada, The last children of Tokyo, et Theory un roman de la canadienne Dionne Brand.Au micro de Clémentine Goldszal. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Part 1 in a 2-part series. We talk about authors who mean a lot to one of us, and less to the other, and explore how our reading styles can draw us to very different kinds of writing. Most people find certain kinds of stories and storytelling more compelling than others, and that’s okay. It’s important to distinguish between the practice of pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and seeing the value of reading things you might not normally think of, and those moments when you find deep connections with the way a particular author writes. Styles are political and they’re personal. It doesn’t mean every book is good, or that styles can’t be problematic; rather, it shows how ‘this author’s style doesn’t grab me’ can be a really productive moment for delving into your own politics as a reader. This series is structures in two interviews. Part 1 talks about the poetic politics of Dionne Brand, and Part 2 looks at the work and legacy of John Steinbeck. Also check out this piece referenced in part 1: Words of (Dis)Comfort: On the Luxuries and Limitations of Reading While White

In this episode, we'll be featuring readings and conversations from Heather O’Neill, Vahni Capildeo, Dionne Brand, Duncan McCue, Lee Maracle, Rachel Giese, Ivan Coyote, Roxane Gay, Siri Agrell, Susan G. Cole, Cheryl Tan, Charlotte Wood and Dean Atta. These clips will touch on one of our 2018 Festival themes: Gender Identity & Equality. This episode is produced by Emily Jung and hosted by Ardo Omer.

In this episode, Lucia and I chat about so many things! As artist, scholar, public speaker, and activist, Lucia speaks to musing on Dionne Brand's recent work, Twitter as a poetic and scholarly form, the importance of reciprocal community engagement, academia as a problematic institution, and more. We had so much fun and covered so much that I am breaking this into 2-3, bite-sized chunks for you. More on Lucia -- (www.empathywarrior.ca) // (twitter.com/empathywarrior) // Lucia is a postdoctoral fellow in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University. Trained as a Canadianist, she studies the representation of sexual violence in literature and other media, with a particular focus on perpetrator narratives and the strategic uses of silence. Her other research interests include Black Canadian literature and autobiography studies. Lucia is also a painter, songwriter, and Internet loudmouth. ● The Poetry Vlog is a YouTube Channel and Podcast dedicated to building social justice coalitions through poetry, pop culture, cultural studies, and related arts dialogues. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to join our fast-growing arts & scholarship community (youtube.com/c/thepoetryvlog?sub_confirmation=1). Connect with us on Instagram (instagram.com/thepoetryvlog), Twitter (twitter.com/thepoetryvlog), Facebook (facebook.com/thepoetryvlog), and our website (thepoetryvlog.com). --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Today's Flash Briefing is from guest interlocutor, Dr. Lucia Lorenzi, who reads from Dionne Brand's forthcoming book, The Blue Clerk. You can find the text itself here: (https://granta.com/the-blue-clerk/). Dr. Lorenzi will be the vlog guest on Thursday, where you can view our YouTube chat or listen in here. Tune in tomorrow, too, for a second guest reading by her! More on Lucia -- (www.empathywarrior.ca) // (twitter.com/empathywarrior) // Lucia is a postdoctoral fellow in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University. Trained as a Canadianist, she studies the representation of sexual violence in literature and other media, with a particular focus on perpetrator narratives and the strategic uses of silence. Her other research interests include Black Canadian literature and autobiography studies. Lucia is also a painter, songwriter, and Internet loudmouth. Flash Briefings are 2 minutes or less "flash" readings for you to jumpstart your weekdays. They are published M - F. Feel free to comment, request, or chat with me via the links below. ● The Poetry Vlog is a YouTube Channel and Podcast dedicated to building social justice coalitions through poetry, pop culture, cultural studies, and related arts dialogues. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to join our fast-growing arts & scholarship community (youtube.com/c/thepoetryvlog?sub_confirmation=1). Connect with us on Instagram (instagram.com/thepoetryvlog), Twitter (twitter.com/thepoetryvlog), Facebook (facebook.com/thepoetryvlog), and our website (thepoetryvlog.com). --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Allie, Evan, Kristina, and Max discuss the novel Brother and Scarborough food-culture (3:59); Otis Redding, DJ Kool, and Toots and the Maytals(7:23); Kristina's first trip back to Jamaica (10:11); author David Chariandy joins the conversation (15:01); writing through his stomach and his love of cookbooks (20:03); new writing on the Canadian suburb by Carrianne Leung and Catherine Hernandez (22:05); Dionne Brand, Moonlight, Maestro Fresh Wes, and Frank Ocean (29:59)

Creating or conjuring? Junior scholars Emmanuelle Andrews and Katrina Sellinger were inspired by a public dialogue on the work of words between poet Dionne Brand and critic Christina Sharpe moderated by writer David Chariandy. Emmanuelle and Katrina co-edited a special issue of The Capilano Review extending that conversation on Blackness through their curation of essays, interviews, poetry, sculpture, and tattoo art. PhDiva Xine talks to these up-and-coming scholars at UBC about Black love, mentorship, Canadian and English moral exceptionalisms about race, and how people create but do not think of themselves as creators. The Capilano Review 3.34 (physical or digital copies available): https://thecapilanoreview.com/featured/ Emmanuelle Andrews (@Elle_Drews) co-directed the short film Coming to Love. Her MA thesis in Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Social Justice (UBC) is entitled "Reading the Threat, Imagining Otherwise: Notting Hill Carnival, the London Riots and a Global Issue of Blackness." Katrina Sellinger (@space_femme) is working on diasporic Black queerness through studies of Janelle Monae and the film Moonlight. She is completing her MA in English (UBC) and will be starting her PhD at McMaster University.

Brandon Wint joins co-hosts Kevin Spenst and Pamela Bentley to talk about love, his favourite poets, performing poems, his CD Infinite Mercies, how being a lover is like being a poet, and more.

How do children of immigrants survive in the wake of diaspora? Punjabi is Canada's 5th most spoken language. As a PhD student in Asian Studies at UBC, Kiran Sunar reads, translates, and speaks multiple languages as a part of reclaiming Punjabi literary forms from Orientalism. Kiran and PhDiva Xine discuss Rupi Kaur and the power of Instagram poetry, disgraceful Canadian histories, and the importance of ice cream to BIPOC friendship. "How do we keep our wounded?" asks Kiran in this conversation about generosity, kindness, and creation in activism and literature. Keep an eye out for Kiran's novel currently titled "Nerve"! If you're looking for some good reading, peruse the writers mentioned here: Audre Lorde, Hiromi Goto, Dionne Brand, Larissa Lai, Cherrie Moraga, Nalo Hopkinson. More on Kiran Sunar: http://asia.ubc.ca/kiran-sunar/

Poet, novelist, and essayist Dionne Brand shares her insights about the writing life during the Margaret Laurence Lecture. Entitled "Versos 11," Brand's lecture is an ode to what is written and what is withheld, what is said and what is left unsaid. She explores the recursive nature of the left-hand page while recreating past memories using masterfully rhythmic language. The lecture was recorded at the Vancouver Public Library in 2012.

In this edition of Salon Saturdays, Jillian Keiley speaks with ornithologist Michael Runtz and playwright Dionne Brand about the NAC English Theatre production of, "Thirsty".

Robert Enright and panelists Allyson Mitchell and Dionne Brand in a lively discussion about the art of Wangechi Mutu. Focused upon imagery of the human body, Mutu's work offers a radical deconstruction of traditional figuration that bridges her Kenyan upbringing with contemporary American reality.

Robert Enright and panelists Allyson Mitchell and Dionne Brand in a lively discussion about the art of Wangechi Mutu. Focused upon imagery of the human body, Mutu’s work offers a radical deconstruction of traditional figuration that bridges her Kenyan upbringing with contemporary American reality.

Dionne Brand on Mary Pratt's The Service Station

Dionne Brand on Mary Pratt’s The Service Station